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I haven't seen many if any lists that feature a burna boy squad

I'm wondering with the release of planet strike will they be more useful

from my point of view they seem very powerful with the ability to cut open buildings and barricades
and shoot through it to fry stronger guys behind it

am i delusional or can i be correct???

In a Trukk or Battlewagon (preferably the latter), they are fantastic; they're everything Howling Banshees wish they could be, but with the option of a disturbing amount of firepower at short range.

any chance on them being on foot like hiding them in a group of boyz for cover and then popping out to burn stuff?

Put them in a trukk. Drive by burnings wiped out 1/2 a marine squad last time I played. Don't underestimate the power of getting multiple template hits on a single squad you can easily hurt MEQ's and even TEQ's with flamers espically when twin linked

I would say put them in a truck, except they cant take one of their own. Meaning a truck boy squad is walking. I put them in a battle wagon, they do a good job in wagon list. Keep in mind they cost a large amount of points. Only use them on squads worth their time. Regular termies (yes I know they are rare these days) and tac squads are good targets. The flame death is almost overkill vs xenos lists, their shouldn't be anything left to assault. Which means they are often 1 shot units.

Trukk or Battlewagon probably depends on the rest of your army. If you have a lot of Trukks, Burnas may be well suited in a Trukk. If multiple Battlewagons, stick them inside a Battlewagon. I play with and against Burnas and they definitely get my attention early in a game. If I can get them singled out easily, I will.

If going with multiple Trukks, you need to present multiple immediate threats. This can help ensure the Burnas can get to their intended target.

I've run into several folks who don't quite realize the potential 10-15 Burnas present inside a vehicle. It has not been uncommon to get 50+ hits on a unit with a single squad of Burnas. Locally, there are only two Ork players (myself is one of them) and the Burna trick has definitely been noticed.

I put 135 hits on a unit of gaunts with mine last weekend

Looted Wagon (didn't have points/model for battlewagon) with a Scorcha and burna boyz worked wonders against an outflanking stealers unit and broodlord.

I agree with everyone else, they need a transport of some kind, to protect them from anti-infantry fire and to get where they need to be. They are to expensive and to big a threat to have them footslogging (unless your entire army is walking).

I rushed a battlewagon full of burnas at my opponents close-combat carnifex and smashed him on the charge. Then I was shot to pieces by the twin-linked devourer-tyrant :( But yeah I think burnas are useful if you can keep them alive for a little while at least.

I've fallen in love with burnas personally. I had a squad of burnas drop 15 templates from a battlewagon onto a 20 man squad of plague marines (T5 with FNP) and kill all but two. The next turn, they multi-assaulted two obliterator squads of 3 each with 15 Initiative 3 power weapons, getting 3 attacks each against Obliterator I1 powerfists.

They definitely earned their points.

I'm looking forward to getting to use them against Tyranids who think Nidzillas are the end all, be all.

Will they be as effective against the high toughness MCs you'll see in that nidzilla list though?

They also mix and match well with a screen of Grotz to catch bullets and charges, particularly the charges where the Grotz will get annihilated and leave the assaulting unit exposed to your Burnas.

augustus5 wrote:Will they be as effective against the high toughness MCs you'll see in that nidzilla list though?

Absolutely! Lets mathhammer this out: Those MCs strike at I2 or I1. STR4 against T6, WS4 against WS3.

15 burna boyz = 45 close combat attacks. I'll need 3+ to hit, or 67% hits, or 30 hits.

To wound, I need 6+, or 16.7% wounds. That's 5 wounds on average. That'll certainly kill an MC. If you put a nob in with those burna boyz, that STR9 powerklaw will add 3 more wounds, and you can multi-assault two MCs to kill one and tie the other up, or maybe kill both on good rolls.

Burnaboyz can't have a Nob though, you'd have to throw an HQ in there. Hey... how about a Big Mek with a KFF?

I dropped a carnifex with a charging mob of 15 burnaboyz in one round. It is possible, but you have to be rolling out the box.

Ah, not looking at my codex at the moment...didn't realize about the nob. A big mek with a KFF attached to burnaboyz specifically is a waste of an HQ slot. KFFs are great for vehicles, pointless for foot-slogging troops.

You wouldn't need the nob to take down a carnifex, you would only need to roll statistically normal to do so.

One strike against them that I've seen forgotten: Burnas don't count as Power Weapons if you fire them that turn.

Yes, but drive by burnings after a deffrolla tank shock are juts so good. If they can cover five MEQ's then you will hit 75 times wound 50 times and kill 16.66 models even against TEQ's you will kill 8.333 and that is nothing to scoff at.

The big mek can take a PK, and have a KFF. It gives you a threat vs vehicles, and your burnas are more survivable once they jump out. It would take some converting to make it look decent.

it looks like burnas main use would be with less vehciles but my army is mainly footslogger.
so are they still effective on foot

Yeah, they can be effective on foot. What I've found, though, is that you need a screening unit to catch any bullets and charges flying their way, and you need to mix that screening units with the Burnas very very carefully so that you can do the following:

0. The Burna unit begins mixed in with the screening unit, and 1"-1.5" behind the front range of the screen.
1. Move Burnas past the screening unit
2. Move the screening unit up so that they don't get in the way of the Burna's burnas.
3. Burn someone! Burn them all!
4. Run the screening unit back in front of the Burnas.
5. Repeat from step 1.

Grots make a very cheap and fragile screening unit, which is good and bad. It's bad because they might fall back and leave your Burnas out in the cold. It's good because they'll evaporate nicely under an assault, leaving the assaulting unit open to burning or assault from the Burnas.

Boys make a more expensive and reliable screening unit, but they tend to get in the way if someone tarpits them, leaving the Burnas with nobody to shoot or assault, though taking a smaller unit might do the trick (and giving you points for a spare Trukk in the bargoon).

During the Ard Boyz, mine kind of underperformed. Their one gleaming moment was rushing up and disembarking out of a Battlewagon and charging 8 Terminators. Termie SGT whiffed his attacks and the Burnas killed every Termie before the Termies got to attack back w/ Powerfists.

The other two games, they did very little. I just couldn't get them in the right position.

Dashofpepper wrote:

augustus5 wrote:Will they be as effective against the high toughness MCs you'll see in that nidzilla list though?

Absolutely! Lets mathhammer this out: Those MCs strike at I2 or I1. STR4 against T6, WS4 against WS3.

15 burna boyz = 45 close combat attacks. I'll need 3+ to hit, or 67% hits, or 30 hits.

To wound, I need 6+, or 16.7% wounds. That's 5 wounds on average. That'll certainly kill an MC. If you put a nob in with those burna boyz, that STR9 powerklaw will add 3 more wounds, and you can multi-assault two MCs to kill one and tie the other up, or maybe kill both on good rolls.

A hive tyrant will (Edit: Depends on biomorph weaponary) eat them for breakfast. As will an assaulting Wraithlord.

The wraithlord wins because he is immune to str4, which i'd say is kind of cheating in terms of mathhammer, but still win. He will nuke the squad with dual flamers & chew through enough till they break in a round or two in CC. Or just chew through the squad In CC..but that sqaud would never willingly charge a wrathlord, I do conceed.

The Hive tyrant OTOH is a closer call;

Lets say a properly equipped hive tyrant gets charged. He should have wings, dual talons, +1str, +1ws, warpfield, fleshooks.

I deal 2.7 wounds, you deal 2.5 wounds, more favourable if I get the charge (also likely with the wings). This guy isnt best suited to larger hordes but smaller more elite sqauds (he's just an example) or heavy vehicles. A dakka tyrant would mow down 8 dudes with shooting and mop the rest up on the charge & most likely Sweeping advance them.

Carnifexes; An elite boom/dakka fex will generally be much more shooty & thats where it will kill trukks or burna boyz. A heavy support fex could well be toughness 7 (which will still get slayed if the burna's get charged by a full squad) but if it gets the charge itself, they have no chance.

My point is, its not as rosy picture as Dash seems to paint, so I thought i'd post a few more common examples of Monsterous creatures.