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For an ork mob of considerable size, should they be taking Rokkits or Big Shootas for their special weapons?

I'd go with Big Shootas for shoota boys, neither for slugga boys.

Rokkit Launchas are rarely going to be used against the same thing shootas are. Shoota boys belong killing infantry, either with their guns or in close combat. Slugga boys should be running running.

Just my experience with them, though.

If its me i would go for rokkit , with their BS they wont really hit anything anyways . So rokkit can still be fired at w/e shoota boys are aiming at.

And when they do ran out of infantry to fire at , a lucky shot hitting enemy vehicles would be better then not having the option.

I second Orkeosaurus's opinion, although I'd say the slugga boys ought to be in a trukk, rather then running.

Jack

My shoota boy rokkits got lucky and popped a dread once, but overall I agree with Orkeo. Max out Big Shootas on shoota boyz, and give no neither to the sluggaz.

Big shootas for walking shoota boyz, so they can hurt some troops at long distance. A few Rokkits are nice for slugga boyz in trukks/wagons, so long as you expect to actually get in a few shots beofre reaching close combat - taking out an enemy vehicle or tough infantry is never a bad thing.

Big shootas for boyz squads.

For your shoota squads you want something that will have synargy with your shootas. Why waste an entire volley of shootas on the chance to hit with a rokkit? Its much better to use big shootas to supplement your shootas.

I am in the minority in this, but I also think big shootas should be added to slugga squads. This is done for multiple reasons -- shown below.
* On the turn you assault, you can shoot your big shootas in addition to your sluggas. That's 9 extra dice of shots.
* When assaulting tough targets, such as TH/SS terminators the extra shots can help whittle down a termie.
* Rarely you will want to shoot the sluggas instead of running -- for example on the bottom of turn 6 your trying to nab an extra KP and nothing is in assault.
Normally the squads are running, and for 15 points I find the big shootas to be a worthwhile upgrade.

Save your rokkits for deathkoptas, buggies, or tank bustas.

Based on my experience, put big shootas in your squads, not rockets.

I tried to put rockets in my squads in order to hunt tanks, and I found that I did not kill a lot of tanks (due to ork poor ballistic skill and mainly facing front armour as the ork squads on foot do not manuever fast), and the rest of the squad effectively did nothing but absorb wounds. When I used big shootas I tended to use my squads to hunt infantry and the whole unit seemed to work better and be more effective.

Now, not trying to contradict myself, you may still want a squad or two with rockets in order to maintain offensive balance in your army (ie, if your army has to face lots of armour and lots of high toughness opponents like big bugs, you will wish you had all the rockets you could get).

The only rokkits in an ork army ought to be of the twin linked variety, as no unit (barring the difficult to utilize tankbustas) brings enough of them to generate the required hits otherwise.

Jack

I disagree with most of the above.

Ork have no trouble at all killing infantry. In combat and with shooting they will annihilate most infantry and put lots of wounds on MCs too.

What orks have trouble with is vehicles. A couple of squads of lootas and a handfull of dethkoptas isnt enough to deal with AV14 or mech armies, and powerklaws hardly guarentee a kill. Against mech IG and mech eldar killing thier transports is a real priority as they can do so much damage to you and have so much more speed than you. Rokkits in boyz mobs are also very cheap. A mob of 30 can take 3, one of which is likely to hit in any given shooting phase. Finally the mathhammer suggests that against MEQs and MCs rokkits cause more wounds than big shootas.

What orks have trouble with is vehicles. A couple of squads of lootas and a handfull of dethkoptas isnt enough to deal with AV14 or mech armies, and powerklaws hardly guarentee a kill. Against mech IG and mech eldar killing thier transports is a real priority as they can do so much damage to you and have so much more speed than you. Rokkits in boyz mobs are also very cheap. A mob of 30 can take 3, one of which is likely to hit in any given shooting phase. Finally the mathhammer suggests that against MEQs and MCs rokkits cause more wounds than big shootas.

Orks only have trouble with land raiders, against any other vehicle the power klaw works beautifully. Against mech IG and mech eldar you have lootas, which do all you need them to as far as anti-transport. 3 rokkits in a boyz mob of 30 is 1 hit on average, with a 50% chance to pen, and a 50% chance of removing the vehicle as a threat. 1 hit vs MEQ is pretty much a dead MEQ, but 3 hits is just as good, and can kill 3 MEQs. Against Carnifexes 1 rokkit hit = 1 wound, against godfexes 1 rokkit hit = less than a 1/10 chance of a single wound. Against C'tan there is less than a 25% chance of the rokkit doing anything.

I like Big Shootas in footslogging shoota mobz. With footslogging armies, you have other anti-vehicle options (Lootas, Kans, Kannons, etc.). However, if you're meching up your Orks, those options don't synergize well with the mech component IMO. So in mech armies I pass out a lot of rokkits.

I'm also rapidly coming to the conclusion that mounted tankbustas are much underrated in mech armies, although that's off topic...

I think it depends on the shoota boys job in your list. If you are running a gunline ork list or have them as obj holders I put big shoota's with them for firepower and range. However if not I like rockets with my shoota's. I would argue they aren't wasting the shoota shots since the only time you would be shooting a vehicle is when there are no soft troop targets, or your going to assault the vehicle next turn anyway. For a light transport its always a nice pay off when you can blow it up with rockets and then charge the troops inside instead of charging the vehicle to kill it and letting them get out and deal with you next turn.

For choppa's I will agree that nothing in a squad on foot is the better choice. If nothing else it means you don't have to decide if running is a better option than being tempted to shoot rockets at a vehicle. If they are in a truck I will stick a rocket guy with them sometimes. To take a pop shot from inside the truck. I haven't done enough testing with trucks to say if this is a good option or not though.

Although I prefer Big Shootas in my Shoota mob, I can see where Redwon is coming from.
Putting Big Shootas is definitely more effective. But since orks have more problem with tanks than troops, you might want to consider rokkits. No doubt the rokkits will be very much less effective, but it is still great to increase your chances against tanks, albeit very slightly.

So its a choice between
(1) Take Big Shoota, very effective, but you don't desperately need it. Sometimes you might even have NOTHING to shoot at, if the opponent goes fully mech.
(2) Take rokkits, much less effective, but every extra rokkit you possess is very precious to you.

On Slugga Choppa mob, I normally take neither.