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I have decided to run an ork army for the coming year in tournaments, and we all know one of the orks main chalenges is a lack of ability to pop tanks at will. So I am wondering whether to take Tankbustas. On the face of it they seem brilliant, but, the obvious problem is they are glory hogs. In peoples' experience how easy is it for an opponent to out play them using this rule to their advantage?

I rarely find Glory Hogs causes problems. A common misconception is that it forces you to shoot the closest tank. It does not. The worst thing it does is keep you from shooting infantry or running if there is no tank in range.

They've got a couple important features over Lootas that I think makes them worth taking. The most obvious being mobility. They can move in a transport or keep pace with a horde so they won't get singled out by backfield killers. They're also allowed to take Nobs, giving them access to Boss Poles which alleviates their Ld problems unlike Lootas. They've also got a whole lot of nifty gadgets like Tankbusta Bombs and Bomb-squigs which take time to learn to use properly (when do I release the bomb-squigs? how many should I use? how do I get close enough to grenade a tank?).

Think of it this way: Lootas kill light armor down to infantry, while Tankbustas kill heavy armor exclusively.

Bad.

Glory Hog sucks and with BS2 and strength 8 you aren't going to be popping any heavily-armored vehicle reliably. Bomb squigs are interesting but not worth the points of the TB's, and tank hammers are only a single attack anyways, you're better off with using PK's. Meanwhile, Loota's have more range and pump out way more shots giving you a much better chance or popping that chimera/rhino/Valkyrie.

Deff Rollas should be your go-to for AV14 anyways.

Using them like Lootas is how Id use them. Get them Mounted though and have them keep up with your other elements rather than leaving them behind. Those rokkits are assualt weapons. AND they can take a Bosspole. These two things make them solid choices.

They have the same BS as Lootas and you know what to expect out of them. I like the reliability of these guys.

I always use Tankbustas. I have the nob there witha PK just in case.

I usualy kill what im shooting at.

How do you get them in a trukk if you can't take a dedicated transport? Or am I confusing them with lootas?

AtraAngelis- How many do you take?

tldr wrote:How do you get them in a trukk if you can't take a dedicated transport? Or am I confusing them with lootas?

Buy the trukk for something else and and deploy them next to it. Load the into it on turn one, before it moves.

What if I don't have basic troops? Damn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Found the answer... LOOTED WAGONS!!

No, no, Looted Wagons are not transports. Do not put stuff in them.

What you SHOULD put them in is a Battlewagon.

Yes, tankbustas in a battlewagon is a decent tactic.

As to wheather or not they are good or bad...I can't tell. I've used them a few times, I found that they miss a lot with their rokkits, but they might stun or imobilize a tank before they charge it.

Despite every ork in the squad carrying a rokkit, their best chance to kill a tank is to assault it. Thanks to multi-assaults, it's very possible for them to make a lot of points back by punching multiple tanks. PK+Tankhammers gives them 10 attacks at > S8. Hell, I wouldn't be afraid to send them in against a walker (unless it was a blood tallon dread :S ) as they will mess the thing up.

The thing to remember is, with their best chance at killing tanks being by punching it, they need to get closer, to get closer they need a transport, and the ultimate transport for them is a battlewagon! You COULD throw them in a trukk, but don't expect the trukk to live very long.

I recently put the question out after having the thought that actually, Tankbustas might well be very useful vs tyranids, since glory hogs won't be in effect.

That being said, I feel they suffer for one overwhelming reason, glory hogs is a detriment and they are a so-so elite choice in a codex with several VERY good elite choices.

Lootaz, Nobs, Burnaz and Kommandoz would all make the grade for me before the tankbustaz.

There glory hog rule really isnt that big of a deal. You can easily work with it if you know what your doing.

As the man above has said they are also brutal when fighting nids as they have no tanks and even the meanest MCs the nids have are cake for some tank bustas they are pretty good with fighting demons as well.

I walk my Tankbustas. They sit in the midst of my horde, and I don't leave anything in the backfield. If you want to fight my horde you have to hit the whole, single, massive blob of it. This helps keep the Tankbustas safe.

I don't like tankhammers and I don't take Powerklaws partly because tankbusta bombs are so good. The rest of my reasoing is that every tankhammer you take is less shooting, and if you're banking on close combat to break tanks then you might as well have just taken another squad of Boyz with a PK. You do want them to end up in close combat with tanks, but not before you've had a good 3 turns of shooting to open up other transports for the Boyz to get at. Whether you go mech or horde, the Tankbustas are going to get into close combat at the same time as the boyz, and if atleast some of the transports aren't open before then your Boyz have nothing to do. Tankbusta bombz are sufficient to kill any tank, so why sacrifice your shooting?

Sounds advice Darkhound - sounds like youve had some experience with these guys.

Aberrant wrote:Bad.

Glory Hog sucks and with BS2 and strength 8 you aren't going to be popping any heavily-armored vehicle reliably. Bomb squigs are interesting but not worth the points of the TB's, and tank hammers are only a single attack anyways, you're better off with using PK's. Meanwhile, Loota's have more range and pump out way more shots giving you a much better chance or popping that chimera/rhino/Valkyrie.

Deff Rollas should be your go-to for AV14 anyways.

Tankhammers allow the same number of attacks that are listed on the profile. They are 2handed weapons though, so you cant gain another attack for having another CCW. (Big whoop!)

I like tankbustas as well. In a footslogging army they are often the only sollution vs walker heavy opponets. My most effective kombo is with them in a Battlewagon so they can get to combat reliably and you can use the size of the battlewagon to block line of sight to tanks which gives you even more control over them. When footslogging with a horde they can run alone or in non competive games I field them with a warphead which occasionaly yields some quite devastating results.
I believe though that Power Klaws make the too expensive and not that necessary (in melee with vehicles you have more than enough umf and in melee with infantry you should not be)
Tank hammers are great vs walkers and AV 13-14 and you can make up for their lack of shooting with a couple of squigs. You don't actually sacrifice shooting as the model that releases a squig can't actually fire. You are however paying for that shot/