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This is an open discussion about the Ork Elite unit Burnas.

This unit, is not normally used on it's own however, in the Wagon Spam list is does truly excel greatly.

Here is my opinion on it, if used in the list above; the Burna Boy is a deadly foe. In my list I run 15 in a wagon with Thraka, if I for some reason need to shoot, I have 15 templates laying tons of hit. Now if I'm on the charge, that unit, will land a good 20+ Hits with no armor saves, and Thraka will mop up the rest. I've been very happy with the turnout it's accomplished. I love seeing about 10 or so burnas nearly wiping out a full squad of terminators and or SM/MEQ dudes. Then when the ones that do survive, Thraka just waves his klaw and laughs.

What does Dakka think of them?

What is this new technology you speak of?

Their ability as a unit is directly linked to their ability to be delivered up the table with minimal casualties. Although their firepower may be brilliantly excessive, the threat level they present, combined with their overal fragility, means you'll have to dedicate a fair bit of your tactics to actually getting them where they want to be.

But once they do hit home, they hit really, really hard.

kaiservonhugal wrote:What is this new technology you speak of?

I'm guessing you don't know about the Burna rule in combat.

If they don't fire that turn when they assault, their weapons count as Power Weapons meaning no armor saves.

This squad of Burnas with Thraka, is supposed to wipe out what they're fighting. Meaning no second round of combat, they're dead killy.

Fafnir wrote:Their ability as a unit is directly linked to their ability to be delivered up the table with minimal casualties. Although their firepower may be brilliantly excessive, the threat level they present, combined with their overal fragility, means you'll have to dedicate a fair bit of your tactics to actually getting them where they want to be.

But once they do hit home, they hit really, really hard.

I highly agree, I do my best to keep them alive.

The_Savior wrote:

kaiservonhugal wrote:What is this new technology you speak of?

I'm guessing you don't know about the Burna rule in combat.

If they don't fire that turn when they assault, their weapons count as Power Weapons meaning no armor saves.

This squad of Burnas with Thraka, is supposed to wipe out what they're fighting. Meaning no second round of combat, they're dead killy.

That sounds a fair bit overkill for whatever you'd send Burnas after. Ghaz can take entire units on his own, and even for those big scary things that he needs a bit of help on, Burnas aren't exactly the kind of firepower you'd be looking for. That kind of love can only be made with a powerklaw attached to the arm of an adoring Nob.

Fafnir wrote:

The_Savior wrote:

kaiservonhugal wrote:What is this new technology you speak of?

I'm guessing you don't know about the Burna rule in combat.

If they don't fire that turn when they assault, their weapons count as Power Weapons meaning no armor saves.

This squad of Burnas with Thraka, is supposed to wipe out what they're fighting. Meaning no second round of combat, they're dead killy.

That sounds a fair bit overkill for whatever you'd send Burnas after. Ghaz can take entire units on his own, and even for those big scary things that he needs a bit of help on, Burnas aren't exactly the kind of firepower you'd be looking for. That kind of love can only be made with a powerklaw attached to the arm of an adoring Nob.

I'm an Ork, we live to fight ;D

I use the squad as my eliminate the most numbers squad, or kill off this small squad and laugh about it.

My Nob squad however... <3

Some of the best ork players are using 15 burnas in a battlewagon, with a big mek with a KFF and another burna. The battlewagon has infinite firepoints because it is open topped, so you can lay one template to cover as many enemy models as you like and them multiply that number by 16. This will make most non-vehicle units go away. Then they are in an AV 14 transport with a 4+ cover save. Used well it is devastating, but people have known about them since the codex came out.

Also dont post complete statlines, equipment and points costs of any thing owned by GW. It contravenes their IP and is against the forum rules.

Burnas are awesome. In any game where my opponent has infantry of any kind they kick ass. I stopped running them in the same wagon as Ghazghkull however as they become an overkill and make the target a much higher priority

I really hate those guys. Had no idea how good they were until they wipied out most of my army in a couple of turns... on their own!

Now if anyone tells me they have these guys I try and take them out first

Indeed. Burnas are just the tits. They hit like a ten ton hammer, and are GREAT for distractions. Because anyone that KNOWS the pain they bring will want them dead, like NAOW. Personally I wouldnt run Ghaz with them simply because its all your big hitters in one basket.

Now what you SHOULD do, is run the burnas in one wagon, with KFF mek. Everyones favorite killer mob, the nobs in another wagon. And Ghaz + boyz in ANOTHER wagon. Presto, theres 3 BWs tearassing around the table, and all 3 are going to cause some SERIOUS death. The best part is, your opponent gets to figure out which one of 3 he wants to fire at. Because splitting up fire is never agood idea. Its good fun for us Orks though

Reminds me of that song... It's gettin' hot in here. (So hot!) So take off all your clothes.

Haha, burnas are great.

However, I run Ghaz with the Burnas because usually depending on what happens to the Wagon about a few burnas will die. So average to about 30 hits Ghaz might have to finish the job. To my experience he's done better with Burnas than anyone else.

Burnas have to ride in a battlewagon which is pretty easy to wreck. Obviously once the burnas are on foot they are toast. In addition, an opponent can use crappy units to "speed bump" the burnas.

olympia wrote:Burnas have to ride in a battlewagon which is pretty easy to wreck. Obviously once the burnas are on foot they are toast. In addition, an opponent can use crappy units to "speed bump" the burnas.

Except in a Wagon list, you're usually already where you need to be.

Bottom line: Burnas are only good within a limited context.

Battlewagon lists are pretty much their best niche roll as a way to deal with units that are slow on the Initiative/cannot eliminate all the boyz/use armor as a crutch/bunched up real nice for a flamer template.

Outside of this, burna boyz become harder to use.

Taking them inside a Trukk is risky as a unit has to give up its ride in order for the burna boyz to occupy it. And let us not forget how flimsy a Trukk can be.

A looted wagon is a poor man's choice for a ride compared to a BW.

Slogging is dangerous as it stands out as a unit apart from slogging regular boyz. The best use I saw for burna boyz was to take them as a second wave to a Kan list. Keeping the burna boyz behind the kan, the composition of the force was 12 Burnas and 3 Meks. If needed, a mek could repair a lone Kan to mobility again.

However, that is still a poor use of burnas and all assumptions include them last 3-4 turns before they get within range of an enemy.

WarOne wrote:Bottom line: Burnas are only good within a limited context.

Battlewagon lists are pretty much their best niche roll as a way to deal with units that are slow on the Initiative/cannot eliminate all the boyz/use armor as a crutch/bunched up real nice for a flamer template.

Outside of this, burna boyz become harder to use.

Taking them inside a Trukk is risky as a unit has to give up its ride in order for the burna boyz to occupy it. And let us not forget how flimsy a Trukk can be.

A looted wagon is a poor man's choice for a ride compared to a BW.

Slogging is dangerous as it stands out as a unit apart from slogging regular boyz. The best use I saw for burna boyz was to take them as a second wave to a Kan list. Keeping the burna boyz behind the kan, the composition of the force was 12 Burnas and 3 Meks. If needed, a mek could repair a lone Kan to mobility again.

However, that is still a poor use of burnas and all assumptions include them last 3-4 turns before they get within range of an enemy.

I think burnas are only worth it in the Wagon spam list.

The_Savior wrote:

I think burnas are only worth it in the Wagon spam list.

Yup. You could go through all the scenarios regarding how to utilize burnas, but the only other good option involving burnas (not the whole unit) that I have seen is to take a Boss Snikrot, give his unit some burnas as their special weapons, and use them to outflank an opponent who has a vulnerable objective hugging squad or an HQ/MC that is hanging back.

Otherwise as a unit of burna boyz, there is just a few uses and the BW list is pretty much about the tops.

WarOne wrote:

The_Savior wrote:

I think burnas are only worth it in the Wagon spam list.

Yup. You could go through all the scenarios regarding how to utilize burnas, but the only other good option involving burnas (not the whole unit) that I have seen is to take a Boss Snikrot, give his unit some burnas as their special weapons, and use them to outflank an opponent who has a vulnerable objective hugging squad or an HQ/MC that is hanging back.

Otherwise as a unit of burna boyz, there is just a few uses and the BW list is pretty much about the tops.

I agree with you. I never used burnas till now.

I've never really used my burna's to their full potential. I have a squad of only 7.

Am I right in understanding that they can fire out of an open topped vehicle and that each model scores hits for as many models are under the template?

So if my wagon with 10 burnas inside drives 6 inches beside a squad of 10 marines and a template can cover all 10 of them, that counts as 100 hits? All 10 burna boys inside get a template shot, and each template covers 10 marines so thats 100 hits?

That would be total overkill, but a drive and burn unit could be good fun for mopping up units!

s.j.mccartney wrote:I've never really used my burna's to their full potential. I have a squad of only 7.

Am I right in understanding that they can fire out of an open topped vehicle and that each model scores hits for as many models are under the template?

So if my wagon with 10 burnas inside drives 6 inches beside a squad of 10 marines and a template can cover all 10 of them, that counts as 100 hits? All 10 burna boys inside get a template shot, and each template covers 10 marines so thats 100 hits?

That would be total overkill, but a drive and burn unit could be good fun for mopping up units!

Correct, because the template fire from the open-topped access point.

So if said Template landed 10 hits, and you have 10 burnas you'd have 100 hits.

The game I had all 15 Burnas landed 3 hits on the squad of BT's in cover. So that was 45 hits, amounting to a godly 30 wounds.

Good luck rolling all those 4+

sweet....

they cost lots for an ork unit but can cause huge damage if they survive long enough to get the shots in! And the fact that they don't have to roll to hit (something orks aren't very good at!) and they ignore cover is great too!

It's worth pointing out that for those situations where you can't decide whether to flame or use power weapons, it never specifies that the entire squad has to do either on any given turn. You can always flame with half the squad, then have the rest of them use S4 PWs on the charge. I could see some advantages to this technique, such as dividing up the massive numbers of wounds into two sections, to avoid allocation tricks.

s.j.mccartney wrote:Am I right in understanding that they can fire out of an open topped vehicle and that each model scores hits for as many models are under the template?

So if my wagon with 10 burnas inside drives 6 inches beside a squad of 10 marines and a template can cover all 10 of them, that counts as 100 hits? All 10 burna boys inside get a template shot, and each template covers 10 marines so thats 100 hits?

Yes you are They are a blob squads worst nightmare

alanedomain wrote:It's worth pointing out that for those situations where you can't decide whether to flame or use power weapons, it never specifies that the entire squad has to do either on any given turn. You can always flame with half the squad, then have the rest of them use S4 PWs on the charge. I could see some advantages to this technique, such as dividing up the massive numbers of wounds into two sections, to avoid allocation tricks.

This tactic becomes even sleazier with casualty removal. At I3, you will usually lose a few boyz before they get to swing- and if you remove the ones that fired the burnas, you're only losing standard attacks, not powerweapon attacks. So, if you know that you'll hit a marine squad, and likely lose 3 or 4 of them before they can swing, fire the burnas and get some hits in before they die.

Burnas are actually great assault terminator killers. They are great at killing any non-MC/vehicle TBH. They are fragile for their points, so you have to use them wisely.

Dracos wrote:Burnas are actually great assault terminator killers. They are great at killing any non-MC/vehicle TBH. They are fragile for their points, so you have to use them wisely.

I would probably use the burnas to template over termies, and if any survive I would then engage them in melee.

Unfortunate for burna boyz, a five man squad of CC-equipped Termies will usually eat them for lunch, even if the boyz get the charge.

The huge number of power weapon attacks are quite deadly to assault terminators, even with SS. It really depends on who gets to assault who for this battle, but one thing for sure is that because TH swing at I1, they will have to make a lot of 3+ saves before getting to swing.

edit: And yeah, if you get the chance to drop 15 templates on them and hit all 5 with each, the template spam is definitely the way to go.

Dracos wrote:The huge number of power weapon attacks are quite deadly to assault terminators, even with SS. It really depends on who gets to assault who for this battle, but one thing for sure is that because TH swing at I1, they will have to make a lot of 3+ saves before getting to swing.

edit: And yeah, if you get the chance to drop 15 templates on them and hit all 5 with each, the template spam is definitely the way to go.

Also to note on terminators, if you assault a group on the charge, and they're going at I1 it's funny to seem when they only have a 4 or 5= INV save. It's as if they didn't stand a chance.

I never like to use the burna boyz to go after Termie squads in CC unless they have been properly pruned first.

Again though it comes down to situational use.

What I do find is a good way to pad numbers against a Terminator squad is to attach Ghaz on the charge, letting him soak up some of the I4 hits the Termies swing back with before the burna boyz smash face, especially when he gets the 2++ on the Waaaagh!

I was being sarcastic - Burnination has been around a looonnng time.

I miss burnas in boys squads, and being able to fire the burna and use it as a power weapon in the same turn ( I remembered that right, right?)

Still fun though, how can you not find that many burny guns in one unit fun.