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okay so in a former post i asked for ideas in for my orkraider (llooted land raider= battlewagon)
But today i just need some personal views on its legality etc.


Any help would be greatly appreciated

Before we had battlewagon models it was quite common to see Land Raider conversions covered in Orky bits. I wouldn't have a problem with it, and most people don't mind converted Ork vehicles. I use converted Rhinos as Trukks to this day.

There are some people who are of the opinion that "there's an available model and you have to use it", but they're kind of missing the point.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:Before we had battlewagon models it was quite common to see Land Raider conversions covered in Orky bits. I wouldn't have a problem with it, and most people don't mind converted Ork vehicles. I use converted Rhinos as Trukks to this day.

There are some people who are of the opinion that "there's an available model and you have to use it", but they're kind of missing the point.

Absolutely!!! It's true to the spirit of Orkiness to convert every vehicle in the army, for no other reason than because you can. I have three battle wagons converted from Land Raiders (No more CSM's for me ), one actual GW battle wagon and two more made from 1/35 scale WWII tanks. All of them have deff rollas made from parts of a carboard tube that a poster was mailed to me in with spikes made from sharpened sprue bitz. Go crazy with the conversions, and don't let anybody stop you!!!

Thank you, sir! I am officially renaming December 19th in you honor for that excellent comment. if only i had that power......


Oh and after re-reading that my post i thought it sounded a little sarcastic
Its not

Go for it! That's how Orks are in my mind. Looting, cannibalising and re-creating tanks from anything lying around, especially if it doesn't belong to them!

Scratch-build and kitbash all you want - you're playing Orks!

As to the legality, give it similar enough dimensions that no one can justify claiming "modeling for advantage" and model all of the weapon/gear options so it meets WYSIWYG requirements and no one should have a problem, even in a tourney. If they still piss and moan, slap them with the rulebook (preferably hardcover), grab a marker, and write "TFG" across their foreheads.

oadie wrote:If they still piss and moan, slap them with the rulebook (preferably hardcover), grab a marker, and write "TFG" across their foreheads.

If I were in the business of quoting people in my signature, this'd go straight in there

In the Orc Codex doesnt it allow Orcs to use any vehicles under the premace that they are captured?

well no not any vehicle there are looted wagons (with a standard looted wagon/tank stat line) (most commanly rhino's) but it does say that most looted vehicle end up as parts of a battle wagon in the end. The current rule book gives Ork players carte blanch (incorrect spelling possibly??) to use whatever they can get their green little hands on to use for vehicles and its great because most ork players armies are unique.

"Carte blanche" is the term you want.

As long as your battlewagon isn't a 3' long, 2' wide behemoth made from an ice-cream tub badly and held together with duct tape, I won't mind.

If the footprint and height are approximately the same then it works for me.

So i think it should be acceptable for free play, but what about tournament wise? would it be legal?

Bwolf999 wrote:So i think it should be acceptable for free play, but what about tournament wise? would it be legal?

That depends on the tournament

Some allow scratch builds/Conversions. (A lot of private tournaments do)

Some go Strict WYSIWYG. and you have to have all the appropriate GW models (true of GW sponsored events usually)


Bottom line, ask the TO's before hand.

I use a land raider, no one has ever given me any guff over it, I have gotten a bit more due to my old trukks (the old tiny Ork Trukks, I just felt that...well I don't want to have to buy 5 new trukks when my old ones are perfectly fine, and the orks inside them are 90% gorkamorka and 2nd/1st ed anyways)
I could get a whole (used) army for the price of 5 trukk's!
no thank you...

Yup, tourneys can set any rules they like. but usually they do so to prevent cheating or public embarrassment (the example chromedog gives is entirely believable) and to keep GW happy if it's an official GW tourney - I've never seen a sensible GW-based conversion turned away.

a LR is a little shorter and wider then a BW, and around the same height (not including turrets etc) - on average giving very little gaming advantage either way. But if you haven't actually built the kit yet, it's not that hard to increase the length (more engine bits at the back, an extra-bulky ram at the front). Reducing the width is harder, but given how much surgery you need to do to a LR to sensibly represent a BW's stats anyway (especially if open-topped), it really wouldn't be that extra to replace the central hull bits to narrow the resulting vehicle.

And I was wondering are there any GW "official" conversion legality rules out there (or something of the sort)

P.S. Thanks for all the help guys

since we are on the topic.... are ALL looted vehicles counted as looted wagons? or trukks or battlewagons, o ca you use the model as it was intended with the army it came from? i.e. use the twin linked Las cannons from a preditor.....and the pintle mounter flamers... so long as i looks "Orky"????

here's mine, i have never had a problem from anyone

@fahujaskillz
the response to that would be a very firm no. The weaponry that a looted vehicle has is stated on its unit entry in the ork codex. Not whatever your conversion model has
and converted looted vehicles that would work for a looted wagon would be chimera's Rhino's etc. but since a BW isnt in the codex as a looted vehicle, converting it is purely for fun and individuality in your ork army.

Oh and your signature thing it says that your ork boyz have two attacks? Now if these are slugga boyz (slugga and choppa equipped) on the charge that my friend is four attacks a model
i.e 2 base attacks +1 attack for an extra Cc weapon and +1 attack for the charge=4

@ Bwolf

yeah i figured about as much, thats the way i have been playing my looted Russ, i was just makin sure i could b more killy

and as for my Signature, they were shoota boys, and my opponent initiated the assault, thats why i had 20 boys left insted of 29 and a Nob

haha cool man just makin sure you got the most killz possible

With the current codex, Battlewagon size is a bit of an issue.

-Too large and it can provide a huge advantages when combined with KFF and/or Burna Boys.
-It can also be used to increase your threat range re:sneaky pivoting, and reserve deployment.
-Making any turret/sponson guns too high can also give unfair advantage.
It's for these reasons that I have issues playing against Baneblade sized Battlewagons against a SKILLED opponent.

-Too small and it can be a huge advantage regarding terrain re: fitting through gaps and TLOS.
-It also gives the Ork player more space on the board for troops to deploy with a nice 2"coherency! This probably isn't too significant an advantage with 1 Wagon but when numbers are increased to 3 or 4 it forces Orks to bunch together or even keep models in reserve.
It's for these reasons that I also don't like to play against smaller than the official model Battlewagons against a SKILLED opponent.

So here lies the problem. Who is skilled/knowledgeable and modeling to their advantage? There's no real way of telling before the game and it's too late during or after.
I feel a bit like tfg when I say no to someone who deploys a nicely converted wagon but it's also a bitter pill to swallow when they start using it to advantage.

Bear in mind that you will get better at using your Orks and soon be using the size of a custom BW to your advantage even though the initial reasons for building it that way were honourable.

Hope this helped and wasn't too ranty, Cheers Alex.

warpcrafter wrote:

Arctik_Firangi wrote:Before we had battlewagon models it was quite common to see Land Raider conversions covered in Orky bits. I wouldn't have a problem with it, and most people don't mind converted Ork vehicles. I use converted Rhinos as Trukks to this day.

There are some people who are of the opinion that "there's an available model and you have to use it", but they're kind of missing the point.

Absolutely!!! It's true to the spirit of Orkiness to convert every vehicle in the army, for no other reason than because you can. I have three battle wagons converted from Land Raiders (No more CSM's for me ), one actual GW battle wagon and two more made from 1/35 scale WWII tanks. All of them have deff rollas made from parts of a carboard tube that a poster was mailed to me in with spikes made from sharpened sprue bitz. Go crazy with the conversions, and don't let anybody stop you!!!

THIS. If there is any one army whos entire theme is haphazard lack of uniformity its Orks. No two anything from Orks should be the same.

Well here is the basic idea of it, ill tell you so that if you think its to big/small etc. that i will get yelled at at tournaments.

Basic Landraider with gun ports cut in the front of the hull w/magnetized big shootas/Rocket launchas. Allong with holes cut in the roof with railing around them to provide it with that open topped feeling
and of course a deffrolla in front because whp runs a battlewagon with out one!

and maybe some glyphs on it and other varying things

So does this sound alright for legality issues?

Most likely someone out there will give you a hard time, but I'd guess that would be few and far betwen though, it seems orky enough to me. If anything, its a disadvantage from getting cover/moving through terrain as much as it could be an advantage.

Your best bet is talk to the tourney organizers in your area, see what they would willingly allow, the guys at my FLGS love orky conversions and have allowed them in all the tourney's i have been on pending they werent 5' tall and could take up the entire board.