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For Ork Boyz, are shootas or Slugga/Choppas more worth it. Or if they apply to different strategies, which one applies to which. Could someone give me a list of pros and cons to both, also do you find upgrading a squad to 'ard boyz worth it? Personally I could use the points elsewhere but if you've had success with it I'de be willing to try it.

From what I can gather shootas are preferable if you're going with a list that requires the boyz to footslog it across the board as you'll have far more chances to actually shoot.

Sluggas/Choppas are preferable if your boyz are all in Trukks/Wagons (which is how I run mine) as they'll often be going straight into assault and the +1 attack is pretty useful.

I haven't used 'Ard Boyz so I couldn't say how it performs, looks like something that could get pretty expensive but I guess a Boyz unit with a 4+ save would at least be a novelty.

Both have 2 base attacks so here is your basic choice.

Slugga/choppa 1 S4 shot at 12" and 4 S4 attacks in melee at I3 every following round in HTH 3 S3 attacks at I2

Shoota 2 S4 shots at 18" and 3 S4 attacks in melee at I3 every following round in HTH 2 S3 attacks at I2.


My general opinion is shoota boyz are superior mostly because of the low initiative in HTH. 4 or 3 attacks at I3 go after any marine.

Slugga/choppa - for me - is good for trukk boyz who are going to rush up with some buddy trukks and go after an enemy. In almost all other cases, 2 shots are better than +1 close combat attack. If OTOH the unit is built to survive (nob squads, 'ard boys, etc) you can make a good argument for slugga/choppas.

The other option - I have not played with - is to make hybrid mobz. Shoota boys to put hurt on the enemy as we approach but also to be the first casualties all in an effort to get the extra attacks when I finally dump the WAAGH on you and thus get that many more attacks for my attempt to overwhelm anybody in one round of melee combat.

wib wrote:From what I can gather shootas are preferable if you're going with a list that requires the boyz to footslog it across the board as you'll have far more chances to actually shoot.

Sluggas/Choppas are preferable if your boyz are all in Trukks/Wagons (which is how I run mine) as they'll often be going straight into assault and the +1 attack is pretty useful.

Broadly speaking, this. Shootas are also decent support for kans in order to soften up enemy heavy shooting/countersharge troops before getting into melee.

Trukk boyz/Ard boyz = Sluggas.
20 Boyz on foot = Shootas + 2 Big Shootas. BS 2 ok here
30 Boyz on foot = Sluggas. WS 4 is much better here

Shootas make good units for camping on objectives and make infiltrators think twice, however use only 1 or 2 units. Massed slugga/choppa boyz in units of 30 should run every turn and soak up punishment from enemy fire next to a KFF Big Mek.

DAaddict wrote:Both have 2 base attacks so here is your basic choice.

Slugga/choppa 1 S4 shot at 12" and 4 S4 attacks in melee at I3 every following round in HTH 3 S3 attacks at I2

Shoota 2 S4 shots at 18" and 3 S4 attacks in melee at I3 every following round in HTH 2 S3 attacks at I2.


My general opinion is shoota boyz are superior mostly because of the low initiative in HTH. 4 or 3 attacks at I3 go after any marine.

Slugga/choppa - for me - is good for trukk boyz who are going to rush up with some buddy trukks and go after an enemy. In almost all other cases, 2 shots are better than +1 close combat attack. If OTOH the unit is built to survive (nob squads, 'ard boys, etc) you can make a good argument for slugga/choppas.

The other option - I have not played with - is to make hybrid mobz. Shoota boys to put hurt on the enemy as we approach but also to be the first casualties all in an effort to get the extra attacks when I finally dump the WAAGH on you and thus get that many more attacks for my attempt to overwhelm anybody in one round of melee combat.

You can no longer do the hybrid mob thing...you have to replace the entire mobs weapons...

Your analysis of the different boyz is pretty good though...think of it this way (thanks to dash for wording it such):

Both types of boyz have 5 attacks on the charge when you think about it. Sluggas will fire once and HTH 4 times. Shootas will fire twice and HTH 3 times. The upside to shootas is they are more likely to get more of their attacks in.

It really comes down when you want to use that extra attack? Do you want to fire it? Now it is more likely to miss but at least you will get it versus taking the risk of losing that extra shot and getting more hits in up close? Most opponents will strike before you thats just how I2 works so you lose those extra attacks...and your shoota will always be Str4 versus the slugga who will be Str3 after the first round is up...also if your squad is too big a good number of those boyz wont make it into that first round of combat due to space constraints...

That being said I usually prefer shootas in most situations...I run a 20 ork unit (including nob dekked out properly) in my wagons and if they are on foot up to 30. Trukks are the only place I usually use sluggas. Those guys need the extra attack up close to even out the combat rez.

Hope it helps!

Ork boyz get beat in CC by real CC units, they are only really good against things that can't handle mobs of guys (low attacks) or normal troops. So I would say the shootas, as they let you get your licks in before getting hurt in combat.

Or you could just not run boyz, nobs and grotz are good enough troop choices after all.

When firing shootas,when you are about to charge(after shooting)keep in mind that if you completely destroy the unit
you will not be able to charge.You can only assault the unit you shot in the preceding shooting phase.
With BS2 that shouldn't be that much of a problem,unless it is a small unit or if you get very lucky.
Another bad thing that can happen is if you force a moral test by killing more than 25% in a single shooting phase,the ennemy might be forced to fall back and get out of assault range.
Remember also that marines with combat tactic can choose to fail automatically a LD test,so shooting at a combat squad (5 guys)before charging usually isn't such a good idea.OTOH you can choose not to fire all your weapons but must declare how many are shooting before rolling the dices(you cannot change your mind after seeing the results).
However i think that might lead to a bit of arguing.
I don't know if firing less than all weapons is common practice.
With all that being said,i am rather new to this game,maybe some of the more experienced player around can confirm all that(or the opposite).
I started a few threads on subjects related to this and that is what i understood from the answers i received,you can check for yourself by searching user names/threads.

As far as I am aware you can choose to only fire a few weapons from a unit if that is what you want...but remember the whole unit counts as though it fired...

For example, you may have a squad of marines, one of which has a plasma rifle, fire on something. If you dont want to risk a gets hot! roll you can choose to have the Plasma Rifle not fire.

So if you only want 10 of the shootas in range to shoot thats perfectly fine...as long as the other shootas dont fire at something different...

I take Shootas. I normally rely on Nobs to do the heavy lifting and being able to snipe the occasional hidden powerfist comes in handy.

Thanks guys, extremely helpful. But could someone show me where these stats are in the codex? I couldn't locate the difference between shootas and slugga/choppa boyz, maybe I just keep breezing past the section. But I would like to be able to see it in books and be able to show my friends. I like shootas better now personally but like you guys said, depends on the tactic.

As people have mentioned. Shootas for out of truuks, sluggas for within truuks.

I still have tons of orks from the last edition, which are all sluggas. In my green tide army, I field 120 sluggas boys, and 30 shoota boys, and have found it works pretty well. I use them because those are the models I have, and found they still work well.

In summary, you can use sluggas on foot, and they wont suck wind, but shootas are a better if your buying/modeling new figs.

Well it depends on if your having lootas in your army and the size of the game whether shootas have any use. In a small game then shootas are more effective than choppas and you dont waste pts on lootas. 30 shootas can lay down a punishing amount of fire and still be able to charge and hurt stuff, lets face it a mob of 30 shootas laying down 60 shots (if no big shootas, nob or rokkit launchas are taken) shots then charging is going to hurt most units. i dont know what people class as a small game these days but to me a small game is 1000 - 1500 pts.

In large games 1500+ lootas are better fr laying down shots, if your lucky 30 shots at s7 and ap4 raining down on most units will hurt em and even stands a good chance against light armour and theres not much chance they will be charged so they get rid of the relivance of shootas as a main stay for laying down fire power and the sluggas and choppas are a great meat sheild for your nobs and such.

But that said thats how i prefer to play and i belive it works pretty well, you may find you end up using your force a lot different

trash wrote:Thanks guys, extremely helpful. But could someone show me where these stats are in the codex? I couldn't locate the difference between shootas and slugga/choppa boyz, maybe I just keep breezing past the section. But I would like to be able to see it in books and be able to show my friends. I like shootas better now personally but like you guys said, depends on the tactic.

Sure, I guess
The stats for the shootas are on the VERY last page of the codex, with the rest of the weapon entires, so page 104

The stats for the boyz are on 100 as well as 40.
The slugga is also on page 104 as well.

Personally i take shootas over sluggas in a horde list but I having at least 1 or 2 mobs of sluggas mixed in with more numbers of shootas

I always take shootas over sluggas. So much more versatile, and the overall killing power you lose for it is miniscule.

definitely shoota boyz if you have the choice...

but heres the catch-

you can find black reach boyz which assemble 10x faster and can be found for $15 shipped for 20 boyz on ebay.

i have about 160 boyz in my army and 100 are black reach sluggas which were free compared to the normal kits.

just get a couple extra claws in there... plasticard!

Yea AOBR boyz are a great way to add bodies for cheap.

I also pick shootas over sluggas, unless Im playing a trukk/wagon list. Trukk boyz with sluggas is far more lethal then shootas, but thats because they are hauling ass in a trukk and you just dump them into an assault, so the extra attacks are better. Unless your planning on leaving them in the trukk (which isnt smart) and driving around shooting at things