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The reason I ask this question, simply put, is because I have 2 trukks in my possession and 1 battlewagon. I can fit them both in a 750 point list, full to the brim with troops, with a hundred points to spare. Is this a reasonable tactic? I've already factored in the almost obligatory KFF mek as my HQ to increase survivability, but even then, strength 5 weapons can penetrate it. Would it be better to proxy one of the trukks as another battlewagon? Would it be better to just go down to 500, have the single battlewagon, then fill out the rest of the FOC with bikers, koptas, and buggies?

Trucks. Love them, use them. I almost always run 1-2 even with Battlewagons. I'd be tempted to run yours as 2 BW & 1 Truck - BW's last longer is you have a couple (and extend your awesome AV14 arc in the front)

Trucks are fast and cheap and are for flinging your boys at the foe. They shouldn't be in it long - unless it is hidden.

The main thing I'd be worried about is the first turn. If I don't get it, or the initiative is stolen, i'm not confident that the trukks would survive, even with their Kff saves. To combat this I was considering having deffkoptas scout to threaten the unit I consider most dangerous, hoping they'd focus fire on them, rather than my soft and squishy trukks.

Are armor plates worth it on them? I thought the only effect was turning a "Crew Stunned" result to a "Crew Shaken"

Greetings.

You're asking two different questions here.


Question #1: Are trukks viable?


Question #2: Are two trukks viable as the sole transportation in a 750 point army?


The answer to #1 is yes. The answer to #2 is....probably not so much.

Trukks are something that you either take a lot of them to negate the loss of a couple in a turn, or you take a couple of them in support of a larger initiative. Personally, I use 1-2 trukks in my own Ork lists, but they are generally hidden behind my triple battlewagons as supporting actors.

I may have misspoken in my original post.

When I said I could fit them both in a 750 point list, I meant I could fit both the trukks and the battlewagon as well.

Which means that the trukks wouldn't be the sole method of transport, does this change your answer at all?

gpfunk wrote:I may have misspoken in my original post.

When I said I could fit them both in a 750 point list, I meant I could fit both the trukks and the battlewagon as well.

Which means that the trukks wouldn't be the sole method of transport, does this change your answer at all?

That depends. Can those trukks and wagons transport everything that needs transporting? Because there's no such thing as a hybrid ork list.

(Or rather, there's no such thing as a *good* hybrid ork list!)

Either everything needs to be mounted up (and advancing under a KFF) or everything needs to be on foot (and advancing under a KFF).

Trukks are awesome transport for the orks. Anything that get's the orks into cc as soon as possible is golden.

HOWEVER...

You must give your opponent something else to worry about, or your trukks won't last very long.

Case in point... I run a 2000 speed freak list.

4/5 trukks full of boyz
8-man diversified nob bikers
3 deffkoptas
snikrot

Which unit is your opponent more afraid of? the bikers? the 3 deffkoptas? even... snikrot?

By the time they look at the "lowly" ork boyz in trukks... it's TOO LATE! If you can get your boyz in assault range, there's not very many units in 40k that can withstand the onslaught of 12 assaulting boys (with PK nob of course!)... except for Dash's melon wearing kitten!!!

Doctor Optimal wrote:

That depends. Can those trukks and wagons transport everything that needs transporting? Because there's no such thing as a hybrid ork list.

(Or rather, there's no such thing as a *good* hybrid ork list!)

Either everything needs to be mounted up (and advancing under a KFF) or everything needs to be on foot (and advancing under a KFF).

Yes. As I said, I can fit full squads in all of the transports with all the trimmings! That means delicious PKs and BPs for all!

Trukk w/ RR = 40

Trukk w/ RR = 40

Battle Wagon w/ Deffrolla = 110 (or 120)

11 boyz + Nob w/ PK, BP = 112

11 boyz + Nob w/ PK, BP = 112

19 boyz + Big Mek w/ KFF + PK = 224

Those are the transports and their respective cargo.

This comes around to about 650 in terms of points.

gpfunk wrote:Are armor plates worth it on them? I thought the only effect was turning a "Crew Stunned" result to a "Crew Shaken"

On your wagons? Yes! Keep them boyz and deffrollaz movin!

On your trukks? No...keep in mind that a trukk is open topped and AV 10 all around...I simply assume that every shot actually damaging the trukk is going to at least wreck it...sure the plates are only 5 points but the trukk itself is only 35 points...5 points can buy alot in an ork list (a Big shoota somewhere, a grot to further diversify your nobs, a combi weapon or BC for your nobz) In all the games Ive used my trukks Ive wished Id taken armor plates only once...

The point of trukks is to keep them cheap. If you start adding all this extra crap on them, then your just loosing that much more points when they go down. RR is a smart move, that way if they survive they can ram and tankshock and basically just become annoyances for your opponent. That way if they DO get annoyed by the trukks, they might shoot them instead, and thats ok with me

KingCracker wrote:The point of trukks is to keep them cheap. If you start adding all this extra crap on them, then your just loosing that much more points when they go down. RR is a smart move, that way if they survive they can ram and tankshock and basically just become annoyances for your opponent. That way if they DO get annoyed by the trukks, they might shoot them instead, and thats ok with me

I know it goes against the conventional "wisdom" found on these forums, but I tend to put reinforced rams, boarding planks and rokkits on my trucks. rockets are a cheap upgrade, but you'd be surprised how many times i've taken out opposing vehicles, etc, with my trucks.

I put reinforced rams and boarding planks on my trukks. I'm a big fan of boarding planks - trukks, battlewagons, sometimes my boyz lug them into combat just because.

gpfunk wrote:The main thing I'd be worried about is the first turn. If I don't get it, or the initiative is stolen, i'm not confident that the trukks would survive, even with their Kff saves.

Well there's your problem. You expect them to survive. My reasoning is that if you're using trukks, you take a large amount of them and you expect them to die. If you try and save them you're going to miss out on something (what that is, depends on your army).

As for upgrades, reinforced ram and red paint for mine. Nice and speedy, fluffy too. Armour plates and Grot Riggers I've found barely get used on trukks so the point of having them is very small. In 750pts? I'd try for 3 or 4 trukks if possible if you want to use them.

Trukks are the shell casing of whatever bullet you fill them with. I prefer a trio of meganobz myself, in the classic MANZpedo. They are in little danger from the inevitable explosion of their conveyance, and can apply a great deal of threat against most armies.

I suppose I'd expect them to survive at least one turn.

Is it naive to think that my opponents would try to take out the battlewagon first?

I like to 'hide' trucks my first turn. Throw out the Wagons & the Coptas, shoot the Lootas. When the trucks pop out of cover (or from behind the BW) on turn 2 your opponent often ignores them because of the other threats. While all their shooty units destroy 'the last Copta' -- your trucks are in their face. They are also great for reserving in a table quarters game.

I always like Ram and Red Paint - sometimes Plank (its just very fun to drive up to a big shiny transport and destroy it with a Truck. very MadMax!)

gpfunk wrote:I suppose I'd expect them to survive at least one turn.

Is it naive to think that my opponents would try to take out the battlewagon first?

Nah it's perfectly understandable: "The big lumbering mahcine or the little machines? Hmmm the big one should have a nasty payload so why not shoot it ". In smaller games this will be more prominent, which is why below 1500pts I don't actually consider battlewagons - too big a target. In 750pts you're putting about 100pts at least into a large object. Doesn't seem much but for those smaller points games I could take a few trukks instead.

Take a lot of trukks or none. One or two don't really work since they're still fragile targets and you opponent will probably suss out you've got a nasty care package lurking inside.

I like Trukks. I run 2 up to 750pts and 3 at 1000-1250pts. No Battlewagons though. (Army is sort of limited...) Anyway - you can check out my battle reports to see how they fare. They do occasionally all get exploded on first turn, which leads to quite a stuggle to recover from there...