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I'm a new ork player and really like the idea of having a low-point HS unit of 3 kannons on the field, but the artillery rules just don't make it seem worth it--10 armor all around, and any penetrating OR glancing hit destroys them??? Has anyone out there had success with artillery (with any army)? Or learned the hard way that they aren't all that great? Thanks!

You are going to need some serious threat in the rest of your army to make them worth it. Thunderfire cannons for me are great!...until someone bothers to shoot at them. Honestly the rules make TFCs not that great for a slugging match, and I cannot imagine the orks have it any better.

Artillery's not bad, but Orks have so crazy good choices for their HS slots that in most games they just are never taken. They're good for small points games as they are cheap firepower and number of FoC slots isn't such a limiting factor.

I have been using the big gunz recently in my games and while the kannons aren't that great the lobbas are one of my favorite units. They are cheap, long range, and have a decent strength to wound units. Of course they cannot take out tanks but I have had great success taking out light vehicles like dark eldar transports and smacking infantry squads and even pinning them. Plus since they don't need LOS they can just sit behind LOS blocking terrain and lob shells all day. Sure they are vulnerable to flanking units but so what they are wasting their flankers to take out a unit that less than a hundred points. Combine that with a couple of 5 man squads of lootas and you got some decent cheap firebases in the back field to cover your boyz as they rush forward to krump heads. Since I play a horde army they are a great addition.

I think it would work just as well with Orks, SOFDC, there are no special rules to make them any tougher than the basic guns described in the rulebook. And that's a good point, Backfire, I think I'll retool a few things and pop in my deff dread instead I'll keep that in mind about low-point games though!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, I forgot lobbas don't need LOS! Maybe I will check them out too, I would still like to give artillery a shot (har har). I bought 3 Eldar support weapons that I mean to Orkify, so I'd hate for them to go to waste

I use kannonz alot when possible. hard to beat for the points. you'd be surprised how well they can do. put them in cover along with te crew for cover saves and blast away if they die so what its only like 60 points gone


granted its not possible in BW bash it isnt always possible btu in min I do 4 battlewagonz. 2 are for nobz so dedicated transports and 2 for boyz the one spot lef tis for kannonz (usually)

I would love to see an artillery duel between orks and DKoK

Backfire wrote:Artillery's not bad, but Orks have so crazy good choices for their HS slots that in most games they just are never taken. They're good for small points games as they are cheap firepower and number of FoC slots isn't such a limiting factor.

Most of our HS choices are crap. The only 2 worth taking are Battlewagons & Killa Kans. Deffdreads should only be taken as troops from 2x Big Mek's. Looted Wagons w/ Boomguns are as easy to destroy as a trukk and are too big of a target. Flash gitz are, well, flash gitz. Then we have the artillery. AV 10 doesn't help, if anything throws a rock at them they will die. Generally not worth it unless you just need to fill out 60 pts for some reason.

60 pts + extra crew. What do you get for that? 3 S8 BS 3 shots. In an army that doesn't really get all that many platforms for that kind of shooting. Certainly not that cheaply. Next cheapest BS3 or TL BS2? Buggies at 35 pts, and kans at 50.

So if you are building a list that isn't otherwise using much HS, and you are tight on points, the kannons aren't too bad for their price. If you have the points, kans are better in most ways. If HS is otherwise occupied, but you don't make much use out of FA (which is more likely than not, most people put suicide koptas if anything there) than buggies are a great and cheap option.

Boris420 wrote:

Backfire wrote:Artillery's not bad, but Orks have so crazy good choices for their HS slots that in most games they just are never taken. They're good for small points games as they are cheap firepower and number of FoC slots isn't such a limiting factor.

Most of our HS choices are crap. The only 2 worth taking are Battlewagons & Killa Kans.

Yes. Those are the crazy good choices I was talking about.

Ork Kannons are amazingly awesome. They're cheap, effective, and durable.

Ork anything else is mediocre at best.

Space Marine Thunderfire Cannons can be good. It takes an army not using it's Heavy Support for vehicle killing, and it'd really help to have a good ruin to put it in (3+ cover save with that techmarine).

Eldar artillery licks donkey.

DarknessEternal wrote:
Eldar artillery licks donkey.

Why Eldar even have artillery? Most advanced race in the Galaxy is pushing around carts of big cumbersome cannons? Hello...

Backfire wrote:

DarknessEternal wrote:
Eldar artillery licks donkey.

Why Eldar even have artillery? Most advanced race in the Galaxy is pushing around carts of big cumbersome cannons? Hello...

Your also talking about a race that fields CC units transported in vehicles that don't have assault ramps or SOMETHING so they cargo doesn't stand stupid waiting to get shot. I think they are a dying race for a reason, too stupid to actually apply their techno sorcery to current (in 40k) times.

Now the DE... they know how to re-purpose almost well as orks. Need a small assault vehicle? Well, we have these fast little grav chariot things that could work, lets mount guns to it and toss a squad of guys into combat at high speed.

As for the actual artillery rules, they generally blow. If the guy gets hit for damage at all, it goes away, making the crew useless. If the crew gets hit, they could fail morale and make the gun useless. Not a good situation. Only take units of artillery if they are cheap enough (orks), or have some way around this rather glaring problem (thunderfire cannons in bolstered ruins).

notabot187 wrote:
Your also talking about a race that fields CC units transported in vehicles that don't have assault ramps or SOMETHING so they cargo doesn't stand stupid waiting to get shot. I think they are a dying race for a reason, too stupid to actually apply their techno sorcery to current (in 40k) times.

It makes me cry any time someone mentions "assault ramps". Do you know the first vehicle in 40k lore to be described as being equipped with an assault ramp?

Wave Serpents.

I love the kannons, they never failed me and I played a good 15 or so games with 'em. Swapped out ZZAAP guns when facing SM for that AP2, got me some terminator kills, use lobbas in a more competitve list keep 'em back behind the wall of chargin boys they don't need line of site and help keep the opponents troops cautious of where and how to move.
Kannons themselves are good because BS3 with St8 AP3 and some ammo runts for 9 points means you get 69pnts worth of good shooting. As long as your moving the rest of you army up aggressively most opponents can't make time to shoot at them and often a kannon or lobba comes through for you at the end of the game.
Also my ZZap cannons managed to kill a Hive Tyrant on turn 1 a few games ago...tell me that didn't make them worth it. Going on to kill off those spawning tyranid monsters throughout the game until getting charged.
Tactically played, they can be a huge asset.

I've seen several instances of a really successful ork list that includes (1) maxed out kannons, (2) two or three giant units of boyz and (3) nob bikers.

These sound like old, outdated choices, but the list is successful--even at big tournaments--because it's a three-pronged threat. If your opponent goes for one thing, the other two things kill him.

Kannons are the best choice in this kind of list because they're an immediate threat to enemy transports from turn 1. Also because they're cheap enough to let you buy all the other stuff.