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In a KoS army, a skorcha buggy with bare minimum is 40 pts.
Problem? Range obviously, the fire template is about 8".
So when I do flame a unit this buggy is gonna die.

Im thinking of taking 2 to make my chances better. But are these really worth 40 pts?

Fast vehicle. Scoring Unit. Cheaper than all heck.

What's not to like?

Even better they can be given Stikk bomb Chukkas for quite cheap and then they can tank shock too. This can be a very surprising tactic to spring.

I'm not sure I'd consider tank-shocking with an open-topped AV10 vehicle a smart move.  Your opponent gets a free hit with a any anti-tank vehicle they have.  Given that all penetrating results effectively stop the tankshock, as well as 2/3rd of the glancing results, you're going to have to pick your target very carefully.

The upgrade most ork players put on their skorcha buggies is Spikes&Blades.   I've had a skorcha buggy make it's points back when assaulted on more than one occassion.

They only get to make a Death or Glory!-move if they pass their Morale-check. If you tank-shock the Squad´s vet serg with a power fist, you might be stopped so don´t!
It´s a very viable tactic since it means you´ll get past the first enemy "wave" and scorch the targets beyond, the ones your enemy thought were safe and you couldn´t reach.

Spikes´n Blades are nice if the enemy assault your Buggy, but why should they when you have that upgrade..? (Barring perhaps khorne Berzerkers...) And it´s not that cheap an upgrade...

Yeah if they fail they break right?
When they pass is the problem. I kinda wanna keep them at 40 pts cheapness.

No, if they pass they still have to let your Buggy get past them. Read the Tank-Shock rules again.

Posted By Wolf Lord Duregar on 04/17/2006 1:04 PM

They only get to make a Death or Glory!-move if they pass their Morale-check.

 

Right, cause we all know that relying on an opponent to fail a morale test is a solid plan in 40k.    I thought general advice was that pinning weapons are largely useless due to the preponderance of armies that can either completely ignore them, or test at Ld10.    How can you recommend any plan that therefore relies on your opponent failing their morale test?

 

That was not my point. You don´t seem to know the Tank-Shock rules so I tried to explain some of it for you...
Don´t tank-shock in such a way that you move over a model with a melta gun, power fist or similar. They can easily stop you Buggy, a Tactical Marine with a bolter/Guardsman with a lasgun/whatever can´t. Then you can reach the more juicy targets behind. You follow me..?
If the enemy squad you tank shocked fails their Morale-check, fine! That´s a nice bonus. See..?

Scorchas, like a Wartrukk full of Trukkboys or Cyborks, need to get within 8" to do their dirty work. The two units fill the same roll (anti-infantry) and must move in a similar fashion to be effective, so they tend to compliment one another. Take scorcha buggies along with your trukks- when you must move through open ground, use the scorchas to screen the precious transports. You will almost certainly lose Scorchas this way, but if it means you deliver your payload of cyborks early in the game, it's probably points well spent.

With regards to tank shocking, stikkbom chukkas have a very short "range"; you may only use them if the vehicle is moving 12" or less (if I remember my rules correctly). This limits their usefulness on fast vehicles, to the point where I have almost never tank shocked anything with my scorchas. Worse still, if you tank shock with a unit of three buggies, the opposing unit only needs to make one morale test rather than three separate tests. While I love the idea of stikkbom chukkas, and they certainly don't cost much, you probably won't get much use out of them apart from being able to push through enemy infantry units when moving at slow speeds. And this is ability is really much more useful on transports than other buggies. Points are better spent on Grot Riggers (absolutely essential) or Red Paint (that extra 1" is very useful, for some reason).

Well seeing how Cyborks arent allowed and Grot Riggers are an essential...

Screening... good...

So the way Im seeing this, is that tank shock is utterly useless unless you WANT to shove the unit away so they either walk further or are out of line of site or away from an objective or something. Otherwise you just want to attack something behind the first unit.

A few uses for tank shocking on skorchas:
1. Forcing models on the edge of a unit to move toward the center allows additional models to be covered by the flame template.
2. Many units block juicier targets with conscripts, gaunts, etc. Tank shock can clear a path for trucks to move through and allow the boyz into the juicy center.
3. It can be used to push people off objectives, and can allow the skorcha to move onto objectives or into a table quarter that would normally be blocked.
4. There a still 1 or 2 units in the game without fearless or Ld 10. 24" move with a 12" tank shock the following turn can still be useful against these.
5. Gives it something to do after a weapon destroyed result.
The possibility of one more model killed or one more contested objective seems well worth 3 pts.

I prefer Rokkit Launchas on Buggies, but Skorchas CAN hurt. depens on which army your up against