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I'm doing a little theory hammer prior to starting to scratch build some Mek Gunz.

Squad 1: 5 Lobbas with 5 Ammo Runts. <- I think this is a good squad, allowing me to snipe out special characters, and do massive damage to large groups of infantry.
Definitely building Squad 1.

Squad 2: 3 Kannons + 2 Traktor Kannons with 5 Ammo Runts <- This is my attempt at a budget anti-tank + anti-air. If my opponent doesn't have air, I'll put the Traktor Kannons up front so they take wounds.

Squad 3: 2 Kannons + 3 Traktor Kannons with 3 Ammo Runts <- This is an anti-air unit with a few ablative wounds to keep it cheap. How valuable are Ablative wounds on a Mek Gunz Unit?

Squad 4: Kannon + 4 Kustom Mega Kannon with 5 Ammo Runts <- this is my heavy anti-Tank unit

Squad 5: 3 Smasha Gunz + 2 Traktor Kannons with 5 Ammo Runts <- This is my attempt at a heavy anti-Tank unit that also can do anti-air.

Squad 6: 5 Kannons <- Cheap anti-tank.

I was going to Build 5 Lobbas, 5 Kannons, and 3 Traktor Kannons. I'm leaning toward 3 Smashas as well. I feel like Kustom Mega Kannons are better anti-tank (because of blast) than Smasha Gunz, but they don't work nearly as well in a combined squad.

Does anyone else have useful squad compositions that I should build toward?

2 bubblechukka and 3 megakannons could be a cool combo with so many blasts

Having just scratch-built a pile of ork artillery, I'll warn you now that Traktor Kannon are the hardest, presuming you want them to look somewhat like the GW models :(

Tactically, your plan seems good, except for squad 5 - I'm unconvinced that Smasha Gunz are better than KMKs.

Is the idea to make the slot as versatile as possible?

KMK, tractor kannon, bubble chukka, two kannons?

Edit why just two types?

Because whenever he has a traktor Kannon he takes a gun that can snap shoot so they can shoot at air targets.

 Waaagh 18 wrote:
Because whenever he has a traktor Kannon he takes a gun that can snap shoot so they can shoot at air targets.

Exactly. As I said the KMK > Smasha, but since it can't snapshoot, I was leaning toward Smasha's.

I might order some Traktor Kannon bitz from a recaster to get me started on those. I've got an assortment of non-40k minis that I will use for Lobbas and Kannons (lego cannons FTW). So perhaps "scratch build" is the wrong term.

I don't think you need the lobbas, somewhere you should have a bucket of orks that eat large squads for 250~ pts plus they are only small blasts, so even though they are cheap, probably still. Not worth it.

I would build 5 kannons

2 traktors
Maybe a few smasha
Unless you're going to run two units in every game, that's all I would mess with.

Lobba are cheap, but don't have the large blast or ap, which makes them not worth their cheap price imo

buckero0 wrote:
I don't think you need the lobbas, somewhere you should have a bucket of orks that eat large squads for 250~ pts plus they are only small blasts, so even though they are cheap, probably still. Not worth it.

I would build 5 kannons

2 traktors
Maybe a few smasha
Unless you're going to run two units in every game, that's all I would mess with.

Lobba are cheap, but don't have the large blast or ap, which makes them not worth their cheap price imo

Lobbas are awesome. They are dirt cheap. Strength 5 is wounding most infantry on 3's. lighter infantry on 2's. They can snipe heavy weapons and characters out of the unit. They can camp on an objective. and again..dirt cheap. dont see the downside except for they are not anti-tank.

Unless I'm missing something in the rules, mix and matching artillery seems like a horrid...horrid idea. They all have to fire at the same target. So if you stuck an AA gun in there, and they have a flier, the AA gun fires at the Flier..then the other guns sit there and pick their nose. Or, if you put some Lobbas and a Smasha Gun together, the Smasha is good for popping tanks. So if you want to pop that tank...well...your Lobbas are shooting at that too, and CANT hurt them. (Unless AV11 or under).

Sure, you can hope those scatter (And they will), but its not enough to bet a game on like that. And shooting a single Smasha into a group of dudes is a single kill. Nice to get a near promised kill...but its wasting potential.

We're talking about more balanced mixes of guns to make them a little more flexible. For example: you want some AA in your army so you pick 2 traktor kannons. However, at the same time you realize that once the fliers are gone you have a very weak unit left, so you mix in 3 normal kannons. The kannons can snap shot at the air targets, and the traktors can snap fire at the ground targets. A very well rounded unit that always has maximum guns firing.

Melevolence wrote:
Unless I'm missing something in the rules, mix and matching artillery seems like a horrid...horrid idea. They all have to fire at the same target. So if you stuck an AA gun in there, and they have a flier, the AA gun fires at the Flier..then the other guns sit there and pick their nose. Or, if you put some Lobbas and a Smasha Gun together, the Smasha is good for popping tanks. So if you want to pop that tank...well...your Lobbas are shooting at that too, and CANT hurt them. (Unless AV11 or under).

If you take a look at my proposed squad you will see that I had no such bad matchups. Every gun I put in a squad with Traktor Kannons can snapshoot at fliers. Every gun I put in a squad with Lobbas was a Lobba. Every gun I put in a squad with heavy anti-tank could deal with heavy armor even if it was snap shooting.

I'm pretty sure my combinations are solid, I'm just not certain that my ratios are quite right. For instance, 2 or 3 Traktor Kannons with normal Kannons?

tag8833 wrote:

Melevolence wrote:
Unless I'm missing something in the rules, mix and matching artillery seems like a horrid...horrid idea. They all have to fire at the same target. So if you stuck an AA gun in there, and they have a flier, the AA gun fires at the Flier..then the other guns sit there and pick their nose. Or, if you put some Lobbas and a Smasha Gun together, the Smasha is good for popping tanks. So if you want to pop that tank...well...your Lobbas are shooting at that too, and CANT hurt them. (Unless AV11 or under).

If you take a look at my proposed squad you will see that I had no such bad matchups. Every gun I put in a squad with Traktor Kannons can snapshoot at fliers. Every gun I put in a squad with Lobbas was a Lobba. Every gun I put in a squad with heavy anti-tank could deal with heavy armor even if it was snap shooting.

I'm pretty sure my combinations are solid, I'm just not certain that my ratios are quite right. For instance, 2 or 3 Traktor Kannons with normal Kannons?

If you have to mix and match, I'd do 2 Traktors and 3 Kannons. Unless you really know your opponent and they tend to bring fliers.

I guess I don't bring items for hypotheticals. I know my local meta well enough to know what they will bring along with them. Its not often I have dead units. Only once did I not have the right Big Gun for the job, and I still won. I don't feel 'they can snapshot still' as good enough of a reason to mix and match so much. That BS3 shooting is rare in our army, and I want that to go too good use. When I'm playing Apoc, then I'll mix and match like crazy. But when my points are so limited, I want the most out of them for my match up.

i think i'd rather use Kannons not Smashas if i had traktors, theyre cheaper and always S8 and can still snapfire. Smashas have the AP yes but have a chance to be weaker, since average strength is 6-7 and if youre shooting at one of the problem birds with AV12 armor....fat chance.

I pretty much stick to the basic ones, kannons or lobbas, purely because theyre dirt freakin cheap for what they do. My lobbas have easily been the reason i won games....54pts since i bring 3 in a 2k game lol. I started bringing kannons as my other 3 rather than 6 lobbas so i can have the S8 option for light vehicle killing or T4 squishing - comes in handy to have both rather than spamming one or the other.

I probably will proxy it some point since its purely a joke but i seriously want to field 3 units of 5 bubblechukkas....just to freak my opponent out with 15 pi plates plus a couple of SAG pi plates rofl i mean cmon who wouldnt love that?