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I know that lootas are typically stand back and shoot orks, having heavy weapons. But when the enemy gets close, (like 12" away) is it worth it for lootas to charge them? I guess what I'm wondering is whether you guys think one more round of shots is more effective than an ork charge.

Depends on what they are and what they are planning to do, I would think. Can your lootas kill them or just tie them up? In most cases, I would aim for STR 7 shots either at the nearby target or at something of more importance. When I'm getting close to lootas, my goal is usually to tie the ork's best guns up in close combat. If you charged me, you're just doing my work for me a turn early. There will always be exceptions, but I'd stick with shooting most of the time.

i cant think of any reason you'd charge rather than shoot, let them charge, and shoot overwatch. everything that will ever reach lootas for melee combat will most likely wipe them if you dont shoot them dead first.

If they could charge after shooting i'd say why not since it still denies their charge benefit. but shooting a fistful of S7 shots is far more advantageous than preventing 1 extra swing from an enemy that probably doesnt need it to kill you lol

I concur, 90% of the time you are better off shooting since you will get to shoot again on overwatch when he charges.

The only time it could even be remotely advantageous is if you had a Big mek in the unit that was also outfitted with a PK, which just isn't something you see a lot of

 Vineheart01 wrote:
i cant think of any reason you'd charge rather than shoot, let them charge, and shoot overwatch. everything that will ever reach lootas for melee combat will most likely wipe them if you dont shoot them dead first.

If they could charge after shooting i'd say why not since it still denies their charge benefit. but shooting a fistful of S7 shots is far more advantageous than preventing 1 extra swing from an enemy that probably doesnt need it to kill you lol

I agree, shoot them, then shoot them again when they assault you.

They can't charge after shooting though, they have heavy weapons.

I can remember a few times i prefered to charge with lootas.

For example when i played vs an eldar who sent a wave serpent close to them - he knew that serpent's almost invincible to ork's shooting but forgot that lootas ain't just plain deffgunz. So, they stripped those last 2 HP from a serpent bashing it in mellee.

That vet squad with flamers getting too close? Rip em a new one wiv ya choppas!

ummm that vet squad with flamers is going to wall of death you pretty bad!! don't charge that, shoot that!

Good point! Can't believe that didn't cross my mind. Scions with hellshot volly guns getting too close behind that wall? Charge em!

There will be some occasions where the chance to sweep your opponent is better than killing extra models initially, or where Ws4 st4 is as good as bs2 st7.

Against GEQ:

Assault: .66 casualties per loota, possibly killed by overwatch or I3 attacks.
Shooting: .55 casualties per loota, no chance of dying first
Total loss of offensive power by shooting with15 lootaz instead of charging is 1.66 casualties.

Against MEQ:
Assault: .25 casualties per loota, possibly killed by overwatch or I4 attacks.
Shooting: .19 casualties per loota, no chance of dying first
Total loss of offensive power by shooting with 15 lootaz instead of charging is .9 casualties.

Against GEQ, for every loota killed, you need five lootaz to strike in combat, making them inefficient in assault at more than 2 casualties.
Against MEQ, for every loota killed, you need 3 to strike in combat, making them inefficient in assault at more than 3 casualties.

10 GEQ (lasguns) kill 1.11 lootaz during overwatch, and another 1.39 at I3.
Result: Against 10 GEQ, shooting is better than assaulting.

5 MEQ (bolters, 1 attack) kill .83 lotaz during overwatch, and another 1.04 at I4.
Result: Against 5 MEQ, assaulting is better than shooting, against 10 it's not.

Note that any additional close combat weaponry and/or special weapons which do well in overwatch (flamers, plasma, stern guard ammunition) massively tip the scales in favor of simply shooting the enemy.

TL;DR: If you lose more than 1/6 of your lootaz before they strike, don't charge them at guard, eldar, dark eldar, fire warriors etc.
If you lose more than 1/4 of your lootaz before they strike, don't charge them at marines.

I'd almost advocate for moving AWAY from that enemy unit if it could result in a more difficult charge for them... and then shoot them with snap shots and let them suck the overwatch as well.

 Jidmah wrote:
Against GEQ:

Assault: .66 casualties per loota, possibly killed by overwatch or I3 attacks.
Shooting: .55 casualties per loota, no chance of dying first
Total loss of offensive power by shooting with15 lootaz instead of charging is 1.66 casualties.

Against MEQ:
Assault: .25 casualties per loota, possibly killed by overwatch or I4 attacks.
Shooting: .19 casualties per loota, no chance of dying first
Total loss of offensive power by shooting with 15 lootaz instead of charging is .9 casualties.

Against GEQ, for every loota killed, you need five lootaz to strike in combat, making them inefficient in assault at more than 2 casualties.
Against MEQ, for every loota killed, you need 3 to strike in combat, making them inefficient in assault at more than 3 casualties.

10 GEQ (lasguns) kill 1.11 lootaz during overwatch, and another 1.39 at I3.
Result: Against 10 GEQ, shooting is better than assaulting.

5 MEQ (bolters, 1 attack) kill .83 lotaz during overwatch, and another 1.04 at I4.
Result: Against 5 MEQ, assaulting is better than shooting, against 10 it's not.

Note that any additional close combat weaponry and/or special weapons which do well in overwatch (flamers, plasma, stern guard ammunition) massively tip the scales in favor of simply shooting the enemy.

TL;DR: If you lose more than 1/6 of your lootaz before they strike, don't charge them at guard, eldar, dark eldar, fire warriors etc.
If you lose more than 1/4 of your lootaz before they strike, don't charge them at marines.

That pretty much settles it then. Shooting is almost always the way to go unless you are sure to beat them and then risk catching them in a sweeping advance (I2 though).

There is always the rare occurance where you want to avoid being shot next turn, such as all your other units are in combat, so you charge those 3 to 4 ripper bases, hoping to wipe them out in the opponents turn rather than on the charge.

Yes, charge in..............
Only if you need to stop them moving/shooting other things, just to tie them up.

Example 1: a unit of 20 pink horrors. These are poor in combat, but can rip you apart in the psycik phase, so better to be in combat with them.

Example 2: A unit of good shooters, behind cover, when you are in the open. In this case, if they will be hurting you more by shooting than you will due to their good cover saves, then best to charge them and remove that save.

As with most thing, it all depends on the situation, so a blanket 'NO' is wrong just as a Yes would have been.

Considering that the majority of my 7th edition games have been against Tzeench, I'll chip in some wisdom with that:
Pink horrors have the fear special rule (you fail 40% of the time and get dropped to WS1) as well as the blue horrors rule which causes additional hits for every horror you kill in close combat, and they can't be sweeped either. On top of that, they hardly "rip you appart". WC3 powers are pretty likely to fail even when you toss 7 dice at them, and neither 2d6 nor d6 powers are very scary to lootaz in cover. Plus, you can always try to deny them. Due to the nature of daemons generating less warp charges than available psychic powers, even if you could charge those pink horrors, another tzeench daemon could simply shoot you instead.
In any case, you are going to lose more lootaz by trying to kill them in assault then by shooting them and taking some return fire.

As for example 2: While highly constructed (why are your lootaz in the open? Why are they within charge range of a good shooting unit in cover?), shooting still wins. Many units have a better armor save than 5+ cover which is either ignored by AP4 or makes cover irrelevant. Keep in mind that lootaz are boyz without a nob, so you will struggle to win combat against most things and after a round of combat or two get run down.

The math I did above pretty much proves that you will rarely be wrong with a blanket "NO" - unless the unit is both bad at shooting overwatch and close combat. Which mostly applies to vehicles anyways.