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Hey Dakka.

I have been creating come tankbusters lately and was wondering what sized squads people took them in. I was planning on putting them in a trukk, but is 12 a bit overkill? Or not enough and put more in a battlewagon? I have not really had a chance to playtest them since the new dex came out and would love to hear the thought of those who have.

I've only got a handful, 6, myself right now. I plan to make more. Groups of 5-10 seems pretty close to what people are taking.

I don't think I'd want to put them in a battlewagon. People still kinda underestimate them, and you want to throw them into CC into vehicles because of their tankbusta bombs and (if you take them) tankhammers.

With a squad of 5 last night in a game vs my friends renegade guard, I was able to take out a squadron of 3 sentinals (no big deal) and a chimera before he realized just how much of a PITA they are.

The bomb squigs are awesome though. Always hitting from a 2+, can be thrown from vehicles at 18" range (just can't snap shoot).

I usually take them in a truck and try and stick bigger and meaner things around them to take the pressure off. That way I can even turboboost them 24" in the truck behind cover out of LOS; disembark them next turn and start laying down the hate

5-7 of em + 3 bomb squigs, in a looted wagon with ram and 3 rokkits.

thats the way i play em (most of the time, in any game between 1000 and 1500 points)

they clock in around 150 pts. anymore and they are too much of a pointsink and a too lukrative target to be ignored by the opponent.


i am not a big fan of tankhammers... they already have meltabombs (which are better at cracking armour) and you get one less rokkit... maybe if they were free, i'd use a single one of em to throw the squigs at enemys and take the first swing at a vehicle for the chance of destroying it without exploding.

but for 15pts each... idk, doesnt seem viable to me.

If you haven't got anything big and scary near them, one of my first targets will be tankbustas. They ravage my dread, their missiles take out rhinos and marines, and they're easy to kill.

If I see a squad of 12 coming at me, I will make them a priority target, as dreadnoughts and razorbacks laugh at any number standard orks you throw their way. Make the squad a bit smaller, and try to draw my fire to something else that might be scary.

It's generally 15 in a wagon or 5-7 in a truck.

Cheers for the advice. how about two units of 7 in trukks?

Depends on the rest of your list

The exceptional thing that tankbustas can do is fire lots of rokkits with tankhunter from a wagon.

it's argueable in this thread if a few a trukk are valueable, i would say a min squad of tankbustas in a trukk are probably outdone by a min squad of MANz. With Tankbustas you are talking about a very small advantage of capability "in destroying High AV per point" in comparison to "capability at everything else". My point here is that MANz can also kill AV14, just not efficiently, but MANz can also kill other thing that Tankbustas of comparable points cant kill nearly as efficiently.

If you want to fire rokkit from a platform, tankbustas are doing that better however.

Tankbustas benefit from WAAAGH so can get this extra d6 when you're so close to a wave serpent or an IK unlike manz. And they're also significantly cheaper. Besides, tankbustas are way better at dealing with IK just cause a knight kills a couple models before they strike. So, you either get 4-6 bustas or 0-2 manz striking. I'd prefer 4-6 bustas just cause they're a bit more reliable in this regard. On the other hand, manz will remain a threat even if the truck explodes while tankbustas are more likely dead or running away by that time.
Another thing is ranged damage output. While manz provide literally none, 7 rokkits or rokkits + squigs are quite significant and can reliably get a pen or two against most vehicles.

Anywayz, that's not an even choice.

I've been running 9 in a trukk. Great little unit, I never took the bomb squigs, but I will definitely be next time.

With 9, you need 3 casualties to cause any tests and average 3 hits per turn. Against necrons they were the bane on his army, high enough strength to double out his immortals while also AP3 for ignoring armour. He had no vehicles, so at first i didn't realise what i was missing with the bomb squigs, but in a second game they would have been really handy. With a couple I would have used 1 every turn I wanted to focus something down. The 2+ to hit is its forte; providing you with that (almost) guaranteed extra hit when you need it.

RedNoak wrote:5-7 of em + 3 bomb squigs, in a looted wagon with ram and 3 rokkits.
i am not a big fan of tankhammers... they already have meltabombs (which are better at cracking armour) and you get one less rokkit... maybe if they were free, i'd use a single one of em to throw the squigs at enemys and take the first swing at a vehicle for the chance of destroying it without exploding but for 15pts each... idk, doesnt seem viable to me.

Everything in this statement is true except the Looted Wagon IMO. The downside of Looted Wagon is that there are so many other heavy support options I would rather (personally) take than it. If you're transporting a unit at this size, i'd be more willing to take the Trukk, as it counts as their dedicated transport. Being such, if you get the infultrate/outflank warlord trait then you'll be able to do so with the Tankbusters. You can't do that if they're in a Battlewagon or Looted Wagon.

koooaei wrote:It's generally 15 in a wagon or 5-7 in a trukk.

Completely agree with Koooaei here. I've found the trukk better for the squigs as the battlewagon tends to stay slightly further away. Personally I think this might be a mistake on my part, but I will load my battlewagon up with 3 more rokkits, a Mek + Rokkit, a painboy and (possibly) a kannon, points permitting. This amount of investment normally isn't good, but when the majority of your list are key threats (like a 15 squad of bikerboys) then you're opponents attention is typically elsewhere. Keeping them as just rokkits in the Battlewagon means you have a stretch of 36'' away from any charges, which is typically enough. With the 15+1+3 strength 8 shots you get, not much survives. With this loadout, it also gives you the option to charge and completely destroy certain targets. The explosion damage is reduced slightly with aid of the Painboy, and the painboy+BP means you don't have to spend points on a Nob + BP which you would want to do for a unit of 7 in a Trukk.

The choice between a Trukk and a Battlewagon is really this question: why not one of each? It does depend on your list but then it also depends if you're building a list to take on all types of threats.

IIRC you can't use bomb squigs against skimmers. And cron vehicles are mostly skimmers.

I'll bring the anecdotal evidence here. My friendly opponent's list is always a couple of DA Land Raiders with the best Assalty components inside. Tankbustas in trukkz, behind some boyz standing in Wagonz, has been a great way for me to get an oppurtunity to explode the Land Raider, offering me a turn of his expensive infantry at the shooty end of what support I have, many, many games now.

If your army Ork army finds itself lacking in the anti AV12+ department I'd look at getting two plus units of tankbustas in trukkz.

EDIT; I try to always remember, if my oppoents points weren't soo always wrapped up in Land Raiders, would those tiny tankbusta units just be fodder or expensive speed bumps? And could they be outdone by MANz in an enviroment not ruled by AV14?

If you can shoot it with Str 8 I would vote Tankbustas everytime, at least until some of our Heavy Support options looked better usually AV10/11/12. The elite slot in the Ork army can be crowded. But if it isn't MSU tankbustas are nice for anti AV13/14 and MC capability.

Sketchyfk wrote:
Everything in this statement is true except the Looted Wagon IMO. The downside of Looted Wagon is that there are so many other heavy support options I would rather (personally) take than it. If you're transporting a unit at this size, i'd be more willing to take the Trukk, as it counts as their dedicated transport. Being such, if you get the infultrate/outflank warlord trait then you'll be able to do so with the Tankbusters. You can't do that if they're in a Battlewagon or Looted Wagon.

i'll agree on the infiltrate part, although its a stretch to begin with. i would not rely on such tactics to make my army work. its a (very) nice bonus nothing more. and for the most part better suited for manz or trukk boyz, but this depends highly on the rest of your army.

as far as the trukk vs looted wagon goes:

first off, yes. if you dont have the support slot to spare, go with the trukk. but if you can, which more often than not is the case in my army (maybe because i'm mostly playing games about 1250-1500 points), the looted wagon is the better choice.

the trukk is slightly cheaper and fast. but the fast aspect is neglected by the 7th edition rules. if you wanna shoot or charge, which is most likey the case with tankbustaz, you can only move 6" anyway.

the looted wagon costs 7 points more but has the ability to get his hands on 3 extra rockits for 15pts. (a great synergy with tankbustaz) also it has AV11, so making it completly invurnbable to small arms fire and generally more durable against any other form of fire.

if possible i always would go with the wagon.

RedNoak wrote:

i'll agree on the infiltrate part, although its a stretch to begin with. i would not rely on such tactics to make my army work. its a (very) nice bonus nothing more. and for the most part better suited for manz or trukk boyz, but this depends highly on the rest of your army.

+1. Relying on getting your favourite warlod trait is even less reliable than the looted wagon!

as far as the trukk vs looted wagon goes:

first off, yes. if you dont have the support slot to spare, go with the trukk. but if you can, which more often than not is the case in my army (maybe because i'm mostly playing games about 1250-1500 points), the looted wagon is the better choice.

Interesting. I had been convinced that the looted wagon was not worth taking...

the trukk is slightly cheaper and fast. but the fast aspect is neglected by the 7th edition rules. if you wanna shoot or charge, which is most likey the case with tankbustaz, you can only move 6" anyway.

Yes, but you don't necessarily have to charge turn 1. You can zoom forward and then position yourself well for the second turn.

Trucks get ramshackle instead of Don't press dat.

Yes, but you don't necessarily have to charge turn 1. You can zoom forward and then position yourself well for the second turn.

the tankbustaz have an effective range of 36", should be enough to shoot most things turn one.
destroying or at least shaking/stunning an enemy vehicle, like an serpent or pred, is far too important to not shoot em in turn 1.

i think i honestly never (willingly) missed a shootingphase with em in my entire experience. there is too much they could shoot at! (infantry, marines, tanks, transports, snaps at flyers, marines, MC's, walkers, marines)

Trucks get ramshackle instead of Don't press dat.

haha, thats true.
come to think of it... there were one or two instances where i couldnt shoot with em for a turn^^ well, i put that in the non-willingly part... hey at least they were in a better position afterwards =)

but joke aside, in most games they are either dead or in CC, on time the statistical math would kick in.

It's a 1 in a 6 chance that you'll miss an important squad this turn. I don't feel 1 extra armor is worth it. Beside, fast is a handy thing when you got to go behind blos. And that's the only way my truck makes it through turn 1

 koooaei wrote:
It's a 1 in a 6 chance that you'll miss an important squad this turn. I don't feel 1 extra armor is worth it. Beside, fast is a handy thing when you got to go behind blos. And that's the only way my truck makes it through turn 1

if your not rolling random dice that decide the fate of the game then your not playing orky enough!! it appears your army must be lagging in SAGs, bubble chukkas, flash gitz and looted wagons!

i think what looted wagons bring are more rokkits! it would probably be more beneficial to use looted wagons solo if youve got an important unit inside a transport that needs to do work every turn. although crossing this with another thread, have you considered some of the IA:8 vehicles; as many are available to use and they dont need a new CAD, junka for instance, higher armour, but no dont press dat!

like i said, one in six isnt that bad. since bustaz are prone to die before the end of the game statistically it isnt a big dealbreaker...

especially if you take into account all the shots that would have penned a truck (and probably stunned it), that would just pling of a wagon.

and dont forget the moralecheck you have to do when the transport has been penned, which most likely will result in snap fireing or dead tankbustaz

I usually run a squad of 10 in a battlewagon with 3 rokkits on the wagon.

I leave them in the wagon, until it looks like the wagon will be destroyed OR I get close enough to assault a vehicle. They always do very well for me. I have one Tankhammer (it's on the model, or I woudn't take it) and a couple of bomb squigs.

I like to field 15 Tankbustas with 3 bomb squigs, using a bunker with the escape hatch upgrade.

 adamsouza wrote:
I like to field 15 Tankbustas with 3 bomb squigs, using a bunker with the escape hatch upgrade.

Hmm. Never thought of that. Do they tend to get a lot of kills or do you use it to deny parts of the table?

i typically use 15 with three bomb squigs inside a battlewagon with four rokkits (and sometimes a kannon) on it. I don't really use them for their cc ability much. 19-20 rokkits? Even if i moved the full 12 inches they're going to do serious damage. Amazing in a blitz brigade formation, as i don't usually need to move them more than the 6" turn one so they hit at bs2 instead of 1. If you REALLY need something dead, they can disembark turn 2 in charge range of whatever, throw out 19-20 more shots then charge in with meltas. All star unit IMO.

edit: if not in a blitz brigade, i typically use 5 in a trukk as a threat to any armor. Cheap, disposable, but still a huge threat that needs an answer. just the way i like it.