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Title says it all, I have played orks for a few years now, just took a little break from them for a couple months and have been working on odd units I have not used or haven't played in a long time. Now that being said tank bustas seem like the newest go to unit for orks. I have seen people run 1 squad of 15 in a battle wagon with 4 rokkitz. I have also seen 3 5 man squads in trukks. What is the publics general opinion on these two styles? How have tank bustas faired you? Also what is your general tactic, harass? Focus them all at one juicy target? This is all out of curiosty about how others have used them! Thanks for the replys!

I run a Blitz Brigade style army so they generally are in a unit of 12 that go into a Battlewagon with a Killkannon. If there aren't too many major vehicle threats then they sit in the battlewagon and fire off their rokkits at any vehicles or 3+ armor models that need a good splatting. If there is a nasty vehicle (super heavy usually) that needs to die fast then they go for a turn 2 shoot and charge to melta bomb the thing to death. The Glory Hog rule is actually quite funny as it gets an extra VP from popping a transport and with Blitz Brigade's scout Battlewagons its hard to hide a vehicle from them.

In my general gameplan I have 2 Battlewagons with Killkannons acting as a firebase for my Gitz and Bustas while the other 3 Battlewagons push forward with shoota boyz to get a turn 2 charge and pressure shooting away from my Killkannon Battlewagons.

I run mine either 10 in a Gunwagon if I'm running Zhadsnark or 5 in a Trukk with 3 Bomb Squigs if I want them to perform a more suicidal role and have filled up my HS with Lootas and Mek Gunz.

 Vankraken wrote:
I run a Blitz Brigade style army so they generally are in a unit of 12 that go into a Battlewagon with a Killkannon. If there aren't too many major vehicle threats then they sit in the battlewagon and fire off their rokkits at any vehicles or 3+ armor models that need a good splatting. If there is a nasty vehicle (super heavy usually) that needs to die fast then they go for a turn 2 shoot and charge to melta bomb the thing to death. The Glory Hog rule is actually quite funny as it gets an extra VP from popping a transport and with Blitz Brigade's scout Battlewagons its hard to hide a vehicle from them.

In my general gameplan I have 2 Battlewagons with Killkannons acting as a firebase for my Gitz and Bustas while the other 3 Battlewagons push forward with shoota boyz to get a turn 2 charge and pressure shooting away from my Killkannon Battlewagons.

This sounds like such a fun list
Currently finishing off another 5 gitz, going to run 9 with a Weirdboy, Mek and Painboy. But that's for another thread

As for tankbusta's;
I like 9 in a gunwagon for AV13 cheapo. give them a nob, BP and 3 bomb squigs. Generally I will also squadron the gunwagons with 2 or 3, thus putting the busta's in the middle one (thus giving me a buffer of 1 gunwagon full of shoota boyz to absorb any high Str shots).
I have also ran them in a trukk, but at 9 models they get a lot of heat inside that paper box.

As for targets;
If im facing vehicles then I will usually go to try and pop something that has contents inside I can charge with my boyz. If against infantry and MC's like nids then generally I just go for what I can use the AP3 for. Good for doubling out some nid stuff too.

I currently only have 5 assembled. So I have been running a min squad in a trukk w/ 3 bomb squigs. I have yet to get the glory hogs victory from them since the bomb squigs only have an 18" range.

But for only 115 points for 5 bustas w/ squigs in a trukk w/ a ram its a nice little supplement that can take care of other small threats or chip wounds/hullpoints off of big targets.

Wow some a few lists here sound pretty temping (nooooo my money!!!) but I have been slowly converting more tankbustas. Lately I have been finishing painting an armored ork list with a lot of trukks bikes and planes. So I'm thinking doing 3 small squads in trukks. Keep them cheap and mobile and that will leave me with 15 total tank bustas. To maybe try out in a battle wagon with four rokkitz and a big Mek. Something along those lines sounds like nice fire power!

Minimum in a trukk. With meltabombs a big squad is overkill, and just more bodies to die in the explosion. They frequently kill whatever vehicle I throw them at, but even with just 5 they barely "earn their points back" as I don't see many big expensive tanks around.

I typically take 30 in all my 1850 games. When I'm going for blood I bring a blitz brigade and scout tankbustas in wagonz into the middle of the board. Scout on soo many tankbustas give them a great chance to get first blood on even some of the heaviest vehicles and often I find they can shoot anything from the middle of the board. With rokkitz and then melta bombs they seem to cover such a good range of threats that I often feel like I just need one unit of Lootas in the back, troop taxes in two battlewagonz, then an assault squad in wagon five, and I've got a game.

Seems I need more tankbusta's then! currently at 9. I'll bump up to 20 and run in various configs.

I still want to try;
Warkopta squadron - 2-3 koptas
Shoota boyz in front one
Shoota boyz in second
Busta's in back

If I take only 2 then I drop 1 shoota unit. But with them being skimmers and fast you should be able to push right up into the face of the enemy, unload and go to work!

I usually go with a large unit in a wagon. I have found the wagon to be durable enough to sometimes luck out if the opponent decides to focus on that (and why wouldn't they, it is a pretty big threat). If they focus on the tankbustas, then my other stuff gets a chance to get close and assault. If they decide to ignore the bustas, I have a uint that is actually pretty good at erasing stuff off the board, slow but consistent. I have never used them in assault with the busta bombs. I have never really needed to do that.

I've used them to good effect in warkopta skwadrons for a few games now. They're faster than a trukk and can largely ignore DT. Of course, if you thought trukks were paper-thin, the 'kopta is see-through at 2 HPs, even with jink. So you will want LOS-blocking terrain if possible. Or even better, they were stellar in one of my Red Waaagh campaign scenarios, a lot of which give Outflank to most of your units. For one-off games, Warlord Mogrok confers Outflank as well.

Either way, I only have one warkopta filled with 5 'bustas and a KMB mek or three. I really like giving the Tank Hunter rule to the AP2 guns. Bomb squigs if I have the 15pts left over, but they can do fine without. The other two 'koptas flank the bustas with 'ard slugga/choppa boys.