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So I have started my first army, ork, and have found my self in a dilemma. I have bought a lootas/burnas set and now wondering which to do, as I'm not to familier with 40k or orks I don't know which will compliment my current army best which includes:
2 battle wagons
A 9 man biker squad
A dakka jet
5 flash gits
6 grits ( I've lost some) with a grot herder
And 10 boys ( plus a nob)
I would like some advice of which ( lootas or burnas) to use to make my army the most effective and orky

Lootas are some of the best units in kur codex. Burnas are meh. Lootas put a whole bunch of s7 shots downfield, which us fantastic for us. Take at least 10 to every match.

Lootas are very general purpose units that can provide needed anti air, vehicle, and MC fire support. Also can gun down infantry if needed. Hard to go wrong with lootas in a list and they are fairly independent units so they don't need much in the way of support.

Burnas are potentially very deadly units but they also are difficult to effectively deliver to where they need to unleash the pain. They need a transport, they are expensive in points, and tend to be targeted quickly when they see a trukk or battlewagon loaded with burna boyz. They are best at killing infantry which is what Orks are already good at so its not all that vital to have them in your army list. A unit of lobbas are far more likely to be useful, easier to use, more points efficient, and more difficult for the enemy to shoot off the board. They can be good in small units in trukks as a disposable "do or die" unit but again they tend to be targeted first and their high points cost makes each loss costly.

Lootas. Always Lootas. The only real problem with Lootas is that they take up a Heavy slot, versus Burna Boyz who take up an Elite slot.

I want to like Burna Boyz, however they are just too expensive points-wise to field them relative to the damage they do.
If they carried Skorchas (S5 AP4) instead of Burnas (S4 AP5), then I would field them more often.

Ghestrr wrote:
So I have started my first army, ork, and have found my self in a dilemma. I have bought a lootas/burnas set and now wondering which to do, as I'm not to familier with 40k or orks I don't know which will compliment my current army best which includes:
2 battle wagons
A 9 man biker squad
A dakka jet
5 flash gits
6 grits ( I've lost some) with a grot herder
And 10 boys ( plus a nob)
I would like some advice of which ( lootas or burnas) to use to make my army the most effective and orky

I played a game once in which my opponent packed his battle wagons full of burnas. Aside from being a beast in overwatch, that also gave him some interesting offensive possibilities.

You'll probably get more mileage out of Lootas but don't forget that Burnas can be AP3 in combat.

Also don't forget that the parts for Lootas/Burnas can be used on normal Boyz.

Build Loota's and use you Burna bits to convert boyz into burna's. On top of that you will be stuck with 1 mek per 4 loota's / burna's that you want to build. There are only 4 sets of loota guns or burna guns in the kit.

Loota's work but like all orks suffer from ld issues. If you want to protect them you can place them in transport that acts as a mobile bunker.

Meks.Are kitted out with Mega a Kustom blasta. But it is probably best to equip the mek with something else then the Kustom blasta. Kostom blasta's are they orky version of plasma and wonky BS2 plasma is bad : P. Better ways could be to field them with a slugga and choppa out of the boyz kit, or kit them with the saws that you can get out of the Mega nobz set or you can scratch build them

Burna's are harder to work with but hae a shocking damage output potential. The best way I know to use burna's is
- In an open topped transport. The "burna wagon" build. The fun part about this is that all passengers of the open topped transport can shoot from any part of the transport. So if you somehow manage to get a unit of ~10+ close enough you can just lay down a template and multiply it with the amount of burna's inside. This results in 40-80 hits most of the time and is most of the time enough to evaporate most units : D
- Use them with the pipe lines (+ a mek in mega armour if you want to buff them with relentless.) This works best in an defensive ork list vs an assaulty army. You can find the rules of the pipe lines in Strong hold assault or anywhere on the net. They are a fortification like the Agis defence line but also give torrent to all flamers behind in in trade of making the weapon a heavy weapon. The mega armour gives the squad relentless this makes that you can still move and shoot while using the pipe lines. the fun thing with the pipe line is that they are easy to scratch build using PVC pipes and some plasticard.

 oldzoggy wrote:
Build Loota's and use you Burna bits to convert boyz into burna's. On top of that you will be stuck with 1 mek per 4 loota's / burna's that you want to build. There are only 4 sets of loota guns or burna guns in the kit.

Loota's work but like all orks suffer from ld issues. If you want to protect them you can place them in transport that acts as a mobile bunker.

Meks.Are kitted out with Mega a Kustom blasta. But it is probably best to equip the mek with something else then the Kustom blasta. Kostom blasta's are they orky version of plasma and wonky BS2 plasma is bad : P. Better ways could be to field them with a slugga and choppa out of the boyz kit, or kit them with the saws that you can get out of the Mega nobz set or you can scratch build them

Burna's are harder to work with but hae a shocking damage output potential. The best way I know to use burna's is
- In an open topped transport. The "burna wagon" build. The fun part about this is that all passengers of the open topped transport can shoot from any part of the transport. So if you somehow manage to get a unit of ~10+ close enough you can just lay down a template and multiply it with the amount of burna's inside. This results in 40-80 hits most of the time and is most of the time enough to evaporate most units : D
- Use them with the pipe lines (+ a mek in mega armour if you want to buff them with relentless.) This works best in an defensive ork list vs an assaulty army. You can find the rules of the pipe lines in Strong hold assault or anywhere on the net. They are a fortification like the Agis defence line but also give torrent to all flamers behind in in trade of making the weapon a heavy weapon. The mega armour gives the squad relentless this makes that you can still move and shoot while using the pipe lines. the fun thing with the pipe line is that they are easy to scratch build using PVC pipes and some plasticard.

Thanks this is really helpful, thinking about doing lootas with the kit and burnas with some of the boys

It's probably worth mentioning that though you can kit boyz with burnas, you can't actually take boyz squads with burnas as their specialist weapons, sadly.

So, the only way to take burnas is to take a squad of burnas, unfortunately. I wish they were a mek weapon, too.

At any rate, I'm honestly outspoken and somewhat unique in the fact that I don't like lootas. On paper, they're decent, and if your opponent leaves them alone for the game, they can do some decent damage, but in practice that NEVER happens.

Everyone has something that will ignore their cover, annihilate them, and send them running off the board with their pathetic LD7.

And even when they're not wiped out by a drop podding flamer or psychic scream, or what have you, I find their damage too unreliable for anything with better than a 3+ save or armor values above 12.

Though they suffer from many of the same issues as lootas ,I honestly prefer tankbustas. But in the case of lootas v burnas, I would say lootas, absolutely.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:
It's probably worth mentioning that though you can kit boyz with burnas, you can't actually take boyz squads with burnas as their specialist weapons, sadly.

So, the only way to take burnas is to take a squad of burnas, unfortunately. I wish they were a mek weapon, too.

At any rate, I'm honestly outspoken and somewhat unique in the fact that I don't like lootas. On paper, they're decent, and if your opponent leaves them alone for the game, they can do some decent damage, but in practice that NEVER happens.

Everyone has something that will ignore their cover, annihilate them, and send them running off the board with their pathetic LD7.

And even when they're not wiped out by a drop podding flamer or psychic scream, or what have you, I find their damage too unreliable for anything with better than a 3+ save or armor values above 12.

Though they suffer from many of the same issues as lootas ,I honestly prefer tankbustas. But in the case of lootas v burnas, I would say lootas, absolutely.

I agree on this. Loota's aren't as good as you might expect them to be. They are really vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. You really need to protect them since most opponents will shoot at them when they see what those loota's can do. I have met multiple ork players who only fielded them in battle wagons. Not sure if that is worth the points but it sure does keep them alive a lot longer. A protection I forgot to mention is the skyshield landing pad the 4++ really does help these kinds of units, as does a some fearless aura. (These are rare). One other trick might be to use a scratch build orky void shield generator. If you do face drop pods bubble wrap them in an other unit, or better prevent the drop pod from being able to deepstrike near it. You do not want them to be on the wrong side of a flamer or a close combat weapon.

They can be great if you manage to keep them alive. But don't waste their shots. Do not shoot at stuff that has insane cover saves, 2+ sv's or av 12+ They are great vs av 10 and 11 but starting with 12 they do start to struggle too much. Do shoot at monsters or low av fliers with them. Also if you are using them in cover don't fear to go to ground with them. If your opponent doesn't have ignore cover they will probably spend lots of shots on them this alone is worth it and hitting on 6'es isn't that bad for loota's it just halves their hits.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Also don't forget that the parts for Lootas/Burnas can be used on normal Boyz.

Yep, no reason you cant have both if you get extra torsos heads and legs. You will get 4 Lootas, 4 Burnas and 1 Mek from the boxset set if you provide bodies for four more boyz. you could even use fantasy orc legs and torsos.

Minor note: you can take up to two Burnas in a unit of Kommandos. Not exactly the best way to spend points, but the option is there.

 Cleatus wrote:
Minor note: you can take up to two Burnas in a unit of Kommandos. Not exactly the best way to spend points, but the option is there.

Tried that with the Kommando formation from Waagh! Ghazghkull? It's actually kinda horrifying if you manage it right against an army that relies heavily on cover or has a low armor save.
4 Kommando Squads, mobbed up and maxxed out with their 15 models, gives you 60 Kommandos with 8 Burnas in there and Snikrot/Nobs as well.

Just how many points are you spending on the 8 burna's trick ?

Don't forget than whenever transport takes damage - even a glancing hit - passangers have to pass ld or fire snapshots. It's terribad for ld7 burnas. Not only are they overpriced and very situational, they're also unreliable.

Lootas all day long. We need this decent range support. If you really want to burn something, take combi-skorchas on your meganobz or even squad nobz or kommandoes. BTW, i've tried kommandoes with 2 burnas and Snikrot. They killed 1 marine. Kinda wish i'd take 3 more kommandoes.

Lets put it this way.

Lootas need no further introduction, they are awesome. Take them.

Burnas have issues, but they are the same unit size, 5-15 and they can have the same number of meks, 3, and are better positioned to support meks.

A unit of lootas needs to be 100% loota, a unit of burnas could consist of three meks with mek tools and two (or more) burnas. Really it's a mek unit with two special weapons, recommended.

Actual units of burnas need a trukk and a lot more trukks to tank shock the opponent into a mess you can set light to. Extremely lethal in a fully mechanised ork list, not so good elsewhere. Also full mechanised orks need meks and burna units are the best way to get a reasonable number of them.

 Orlanth wrote:


Actual units of burnas need a trukk and a lot more trukks to tank shock the opponent into a mess you can set light to. Extremely lethal in a fully mechanised ork list, not so good elsewhere. Also full mechanised orks need meks and burna units are the best way to get a reasonable number of them.

Don't tank shock with a burna wagon you silly. You don't really need it and this will force you to do snap shots. Burna's can't do snap shots.
The best way to field them is to field them low key. Tell your opponent about them but don't make such a fuss about them, try to let him focus on other dangerous units and slowly sneak up on him with the transport. This way you might kill 1 or 2 units with them before they get mowed down. Also trukks are horrible transports for them. Sure they are cheap but he will kill the truck and the burna's inside it if your opponent even gets a whiff of their potential. Use something sturdier if you want to build a "burna wagon" and actually BBQ anyting.

Well, burnas can be used to get 3 meks to fix your superheavy. Leaving you with 2 burnas and 3 meks. Burnas technically.

It is kinda outdated that doesn't include the pipe line or the horrors of 7th edition transport disadvantages but still a nice video about the burna wagon tactic. (also ignore the red paint job part that doesn't work any more)

https://youtu.be/vgZ6psjP5RU?t=3m54s

just stop the video after ~7:30 the video contains a lot of outdated rules after that.

 koooaei wrote:
Don't forget than whenever transport takes damage - even a glancing hit - passangers have to pass ld or fire snapshots. It's terribad for ld7 burnas. Not only are they overpriced and very situational, they're also unreliable.

They do? I thought you only did an Ld test if you had a penetrating hit and ended up rolling on the Vehicle Damage Table? (i.e., Crew Stunned, Crew Shaken, Weapon Destroyed, Immobilized, etc.) I didn't think that glancing hits had any effect on passengers.

Build Lootas. You can even convert the burnas into more loota parts for normal boyz by gluing on extra guns and throwing in some extra boyz bodies.

lootas are better most of the time, but keep the bits and add them to boys bodies later.

Lootas are basically one of the good things in the codex besides Tankbustas and the artillery you javelin available.