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I'm quite new to 40k so unsure about some of the rules and the best way to get the most out of my Burna Boyz. Having them ride in a Battlewagon is obviously the best bet due to horrible armour saves and the ability to put down one template from the (relative) safety of the wagon and toast anything in the way, but I'm unsure what else I should do.

I'm thinking a unit of 12 Burna Boyz with 2x Mek's equipped with Big Shootas (the KMB strikes me as detrimental to the unit) to repair any lost HP and add more range, as the Battlewagon will only have 1 Big Shoota and a Deff Rolla. But is one Mek with a Grot Oiler for 5 additional points a better choice so I can keep the extra Burna? Is 12 Burna Boyz the best number to go with? Should I take my Big Mek with KFF from my Shoota Boyz unit and put him in the wagon for the higher ld and bosspole?
I've also read that the Burnawagon needs a Mek with a ranged weapon so that models outside of the flamer template can also take wounds, can somebody please explain this to me or reference the rules as I'm obviously missing something?
I would appreciate any other advice on Burna Boy tactics too as I'm eager to use them to their full potential!
Thanks

Instead of turning your Burnas into Meks just put a Big Mek with KFF with them. That way you can still repair and equip him with a burna. The issue with a Burna Wagon is that they cant take a wagon as a Dedicated transport, which means that if you don't start on the first turn that are vulnerable standing outside of the Wagon until you can move them inside. Another thing to consider with a Burna Wagon is that it's a massive target so it's best to use it in a speed freaks army where there are other high priority targets, such as biker nobs or wagon nobs. Just don't forget to spent points on boyz and lootas too.

Thanks, I would worry about not getting turn one but I hope with sensible deployment they could be reasonably protected. To stop it being such a juicy target I was going to run them alongside another identical Battlewagon and a few Trukks filled with MANz and Slugga Boyz, followed up by footsloggers as I don't have the models for a speed freak list.
Would you say that the Big Mek is better with the Burnas then rather than giving cover to the footslogging boyz?

I used to run a unit of burna boyz in a battlewagon with my footslogging lists. The battlewagon usually stays with the footsloggers for at least the first 2 turns, possibly later if your battlewagon gets taken down.

I think you had it right the first time running a mek or two with the unit. You always should run at least one mek with a longer range gun so that you can spread the wounds out further than the range of the flamer template. If you only have flamers in your unit, you can only kill those in range of the template. Throw in big shoota or kmb and you can spread the flamer wounds as far as your longest range gun.

That being said, including a kff in the unit won't hurt. If you are running multiple battlewagons, I would put the kff in a wagon with just boyz or a lower priority target so that your opponent will have to choose between grounding the burnas or grounding the force field.

They can't start inside the wagon? I thought that nonsense left the game with sixth edition

They can start inside HS wagon just fine. They just can't jack someone else's ride and start inside it.

I second the motion for the Big Mek in a Wagon full of Shoota boys. It spreads around assets.

Having another Big mek would solve the problem, but the other HQ "should" be a biker boss with biker nob escort.

I believe a mek or two would do justice in a wagon.

Better still, taking allied Leman russ to spear head the AV14 wall, would also do nicely. The burnas would be thrilled to have that behemoth taking hits for em.

The leman russ could be used to open up tanks so the burnas can roast passengers or the burnas can protect the tank from infantry. What ever is needed at the given time.

 Iiswin wrote:
Instead of turning your Burnas into Meks just put a Big Mek with KFF with them. That way you can still repair and equip him with a burna. The issue with a Burna Wagon is that they cant take a wagon as a Dedicated transport, which means that if you don't start on the first turn that are vulnerable standing outside of the Wagon until you can move them inside..

You've got some wires twisted in regards to transports.
Units can start inside transports. What they cant, is start inside other units Dedicated Transports.

The Big Mek in a Battlewagon is great as the KFF effect becomes much larger.

 Da Kommizzar wrote:

Better still, taking allied Leman russ to spear head the AV14 wall, would also do nicely. The burnas would be thrilled to have that behemoth taking hits for em.

It's hard to spearhead something fast with a 6' max moving tank. If u're using battlewagons - you want them to ride as fast as possible - and that's 12 or 18 if you don't shoot.

xlDuke, i've tried burnas in 6 ed and can tell they're quite bad. From like 7 games they only managed to kill anyone 2 times: against termie deathwing - but orkses are anywayz a counter to that list - and against other orkses so that doesn't count. Their main problems are low range threat, no snapshooting so either move 6' or don't put things on fire, no dedicated transport. But the main problem is that the role they're supposed to accomplish is infantry killing which shootaboyz do better for lower point cost and have more versatility with a pk nob and larger numbers.

That leaves burna boyz totally non-competitive so either you don't play them at all or you play them cause of they look cool and you like them but in such case you don't need to read all of this =)

Burna boyz are good for the repair rolls the Meks do on the Wagons. If you get into burna range your opponent is toast. I try to take 10 burna boyz so my math is easy. Oh look I hit 6 guys thats 60 to wound dice comming your way. See how eady that is. For the Mek's Big Shootas are good your running an Anti-Infantry Unit and the Meks get precision strikes. For the Wagon first two upgrades should be Deff Rolla and Red Paint jog they will get you up the board faster and do some damage as well. A trick is to tank shock with War Trukks to bunch guys up and even push them closer if tank shocking fron behind. You can get some decent damage rolls that way.

The problem is it's really hard to make it that close.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I know I'm going to have an issue getting the burnawagon to enemy troops but I just can't resist the idea of wiping out an entire squad in one turn of shooting, something that shoota boyz couldn't generally achieve. I really like the models as well.

Thanks to HiiC for the clarification on causing wounds to models outside of template range.

Da Kommizzar's idea of allying with IG is one I'm going to strongly consider as in the few games I've played with my Orks I've really been hurting for a ranged fire base as I've found the SAG and Big Gunz to be inconsistent.

So it seems like I'll be running one wagon with a unit of Burnas + BS Meks and another wagon of Shoota boyz with the KFF Big Mek, then just put up with my footsloggers taking a bit of punishment backfield. Perhaps I should try running two Big Meks and leave the Warboss at home.

Much appreciated guys.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another quick question, if my wagon explodes (it's inevitable) what is the best thing to do with my Burnas after that? Run them at the nearest enemy unit? Get another wagon to pick them up?

Bury them. They are highly unlikely to live through it.

If any do I'd use them as a nuisance unit, preferably on something nearby and lurking in cover. They'll die fast or run away regardless, because they are basically a tiny squad of boyz at that point.

You could also use them as a supporting assault unit. They chew through MEQ and 4+ saves nicely but if the Wagon Gets popped they will most likely take a lot of casualties so as already mentioned keep them as a supporting unit.

xlDuke wrote:


Da Kommizzar's idea of allying with IG is one I'm going to strongly consider as in the few games I've played with my Orks I've really been hurting for a ranged fire base as I've found the SAG and Big Gunz to be inconsistent.

So it seems like I'll be running one wagon with a unit of Burnas + BS Meks and another wagon of Shoota boyz with the KFF Big Mek, then just put up with my footsloggers taking a bit of punishment backfield. Perhaps I should try running two Big Meks and leave the Warboss at home.

Much appreciated guys.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another quick question, if my wagon explodes (it's inevitable) what is the best thing to do with my Burnas after that? Run them at the nearest enemy unit? Get another wagon to pick them up?

Lootas are good vs everyone who can't ignore cover to wipe them out. However, armies that can afford it are a huge blow to their use. And such armies are tau and eldar which are met in 4 games out of 5, unfortunately. So that's basically the reason i started using ig allies with leman russ exterminator (s7 ap4 48' twin-linked 4 shots + 12 heavy bolter shots) with Pask (bs4 and a buff for shooting if you haven't moved). I find this tank doing better than lootas cause of it's a 14-13-10 4 hp behemoth. It acomplishes their role with even the ability to get +1 str vs armor or reroll wounds vs toughness thanks to Pask. Also ig provide rather cheap and helpful ccs with master of ordnance (s9 ap3 ordnance barrage that scatters 3d6 or 2d6 if hit but is not bad with a twin-linked order) and vets with autocannon or lazcannon sitting on objective backfield. I also think of using Marbo!

I definitely not agree that big gunz are no good. They're quite awesome! Espetially lobbas. They're cheap, provide devastating and accurate (u can have 3 cheap rerolls) barrage anti-infantry with 48 range. Also, they're really tough with t7 on 3 pts grots It's an awesome support unit that has won me many games! Snipe out sergeants and specialists, pin enemy infantry! They're even capable of hurting clustered up terminators.
The only reason not to include big gunz is if you max out battlewagonz.

1 kff mek is usually enough for a wagon rush. It's considered best option to use biker-warboss with a retinue of nob bikers. And i can tell you - they're really good. They'll fit in any list and are a great fast death-star that hits like a truck and can down wraithknights without much problems. Bikerboss is t6 so no insta-death from s10.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, if u'r burnas get a battlewagon blown up midfield there are like half of them left alive from an explosion so they'll have to pass pinning and leadership test to stay in game using ld7 and they have no bosspole. Midfield burnas in any ammounts don't pose no threat to an enemy. And they're not scoring. Just footslog them forward and run as far as you can in hopes that they can draw at least some fire away from the boyz. But all in all - if their transport is blown up - they're remaining useless. Ofc, you can try to pick remaining 5-8 guyz up later if u'll have a free transport but usually it's gona be just too late and a transport is better used to aid u'r boyz as a tank-shocker and mobile terrain if they get there.

Haha okay, so if my Burnas lose their ride I'll just use them as a distraction unit however possible and try to get a unit out of cover.
I may have to look into getting the IG codex then, but would be reluctant to do so until the new Ork codex drops eventually as we'll surely get something new for semi-decent heavy fire support.
Nob Bikers + Biker Boss are one of the few units I don't have but I'm going to have to build some soon, I proxied them in a game a while ago and they wreaked utter havoc against my opponent, destroying a Dreadnought as though it wasn't even there and chewed through a couple of units of CSM.

ig's gona have new codex soon also

xlDuke wrote:
I'm quite new to 40k so unsure about some of the rules and the best way to get the most out of my Burna Boyz. Having them ride in a Battlewagon is obviously the best bet due to horrible armour saves and the ability to put down one template from the (relative) safety of the wagon and toast anything in the way, but I'm unsure what else I should do.

I'm thinking a unit of 12 Burna Boyz with 2x Mek's equipped with Big Shootas (the KMB strikes me as detrimental to the unit) to repair any lost HP and add more range, as the Battlewagon will only have 1 Big Shoota and a Deff Rolla. But is one Mek with a Grot Oiler for 5 additional points a better choice so I can keep the extra Burna? Is 12 Burna Boyz the best number to go with? Should I take my Big Mek with KFF from my Shoota Boyz unit and put him in the wagon for the higher ld and bosspole?
I've also read that the Burnawagon needs a Mek with a ranged weapon so that models outside of the flamer template can also take wounds, can somebody please explain this to me or reference the rules as I'm obviously missing something?
I would appreciate any other advice on Burna Boy tactics too as I'm eager to use them to their full potential!
Thanks

You want to get the most out of those Burna Boyz? Turn them into a counter-assault unit. Run them right into the nearest CC units, and make THEM charge into you. I learned this the hard way with my gaunts. D3 automatic overwatch hits per flamer. Ouch.

Yep, they're great anti-assault unit but their threat range is rather low. 15' i'd say. And without a wagon they ain't going nowhere. U could use a looted rhino and hide in the midst of battlewagons though. However, don't expect them to be any good in even semi-competitive games. Those assaulters still left in 6 ed are too fast and tough for them.

now with stronghold assault, you can use a promethium relay, any infantry in base contact with flamers get torrent, bring on those large assault mobs!

You'll want to take a mek or two with the burna boys. give them big shootas so you can extend the wounds from the burnas out to 36".

otherwise you'll do 60 some hits, but can only allocate those wounds to models close enough to be covered by the template. With the big shootas in the unit now any model within 36" is eligible to be allocated a wound.