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Battlewagon Tactics
Firstly looking at the Ork BW it's the strongest armour available to the Orks weighing it at 14 on the front and 12 on the side with a much lower 10 at the rear throw in it can hold 20 Orks makes this tank a pretty tough transport unit. As standard you'll notice it is open-topped, you can add a ard case upgrade to this but you shouldn't really do this in so many cases. Reason is having 20 Orks all shoot out from the tank while measuring from the hull is made of win, but secondly Orks can bail out of the BW and assault
If you're going to take Battlewagons take them in multiples just like any Ork unit orks work best in multiples. If you take just one people will know it carries a tough unit and will single it out. But when you've got multiples it just makes target priority and your army tougher in general. Also, when you do take them make sure you take them setup identically the same for the same reasons as above, you have just one with rokkits and it's already clobbered a vehicle already guess where all the anti tank is going? Yeah exactly, on the rokkit Wagon.
As for the Battlewagons themselves Grot Riggers on that many wagons is not needed. When your main goal is to assault, you only need to live for a turn or two, max. The riggers won’t really make a difference there. For the same reason, you don’t need the Meks, either. They work great on a Wagon that is hanging back to shoot, as with Lootas or tankbustas for example, but on an assault boat, keep it as cheap as possible as it is likely to get smoked.
The Transwagon
The transport Battlewagon to me is what the battlewagon is designed to do. It is about using the Battlewagon for what is does and that's carrying buckets of Orks to where they need to be. See the Wagon is better than a Trukk because it's better armour and carries more Orks; 12 Orks don't last 5 minutes even with bosspole and a armour 10 Trukk which is open-topped lasts even less. Ok the Wagon is over double points but it's a lot more strudy and you carry more Boyz, you pay for what you get
. Also I have terrible luck with trukks but do experiment you may have better luck with them than I have had.
Making a Transwagon is really easy. You need minimum a big shoota or rokkit launcha to asborb the weapon destroyed results or else you'll become immobilised, now for those who think of adding extra big shootas to take the results don't bother, because you can only move 6" and fire one weapon as it's S5. So don't waste the points. After the big shoota it's up to you what you put on, things to consider would be red paint job so you get there a little quicker, but, TBH its only 1" so why waste the points? You could put grot riggers on to get your Wagon rolling again, but you need to roll a 4+ to get your Wagon moving which is 50/50 chance. What you should put on is a boarding plank as this will help the orks inside when you dump them off to assault a unit.
With the big nerf to the deffrolla it is pointless to take them as a reinforced ram with let you reroll difficult terrain test so they are all you need.
The Gunwagon
The Battlewagon can be tooled up in a variety of builds such as a basic transport (which is my favourite) to a gun platform and smashing vehicles close up range.
If you're planning on making a Battlewagon a gun platform firstly consider it's poor ballistic skill which means you want a killkannon for template goodness or kannons or even lobbas too. Anything else you need to take in multiples i.e rokkits and you won't hit all that much. The problem with the gun platform is you're not using the Battlewagons transport ability which you're paying for, so you're wasting the tanks advantages. All in all I probably wouldn't go a gun platform as you need to stay put to fire all weapons and you need templates to avoid the low BS, plus you're not using the transport ability which you're paying for. However, if I did go gun platform I'd do something like this:
Battlewagon - killkannon, 'ard case & lobba.
The example above gives two templates and isn't open topped any more, after all you don't need it as nothing inside it, but this does cost a whooping 165 points and you could use the points on other things. A battlewagon with a ram and a rokkit will run you 120 leaving you 40 points to spend on other things. In case you're wondering why I've put nothing else on it's because of the range and to avoid the Orky BS2. Also the killkannon's short 24 inch range means you have to get close to use it. The lobba is good for using against enemy troops but I would rather just get a Mek gun battery for doing that.
PRo's and Con's
The Lootas or tankbustas in the BW though. They stayed safe and were pumping out fire power. This is the type of unit that goes well with Grot Riggers and Meks as it will be more likely to benefit from the repairs in a war of attrition. Buran boyz are another unit I like to put in a battlewagon I have them hang back and guard the rear but they are also able to run forward and flamer any unit that needs it to fill in any holes as the battle progresses.
Dedicated transports whenever possible take them as a dedicated transport for a unit. Many ork units can take them as a dedicated transport so use it. This way you are not filling up your heavy support slots with battlewagons. This allows you to select other things from the heavy support section.
Con's
The BIG downside to the wagons though, is that with the new Explodes! rules, a big unit of Boyz gets out where the Wagon was, in perfect blast/template formation. You really have to be mindful of that as it will devastate you. You don’t have much wiggle room when getting them out as the footprint of a BW is actually pretty small.
For the points cost you can take three trukks for the price of bare naked battlewagon with nothing on it and still have 5 points left.
Tactics
So you have raced your boys or mega nobs forward and dumped them off. So now what does your wagon do? Just sit there and wait to see if the boys need a ride? There are a couple of different things you can do with it. I look at a couple of different things. Most ork players that use battlewagons race them up near the unit they want the boyz to beat up and dump them off. The boyz wipe out the unit then get shot up or assaulted by a nearby unit. A tactic I took from a dark eldar player was to park my battlewagon in the way of nearby units. This gives the boys protection and makes the opponent chose to shoot up or assault the battlewagon or go around the battlewagon. Either way this usually will keep the boys protected for another turn. Also look to see if what the boys are assaulting is a transport. I use the rokkits on the battlewagon to pop the transport then the boys to assault the troops inside. If what the boys are assaulting is not a transport look for other things for the wagon to shot at if it should survive that long. Like I said I only expect them to survive a turn or two.
Another tactic I use from marine players is mobile cover. If the boys are sitting on an objective I park the battlewagon to block the line of sight from the nearest enemy unit because I want them to shot or assault the battlewagon before assaulting my boyz and always when possible try to face the front at the enemy to get the AV 14 advantage but the side AV 12 is also pretty good and gives a good cover to the boyz.
This is just my opinion and hope this helps. Please feel free to add any addition advice on way you use your battlewagons.
Firstly looking at the Ork BW it's the strongest armour available to the Orks weighing it at 14 on the front and 12 on the side with a much lower 10 at the rear throw in it can hold 20 Orks makes this tank a pretty tough transport unit. As standard you'll notice it is open-topped, you can add a ard case upgrade to this but you shouldn't really do this in so many cases. Reason is having 20 Orks all shoot out from the tank while measuring from the hull is made of win, but secondly Orks can bail out of the BW and assault
If you're going to take Battlewagons take them in multiples just like any Ork unit orks work best in multiples. If you take just one people will know it carries a tough unit and will single it out. But when you've got multiples it just makes target priority and your army tougher in general. Also, when you do take them make sure you take them setup identically the same for the same reasons as above, you have just one with rokkits and it's already clobbered a vehicle already guess where all the anti tank is going? Yeah exactly, on the rokkit Wagon.
As for the Battlewagons themselves Grot Riggers on that many wagons is not needed. When your main goal is to assault, you only need to live for a turn or two, max. The riggers won’t really make a difference there. For the same reason, you don’t need the Meks, either. They work great on a Wagon that is hanging back to shoot, as with Lootas or tankbustas for example, but on an assault boat, keep it as cheap as possible as it is likely to get smoked.
The Transwagon
The transport Battlewagon to me is what the battlewagon is designed to do. It is about using the Battlewagon for what is does and that's carrying buckets of Orks to where they need to be. See the Wagon is better than a Trukk because it's better armour and carries more Orks; 12 Orks don't last 5 minutes even with bosspole and a armour 10 Trukk which is open-topped lasts even less. Ok the Wagon is over double points but it's a lot more strudy and you carry more Boyz, you pay for what you get
. Also I have terrible luck with trukks but do experiment you may have better luck with them than I have had.Making a Transwagon is really easy. You need minimum a big shoota or rokkit launcha to asborb the weapon destroyed results or else you'll become immobilised, now for those who think of adding extra big shootas to take the results don't bother, because you can only move 6" and fire one weapon as it's S5. So don't waste the points. After the big shoota it's up to you what you put on, things to consider would be red paint job so you get there a little quicker, but, TBH its only 1" so why waste the points? You could put grot riggers on to get your Wagon rolling again, but you need to roll a 4+ to get your Wagon moving which is 50/50 chance. What you should put on is a boarding plank as this will help the orks inside when you dump them off to assault a unit.
With the big nerf to the deffrolla it is pointless to take them as a reinforced ram with let you reroll difficult terrain test so they are all you need.
The Gunwagon
The Battlewagon can be tooled up in a variety of builds such as a basic transport (which is my favourite) to a gun platform and smashing vehicles close up range.
If you're planning on making a Battlewagon a gun platform firstly consider it's poor ballistic skill which means you want a killkannon for template goodness or kannons or even lobbas too. Anything else you need to take in multiples i.e rokkits and you won't hit all that much. The problem with the gun platform is you're not using the Battlewagons transport ability which you're paying for, so you're wasting the tanks advantages. All in all I probably wouldn't go a gun platform as you need to stay put to fire all weapons and you need templates to avoid the low BS, plus you're not using the transport ability which you're paying for. However, if I did go gun platform I'd do something like this:
Battlewagon - killkannon, 'ard case & lobba.
The example above gives two templates and isn't open topped any more, after all you don't need it as nothing inside it, but this does cost a whooping 165 points and you could use the points on other things. A battlewagon with a ram and a rokkit will run you 120 leaving you 40 points to spend on other things. In case you're wondering why I've put nothing else on it's because of the range and to avoid the Orky BS2. Also the killkannon's short 24 inch range means you have to get close to use it. The lobba is good for using against enemy troops but I would rather just get a Mek gun battery for doing that.
PRo's and Con's
The Lootas or tankbustas in the BW though. They stayed safe and were pumping out fire power. This is the type of unit that goes well with Grot Riggers and Meks as it will be more likely to benefit from the repairs in a war of attrition. Buran boyz are another unit I like to put in a battlewagon I have them hang back and guard the rear but they are also able to run forward and flamer any unit that needs it to fill in any holes as the battle progresses.
Dedicated transports whenever possible take them as a dedicated transport for a unit. Many ork units can take them as a dedicated transport so use it. This way you are not filling up your heavy support slots with battlewagons. This allows you to select other things from the heavy support section.
Con's
The BIG downside to the wagons though, is that with the new Explodes! rules, a big unit of Boyz gets out where the Wagon was, in perfect blast/template formation. You really have to be mindful of that as it will devastate you. You don’t have much wiggle room when getting them out as the footprint of a BW is actually pretty small.
For the points cost you can take three trukks for the price of bare naked battlewagon with nothing on it and still have 5 points left.
Tactics
So you have raced your boys or mega nobs forward and dumped them off. So now what does your wagon do? Just sit there and wait to see if the boys need a ride? There are a couple of different things you can do with it. I look at a couple of different things. Most ork players that use battlewagons race them up near the unit they want the boyz to beat up and dump them off. The boyz wipe out the unit then get shot up or assaulted by a nearby unit. A tactic I took from a dark eldar player was to park my battlewagon in the way of nearby units. This gives the boys protection and makes the opponent chose to shoot up or assault the battlewagon or go around the battlewagon. Either way this usually will keep the boys protected for another turn. Also look to see if what the boys are assaulting is a transport. I use the rokkits on the battlewagon to pop the transport then the boys to assault the troops inside. If what the boys are assaulting is not a transport look for other things for the wagon to shot at if it should survive that long. Like I said I only expect them to survive a turn or two.
Another tactic I use from marine players is mobile cover. If the boys are sitting on an objective I park the battlewagon to block the line of sight from the nearest enemy unit because I want them to shot or assault the battlewagon before assaulting my boyz and always when possible try to face the front at the enemy to get the AV 14 advantage but the side AV 12 is also pretty good and gives a good cover to the boyz.
This is just my opinion and hope this helps. Please feel free to add any addition advice on way you use your battlewagons.
