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My Razor’s Kiss biker army is still at a WIP stage, but had to get some experience using them.

HQ-Captain, Bike, Relic Blade, Storm Shield, Digital Weapons.
T-8 Bikers, 2 Meltas, Vet + Fist, Hvy Bolter Attack Bike.
T-8 Bikers, 2 Meltas, Vet + Fist, Hvy Bolter Attack Bike.
T-8 Bikers, 2 Flamers, Vet + Fist, Hvy Bolter Attack Bike.
FA-3 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes.
FA-3 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes.
FA-3 Hvy Bolter Attack Bikes.

Fairly lean, mean, fighting machine.
It’s my normal 1500.

My opponent had a Khorne based army but painted Iron Warriors.

HQ-Daemon Prince, Wings, MoK.
HQ-Greater Daemon.
T-8 Zerkers, Fist, Personal Icon, Rhino.
T-8 Zerkers, Fist, Personal Icon, Rhino.
T-8 Zerkers, Fist, Personal Icon, Rhino.
T-8 Zerkers, Power Weapon, Personal Icon, Rhino+Dozers.
T-8 Lesser Daemons.
Hvy- Tri-Las Pred.

This is as accurate as I could recall. It’s a pretty fighty list with a lot of scoring bodies. His CSM army out numbered ME!!!
For simplicity, they will be called Iron Warriors…

Mission: 2 Objective Draw Fest.
Deployment: Dawn of War.
(I cheered while my opponent groaned).

We roll-off and I lose. My opponent tells me to set-up first.



Razor’s Kiss Deployment

I deploy nothing and place nothing in reserve.
My objective is one of my plague marines on my left flank behind the forest.

Iron Warrior’s Deployment

Same as mine, he did not seize initiative.
His objective is a sort of chest/coffin next to a forest on his side of my right flank.

Night Fight in effect…though it didn’t really matter.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 1



Simply, everything turbo boosts onto the board.
The melta bikers and the MM Attack bikes take the flanks of the formation as the ‘all-comers’.
The center of the line formation has the supporting elements to react to where the Iron Warriors come in.
I decided to Combat Squad the flamer Bikers for variety.
2 Flamers and Fist will be known as the Combat Squad.
Attack bike and 3 biker Joes will be known as the Support Squad.

Though I did lean a little harder on my opponents’ objective on my right flank. The Captain and Support Squad were on that side.

With this line formation, it was kept pretty tight (as there were no blast/template weapons in my opponent’s army) and would be able to react to a castle reaction should it need to.

No Shooting or Combats.

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 1



Pred and sneaky zerkers rolls in 12” and pops smoke.
3 Zerkesr rhinos come in, in the middle 12” and smoke, a sort of box formation for the ‘real’ Daemon Prince to shelter behind.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 2


My bikers split into two halves for movement.

On my left flank I have the MM and Hvy botler Attack Bike squads and one Melta Squad slide left and a bit back to get LoS on the rhinos.
On my rifht flank I have the rest of the units slide and a bit back to get LoS on the leading rhino.

All I wanted was to stop the lead rhino.

80% of my fire power is dumped on the leading rhino (the corner one) and results in 2 weapon destroyed results getting though the smoke. Which means my wishes were met.
The last 20% of the fire power was thrown at the rhino in front of the Daemon Prince and resulted in a weapon destroyed result.

It is important to note here that with the lack of playing for several months, my Hitting Dice were on fire, and I believe every hvy bolter that shot at the beginning of this game all hit and each had a single glance rolled.

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 2



Lesser Daemons and Greater Daemon do not show up.

Immobilized Rhino w/ zerkers sit tight and roll a 5 to repair.
The rear rhino in the center moves up behind the Daemon Prince, while the DP flies and runs to join up with the leading zerkers’ rhinos.

Surprising to me, the closest zerkers move up in their rhino, pile out and pistol the melta squad on that side of the board, and are successful in wounding the squad 4 times. The attack bike was safe, but a joe biker got shot in the eye.

My left flank Zerker Rhino powers forward, while the Tri-las pivots and opens fire on the Multi-meleta Attack bikes I’ve left out in the open.
Luckly it hit only once with the TLLC and kills one MM Attack bike; I make my morale test.

First blood goes to the Iron Warriors of Khorne.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 3



Operation: MTHA (aka: Move The Hell Away.)
The bikers slide back and away from the leading zerkers and form a quarter pie firing line.
The right most Melta bike squadron took pot shots at the unmolested rhino and blew off its combi-bolter as well.
That’s so far 4 weapon destroyed results from all my shooting, heh.

The right most multi-melta attack bike squad explodes the closest rhino, wounding 2 zerkers and the prince, all making saves.
Everything opens up on the zerkers and reduces them down to 1 model after allocating/saves as they came in.

Last unit to fire was the Hvy bolter attack bike squadron at the lone Zerker Champion (a candidate for Greater Daemon Possession).
They cause 8 wounds, I mention that that is his favored gods’ number.
BAM, 8 armor saves made.



!!!!Denied!!!!

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 3



The Greater Daemon comes in through the Armor Saving Awesomeness Champion, seeing as he’s most blessed by Khorne, only to stumble through him and runs only 1”.
The princes (out of charge range) moves a total of 18” closer to my lines.
The sneaky rhino on the left flank makes it to take shelter behind the forest.

The Tri-las continues to pummel the Left most Multi-melta attack bike squadron and only kills one; I make the morale check.

The immobilized Rhino still tries to repair and only gets a 5 again.

The center rhino moves forward as well.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 4



Quarter Pie Firing Line Part 2.
I tighten the noose a bit.
The Hvy Bolter attack bikes inch a bit closer to the sneaky Zerkers…maybe baiting them to come out to charge them, and then I counter shoot and charge after they most likely take them out.

The last remaining MM Attack biker moves forward as he’s expendable now. He misses his shot at the rhino though.

Everything goes text book.
Multi-Melta (>12”) explodes rhino.
Almost all available shooting goes towards the Daemon Prince to down him first and the remaining shooting takes out 1-2 Zerkers in the wreck.

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 4



The Lesser Daemons come in use the icon near the Iron Warriors’ backfield to screen the zerkers that get out of their rhino to dash over to the objective… runs are 3-4” each.
The rhino rolls another 5 to repair.

The tri-las pred opens up on the left side melta Bikers and takes out 2 bikers in that squad (not enough for a morale).
The Greater daemon moves and runs closer.

The Zerkers in the middle of the board didn’t have anyone to charge in my firing line, so moved a bit closer and charged backwards to the single multi-melta attack bike and consolidated back towards my lines.

The sneaky Zerkers near my left forest do not take the bait and sit tight.
I’m guessing since I’m paying them no attention, they would just wait to cap the objective endgame.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 5a




Note we thought this was turn 4 instead, read on and learn about it before turn 5b.
The right flank Bikers moved up and unloaded on the lesser daemons taking out 6/8.
Everything else moved in to surround the Greater Daemon and the zerkers.
The Greater Daemon was taken down in shooting, while the Combat Squad with flamers and fist had to charge in to finish the job.

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 5a



The Sneaky Zerkers wait it out (thinking this is turn 4).
The tri-las pred easily targets the Hvy botler attack bikes and wipe them all out in one volley.
On the right flank, the zerkers move up and pistol the bikers to no avail, while the lesser try to be annoying and move inbetween me and the objective.

NOTE

Why the ‘5b’. I think I fudged up the turn count/counter. I thought I was right on the turn counting, as I was counting the number of times the pred shot, which I discussed with my opponent, who suggested the actual correct turn. This occurred somewhere between turn 3-4.
What I had failed to realize that the pred spent turn 1 moving and not shooting. So we went along with it as if it was ‘normal’ when it was infact a turn behind.
So my bad there.

Razor’s Kiss Turn 5b

*Sadly no pictures for this.*

The right most melta bikers fire and charge the zerkers, after everything clears, the Zerkers are left with only their champion and I had lost some bikers too.

The remaining MM Attack Bikes backtrack and snipe the remaining 2 lesser daemons left.

The Support Squad turbos to block off one path to my objective.
The melta squad slide over to capture my objective but not close enough to get charged if the zerkers swing around the support squad.
The combat squad (captain joins them) braves moving through Dangerous Terrain that is the forests and one biker gets killed, but are successful in getting the fist and a krak grenade to hit…which hit automatically cause he sat there.
After the smoke clears, the rhino is wrecked and some angry Zerkers disembark next to the Support Squad.

Iron Warrrior’s Turn 5b



My left flank Zerkers who were ousted from their ride move around the blocking Support Squad, shoot to no avail, and charge into them.
The Zerker joes bring down 1 Biker and wound the attack bike.
The fist steps up and kills 2 joe bikers.
The Attack Bike is left.
I fudged up a little here, I neglected to roll my morale test and went straight to no retreat and the attack bike died.
Granted I would have been testing morale on Ld 4 and any other result would have been the same.

Anyway, the Zerkers consolidate 4-5” well into contesting range of my objective.

The Iron Warrior’s cheer as their objective of drawing the game was successful as a third party player threw the dice if the game would continue. He pulls a ‘Tauir’ and rolls a ‘1’. A second cheer and ‘victory,’ but only for a moment.

I remind him of the so easily forgotten fight near his own objective.
The last remaining Bezerker Champion near their own objective dodges attacks from the regular bikers.
It all comes down to the fists, the Champion smacks two bikers before he was crushed by the Fist wielding vet.
They consolidate 2” back into range of the Iron Warrior’s Objective.

Results:
My Objective: Contested by Zerkers and my Bikers.
His Objective: Claimed by my Bikers.

Victory for Grandfather [color=green]Nurgle! [/color]

Even with the amount of destruction dealt, the game was very, very close at the end. My opponent worked with what he had end game and was so close in pulling a Draw.
Five turn games are like that. If I had one more turn…the Captain might have saw combat, heh.

Fun Fact:
*Stuff Iron Warriors (of Khorne) Killed in Combat:
1 Multi-Melta Attack Bike.
1 Hvy Bolter Attack Bike.
6 Joe Bikers.

*Stuff Iron Warriors (of Khorne) Killed at Range:
2 Multi-Melta Attack Bikes.
3 Hvy Bolter Attack Bikes.
4 Joe Bikers.

These followers of the Blood God, killed more things with shooting than combat… I’m sure Khorne is displeased with that!!!

‘C’SM Biker Unit Run-Down.

In general, the Hvy Bolters were on fire the whole game and hitting with maybe 90% of all my shots was horrendous.
The army worked very well with the plan I stuck to.
I tried to stay together when I could, and only split up when I had to. I had a comfortable time moving around due to my opponent’s lack of blast weapons, longer ranged weapons, and a lot of board space when my opponent castes onto one side.

*Captain: Well, he was a 190 point paper weight. He did not save anyone from any pain, didn’t enter combat, didn’t put his Ld 10 to use. The only thing he did was contribute TL Bolter fire (and obviously unlock bikers as troops).

*Melta Bikers: The meat and potatoes. Dakka is good! Whether at >12” or <12” it’s all good. They kept at arms length and only engaged when it was to their advantedge.

*Combat Squad: They had some combat action this game and got to use their Flamers. They are great for cleaning up.

*Support Squad: They didn’t do too much. They tried to be annoying didn’t do too much in general, but their expendability was nice to have.

*MM Attack Bikes: They did their job and killed tanks, exploded two even. One Squad took a lot of damage to put down while the other ended up throwing firepower where it was needed and just cleaned up.

*Hvy Bolter Attack Bikes: They were great at pour firing where I needed it. Their end was unfortunate, but they warranted removal.

So the list played it Water, I mean HEAVY Water Style.
Maybe it wasn’t a great match up. The fast nimble shooty army vs. the clunky combatty army.

This of note:

*I have to take care of my guys more, the hvy bolter attack bikes left out in the open to be crushed in one volley by the Pred was a brain fart on my part.
*I need to keep cover on my mind more often, IE biker conga lines as opposed to tight formations I showed off here.
*Need some longer ranged stuff, this game I just accepted that the Pred was gonna pelt at me the whole game, didn’t even bother.
*Wanted some plasma cannon lovin’…
*At the end game, I should have been more aggresstive with the movement of the big melta squad to block off the Zerker’s successful attempt at contesting my objective.
I held them a bit back so as to avoid a combo charge from the zerkers, but in hind sight, I should have just turboed everything into the face of the rhino to physically provide no space for the zerkers to wrap around and take the charge.
Ballsy would have had a better chance to seal the deal as opposed to playing it safe that late in the game.
*The first ‘serious’ charge made by zerkers was Turn 5, lol. I’m such an ass as the two charges made by Zerkers in this game were because I sent them in as sacrificial units TO die.
*I wasn’t in dire need of a purely combat unit, hell my ‘combat unit’ of Captain + full bike squad didn’t even step up to the bat, but this prob. isn’t a good indication of my need for a combat unit.

First Impressions of my army
1. What no Khan??
2. My little pony?
3. Juggys as Attack Bikes? Nice.
4. Cool flying things, Attack Bike?
5. Why is there a Daemon Prince there?
6. What is this list again?
7. Wait “Chaos” Space Marines, explain that one more time?
*The turn mix up: was a huge goof on my part, I’ve been too rusty for table games. Too much greenstuffing and Taverning.

My Opponent’s List:

*Lack of blast like weapons: He did have a defiler, but sadly “it is in a different country.” The havoc launchers modeled were the smoke launchers in this game, and I’m assuming he would rather drive crazy fast at me with the cargo than move only 6” and shoot.

Though Havoc Launchers on Rhinos was moot as I had a lot of weapon destroyed results on almost all of the Rhinos.

*Spread out and isolated his units after he came in. That allowed me to pick at isolated targets and focus fire at my leisure. With the castled deployment, it gave me a crazy amount of board space to move around.

Nice battle, Is your army supposed to be renegades?

Wow ive seen such a bike heavy list...i like it i think you would of done a lot better i fonly the dice gods watched over you a bit more nice BR anyway

@sexiest_hero:
You can say that.
I'm using Loyalist Rules to represent my Nurgle Biker list...though they are without feel no pain, the T5 is close enough in my book.

A sprinkle of bikers, mounted cav, juggies, and flying contraptions

@=I= White-Wolf:
I think the dice gods were actually pretty good for me and average for my opponent.
I made him roll so many armor saves and I threw alot of fire power his way.

My hitting was godly accurate the first 3 turns of the game. Which is wierd cause in my past experiences my hvy bolters always missed alot.... I guess it's balancing out

Nice to see a report with your biker army, gives me some more insight into my own.

I dream about boards with that much open ground when I play my bikers. Endless plains to roll around on.. damn terrain-hippies I play with My last game, I had to roll what felt like 20+ dangerous terrain rolls. With the amount of terrain I play with, I can't have that many bikers on the board, it would be massive trafficjams between ruins and craters


I have actually started to like my captain, I thought he was going to be a paperweight, but he gets to slug away pretty much every match. He usually also dies every match, but he is expendable, and he drags stuff down with him, so all good.

I run a cheaper version than yours, with just the relicblade, and he has done well. I have never felt a real need for storm shield (and certainly not digital weapons), but now I'm actually thinking about giving him a fist and hellfire shells. That might be more of a meta-thing though, I'm up against plenty of T6 MC's (including that damn Avatar - the bane of bikerlists ) and mech, so I feel the fist + hellfire would be better than relic + meltabomb (got 35 pts to spend on him)
- Loss of I5 is bad, but most of the fights he ends up in are either on my terms, so I can place him well away from fists and other scary IC killers - enabling him to strike anyway, or I'm stuck somewhere and he will probably die from a fist, and then he get's to strike just as well as with the relicblade.

I like your list, although an upgrade of the HB's in the meltasquads would be nice (I know - softscores )

I have added 2x thunderfire as my long range support, and they have done an excellent job each time, as opposed to the 2x las/auto preds I tried before them. I discovered that backfield infantry units like lootas, pathfinders etc gave me more trouble than tanks, as I have enough fast moving MM's to take out tanks. I recommend them if you feel you need long range firepower.

Aren't you scared of psychic powers? Without transports, you are much more open to lash, new nid powers etc, so a hood is nice to have in the mix IMO, and avenger is devastating on a bike-libby, as he can get in a perfect position fast.

I also get the "So I guess all your stuff is outflanking" - followed by "what? no Khan?"

@Illumini:

I didn’t think too much about the board. It was set already and it seemed decent. Though I’m not too scared of going through terrain; no guts no glory

I might have been harsh with the Captain this game, but essentially he was a paper weight, but in my experience he’s been ace.
Taking wounds for bikers, added muscle when I need to charge, and I’ve taken charges from Assault Termies(claws) and Grey Knights making the Storm Shield worth it’s weight in gold.
I picked Digital Weapons cause I had 10 points left, in my last game the Digital weapons would have been more helpful at what he does than the hellfire rounds… it was sort of moot this game if I had hellfire rounds… I think it’s too much of hassle, I’ve already got so many different shooting going on, I’ll prob. forget about it, where-as I’ll re

I do like the Fist variant, but I’m going for a Daemon Prince like HQ, .

I think the loss of Kill Zones hurt IC’s a bit. That would be a leg up for the Relic.

As for upgrading HB’s to MM in the biker squads, that would be nice, and yes soft scores.
There are other reasons. The HBs have their charm (cheap wound dumps, compliment the unit’s main target of infantry). I do want to try a 2 Plasma/MM biker squad someday.

I haven’t played high enough to get too much experience with other options.
I’ve tried:
Double Vindi, Triple Whirlwinds, Triple Dakka Preds, Termies, just so many options.
I haven’t gotten to the TFC, I’m not optimistic about them, but I do want to try them.
I’m very interested in the slowing firing mode at the very least.

Yes to a libby, esp. after watching a 3000 pts New Tyranids vs. 3000 CSM.
Libby on bike with Null.
Avernger looks good, but I was thinking Might.
At higher points, I’m sure I need a bit more combat punch, where as my Anti-infantry should be good at this point.

Not in this game, but I’ve had to show some people the Mounted Assault rule for Captains....some people thought all bikers was a Khan only thing. Pfft.

I'm incredibly scared of dangerous terrain, I still charge headlong into it if it will benefit me, but I hate rolling the dice for guys like my powerfist and special weapons. Normal dudes are ok, but when a unit goes into dangerous terrain, you have 50% chance of loosing either the fist or a special weapon, and that hurts. I thought you were risk averse?

Hellfire rounds seem so much better to me than digi. Neither are awesome, but for 10pts you get tl-shots that hits on 2+ and wounds on 2+, that is pretty much guarantied wounds on anything but vehicles. Against MC's with 3+ save and T6, it is not that much worse than a plasmagun, slightly better if they have cover too. (or invul like the Avatar)

Simplified math vs T6 3+ save MC:

6 HF rounds
6 hits
5 wounds
1.65 unsaved

6 plasma shots
4 hits
2.66 wounds
1.33 wounds if MC is in cover

Digi-weapons give one re-roll to wound, IMO, not worth it in comparison to HF

I am risk averse.
But the benefits outweigh the risk in this case.
You can maximum charge range, never slowed. Very powerful when it comes to judging ranges, it’s more consistent.
In general, if you must have a mandatory lead that won’t die to Dangerous terrain, go for the Attack Bike up front to lead charges.
It will take two 1’s for him to fail that charge.

As for being risk averse to the max that’s with my Chaos army. I cut loose with my Bikers more.
It’s weird, but I don’t feel like I need to baby these guys as opposed to my Plague Marines.

If I really don’t want to, I’ll prob. just shoot them up anyway

I agree that neither are awesome .
I’ve tried Hellfires and they have been meh.
I’ve been in games where I’ve really wanted to re-roll a wound…match made in 40K
Hell, Hellfire rounds might be better numbers-wise… /shrug, I have a demand, the codex supplies me.
I’m sure I’ll have excess points to have both at some point to make it moot .

I’ll prob. experiment with each more, so far in my experience the re-roll has done more for me. Maybe the new Tyranids will push it to the hellfires.

Interesting read. I really like the idea of using the SM rules to represent CSM.

- Blackbone

What up with all the horses>

@Blackbone:
Thank you. If GW pushes count as, I might as well run with it.
It's not like you can get Bikers as troops in the CSM codex.
I could have very well went with nob bikers to represent them, but it looked like a jerk move at the time.

@Norn King:
It is alot cheaper to get 5 horses than 5 bikers.
I have alot of leftover bitz to 40K them up.
In addition the blend of different mounts and ways of travel is the them.

Bike, Horse, Juggernaught, Flying robot, and eventually a Centaur for an HQ choice.

Still WIP as I've said.

I really like your take on the bikes, but why not just play with the chaos codex?

I do have a Chaos army.

You can't get bikers as troops in Chaos...and that's the main reason for this count as army.

CSM bikers play very differently than the Loyalist SM bikers.
SM bikers are very water like.
The CSM bikers are more of a hammer (expensive) and low in numbers, exactly the opposite of what I was looking for actually.

What would you do differently if your opponent had more long range shooting? I know thats not very Khorne like but I'd say most armies will have more dakka on the board then a single Predator.

Also, with the amount of Psychic Powers out there, have you considered a Librarian?

I have considered...options for hoods.
I say that because I'm open to the Daemon Hunter options as well.
But yes, a Libby is something I'm interested in including.
The only problem is that he's not gonna fit with the other unit I'm looking to include when the list expands without losing something from somewhere.
Libby + Bike + Null Zone.
I can't decide between Might or Avenger, both work well enough in my list. The uber flamer is always nice to have, but the extra combat muscle makes it look like there's 2 captains in combat...sexy either way.

It depends on how much longer range shooting.
Generally I'm pretty good at taking like Serpant and Chimera fire, several wounds here and there, attack bikes and the Captain taking saves first to reduce deaths if they fail an armor save.

It's only when it's alot, when I close faster...even then the more shooty bits he has, the less combatty stuff they have... a few fists and the captain have been decent in combat in the past and if I'm doing force concentration well enough that combat shouldn't last too long

I was wondering what you could do if you trimmed your squads a bit.
If you went down to 3x7 and 3x2, it would free up over 200 points. Seems like a pretty decent amount that you could play with.

EDIT: Also, why don't you put a MM attack bike in the 2x Melta gun squads?

I was wondering what you could do if you trimmed your squads a bit.
If you went down to 3x7 and 3x2, it would free up over 200 points. Seems like a pretty decent amount that you could play with.

I've seen others on the internet do this.
Lowering bodies in squads to form a new squad essentially and up the number of special weapons by 2 and hvy weapons by 1.
Yes, it's nice.
Why for me? (Even though I am a competitive player) I generally design a list 'for looks'. I like big beefy squads, I like having the option to combat squad. I overweight these non-competitive reasons. At the base of it, I'm not a MSU person...I'm sure it's good, but I don't think I mix well with it.