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Hello all...

I'm seeking some help with a new threat in our group and it seems as though nobody can stop it as of yet. There's an ork player in our group that recently started spamming nob bikers with a painboy and some power klaws thrown in. The squads are maxed out as far as numbers go and as to be expected he turbo boosts from unit to unit shreding em to pieces. I play vanilla marines right now and I don't think there's anything in my army that can stop those nobs. I'm currently working on a GK/BA army and also a full deathwing army as well. Should I just wait until they're up and running before attempting to tackle his army? I'd really like to hand him a loss with my marines though. I'm currently assembling a full heavy plasma dev squad with the thinking that the ap2 templates will negate the armor and FNP. The problem is the strength isn't high enough to to inflict instant death. I was also thinking of fielding 2-3 vindicators. The severely short range scares me though. But the firepower is theorically good enough to instant death the entire squad. Sometimes I use a counts-as Kantor for the sterguard scoring units and the one shot orbital bombardment is ok when it hits. I feel that ap1-2 templates are the way to get rid of em. I always field scout snipers so maybe I could precision shot his pain boy to at least get rid of the FNP for other shooters to get rid of em as well. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

IG blob squad and tarpit them. Nob bikers are great at killing small elite units, but if they charge into a fearless (if the commissar is still alive they have a 97% chance of passing the morale check no matter how many wounds you win combat by) blob of 50 guardsmen they'll be lucky if they get out of the combat before the game ends.

And of course as a nice bonus you get to take a Vendetta as well, which is always a good thing.

Anything that either ignores their 4+ Cover/Armor, or Ignore the FNP are going to be painful to Nob Bikers (Heavy Flamers are good, and Vindicators are deadly). The other ways to beat them is with volume of fire (hopefully with High strength weapons), or throw a huge unit of TH/SS at them.

Also Orks as a whole have little to no defense against psychic powers, so throw some Psykic shenanigans at them (or a Psyker Battle Squad if you use allies).

I play Nob Bikers, and they are a tough nut to crack, but it can be done.

I play vanilla marines right now and I don't think there's anything in my army that can stop those nobs. I'm currently working on a GK/BA army and also a full deathwing army as well.

Well, in fact, Nob Bikers are a tough nut to crack.
You could take Assaut Termies with TH/SS and Vindicators. The latter can instantly kill them with their S10 plate while TH can do it no longer (in the new ed.).

I use 10 NobBikerz in every list from 750 points on up.

Str 10 is the best answer: ID and ignores FNP. Last week first turn a Manticore got 7 hits on my PB. Since it was a Barrage weapon my only hope was Look Out Sir of which I was able to pass a single wound onto my BikerBoss. Losing FNP right away really hurt, I kept rolling those dice for the rest of the game just to see how much it hurt me and I would've saved another 6 NobBikerz over the course of the game. His MVP that game no doubt.

NobBikerz don't care about TH/SS or Vendettas or Valks (my opponent brought one carrying plasma vets).

They only care about Str 10. Volume of shots means you're not shooting at my Shootas. Ironically the only good Str 10 Orks have are Boss PK's and DeffRollas.

Vindi's, Manticores, and snipers worry me. Thank Gork and Mork Tau lost their OP Str 10. Best part of the new Tau codex.

Couple weeks ago DA scout snipers took out my Biker PB right away as well. Failed all my LOS, cover saves, and FnP. Just plain bad rolling on my part. Guy didn't want to fight that day lol.

Ally in a biker boss and a squad of nob bikers for yourself.

Symmetry is an elegant solution.

I didn't even think about adding in a psyker. And it seems as if blast templates are the way to go. Their 2 wounds is nasty so a LC or MM shot won't insta-kill em. Will definitely hurt em though. Picking off the painboy will be critical too. So do the TH/SS termies work or not? I guess 2 people will have different experiences with em and they seem to be able to knock a few wounds off here and there. I guess the Raven Guard forge will be producing a couple of vindicators soon. Do you guys recommend the heavy plasma or should I disguard it for another heavy slot on the FOC? And with the 24" range, how many rounds of fire do you think the vindies will get? Obviously no more that 2 if they're his priority. Turbo boosting bikes are gonna be on em fast.


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 Exergy wrote:
Ally in a biker boss and a squad of nob bikers for yourself.

Symmetry is an elegant solution.

If I weren't playing for the fluff of the marines and just looking for that win that would be awesome!!! And would piss him off beyond belief too!!! HAHA

My goal is to get a win on him with straight up marines first. If it's possible that is.

 RavenGuard55 wrote:
I didn't even think about adding in a psyker. And it seems as if blast templates are the way to go. Their 2 wounds is nasty so a LC or MM shot won't insta-kill em. Will definitely hurt em though. Picking off the painboy will be critical too. So do the TH/SS termies work or not? I guess 2 people will have different experiences with em and they seem to be able to knock a few wounds off here and there. I guess the Raven Guard forge will be producing a couple of vindicators soon. Do you guys recommend the heavy plasma or should I disguard it for another heavy slot on the FOC? And with the 24" range, how many rounds of fire do you think the vindies will get? Obviously no more that 2 if they're his priority. Turbo boosting bikes are gonna be on em fast.

TH/SS can work, but orks have the shootas for force TH/SS to fail their 2+ saves. Also bikes are FAST. He doesnt have to charge in till he wants to and that might be never.

I think Vindicators would be nice. You could also try some heavy flamer landspeeders. Feed him something, then after he wins you can flame all the bikes when they are bunched up. Wounding on 4+ and he gets his FNP, but no save. If he is bunched up he should lose a fair amount.

Is it possible to negate that 4+ cover save from the bike smoke screen? If im reading the rules correct I can negate the armor save, FNP, and instant death with the vindicator's blast templates but they still get that 4+ cover save correct?

Sorry, had to check the date to make sure this wasn't a thread from 2008 that had risen from the dead.

 Peregrine wrote:
IG blob squad and tarpit them. Nob bikers are great at killing small elite units, but if they charge into a fearless (if the commissar is still alive they have a 97% chance of passing the morale check no matter how many wounds you win combat by) blob of 50 guardsmen they'll be lucky if they get out of the combat before the game ends.

Not a bad idea, but you're forgetting that IG Infantry is, well, Infantry and Nob Bikers are, well, Bikes. That means that the Nob Bikers are pretty likely to be able to avoid the 50 strong unit of Guardsmen. Even if they, for some reason, cannot, you have to remember that a lot of Ork lists nowadays bring plenty of shooting which is great for mowing down squads of lightly armoured infantry.

Like PipeAlley says, S10 is a great method of taking them down. Instead of having to score two wounds past a 4+/5++ save, you only have to score one past a 4+ save. Like with anything with good saves, volume of fire is also another decent way of bringing them down, though perhaps not so much - it largely depends on what you have in your list. IG, as I understand, don't have a problem bringing plenty of S10.

Shoot them. A lot. Sure he gets an armor/cover save then FNP... It's the same theory as throwing dice at a Terminator squad. Thunderfire cannons are good for forcing saves.

STR 10 is a rare commodity. Most lists are going to have to tarpit this (if they can) or using torrent of wounds. Tau, of course, can take away their cover, and shoot them with hails of AP 4 STR 7 missiles.

Unfortunately, the divination power that grants ignore cover is targeted on the libby and his squad. So you can't give vindis ignore cover.

Tarpitting with IG works, until you run into the situation where they unload 10 kombi skorchas on you denying cover/armor.. still only killing a good enough chunk that they are manageable in CC. I usually hit them with trukkboyz too.. declare charge, they overwatch, i G2g and auto fail charge but take minimal casualties, nob bikers scoot on in. even losing 60 points of boys is nothing really, because they are just there to absorb a critical overwatch/cap an obj... When the #'s start getting realllly high, then yeah.. almost impossible to get thru them all by end of game, but I only think I have encountered 1 blob ever like that.. (with attached BA libby for added fun)

You could just kill them though, manticores do a fair enough job double tapping them out with ID/denying FNP. especially if t6 bosses aren't absorbing the wounds... Thunderfire cannon like rigeld suggested is a good one. Any Ap4 flamer is good too.. Just have to deliver enough of them.. It's just about volume of wounds with these guys.. You can flashlight them down with IG.. but you need enough dice/shooting phases to do so.

Force weapons are also really annoying. Nothing sucks more than your biker boss getting punked by some scrub librarians force weapon.... (grey knights good for this too)


also, death company... death company (with charge) w/ chaplain (for re rolls) will decimate nob bikers. Make sure you pack some power swords/mauls, don't bother with fists.. Just make sure they get the charge... You'll pour out enough attacks that they will only get 5+ cybork/5+ fnp against, and that won't be enough to stop the DC.

Awesome advice guys. Thanks all for the responses.


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I have a grey knight army in the works now with a BA/DC ally. The DC should be enought to tie him up for a couple of rounds and let the force weapons mop up the stragglers.

This might seriously be another one of those times that a big dumb blob of DC can be played for a change.....

I aways pay for the Cybork upgrade and assume others would as well, but if your opponent doesn't and you want to be true to C:SM and don't want to bring Vindicators, if all that is true, then twin linked heavy flamers may cause enough wounds if you can get close enough. They're pretty good at kill all non-bike Orks to boot.

The problem is sticking with pure C:SM.

Assuming THSS Termies can assault you, they get 3 attacks, hit half the time, wound 5/6, 5++ then FNP at 5+ means that each 40 pt Termie is inflicting 5/9ths of a wound on a 2 wound model. A BikerNob with banner gets 4 Str 4 attacks hitting on 3's on defensive after 3 Twinkinked Str 5 over watch assaults.

Yeah, Grey Knights force weapons scare my Bikes but I can't remember when I was charged by Grey Knights. Certainly sometime last summer when I was running Kan Wall.

P.S. I'd kill for a AV 13 front Str10 large pie plate lobber that ignores dangerous terrain tests sitting in cover. I'd take 3 in my Ork list if I could.

 RavenGuard55 wrote:
Awesome advice guys. Thanks all for the responses.


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I have a grey knight army in the works now with a BA/DC ally. The DC should be enought to tie him up for a couple of rounds and let the force weapons mop up the stragglers.

if the ork player is smart, he will loota/shoota down your DC (so keep them protected in a LR).. the only thing he will have to take down the LR will be the nob bikers/attached biker boss (so will draw them to the LR)... unless he's packing deffrollas.

Also, watch out for MANZ... Manz are a decent ork melee counter to DC. I usually bring 6 nob bikers and 6 manz so its a game of cat and mouse when I play BA... DC chase nob bikers around , and manz chase DC

skyfi wrote:

 RavenGuard55 wrote:
Awesome advice guys. Thanks all for the responses.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have a grey knight army in the works now with a BA/DC ally. The DC should be enought to tie him up for a couple of rounds and let the force weapons mop up the stragglers.

if the ork player is smart, he will loota/shoota down your DC (so keep them protected in a LR).. the only thing he will have to take down the LR will be the nob bikers/attached biker boss (so will draw them to the LR)... unless he's packing deffrollas.

Also, watch out for MANZ... Manz are a decent ork melee counter to DC. I usually bring 6 nob bikers and 6 manz so its a game of cat and mouse when I play BA... DC chase nob bikers around , and manz chase DC

I run 5 Manz with Cybork and Mad Doc Grotsnik. It'd be fun to Mathammer that matchup against various amounts of DC.

As a ork player with nob bikers, i hate heavy flamers, and things that ignore cover.

When playing against the nob bikers you need to have a plan.

They are a highly expensive unit that does most of its damage in close combat( they have good shooting but its secondary really). And they are most often a troop choice. This means two things, one they are likely to head forward to threaten you with their combat prowess, and they are most likely going to head for the most important objective areas.

In missions such as the scouring you can count on them heading for a 3 or 4 pt objective, likely in your zone, and in the Relic you can almost assume they are going to head for the relic. In most other missions you can ensure that they are going to come right at you.

In those missions where you can assume a head of time where they will be it gets easier. But in most cases you can brick up a bit as the marine player and try and dare the nob bikers to come for your whole army.

What kind of points levels are you playing? ALso what other things are in your army? Are you using allies or just want to have a vanilla army do it?

Some general things that hurt nob bikers are dreadnoughts(specifically ironclads, terminators, Lysander.

But the best way to use some of these things is in concert with either a group of marines or scouts. A dreadnought charging first can cancel out the overwatch from the unit, then a group of marines or scouts(even just 5) can be used to tie up most of the unit then a terminator charge on the flank. Challenge with the regular sergeant to either draw out his warboss or to probably survive against the painboy. If you do it right the 5 marines/or scouts will die. But the dreadnought and terminators/and or lysander should crush the nobs enough to force a fall back test(nobs arent often fearless and even if they are maxed you should be able to kill the 2-3 to make them both not fearless and have a low number to test on. And then the dreadnought or a surviving marine sergeant will sweep them.

I played a lot of Nob Bikerz this edition and you know what killed them faster than anything? Bolters. Especially sternguard wounding on 2+

Consider this, 8 melta wounds kill 1.5 Nobz (half make it through cover, maybe one or two get saved by FNP)

8 bolter wounds kill 1.5 Nobz (half make it through cover, maybe one or two get saved by FNP)

Snipers kill them quick too. Anything that ignores cover and is AP4 works good too.

If you throw Str 10 at them, you'll just be bounced by the Warboss inevitably leading the squad with his T6 soaking up the hits until your army is crushed.

Manticores, battlecannons, anything Grey Knights, Psyflemen, Despair Cryptek with Deathmarks, Mephiston, meltaguns, Sternguard, Heldrakes, Dreadknights, etc.

Tau Broadsides with HYM, Commander and Drones with some markerlight support to ignore cover.


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One squad of 3 wiped out 5 Bikers with 3 Cybork, Warboss with Cybork and all had FNP. It was rough, one 400 pt shooting unit wiped out close to 500 pts in a turn.

Poisoned weapons. I hate poisoned weapons. Also tar pitting or demolisher cannons.

As a Nob Biker user I'll say one thing that every one of my opponents does that always screws them over.

If at all possible don't put you damn units on the ground floor! Obviously doesn't apply to every unit but if you have a squad of heavy weapons who don't want to get into assault put them in a ruin on the first level. I've lost count of the amount of units I've destroyed because my opponent decided to leave that one guy on the ground floor just so it could get a better shot.

Take advantage of the fact that Bikers can't go up levels and force them to take dangerous terrain tests.

 Madcat87 wrote:
As a Nob Biker user I'll say one thing that every one of my opponents does that always screws them over.

If at all possible don't put you damn units on the ground floor! Obviously doesn't apply to every unit but if you have a squad of heavy weapons who don't want to get into assault put them in a ruin on the first level. I've lost count of the amount of units I've destroyed because my opponent decided to leave that one guy on the ground floor just so it could get a better shot.

Take advantage of the fact that Bikers can't go up levels and force them to take dangerous terrain tests.

yeah that was what i was worried about, tau (or whoever) hopping into 2nd/3rd levels of ruins where all the bikers can do is shoot them.

Martel732 wrote:
STR 10 is a rare commodity. Most lists are going to have to tarpit this (if they can) or using torrent of wounds. Tau, of course, can take away their cover, and shoot them with hails of AP 4 STR 7 missiles.

Unfortunately, the divination power that grants ignore cover is targeted on the libby and his squad. So you can't give vindis ignore cover.

Darkstrider + 3 pathfinders with ion rifles = 3 instant death no armor small blasts =D

As for shooting, multiple heldrakes do okay. Vindicators or manticores are amazing.
Sniping out the Painboy is your first priority. Snipers would do this well of course or character precision shots.

In CC I'd try power mauls. They're AP4 and +2 to strength. That toughness 6 biker boss is brutal.

 PipeAlley wrote:
I aways pay for the Cybork upgrade and assume others would as well, but if your opponent doesn't and you want to be true to C:SM and don't want to bring Vindicators, if all that is true, then twin linked heavy flamers may cause enough wounds if you can get close enough. They're pretty good at kill all non-bike Orks to boot.

The problem is sticking with pure C:SM.

Assuming THSS Termies can assault you, they get 3 attacks, hit half the time, wound 5/6, 5++ then FNP at 5+ means that each 40 pt Termie is inflicting 5/9ths of a wound on a 2 wound model. A BikerNob with banner gets 4 Str 4 attacks hitting on 3's on defensive after 3 Twinkinked Str 5 over watch assaults.

Yeah, Grey Knights force weapons scare my Bikes but I can't remember when I was charged by Grey Knights. Certainly sometime last summer when I was running Kan Wall.

P.S. I'd kill for a AV 13 front Str10 large pie plate lobber that ignores dangerous terrain tests sitting in cover. I'd take 3 in my Ork list if I could.

I don't have a problem at all fielding vindicators if they'll work.


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OrdoSean wrote:
What kind of points levels are you playing? ALso what other things are in your army? Are you using allies or just want to have a vanilla army do it?

Some general things that hurt nob bikers are dreadnoughts(specifically ironclads, terminators, Lysander.

We play either 1500 or 1750 points usually. I have no allies for my Raven Guard even though I am working on a DW army and a GK/DC army. I'd like to hand him his first loss at the hands of a vanilla marine army. I have lots of troops, no tanks...yet. I have tac marines with all heavy weapon options, 5 man stripped scouts, 10 man scout snipers, 2 dev squads all in all with 2 LC, 2 MM, and 4 PC, 2 squads of 10 man sternguard with 2 MG and 8 combi weapons and a MG and MM, 5 man vanguard, 10 man assault, 3 man space marine bikes, attack bike with MM, 3 man scout bikes, venerable dread with MM/CC weapons, chaplain dread (forgeworld) with LC/CC weapons, mortis contemptor (forgeworld) with 2 AC and CML, 2 land speeder tempests (forgeworld). That's about all I can remember at the moment. Was trying to stay more true to the Raven Guard fluff and not field tanks as they mostly just infiltrate in and take out the enemy. The vindicators seem like a must purchase for me now.

The ork player typically fields the nob bike squad with painboy and warboss, 3-5 deffkoptas, 3 or so killa kans, nobs in a fast transport (sorry don't know the name of the transport vehicle), and a couple of other minor units here and there depending on who he's playing in the group. That's been the main force of his army in every game. I've dropped the koptas easy enough and the cans are nothing a LC or MM can't take care of. It's just those damn bikes that are plaguing me.

I was thinking of adding 2 vindicators to the 4 PC devs and some sternguard with a counts-as Kantor. Drop the orbital bombardment on em with the vindicators' templates as well, the PC being only str7 will not insta-kill em but will ignore the armor and the FNP for at least a few wounds. Use snipers to drop the painboy. Then use hellfire ammo from sternguard to hopefully take down a few more. If there are any sternguard left after the bikes are gone, they can run to the closest objectives to grab it. I know his tactics and he relies very heavily on those bikes. If I can wipe em out then it'll cripple his entire plan and leave him open. What do you guys think?