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I just read the tactica on Warbikes, which rated them as poor. I had the idea to do a fully warbike army with just the minimum troops choice, maybe a battlewagon and some Kans. Is this viable? I'm not looking for super competitive play but I would like to have something that can hold it down and win.

Warbiker orks are okay when taken with Wazdakka, as he makes them troop options.

What makes ork bikers weak are their relatively high point value in models for just a faster ork with shotgun like big shootas. That is not to say they are bad, but numbers for a biker army are a premium.

Hell, a nob biker army is just 22 models (2 ork warbosses on bikes, 10 man nob biker squads). If your up against a horde army or lots of Str8 shooting, this army gets blown to smithereens real fast.

You probably are best making the ork bikers a delivery system for a nob with powerklaw. Build around the idea of getting that nob in a boy biker squad at an enemy.

Warbikes were buffed up in the somewhat recent FAQ:

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1810080_Orks_FAQ_2007_5th_Edition.pdf

What about two big squads of 10 warbikers rolling up being a meat-shield for a strong force of nob bikers and 2 hqs on bikes with maybe some kans or battlewagons / looted tanks? is this viable? I need to go buy the codex still but that is my master plan.

Never, EVER, plan an army before you own the codex. Thats just not smart to do. Like pretty uch everything in the Ork dex, if you go one route, go crazy on it and youll do fine. So go with as many bikes as you can. They are a little pricey, but they all have 4+ cover saves do to their exhaust cloud rule. So they are pretty good, so go en mass and you should have little problems with most armies. Granted there will be lists and scenarios and such that just do NOT flatter your army, and youll take it in the rear, but thats the same for really any list.

Yes KingCracker... I realize. Which is why I don't own any orks at all. Infact, this concept is in the planning stages before I EVEN WASTED THE MONEY ON A CODEX! This is the planning stage before the planning stage. At this point I'm asking people who have experienced the Ork Warbike and know if its either viable or not to take bikes en masse.

Well en mass yea its viable. I wouldnt think it would be crush people at a tourny worthy, but it would be pretty strong against normal people that arny all about killing everyone they play. They move 12 inches, all get a 4+ cover save in the open(so half the shots on average will just be ignored, how nice is that), and the dakka cannons on them are pretty decent for shooting. Not to mention if you DONT get the assault with them, your doing it wrong. Id say if your a casual gamer that plays in a group and you play to enjoy the game, then that would be a cool army to see and play. But it will most likely be scoffed at if you play against a player that is good in tournies.

Also welcome to the Horde, if you ever get into it lol. Also to add, in a bike list why would you bring killa kans? They would be incredibly slow, and either lag WAY behind, or just block the route your bikes need to go. Id say instead of them, take a BW or 2 and load them with burna boyz, or one of my favorites, Flash Gitz. Now watch everyone tell me how stupid and lame the Flash Gitz are

Say that all you want guys, but 10 flash gitz in a BW regularly murders MEQs for me, so eat that

Well it seems like an awful waste to have that big of a moving 4+ cover save if theres nothing behind it to veil. I was thinking people would be so worried with the bikes I could hide an elephant behind, and if the bikes didn't work, I could just hit them hard with the things they put off till later to deal with.

I see your point a bit. And it could work. But the problem is, ALOT of armies can DS or drop pod in behind. Imagine a Carnifex plopping in behind your bikes, and all that is there to chew on is a squadron of kans? That could SUCK for you

But you seem to want to go with a speed freaks style army, so why not just go full tilt on it? Bikes, trukks, BW.

Wazdakka + Warboss= 1 group of nob bikers and up to 5 groups of warbikes can be troops. That's the bulk of an army, or the entirety of an army if one wishes as 5 squads of 12 ork warbikers will run 1500 points +nobz. A 2,500 point army can be nothing but wazdakka, a warboss, a scoring unit nob bikers, and scoring unit warbikers.

I've never seen it done, but would like to see it in action. The thing is really good players are really f'n dangerous with fast moving armies when they know how to use them.

Personally I think an all biker army would work really well, but I would also toss in deffkotpas. The big weakness of an all biker army is it has no deffrollas, and without deffkoptas they also don't have enough rokkits. Deffkoptas are fast enough to keep up with the bikes, and TL rokkit deffkoptas can use warbikes as a screen for a 4+ cover save.

that sounds like a good strategy, schadnfreude. It also fits with the fluff. Any other units that make sense to take with this set up?

Well if your going to go for a screen (meaning your BEHIND the bikers) then instead of koptas, take rokkit buggies. They are fast, and have TL rokkits for 35 pts each, they also squadron up. You can have 3 squadrons (so 9 total) for 315pts (alot cheaper then koptas mind you) those things will just murder transports and MCs. And they can shoot enough to make it a decent chance to do something to a LR if need be.

Another idea would be to take kommandos with Snikrot. His Ambush ability allows his unit to come in on any table edge of your choosing. You could pop in turn 2 behind your enemies tanks or dev squads and take them out in a snap. That would go along with a super fast army build as well

KingCracker wrote:Well if your going to go for a screen (meaning your BEHIND the bikers) then instead of koptas, take rokkit buggies. They are fast, and have TL rokkits for 35 pts each, they also squadron up. You can have 3 squadrons (so 9 total) for 315pts (alot cheaper then koptas mind you) those things will just murder transports and MCs. And they can shoot enough to make it a decent chance to do something to a LR if need be.

Another idea would be to take kommandos with Snikrot. His Ambush ability allows his unit to come in on any table edge of your choosing. You could pop in turn 2 behind your enemies tanks or dev squads and take them out in a snap. That would go along with a super fast army build as well

I think koptas might be slightly better based only off the idea of target saturation. When the entire army is T5 with a 4+ cover save then 2 wound T5 kopptas with a 4+ cover save from a screen would create a lot of T5 target saturation while buggies would add AV10 open topped with a 4+ cover save which would stick out like a sore thumb.

Snikrot would work well with the army.

Boss Zagstruk would also fit in, but he is far more chaotic than snikrot. I've seen him used to good effect when the ork player declares his Waaagh on the turn Zag deepstrikes.

I just went out and got the codex.. this is how I would probably run it:

Wazdakka Gutsmek - 180


Warboss - 125
w/ warbike(40), attack squig(15), 'eavy armor(5), big choppa(5).

ELITE

NobBikers (should I do a few with power klaws to pop tanks?)


TROOP

Warbikers (7x) -210
w/ nob(10), power klaw(25)

Warbikers (7x) -210
w/ nob(10), power klaw(25)

Warbikers (7x) -210
w/ nob(10), power klaw(25)


FAST ATTACK

Deffkoptas (x3) - 135
w/ twinlinked rockkit launchas (30)

Deffkoptas (x3) - 135
w/ twinlinked rockkit launchas (30)

That comes out to 1205, without nob bikers.. I could throw in another deffkopta squad, and max out all the bike squads to 12 to reach 1500 I bet. Maybe a little boring because of the few number of different units, but it would be a scary thing to go up against.

If I were you I'd Klaw up the Warboss. 6 S10 power weapon attacks at 18" assault range is epically scary.

Klaws are absolutely excellent in nob units. Remember to add all sorts of random addons to different models to maximize the possibility for wound shenanigans.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, I'd recommend taking this list to the 40K Army List and 40K Tactics forums. You will find suggestions aplenty.