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My first bike list. Thought I'd give this a go. If it seems a good one I may have to collect the bits I don't have.


Captain
Bike, Relic blade. 175pts

Command Squad
Bikes, 4X plasma gun. 265pts.

Master of the Forge.
Bike, Conversion beamer. 155pts.

Bike squad
5 man. Plasma gun, meltagun. Sgt w/ powerfist. Attack bike with multi-melta. 240pts.

Bike squad.
5 man. Plasma gun, meltagun. Sgt w/ powerfist. 190pts

Tactical squad.
10 man. Plasma gun, missile launcher. Rhino with extra armour. 230pts

Scout squad.
10 man. Telion. Missile launcher. 200pts.

Vindicator.
extra armour. 130pts.

Vindicator.
Extra armour. 130pts.

Predator.
Autocannon and heavy bolters. 85pts

Terminator Squad.
5 man. 200pts.

2K total.

Thoughts and opinions please.

A couple of things. Pure bikes are the best for competitive play but hybrids can be fun to. If you want to still run hybrid bikers but tweek it a bit and drop stuff that doesn't mesh well with the speed of bikes. Bikes squads do anti-hoard and anti-tank very well because of twin-linked bolters and the ability to put 2 meltas and a multi-melta in every squad on a relentless platform that can move 12 and fire. What they don't do well is CC and they drop fast if focused on since they are only a bit more durable than regular marines but usually out in the open and never protected in a transport.

Combat tactics help but your relying on loosing combat to use it so its best to either win CC or prevent it from happening. Full bike list get around this with dual command squads who will eat most anything in the game alive in CC and draw lots of firepower that they can take due to storm shields mixed with feel no pain. Bike hybrid can do this too with long range shooting to pop transports and light tanks from afar which strands parts of your enemies army and makes it easier for your bikes to apply thier mobility and softening up nasty CC units who will really put the hurt on your bikers.

To that end drop units that will not help with this.

The captain is necessary to make bikes scoring but the powerfist is a total waste of his awesome initiative. The relic blade is a much better choice as you will still wound most anything on a 2+ but will often times go first or simultaneously with most things in the game and that makes all the difference. I like artificer armor too since a 2+ save with a 4+ invul T5 and 3 wounds makes him very survivable and you can take a lot of wounds on him to keep the rest of the squad you attach him to alive.

The command squad is very expensive and for them i say go big or go home. Take two and kit them for CC and run an all bike army or take none because they are only slightly more durable than regular bikes without upgrades and one of anything in 40k is easily dealt with. Redundancy is important in any list you make.

The master of the forge actually can make a good compliment for hybrid bikes with his big honking gun that gets better the farther you are away and ability to repair damage results on your long range tanks and his ability to unlock extra dreadnoughts makes him a nice choice for a second HQ. He can run around in your back field either taking shots at big nasty things like land raiders or keeping your tanks in working order.

Drop all other troops. Bikers are excellent scoring units on their own and taking space marines or scouts only limits how many bikes you can take while adding nothing to the list. Why pay through the nose to run bikes as troops if you have space marines?

On the bikes them selves take melta and multi-meltas. You already do anti-hoard with your bolters and are one of the best platforms for anti tank in the game with your huge melta threat range. Plasma is overcosted and under powered take out elite infantry with more reasonably priced long range shooting or run dual command squads and take them out in close combat. If you are running bike hybrid powerfists can make sense since they will have nothing else to save them if they get caught by something nasty. Ill tell you this though from experience. When my normal bike squads get caught in CC with something nasty they often get wiped out in one turn and a power fist wouldn't have saved them. Use your mobility to avoid combat, relentless means you can shoot a twin linked shot from 24 inches away. The powerfist will make CC against non-CC units much faster since I can also say from experience that it is no fun getting stuck in CC round after round with a guard blob that can't kill you. Seriously though against heavy mech combat squaded units of bikers are a nightmare since you turboboost only inches away on turn one gaining a 3+ cover and the very next turn you can kill as many tanks as you have bike squads. My record so far is 8 destroyed tanks in one round... Bikes are awesome!

The vindicator can actually work with bikes. I normally hate them because you have to screen them so they don't instantly die but the biker 3+ turbo boost means you can give your vindicator a cover save as it moves up then pop transports with your melta and let the vindi smash what comes out. It will also help soften up elite CC units and its such a fire magnet that your opponent will think twice about firing at your biker troops early in the game.

As far as what other units work well with bikes... You already named one the dakka pred saves you alot of points and puts out alot of shots which will help even the odds for you. The land speeder tyhpoon can do the same but trades armor for mobilty and the dreadnought with 2 autocannon arms can put out silly amounts of str 7 shots. Those three units should be the back bone of your fire support should you run bike hybrid and the master of the forge meshes well with them especially since it allows you to take extra rifle man dreads and can keep your back field running smooth. With tons of firepower from armored targets and super fast durable scoring units your opponents have a tough choice to make. Focus on the bikes early to get rid of your scoring units and protect their heavy armor and elite infantry and loose all their light armor and scoring units from your fire base or go for your tanks and definitely loose an objectives game and any highly armored targets they may have.

Whatever you do have fun. Biker marines are the in my highly biased opinion the most fun you'll have playing marines.

Thing is I took the tactical squad to sit in cover on my home objective. Same with the scout squad.

So I shold kit out the Command squad for cc instead of quad plasma. Or should I take it out entirely?

Captain I will edit so that he's got a relic blade.

When i play my bike list i put my objectives out in the open 18 inches apart for two reasons. First in later turns I can send a couple of squads to turbo boost back giving them a 3+ cover and if the game keeps going I simply turbo boost back and forth (one model need to move 18 inches away from where it started) getting a constant 3+ cover in the middle of no terrain which combined with T5 is pretty awesome. Just make sure to take out his long range shooting early on as much as possible this should be easy as bikes excel at taking out backfield units like that because of their speed. Keep him on his side of the board as long as possible and use your 24 inch move to get back on points and he may not even have enough time to even try and contest.

The other reason why I do this is if your opponent wants to take/contest the points you place they have to sit on them out in the open with no cover which makes them easy prey for your bikes since they struggle with units in cover because all difficult is dangerous for them. So instead of trying to go to them force them to come to you and put your points out in the open.

Played smartly bikes can handle scoring late game just fine and don't need pointless units like space marines or scouts to score for them so taking them just means you have less bikes. Captains usually are not good HQ's for space marines anyway so being forced to take one means you are paying a "bike tax" to take them as troops. If you have to have a captain anyway I say take as many bikes as possible. At least three full squads that you can combat squad into six scoring units minimum.

The way I kit out my command squads is as follows. 3 melta guns, 3 lightning claws, 4 storm shields and one thunder hammer (or power fist if points are tight). Depending on the points value of the game I will throw on melta bombs on a guy and maybe take a chapter banner (mainly because I made the model and I like to use it). Unfortunately you can't upgrade the apothecary or the company champion so i never take that upgrade. With feel no pain from the apothecary, storm shields, T5 and a captain joined up that has artificer armor and a relic blade two of these units will burn a hole in to your enemy fast and are the ultimate fire magnets. People who focus on them will loose because they can take silly amounts of fire power and by the time they finaly kill them off (they usually will) you have six fairly intact scoring units that can zip around contesting/taking points (or if its kill points you will probably be a head by the end so just run away).

If you are not going full bikes with dual command squads I would replace the same amount of points you spent on command squads with dakka preds, rifleman dreads and if points allow land speeder typhoons to accomplish the same thing as the command squads do. To be a fire magnet, pop transports and soften up CC units and generally be as big of a pain as possible.

wow crom you write alot.

Well its not enough to just post a list or a unit and be done with it. I think if you are going to suggest a unit/play style you should explain why. I generally don't post unless I think I can help out. Sorry for all the words

It's ok. I'm glad for all the words. It means your giving me more advice. Thing is, this list isn't hypothetical. I plan to make it. Meaning I need money. Now atm I have about half of that.

So your giving me advice to play bikes (which I thank you for.) But I'd like advice on what to change on the list.

So essentailly remove the tacticals and scouts for more bikes. And replace the Command squad for a dread?
Would this list work well as it is?

Is it based on a fluffy list?

Why do you ask? Or what gave you that idea? (just curious)

No it is not.

Nearly all SM 6th companies can be run on bikes so all bike/hybrid bike lists are fluffy and you don't have to play white scars/dark angles. But yeah I hear you on the money thing. Im not going to lie i spent a whole lot on the command squads and did a lot of bit trading to put it all together. If you want to do bike hybrid than yes by all means drop the the command squads and superfluous troops.

Also the the fire support elements I suggest to replace the command squads with can be placed into any hybrid mech/full mech army.

Dakka preds, Rifleman dreads and land speeder typhoons will add tons of cheap firepower to any list so if you get them you can place them in any SM list you field not just the bike list. I personally use 2-3 dakka preds, 2-3 rifleman dreads and between 2-6 land speeder typhoons in nearly every mech list I run. They are all cheap they all put out alot of shots they all will wound/penetrate just about anything in the game short of a land raider and all are highly mobile. Its a lot easier to run more "fun" units if you have a solid fire base from those three units plus nearly every marine chapter gets access to them and if you use magnets you can change their load outs to meet your needs. All are highly flexible depending on your army.

Dude. I own a battle company and a half. I agree that dakka preds are very good.

And by hybrid I meant Hybrid bikes and foot. not bikes and mech.

Bikes are a type of infantry. Its not much of a hybrid if you mix your infantry with faster infantry. Play test away but in my experience bikes and other guys on foot don't mesh well. I think bikes have scoring more than covered so more troops will not make up for their short falls.

Going back to the purpose of this thread and not the usefulness of bikes. What will this list do badly against? Or what is this list weak at?

Overall, I think the list would well against most all-comers lists. It doesn't mean you'll win every game, but expect each game to come to a close outcome.

What I think you'll have trouble with is an IG mech or infantry spam type list. You've invested in a lot points into upgrades, and eventually they will work against you. You also don't have any Template (Teardrop shaped) weapons. That said, an Ork army with KFF Mech's would be a hard list to face against, since you have no weapons that ignore cover saves.

Those are just a few contingent army lists that you might want to keep in mind. Otherwise, the list isn't that bad.

Your original list isn't very focused so a couple of lists should throw a monkey wrench in your plans. You have nothing to take care of death stars except for vindicators which are easily avoided but you have two of them so you have a chance if you play well and your opponent can't deal with them effectivly. You have very little in the way of combating MC heavy lists since you have roughly 2 and half units that can take MC's out the command squad and the dakka pred can both put wounds on MC's and the scouts will do a wound every once in a while. Again 2+ anti MC units means if you play well and protect your anti-MC assets you can win. The big problem your going to run into with this list is a sever lack of anti-tank which is a problem because Heavy mech is the most common form of power list your main anti-tank is sitting on two very flimsy troops so mech guard and mech marines will be able to deal with you quite easily barring above average dice or a huge discrepancy in generalship. I think my suggestions fixes this (though MC heavy lists are still a problem i think for all bike lists but much less common than mech heavy) but as it stands your list lacks focus and mixes too many themes at the same time. You have several obvious threats in your list that competent opponents will try to deal with early and put you in an uphill battle.