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Im fishing for more opinions on these bikers I have laying around!... Im scouring all over the internet on how to run them, and a biker command deathstar has peaked my interest. Now with 10 bikes+1 for my captain, is this a plausible approach to using a good chunk of these bikes? From what Ive read, the most popular ways of running them is plas spam or CC monster (stormshields/claws/powerweapons+ FNP etc), or just use them as troop choices. Unfortunately the plas spam is a bit out of the question as I dont have that many PG's at my disposal... unless I convert the bolters somehow using extra PlasPistols.
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So, oh mighty and knowledgeable dakka'ites, whats your brain say? I could stick with the captain rolling with 2 squads of bikers that will be troops (i do have extra bits to make two of them attack bikes), or go all in and make a deathstar with half the squad and I guess use the other 5 for.... troops? Not sure if I mentioned earlier, Im not looking to enter any tournaments but Id like to not get destroyed by my friends every game! Thanks yall!

Generally speaking, running bikes as troops normally means 6 bikes, one as attack bike, with 2 special weapons, normally melta guns, multi-melta and then maybe power fist on the sarge. I haven't found any other way to run the troops that works.

For command squads, simply giving them bikes and 4 plasma guns tends to work very well, however if you want a melee option then bikes plus champion and 3 lightning claws runs the same price, however you can run the command squad as a pure deathstar if you use 8 lightning claws and 4 storm shields, give everyone melta bombs and attach a biker captain with relic blade.

Just put whatever your army needs in.

You can make a pretty decent assault unit out of a command squad on bikes, but they're pricey and somewhat fragile. I wouldn't call them a "death star" in the sense that a 5 thunderwolves and 3 thunderwolf lords in the same unit are a death star. As long as you have realistic expectations about what that unit can and cannot accomplish they're fine. Your real strength as a bike army player is the flexability that your mobility gives you. When it comes to shooting or assaulting you're never going to be quite the strongest.

If you're willing to spend 415 points on five guys, you can have a champion with a power weapon, plasma pistol, thunder hammer, and combat shield, three guys with a single lightning claw, storm shield, melta bombs, and a plasma gun, and your Apothecary. Add Khan to get Furious Charge and Hit and Run for the squad, then go to town shooting up and assaulting almost any other unit in the game.

It's pretty brutal when it works, but each casualty is a heavy loss in points and combat effectiveness. I wouldn't suggest running this in any low-point game, it's simply too many eggs in one basket.

I found that the bike command squad works pretty good in CC with Khan. I run mine with 4 Lightning Claws and 4 stormshields and melta bombs if I have the points. The squad is 325 points, 345 with MB. It chews up almost anything that doesnt have a high invul. With Khan's outflank and ability to run you have 18-24" assault range. With the Hq you're at about 500 points which is a fair amount of points for only 6 men. If you can back them up with supporting units it can be a very effective unit.