Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey guys, so I recently agreed to buy 21 of the DV bikes off of a guy for a $100 (is this a good deal?) and have decided I'll be making an Ork Biker army with them. The guy who sold them to me got the idea that I can greenstuff the legs so they look more orky.

Anyways, I'll have 21 bikes that I can use for the making of my army. I've already decided I need a biker boss with a powerklaw and accessories, and that I need to convert a Wazdakka gutsmek, but what else would you recommend me to make with the remaining 19 bikes? I know biker nobs have been nerfed a bit, but they still seem like a pretty good "anvil" for my army. I was thinking maybe 5 or 6, with the obvious painboy, couple of klaws, and the rest with big choppas, etc.

That leaves me with roughly 12 bikes or so. Since I'll rarely have the points to run 18 nob bikers, I figured I'd try some regular warbiker squads. But I have no idea how to lay them out. Is it best to go for tiny squads, like 3 or 4 bikes apiece, with a nob with klaw? Or is it better to go for larger squads?

I was thinking either 4 squads of 3 each with a PK nob, 3 squads of 4 each with PK nob, or 2 squads of 6 with PK nob. I'll probably end up buying even more bikes down the line, but for now, I won't be playing many games over a 1,000pts or so, so I shouldn't need a ton of bikes.

Also, what units work well in support to a biker army? I was thinking of taking deff koptas, so I could outflank my biker warbosses with them, or maybe dakkajets. I also have a couple of landraiders I'm in the process of converting into battlewagons. Would they be a solid choice to back up bikers? I was thinking of taking a couple with 20 shoota boyz apiece. I may convert some lootas as well, but I'm not sure how well they'll do when the rest of my army is rushing across the board...

Any help would be appreciated guys, thanks!

I usually play a squad of 9 normal bikers and a bike warboss. This is my chocktroopers in a rather shooty ork army.
They allways preform well and never dissapoints me. Well, sometimes they do dissapoint me, when they get tankshocked and fail their pitty Ld test.
Either they draw alot of fire and die, letting my other units do their job. Or they crash straight into the opponents weakness.

I belive nob bikers is a very good choise now. They had some nerfs but also some buffs and I think in the end they became better.

Pro:
Toughness 5 vs instant death. Melta, lascannon and so on are less of a threat now.
Toughness 5 with the new FNP. Now they get an extra 5+ save vs melta and lascannons.
Hammer of wrath. Added punch when they assault. One auto hit str 4 attack. (Thats almost 2 extra normal attacks!)
Sniping. Every other shooting hit let them pick witch modle gets removed. Bye bye standardbearers, powerfists and speacial weapons.
A joining Warboss gives initiative 4 when falling back / sweeping.
Easier to hit tanks with their klaws.

Con:
No more wound spreading. Saves alot of work during the game. And saves some points, 20p?
Initiative 3 on the charge.
Only 5+ FNP save vs small arms. But usually thats not so dangerous anyway.

Good luck with your bike conversions, I really like the new models.

Vombat wrote:
Sniping. Every other shooting hit let them pick witch modle gets removed. Bye bye standardbearers, powerfists and speacial weapons.

Not anymore. Nob bikerz are no longer characters as per the new FAQ.

 Jidmah wrote:

Vombat wrote:
Sniping. Every other shooting hit let them pick witch modle gets removed. Bye bye standardbearers, powerfists and speacial weapons.

Not anymore. Nob bikerz are no longer characters as per the new FAQ.

well can't sniping still do this? now they just don't have LOS to mitagate this

Nobs only get precision strikes and precision shots if they are characters. So no sniping unless they are squad leaders.

They have lost character status which was why they had precision shots.

I would go pure warbikers if you bring wazdakka as it keeps points down. I would then load up on higher strength shooting. So koptas or jets are useful.
I have been tried using warbikers as troops for my gunline, this works very well, you can protect your gunline with an ADL or warbikers as cover, then the warbikers themselves bring cover with them. At the end of the day a gunline just needs to hit the parts they can not see, as such warbikers complete the package.

Yeah the whole reason I want a biker ork army is because my other army is foot guard. A slow, lumbering, sledgehammer type army. It also has about a 100-120 infantry on the table most of the time. Ork bikers though would be a small army I could throw in a shoe box and put in a backpack for days where I'm not sure I can play. So the more bikers the better.

At what point does it seem like too many bikers? I know they're quite expensive pts wise, but if I decide to use them as my main troop unit (With maybe a 20 strong shoota mob for support) how many bikes would you consider necessary in a 1,000 list?

Here's a sample list I had in mind, just to get you an idea of what I was thinking of running. This is just a little 1,000pt list I put together

I know it doesn't have a lot of long range antitank, but they can cross the board extremely quickly to kill tanks with their claws. Wazdakka has the S8 shots that can fire after turbo boosting still, which will let me easily get sideshots or try and clip a flier. All the twin linked dakka guns should be able to knock a hullpoint or 2 off of a flyer as well, and I can easily maneuver to get side or rear shots. I've got some cheap grotz for holding a home objective, and I've got a regular biker boss to help handle a scary CC unit.

My only concern is durability. I think I'll be ok if I hug cover, since I'll have a lot of T5 units with permanent smoke cover saves as well as a +4 armor. The only problem is that if I see S10, or lot's of small arms like mass lasguns or shootas, I may be in trouble. Any suggestions on how to fix this up?

Koptaz are fast attack, and fielding a single one doesn't do much anymore, besides giving your opponen first blood for free. For that reason, you should always reserve them.

If your goal is fielding nothing but bikes, you should consider one hammer unit (two once you increase in points) and fill up all other slots with smal versatile ones. Gretchin are pretty much unneeded in Wazzdakka armies, as even a single surviving warbiker can turbo-boost across half the board to capture an objective.

Something I'd suggest at that point level would be:
Wazzdakka Gutsmek (by himself) - he should be survivable enough on his own. If he is low on wounds, just join him to the closest unit.
Warboss + 8 Warbikers (Nob, BC, BP) - This is your hammer unit. Even shootaz or blobs will not be happy when taking 9 dakkaguns to the face, followed by 9 hammer of wrath attacks. Between the casualties caused up front, T5 and 4+ your should be able defeat them without too many losses. Due to the few points available I wouldn't give the nob a PK, as the unit already has a better one. Having someone smash a few more necrons or orks before they strike is also cute.
3x 3 Warbikers (Nob, PK, BP) - these units are for destroying vehicles, tactical squads or other units that really have no meaningful close combat abilities. When no such targets are available, stay 18" away from any possible enemies and shoot your dakkaguns.
2x Deff koptaz (rokkits) - outflank those, and use similar to your small biker squads. In addition to shooting vehicles, they are also great at tying up units. You can bail them out later with one of the small squads.

Only reason I was writing a list that was primarily bikes was because that's all I'll really have. I have roughly 40 boyz (20 of which will be chopped up to make bikerz) and a few nobz, deff koptas, a big mek, and a warboss. I've found some old toy cannons I can use for big guns, and am working on making some landraider battlewagons, but other than that, it's all I own. I can buy some stuff, but since I'm low on cash, it won't be much. I'm trying to make the most of what I have essentially.

I am all for other units in the army, I just wanted to have a strong core of it be bikers. Even just a unit of nob bikers and a couple of regular warbiker squads would be more than enough to make me happy. Almost everything in the Ork codex interests me, so I'm open to pretty much any advice on how to support them.

As for koptas, are they even any good at all? I mean, for the price of 3 I could either just get a battlewagon or a dakkajet, both of which are a lot more resilient and could do more damage. And they'd fit in with this list as well. I only threw deffkoptas in because I own them. If they're good though, awesome, as I'd like to be able to use them for something

If you have the option to get a dakkajet, by all means, get one. It outshines those koptaz heavily and fits well with the theme.

Another option would be converting those koptaz into buggies. Or do both - but 1000 sadly doesn't allow much freedom, if you still plan on winning objective games.

Ok cool. I've thought about getting a dakkajet, good to know it'll work for this style of army.

With those changes in mind, I think I may try a list of literally nothing but bikes and deffkoptas first, and then try more "balanced" lists once I have more cash to spread my army out. It also gives me some time to figure out what I lack for support, which will probably be lootas and dakkajets from the sound of it.

The cool thing about the all bikes list is that literally everything is twin linked, which means I've got a 33% chance with each shot to hit fliers on every unit in the list, even though I don't have anything with skyfire. I don't think bikers have enough firepower to provide true anti air, but surely they've got enough that if I was in an emergency I could focus the majority of my fire into them and kill it right? At the moment I've got 16 warbikes and 3 deff koptas. That should be enough to handle most fliers I would see at 1,000pts right?

Other than that though, there's not much I'm really sure I should be worried about with a biker army. Hordes and terminators maybe? I can't think of anything else that I would struggle with.

Yeah, from the little I know about bike armies, they're like other high-mobility armies like DE skimmers or drop pods. Either include roughly a maximum of one of them, or go ALL IN!!!

Two units of bikes running out in front of a bunch of boyz and lootas is a couple of dead bike squads (cf. this game). An entire army of bikes is OMG IT'S DA BIKEZ!

And Ork bikes (like SM bikes) are freaking sturdy. Nob bikers even more so!

I love my orky bikes, i does..

Yeah I was thinking to myself doing basic theory behind just how tough these bikes are, and it really impressed me. They're no termies, but they've always got that +4 cover save. So even if I take a demolisher cannon to the face, I'll only lose half the guys, and that's if he doesn't roll any 1's to wound. Plus, they can spread out so far it makes templates nearly useless on them. The key now is to just figure out the ratio of warbikers to nob bikers that I'll need, and what support units I'll need, as while bikers and deff koptas should be fine in low points games, once I get past 1,000pts or so they'll need some form of backup. Maybe some battlewagons with Meganobs?

I really can't wait to get this army up and running, I think it'll be a lot of fun and a bit of fresh air from running foot guard all the time. Plus, Wazdakka is one of the funniest ork characters ever

I've been working on a bike list after I wound up with 28 Deffkoptas that were almost screaming "convert me!"

My plans:

Wazdakka

2-4 Squads of 5 or 6 with the Nob (Power Klaw and Bosspole)(Included in Total) of Warbikers.

Using them carefully, they can butcher squads, then decide whether or not to charge.

Dakkajet or Burna Bommer (I'm going up against foot guard and Tau for my next games, so I'm anxious to try out the Burna Bommer.

Deffkoptas (Twin-Linked Big Shootas or Rokkits, either would work, depending on what you want).

Then, I plan to add a Biker Boss and maybe some Nob Bikerz (I just wish they were cheaper, as meganobz and Nobz in Boyz mobs are better deals).

Then, maybe some Trukk Boyz or Burna Wagons.

To be fair though, they can absolutely wreck just about any unit they meet if played right. They're fast, have good guns, and can mop up in assault. Even without the wound shenanigans, they're still great units. I'm planning on taking one squad at higher point totals to help deal with harder threats, although the majority of my army will be the cheaper warbikers.

I was just doing a little research. If the DA bikes wind up being too huge of a pain in the ass to loot (I've seen them, the bikes themselves are two-part models), you can pick up the bike chassis themselves for rather cheap. Usually it's the extra bitz that the bitz sites sell for nice margins, while chassis tend to get sold at a discount. It's true for Russes, and its true for bikes.

For example, at the war store, you can get a bike for $8. 20 Bike chassis, and two boxes of boyz costs only $220, and would probably be a fair bit easier to convert.

Twice as expensive, perhaps, but that's still a pretty cheap army, especially if you make more of them into nobz than you did in your original.

How on earth does two boxes of boys cost $220 dollars? That makes even Austrailian prices seem like a bargain

Thanks for showing the link though. I may use some of those bikes for nobz and bosses, as they are larger if I remember correctly, which would let them stand out from all the ravenwing bikes that the boyz would be riding.

My big theme is to run lots of the warbikers with just one or 2 nob biker units. I'd like to flood the table in bikes, as those armies always look awesome on the table. Plus, that much T5 with +4 cover saves is going to be tough to kill. I've seen nob bikers work well, but have learned by reading battlereports that they are a tool, not the main damage dealer of an army. They're like Leman Russes. They're devastating when used correctly, but require support from your infantry elements to truly shine.

I'd love to hit 30 or 40 bikes on the table at higher levels. Which I know sounds insane, but I've loved the idea of biker armies ever since I started 40k, and this has always been my dream project.

The $220 price was for the price of 20 bare bikes AND two boxes of boyz (to hack onto the bikes as riders). I've been doing more internet searching, and there's a guy on ebay who sells JUST the chassis (no guns or anything, just the two-part bike with handlebars and tailpipe (find your own front wheel) for the low, low price of $2. With a lot of work (mostly finding ways to make front wheels), you could have a 20-bike army for as low as $80.

Not too shabby. I might almost want to try it out for this reason alone. Any army where the cost of the codex nearly outstrips the cost of the army might be worth a try for that reason alone...

Nob bikers are damn good. theyve always made thier points back for me, although I havnt played them without the LOS yet.

A thing to remember about reg bikes is that they are in the end just boyz, so dont go around assaulting everything as it has the shoota boy statline and you wont have as many as a normal ork list. THey are best used running around laying the dakka down on everything.

 Ailaros wrote:
The $220 price was for the price of 20 bare bikes AND two boxes of boyz (to hack onto the bikes as riders). I've been doing more internet searching, and there's a guy on ebay who sells JUST the chassis (no guns or anything, just the two-part bike with handlebars and tailpipe (find your own front wheel) for the low, low price of $2. With a lot of work (mostly finding ways to make front wheels), you could have a 20-bike army for as low as $80.

Not too shabby. I might almost want to try it out for this reason alone. Any army where the cost of the codex nearly outstrips the cost of the army might be worth a try for that reason alone...

Well, I feel really stupid buying 21 DV bikes now...

EDIT: After looking at it a bit more though, you would still need handlebars and whatnot, but that's still an awesome deal. I'll probably get a few of those for my nobs. wheels probably wouldn't be too hard to get, and guns can be the 5,000 heavy bolters I have laying around

Then I can just buy a nob box and have a nob biker squad ready to go!

Well, I don't know if they would be much less of a hassle, though. You've got to come up with the front wheel, the handlebar (depending), the guns, and a few other fiddly bitz on your own. I don't know if that would be that much easier than trying to loot DV bikes.

Worst case, you still have DV bikes. If you don't want to use them (either for orks, or to start a DA army at some point), then just hold onto them for a little while and sell them at a profit later. $5 per bike is a pretty good deal for a bike (compared to the $15 from GW fresh out of the box), and you just KNOW that there's going to be an explosion in ravenwing players once the new DA codex comes out. Even if you can only get $10 a bike for them in the future, you just turned $100 into $200 with pretty minimal effort on your part.

Also, I know the list you put up, but I'm kind of curious what the netlist version of an all-bike ork army looks like.

No idea about a biker "net list". I don't think one really exists. Most people can't afford warbikers to the extent that we're talking about fielding. Most just field biker nobz and call it a day.

To be fair, an army that mainly consists of bikes probably isn't the strongest in the world, but it's gotta be a blast to play.

They are freaking expensive It took me a long time to get all of mine, and many were second hand.

I have 68 bikers including wazdakka and a bikerboss, but 36 of those are the oldschool bikes from ages past, and wazdakka is a convered as hell deffkopta

 Ascalam wrote:
They are freaking expensive It took me a long time to get all of mine, and many were second hand.

I have 68 bikers including wazdakka and a bikerboss, but 36 of those are the oldschool bikes from ages past, and wazdakka is a convered as hell deffkopta

Holy crap man, that must be one heck of an army to see in apocalypse games.

Any advice for us clueless IG players on how to play these biker armies?

MrMoustaffa wrote:Any advice for us clueless IG players on how to play these biker armies?

Yeah. Guard bikes are more like:



and less like

Guardsmen need bikes, because I want a paper cutter not a death star . I love that picture of the guardsmen.

Yeah looking at Ork bike swarms myself.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The "standard" here now is 1850 points. Building off those single units I'm looking at around 480 bucks.

Not terrible for 51 bikers

Holy crap, how are you fitting in 51 bikers at 1,850? Are you literally taking nothing but bikes? This was my 1,850 I was thinking about going towards, and it only has 36 if you count wazdakka and the biker boss.

You could roll:

Wazdakka

10 bikes
10 bikes
10 bikes
10 bikes
10 bikes
10 bikes
(troops from waz)

for 61 including waz at 1680

Then upgrade to nobz , and buy a few PK's and BC's to take it up to 1850. You don't need a second HQ if you don't want, as he makes warbikers troops, not just one unit.

Not a very effective army, but a very biker one..


Mine roll more like:

Waz
Bikerboss w/pk

T: 10 bikes (join wb)
T: 10 bikes: join Waz
T: nob bikers (i usually run in 7's)
T bikers or E Nob bikers

continue until points run out. Support with buggies or dakkajets.

And yes, it looks awesome on the field. Mine would look even better if i could get them all painted

I'd also like to point out that orks fit nicely on chaos bikes, if you're looking for some more differentiation.