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.

So for some reason recently I've been really interested in building an all bike white scars army. I have no idea why. I know that they aren't ranked among the competitive armies out there, but I want to build a list anywhere between 1500-2000 pts where I'll have a fighting chance on the table. The only requirement is that everything is on a bike.


Any recommendations for tactics? Should I take a captain or Khan as an HQ? I'm assuming that everything else is a bike squad or attack bike squad? How about a command squad on bikes?

Basic Captain. Just deploy everything. The whole force on the table (vs some outflanking) means that you play games on the enemy by making them decide where to take their shots and probably waste them because of Toughness 5.

Captain with Relic Blade
Libby with Null Zone + whatever
Command Squad with max Plasmaguns on bikes
max bikes w/ plasma gun x2, attack bike (x4 units)
Stormtalons with their unique missiles

pewpew and fall back when required to avoid Swarmlords and what not after being shot up

Fun stuff.

I have used both khan and a captain on bike and I have had better luck with the captain. I give my captain a relic blade, artificer armour, a storm shield and hellfire rounds and he comes to the same price as khan and is slightly better in my opinion. I'm currently working on a command squad for him which will run interference for my other bike squads which have 2 plasmas and a mm attack bike each. Some people go for melta guns over plasma but I think it puts your bikes too close to the enemy. Maybe run 1 squad with meltas to go tank hunting if you want (or have a squad of mm attack bikes to do this).

I've recently started doing exactly this, though I'm being a little more flexible and also taking scouts and landspeeders... My first bike squad is almost ready - I have another 10 bikes and 2 landspeeders to build and paint to have my basic 1000 point force ready though i've played a few small-scale test games already.

The strengths of a bike force are exceptional mobility, decent survivability on a per-model basis, and good firepower. You should have enough speed to control the battle, forcing your opponent to react to you, rather than the other way around.

On the down side you have very little redundancy - a few more casualties than usual will severely deplete your low model count. Other fast armies could give you a hard time as one of your main advantages is gone. Also watch out for buildings - you can't assault anything above the ground floor, or take objectives there either! (unless you use scouts)

I haven't tried Khan yet, but the use of combat tactics on bikes (which Khan replaces with Outflanking) is awesome. Bikes also got a serious boost in 6th edition, with armour saves against dangerous terrain tests, Jink, Hammer of Wrath, base T5 for multi-wound models, and even the ability to turbo-boost after other friendly models have fired...

If you're going all bike you have the following options:

- Characters on a bike (captain is vital, add others to taste but a librarian seems like a decent idea)
- Techmarine on a bike (not a lot of use without a TFC or servitors as far as I can tell)
- Command squad on bikes (outfit for shooting or close combat, apothecary makes these guys tough but expensive)
- Bike squads (unsurprisingly)
- Attack bikes (tank-killers)
- Scout bikes (fragile, maybe useful in small squads for AGLs and mines)

Other units that I think do work with White Scars would be:

- Land speeders (more fragile in 6th edition but with better firepower, also fit very nicely with the chapter's background)
- Scouts (good for objective-taking and harrassing fire with sniper rifles)
- Land speeder storm (not sure about this one)
- Storm Talon (useful but hideous, I'm personally steering clear)

^This

I also use a scout squad with snipers and a missile launcher to hold a home objective and I have a tactical squad in a rhino to capture objectives that bikes cannot reach/help the scouts if the bikes will be ok on their own. I have an anti infantry land speeders (HB/AC) which helps against hoards and a lascannon predator for anti tank support. Everything else is bikes with plasma guns and MM attack bikes.

Any consideration for the Master of the Forge on a bike? When I was thinking of running these fellows, I thought that a bike mounted MOTF would ba a good way of keeping him far away and blasting with the high strength Conversion Bearer.

P.S. I wish Blood Angels could have Bike Troops...as it is, I am leaning towards having Blood Angel Allies as the primary CC Bike Squad with a Bike Mounted Sang Priest.

As long as this fits your fluff, you could use a full bike White Scar army, then just use the two allied Blood Angels Troops be the objective grabbers. (2 Combat Squadable assault squads possibly?)

MotF could be good, however to get full effect of the conversion beamer any escort he has will be out of range of their own weapons, therefore either wasting their firepower, or leaving your character vulnerable if he's on his own.

I've considered taking a Blood angels allied force, just painted as White Scars of another company. This gives you assault marines as troops (still feels OK for White Scars) and also provides fast tanks which they are meant to field. Something like:

- Librarian on bike
- 10 man assault squad
- Fast vindicator

As long as it's clear to your opponent which are standard SM and which are allied BA, you can still paint them as White Scars and just use the BA dex.

Something to consider is numbers. Bikes are semi-expensive and thus your army can become very small very fast, and this is especially concerning regarding scoring units. A good compromise is to ally in some Guard just to get some numbers up. It is fluffy still always as Jaghatai Khan led a combined White Scars/Imperial Guard defence at the Siege of Terra in the Heresy.

Listen to hedgehog, he is a wise man.

would just like to emphasize something though, if you're using your bike command squad as a big ing hammer, which can be done, then apothecaries will be a huge boon.

Other than that, hedge said everything that I can think to say, so I'll go lurk elsewhere, just wanted to second the man so that you know to follow his advice.

Thanks

Bear in mind though that I'm just starting on this myself - so far I've played only 5 games, all combat patrols, so my experience is extremely limited!

I have a 1500 point bike army that I've run a few times. Here are a few things I have learned so far.

They are really fun but are less forgiving of tactical mistakes than a regular marine list. Due to the higher price of bikes you have less models so each one that dies hurts more.

A command squad with plasma guns is a very nice unit but I'm wondering if their points could be better spent elsewhere.

Plasma guns are great in bike troops.

I run my squads with mm attack bikes and I also bring a squad of 3 attack bikes with heavy bolters. Some people disagree with putting the melta attack bikes in the troop squads but it allows me to engage multiple armor units per turn while I have the heavy bolter attack bikes focus on any assault troops that are getting too close to my units.

I also run a storm talon in my list as antiair. Haven't faced any fliers yet and the talon has had mixed results on ground troops. I might replace it with some landspeeders.

Honestly the all bike list is gonna be very difficult to pull off. Bikes need the support units such as speeders, talons and scouts to fill gaps in the lines. Grab some scouts to help with back field objective capturing. Use the speeders and talons to take out threats form afar while your bikes attempt to get into range for their heavy weapons. Limiting yourself to merely bikes will build an army that is extremely tactically limited. As per White Scars fluff these all fit in very well. Scars fluff strictly dictates that units must use a transport when going into combat. Only units I keep off limits in my lists are devastators, dreadnoughts, land raiders and razorbacks (the last two are a personal choice)