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I have a box of 40k ork bikers and I don't know what to make them in to. Nobs or normal warbikers. Any tactics or suggestions for either would help. Thanks

Nob Bikers kick in tons of teef just like last edition. They're a little bit more tame now, but now that they have T5 all the time and FNP pretty much all the time I think I like them more. Make sure you always have a painboy, a WAAAAAGH banna, and a couple of PK's, and then build the rest to taste. Any more than 5 nobs per squad though starts to get into overkill territory. Make sure to take a bikerboss so you can make those bad boys scoring.

As for warbikers, they're a bit cheaper, and make great troops. Being quick, T5 with a permanent +4 cover (and a +4 armor save) with a twin linked dakkagun is pretty good, and they can kill pretty much anything AV11 and under and any mid to high toughness target quickly. They're essentially a Slugga 'Ard boy who is twice as fast and has a twin linked big shoota. Always make sure to give them a biker nob so they have some teeth once they get stuck in and so they have a way of tossing the occassional land raider into the sun.

Both are great units and you can't go wrong with either from what I've seen. They're a bit different, but with a bit of practice are very much worth it.

Would you recommend getting more than 3? I have read in other forums that they are a lot better with more of them

Deadly Hinch wrote:
Would you recommend getting more than 3? I have read in other forums that they are a lot better with more of them

More than 3 nob bikers? absolutely. From what I've seen 5 is minimum, and about perfect for most people. Up to 7 wouldn't be too crazy though I think.

For regular Ork bikers, 6-8 (with Nob to lead them) is usually the best range. Anything less and they dont pack enough punch to do anything. Anything more and they get expensive, difficult to maneuver and manage.

If your talking about normal bikers then definently. Maxxed out units if possible. If you take to few of them, they will run away too easily.

For normal Warbikers... I'd say go for 8 at *least* if you want to get the benefit of Mob Rule. Past that, try to balance out their effectiveness for their price.

As for Nob Bikers, I've generally stuck to running 6 (2 PK's, 3 BC's, 1 PB). Warboss not required.

I'd agree that Nob Bikers generally work best between 5 and 7. Over that, and they start to get overly expensive.

Im REALLY thinking of building a nice NobBiker unit to compliment my current super fast builds that Ive been doing. They can act wrecking ball to the rest of my army, hiding safely behind buggies

I've personally had the opposite reaction to bike boyz. They cost to much for what you get, and they are very difficult to use effectively. Nob bikers are a little better, but they still require a great deal of planning to use.

I'd definitely hold onto them though, because if the Chaos book is any indication, we'll either be seeing a big buff to how bikers work, or they will be getting a significant cost reduction (right now you can get a T6 nurgle biker for one point more than an ork biker).

Biker's strengths are
Fast
Decent at shooting
Durable (for an Ork)

Biker's weaknesses are
Very low leadership to points ratio (kill 3, watch the unit run off the table)
The shooting isn't cost efficient compared to having more Shoota Boyz
Not durable enough (a +4 save isn't going to protect your bikes from torrents of fire).

Thats the problem with the bikers, they're just so utterly easy to force them to break and run unless you're very cunning with their deployment and placement. Nob bikers suffer from the same problem, as Nobz are still just Ld 7. Also Nobz are tricky from the standpoint of use. They are very expensive. They are hideously killy, but you have to pick their targets carefully, or they will never make their points back.

All in all, they are fun, not hideously bad. But I think next codex update will see them becoming a very sweet unit.

 KingCracker wrote:
Im REALLY thinking of building a nice NobBiker unit to compliment my current super fast builds that Ive been doing. They can act wrecking ball to the rest of my army, hiding safely behind buggies

Same - though I've been looking at the Forgeworld nob bikers for it especially (Including the Forgeworld Biker Boss). Two boxes of the Biker Nobs and I'll generally be sorted, since I can turn them into the list I mentioned above though at a 108 pound price tag xP

Ill make mine from Deffkoptas. Those are probably the most universal things built in the Ork line. Koptas, bikes, and buggies. Easy as pie

are nob bikers counted as fast attack or elite?

the nob biker deathstar people like to run is usually 5 Nob bikers with a painboy (6 models total). 2klaws, 2bcs, 1 normal, and the painboy. You can easily make those with the pieces from an additional box. Just customize the weaons on the painboy to look more like needles n such instead of a klaw or axe. Greenstuff mask wouldnt hurt either

I personally havent ran this yet, but its what i hear every time i see someone talkin about it.

nob bikers are counted as ellite but troop when you got a warboss, the warbike is a gear uppgrade.

phatonic wrote:
nob bikers are counted as ellite but troop when you got a warboss, the warbike is a gear uppgrade.

He's more than that really - He's a T6 W3 Str10 (PK) beatstick that will ensure something will die, very painfully. And with the Waaagh! banner he's Ws6 I think so melee is on 3's mostly.


Personally I only have 5th Ed experience with warbikers and I love the little buggers. 2 Units of 6 with nob leaders and I stuck them in front of my trukk line. The amount of gunfire they soaked up was tremendous - sure the trukks broke down behind them but the bikers themselves would go on, shoot something silly, then sock them in the face with the PK nob. It was glorious
Obviously its 6th now so I'd imagine using them as the 5+ cover generator upfront and shooting things even sillier would be a better move. Actually I just thought... they could negate the overwatch wounds quite nicely in a trukker list. They hit first and soak up the snapshots, then you launch a couple of squads of boyz at the same unit and splat it goes and you can focus this in 2 areas instead of one depending on how the list is panned out - by this I mean 2 units of bikerz and at least 4 units of trukkerz. I might try that...

The whole soaking up the snapshots is highly up for debate as a legal tactic. Technically the rulebook says you declare what units are charging, not the plural. I ran into an issue with this earlier trying the tactic you said of having something soak the overwatch.
To me, since its a permission ruleset, its legal because NOTHING says the overwatching unit chooses which unit to fire at. But it still causes a lot of heat.

I run 1 mob of 10 Nobz with PB and WB and 3-4 mobs of 3-4 Warbikers with Nobz with BP only. Biker Boss goes with Nobz and he's the only one with a PK. I also run Waz with Rokkit DK's.

With 4 Bikers, they always test on Ld 7 even if just down to 1 bike due to still having at least (or in this case exactly) 25% models left.

I basically shoot all the time and charge only when it suits me. It's taken the idea of Orks being a shooty army to the extreme.

Orks took a huge hit in CC in 6th so why force a round peg in a square hole?

T5 5++ with FNP absorbs a huge amount of firepower, on average. 2 wounds against most things, watch out for Str. 10.

I've played many a game where the Bikes shoot more to death than can actually catch in CC. But if the opp. charges, they're still Orks!

I run nob bikers alongside battlewagons and they do rather nicely.