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Looking to start a small pure bike SM army for 1000pts(though not Ravenwing). Any advice welcome.

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Bike
Melta Bombs
140pts

Troops
SM Bike Squad (x2)
+2 marines
2 plasma guns
attack bike with heavy bolter
420pt

SM Bike Squad (x2)
+2 marines
2 plasma guns
attack bike with multi-melta
440pt

Total: 1000pts

Notes:
I'm currently unsure over the number of plasma guns, or if I need to take a meltagun squad to deal with armour.
I'm not expecting to deal with flyers.

Thanks

Nice to see another Space Marine bike army player! What chapter are you doing?

I'm currently in the process of creating a White Scars with a similar concept, and I'd say your force looks pretty good. You've got four different scoring troops choices, all of whom are pretty tough and very mobile.

Plasma guns always seemed to me to be the best choice on bikes due to Relentless. Personally I wouldn't bother with the heavy bolters on the attack bikes and go straight for multi-meltas, but there's definitely still usage from the HBs. Against armour the plasma guns will be able to handle most of the things you might see at 1,000 points, as long as you can get flank/rear shots. It probably depends on your local meta - if you're expecting a land raider or monolith at this points value then it might well be worth it to swap out one squad's plasma for melta for a dedicated anti-tank unit.

Your captain is fairly lightweight - I'm guessing he's only there to make the bikes scoring? Have you Considered at least a power weapon - sometimes you may have to get into assault (I'm thinking when a tough enemy unit is sitting right on your objective) and being able to hurt things in CC would be of assistance.

Thank for the response.

I'm going for dark Angels - less for the fluff and their codex (which I found disappointing) - but more for the ease of buying the models.
I'm from the UK but living in China, and that means no GW stores. But I found some great deals on Chinese Ebay where I was able to order Ravenwing bikes for £2 each - hurdling perhaps the biggest problem with making a bike army.

I agree the Captain is very light, it was a toss up between better kit for him (and more Multi-Meltas) or having 2 more bikes.
I was considering a Relic Blade & Artificer Armour (Which would work as far as the model goes as i'm converting the librarian from the Dark Vengeance to be the captain).
But I'm worried he both wont get much use out of them, due to the mobile shooty nature of the army, and that be becomes a point sink - He is already too expensive IMO.

I'm actually against the idea of meltaguns in 6th Ed when compared to 5th. Certainly the bikes have the mobility to use them, but tanks are less popular now and having an effective range of 12 and an optimal range of 6 really puts the squad in danger,
especially against embarked landraider units.

My main opponents will be Space Wolves with various levels of armour. For the attack bikes would HB or MM be better in this scenario?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a revised list, how do people feel about this compared to the first?

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Bike
Melta Bombs
power sword/claw
155pts

Troops
SM Bike Squad (x1)
+1 marine
2 meltaguns
attack bike with MM
185pt

SM Bike Squad (x3)
+2 marines
2 plasma guns
attack bike with MM
660pt

Total: 1000pts

I've dropped one bike, changed the plasma guns in that squad to melltaguns, upgraded all attack bikes to multi-meltas, and given the captain a power weapon.

Ideally the captain will join the melta squad to give them more support and also use the melta bombs & power weapon if needs be.

I'm still unsure between plasma or melta for the bikes, if any bike players out there have experience & opinions on this please let me know.

I think that looks very good - you've lost a little bit or redundancy with fewer models, but in return you have significantly greater flexibility as you can now deal with armour and close combat more effectively.

And £2 per biker - consider me green with envy!

Just on a modeling note, i have painted ravenwing bikes from DV in ultramarine colours (clipped off the wing on the back and painted the wings on the front gold) so no need to be limited to DA

As for your plasma/ melta conundrum i would just have variety, like in your second list. The Melta squad can focus on the big armour threat (such as a landraider or leman russ) while the rest of your army is flexible enough to deal with most enemies relatively well. I would personally have at least one HB just for variety and becuase i love the look of them. Have you considered maybe dropping one squad in favour of some speeders? not only would it look awesome, but you can get a good variety of heavy weapons and still out manouver your enemy.

 stargasm wrote:
Have you considered maybe dropping one squad in favour of some speeders? not only would it look awesome, but you can get a good variety of heavy weapons and still out manouver your enemy.

That's what I'm planning on doing:

HQ

Captain on a bike
- Relic blade, Hellfire rounds, Artificier armour

Troops

5 bikes + attack bike
- 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on the attack bike

5 bikes + attack bike
- 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on the attack bike

5 bikes + attack bike
- 2 plasma guns, multi-melta on the attack bike

Fast attack

Land speeder
- Heavy bolter + typhoon missile launcher

Land speeder
- 2 heavy flamers


It's probably a bit more fragile, but I think it also gives me more versatility to deal with different threats, including hordes and in close combat if required... It also just feels a bit more interesting as well. Currently I'm one model away from having this list painted and ready to play!

Ok so I've decided on this:

HQ
Space Marine Captain
Bike
Relic Blade/ Thunder Hammer
Artificer Armour/ Storm Shield
180pts

Troops
SM Bike Squad (x1)
4 marines
2 meltaguns
attack bike with MM
185pt

SM Bike Squad (x1)
4 marines
2 plasma guns
attack bike with MM
195pt

SM Bike Squad (x2)
5 marines
2 plasma guns
attack bike with MM
440pt

Total: 1000pts

Basically the same as list 2, but with a biker removed and 45pts for wargear options on the captain.
This works well for me as I've ordered 21 bikes - 18 for those on the list, 2 spare plasma gunners if I want to swap out the meltas, and the last bike to make my captain.

I can see some merit in the speeders, but I'm against them for a number of reasons
-in the game I find them so fragile, 10 armour along with 2 HP, 5+ jink save doesn't go far enough to buff them.
-With the glancing rules in 6th ed. almost every squad and his dog has a chance of doing some damage to it, without even mentioning the number of plasma guns likely in meta builds.
- Difficult to use cover effectively, also doesn't benefit from any kind of conga line shielding with the bikes.

-Physically I dislike skimmer models, don't get me wrong here they can look good. But I had a DE army back in 3rd edition, and the amount of times I had to repair skimmers and jet bikes because of the flimsy joint to the base, it was like having a 2nd job.

IMO if I was to lose a squad then it would be to field a group of 3 attack bikes as fast attack, probably with HB, but possibly with MM.

The heavy flamer speeder is effectively a one-shot suicide unit - I plan to utilise LoS blocking cover to get it close enough to hordes to do damage (which should be significant), after which it probably dies.

For the typhoon I'm hoping that the additional range will save it from small arms - the HB/ML combo is the only one that can hit the enemy with full effect from over 30" away (i.e. out of move-and-fire range for rapid fire weapons).

An attack bike squadron is on my list of additions - I'm thinkiing multi-meltas as that way there's a very effective tank-hunting unit that is more disposable as they're not scoring. their job will be to hunt land raiders, russes, predators, monoliths, etc.

Kamikaze flame speeder could work against some armies I guess - getting into range of necron/fire warriors would be great, but vs MEQ armies I'm not sure what it'll achieve, maybe this is local army dependent?

Once a bike army reaches a certain point I suppose it would be beneficial to take speeders, due to the board getting more clustered. Skimmers will help spend points without adding much mass to block things on the ground.

I agree on the anti armour attack bikes, but I also like the idea of a cheap 120pts attack bike squad for range 36 HB anti-horde fire whilst staying mobile but also remaining durable.

For me speeders seem to be better at that - a double HB speeder is 60 points, and can also stay outside basic weapons range. a triple-squadron of them is putting out 18 HB shots a turn for 180 points...

The tank-hunters are the ones who need to get close, hence the more survivable attack bikes for that role.