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I have a squad of 6 Nob Bikers with a Biker Boss that I love to bits. I generally run 2 Klaws, Waaagh! Banner, Painboy, Cybork Bodies. However, they never seem to last very long for me. Generally, I have more luck with Ghaz with a squad of Meganobz in a Battlewagon. So, how do you guys run them? What tactics do you use when playing them? What kind of lists do you run to support them?

Side note, my most common opponent is Tau with an Ethereal buffing 2 squads of Fire Warriors in 'fish and Missile Pod Broadsides. So, that might be part of the reason I view them as too squishy for how pricey they are. I'm not necessarily looking for tactics to beat him (I play plenty of other people too), I just think it's worth noting.

Cheers!

Well, as you said Nob Bikers are not invincible. You have to diminish the incoming fire when they approach the enemy. For instance, they could turbo boost along a flank. Its always good to have several units that hit the enemy front ranks simultaneously.

Your best bet is to wait it out until 40k makes cover saves meaningful again. There is just too much that ignores cover anymore (or, in your case, an entire army), and without cover saves, nob bikers are just... well... nobs. But faster.

Either it's time to do as you say - put them in a battlewagon, rather than on bikes - or have a player agreement where your opponent can't bring a cover-ignoring gunline.

But as your most common opponent is tau, that's not terribly likely...

To be fair, they are faster T5 nobs with free 'eavy armour.

But yes, they rely rather heavily on their cover saves.

Put them behind some trukks, be in assault by turn 2.

The problem with Nob Bikers is their cost. What you listed costs 550pts for 15 wounds with a 3+ save (4+/5+ FnP=3+save). It's a nice deathstar, but it pays its Toughness 5 and shooting weapons through the nose. 6 Necron Wraiths and a Destroyer Lord cost only 400pts for the same number of wounds, and are arguably much more dangerous in close combat.

You might use some strategies to make them survive longer (by presenting other threats, as the previous posters mentionned), but you won't make them efficient. They're just too expensive right now for what they do.

My advice : start by making them more cost-efficient: 4 Bikers and the Boss with all the upgrades, only 1 klaw (assuming you also have one on the Boss). You just saved 125pts, which is nearly enough for 12 Boyz with a PK Nob in a Trukk. They will still be able to destroy most things in CC but your list won't be crippled by a super expensive unit. Then, have them rush on a flank (as wuestenfux suggested) while you throw a few (5 or 6) fast assault units in the middle of the ennemy lines.

Tau are one of the best counters to nob bikers as they force the 5++ invul/FNP rolls with almost everything worth shooting at them, spare the firewarriors.

My nobbiker list is usually this:

7 Nob Bikers
2 PK
2 Bigchoppa
2 Slugga/choppa
4 Kombi Scorchas
WAAAGH! Banner
Painboy
7 Cyborks

Warboss on Bike
PK/Attack Squig/Cybork/Kombi Scorcha/Bosspole

That list runs me 475 for the nobz, 635 including the boss. Sounds a little pricy but really the only thing i'd feel ok with trimming is the 2 sluggachoppa nobz. They arent there for number of attacks they are there for ablative wounds that are equally as hard as the ones i want to keep alive (pk/bigchoppas) so theres 4 tough wounds to go through before i lose something of importance. I took them because usually i lose both my bigchoppa nobz before i can charge anything.
Kombi Scorchas you can take off if youre facing tau i guess. They are mainly there for overwatch purposes, as charging nobz first is one of the best ways to deal with them once they get close. Might be kinda hard to actually use them and still be able to charge.

Depends on the board but i usually take an extra turn than usual getting the nobz in range. The reason is i will willingly sacrifice 2-4 inches of movement if i can hide either entirely or mostly out of sight to avoid getting shot. 4+/5++/FNP is only great because theyre hard to remove, theyre not awesome saves at all. I would rather prevent the shots in the first place and take an extra turn moving around than risk failing every save i got for a turn 2 assault.

Technically nobbikers are a little overcosted for what they do. Only reason i justify it is because .... aside from lootas theyre the best we got lol

Thanks guys! I like the idea of trimming them down, I've just been nervous to since they seem to get shot up so hard as it is. But, hey, it's worth a shot.

I would not trim the number of bikers, less than 6 and they are just hosed off the table pretty quickly.

I've run a biker list for some time and still get surprised how long they can last.

I run:
Warboss (cybork, squig, Klaw)
Wazdakka
Dude with choppa and slugga (cybork)
Dude with Waaagh Banner and klaw (cybork)
Dude with choppa and klaw (cybork)
Dude with Big Choppa (cybork)
Dude with Big Choppa and boss pole (cybork)
Painboy (cybork)

They usually start the game in one big death star unit and then split turn 3 or 4 to go after multiple targets/force incomming fire to split between them.

i usually run them in squads of 7.
1 painboy 7 cyborks 5big Coppas 1 pk 1 bp with a biker boss with a cybrok pk bp.
waaagh banner is if i really need it or have pts for it as is attack squig. i really recommend attack squigs on a warboss.

i run this with greentide. or trukkboyz. i think it works aswell. i like it in greentide because neither they focus it and it flees and catches back up with the boyz or they ignore it and i get to run rampant in their back field. if that happens i normally split the warboss away to kill more things cus a warboss can kill a land-raider on his own.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nym wrote:
It's a nice deathstar, but it pays its Toughness 5 and shooting weapons through the nose. 6 Necron Wraiths and a Destroyer Lord cost only 400pts for the same number of wounds, and are arguably much more dangerous in close combat.

yes the necrons win the fight 80% of the time. i have tested this out many times.
also i have tried it vs a RC.....mindshacklescarbs.....

personally, I find it better to take warbikers instead of nob bikers,
reason being, for 45 pts i get 2 wounds, 3 attacks base, with nobs

vs 1 wound, 2 attacks base, with bikers, but I can take 2 for only 5 pts more, and gain more attacks and #'s, which helps when str10 no longer matters.

both are still over costed, the whole freaken ork codex aside from boys and grots is overcosted though...

3 flaws with that though

1) Warbosses make Nobz a troop choice, not Warbikers. You would have to take Wazdakka to get that benefit and he is not worth it unless you spam them.
2) Warbikers survivability is horrendously lower. They have no invul or FNP so any ignores cover weapons that also pens their armor (hey, heavy flamers!) just demolishes them.
3) Theyre more expensive per wound and have no toyz outside a single pk. A bikernob with no upgrades is 45pts, 2 warbikers is 50. That one bikernob gets hella more durable when you add 5pts of cybork armor and a 30pt painboy to the unit. Warbikers even maxed out can be cleaned off the board pretty easy.