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I'm going to be assembling my SM Bike Squad. It's a full squad of 8 with an attack bike.

I'm torn between assembling the bikers with either Meltas or Grav Guns and what to give the sarge as far as pistols or combi-weapons. What are most people finding works the best? I can see pros and cons to both, but I don't want to regret what I do.

I suppose the best thing would be to buy two extra bikes and model them with the other option but for right now I'm figuring out what I can do in the immediate time frame.

My army is built around a battle company, so I'm actually lacking both more anti-armor and anti-heavy infantry.

Thoughts?

This really does depend on the rest of your army - a bike squad is not used in isolation. If you're lacking anti tank, then meltas would be the obvious choice. Generally though the feeling seems to be grab synergies with bikes very well, and has multiple uses.

I guess in a perfect world I would use a bike squad in conjunction with an assault squad to flank and then clear an opponent's back line. I would say there are probably more tanks hanging back than heavy infantry, so maybe then melta shots would be the best and give the sergeant a combi-grav to enable him to shoot at targets of opportunity.

Good or bad idea?

I would suggest all bikes be equipped with grav guns. They are generally better than melta in my opinion.
They are AP 2, 3 shots each, 18" range and can damage vehicles on a 6 fairly effectively. The bikes have bolters if the need arise.
Melta is good on other platforms but due to the range and effective range (12" & 6") and with one shot it it relegated to deepstrike to be effective.
That is my opinion but feel free to go with the melta option if you want.

Why not just magnetize them to be able to swap out as needed?

Mortikye wrote:
Why not just magnetize them to be able to swap out as needed?

I could try, but I'm not as confident on my magnetizing skills as I could be. Couldn't hurt to try one I suppose.


I appreciate the feedback folks.

Magnetizing guns is the absolute easiest magnet project you could do. If you really wanted, you could magnetize the whole arms since that's a larger contact point and probably a little less tricky.

I'm old school and like plasma for its conjunction with relentless, or melta if they're with a melta attack bike. Grav guns sound good but I'm yet to use em.

I would avoid making full sized squads. Bikes allow you to concentrate special weapons in near minimum sized squads meaning you get more weapons for your points.

Five bikes with two grav guns and a combi-grav (always match the sergeant's combi-weapon to the squad specials) is 145 points. Four bikes, plasma and combi-plasma with a multi-melta attack bike are 179. Since bolters really aren't that scary, taking as many special weapons as you can allow you to put some real damage downstream.

There are a lot of ways to move melta around, but one one place for relentless grav guns. You can always run MM speeders or attack bike squadrons for fast melta.

From a mechanics perspective, I’d recommend 2x5 man squads, rather then 1x10 full squad. Although I understand the allure of the nice full squad on the TOE.

I personally run two bike squads, both with 5 models.

2xMelta, MM attack bike, basic no gear sarge

1 grav, 1 plasma, HB attack bike, c-grav sarge

The only reason I’m not running duel grav is I’ve got an old plasma gunner I’m not willing to retire. I don’t think the melta sage really needs a combi. How many melta shots do you need to pump into something anyway?

The best answer as always is to magnetize. SM shoulder mount magnets are probably one of the easiest ones to do. Get some 2mm magnets and a pin vise/drill. You can do a wrist mount, but that’s a much more finicky job. Doable though.