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.

Just got into the hobby, and I've settled on a speed freak ork list.
Anyway, I picked up 15 ork warbikers and I've debating on how to best deploy them.
I was considering running a maxed squad w/ nob biker/pk/bosspole and adding a Warboss/Painboy on bikes attached.
My other thought was splitting them into two squads, each with the name nob setup, and putting the Warboss in only one of the squads and just using the painboy HQ squad elsewhere.

I'm concerned that if I run the first setup, I would be investing too many points into just one squad and it might be just be overkill. On the other-hand, It would allow me to utilize the mob rule better, and there would be less of a chance of the squad being made useless by my opponents first turn shooting.
The two squad setup would make them split their fire, would allow me to possibly tie up two shooty units instead of one, but I'm worried that it might be too easy for them to force leadership tests and have me fail and end up being a waste.

The rest of my army composition is going to be mostly boyz,manz, tankbustas in trukks and battlewagons.
Any advice would be appreciated!

Well a maxed out unit of Warbikers with Boss Nob w/ Power Klaw and BP, with Painboy and Bike and Warboss w/ Bike, PK, Da Lucky Stikk comes to 520.

It's relatively inexpensive, except in low point games where it takes up a lot of points.

But 15 T5 with a 4+ or 3+ cover if Turbo-Boosting, alongside a FNP, makes for a very durable unit with about 51 TL S5 shots.

 Frozocrone wrote:
Well a maxed out unit of Warbikers with Boss Nob w/ Power Klaw and BP, with Painboy and Bike and Warboss w/ Bike, PK, Da Lucky Stikk comes to 520.

It's relatively inexpensive, except in low point games where it takes up a lot of points.

But 15 T5 with a 4+ or 3+ cover if Turbo-Boosting, alongside a FNP, makes for a very durable unit with about 51 TL S5 shots.

So, it's probably always worth it to run them as one squad vs multiple if I was planning on using all 15.
Thanks.

Yes. Not only are you giving FNP to every biker you bought instead of only half (which you will need b/c that unit will have a Big Target beacon right on the lead biker), but you also use only one FA slot. Maybe that's not a big deal for you, but I like just about every FA option in our current codex. With the split option, just adding one Dakkajet or Blitzabommer means you've run out of room in that detachment for your twin-linked rokkit platforms (buggies/Deffkoptas).

(this reply is from Jerry the ork)

Go wif da split squads

because it will allow you mobility, there is nothing worse than a mob getting destroyed by imencive firepower

dis will make mork happy

 SkrawnyNob wrote:
Yes. Not only are you giving FNP to every biker you bought instead of only half (which you will need b/c that unit will have a Big Target beacon right on the lead biker), but you also use only one FA slot. Maybe that's not a big deal for you, but I like just about every FA option in our current codex. With the split option, just adding one Dakkajet or Blitzabommer means you've run out of room in that detachment for your twin-linked rokkit platforms (buggies/Deffkoptas).

My FA slots with the models I have right now are not an Issue. I'm running tankbustas in a battlewagon (maybe trukk) for rokkit shots, but I do have 3 deffkoptas I could use.
I'm thinking of the opportunity cost as well. I could use the painboy in one of battlewagon boyz or tankbusta squads if I do the split warbiker squad approach.
I think my opponents target priority is definitely going to be my manz in a truck or my warbikers so I'm just debating how to best use my painboy with that in mind.

A warbiker mob is a pretty good place for a painboy, since those T5/4+ wounds are going to soak up massive amounts of shooting, ignoring a third of what actually manages to get through increases the amount of small arms fire required to take them down by a lot.

What I would do is put the warboss somewhere else. Warbikers are a lot better at shooting than at combat, while the warboss wants to get stuck in ASAP. Putting the warboss with the boyz mob would probably work better and would add another target to the priority list of your opponent, because no one want a pair of PKs with 17-18 ablative wounds in their face.

On the other hand, warboss provides ld9. And you want to minimise the chances of falling back with your allready 400 pt squad. When below 10 models, it's 1/4 to fail mob rule. Besides, bikerboss is just that cool on his own especially with DLS. While megaboss depends on a wagon that can get stopped with a lucky pen or gravgun shot.

Below 10 models your opponent has to cause 3 casualties against T5, 4+/FNP before forcing a moral check, which isn't exactly done by some standards just pointing their guns at them. Even if you do have to take a moral test, it is passed by ld7 or mob rule 81.48% of the time, a warboss increases that possibility to 92.59%, which isn't that much of an increase at all, considering that you paid over a hundred points for it.

Adding a biker boss to an already expensive unit just makes your army easier to stop. A tarpit, some psychic powers, an actual death star unit or a knight will stop a unit of warbikers dead in its tracks, no luck needed.

The warboss is a melee-oriented character, and for that reason has little synergy to the shooting-oriented warbikers. The painboy works with any unit that has many wounds. For that reason, the warboss has to go, and since there is no other fast unit to attach him to, he should ride with the battlewagon. You might as well add another 15 bikes or some koptaz and put him there.

Having three powerful units beats having two powerful unit any time.

Yes. But can't you have the Warboss stuck in with the bikers as they cross the board. Then, when the time is right, the Warboss splits off from the warbiker band and gets stuck in the fight like a proper boss?

Granted, this would be very situational, but I am not a fan of mixing speeds of groups unless I have to.

I had this same problem with my chaos bikers. I finally got a whole bunch, but then realized I wanted to take other fast attack options as well and a squad of 10 is a huge fire magnet.

My solution was 7th Ed. Either go with 2 force org charts and 3squads of 5, or go unbound and just take three of five. That way you have multiple targets, can hide them behind LoS blocking terrain easier and they can come at you opponent from multiple angles and engage multiple targets.

 Jidmah wrote:
A warbiker mob is a pretty good place for a painboy, since those T5/4+ wounds are going to soak up massive amounts of shooting, ignoring a third of what actually manages to get through increases the amount of small arms fire required to take them down by a lot.

What I would do is put the warboss somewhere else. Warbikers are a lot better at shooting than at combat, while the warboss wants to get stuck in ASAP. Putting the warboss with the boyz mob would probably work better and would add another target to the priority list of your opponent, because no one want a pair of PKs with 17-18 ablative wounds in their face.

Never really considered the warbiker mob a shooty unit (again i'm new), I assumed their role would be to draw fire away from my battlewagons and trukks and then tie up my opponents shooty units afterwards. Is it even worth it to give the nob a PK if i'm not even trying to assault with the warbikes?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

kungfujew wrote:
I had this same problem with my chaos bikers. I finally got a whole bunch, but then realized I wanted to take other fast attack options as well and a squad of 10 is a huge fire magnet.

My solution was 7th Ed. Either go with 2 force org charts and 3squads of 5, or go unbound and just take three of five. That way you have multiple targets, can hide them behind LoS blocking terrain easier and they can come at you opponent from multiple angles and engage multiple targets.

How is this better or worse than the full squad of 15? I would have more FA options with 1 big squad of bikers vs multiple little ones, so I'm not understanding your first point about the ability to take other FA units options. If i'm running a squad of 15 w/ a painboy/warboss I'm looking for the squad to be a huge fire magnet so that's not really a concern as well.

Main benefit that I agree with is the multiple little squads to be able to utilize cover on the approach better and the ability to tie up multiple squads. Giving my boyz,manz, and other units more time to close in

But now I'm hearing that warbikers are a shooty unit, not looking to actually assault, so that might be a mute point as well. I'm so confused

I've also recently started with speed freek orks, and am also trying to decide the best tactics for warbikers. I think the answer is: it depends!

They are a very flexible and fast unit but there are things that will murder you in a fire fight and things that will murder you in a cc fight. You have to be a bit kunnin' about picking your fights and need to make on-the-fly decisions about the effectiveness of the unit in each situation, so I think an experienced player will get hugely more value out of warbikers, purely because they know what to shoot and what to charge. Definitely not a point-and-click unit. Really think through the numbers before deciding what to do with them.

I think the power klaw nob makes them even more flexible for killing armour, especially combined with s5 shooting and the manuverability to target rear armour. It also makes an opponent a lot more scared of the unit in cc with their special snowflake characters.
With regards to unit size; I would lean towards MSU to make objective grabbing easier, make them easier to get in cover, harder to see etc.

It seems to be worth foregoing shooting in the first round to get the 3+ jink and really close in for a turn 2 charge (if appropriate).
I Think dangerous terrain doesn't count when turn-boosting, so you can move into the open for your move and then turbo-boost through terrain for golden positioning (please correct me if I'm wrong on that).
Also, when keeping unit coherency, remember to use the FULL 2" because, combined with their long bases, you can really spread these guys out to mitigate templates and blasts which are this unit's worst enemy.