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I'm getting back into actually playing the game, and having been a big bike fan since I started my SM in third, have quite a few kicking around. What is the current state of play for SM bike squads if I'm not keen on allying in different chapters?

I hear that grav guns are popular, and I get that, since it's for the same reason I had a command squad loaded with plasma in previous editions. I've got two bike mounted masters/captains, a tech marine, plasma, flamer, and melta bikers, the standard older edition assortment. How are chaplains and librarians with wheels looking these days? What are the most popular builds using just the vanilla codex?

The anwers are much apperciated!

Well the 1st thing that comes to my mind when talking about Space marine bikes is Chapter Master Smashfether.

Iron Hands CM on bike with the Gorgan's Chain, Artificers armor Thunder Hammer W/ Lightning claw on bike. His group is at least a command squad with an apothecary. This Smashy a 2 up armor, 3 up invuln, EW, and (if you take him in the Iron Hands decurion) a 2 up FNP. Then add in that his command squad also has a 3+ FNP. Everything else on top of that is just icing on the cake.


For basic bike squads I tend to run mine in groups of 4 with 2 grav guns, a combi grav sergeant and 1 ablative wound biker to eat it.

Grav on relentless platforms is going to be your go-to. That said, there is still a place for melta. Plasma is largely redundant. The cases where plasma is better off then grav when you are relentless can probably be covered by the TL bolters on the bike.

There are pros and cons to squad size. You don’t need 5 guys to make them troops anymore. A 3 man squad will maximize your firepower, but once you take wounds, it goes away fast.

While a tricked out Iron Hands CM on a bike is one of the nastiest things we can plop down on the table, White Scars is a better CT for the rest of the army. And while not quite as nasty as an IH CM, a WS one is still pretty tough.

Bikes make every HQ better. Extra T, mobility, jink, etc. For librarians, they can utilize a lot of this. Lacking an invuln, the jink helps them survive. Speed helps them get in range for their powers. Overall, Libs are in a good place anyway, and bikes make it better. Chaplains gain less. They have a 4++ anyway, and bikes are more shooty then choppy. That said, bikes can hammer in if combat is needed, and chaplains help with that. If you are fielding a formation that requires a chaplain, putting him on a bike is not a bad idea, especially if you have other bikes in your list for him to join.

For the most part, minimum squads with two special weapons each, possibly with a combi-weapon on the Sergeant, are the way to go. Grav is the preference of most people, but melta is good for vehicle hunting. Gravguns don't quite pack the vehicle destruction power of Grav Cannons due to fewer shots. Still, I wouldn't do less than a 2:1 ratio of Grav to Melta. Plasma is still good for light vehicle hunting, but that is about it since Grav is better at hunting stuff like MCS.

Short of Black Knights paired with a Dark Shroud, there isn't much room for assault based bikes beyond Smashfether. Smashfether needs a Command Squad, who should have gravguns. Five gravguns (thanks to the apothecary ruling) is pretty harsh.

If you're going a minimum of three dudes, don't even bother with the Combi on the Sergeant. He's only cannon fodder.

Otherwise outside of running 5 man squads (which I'm used to and therefore do so out of habit), pretty much every chapter tactic bar a few gains a lot from just using Bikes and Scouts over Tactical Marines.