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I'm finally getting around to assembling 8 space marine bikes I got a while ago and was wondering on the best loadout and squad composition for a TAC list. I'm debating between two 4 man squads with two special weapons each and a sergeant combi-weapon, or one big 8 man squad with special weapons and a sergeant combi weapon. In terms of special weapons I have a choice of meltaguns/combi-meltas, or plasmaguns/combi plasma. I also have a multimelta attack bike, which I suppose would tag along with whatever squads I have going.

So my questions are:

-Would 2 squads of 4 or one squad of 8 be better?
-Are melta weapons or plasma weapons better for bikers?

I think the squad size question would be depended on whether you have an Apothercary in your army. If you do, it would be better to get another box of biker so you have 2 units of 5 strong biker. Once taken casaulty, move back to let the medic revive one of their member. Meanwhile, 5 strong maybe the best unit size as it won't put you in more harm under blast weapon, and have enough number to sustain enemy firepower for a while.

Personally I think it comes down to what else you have in your list. I like to take min size squads and just put a storm bolter on the srg. But in my white scar / dark angels forces i go max squad sizes and take melta guns / attack bike with multi melta. What army are you playing?

I have an apothecary on foot, don't know if they'd really be able to keep up. I play Black Templars, and in terms of the rest of my army it's mostly minimum strength crusader squads and assault terminators in LR and LRC, with a captain, EC and chaplain as HQs. I was thinking of using the bikers as a screen against charges that could keep up with the raider rush and put out a bit of fire as they did so.

A lot depends on your chapter and rest of your list

BT BA FT WS SW IF IH U DW vanilla with chainswords melee factions want this and its most cost effective

Salamanders melta other chapters may skew into this if you need more anti vehicle

DA CF RG plasma other chapters may skew into this if you need more MEQ

As to 4 or 8 it depends on whether your going to burn CP to keep them safe if your not the smaller numbers are more resistant to moral and coherency and blast. However if your willing to spend CP the bigger number unit will protect more models. In addition if they are backed with a apothecary with 8 your more likely for one to survive.

I have a bt force that's quite like that. I run 3 squads of 3, each srg with storm bolter, and I give an apothecary the once per game 4++ relic. If I dont go first I pop the relic and protect the bikers t1. Then on my turn the apothecary jumps into the lrc, the bikes take off in front, and the lrc follows up. The bikes make a good screen and between them and the lrc thats a lot of bolter shots to clear the road if you know what I mean.

My bt force is quite fluffy though (I run 3 lrc so....) and I can't say that it's a brutal, trying to win at all cost type of setup. Its more flavor and style which actually can help make for an interesting game for both sides.

I will say I miss the days when the relic gave those lrc the 4++.... that made them quite a pain to deal with lol.

 Banzaimash wrote:
I'm finally getting around to assembling 8 space marine bikes I got a while ago and was wondering on the best loadout and squad composition for a TAC list. I'm debating between two 4 man squads with two special weapons each and a sergeant combi-weapon, or one big 8 man squad with special weapons and a sergeant combi weapon. In terms of special weapons I have a choice of meltaguns/combi-meltas, or plasmaguns/combi plasma. I also have a multimelta attack bike, which I suppose would tag along with whatever squads I have going.

So my questions are:

-Would 2 squads of 4 or one squad of 8 be better?
-Are melta weapons or plasma weapons better for bikers?

I have no idea what the best bikes are.

Or rather the best unit in the SM codex is the 40 points T5 eradicators with meltas. It is highly contested by the 55 point multimelta attack bike. So the best bike is a 55 melta attack bike.

So regular bikes. For 90 points you can get 3 bikes as exstra wound for the attack bike. But it would be better to pay an ekstra 20 points for the ekstra 2 multi melta attack bikes. (Totaling 165.) I stil think the attack bike is very good in a bike group. The heavy bolter is not bad, but anti infantery wepaons you can get elsewhere, and a mobile meltagun you can not get elsewhere.

If you take the attack bike with melta I would try to keep the units cheap. A powerfist, 2 chainswords and the multimelta makes for a nice all comers unit. The multimleta and powerfist vs high T targets, and the innheret bike bolter shots and chainswords for infantery. Bikes come with a whole lot of shooting as you can always shoot twice, and once you get into rapid fire range it is very strong. 155 points.

If you do not want to take the attack bike you get some other options. Ideally 2 melta guns can be good as the bikes rides very fast, high movement and you get the meltaguns into range. But if you are grabbing meltas why are you not grabbing multi meltas? Flamers can also do the same trick, assault adn shoot. But many other armies have better ways to get flamers into range and it is not that impressive. Especially with all the bolter fire SM have inherently. Plasma guns are fine, but you should ideally have a way to re-roll the 1 to hit. This can also back up the attack bike nicesly as rapid fire plays nice with heavy weapon, unlike assault weapons.

The only reason to grab big units of bikes IMHO is if you have a lot of buffs, or if you clog up your FA slot. Good luck.

U02dah4 wrote:A lot depends on your chapter and rest of your list

BT BA FT WS SW IF IH U DW vanilla with chainswords melee factions want this and its most cost effective

Salamanders melta other chapters may skew into this if you need more anti vehicle

DA CF RG plasma other chapters may skew into this if you need more MEQ

As to 4 or 8 it depends on whether your going to burn CP to keep them safe if your not the smaller numbers are more resistant to moral and coherency and blast. However if your willing to spend CP the bigger number unit will protect more models. In addition if they are backed with a apothecary with 8 your more likely for one to survive.

Yeah I was thinking the benefit of the big squad against the smaller ones which would get more special weapons would be the efficiency of using strats like transhuman on them. Though I also felt they'd be a bigger target and less flexible as a reactive screening unit. Would straight chainswords be good enough, only 3 attacks on the charge I'm not sure how much damage they'd really do that way. I suppose I could put an apothecary in a raider to keep up.

Azuza001 wrote:I have a bt force that's quite like that. I run 3 squads of 3, each srg with storm bolter, and I give an apothecary the once per game 4++ relic. If I dont go first I pop the relic and protect the bikers t1. Then on my turn the apothecary jumps into the lrc, the bikes take off in front, and the lrc follows up. The bikes make a good screen and between them and the lrc thats a lot of bolter shots to clear the road if you know what I mean.

My bt force is quite fluffy though (I run 3 lrc so....) and I can't say that it's a brutal, trying to win at all cost type of setup. Its more flavor and style which actually can help make for an interesting game for both sides.

I will say I miss the days when the relic gave those lrc the 4++.... that made them quite a pain to deal with lol.

This is how I play with a big raider rush, was planning for the bikes to be a tough and fast screen against assaults and DS. Aside from the stormbolter do you think there's a need for any other gear on the bikes or not? Also do you run regular bikers with chainswords or boltpistols?

Niiai wrote:

 Banzaimash wrote:
I'm finally getting around to assembling 8 space marine bikes I got a while ago and was wondering on the best loadout and squad composition for a TAC list. I'm debating between two 4 man squads with two special weapons each and a sergeant combi-weapon, or one big 8 man squad with special weapons and a sergeant combi weapon. In terms of special weapons I have a choice of meltaguns/combi-meltas, or plasmaguns/combi plasma. I also have a multimelta attack bike, which I suppose would tag along with whatever squads I have going.

So my questions are:

-Would 2 squads of 4 or one squad of 8 be better?
-Are melta weapons or plasma weapons better for bikers?

I have no idea what the best bikes are.

Or rather the best unit in the SM codex is the 40 points T5 eradicators with meltas. It is highly contested by the 55 point multimelta attack bike. So the best bike is a 55 melta attack bike.

So regular bikes. For 90 points you can get 3 bikes as exstra wound for the attack bike. But it would be better to pay an ekstra 20 points for the ekstra 2 multi melta attack bikes. (Totaling 165.) I stil think the attack bike is very good in a bike group. The heavy bolter is not bad, but anti infantery wepaons you can get elsewhere, and a mobile meltagun you can not get elsewhere.

If you take the attack bike with melta I would try to keep the units cheap. A powerfist, 2 chainswords and the multimelta makes for a nice all comers unit. The multimleta and powerfist vs high T targets, and the innheret bike bolter shots and chainswords for infantery. Bikes come with a whole lot of shooting as you can always shoot twice, and once you get into rapid fire range it is very strong. 155 points.

If you do not want to take the attack bike you get some other options. Ideally 2 melta guns can be good as the bikes rides very fast, high movement and you get the meltaguns into range. But if you are grabbing meltas why are you not grabbing multi meltas? Flamers can also do the same trick, assault adn shoot. But many other armies have better ways to get flamers into range and it is not that impressive. Especially with all the bolter fire SM have inherently. Plasma guns are fine, but you should ideally have a way to re-roll the 1 to hit. This can also back up the attack bike nicesly as rapid fire plays nice with heavy weapon, unlike assault weapons.

The only reason to grab big units of bikes IMHO is if you have a lot of buffs, or if you clog up your FA slot. Good luck.

I was leaning towards melta because I though they had the speed to bring it into range, but I also appreciate plasma will be shooting for maybe a turn more being longer range. In terms of new additions to the unit I don't think I'll be making any, honestly the attack bike was part of an Ebay lot otherwise I'd probably never have got one, so I probably won't get anymore. I see the squad you recommended was a squad of 4, I'd be interested to know what you think of an 8 man squad with attack bike?

Well it depends a bit.

The squad is a quite good all commers unit. You pay 10 points per model over regular marine for T5, 1 wound, more movement, twice the number of bolters, and they can always shoot twice with bolter disipline (bikes.)

I would probably give them all chainswords to be a threat in melee as well. Flamers seems redundant, as does meltagun. I would probably give the sergant a powerfist, and 2 plasma guns in the squad.

When it comes to the attack bike the squad already does fine for anti infateyr, so I would think the multimelta makes a lot of sence.

Depending in chapter I can see turning one of the bikes into a character.

I would also play them in SW or in White Scar, the last probably beeing the best.

I run chainswords. The 3 bikes put out quite a few shots, are tough, and make a great, quick, distractions.

I run white scars subchapter with traits (Whirlwind of Death and The reroll a hit roll) and go with smaller units as well. Bikes are fast and great for objective grabbing. They put out a LOT medium firepower and slightly below medium CC, so, more units my opponent has to destroy, the better. I run 3x5, so in your case, I feel 2x4 is best. that's 6 extra wounds before you lose the special weapon (the SGT for me is worth less than the special weapon since WS's have fall back and shoot strat). I do add an attack bike to each (melta if I need AT, hvy bolter if not)
The reroll one to hit roll trait is great for bikers with special weapons.

I run one unit with 2 plasma guns, and one unit with either melta or Grav depending on where my AT is for rest of army. Usually I go grav for anti-elite infantry.
I run a third unit for CC, giving chainswords and the sgt a weapon (either powersword or powerfist). This unit charges forward to disrupt my opponent's plans to move out of his zone. I desperately try to get it into CC with one of his troops as fast as possible. 12 bolter shots, 3 bolt pistols, and 21 CC attacks with Astartes chainswords can cause issues, although I don't claim it is great.

If you play Blood Angels you can take Sanguinary Priests who can take Jump Packs.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
If you play Blood Angels you can take Sanguinary Priests who can take Jump Packs.

I've already said I play Templars, so no.