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Pretty straight forward, who does bikes best? Why?

I voted orks because ork bikers should be best in tabletop 40K

Custodes bikes are the best currently. Tougher and stronger than basically anybody else's with speed and FLY to match Eldar.

Oh yeah, and they're ObSec.

 jeff white wrote:
I voted orks because ork bikers should be best in tabletop 40K

I don't think there are many armies that do bikes worse than orks unless they don't have any.

Do jet bikes count?

With jet bikes in the mix, Harlequins are the top pick. If they aren't White Scars or Custodes are the top choices.

Harlequins bikes are incredibly fast natively, having 16" movement that auto advances 6" for a total of 22". They then also are armed with assault weapons and as such can advance and shoot, and if Soaring Spite (which most Harlequins are these days) can do so with no penalty. They can also charge in shoot.

They also, when armed with zephyrglaives and haywire cannons, are threats in range and in melee, with haywire cannons pulling double duty as a gun capable of slagging tanks as well as capable of mulching hordes due to being blast and have pretty much the perfect profile for them.

To top it off they're bizarrely durable for the army, having the basic Player's 4++ but on top of that have two extra wounds for a total of three, a 4+ armour save (relevant against zero AP shooting when in cover), a native -1 to be shot, and if advanced can get a 3++.

They're easily the best bikes in the game right now.

If the answer isn't Ravenwing, then quite frankly you're wrong

depends on which edition

In the past editions it was a toss up between

.white scars
.ravenwing
.nob bikers
.saim han

the most devastaing i have seen in 8th ed+ is the full custodes bike list...T6, 4 wound dudes with a 2+/4++ that hit on 2+ and have a CC weapon that literally kills everything equally well, while moving 14"+ a turn.

Thematically or rules?

Rules wise, Harlequins. Skyweavers are probably one of the best units in the game right now. Just all around fantastic unit that dominates the 3 phases.

Thematically I'd give it to Space marines. They got the support and the special rules to make you feel like a special boy when you run a gak ton of bikers rather than the absolute scum bag skyweavers make you feel like. But honestly you have better options in your codex, despite the hype.

 Jidmah wrote:

 jeff white wrote:
I voted orks because ork bikers should be best in tabletop 40K

I don't think there are many armies that do bikes worse than orks unless they don't have any.

I really wish I didn't 100% agree with you Jidmah :( Ork warbikes are in a terrible place right now.

I voted Space Marines, they have 2 or 3 armies that have some modifiers for bikes, access to bike HQs (two types, first born captains and primaris Chaplains) and have 4 differant types of bikes that can fill a number of rolls from melee anti infantry to tank busting. this IMHO makes for easily the best army to run a bike ARMY with (IIRC eldar and harlies are in a similer position) I do not consider an army that can spam a single unit a "best bike army" army no matter how good that unit may be. *eyes custodes*

Harlequins. Their bikes are awesome and the army don't have much choices anyway, they're going to have bikes anyway even if they aren't flavour of the month.

Therefore spamming bikes for them is easier than other armies. Custodes are in the second place for the same reason.

SM bikes are also powerful but I don't think they'll be that common, as SM players will likely have none or just a few of them in most of the collections. Rulewise I also think that Harlequins and Custodes have slightly more powerful bikes.

Harlequins.

Troupes are deadly enough if they ever get close enough, but Skyweavers are already there!

I'd still give the edge to craftworlds.
They have windriders for incredibly fast anti hoard fire power. Vypers are cheap, reasonably durable heavier fire support units whilst shining spears are still a good shooting/combat unit. All the characters can be mounted too for an entirely biker force that can perform decently if not top tier competitive.

Right now in the current game state the question "who does x best" is most likely answered by Marines.

People will say other tournament toppers like Harlequins, but part of the reason they are so good is the Marine saturation.

Marine bikes are good against everyone. Harlequin bikes are good against marines.

 Canadian 5th wrote:
Do jet bikes count?

With jet bikes in the mix, Harlequins are the top pick. If they aren't White Scars or Custodes are the top choices.

Wait? What non-jet bikes Bikers are there for Custodes?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Right now in the current game state the question "who does x best" is most likely answered by Marines.

People will say other tournament toppers like Harlequins, but part of the reason they are so good is the Marine saturation.

Marine bikes are good against everyone. Harlequin bikes are good against marines.

Harlequin bikes are pretty terrible vs. Marines, actually. Harlequins dominate tournaments because they can go second easily in the current format and can dominate the primary through stealing objectives with punchy ObSec.

Marines, with tough Rites-of-War-ObSec infantry that Troupes might bounce off are probably among the harder Harlequin match-ups against the moment. If there were less Marines in the meta, Harlies would dominate even harder.

Sunny Side Up wrote:


Harlequin bikes are pretty terrible vs. Marines, actually. Harlequins dominate tournaments because they can go second easily in the current format and can dominate the primary through stealing objectives with punchy ObSec.

Marines, with tough Rites-of-War-ObSec infantry that Troupes might bounce off are probably among the harder Harlequin match-ups against the moment. If there were less Marines in the meta, Harlies would dominate even harder.

This is the opposite of what I've heard. Harlequins in general do worse in metas where there are fewer marines, based on the data floating around the forums. Fair enough if you think I'm wrong, but having played Harlies with Imperial Guard I think this is hilarious. Their bikes at 3 wounds are easier to kill with lasguns than SM bikes at 4.

So, after careful consideration, I decided to vote for Space Marines, closely followed by craftworlds. My opinion in more detail:

1) Space marines
This includes the ravenwing which wins by so much, it's an insult to even consider any other army for the title of "best bike army". Two great generic biker HQs, a biker named character, scout bikes, bikers, outrider, attack bikes, ATVs, black knights multiple biker support characters and a whole slew of bike-ish land speeders to support them. And the most important part, warlord traits, relics and a powerful army-wide bonus for them.
It's probably the only army that can go full bikes without losing any power or dipping into legends. Even when you pick any other chapter, space marines would still win, because of their large number of bike units available.

2) Aeldari
Nowhere near ravenwing, but they've still got multiple HQs on bikes that weren't sent to legends and wind riders, shining spears and vipers can fill out all necessary roles in army. Now if craftworld in general just wouldn't suck so much...

3) Custodes
Their bikes is powerful for sure, but is spamming two datasheets really "doing bikes well"? Having two good biker units is more that many others on this list can claim, so they are still doing ok, but a single nerf could end that.

4) Genestealer cult
They have a biker HQ and bikers which have lots of wargear options, which is more than most other armies can claim.

5) Orks
Warbikes were almost not useless at the end of 8th so GW decided to nerf them again. Nobz on warbikes are somewhat decent, but suffer from the same problems as regular nobz. Warboss on Warbike is a beast as well, but along with nob bikers he has been moved to FW, waiting to be taken out the back to be shot like all the other ork FW models.
Ork bikes have nothing special about them and there are no notable clans, traits or stratagems to support them. Playing one unit to support a mecha army can make sense, building a bike army does not work.

6) Chaos marines
Chaos Bikers aren't great, and you need to dip into legends to get biker characters. It is possible to run a biker core as part of you army, even if it's usually not a great idea.

Harlequins, Drukhari, Necrons
Their bikes might or might not be great, but they are a support unit for their main army, not something you can build around. Therefore I don't consider these armies to be "doing bikes" any more than armies which exclusively have non-bike fast attack units.

So, essentially, if you want to have a "bike army" your only answers right now are Space Marines or Craftworld Aeldari.

I'll say space marine just for all the variety in bikes, having scout bikes, bikes, outriders. In some groups you have even more like black knight bikers and command squad bikes.

Power wise the golden biker boys probably have this with Harlies, currently. Really aren't as many bike type units as I'd like.

PS, remake rough riders, thank you.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:


This is the opposite of what I've heard. Harlequins in general do worse in metas where there are fewer marines, based on the data floating around the forums. Fair enough if you think I'm wrong, but having played Harlies with Imperial Guard I think this is hilarious. Their bikes at 3 wounds are easier to kill with lasguns than SM bikes at 4.

Harlequins have a winning match-up against every army in the entire game last I checked except Grey Knights and IIRC Slaanesh daemons, and are probably the best army in the game at the moment, better than even the best Space Marine chapters. Stop being so biased my man.

Imma say Orks just for the glorious destruction a warboss on bike can cause. I do wish the regular bikers didn't need multiple stratagems simply to get to the "okay" level. Nob bikers have a good bit of hittiness to them though.

 Jidmah wrote:


Harlequins, Drukhari, Necrons
Their bikes might or might not be great, but they are a support unit for their main army, not something you can build around. Therefore I don't consider these armies to be "doing bikes" any more than armies which exclusively have non-bike fast attack units.

Competitive Harlequins lists with 12-18 bikes are pretty common though, so Skyweaver are definitely something you could build a list around. Definitely more than Craftworlds, Gen Cult and Orks, which all have just a handful of effective bikers at most, typically characters.

Custodes have very few datasheets to choose from but a solid list can have half budget invested in bikes and biker characters, so they're definitely an army in which bikes are doing well.

That's not a biker army, that's just spamming a competitive choice, and they are still just support for troupes and footslogging characters. There are no biker characters, no support for bikers in specific and no biker theme at all. There isn't even a stratagem for them.

If the codex changes skyweavers to be slightly below the curve, harlequins will be going from 18 to 0 bikes without losing any part of their identity.

I also put custodes in 3rd because they can actually do something that looks like a biker army, but nothing comparable to marines or eldar.

Which army does bikes best doesn't equate to what full biker armies is best though. That's not what the OP asked.

 Blackie wrote:
Which army does bikes best doesn't equate to what full biker armies is best though. That's not what the OP asked.

Oh, please do quote the part of the OP which specified that

Orks.

Wait this is 9th edition not 5th edition.

Custodes, though the new SM codex makes Bikes ludicrous when paired with an Apothecary. Ironically Blood Angels get an Apothecary with Jump pack, making them even better.

Ravenwing have an apothecary on a bike

Well, I definitely like the Harlie bikes and I never go out without 3x 5 bikers.
I don't care about SM.

 Jidmah wrote:
That's not a biker army, that's just spamming a competitive choice, and they are still just support for troupes and footslogging characters. There are no biker characters, no support for bikers in specific and no biker theme at all. There isn't even a stratagem for them.

If the codex changes skyweavers to be slightly below the curve, harlequins will be going from 18 to 0 bikes without losing any part of their identity.

I also put custodes in 3rd because they can actually do something that looks like a biker army, but nothing comparable to marines or eldar.

I think most Harlequin armies will have 2-3 large jetbike squad and 5-6 crown-cars each carrying 5-6 guys. Plus a Master, a Shadowseer, Death Jester and Solitarie. Honestly, the biker in the list mainly plays the Anti Tank role.

The solitaire isn't really taken anymore, since the troupe master with twilight fang and optionally darkness bite can more or less do his job for half the price.