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I used to play a very boyz heavy ork army from when 2nd ed just came out to shortly after 3rd ed came out. After months of effort, my friends finally dragged me back into the game. As I look through the codex, I'm trying to figure out of Meganobz and Nobz Bikers are really worth the points at 40-45 pts apiece before upgrades.

Thanks.

Might wanna ask a MOD to move this to 40k discussion, this doesn't belong in general discussion. Welcome to Dakka, btw.

Thanks on both accounts. How would I have a MOD move it?

Normally, just hit the little yellow Mod Alert triangle at the top right of the post, and type in your request.

In this case, a passing moderator has taken care of it

Think of Meganobz as Ork terminators. They have no invulnerable save and less shooting versatility, but get an extra attack and wound. Depending on the situation, thry can be krumpy as heck.
As for Nob Bikers, they're expensive, true. But at T5 with 4+ armor, cover, 5++, and FnP, plus two wounds, they're pretty tough. They are also versatile, fast, and very good in Close Combat. Add a Biker Boss to the front of the squad and you've got a perfect recipe for krumping squishy things that can't run away quickly enough.

Meganobs are great cheap support. Load em in a trukk and chuck em at anyone that stares at you funny. 3 of them with a trukk is only a 160pts or so.

Biker Nobs can be made into troops with a boss, and I always take a unit. I still treat them as a support unit, but being able to use them as troops is awesome for late game objectives grabbing and freeing up elite slots for other things.

Both are good, you just need to take them into account when writing your list. You can't just chuck them into an existing list and expect them to work just fine

Yeah I like to have 2 or three mega nobz with ghazghkull and then some where Mad Dok somewhere else then you can give them involve saves, its a pretty kool combination. One down side is that they will suffer insta-death with any weapon stronger then 8

Another vote for meganobz in trukks. If you get the fist turn your trukk (if you're doing it right) is 24" across the board. If it does get blown up your guys can assault the following turn. If it does get blow up before you move make sure the nobz count as troops and start to wander to an objective. With a squillion orks rushing across the board a few walking dustbins get ignored.

A few things to consider about Meganobs:
While the 2+ save will fail them eventually, your nobs have 2 wounds so it's not as though that one-in-six chance is all that scary.
In 6th edition, the 2+ is made even better since standard power-weapons are only AP3 now, not AP2 as they once were. This mean an opponent can't drop 15-ish points to cut through your Meganobs like they just carved through your trukk..... You did put them in a trukk, right?
On the note of trukks, always. It's just 35%, but increases the speed of your nobs by AT LEAST 100%. The only disadvantage is it sets you back a decent amount of points, and...you MIGHT lose a wound to the truck exploding every once in a great while. Str 3 Explosion vs Toughness 4 Nobs with 2+ armor and 2 wounds? It'll only happen about 6% of the time with 6 nobs shoved in a trukk.

There are some downsides though. Most poignant being: Some of the better anti-tank can chew through them, they lack access to a boss pole short of buddying up with a warboss, and they lack Feel No Pain and an Invuln save short of Grotsnick.
(Note: I feel Grotsnick combos well with Mega-Nobz. The Slow-and-Purposeful counters Grotsnick forcing the mob to run so they can still shoot. Although they still have to go for the closest.)

Granted, all of the above is theory on my part. I've done nothing with them.

My vote is for Nob Bikers. They are by far the stars of the Ork Codex alongside Lootas.

A squad of these with a bikerboss will take down a space marine 10man termie squad lead by an IC.

They are fast enough to be where you need them to be, shooty enough to be pretty good in assault with TL assault 3, and with a painboy and cyborks, sure you may be looking at 500 points, but man can they take on almost anything.

waaaghbpower mentioned some of the cool stats they get, but they have been the stars of every one of my games.

Take nob bikers. I'm having to rebuild my entire marine list because we have an ork player that decided to spam those. First time he played that army I was the unlucky one to go up against him. He tabled me by round 4 by jumping from unit to unit and eating em up in a single round of hand to hand. Very nasty unit.

Thanks for the tips. I'll probably use Meganobz on occasion to screw with people and will look more into the bikers - they're so expensive on Forgeworld though.

People are missing key issues on meganobz

1: All of them will be hitting last in combat, so against a unit like daemonettes, they are screwed from the start.

2: They are fairly easy to tarpit with cheap troops.

3: Trukk is a nice way to counter the super slow movement, but how often do trukks last the 1st turn of shooting?

4: No bosspole option.
They will never number over 10, so never get benefit from the mob rule, so you will see them run off alot.

5: No painboy.
Not a massive deal, but with the changes to FNP it really does hurt them badly.

6: Upgrades are very limited to say the least.
Kombi-rokkitz are nice, but not when 1/3 will hit, and even then its not likely to do a great deal.
The kombi skorcha is worth it though.
More for the simple fact of thinning troops or as an overwatch reaction to help remove a threat.


So yea, they look good on paper, but really do struggle alot.
They shouldnt be compared to termies either.
Termies have a range of upgrades allowing them to be tailored to certain roles, and also have a consistant way of getting into combat (if your tayloring them for CC)

They really are not that great, and its sad to say since i still have my goffwing army of 35 of them.



Nob bikers on the other hand are pretty much the flipside of this.
The have the speed, and can easily use this to make use of cover.
The upgrades are great, and really do help to make them a multi-purpose unit.
Mixing weapons means you still get klaw attacks, but you have big choppa attacks going before that to thin out units.
They do suffer from no bosspole, but due to the other upgrades, you can make sure you can pick the fights you want.



If you have to pick between the 2, bikerz stand out as a much stronger unit.
Meganobz are more of a fun unit, or something you load into a wagon to try and cause a bit of damage with while they draw fire.

Nob Bikers are great, and I use them extensively in my Speed Freek Lists. They're T5 with 2 wounds and will usually have a 4+ save, as well as FNP. If you're willing to go that extra bit further with them, you can get them a 5++. They absolutely wreck face in combat too, and they can be made scoring units! :thumsbup:

Meganobz can't over watch. Slow and Purposeful.

I love both units, Mega nobz in trukk(manz missle)
or battlewagon. Do sum propa crumpin'

Nob bikers what's not to love about t5 4+ cover and armor save, 5+ inv 5+ fnp along with the painboy
and taking them with a warboss on bike <3

Meganobz can't over watch. Slow and Purposeful.

Good call, i missed that one even though i brought up about them having S&P.
Ta


Also, i missed about cybork on the bikerz.
Its more than worth the points to save 1/3 wounds that would normally strip through armour or cover.

 Jackal wrote:

Meganobz can't over watch. Slow and Purposeful.

Good call, i missed that one even though i brought up about them having S&P.
Ta


Also, i missed about cybork on the bikerz.
Its more than worth the points to save 1/3 wounds that would normally strip through armour or cover.

Well can allways have painboss from imperial armor 8 with the meganobz to give them FNP...

Or mad dok to give them FNP & Cybork. but then they are nutcases and gotta charge the closest thing there is xD

OomieCrusha wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I'll probably use Meganobz on occasion to screw with people and will look more into the bikers - they're so expensive on Forgeworld though.

Yeah, but it isn't too hard to make three nob bikers out of a regular warbiker mob box set. You just need some proper upper nob bodies. I used one from the Ork Boys box, as well as an AOBR nob. A little fiddling about to get the arms to fit with the bike, and that's that - looks just fine on the table.

tgjensen wrote:

OomieCrusha wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I'll probably use Meganobz on occasion to screw with people and will look more into the bikers - they're so expensive on Forgeworld though.

Yeah, but it isn't too hard to make three nob bikers out of a regular warbiker mob box set. You just need some proper upper nob bodies. I used one from the Ork Boys box, as well as an AOBR nob. A little fiddling about to get the arms to fit with the bike, and that's that - looks just fine on the table.

^ Diz... The thing about orks YOU DONT NEED THE CORRECT MODELS orks are the biggest conversion army der iz! WE BE DA BIGGEST UND DA BEST!

MegaNobz have a bunch of stupid, nonsensical restrictions on gear and characters that cripple them as a unit. If it weren't for that they'd be fantastic.

Even with that they are ok, but still, the pointless lack of Painboy/Banner/Bosspole pisses me off to the point where I don't want to use them out of principle

I'm hoping to buy someone's Nob Bikers soon (as soon as tomorrow). I don't really want Meganobz until they get a plastic kit with more diverse options. At that point, I'm also grabbing Ghazzy, shoving them in a Battlewagon and be rolling thunder.