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Ever since I started collecting Orks (about 6 months ago) I have been hearing/reading that Nob Bikers and a Warboss on bike are awesome (both somewhat competitive and fun), and I can see why
They are a powerful unit that are extremly mobile, very survivable, can shoot well and are beasts in close combat even against the toughest opponents. They are an all around unit (not to mention they look awesome).
But they cost a metric ton of points, and I keep hearing something along the lines "I dont think they will work in that type of a list".
I really want to run them in a list, especially since I already made 5 Nob Bikers and a Warboss on bike.
So here is my inquiry.
What type of army composition is it best to run Nob bikers (a concept, not an exact list), and what are the most optimal setups to run them in (both in number of models and loadout) ?

This question comes up all the time, and theres no one answer. Which is good, because that would make the game very one dimensional.

Personally I take five or six with a Bikerboss. Chuck a klaw in there and one on the boss, then take painboy banner bosspole orderly and cybork. Edit: Also, a couple of Kombi-Skorchas. These things are *amazing* but you do get diminishing returns for each one you add.

Theres at least one guy on here who takes ten with no gear and claims its really good, but I dunno about that. I ran 25 a few weeks back and got massacred by Daemons.

I was trying to add them in a trukk army
(4 trukkerboyz squads, 2 small loota squads, 1 bigmek kff, 5 nobs (2 pc, 2 big choppa, 1 painboy, cybork) 1 warboss and 2 deffkoptas /w rokkits)
The feedback was somewhat negative towards the idea

The other option i was thinking of trying out for 1k points (for battling my Blood Angels opponent) was 2x 24man squads of shootaboyz, the boss and 4 nob bikers (1 claw in the nobs squad) and 2 5xLootas squads to fight an army with 2 assault marines squads (/w sang priests) , mephiston and a librarian dreadnaught, my logic being he will want to come to me anyways so trukks would be a bit pointless in that scenario.

As for the Kombiskorchas, I usually put 0 or 2 in there. They are sometimes amazing and sometimes are basically on par with just shooting the dakkaguns, so im not sure if they should be an auto-include

The beauty of Nob Bikers is that they tend to work very well as an accent to any list.

You can essentially fill out your troop choices with pretty much anything and you will be good to go. With Battlewagon Bash/Trukk Spam you're just running up the opposite side of the board to take out other high-priority targets, or hiding from sight behind your vehicles. They are an excellent task force in a Kan Wall, applying some pressure on the side, and they're a natural fit into a Wazdakka/Warbiker list.

I wouldn't even bother with the Warboss most of the time TBH. They don't NEED to be troops, and you can just tool them up to make up for the lost boss. I tend to run 5 or 6, with the following load-out (all Cybork'd):
1: Waaagh! Banner, Bosspole, PK
2: Bosspole, PK
3: Painboy
4: Big Choppa or Slugga/Choppa
5: Big Choppa or Slugga/Choppa
(6: Big Choppa or Slugga/Choppa)

Things should be placed so the Choppa guys get killed first, and then the naked PK guy goes next. The Painboy you should try to keep alive until second last, and do everything to keep your Banner alive as long as possible. He has the most power output, and is a huge force multiplier with the WS 5. Also, don't forget to re-roll leadership with your bosspole, like I did for an entire game... The last thing you want is them running away from the fight.

The best way to run them is... just run them. They are ridiculously survivable with T5 and a 4+/5++ with 4+ cover all the time and FNP. Try them in any list, and have fun seeing them survive pretty much everything thrown at them.

I only really field Battlewagon Rush, but I think Nob Bikers and a Biker Boss would fit in well with any fast army. They would only really fail if the rest of your army was footslogging behind. That way, the opponent would simply turn all his firepower on the Nob Bikers and still have time to whittle down the boyz behind. If you take them in a fast list, then they'll likely waste tons of firepower on the Bikers, leaving the rest of your army unscathed (or vice versa).

In terms of setup, here's what I run:

1) Waaghh! Banner, Bosspole, PK
2) PK
3-5) Big Choppa, Combi-Skorcha
6) Painboy, Grot Orderly

I always run them with a Warboss as I think the fact they're Troops is awesome and it comes in very, very handy.

Group of 3 or 5 is what I like to Run (3 for Sub 1250 point Games) 5 for 1500 + games with Wagon and Trukker Boyz as well
Load out
for 3
PK+WB,BC+BP,PB,Cybork (Total 235)
For 5 add in 2 BC (Total 345) (May also take 0-3 Kombi Skorcha) (Magnetized mount)

I often run Deffkoptas or Warbikers to supplement ..

Well it seems i have been spot on so far xD
I would also like to know when is it not smart to bring nob bikers?
Against what armies are they not as good, even bad, and why?

I take nob bikers with a warboss all the time. My profile pic shows my boss man. I use them for a variety of reasons, but mostly to get in, krump mean things, and die. I NEVER make the warboss my warlord, because I always expect him to die. I send them after anything with armor.
The only thing I've found that they're not that good against is giant mobs. Try to keep them from getting assaulted by cultists or a ton of blood letters or the like. You'll win, sure, but it just takes so dang long to get out of there. Also, don't bother with kombi rokkits. They're effectively useless.

I usually take the following load out:
Warboss: squig, PK, cybork, kombi skorcha
1 PK, WAAAGH banner, skorcha
1 PK, skorcha
2 BC, skorcha
1 Painboy
2-5 slugga choppa
All cybork

I take the regular guys because of the number of attacks they get. It helps a lot against infantry.

I haven't found an army that they're BAD against, because there's nothing they can't kill. The only unit I'm afraid of is terminators with either hammers, halbeards, or fists and storm shields. They're so hard to take down that I usually leave those to lootas or my jets. I don't like losing my bikers to something so slow.
Like I said, giant mobs are probably their one weakness, just because of overwhelming numbers. Other than that, go krump stuff. for example:
I killed a blood thirster in one turn, only suffering one casualty. I killed three Lehman Russ tanks in one round, multi assaulting with my three PKs all spread out. I've killed an entire unit of scarabs with the skorchas. I didn't even have to charge. I took out an entire Raven Wing with a chaplain on a bike. You get the picture. I try lists without them sometimes, but I miss them when I do. Also, modeling them is super fun, because you can use crazy bits to beef the bikes up.

I love it.
My bikers are already in the mail (and some bits aswell) and have to think of a cool way to make a warboss biker
cant wait to field them ^_^
btw I heard they are not so good vs Tau since they take away your cover and kill them really fast
is this true ?
Also how do they fare vs things like Mephiston, or a Dreadnaught? Can I bank on them to deal with such threats or should I focus on gunning down those threats and avoid them with the nob bikers ?

You'll want to steer clear of anything that can inflict instant death. With 2 wounds and FNP, biker nobz are very durable -- as long as you actually get to use those bonuses. In fact, the Warboss isn't there just to make them scoring: he serves a valuable role in soaking up S10 firepower (while the rest of the hits get reallocated by Look Out, Sir!).

Mephiston wouldn't be too dangerous except that he carries a force sword. With his high strength and good initiative, he's more than capable of krumping your boss before he even gets to swing his power klaw. Declining the challenge isn't any better, as that sword will carve through the nobz just as well.

Most shooting weapons lack the instant death property inherently, so your primary concern there is S10 firepower. By leading your squad with the Boss, you can soak those wounds on a T6 model, but be wary of the IG Manticores. Because they have Barrage, they allocate to the model closest to the center of the pie plate, not closest to the firing model. And since each Manticore drops d3 pie plates per shooting phase, you might find your Warboss without any Nobz to lead!

Goddamnit, I hate Manticores so much. Never have I seen a unit thats less fun to go up against. Not even the Screamer Star competes.

I once flat out walked away from a game that was suppost to be 'fun and casual' but the other guy had brought this crap (and helldrakes no less) to the table.

You need 9 nobs and 2 x WB on bikes = Fearless until they lose 1. Charge forward, must have plenty of lootas/big guns for fire support.

How often are you going to have to take a morale test without losing a biker though?

 Dakkamite wrote:
How often are you going to have to take a morale test without losing a biker though?

yep
besides the boss is leadership 9 (with reroll thanks to bosspole)
so it should be hard to break them from shooting, and they mostly should win closecombats

 Spydermonkey1351 wrote:
I NEVER make the warboss my warlord

Care to enlighten us on how to do that ? The Warboss has the highest leadership in our army, unless you take 2 Warbosses, he *has* to be your Warlord.

 Spydermonkey1351 wrote:
there's nothing they can't kill

Try a Daemon Prince with Black Mace and tell us how it went...

...or any combat-oriented MC for that matter. "Let's see how well your carnifex handles my nob bikers!" was probably one of the dumbest things I ever did during a game. Walkers, beatsticks and other deathstars also make a mess out of nob bikers.

 Delevarius wrote:

 Dakkamite wrote:
How often are you going to have to take a morale test without losing a biker though?

yep
besides the boss is leadership 9 (with reroll thanks to bosspole)
so it should be hard to break them from shooting, and they mostly should win closecombats

I have lost three games so far due to a warboss failing a rerolled ld9 and 400+ points running of the table. It doesn't happen often, but it's far from impossible. Also take into account that certain wargear/psychic powers/special rules can decrease your ld.

This is true, but still the nob bikers with a boss are one of the biggest damagedealers in the game and are almost equally survivable. Atleast this is what I am led to believe .

The only time I have had problems with my bikerboss and nobs was against grey knights. He deployed his whole army directly across my biker boys and was unable to unload soooo many psycannon and storm bolter shots in to them that by turn 2 I only had the painboy and the warboss left.

Nobbikers are so awesome i bring them in almost every list. Even if im doing the unorky green gunline i still have them because they are insanely strong.

Can we take Grot Orderlies with a Painboy that's on a Bike? I wonder how a kitbash of that would look like...

 DieselJester wrote:
Can we take Grot Orderlies with a Painboy that's on a Bike? I wonder how a kitbash of that would look like...

Yes you can though its not too useful and the bikers already cost alot of points
So unless I need to fill up a few points and have nothing else I want to spend them on I probably wouldnt

Why would you even want orderlies? 5pts for a single 5+ reroll FNP? thats worse than grot riggers since atleast they can do their job multiple times and its a 4+

I'd take it if it was like 10pts to reroll a single FNP every turn, or 1pt for what it is now lol

I've taken a few ammo runts with my bikes to fill some points but never the grot orderlies.

I would love to model little tiny bikes for the ammo runts, grot orderlies and attack squig to ride on.

that'd be hilarious to have a pint-sized bike trailing the painboy lol. Kinda makes me think of a clown i saw as a kid (tall dude like 6ft 5in or more, since he towered over my dad whos 6ft) drove around on this 1 1/2 foot long motorcycle during parades. The size difference between the Orks and the Grot bikes would be about that lol

5 points for a 33% chance to save a 50+ point model or even your biker warboss... how is this a bad use of points again?

an ork player knows when to throw da boss into the fray.
you just look at a list and go dang that needs bikers!
i have used my bikers alot in my local area and i think they are great. my only problem is a need a new warboss cus mine always roles 1s in assault and roles 6s for leadership checks. i ifnd them fleeing alot and struggling to regroup till like t4-5 where they cant get in assault.
the best way i can think to address this situation of mine is to have equal threats. such as battlewagons filled with boyz or a lot of trukks jam packed with boyz.
anyway in my case "my" bikers are bad most others are great!
never go over-bored on them as they do have that risk of running off.
Edit: i think warbikers and nobbikers do not mix well. using warbikers are a little to costly for my taste! "just my opinion"

 Dakkamite wrote:
5 points for a 33% chance to save a 50+ point model or even your biker warboss... how is this a bad use of points again?

Agree, whenever I have 5 points left to spend, I get my painboy an orderly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Orkimedezz wrote:
Edit: i think warbikers and nobbikers do not mix well. using warbikers are a little to costly for my taste! "just my opinion"

That's not a bad opinion to have
You basically get 'ard boyz with big shootaz for trouble, which really isn't that impressive for 25 points a piece. A lot of people seem to do well with them though.

I am mostly planning to use them with 4 trukks and some lootas in 1500~ games, though I also have a 1k list planned with shootaboyz on foot, lootas and the bikers to run against a BA army a friend of mine has ( jumpy marines /w priests, dante and a furioso librarian) my logic being that he will come to me so I just need to stand and dakka untill he comes close enough

Care to post that list? I've been trying to cram Nob Bikers, Trukks, Lootas, Grot Bomms and Kannons into 1850... best I've gotten sofar is over 2k

This is my list so far, since I dont have any more models :( but I am working on it
I was thinking of using Shootaboyz in the trukks, trukk armies tend to be able to charge turn 2, and Slugga boyz are better in that case (the only situation where they are)
Also I am not sure If I should cut one powerclaw from the nobs and the one on the Big Mek =/
4 trukks I think is the sweet spot for a boyz count in such an army, if i'd add more trukks it would probably be a Nobz or MANz squad I guess.
I was thinking of adding a 20 Shootaboyz squad (nob with big choppa and bosspole) to help with holding objectives, and dakka from the middle of the field (donno if its a good idea in a fast list),
Definitely I will add another 5man squad of lootas, maybe a couple of Deffkotas /w TL Rokkits and atleast one squad of 3 Kannons
That adds another 225 points bringing it up to 1617, and if i add the 20 boyz squad that is another 150 points, bringing it up to 1717, and the rest I havent decided yet, maybe bring up the lootas to 7x or 9x per squad, dont know