Bike Squad Charges 3 Units?!

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**Sazzlefrats**

In a recent game my opponent feilded a 4 man bike unit with 2 melta guns, a champion with a flamer and a powerfist, master crafted, spikey bits, mutated attack.

At the start of his turn he moves the bikes their 12 inches. He contemplates shooting a falcon only inches away withthe melta guns, and then charging the bikes widthwise (because they are nearly 3 inches long vs 1inch wide. The idea is that two bikes attack the falcon and the other two bikes have just enough reach to attack the falcon and reach one member of a squad in the front of the falcon and one member of a squad on the rear of the falcon.

The following diagram shows the 3 eldar units, and the bikes already charged and turn sideways to get enough frontage to stretch to all three units.

SQUAD 1      F A L C O N      SQUAD 2
                BIKE BIKE BIKE BIKE

The only way for him to do this is charging forward with the bikes then when each one reaches base contact turning it sideways.

So question 1
     Can you turn bikes sideways at the end of your charge? At the end of turbo boosting?

And question 2
     If you shoot the falcon with one or more bikes, can one or more bikes make a split charge as long as they are touching the falcon, but direct all attacks at infantry instead of the falcon? (please refer to the example above

**mughi3**

ok IIRC just going by base rules, since marine bikers are upgraded infantry and not vehicles he could do that, but it is piss poor sportsmanship if he does so IMO.

if he is assulting with bikes, as a bike player i would just go for a single squad and the falcon because if he fails to hit or do anything to the falcon with his fist it is a vehicle and just leaves. he would then get the added bonus of using his otherwise innefective attacks on the squad instead and tie himself up in CC so he isn't shot at. next turn.

p.s. IIRC bikes cannot do anything (like assault) if they turbo. so turning then is kinda pointless in most cases. .

**nikeforever22**

yes...it's a perfectly legal move.

**Longshot**

Sounds legit to me. Charging multiple units is a very important aspect of the game for fast units

**cypher**

From what I remember you have to charge the side of the vehcile you are on. Cant move arround the side. If you cant all fit in base to base contact, to bad, pile into the 2in zone.

**Green Bloater**

Totally legit and has nothing to do with sportsmanship.

**cypher**

sorry misread, yea, it is legal.

**happypants**

Oh NO... I agree with green bloater...

Mughi, why is it poor sportsmanship?

**ATI**

Sounds very legitimate to me. I don't really see poor sportsmanship, its just utilizing your army to proper in assault, nothing worse or less.

**snooggums**

Posted By Sazzlefrats on 09/04/2006 7:22 PM
In a recent game my opponent feilded a 4 man bike unit with 2 melta guns, a champion with a flamer and a powerfist, master crafted, spikey bits, mutated attack.

At the start of his turn he moves the bikes their 12 inches. He contemplates shooting a falcon only inches away withthe melta guns, and then charging the bikes widthwise (because they are nearly 3 inches long vs 1inch wide. The idea is that two bikes attack the falcon and the other two bikes have just enough reach to attack the falcon and reach one member of a squad in the front of the falcon and one member of a squad on the rear of the falcon.

The following diagram shows the 3 eldar units, and the bikes already charged and turn sideways to get enough frontage to stretch to all three units.

SQUAD 1      F A L C O N      SQUAD 2
                BIKE BIKE BIKE BIKE

The only way for him to do this is charging forward with the bikes then when each one reaches base contact turning it sideways.

So question 1
     Can you turn bikes sideways at the end of your charge? At the end of turbo boosting?

And question 2
     If you shoot the falcon with one or more bikes, can one or more bikes make a split charge as long as they are touching the falcon, but direct all attacks at infantry instead of the falcon? (please refer to the example above

1) You move the model when you charge, it mentions mothing about turning so as long as you place the base in contact with that nearest model and the distance was within range before turning you have made a legal move. As noted above no assault after turbo boosting is allowed.
2) You have to come in base to base contact with a legal charge so your example above is legal if the falcon was still alive to charge. You can only direct your attacks at one of the units you are in base to base contact with though, so in your example the two middle bikes would fight the falcon and the two outside if touching the falcon and a squad could decide which to attack.

**Augustus**

Snoogums has it, I also agree with bloater, this is just smart play.

As an aside, a bike unit is so expensive anyway, why would charging sideways be an issue? I have seen so few bike units, almost exclusively limited to Chaos armies, and then, only occasionally, making an appearance in daemon bombs. They could use a boost, in most every game I see them played in they are killed 100% by turn 2, usually to small arms fire, as the invulnerable save makes shooting the big guns at them not worth it as much...

?

**Augustus**

Apologies for the leading Off Topic,...

But this is a great example of a situation where tank shoking a hand to hand unit is actually very likely... Furthermore it has been set up by the defender (player about to be hit by the TS) doesn't it seem like the bikes will live, the Falcon will live, and then the 2 bikes on the outside will be unable to kill their charge targets completely,...

So what happens when the Falcon overuns the 2 bikes that charged it in it's next turn?

**winterman**

As long as the person did this in such a way as to not add distance to the bikes 6" assault move then I can see no problem with it.

**winterman**

The above is not in reply to augusts' new question. Sorry for any confusion.

**The Drop Zone**

are bikes not part of a squadron?

and are sqaudrons coherency not 4" like land speeders?

if thats the case then its very possible to do what was described.. i did it with a 5 man bike squad and a land raider crusader

4 bikes and an attack bike wrapped around a the lrc and got a pen and killed the assault squad in it they could not get out thus they were dead.. it aslo helped the lrc was built wrong!

so remember boys and girlz dont build your lr or lrc by what the instructions show trust me

**beef**

no bike have to stay within 2" of each other as they are still classed as infantry.

**mughi3**

Posted By happypants on 09/05/2006 11:50 AM
Oh NO... I agree with green bloater...

Mughi, why is it poor sportsmanship?

as i said it isn't an illegal move, but i do think it takes away from the fun factor when you move bikes virtically to give them charge range and then turn them to give them charge width to a different unit. even though they are infantry i try to keep my biks all going the intended direction facing. the incident in question i would have been happy to tie up 1 squad and hit the skimmer with the bikes. instead of widening the bikes to tie up 2 sqauds and hit the skimmer. the fact that it is posted here means it was a point of confusion or tension, apparently the original poster was feeling as if he got screwed.

**Green Bloater**

Bikes have big bases so they are also great for assaulting multiple units. If you are able to hit a few S3 units in one go then all the better.