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Hey mates, quick question for you. Basically, I am running a SM Bike Army and in regards to the Sgt. per squad, would it be worth it to take a PF with him for the CC potential? Or would I be better off with Melta Bombs and a standard CCW or Combi-Weapon? Anyone with any Veteran Bike Army Experience, feel free to help out and I appreciate it.

Depends, in a standard 3 man bike squad, its usually not worth it. Either they're running around hunting tanks via Melta guns and Melta bombs, or gunning down infantry and harassing, via Flamers/Plasma Guns. in a 5-6 man bike squad, you could take one if your bikes are gonna be MC hunters with Grav Guns.

What do you want your bikes to do?

 jreilly89 wrote:
Depends, in a standard 3 man bike squad, its usually not worth it. Either they're running around hunting tanks via Melta guns and Melta bombs, or gunning down infantry and harassing, via Flamers/Plasma Guns. in a 5-6 man bike squad, you could take one if your bikes are gonna be MC hunters with Grav Guns.

What do you want your bikes to do?

Right now I am looking for them to be as flexible as possible. Game plan is to get enough for a Command Squad and 4x Squads of Bikes. From there, considering giving them all Grav or Melta, or do 2x of each with the Command Squad being a nasty CC unit (unless they would be better off with Grav Guns as well). Either way, would prefer to have them be able to have the ability to multi-task if that makes sense.

if your running nothing but bikes like a lemming i suppose it really doesnt matter, cc hasnt been a relevant form of combat in 40k since 5th edition

Generally, you want to avoid upgrade bloat. Powerfists are a quick way to waste points. You get 5-6 squads of bikers each with a powerfist and suddenly all those fists could have been another 3-4 bikers.

Now if you have finished your lost and have 25 points leftover and nothing else to spend it on, then sure slap one on there. Or maybe if its a large squad you are thinking will be a melee squad. But if you are taking smaller squads just to get as many special weapons the table keep them bare bones.

I'd just give the Sergeant a combi-melta as a cheap compromise.

Powerfists are a bit more risky to use than they used to be, they can be singled out and strike last. And they cost more in points. You'd only want to use them against specific targets, otherwise you might want just a power sword if you're looking for a bit of melee flexibility. But i agree with the posts above. ^

Well, I use them in my 5 man squad. Led by Chapter Master of punch-face.

But also when I don't use CM P-F. At some point, I'm going to Jink. At that point, I can either run away, or charge. Since there's no second CCW for bonus attack, I figure you might as well go PF. 5 pts more than PSword + MB, but you get 3 attacks on the charge, assuming Vet Sarge.

I think they work ok, but I don't expect them to do more damage then they'll do.