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So I've caved in and finally returned to playing Orks after almost four years away from them as the new vehicles are just too cool to ignore (and I really want to do a rocket league themed Ork army, it's such an Orky idea after all) so I've picked up a copy of speed freeks and am awaiting the arrival of a boomdakka snazz wagon. I'm probably going to be running something similar to this army list posted on the community page eventually but perhaps with more wheels and walkers and less walky gits seeing as they don't really fit with what I'm going for. The vehicles are fairly simple as they're all monobuild but I'm not sure what to load the bikers out with, I'm currently thinking of taking two identical squads of 3, with a nob wielding a big choppa. I'm not sure whether to give the bikers sluggas and choppas though, are they a good use of points? Of course I'm open to any suggestions with how to run them as I'm aware they're not a great pick and I don't really want to gimp my army by taking a poorly performing unit with a poor loadout.

One bigger blob is a better bet than two smaller ones because of the stratagem to give a speed freakz unit (which they are) -1 to hit. Remember that the standard warbikers are just boyz on bikes and as such are not that killy in combat, but are primarily a shooty unit that can occasionally bully some guardsmen and tie things up. Make sure to take a biker warboss due to their great point value and access to the awesome power klaw relic and pretty solid big choppa relic. Zhadsnark from FW is also a very good model to use if you go evil sunz, but he has not been updated to allow bikes to advance and charge so remember that.

Pretty sure biker boss is no longer an option in the codex.

 koooaei wrote:
Pretty sure biker boss is no longer an option in the codex.

You can still use him from the index though.

 koooaei wrote:
Pretty sure biker boss is no longer an option in the codex.

Here, take this:

 Glasdir wrote:
So I've caved in and finally returned to playing Orks after almost four years away from them as the new vehicles are just too cool to ignore (and I really want to do a rocket league themed Ork army, it's such an Orky idea after all) so I've picked up a copy of speed freeks and am awaiting the arrival of a boomdakka snazz wagon. I'm probably going to be running something similar to this army list posted on the community page eventually but perhaps with more wheels and walkers and less walky gits seeing as they don't really fit with what I'm going for. The vehicles are fairly simple as they're all monobuild but I'm not sure what to load the bikers out with, I'm currently thinking of taking two identical squads of 3, with a nob wielding a big choppa. I'm not sure whether to give the bikers sluggas and choppas though, are they a good use of points? Of course I'm open to any suggestions with how to run them as I'm aware they're not a great pick and I don't really want to gimp my army by taking a poorly performing unit with a poor loadout.

Do not take squads of 3. Bad idea. They lack punch and are fairly soft. The one thing they have going for them is the -1 to hit strategem but as strategems only buff 1 unit ever(damn GW incapable of doing scalable rules) if you use it to protect one unit enemy will simply delete the other unit. It's not even activated when you are shot but at the start of shooting phase which makes it even worse! So as big unit as you can afford. 6 if that's what you have, if you can fit in then more. Also try to make sure that when you pop in strategem they are in place enemy cannot ignore them easily or they will simply blow something else and you wasted CP.

Thought bikes all had slugga(not that they use it since they have deff gun and they are not suitable for prolonged combat) and choppa for free. For nob both big choppa and power klaw have their points.

But all in all bikes are fairly simple squad to arm. One squad as many as you can afford(money and point wise), one beefy weapon for nob and then try to hit some useful target. Just try to avoid enemy guns where possible. Even with -1 to hit they die in droves.

Have six here, only tried them once so far but they did ok on a flank - away from serious enemy firepower and able to force the enemy to deal with them while pinning down far more than their own points in firepower at a time the rest of my army was hitting the enemy lines.

they didn't last, but they did ok

tneva82 wrote:

 Glasdir wrote:
So I've caved in and finally returned to playing Orks after almost four years away from them as the new vehicles are just too cool to ignore (and I really want to do a rocket league themed Ork army, it's such an Orky idea after all) so I've picked up a copy of speed freeks and am awaiting the arrival of a boomdakka snazz wagon. I'm probably going to be running something similar to this army list posted on the community page eventually but perhaps with more wheels and walkers and less walky gits seeing as they don't really fit with what I'm going for. The vehicles are fairly simple as they're all monobuild but I'm not sure what to load the bikers out with, I'm currently thinking of taking two identical squads of 3, with a nob wielding a big choppa. I'm not sure whether to give the bikers sluggas and choppas though, are they a good use of points? Of course I'm open to any suggestions with how to run them as I'm aware they're not a great pick and I don't really want to gimp my army by taking a poorly performing unit with a poor loadout.

Do not take squads of 3. Bad idea. They lack punch and are fairly soft. The one thing they have going for them is the -1 to hit strategem but as strategems only buff 1 unit ever(damn GW incapable of doing scalable rules) if you use it to protect one unit enemy will simply delete the other unit. It's not even activated when you are shot but at the start of shooting phase which makes it even worse! So as big unit as you can afford. 6 if that's what you have, if you can fit in then more. Also try to make sure that when you pop in strategem they are in place enemy cannot ignore them easily or they will simply blow something else and you wasted CP.

Thought bikes all had slugga(not that they use it since they have deff gun and they are not suitable for prolonged combat) and choppa for free. For nob both big choppa and power klaw have their points.

But all in all bikes are fairly simple squad to arm. One squad as many as you can afford(money and point wise), one beefy weapon for nob and then try to hit some useful target. Just try to avoid enemy guns where possible. Even with -1 to hit they die in droves.

I haven't run any bikes in 8th yet, but with morale being what it is, I would think that msu squads of 3 would be the way to go. If I take 6 or 9 and lose half to enemy fire, it's pretty likely I'll lose the other half to morale and they're pretty expensive. Am I crazy to think that?

I wouldn't exactly call it crazy, but you have to consider how many ways there are to avoid moral casualties for orks:
- Warboss turns failed moral into d3 mortal wounds
- Mob Rule makes your unit moral equal to the model count of a nearby ork unit
- Nearby nobz or Waaagh! Banner prevent moral casualties on a 6+
- 2CP to auto-pass moral if none of those are nearby

So yeah, little reason to run MSU, especially considering that MSU squads are strictly worse than just running a biker warboss or buggy.

 Jidmah wrote:
I wouldn't exactly call it crazy, but you have to consider how many ways there are to avoid moral casualties for orks:
- Warboss turns failed moral into d3 mortal wounds
- Mob Rule makes your unit moral equal to the model count of a nearby ork unit
- Nearby nobz or Waaagh! Banner prevent moral casualties on a 6+
- 2CP to auto-pass moral if none of those are nearby

So yeah, little reason to run MSU, especially considering that MSU squads are strictly worse than just running a biker warboss or buggy.

Seems like that's very list dependent, though. If you're not running any index models, then your bikes probably aren't near a Warboss. They also probably aren't near any big mobs to help with morale (excepting perhaps first turn), the banner is not very reliable. It does leave the 2cp option though, but only once per phase, so you have to be sure that's where you want to spend it.

I'll probably just try it both ways and see what works best for me.

3 bikes have zero impact on the game though - you might as well not run bikes at all.

ok, just my 2 cents on this.
if you realy want to run alot of bikes then this is how i would do it.
run as goffs. they are fast enough to get into combat and with warttrike they are extra speedy, goffs will improve their performance in combat.

then do
one large squad of 12. keep a big choppa here for a cheaper unit. this is the "scrare"/"distraction carnifex" unit. keep characters by it to make it feel more imposing. every turn give it "billowing exhaust" to keep it survivable.

and while the big squad is the distrction then run as many 3man squads of bikers/nob bikers. chooses bigchop or pk (bigchppas for nobbikers to keep themas cheap as possible). these guys will objective grab and also squeeze between the enemy line to get at their harder hitters.
an small squad of 3 wont do much, but if a unit is attacked by 3 squads of 3 then they will start sweating.

did basic math for a bunch.of bikes.
-battalion with weirdboys (replace with other index bike characters if you want, i chose these becasue they are cheapest HQ)(wirdboyz can dajump grots infront of your big bike squad so you can use "grotshield" ) and grots for cp battery (214)
-wartrike (120)
-big bike squad of 12 with bigchop (281)
-x3 bike with pk=82 x2 (164)
-x3 nob bikerz with bigchoppas=129 x3 (387)

rule of 3 will limit this list but this comes down to total of 1166pts. the rest of the list should have anything else that is fast in your army (new buggies,battlewagons,truks,defkoptas,or more characters). what i have here is 27 bikers (some being nob bikers of course)

the main way any ork list survives enemy shooting is by redundancy. if you want to bring bikers and want to see some survive to make into combat then max out the rule of 3 as much as you can. any other vehicle you bring whether it be new buggies or boyz in trucks should be taken as much as possible to also see any unit make it into combat. if you bring one truck with tankbustas then expect your opponent to insta gib the thing, so take 3 or more.

thats my 2 cents, at least how i would run a "biker" list.

They are just boyz in combat though... so why the goff trait?

 Jidmah wrote:
They are just boyz in combat though... so why the goff trait?

to make them more usefull in combat.

Goff doesn't do that though.

12 warbikers have 36 attacks, goff adds 6 to that.
6 attacks hit 4 times, wound T3 2.66 times, kill 1.7 additional guardsmen, guardians or similar units. On top of the 23 you are already killing with your dakkaguns and normal attacks.

Goff is pretty much wasted on warbikers, bad moons would increase their damage output by more than goff - while the Evil Suns ability would probably net the biggest bonus as you could be in combat T1 without loosing any shooting.

 Jidmah wrote:
Goff doesn't do that though.

12 warbikers have 36 attacks, goff adds 6 to that.
6 attacks hit 4 times, wound T3 2.66 times, kill 1.7 additional guardsmen, guardians or similar units. On top of the 23 you are already killing with your dakkaguns and normal attacks.

Goff is pretty much wasted on warbikers, bad moons would increase their damage output by more than goff - while the Evil Suns ability would probably net the biggest bonus as you could be in combat T1 without loosing any shooting.

Pretty much this. Warbikers don't have enough attacks to warrant trying to get additional hits off 6's and being in CC is generally a thing they want to avoid unless it's bullying weakened backline units. I would say Evil Sunz is best to use their hit and run esque playstyle, by allowing you to advance but fire at full efficiency at all times. Technically Snakebitez are also a potential option if you want more survivable ones, since the 6+ FNP does more for them given their multiple wounds.

have Blud Axe bikes here, only 6, unlikely to get more soon, think the blud axe ability helps them, charge, do some damage, if they survive weakened they can pull back, shoot then stay at range to stay existing and force the enemy to actually finish them.

if I was starting anew would be Evil Sunz though, think in this book thats the theme GW are pushing

Ok, so that's a lot to think about. I can see the general consensus if for larger units, as I've now got the codex I can now see that the Nob can also take a killsaw as a combat weapon. It's only 2 points more than a power klaw, has 2 damage as a fixed amount and has -4 rend instead of -3. My current thoughts are unit of 6 bikers with a killsaw Nob, how does that sound to everyone?