Chaos Biker advice

[evil_red_orks]

Im almost done painting the troop part of my army. For those that dont know im doing a one of each kind cult troop list.

Im gonna do something different and i decided to take some chaos bikers.

Which would everyone be afraid of more... 7 Nurgle marked bikers w/ two meltaguns or 8 Khorne marked bikers w/2 melta guns???

Im using sacred numbers for each of the troop squads(9, 8, 7, and 6), all will be in rhinos. Also taking a possessed vindicator, flying prince, and either a pred or defiler not sure which one of thos yet.

Anyhoo, any comments about the bikers would help me choose.

[rotnak1271]

To answer the question, neither really. Playing guard i wound both on a 6 in cc and a demo bomb kills either on 2s.

That squad seems like an awfully expensive way to put 2 fast meltaguns on the table.

What is the role you on the table you want that squad to fill?

If you're trying to avoide termicide and keep to marked squads at sacred numbers what about 6 raptors with 2 meltas, champ with claws and mark of slanesh? That should leave you with extra points for more toys.

Or if you are looking for a token fast unit and want something you don't see everyday what about Spawn?

Ultimately i am a big fan of the rule of cool. If you like one over the other and think one will look better once you're done go with that one.

[Garou24]

I vote raptors also. I have a bunch and i like them over bikers, mainly due to the models, but they perform well. Moving 12 inches and being able to deep strike where needed with Meltas.

If you were going to do the bikers I guess Nurgle bikers would be tougher with the high toughness and cover saves from moving fast. They are a huge chunk of points too, but I think they would be harder for some armies to deal with over the Khorne ones.

[MajorSoB]

First off, I want to clarify that you should always play what you like, so any advice or comments should be tempered with this statement.

Marked bikers currently suffer from the same problems that marked terminators do. You play a lot of points for a standard which only gives them some of the cult benefits and if lost makes the whole squad become just regular chaos warriors. Most bikers seem to be taken as fast melta troops that are used to side shot a hidden or obscured tank. Nurgle bikes are interesting because they are now toughness 6, but the huge drawback is that they don't get FNP which is by far the best thing about being Nurgle. I see the use in Khorne Bikers as well, but 8 can be really expensive points wise. When I run 7 Nurgle termies it comes to around 300pts and rarely do they ever make them back. With that in mind I think you should build and model what you like, that way you will be ahead of the game when the new codex comes out. I would probably hold off on raptors since the current models are top heavy and who knows, maybe GW will replace them with something better when the new codex arrives. Have fun with what you decide and post your progress.

[pogysnacks]

Thing is i agree w doug, take what you like because you can use them to good effect depending on your tactics. Khorne would probably be scariest when they hit with the bonus attack, while nurgle with the higher toughness wont really do to much considering the vast amount of high str shooting present in the codices currently...at least with khorne you have a higher chance to do more damage

[Catachan Colonel]

As someone who has used chaos bikers, i would advise the khorne bikers out of those choices as well. Most the shots that bother with bikers are high strength high AP or just in such volume that they dont care what toughness you are. Add that to ther whole dark eldar army not caring about toughness and more killing power beats out a little more toughness.

Bikers are a good platform if you want a mobile icon for later deepstrikes or deamon summoning. I have had good luck with a naked champion in the unit so that he can get posessed by the greater deamon.

It seems odd but i would recomend a melta bomb more than the melta guns in the unit. or flamers if they are khorne bikers as what are the extra attacks for if they are off shooting predators and russes.

[pogysnacks]

yea and with them toting icons you can deepstrike 3 oblits right in your opponents face and watch the horror on his face when obliterators start making things disappear..plus the whole summoning a greater demon right in your opponents face is pretty fun

[MajorSoB]

While I agree the the mobile icon / champion is good, the biggest issue you face when attempting this is the random nature of reserves when trying to get in your oblits, terms, daemons, etc. If you don't get them in on turn 2 most smart players will take out your icon immediately to prevent this, but then again when it works its pretty d**n awesome too!

[professor]

I think I would go with the Nurgle bikes, they are expensive but T6 is pretty awesome to have floating around on a platform with Meltas. I agree with Doug's overall assessment though, at the end of the day if you are considering bikes in CSM you are not thinking super competitive so do the one you like to paint the most.

Khorne bikes seem somehow underwhelming to me overall, +1 A is not worth the 20 point savings on the banner. 7 is going to come in w/ a champion around 300 points...ouch!

[evil_red_orks]

Thanks for all the great responses!!! Im leaning toward Nurgle bikers, my list isnt going to be that competitve anyway so waht the hell.

This army is gonna be high on the cool and fun factor though.

[skyth]

Feb 13, 2012 1:25:07 GMT -5 MajorSoB said:

I would probably hold off on raptors since the current models are top heavy

I like the Raptor models, but I agree, they are very top heavy. I have two squads, one the original Raptor models and the others were a group of flying possessed from the 3.5 codex that I repurposed.

What I did was take some chaos marine bodies, made liberal use of the mutation sprue and added jump packs from imperial marines (I had a couple extra sprues of them). They make nice Raptors, but are not top heavy since they are both a)plastic, and b) on the ground.

I don't have any pictures uploaded or I would show you.

Then again, bikes just seem a lot cooler than Raptors to me. Whatever floats your boat

[Garou24]

Raptors are finecast now, so lighter than the metal ones.

[jdubb]

If you've already got all the marks covered with troops, would you consider undivided for your bikes? For only 5 points more than 7 Nurgle bikers you can get 2 squads of bikes:


Total Cost: 321

Fast Attack: Bikers (4#, 177 pts)
3 Bikers, 129 pts = 3 * 33 (base cost 33) + Chaos Glory 10 + Meltagun x2 20
1 Biker Champion, 48 pts

Fast Attack: Bikers (3#, 144 pts)
2 Bikers, 96 pts = 2 * 33 (base cost 33) + Chaos Glory 10 + Meltagun x2 20
1 Biker Champion, 48 pts


For that 5 points you get 2 more melta guns, 1 more icon, 1 more champion for the greater daemon to possess, and an extra unit that the enemy has to target . Just a thought.

[rotnak1271]

Not a bad idea from jdubb there.

For my raptors I used the standard imperial jump packs and the berzerker running legs. Gets the point across, chaos dudes with jump packs coming to rip your face off.

Still comes back to what you want the squad to accomplish tho. If you're looking for cheap melta and daemon bomb then raptors or the two undivided squads would be better. If you're looking to try and bring something big to draw fire the khorne bikers are probably your best bet.

Or what looks cooler.