Food For Thought: Playing and Beating Bike Armies

Bear on CMON

With White Scar biker armies heralded as the next big thing, I thought I'd compile a few links covering playing with and against biker armies. As I'm expecting that there may be a few at the upcoming 40kGT, I'm very interested in knowing how to beat them too!

I'm also expecting a few players to avoid bringing MCs to the tournament thanks to how many grav guns might be kicking about, and if they happen to have a chaos army too, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide that the good old helldrakes need to get some fresh air.

So with that in mind, I thought these articles might be interesting to anyone playing with or against bikers (White Scars, Ravenwing or otherwise):

Ravenwing basics and tactics on Skuzzlebumm's Skuzzlebutt. Plenty of battle reports there too, including ETC games.

Discussion on counters to White Scars (and some counter-counters!) on 40k War Zone.

Some initial list ideas on the White Scars blog and Sons of Sanguinius. Sure they are plenty of others popping up too.

If you've got any ideas or suggestions for links please feel free to post them in the comments!

11 comments:

  1. Honestly, I'd not be surprised to see more nurgle flying dp, with no armour, 2+ cover save in ruins, and by the sound of the marine bits tau lists may have to evolve, I'd not be surprised to see less wraithknights and riptides.

    One thing is grav weapons don't bode well for the new tyranids, they could be dead before the dex releases...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good catch thinking headed to the new 'nids. You never know, there may be a decent low armour hoard build! I hope they do a genestealer cult supplement though, 'cos that would be epic.

      Delete
    2. Saying that grav weapons might kill a codex we know nothing about is a fair bit of fear mongering and speculation, in my opinion. Yes, grav guns wound MC's pretty well, very well in the case of a Riptide or similar, but so do Lascannons. Besides, a grav gun heavy army is going to be at a severe disadvantage if it comes up against a Daemon list of really any competent build.
      Overall, I think the bugs will be fine.

      Delete
    3. Weld speculation, sure. Fear mongering, well not deliberately! :-)

      I think there will be plenty of builds that a grav gun heavy list could struggle with. You've mentioned demons, and an army with lots of light mech might cause problems too.

      I think grav weaponry has its uses, but plasma, melta and flamers still fill other useful roles. As always, overloading on one element without bringing all the tools can leave you open to a rock/paper/scissors game, which is one I try to avoid as much as possible!

      As for 'nids, time will tell! I've never played with the bugs, but since grav weaponry doesn't have a huge range, perhaps a deep screen of gribblies in front of the big bugs could keep the grav weapons at bay for a bit? As you say, I'm guessing 'nids will adapt and evolve to deal with the threat.

      Delete
    4. Well perhaps not, on the fear mongering. I just heartily dislike all the doom and gloom that gets so carelessly tossed around.

      Delete
    5. Its not doom and gloom on my part, nids were my first army, I really hope the next dex will be more than tervigon and flying ht spam. This is a thread about how things will affect the meta and the game, hypothesising GW may have dropped the ball seems fair... They do have a habit of it for nids! ;)

      Delete
    6. I'd be a liar if I said they didn't have that habit, hornywingythingy. I also hope the Tyranids get a solid book, better codexes means I have a more diverse selection of armies to play.

      Delete
  2. Well the rumours were for no reduction in the cost of the mc, and a weakening of the psychics, whilst a horde might work, its not great for tournies, it takes too long to move the models, leaving you vulnerable to time outing on games...... Plus you need synapse somewhere.... Anyhow, not to prejudge or anything, I hope its awesome...

    Yeah, I have like 75 genestealers and two broodlords for my nids, I'd jump all over a cult supplement.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Been thinking a bit more about tactics vs bikes, and thought of this: Place objectives on the second floor of any available ruins. Bikes can't go up onto the upper levels, but could still be within 3" of an objective on the first floor. Situational, but potentially handy!

    ReplyDelete