40k From Nowhere, USA

Today I want to talk about my Biker Space Marine List. It is as follows

HQ
Kahn
-Moondraken

Command Squad
-Bikes
-Champion
-3 Power Weapons
-Power Fist

Troops
Bike Squad
-+5 bikers
-Sarge PF
-2 Meltaguns
-Attack Bike with Multi-melta

Bike Squad
-+5 bikers
-Sarge PF
-2 Meltaguns
-Attack Bike with Multi-melta

Bike Squad
-+5 bikers
-Sarge PF
-2 Meltaguns
-Attack Bike with Multi-melta

Elites
Ironclad Dreadnought
-2 HK missiles
-Hurricane Bolter
-Seismic Hammer w/meltagun
-Drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought
-2 HK missiles
-Hurricane Bolter
-Seismic Hammer w/meltagun
-Drop pod

Ironclad Dreadnought
-2 HK missiles
-Hurricane Bolter
-Seismic Hammer w/meltagun
-Drop Pod

Total 1995 pts

I have now played a few games with this list and I am really starting to be happy with how tactically flexible it is. It works as follows: Everyone starts the game in reserve. Why? Simple. If the enemy has any sort of long range artillery, eg. Leman Russ Battle Tank or a Vindicator, my bikes are toast. With high strength weapons, bikes die just as easily as regular marines, at nearly double the price. Oh, and if they just happen to fail their morale check, they run 3d6” away instead of the normal 2d6”. With only 30 Bikes, and 3 Dreads at 2000 points, you need to be careful with your limited forces.

I have tried to do a pure biker list, but it just is not quite as effective or detrimental without the Ironclad armor. Ironclads are nice because of the AV 13, and from my experience tend to be much more survivable than regular dreadnoughts when they are dropped in.

So if you go first:

You don’t quite know what the enemy has, so you want to outflank. The important thing about choosing your deployment zone is to deny the enemy the better deployment. You want to make sure that he can deploy closer to the edges, where your bikes can come in. Remember that cover is also a consideration. As bikes have no ability to climb up into 2^nd level ruins, the less that the enemy has the ability to get set up into the cover, the better for you.

One of you might think that deployment is actually an ok strategy in this situation, after all you are going first. 40k is about implementing a plan and sticking with it. If the enemy takes the initiative, you may be toast. The point is, the less the enemy can do to screw up your plans, the better your plan (maybe I’ll do a tactica on this sometime).

If you deploy second:

Same story, outflank. There is an upside to deploying second, the enemy is not expecting you to keep everything in reserve. If they are, that’s fine, it doesn’t matter. The plan for you does not require the enemy to do anything.

Turn 1:

If the enemy has gone first, congratulations, you have just wasted a whole turn for him. If you go first, two Ironclads drop down and hopefully destroy some enemy armor. The drop pods can also close off some tight enemy lines, forcing the enemy to go another way. However you cannot depend on this.

Turn 2-7:

Bikes come in, take objectives, destroy enemy units. The important thing is to keep the bikes alive. (I will write a tactical on the effectiveness of this as well.) Remember that bikes are fast and that command squad is a beast.