40K Tactics: Chaos Bikes, Table or Shelf?

An email from Rhinocaps to BoLS sparked a thought in my mind. I’m building up a World Eaters army at the moment, but never once did I even consider using the chaos bikes that are still boxed up on my shelf. Am I right in my ignorance, or am I missing a trick?

I immediately thought of their problems and why people ignore them. These include (amongst others):

• No Combi-Weapons or attack bikes – restricting you to two special/heavy weapons in a squad, where as loyalists can have 4.
• No way of taking them as troops – This is a massive blow in 5th Edition missions, no 24″ turbo-boosting scoring units for Chaos 🙁
• They’re not fearless, and without the benefit of ATSKNF, they’re prone to running away and being under 50% strength
• They weigh in at +8pts compared to a loyalist bike – for that you get +1A (for BP/CCW), +1Ld, but lose ATSKNF. Not a good deal in my eyes at all (I personally think this is a result of codex creep, and CSM bikes should be around 25-28pts).

But is there life in them? On pondering it, maybe there is! A few thoughts about chaos bikers and bike use in general:

Firstly, they get that +1A for two close combat weapons. This means that CSM bikes are more naturally suited to close combat than shooting. Give the champion a power fist and take advantage of that extra attack each. 

They can also take Icons. They are quite expensive, but can be very effective! I’d personally leave the Tzeentch one at home, but the other four all have their uses. Glory is a cheap way to get an icon on the board (see next point for why). Khorne is a great addition to a power fist sergeant, as it gets a vital extra attack. Slaanesh is worth taking against other marines, as the ability to strike first on the charge will reduce the number of attacks back. Nurgle is the pick of the bunch, making your bikes an extremely resilient toughness 4(6). This does cost a hefty 50pts though.

You can easily use bikes to deliver daemons to the frontline, or deep strike a unit of lesser daemons on a far-flung objective and then ride away. This second tactic can be very effective, somewhat negating the fact that bikes aren’t scoring by dropping a scoring unit off in a good position.

You can move 24”! Nothing else in the Chaos army can do this. This fact alone makes Chaos Bikers worth considering. 

Remember they are relentless, so can fire their rapid-fire weapons and still charge. Don’t discount plasmaguns as you may do on ‘regular’ assault troops. Yeah, they don’t get as many as loyalists do, but 4 S7 AP2 shots is still not to be underestimated. 

Harass the flanks of the enemy, where they will struggle to bring as much firepower to bear on your bikes. Nurgle bikers can withstand a lot of bolter fire (twice as much as other bikers in fact), so use your bikes to harass straggling infantry squads.

Unless you have something good to shoot at, turbo-boost. The cover save is a big bonus. Be very wary of AP3 weapons that ignore cover saves though (Flamestorm Cannons and Collosus Mortars spring to mind!).

Unless you are relying on them to deep strike your daemons, consider leaving the bikes in reserve. The small bike unit can then exploit the best weakness in your opponents force, and will have less things shooting at it in the process.

But most of all, they look good. This is often a good enough reason to include something in your army. The picture above is a great Chaos Lord conversion by FU 2000 from DakkaDakka. This conversion alone is tempting me into a unit of bikers in my Khorne force.

But … even after saying all of that, I still think that my Chaos Bikers will remain in their box on the shelf for now. Shame really, because I am sick of painting Berzerkers!!