More Mailbag! A bike comparison from DocRailgun.

O Brother-Captain Jawaballs,

I've been thinking about 'ard Boyz, and about the armies I wish I had
the models to run with. To that end, I have a small comparison that
I'd like for you to take a look at... it might even be worthy of the
Way of Sanguinius.

"The Wisdom of the Khans; or Why Belial will keep his Ravenwing gig, thanks."

Space Marine players have generally accepted the new Codex, with its
generally reduced point costs. Many electrons have been used to tout
the virtues of one unit or another, but here I would like to compare
the bike-mounted Marine unit to the Rhino-mounted squad.

10 Tactical Marines with a multi-melta, flamer, power sword, and a
Rhino with an extra storm bolter and extra armor costs 245 points.
They can move 12" in one turn, then fire two weapons from the hatch;
or disembark and assault (after firing their bolt pistols).

6 bike Marines (with a melta, a flamer, and a power sword) and a
multi-melta attack bike come to 245 points. The bikes move 12", can
move and fire their heavy weapons, and assault the same turn or
turboboost 24" and be on top of the opponent in the second turn.

I won't go into the math (which I probably have wrong anyway), but
let's take a stab at comparing the units in battle. Both squads are
stationary, within 12" but their flamers are not able to come into
play.

The (last turn) dismounted Tactical squad fires 14 bolter shots, 2
bolt pistol shots (sgt and flamer marine), a multimelta shot, and
their Rhino fires its storm bolters. This volley does 5 wounds to a
MEQ opponent after saves... or they can assault, also doing 5 wounds
(combined close combat and firing their bolt pistols).

The bike squad fires 6 (5 from the non-melta bikes and 1 from the
attack bike) twin-linked bolters (so, 12 shots at this range), a melta
and a multi-melta shot. That should average to also 5 wounds vs MEQ
infantry. They can then assault on the same turn with 4 power sword
attacks, 3 regular attacks from the attack bike. and 10 attacks from
the other bikers. That should come out to 3 wounds after saves. So,
the bikes have done 8 wounds on average.

The bikes do have weaknesses, of course... they are 'Lashable' by
Chaos armies, they are vulnerable to blast fire (though they are T5...
a lot of the popular blast templates these days are high-S and high-AP
anyway, so a Rhino isn't proof against these sorts of shots), and
terrain can be a problem.

For 1850 points a biker army could consist of:
He'stan
a biker Captain with w/ power sword, combi-melta, melta bombs, digital
weapons, and a few other bits of wargear
18 bikes (in 3 squads) of which 3 have meltas and 3 have flamers
3 attack bikes with multi-meltas
2 Land Speeders with multi-meltas and heavy flamers
a Land Speeder with a Typhoon launcher and a multi-melta (or a heavy flamer)
6 Assault Terminators in a LRC with a multi-melta

I thought this looked pretty "Doublewing" to me, only with rerollable
melta and flamer shots.

So, what do you think... are bikes the way to go against the Guard
artillery, or will their infantry speed bumps get in the way? Is it
even worth having anything on your side of the board when the
Outflanking infantry platoons and veteran-carrying Valkyries fly in
from the sides of the board... or are good-old Rhinos still the best
option?

I will ponder this question and give a real answer later... I have to finish my commission! But every one feel free to hash this one back and forth!

Jawaballs