Hi everyone. I was up north last week and had the opportunity to play two games with my BikeStar versus the new hotness Flyrant spam. I have made some tweaks to my list to adjust for the current meta. These changes are as follows:
Double Psyker - This is something I've wanted to change for some time now. To me the psychic phase is a bit of a gamble but can pay off with huge dividends. Psychic powers can give your army an edge. Sure there are some armies that can shut you down but in a tournament environment you most likely will only face off against such an army once or twice. Space Marine Psykers have good overall stats all around too especially when you consider what you get for the points and come equipped with force weapons which are the bane of many evil things such as daemon princes and other monstrous creatures.
I now run both a Librarian and Rune Priest. The lore I choose for the Librarian depends upon what I'm up against and my go to choice is Telepathy. You can't count on rolling Insta Gizz (Invisibility) but Shrouding is awesome for the 2+ jink save and the Primaris power Psychic Shriek is really good for sniping tough enemy units such as Wraithknights and Dreadknights. I always choose Divination for the Rune Priest as this is the true go to lore for BikeStar. I gave up the Wolf Lord for the Rune Priest with a good chunk of points left over.
Air to Air
The proverbial Achilles Heel of BikeStar is versus flyer or FMC heavy armies - snap shooting grav guns is better than nothing but I found a way to include both a Stormfang and Stormtalon. The Stormfang is the new hotness for Space Marine flyers... Much stronger than a Stormraven. The Stormtalon is also arguably a better choice than the Stormraven too - especially when we consider the points saved. By including two flyers the BikeStar becomes much more tactical all around and they compliment each other due to the inherent mobility... You have an army that can compete with the likes of eldar and dark eldar.
So like I said I was able to play two games which is a good test. Flyrant spam features five Flyrants and is currently being promoted as one of the new top meta internet lists. My general philosophy in both games was the same - be very aggressive and put the pressure on the Tyranids right at the start.
Batreps to follow soon.