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| Employ anti-Tyranid Tactics! |
Part one of the series can be found here.
::Tactica::
- Now more than ever, Objective placement matters. Anticipate where your opponent will place their next objective, and group yours together very, very far away from theirs. Movement of 12+12+d6" means that you can go dish out damage and hop back in late game (or forward) for objective scoring.
- During The Relic, turbo boost isn't a run and gives you an extra 6" of movement that most armies don't get. With DA, you can easily grab the Relic and bring it back to your deployment zone *all in the first turn* by deploying up 12", scout up 12", grab relic, move back 6", turbo boost 6". This not only puts you back within your deployment zone but allows you to re-arrange your squad (they can move more than 6") to absorb incoming fire before your Relic Grabber (I recommend a Sergeant or Sammael attached to a normal bike squad, protect the banner!).
- As compared to C:SM, DA has a huge number of targets to shoot at. Running with 4 bike squads (+4 ABs), CS, BKs, Boombox, Landspeeders gives ~12 targets, each of which can do major damage in Turn 1. Compare this to the typical C:SM 4 bike squads, 2 TFC, CS, Landspeeders giving ~8 targets. Attack Bikes, which should be moved up as close as possible (don't get charged) during Scout forces your opponent to make some very difficult choices about what to and not to shoot. On the other hand, you have a much better chance of giving up First Blood now... especially if you go second.
- It is really nice, when faced against AV 14, to just move up an Attack Bike or two and blow it up instead of having to move up an entire bike squad (see, half of your army). Especially if that AV 14 thing previously had a bunch of Terminators inside of it, ready to eat you.
- Attack Bikes also serve really good Speed Bumps if you are expecting to get charged, then Hit and Run outta here (if they live!) for massive shooting potential.
- As great as the Devastation banner is, it is super vulnerable. Learn how to best position your CS+Sammael+Libby (if applicable) so that LOS/droppods/unforseen stuff doesn't take out the lynchpin of your army. Again, Manticores will hurt you.
- Scout also gives you the ability to Outflank - risky, to be sure, but it can protect you against early long-range bombardment (if you go second, say) and put some serious hurt on an exposed flank. I would recommend deploying Landspeeders/Boombox/Attack bikes to minimize losses.
- Black Knights are like the Swiss Army Knife of a Swiss Army Knife army. They can do everything!
shoot, melee, move fast, good morale, good point cost for what they do. Expect them to be shot at early and often, and don't stock up more than 5-6 (you don't need 2 grenade launchers, I promise). Do try to have at least one unit of them, though.
- As great as the grenade launcher is (and it is good), it won't win battles for you, just make individual fights easier.
In terms of difficult opponents, here is what I have observed:
- GK Henchmen have just as much, if not more, alpha than DA, and are a force to be feared.
- Tyranid MC lists are difficult, but usually they are more melee, so if you can kite them (not easy) and kill Tervigons (see: not easy) you can pull out victories - but don't ever expect to wipe them off the board, it isn't going to happen.
- The new Daemons... look interesting, be prepared for lots of high T MCs and 2+ cover Soulgrinders.
- Space Wolf drop pod turn 1 lists are... ouch. Plasma, in my face. I recommend putting stuff in reserve and spreading everything else out.
- Anything with blast templates (see: TFCs) still suck just like C:SM. When facing said opponents, spread out a bit, with Shenanigans you can make it so you only get 1-2 bikes within a small blast, 2-3 within a large.
- Necron flyer/tesla lists still suck, and will continue to suck, for everyone. All I can recommend is to either A) be in melee or B) turbo boost to your opponents board edge in turn 1. This will effectively make you immune to Night Scythes for a turn or two. They still suck, though.
- The only Chaos unit that really hurts is the Heldrake. Specifically, Double Dragon lists. My strategy? It's S6, spread out and pray they roll 1-2s. Kill the ground units. Get into temporary melee if possible.
- Dark Eldar will make you roll a lot of saving throws. That's what they do. Learn how to roll 3+ a lot. Or, alpha them before they alpha you. Remember that your bolters will be useless against armor 11 and you'll need to be within 18" to melta anything (Night Field)... this is where landspeeders really come in handy!
- Ork hordes are still tough opponents! Don't underestimate them. Salvo bolters will help, but again, don't expect to wipe them out.
- The best for last - Manticores suck. Blow them up with Attack bikes or watch your army get blown apart (see also: The Last Samurai, that final charge scene. That's you dying.)
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| Clearly... there is no Drednought discussion in this thread |
Maybe this is something obvious but it needs to be said - to win with bikes, at the end of the day, you need to roll 3+. If you are terrible at rolling 3+, then maybe you should think about playing another army. I say this only because every time you lose a model, you lose a big portion of your army. If your opponent says, "OK buddy, take 6 armor saves," and you pass all of them? You are boss. If you fail them all? Wiped bike squad. Your job as a bike commander is to 1) not put yourself in situations where you hear the words "take >2 armor saves", but more importantly, 2) to roll 3+ when it matters. Which is almost every single time. How you go about doing 1) is proper movement, shooting, target priority, assault decisions, and a little luck. How you do 2) is based on 1) but is essentially luck(magical-statistics)-
I have really enjoyed playing/thinking about DA bikes. That being said, I'm still on the fence about what army to bring to Adepticon. The loss of TFCs is huge, but the solo-attack bikes/banner/special rules are amazing for DA. It will require more thought, more experimentation, more games. Until then, ride on, brothers!