As I have identified in my previous post: located here. There are several problem areas facing biker army builds.
1) Flying monstrous creatures.
2) Massed flyers.
3) Low Model Count.
4) Not enough long range fire power.
Not stated last time, but very prevalent in competitive 40k:
5) Achieving first blood and secondary objectives reliably.
So how to we begin tackling these issues? By using allies.
But before I dive into this topic, there is something I would like to acknowledge in current trends of 40k. The tendency to move to the army's "extremes". It appears the most successful tournament army lists share a few elements besides a great general and that is taking a theory and pushing it to the extreme. I am not talking about MSU, I am talking about the annihilation of a "balanced list". There is a greater tendency towards all or nothing lists which will destroy or be destroyed. Obvious examples include necron flyer builds, guard hordes, zombie hordes, screamer/flamer builds, the daemon circus, epidemus' tally builds, nidzilla, and so forth.
What this is doing is creating a game more like rock, paper, scissors, GUN.
While there has always been the element of bad batch ups, most of the damage could be overcome by being a good general, taking a balanced list, properly utilizing terrain, and exploiting mistakes. For me, there was never a list in 5th edition that was my ultimate demise. Most lists generally shared similar mechanics, focusing on tanks, light on the infantry, and remaining relatively static. Good match ups for a bike army included things like mech guard, space wolves, blood angels, codex marines, while bad match ups included nids, dark eldar, and to some extent daemons.
However 6th edition has added a new component to this mechanic. There are armies out there that are so extreme that I am left scratching my head in trying to figure out a strategy to battle against it. While I gratefully accept the new strategic challenges, I must acknowledge that there is an army out there which will eat my army alive and there is nothing I can do to stop it. This is where the "gun" component comes in. Rock, paper, scissors mechanics still exist, but every once in a while there is going to be that one gun army that just destroys your list. The inclusion of allies minimizes the successes of those "gun" builds and makes your army more capable, flexible, and able to defeat them. Who would have known that allies plays such an important role in defining success in 6th edition?
Moving on... allies
While I am a firm believer that pure codex Space Marines is extremely viable with the new additions to 6th edition, my primary concern is how to minimize weaknesses against "gun" builds. But first we need to acknowledge one important piece of information. Play style and what your army consists of should determine your ally set.
Play style and army list is ultimately developed on a person by person basis. Trust me, copy and pasting a "net list" is not going to help you win. How I play my bike army is radically different then how others on this blog utilize their armies. In addition, talking with a lot of the readers, they each have their own unique style as well. Therefore, allies which I am currently leaning towards might not compliment your list or play style and would ultimately turn into a weakness. Therefore, I am going to discuss allies in a neutral form in order for you guys to make the best decision.
Blood Angels: Adds more of an aggressive element to your list, more durability, fast moving vehicles, and solid scoring units. Blood angels compliments a biker list by being able to keep up the speed of the bikes while bringing assault orientation which the bikes significantly lack. A couple of lists I have looked into are sternguard with feel no pain, massed assault troops, and fast moving vindicators/baal predators.
Space Wolves: While appearing more aggressive, I would label space wolves at being awesome with a reactive play style. They are cheap and durable enough to take the fight to the enemy, they can serve as a distraction, counter attack, or defensive nature in order control your enemy's movements and ensure the success of your bike list. Multitude of cheap scoring guys, flexibility, assaulting, psychic defense, and jaws of the wolf! Lists I have looked into include drop wolves, rune priests on bikes, and thunder wolves with khan.
Dark Angels: With a new codex right around the corner, we might be having a new bike army on our hands. So it is best if I wait on this one.
Imperial Guard: Allying with imperial guard caters more to a defensive nature of play. Utilizing cheap guns, tanks, and masses of dudes in order to overwhelm your opponent with superior fire power and numbers. In this style of list, the guard take the brunt of the attack while bikes serve as a distraction, counter attack, and the aggressive nature of the list. The key thing about guard is that they are one of the natural armies for determining air superiority. Lists I have looked at include vendettas, massed guardsmen, and outflanking chimeras.
Tau: While appearing more defensive, tau is a very reactive and fluid army. They have the capability to bring the big guns to bear, but unlike imperial guard, they can determine how firepower is maximized against which units. Did I mention how mobile they are? With crisis suits and stealth suits being able to always move 2d6 inches in the assault phase, they become crazy fast. Also, disruption pods and stealth fields are icing on the cake in regards to durability. A few lists I have looked at include massed stealth suits, crisis suits with missile pods, and mech tau!
Eldar: I would place eldar in the same category as tau for being very reactive and fluid. Eldar has different capabilities that tau do not, such as psychic defense, monstrous creatures, unique aspect warriors, and more durable troop options. Lists I have looked into include war walkers, wraithguard, jet bikes, the ubiquitous farseer, and warp spiders.
Grey Knights: Honestly, I have not really looked into ways in which grey knights compliment bikes. Given that the over all strength of bikes and grey knights is maximizing the amount of reliable fire power at the 24 inch range they do compliment each other. Bikes bring anti-tank to the table while grey knights bring assault capabilities, both of which can be utilized as anti-infantry fire power. My main concern is the lack of models in such a build as both armies are expensive points wise.
Once again this is turning into a long article. Therefore, next time I will determine which ally group suits my needs the most and why I feel they most accurately answer the five major problems facing bikes in 6th edition in addition to tackling gun builds.