Captain on a Bike

[pryor]

In my new list I'm using a captain on a bike and was wondering whether to go with the storm shield or artificer armour because I only have enough points for one not both.

Opinions?

[Giga]

Artificer armor. This way he can do a better job of soaking up the wounds shot at the squad he's with. Also, it makes it easier for him to solo entire squads of infantry (I like to send him to solo tactical squads, unless the said tacticals have a power fist ofc).

 

Storm shield is useful if you're playing against lots of AP2 stuff or power weapons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my captain on bike;

 

Relic blade

Hellfire ammo

Bike

 

Comes at 175 pts. I only give him artificer armor when I have pts to spare.

[Sanctjud]

Very true, "only give him (X,Y,Z) when (you) have pts to spare".

 

The captain is really there to:

1. Unlock biker troops.

2. Offer 'some' cc muscle.

3. Absorb 2 wounds to 'save' two bikers.

 

He's already expensive for what you get.

 

If I had to choose: AA for wound soaking like Giga said.

But, I have plans to model a shield, so for modeling purposes I'll go for the SS, and then focus on absorbing plasma equivalent weapons on the captain.

 

My 7 Cents.

[waaanial00]

I would ask what he is going to be riding with. If you are putting him in a standard bike squad then I would suspect that you might get more out of the Artificer armour, you are riding with a fairly sizeable unit which will benefit from having a tough captain to absorb High AP fire such as Bolters and the captain will benefit from being able to pass the low AP stuff like lascannons to his less important comerades.

 

If you are riding solo then I would go for the Storm Shield, you are likely to be engaging in CC and therefore you will be needing a better Invulnerable save because most of the time you will be taking on things with power weapons.

 

If you are riding with a command squad then I would suggest that you need neither. Their strength is not shooting so they will likely be turbo boosting more, this negates the need for storm shields. They have FNP which means that the requirement for Artificer Armour drops away because you have an extra 50% save on top of your normal 3+ and anything which negates FNP will likely be negating 2+ anyway. The fact that you are with a fairly dangerous combat squad is likely going to mean that the squad takes most of the hits before the captain anyway which means by the time you need the storm shield you will be facing a far superior force and that 3+ is likely to crumble as easily as a 4+.

 

This weekend gone I was playing the same captain as Giga (with melta bombs) with a CC Comand Squad on bikes. I certainly didnt really miss either option that much because due to the sheer weight of fire and combat that the squad saw neither would have kept me alive that much longer.

 

Wan

[pryor]

The captain is armed with a relic blade and will be riding with a 5-man bike squad with power fist, flamer & attack bike with multi-melta.

[HERO]

Since he's a shock troop that's going to be going around hunting other troops, I would put him with AA over Storm Shield.

 

2+ with FNP is pretty tough to crack.

[pryor]

Actually that's a standard bike squad not a command squad.

[HERO]

Actually that's a standard bike squad not a command squad.

 

Depends on what his squad is hunting.

 

AA for anything other than MCs or ICs.

[ShinyRhino]

I ran a Biker Captain last night, attached to a combat squad of bolter bikes, and a sergeant with power weapon. I'd given him Artificer Armor.

I found the Arty Armor to be invaluable. The bike squad was hard enough for my MEQ opponent to wound with anything less than S7. The armor allowed me to shunt at least one wound evey turn onto my captain, and make those armor saves. I was dumping plasma wounds onto him, making the 2+ save, and rolling on. Theonly thing that was reliably killing my bikes were krak missiles and lascannon shots. I knew that if I failed a save, those would Instant Death him, so I just dumped bolter bikes to those instead.

If he'd have had a stormshield, he'd have died a lot earlier than Turn 5 (his squad had been cut down around him by kraks and lascannons). The 3++ save is nice, but nearly redundant to your Iron Halo's 4++.

[Giga]

The captain is armed with a relic blade and will be riding with a 5-man bike squad with power fist, flamer & attack bike with multi-melta.

What does this squad do?

 

Flamer + multimelta in the same squad aren't exactly great synergy. Maybe you should get some meltaguns instead of the flamer, and get yourself a nice tank-hunting unit?

[Iron_Chaos_Brute]

I was dumping plasma wounds onto him, making the 2+ save, and rolling on. Theonly thing that was reliably killing my bikes were krak missiles and lascannon shots. I knew that if I failed a save, those would Instant Death him, so I just dumped bolter bikes to those instead.

 

What? Plasma's AP 2.

So are lascannons.

[Resv]

Flamer + multimelta in the same squad aren't exactly great synergy. Maybe you should get some meltaguns instead of the flamer, and get yourself a nice tank-hunting unit?

 

Actually it isn't a bad set up at all. With a Captain there is a lot of flexibility there. Of course I endorse taking full squads with an Attack Bike whenever possible rather than halving it.

 

To the topic at hand, it really comes down points you have to spend. If you have the points then I say go for broke! I run my captain with both Storm Shield and Artificer Armor in my lists. I have some extra points to throw down and it is nice to have that extra bit of staying power. Plus most of the people I play against run quite a bit of Anti-Armor and the edge helps. As others have said it is more points effective to just run around with Artificer Armor.

 

A Bike Captain is a beast of a unit and very much worth its points its always worth it squeezing as much survivability as possible to keep it on the board. To be honest I haven't lost my Captain in 11-12 of my past games, but I can always rely on him for a good amount of kills.