Bikes and Transports

[mega_marines]

I've discovered something really weird. And.....I need help figuring this one out.

 

Last night I was browsing my Space Marine and Blood Angel codexes to see how I could best incorporate the Soul Drinkers Chapter onto the tabletop. Needless to say, a Librarian on a Space Marine Bike worked best to represent their mutated leader, Sarpedon. But then I wanted to incorporate their "Cold and Fast" method of warfare too; so I wanted everyone in Drop Pods. I make a list and everything, and then ask myself "Wait, but Sarpedon can't ride a Drop Pod because of being equipped with a bike. So, I look up the rules and everything. Apparently, Bikes still count as infantry and such. There is not a single thing stating a bike can't be transported in a Drop Pod or Rhino. In the Blood Angels codex, it simply states "Ten Models" for Transport Capacity. Same for the Drop Pod.

 

I did further research and here's what I have:

Blood Angels dex says: "Models equipped with a Space Marine bike follow all of the rules for bikes as Described in the Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook"

 

Says NOTHING about transport for Bikes on their page;

So lets look at Transport Vehicles:

 

"Transport Capacity:

A transport may carry a single infantry unit and/or any number of independent characters(as long as they count as infantry), up to a total of models equal to the transport capacity.

 

Only Infantry models may embark in transports(it is worth specifying that that this does not include jump infantry), unless a Codex book states otherwise.

 

Some larger infantry models may count as more than one model for the purposes of taking up a transport's capacity, and this will be specified in the transporting vehicle's rules(for example a Space Marine terminator counts as two models).

 

Sometimes there will be constraints on which types of models can embark on a particular vehicle, and this will be specified in the vehicle's entry. Space Marine Terminators, for example, cannot embark on a Rhino or Razorback, although they may be transported by a Land Raider."

 

Nothing ANYWHERE says infantry equipped with bikes are no longer infantry. The Space Marine's vehicles make this even cloudier, too. They just say "Ten Models". Now, it'd be acceptable entirely if they were transportable for two or three vehicle spaces, but the fact that they're still treated as infantry baffles me.

 

I simply want to be able to transport a character for fluffy/background purposes. I'm fully aware this could be easily exploited somehow, but what the hell …

 

What do? Can they ride in vehicles?

[Jehoel]

Page #140 in Codex: Space Marines lists the Bike Squad's unit type as Bike, not infantry. Thus no riding in vehicles for bikes.

[awfulawful]

This has been argued here before. What it came down to was that it's a poor bit of wording in saying that the model's unit type is still infantry, though it follows the rules for bikes. The general consensus was that following the rules for bikes is more or less analogous to having a unit type of bike, and that would prohibit the model from embarking in a transport.

[Seahawk]

As is the case with Chaos, Wings allow an Infantry model to move as Jump Infantry but not count as Jump Infantry, allowing them to embark on transports.

 

I would log it as a <Fail> and say "No plot-hole exploitation, you player of plastic monkeys!" but then that's just what I'd do...

[dswanick]

Search is your friend (although it was a bit of an obscure topic name) : http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...129&hl=bike

It boils down to - GW didn't think that us Americans were so dense we wouldn't understand that giving a captain the wargear upgrade "bike" means he's mounted on a bike which would change his unit type to Bike.

[Something Wycked]

My old post in the thread dswanick linked:

 

Space Marine Bike wargear description, page 100 of C:SM: "Models equipped with Space Marine Bikes follow all the rules for bikes as described in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook."

 

Transport Vehicles entry, page 66 of BRB: "A transport may carry a single infantry unit and/or any number of independent characters (as long as they count as infantry), up to a total of models equal to the vehicle's transport capacity."

 

Unit type "Bikes" is not unit type "Infantry." Bikes cannot embark onto a transport vehicle.

[Arikel]

It boils down to - GW didn't think that us Americans were so dense we wouldn't understand that giving a captain the wargear upgrade "bike" means he's mounted on a bike which would change his unit type to Bike.

 

There is a reason that many coffee cups from fast food restaurants are emblazoned with the words "Warning: Hot" and that power tools often include specific instructions that you shouldn't attempt to manipulate them with your genitals. GW really needs to clean up its rules and have them written out clearly, concisely and simply enough that they cannot be misunderstood.

 

In my personal opinion the rules indicate that the unit has to follow the rules of a bike unit, so that it can no longer be put into a transport, but there is wiggle room to argue otherwise.

[Isiah]

Yes the last time this was discussed it was eventually closed before it got out of hand on the vitriol front. Take the time to read through all the arguments in the original topic please (as per the link provided by dswanick a few posts above).

 

 

Of course PM me if you think you've got anything substantively new to add and the old topic might get reopened.

 

Cheers

I