Jump to content

Land speeders and scout bikes in 8th Edition


Recommended Posts

While I haven't used them much for my Angels, I rather attack bikes.  But I've had to fight against them more than a few times.  The Javelin was a menace in the hands of a Raven Guard player, and man I was stupid jealous of its ability to keep at range and take pop shots at my armour.  As for scout bikes, it's the shotgun/twin bolter combination that makes them seem more or less in theory decent fire support for less than standard bikes (A sergeant can replace his pistol for another bolt gun, making an absolutely insane looking dual wielding shotgun/boltgun/twin boltgun raving lunatic firing 8 shots at close range).  As for the speeders, standard speeders with two heavy bolters are a little points heavy but they're aggravating and can pull down remnants squads or seize objectives that are undefended with little fear.  

 

Basically, cheap, minimalist skirmish troops for marines is playing that bit of a tactical game.  It's just another tool in the arsenal and one that's often overlooked. 

Land speeders really suffer from the -1 To Hit for moving penalty. IMO, either go cheats as you can (single heavy bolter) and use them to zip around capping objectives or eating overwatch.

 

Alternatively, use the Index build of 2x heavy flamers.

 

Scout bikes are the most underrated unit in all of Power Armor-dom. The combo of speed + dakka you get for the price is incredible. One of the best units possible for Advancing up a flank to cap a far OBJ or harassing light units of Guardsmen, Cultists, etc...

 

From a Blood Angels perspective, the point of comparison would be an Assault Marine Squad. Both of the above options are much more resilient, but ASM get more attacks (so better use of Red Thirst) and most importantly, with jump packs, can make use of On Wings of Fire. The OWoF angle can never be overlooked since that is a game-winning ability on its own.

 

You can’t really go wrong with Scout Bikes, but you can go quite wrong with Land Speeders.

Yeah Heavy weapons on supposedly mobile vehicles is something GW didn't get quite right so far. At least not for Marines. The T'au Piranha for example has only Assault weapons so it could potentially even advance and shoot if you want to (it's still not a particularly good unit but that has other reasons).

Landspeeders under perform as a mobile firepower unit compared to the new Primaris Inceptors who don't suffer -1 to Hit when moving, can fight in assault at a pinch and can use UWOF.

 

Scout Bikers on the other hand look rather shiny. Scouts are a favourite of 8th Ed BA lists and Scout bikers have the same advantages but +1T and faster movement. Their only downside is not being Troops. But once you have your 3 or 6 Troop units then some Scouts Bikers are a very decent choice.

Landspeeders under perform as a mobile firepower unit compared to the new Primaris Inceptors who don't suffer -1 to Hit when moving, can fight in assault at a pinch and can use UWOF.

 

Scout Bikers on the other hand look rather shiny. Scouts are a favourite of 8th Ed BA lists and Scout bikers have the same advantages but +1T and faster movement. Their only downside is not being Troops. But once you have your 3 or 6 Troop units then some Scouts Bikers are a very decent choice.

"Scout" units are treasure in 8th, for board control and obj holding.Better resilience make better scout units. But the other statlines of these units...are not really matter.
  • 2 weeks later...

to echo others, scout bikes are awesome in 8th, they can fire twin linked bolters and shotguns at close range for massed dakka.

A unit of 9 puts out <12"

36 bolter shots

18 shotgun shots

combi (if you take one)

 

they also have blades, so all get +1A in combat and can fall back for d3 mortal wounds on the strategem

I have been looking (and will be converting) into the land speeder Tempest (FW) T6 which helps a little. Can Advance for a 35" movement then be -1 to hit and only chargable by units with Fly key word. Against a load of troops you could basically zoom right up in front of them and they will struggle to remove it from the table  Weapons arent bad either. Tactics are zoom it forward to grab an objective if required then if it survives shoot stuff 137 points isnt to bad

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.