Bikes or jump packs, who does it better?

[codyrstuart]

Howdy everyone! Im about a month away from returning from the Middle East, and picking up some inspiration to begin working on 40k again. Outside of a few small games, I've not played much, to include only one game with the new codex. Which is why I come to the Aett asking for your collective wisdom... Wolf Guard: bikes or jump packs?

 

Backstory, I have exactly 10 bikes and 10 jump pack models that have shared double duty as both WG and Blood Claw equivalents in the past. However, seeing that the only real assault threats I own are Wulfen, I decided that I need to start planning for some type of fast moving command group, to include wolf lord, battle leader, rune priest, and a guard out of either the bikes or the jump packs, leaving the other as a harrassment force from the blood claw ranks. So I guess the question boils down to who makes better use out of which delivery system: Swift/Sky claws or their WG counterparts?

 

I'm not too terrible of a fan of using index units, but I find it atrocious that many of our mainstays didnt retain the ability to use bikes in the codex. That, and WG make better use out of the new bolter drill rules than Swift Claws.

 

Please drop some knowledge, or experience on me so I might smite future enemies in the name of the Allfather!

[TiguriusX]

Bikes are great except they cant go in buildings or assault flyers

 

New bolter beta rule means bikes with SB get full rapid fire of 8 shots per bike out to 24"

 

A bike wolf lord with saga of the hunter can advance 20" and still charge (suck it eldar!)

 

With wulfen as a complement to clear buildings you can make them work

 

Haven't had a biker lord since littlbitz. You should look up his old batreps if you have time to kill

 

JP are great utility as well but recent rule changes limit the fly to move phase only

[Kasper_Hawser]

I was using a biker lord and a RP on bike throughout the Index period. They are absolutely fantastic in terms of speed. The way I use them is as counter assault and emergency objective grabbers, where the 20" movement really matters to grab objectives which aren't occupied by Troops. Not to mention the extra Toughness also goes a long way.

 

that being said, the main concern is that our Index Options might go the way of the dodo sooner or later, so we can't rely on using Index units forever, which Wolf Guard and nearly all our characters can do only in Index, with almost no bike character (if any) in the codex.

 

So build them as you wish, but have a care on overrelying on such bike units.

 

Jump Packs are a bit more flexible and one thing I like about them is that they can still go through the walls of buildings which bikes can't do either in addition to climbing. This is in addition to Deepstriking anywhere they want after Turn 2. Not to mention the Fly shenanigans you can use, jumping over obstacles and up buildings with ease.

 

The problem I have with Jump packers is one of fluff: it just doesn't feel wolfy to me to put majority of my characters on jump packs, especially my Rune Priests. I just can't imagine the old priests taking a jump pack just to hang out and cast spells. But this is just my interpretaion of wolf fluff. It's not like I'm asking my Rune Priests become pilots, Jump Packs and bikes are perfectly valid Space Marine wargear including Space Wolves.