Raptors OR Chaos Bikers?

[ShotgunFacelift]

After years of never even considering fielding a unit of chaos bikers or raptors, they are priced to move now and can be outfitted with all the war gear we want.

 

Is anyone else going to throw in a unit or two into their lists?

Whats the build and what would you use it for?

 

Raptors

T4

10x Wounds

Champ with Fist

2x Plasma Guns Or Melta Or Flamer 

8x Chainsword attacks

6x Close Combat Weapon attacks

Ability to worsen/force battleshock tests 

 

Chaos Bikers

T5

9x Wounds

Champ with Fist

2x Plasma Guns Or Melta Or Flamer Or CombiWep (note: 40K App only lets me select the CombiWeps 

6x Chainsword attacks

6x Close Combat Weapon attacks

Ability to go back into Strategic Reserves

 

I'm debating between:

- Tank/Armor Hunters:  Raptors or Bikers with 2x Melta guns

Jump or ride into melta range, and hopefully back out

Raptors seem better suited for this choice with the new fly rules

 

- Mobile Fire Support : Bikers or Raptors with 2x  Plasma guns

Mobility for both units will make maneuvering for rapid fire easier

However the Bikers can more safely overcharge

 

No games of 10th yet for me, just theory-crafting while avoiding work.....

[Cpt.Danjou]

I would go bikes, I like the strategic reserve ability,, changing side of where to threaten his army or take an objective, but darn it they are struggling with their age, those tiny, tiny bike riders. 

 

Just my two cent.

 

Cpt. Danjou

[ShotgunFacelift]

22 minutes ago, Cpt.Danjou said:

those tiny, tiny bike riders. 

 

Just my two cent.

 

Cpt. Danjou

I think everyone is going to be chaos-ifying some Primaris Bikers, as the current models look like younger brothers on moped's next to the new stuff.

 

Interesting choice with the bikers.

I keep looking at the deep strike and battleschock test abilities of the raptors.

 

[sonsoftaurus]

Caveat: not a serious tournament player. 
 

I love non-linear deployments, so both these units are appealing to me. Gimme drop pods, or old summoning daemons in from icons etc and I’m happy. 
 

Depends in what else you have/need. For me getting the raptor deep strike and painting up some 4th ed metal raptors tips the scales. 
 

I do like the idea of some plasma bikers zipping around. Moving and making a deep strike no go zone while still having range to shoot. Picking off last wounds or getting a squad under half, then late game redeploy to grab some abandoned objective. 

[danodan123]

I don't think raptors deep striking down with their 2 (or 4) melta guns will have much of an impact, for 160 points you can just let obliterators do the job and they can then be pretty flexible for the job with different shooting profiles and even fisting (hurr) into combat.

 

Bikes do seem good for the ability to redeploy but again, I wouldn't expect them to do too much damage on their own.

 

Saying that, raptors dropping into a backline to simply cause the player a headache they have to deal with for not a massive amount of points, possibly keep them barebones and charge them in or take plasma to plink off a few marine esque models on an objective before the charge.

[Newbiticus]

Not a competitive player, I was planning to include a until of 5 raptors with a PF and 2 x melts for some tactical flexibility.  I do T have any bikes so I might be bias ;)

 

With there larger size would bikes be more of a liability footprint wise?

 

 

[sonsoftaurus]

Footprint is situational. 

[TrawlingCleaner]

OR? Why not AND

 

Raptors currently have the best version of Fly as they're infantry, they can move through Ruins horizontally unlike Monsters and Vehicles who have to measure and move up and down diagonally. Raptors are good backline bullies, either to flip a "Sticky objective" or get stuck in with backline infantry. Even with Meltas and Powerfists, I think they may struggle to deal with a lot of tanks.

 

Bikes seem like good front line bullies but also great move blockers. I think abilites that let you move a unit to another side of the board has the potential to win games, especially with OC2

[ShotgunFacelift]

12 hours ago, TrawlingCleaner said:

OR? Why not AND

 

Raptors currently have the best version of Fly as they're infantry, they can move through Ruins horizontally unlike Monsters and Vehicles who have to measure and move up and down diagonally. Raptors are good backline bullies, either to flip a "Sticky objective" or get stuck in with backline infantry. Even with Meltas and Powerfists, I think they may struggle to deal with a lot of tanks.

 

Bikes seem like good front line bullies but also great move blockers. I think abilites that let you move a unit to another side of the board has the potential to win games, especially with OC2

 

Great summary!

 

[Tallarn Commander]

I'd say both. I enjoyed using both Raptors and Bikers in 3rd through 9th and I'm sure I'll enjoy both in 10th. 

 

I did find Raptors far too brittle in 9th to drop them behind most enemies' lines. My Raptors tended to perform much better moving up the board along with other units.

 

I'll probably be bringing a squad of 10 Raptors and a squad of 6 Bikers to the Tacoma Open later this month. I'll let ya'all know how they do.

 

 

 

Night Lords, "The quick and the dead"

 

 

[Tallarn Commander]

A brief report on my findings at the Tacoma Open last month...

 

Large Raptor Squads are fine in casual lists. But as points-efficient units that will do damage to competitive opponents I'd say you should look elesewhere. Good opponents will eat Raptors for lunch. But since random secondary objectives have returned, a 5-trooper or 10-trooper Raptor Squad hanging out in deep-strike or somewhere behind a building is often money in the bank for achieving a random secondary. I quickly found my 20 Raptors died to a stiff breeze but did quite well at racking up secondaries. Plus, my Raptors supported my good units like Chosen decently.

 

Biker Squads were a bit of a hit for me. A squad of 6 Bikers has a place in even a competitive list due to their hybrid nature, speed, toughness, and 3 wounds. Bikers seem quite good now. I gave 'em Slaanesh so that I could use the advance-and-charge strat on 'em, but other Marks would work too.

 

 

Bats Out of Hell Raptor Squad and Bat to the Bone Biker Squad Go to the 2023 Tacoma Open

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Tallarn Commander