nob warbiker gang

[Rough Touch]

people keep saying nob warbikers are really good, but if you get 6-8 nobs on bikes with a pain boy (I don't know if he is allowed a powerclaw) with cybork bodys your looking about 600+ points for 1 small unit! (inc war warboss on bike)
I don't understand how people can win with this setup but I have been told its really good

is this right?

[Rough Touch]

also what support units would you give them, i was thinking lots of stormboyz and kommandos
it would be a 1500 point game prob

[Nabterayl]

I think this might belong in the tactics forum.

Nob bikers are still good, but their reputation was made in earlier editions when they could take advantage of wound striping. Their main rules advantages were (and are) that they had lots of defenses: 4+ armor from the warbike, 4+ cover save from the warbike, T5 from the warbike, optional 5+ invulnerable save from cybork bodies, optional Feel No Pain from the painboy. On top of that they have S4, W2, and what in my opinion is the best gun in the codex.

If you added wound striping on top of that, in the days when FNP was a 4+ roll, it would take 80 heavy bolter hits (not shots) to kill even a single model in a 10-model squad. Even with plasma, it would take 24 hits to kill a single model. When the ork codex first came out some people had good success exploiting this durability, the speed and shootiness of the warbike platform, and the prowess of a nob biker squad in close combat to make 22-model lists: 20 nob bikers and two warbosses on warbike, all tooled to the nines, and they'd simply annihilate two enemy units each round while laughing off virtually all return fire. By the time you had saturated the wound buckets enough that nobs finally started actually dying, the enemy army was supposed to be in tatters.

But of course, even then, that setup wasn't foolproof - you're probably thinking of half a dozen ways it could be beat right now. Nob bikers are still quite good, even without the wound striping, but no, they aren't the end all and be all of the codex.

In a 1500 point game, my personal feeling is that a 600+ unit of warbikers is too laden down with gear. I think you should be able to cut that by about 30-40% and still have an effective unit.

[DrLove42]

Yeah, Nobs Bikers were the **** when you could abuse wound allocation, meaning you had to pile on wounds before you even killed one.

Not the case anymore, but they're still a fast moving tough unit

[Deadlift]

I'd be looking at a lots and lots of shoota boyz, big mek with KFF, looters and burner boyz. Dakka jets too. These are the units my mate uses and the amount of Dakka that they put out is impressive. Just remember to bring lots of dice.

[SaveModifier]

Currently with Orks, as many shoota boyz as you can take is what I like to use, anything else is just gravy on top! I hope they get something to make sluggas more worthwhile in the next codex!

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

They still are a tough unit to handle. They just suffre from old codex syndrome. alll newer codocies have a way of punching them in the face. What i would also say where before it was a good idea to have them all equipped differently to get the most out of wound shennanigans today thats not the case. I0 would suggest running them cheap maybe a clawor 2 but that's it

[Rough Touch]

am I right in thinking a charging nob on a bike with a big choppa has
ST 7 but AP -?

[Nabterayl]

Yes, you are.

[Skullchewer]

Nob Bikers aren't what they used to be. You're better off spending those points elsewhere. If you're looking for bike style units, with a nob stat line, run with some deffkoptas. Scout is a nice little diversion, and they can be a pretty effective unit even at base cost.
Or just dump all those points into MOAR DAKKA (Lootas).