Is a biker list feasible?

There are to much Irregulare Orders for my taste.

 

Too little Regular orders, especially in Group 1. You'll often want to spend multiple order on 1-2 units with the best chances of exploiting opening in enemy lines; you need more orders for that. Good rule of thumb is to have at least 7-8 Regs in one group.

No active turn weapons (HMGs, Molotoks). You want to have at least 1-2 of them to force your way through enemy AROs.

Range issues. You have exactly one weapon that is any good outside 16". Once it goes down, your list goes down. Opponent will outmaneuver your bikes and eliminate them from outside their range.

Overreliance on Smoke. Two good ARO units with MSV2+ will make reaching enemy lines really hard.

No fireteam. It's a sectorial list, links are one of the best advantages there.

Also, bikes don't benefit from cover (Mavericks and Desperados are Impetous/XImpetous, anyway). You'll be out gunned in almost any engagement.

Let's change it a bit:

slightly less biker boiz
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8 2 4
BLACKJACK AP HMG, Chest Mines, D.E.P. / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (2 | 36)
GRUNT HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
GRUNT (Marksmanship LX) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
GRUNT (Marksmanship LX) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
GRUNT (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
GRUNT Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
MAVERICK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
DESPERADO Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades / 2 Heavy Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Heavy Pistols, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 11)

GROUP 2 6 2 2
MARAUDER Lieutenant Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
AIRBORNE RANGER (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun / Pistol, AP CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 21)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
TRAKTOR MUL (Total Reaction) Uragan MRL / Electric Pulse. (1 | 18)
MAVERICK Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Heavy Pistols, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

We have six bikes left, which is still a lot - but it's manageable. There are two weapons for active turn hunting, AP HMG on Blackjack and another HMG in Grunt fireteam. Linked Grunt snipers are good ARO units. 112 should be close by in case one gets wounded.

Katyusha launcher got replaced with more flexible Uragan. From what I see your plan is to use the FO's to mark targets and then fire your artillery? I've switched the FO's around a bit to give you options. 6th Airborne is your hidden card, to use when other options are either down or too far away. He's only a Parachutist, so you must plan your deployment carefully. Ideally I'd exchange Maverick FO for another 6th Airborne FO, so you can insert one from each flank.

 

its very feasible, deployment might be an issue tho, i would not worry about the irreggular there is still 5 regulars in the pool, that is enough to get stuff done, as bikers are really fast and they are impetious. imo

 

This could be fun for a friendly game but I wouldnt bring it to anything competitive. The problem you run in to with that many bikes is amount of orders. Between regular, irregular, impetuous, and LT that's a whopping 30 orders to give out. Any sort of time constraint in most tournaments will put you under the gun. Also, two katyusha's is a bit redundant. They're pretty limited when shooting anything but Guided shots and even then you're only allowed five total per turn. Having two is just a very expensive insurance policy. I'd drop one down to a minesweeper and spend the SWC elsewhere. Maybe try to work in a molotok on on of the mavericks.
The 112's don't fit either, I get needing specialists but they'll pretty much be left alone back in your DZ with the blackjack while the bikes go do their thing. I'd drop at least one for a hardcase to provide some infiltrating support.

That being said, with a friend on a lazy weekend, that looks like a lot of fun to play around with.

 

Except AD parachutists must both come in from the same table edge so flanking is out.
Unless you spring for Van Zant.

 

I think it is, have been toying with the idea myself

I would definitely max out on Mavericks, but would never pass a hard limit of 4 desperados. Too many irregular orders start to make things very complicated.

On the bright side, 5 Mavs and 4 Desperados are very cheap, so it would still be possible to put out a nice defensive Grunt link and a good spread of Foxtrots for button pushing, maybe even a Blackjack

 

Maybe go slightly less in on the bikes?


go get em boiz
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 6 4 9
MAVERICK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
MAVERICK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
MAVERICK Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration) Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 11)

GROUP 2 9
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
TRAKTOR MUL Katyusha MRL / Electric Pulse. (1 | 11)
TRAKTOR MUL (Minesweeper) Electric Pulse. (0 | 5)
BLACKJACK T2 Sniper, Submachine Gun, Chest Mines / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 36)
GRUNT Lieutenant Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
GRUNT Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
GRUNT (Marksmanship LX) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
GRUNT (Marksmanship LX) Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
GRUNT Paramedic (MediKit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

6 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

 

Duh, I stand corrected -_-

 

Just to add my 5 eurocents:
First of all your DZ will be extremely crowded with all those (11) bikes. Bikes have huge bases, I have trouble deploying even a few (2-4) biker feasibly. They are all bad at dodging and lack partial cover for firefights, consequently total cover is more than advisable. Obviously rooftops are no-go zones further hindering your choices.
Second I am a big fan of SMG Desperados. MOV-smoke with his impetuous order and put him in supressive fire under the cover of their own smoke with his own irregular order: you have a decent ARO piece for your inactive turn without spending one single regular order. Alternativelay you can take 4 Desperados (for 52 points they will not break the bank) and use MOV-smoke to move 8' upfield, MOV-smoke to move 16' upfield and at the expense of one regular order and one command token you can put all four guys in SF. Now you covered half the table in smoke (allowing your troopers to move and push buttons pretty much unmolested) and set up a defensive screen midfields that will be a thorn in the side for the enemy. Not bad.
Regarding Mavericks... I am a bit torn. They are all pretty reasonably priced, extremely mobile and have awesome weapon loadouts (BS, Molotok, SMG, rokkit luncha) but too fragile for my liking to risk them in firefights. No marker state or mimetism, no cover, and MSV1 is just not the real thing. To make things worse they cost SWC (except for the BS loadout). I had limited success with the FO profile mainly as an extremely mobile button pusher but even that gal is outshone by the Foxtrot FO. (The same goes for BS Foxtrot vs BS Maverick...)
In short I do recommend taking many (4) Desperados and a couple (1-2) Mavericks (even for competitive games) but overloading them would be (even for non-competitive games) more cumbersome than funny. Said the actress to the bishop.

 

Looks like TAK can do a solid biker list as well with AVA 5 Dynamos and Carmen & Batard.

 

Bikes in general require a lot of practice to use well. Having lots of them at least gives you redundant bikes so you can actually get that necessary practice.

 

Not to mention Dynamos are the first bike unit to have Duo. I'm extremely interested in seeing what's their game will be.

 

Plus Carmen being G: Sync with an Antipode, very interesting possibilities.

 

Yeah. Bottom line is that a lot about TAK bike lists will depend on Dynamos' Training and Fury levels. I'm expecting a professional military unit akin to Mavericks, so Regular Impetous. This would mean that taking full AVA of bikes wouldn't make order pool too restricted. But then we're running into the question of point costs, as five Dynamos would probably cost somewhere in the 100-150 pts range, and we would have to provide a proper support base for them with our remaining points.

 

If they're Regular-Impetuous, I don't think they're going to be more than Aragoto bikers. But the JSA bousouzoku is 160 points:
Japanese Secessionist Army
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

5 1 6
KUROSHI RIDER Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Breaker Pistol, AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 33)
ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)
ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 26)
ARAGOTO (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
ARAGOTO Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)
YOJIMBO Contender, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades, CrazyKoalas (2) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 21)

2.5 SWC | 159 Points

And note that Irregular-XImpetuous Yojimbo is only 21 points, while Regular-Impetuous Celty (erm, Kuroshi Rider) is 33.

But anyway, 20-30pts seems reasonable for high-end bikers (Regular-Impetuous). Low-end bikers (Irregular-XImpetuous) are 10-20

 

A lot depends on weapon options. SMGs or Chain Rifles as basic weaponry can make them substantially cheaper than Combi+LSG Keisotsu. I wonder if we'll see some heavier weapons, like Molotoks or Rocket Launchers.

 

This might be a good way to remain with your original list with more order efficiency with the irregular orders. A little more in line with how I'd do a full bike list, and you get a full grunt team, doctors and engineers.

USAriadna Ranger Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 7 2 7
MAVERICK Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MAVERICK Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MAVERICK Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
MAVERICK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19)
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
DESPERADO Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades / 2 Heavy Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DOZER Rifle, Akrylat-Kanone / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
GROUP 2 6 4 4
112 Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 12)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Submachine Gun, Smoke Grenades / 2 Heavy Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
DESPERADO Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
ROSIE Light Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
GRUNT Lieutenant Rifle, Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
GRUNT HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
GRUNT (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
GRUNT Paramedic (MediKit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
4.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

 

I've been running 2 Desperados and 3 Mavericks as few times now. Not nearly as extreme as a full bike list but enough of them on the table to get a good sense of them. I doubt I'd ever run more Mavs as the cost is just too high with them not getting cover and having large bases. It is just too hard to move that many of them around. Getting more Desperados might be a thing since at least they are cheap.

Problem I see is that these are the kind of extreme lists that will either die on turn 1 to AROs or win the game turn 1 based on objectives. I don't like the mass bike lists idea simply for that, either win or lose big and outside of maybe once for the funny factor this list will get old for one/both players fast.

 

@Cry of the Wind Could you please tell us which loadout you use? I am mainly interested in Desperados (CR or SMG I presume).
Thank you in advance!