Notes on Bikes in 40k

[High Marshal Timmah]

Since I am planning on getting a few bikes, I did some research on them.

1. Bikes add +1 toughness. This does not effect instant death, it will always be off of the riders Original Toughness.

2. Bikes ignore difficult terrain, but always treat it as dangerous terrain (No cover or armor saves when moving through, entering, or leaving Dang Terrain). Even when assaulting. Movement is never slowed. However, without Frag Grenades you still go at initiative 1.

3. Bikes move 12", and fall back 3D6 inches. If they fall back through difficult terrain, then it is still dangerous terrain.

4. Cannot Run in the Shooting Phase

5. Are Relentless (count as stationary for the purposes of shooting, even if moved, and may still assault even if fired heavy or rapis fire weapons)

6. May shoot one weapon for each rider. (ala Attack Bike with HW and TLB)


Turbo Boosters

I was wrong, I thought Turbo Boosters made a savign throw invulnerable... that was 4th edition.

In 5th edition, if you choose to use turbo boosters, and move over 18 inches from your starting point, then you gain a 3+ COVER save. You may not go to ground to improve that save. You automatically pass pinning tests.

You also may not: Move through difficult terrain, shoot, launch assaults, or any other voluntary action that turn.

[griplion]

first off i'm not sure if youre talking about just sm bikes or all bikes in general

just a tweek on your turbo boosting statement. its not automatically a 3+ save. what happens is that your normal Armor save BECOMES a cover save of the same number. so for SM or CSM then yes its 3+. same for eldar but DE would be 5+ (think forget if its 4+ or 5+) as that is what thier normal armor save is.

and a bit of clarification on the shooting. the choice of 1 weapon from each rider includes the bike mounted weapons. so for example a sm bike with tl bolters and a plasma gun gets to shoot either the bolters on the bike or the plasma gun not both. not saying Tim would do this but I've seen it tried.

also on eldar bikes it has not been FAQ'd or Errata yet that i've seen ( i may have missed it) but there is still some confussion if a farseer on a jet bike may use the psychic powers that are done at the beging of the phase before any other action is done and still turbo boost or not. i've heard arguements both ways and i'm still not sure either.

[High Marshal Timmah]

Curious. My reference for turbo boosters is page 76 of the 5th edition rulebook... yours?

[griplion]

dang youre right on that cover save. been playing it wrong for qutie some time then. that will help out lots with the DE bikes!!!

actually makes them seem much more survivable since if you arent making used of thier TB attacks then why are you running them?!

Thanks Tim!

[High Marshal Timmah]

Yeah, I thought that too then I caught myself reading the book and correcting myself. The whole reason for the post was to ensure there was no confusion.