Chaos Space Marine biker weapons

[Lord Krungharr]

So I'm putting together two small new squads of bikers for my Chaos Marines meant to harass and blow up tanks with speed. I'd like to do 2 melta guns, combi-melta and melta bombs on the champs.

But should I make them so the dudes are holding the meltaguns and leave the twin-linked bolters alone? Or should I replace the twin-linked bolters with the special weapons? I can't decide if the extra attack is worth the sacrifice of shootyness when they come up against more horde/footslogger armies.

What do other CSM players like?

Being Relentless, I like the plasma gun option too, so maybe some magnets are in order....

[jifel]

So I'm putting together two small new squads of bikers for my Chaos Marines meant to harass and blow up tanks with speed. I'd like to do 2 melta guns, combi-melta and melta bombs on the champs.

But should I make them so the dudes are holding the meltaguns and leave the twin-linked bolters alone? Or should I replace the twin-linked bolters with the special weapons? I can't decide if the extra attack is worth the sacrifice of shootyness when they come up against more horde/footslogger armies.

What do other CSM players like?

Being Relentless, I like the plasma gun option too, so maybe some magnets are in order....

Well, you could replace their krak grenades with the Meltas... They are technically weapons. Otherwise, if you are only choosing between Bolters and CC weapons, I would suggest keeping the bolters, except on the combi-weapon sergeant, where an extra attack will help the most.

[deviant_cadaver]

I would go with just special weapons and trust yourself to not get them in to a combat they can't win.

[Allen Broussard]

Its been argued back and forth but im still pretty sure you cant swap out the twin-linked bolters on the bikes for anything.

They are part of the bike, and you arent given permission to change wargear (which the bike is).

Im also not sure if you can swap out grenades in this edition. You definately could last edition, but the BRB has slightly changed the description for grenades and no longer automatically gives them a weapon profile. They now only have a weapon profile in certain situations.

[Thornblood]

You get to choose what you swap, and it specifically states you can on page 100 of the codex.

For pure tank hunting I would keep the bolters because at range your still getting an extra 3-6 bolter shots which is more versatile if theres no tanks in range of the meltaguns. Points wise this is the cheaper option and will get you more boots on the table.

However, my personal choice would be to mount the meltas on the bikes, and keep the extra attacks for the sheer versatility of it. Then I'd be prepared to magnestize the sergeant, as you have paid the points for two attacks on the sarg, why not give him a power fist, or power sword? Now they can destroy small squads in combat as well. Lastly I'd really consider the mark of nurgle, because toughness 6 bikers are ridiculously resilient, especially if we dont forget the jink saves for the rare heavy weapons that get past toughness six. With a tooled up sarg, bike impact hits, a volley of melta, they can certainly take out alot....