PM in: Blood Rodeo

From Lithanial on Warseer:

"Hi Kirby,

I am intrigued by your ideas of the Blood Rodeo and have been running through a few things in my head. Thought I would gather your opinion on them.

1, Why do you choose to do this with a BA list over a CS:M list? with C:SM you could quite feasibly have vanguard vets instead of the BA's ASM squads - add in a scout squad / scout bike squad with locator beacons and your vanguard are getting straight into the fight rather than getting shot apart.

2, With all those bikes & jump packs, do you find clearing and holding terrain to be a problem? What are your thoughts on adding some scout squads to hold terrain pieces ahead of the bike wave and restrict your opponents free access to cover?

3, Why do you not include any armour in your list? with the BA fast vehicles they would be able to keep up with ease and act as a strong anchor while also giving you the ability to tank shock your way through swarms for your bikers to reach more important targets.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts."

I'm still in the process of putting together the Blood Rodeo How To but will answer these questions here (those of you who have sent me emails I'll get to them, don't worry. Just a bit behind atm). For those of you who are woefully unaware, backlines to the Blood Rodeo are here and the revised edition here. I've had a handful of games with them and have enjoyed the games and been impressed by the list. The obvious weaknesses are there and I need to work on my bike bubble-wrap but I believe it is a very capable list. So, enough prattling on, let's look at the questions.

1) BA for one reason: FNP/FC bubbles. When you take Bikes in the Vanilla book, as Smurfy has been pointing out with his Biker series, they are not a combat army. Whilst Command Squads are excellent rock units, Bikes simply aren't designed for combat and are much better mobile shooting platforms. Add in combat tactics and they can avoid combat as much as possible. Blood Rodeo is essentially the "assault" version of Bikes. Whilst FNP/FC doesn't make the Bike aspect actually a combat unit, it makes it much more capable in surviving assaults from non-dedicated, power weapon wielding assault units whilst also launching somewhat decent assaults themselves. Call this the anvil if you wish. The ASM are the hammer (who can take meltaguns unlike Vanilla ASM) which use the Bikes as a screen for cover and to avoid getting assualted. This means they can launch assaults of their own w/FC. This combination is excellent at torrenting but has troubles against super units and then you get TH/SS termies. These are the super hammer of doom and are meant as a big "go away from here" squad or anti-super unit. These three parts working together produces a "Bike" assault army which only operates due to FNP/FC which Vanilla SM can't access on an army wide basis. Whilst I would trade Red Thrist any day of the week for Combat Tactics, we live with what we have. Vanilla SM make great Fast'N'Slow and pure Bike lists but they are primarily shooty lists whilst Blood Rodeo is much more combat oriented.

2) Not really. You've got a fair amount of TL-bolters and flamers throughout your army and ASM when assaulting into cover don't take dangerous terrain tests. Spells like Tempest though will rip your ASM apart *sadface.* I'd think the Scout squads would be a waste of points. Whilst slowing individuals getting into terrain, they can simply assault your scouts and then are in the terrain anyway. This also detracts points from your main body of the Blood Rodeo which needs to work as a cohesive whole.

3) A Hybrid list with Bikers is excellent (see Fast'N'Slow) but there the bikes are troops and the tanks aren't needed for breaking enemy lines but rather suppression and long range firepower. The Bikes in that army are again not combat oriented so are essentially playing a game of keep away. With Blood Rodeo because the Bikes aren't Troops, you'd need to drop them to make up the points for Vehicles and it would essentially become a Hybrid BA w/Jumpers & Tanks (which I'm not a fan of). In reality, the Biker/ASM combo for BA need no tanks because they have the speed and mobility built into themselves with the ability to stop armor effectively and then munch on the juicy insides. ASM can do this by jumping over the Bikes or if you're versusing a list which assaults into your Bikes, your ASM then jump over the combat to assault the rear.

To summarise: Blood Rodeo is a "combat" oriented Bike list where the Bikes are essentially the bait which relies upon FNP/FC bubbles for defenses against torrent and increasing offensive potential. The bikes protect the ASM so they can launch assaults whilst the Terminators deny certain areas or counter super-units. The army needs to work as a cohesive whole where they become more effective closer together. Taking units which don't benefit from the FNP/FC or operate often outside the FNP/FC (other than Terminators) bubbles detract from this working mechanism and can dilute the offensive and defensive potential of the list.

Hope that answers your questions Lithanial. I will be putting up the Blood Rodeo How To at some point in the future so keep your eyes out but if you have any more questions, or if anyone else does, just ask!