Vehicle formation

[Captain of The Inceptors]

Although I'm sure this has been thought of before it has just occurred to me that I could use the formation of vehicles to control my opponents options.

 

 

For instance my 1500pts list has 5 tactical squads in rhinos we could use the rhinos to set up a wall on one flank to protect our army from that side. Our opponent would be forced to either deal with the tanks and their occupants or switch their strategy, here we are trying to remove the enemies options and hopefully leave them with only a choice between several bad options (the fewer the better so we might pre-empt them and re-deploy to push the advantage.)

 

One step further and we might set up a defensive cordon around a group of units, it would require the complete destruction of a tank in order to pass through the cordon to where our counter-charge unit will be waiting - although it would be very unlikely that an opponent might actually try it unless you were playing capture and control where you weren't battling them for their objective. (I find that capture and control is usually decided around 12" of one of the objectives)

 

I might have to think about it some more but especially for sparse tables I think these ideas just might work.

 

 

I really would like to hear from as many people as posible about this, as I don't get enough games in to playtest this fully.

 

Plus question - can a skimmer fly over a unit?

[Allerka]

This is one of the greatest strengths of the mechanized list. Your rhinos/razorbacks aren't just transports for Marines, they're also mobile cover. By all means, use them to shield your guys, and force your opponent into taking certain paths. One thing you can do is set up two Rhinos in a sort of V formation, with the point facing the enemy, the Rhinos 2" apart, and stick 1-2 squads in the space between the Rhinos. This lets them have a clear window to shoot away, but the enemy won't be able to charge through thanks to the 1" rule (And before anyone starts any cries of cheese, this tactic was introduced in a White Dwarf article).

 

Additionally, once your squads are disembarked, your Rhino is just a 35 point transport. Your enemy, unless they have a bajillion guns (i.e. are Guard or Tau), likely won't bother with shooting them, especially with higher priority targets being on the field. Therefore, you can continue to maneuver your Rhinos around to block lanes of fire and, again, provide mobile cover. I remember one game against some Dark Angels, I had a Razorback get its gun blown off, so I charged it into the enemy lines, and used it to block LOS for an enemy Dreadnought and Predator, and it certainly did that well enough, but he never bothered to shoot it because I had far greater threats to his army overall across the field.

 

The big thing to remember as well is to keep your units TOGETHER in a mechanized list. That way they can engage in mutual support, and it becomes one of those web dealies where the whole is greater than the parts.

 

As for skimmers, yes, they can fly over other units, as long as they don't end their movement above them, and still 1" away.

[Scott-S6]

Regarding your V tactic, the enemy can charge through as the 1" barrier is dropped in the assault phase (otherwise you couldn't get into assault...)

[Captain of The Inceptors]

Scott-S6: I thought that entering withing 1inch of anything meant that you were assaulting it. Although it's more of a feeling than a fact as I haven't really looked into it.

 

Yes I'm thinking that there will be plenty os situations where the rolling cover provided by rhino's (and other tanks) can be supremely effective. I'm also thinking that the way they are deployed could be used to force our opponent into certain actions too.

Hopefully I'll get a game in soon to try out some moves.

[Allerka]

Regarding your V tactic, the enemy can charge through as the 1" barrier is dropped in the assault phase (otherwise you couldn't get into assault...)

I'm pretty sure you can't pass within 1" of something you don't plan on assaulting, so you'd have to assault the Rhinos then. I'll double check the rules and get back to you. At worst, you can move the Rhinos a little closer so the bases can't squeeze through at all, then they definitely can't assault. The point is, do that, and your dudes behind can fire away with impunity (unless of course they've got jump packs or something).

[Frosty the Pyro]

the requirements are actualy a little more lax than that, you just cant END your movement within 1" you can pass by assuming you can end farther than 1"

[DevianID]

I didnt see the part where you cant end within 1 inch--can you provide a page number? I am almost positive the 1 inch restriction is completely absent in assault and only present in the movement phase, as the 'unchargable' formation was one of the things they actually fixed with 5th edition. Thus, the 2 inch gap only prevents movement through the rhinos, not assault through the rhinos.

[Allerka]

Ok, I double checked, I was mistaken. Enemy models would be able to assault through a 2" gap, but not move. In which case, as I said, just make the gap smaller than an infantry base and you're good to go. Sorry for the mixup.

[Pyremius]

Even if they can assault through the gap it still seems like a useful trick. My main opponent is Orks and is moving towards a troop-heavy list (finally picked up a Green Tide box so he can nearly max out his Troop selections). Under the new rules about always striking rear armor he's pretty likely to take out both Rhinos in short order (I'll assume 30-40 attacks per vehicle), but the shear lack of space to work with means he shouldn't get more than 4-5 boyz into close combat with my troops. Using the Rhinos to draw off attacks means the troops are far more likely to survive the initial attack, and once that's over his number of Attacks, Toughness and Initiative go down, swinging things slightly back towards me.