Rhino Tactics

[jjfelber]

From my experience rhinos are worth every penny. I don't give them anything I just run them as 35pts bullet catchers and road blocks.

Up until now I only had 2 in my army. Two usually was enough for 2 units of 10 GHs. I also have 3 drop pods where I would put my third unit of 10 GHs.

 

This works pretty well, but unless I bring 2 DPs the GHs would show up first turn kill a bunch then get killed. Only having 3 scoring units is pretty scary.

So I decided to add some GHs and rhinos to my Company.

 

I may have gone over board, literally doubling the size of my company. I bought 2 Space Marine Battalions and a box of GHs.

With the extra bitz from the GH box (and the bitz I have lying around) I will be adding:

40 GHs, 10 Scouts, 10 Swiftclaws and 2 rhinos.

 

Anyway, Back to my original post.

How would you run 4 Rhinos? Would you run all 4 rhinos and create a wall of cover for Bikes/TWC/foot sloggers? Or would you create 2 small walls with 2 rhinos each?

How do you run your rhinos?

[Hear da Lamentation]

I have 3 rhinos full of GH. I run 2 of them together (a standard assault unit and a plasma pack with WS and MotW). These guys tend to be the focus of my army, flanked by 2 units of LongFangs. Then I use the other one to back up my biker lord unit. This one has a RP in it - and I find it's speed is needed to keep vaguely with the bikers - and also really helps to get the RP in good positions.

[Adarul Greystalker]

I sometimes run four rhinos (or more commonly three plus a razorback). I find that on most boards, a wall of four rhinos is very difficult to maneuver, and I often want to get into places where I can only fit one or two. I find that the best rhino formation for me ends up being a wedge or line abreast of three vehicles, or sometimes two if necessary, with a support rhino in the back with a rune priest using stormcaller on all of them. I like to make the rune priest a master of the runes and give him a shooting power (usually lightning, sometimes jaws or hurricane), equipping his pack with a plasma gunner and sometimes even a hunter-killer missile on the rhino. The other rhinos are practically always outfitted with meltaguns and assault weapons (and wolf standards, naturally), but I frequently downgrade one of them to a minimalist razorback squad with heavy bolters and a single special weapon. I sometimes leave this pack behind or on a middle ground objective, but they can be surprisingly effective attackers, especially if your opponent underestimated them as a small squad.

 

Having the ability to switch my rhinos to razorbacks with heavy bolters or lascannons whenever I want has really helped me to explore and innovate mechanized formations and tactics and I would highly recommend getting razorback kits or razorback conversion bits for your rhinos so that you can try them out. Rhinos are far better for main frontline squads, in my experience, but having a cheap scoring unit with a powerful ranged weapon for every few rhinos can be a tactical godsend.

 

Also, if you don't have a rune priest with stormcaller to protect all those rhinos, I highly recommend giving that a try.

[nurglez]

storm caller is great, I have 4 rhinos and 2 vindicators, so if i use the vindicators as rhinos I could use 6 if i want, but I haven't tried that in ages, my usual chaos army is 4 squads of plague marines, 3 in rhinos and 1 in a landraider, when I play using the space wolf codex i generally run the same sort of list.

 

one great thing about rhinos is if you have a squad with 2 melta gun shots, you can either move it 12, do a hand brake turn and jump out the back to melta a vehicle, or move it 6 and fire 2 shots from the top hatch, this has helped get a squad of mine into melta range when just out of range (move up to 6 to embark, move the vehicle 6 and hand brake turn again <_<, then shoot for the joy of it).

[IamCaboose]

My 1750 list is always 4 9 man GHs in rhinos and 2 vindies, plus other goodes of course. What I'm facing determines what my rhinos are used for. If I see lots of AT weapons I use them to shield my vindies first turn. If I see a horde army I usually use them to divide and conquer units one at a time. By sending 2 rhinos to deal with a squad you can usually disembark and have the rhinos wall off your 2 squads backs so theres no counter attack. But once my squads are out I rarely re-embark so the Rhinos make great road blocks.

 

Caboose

[Grimtooth]

storm caller is great, I have 4 rhinos and 2 vindicators, so if i use the vindicators as rhinos I could use 6 if i want, but I haven't tried that in ages, my usual chaos army is 4 squads of plague marines, 3 in rhinos and 1 in a landraider, when I play using the space wolf codex i generally run the same sort of list.

 

one great thing about rhinos is if you have a squad with 2 melta gun shots, you can either move it 12, do a hand brake turn and jump out the back to melta a vehicle, or move it 6 and fire 2 shots from the top hatch, this has helped get a squad of mine into melta range when just out of range (move up to 6 to embark, move the vehicle 6 and hand brake turn again <_<, then shoot for the joy of it).

 

I like doing this when I go offensive.

 

If I am playing against a much faster army or an army I need to be wary of their cc, I will bunker down and let them come to me. Then disembark, move 6" into half melta range, pop the transport, and assault. Works really well against Berserkers who are trying to get as xlose to you as they can before hopping out to assault.

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

I tend to run rhinos and razorbacks in pairs (or more - I have 6 which can act as either) and rarely with additions (unless I have 30 or 45 points to spare and plumb for extra armour... though when do I ever have 'points to spare'?!). They have rarely let me down, and if you accept their shortcomings, are a bargain at 35 points. Simple :P

[clanfield]

i usualy drop a gh with 2 flamers and a blood claw pack into the enermy rear and send up four rhinos with gh in 3 and a pa wg pack with my lord in

i realy dont use a lot of bikes i like speeder with a multi melta poping out from behind the wall and zaping armour

 

as to tactics i roll forward exit rear and pop smoke denies the enermy room to move and there ussaly panicing about the drop pods then in go the packs

i support this with long fangs and a pred or a vindi if i fight hordes

[Grimtooth]

Last night I ran a pretty good Rhino rush into Tau lines.

 

He got fisrt turn and was able to immobilize one, but my other two blasted forward popping smoke on my turn. They survived the follow up fire, moved 12" again and disembarked with one pack melta gunning a hammerhead and the other rapid firing some Fire Warriors for the greater good.