Rhinos vs. Pods question for fighting a chaos/guard army

[VonMerrick]

Hi, I'm an old 3rd-4th edition player who had coffee with the fifth but never got that into it. Now my friends and I are coming back after a long bit. As such I'm treating myself as a novice and would like some input from current players. My group has a Nid player that I am doing well against, but I am having chaos problems. The Chaos player fields squads of noise marines with sonic blasters, deep striking termicide squad and plague marines. In addition he fields a guard as an ally. Within his troop choice he takes three heavy weapon groups, a Banewolf and either a Basilisk or a Leman Russ tank.

 

I usually field Tigurius, Sternguard, tacticals with combi plasma, plasma, and heavy bolters, snipers, Telion, a stormtalon, and a thunderfire cannon.

 

Basically I need mobility. Should I be investing in drop pods (3 of them) to drop Sternguard and a full tactical squad on him during turn one, or get three rhinos and a razorback and be more conservative in my movements?

[Kierdale]

As a guard player, one thing I don't like is the enemy getting close to me too quickly. I want to pound them with shells as they come across the board to me. Rhinos and Razorbacks can be popped relatively easily by guard heavy weapons.

If you pod down and pop his Russ, Basilisk and/or Wolf early it will be a big kick to his IG element. Of course, if he's got sense/experience he'll bubble wrap them with cheap infantry...

[corlinjewell]

I know you only mentioned Rhinos vs. Pods in the OP, but since you say you want mobility, I'll add that fliers can really hurt the guard (unless they bring Hydras or their own nasty Vendettas).  Blast Templates don't effect them, and you can transport some guys as well if you use a Raven

[DarkGuard]

Drop Pods do not provide mobility, they provide alternate deployment in a wider range of zones than normal deployment does.

 

Rhinos, on the other hand, give mobility. Mobility is being able to move to where you're needed continually. Rhinos give this. Drop Pods get you somewhere you want once, and then you're pretty slow there. Rhinos you can mount up again and keep on going.

 

So basically, go for the Rhinos and Razorbacks, it works better in your sort of list anyway.

[Ishagu]

Rhino rushes can be stopped easily by the opponent unless you give him something else to focus on, eg: Landraider full of Termies.

 

Drop Pods with Melta Sternguard will do wonders against the IG tanks and are worth considering.

 

As for the Chaos Marines? A Command Squad with plasma guns in a rhino/razorback or Grav gun bikers will ruin their day! As mentioned above, the Stormraven is also an incredible addition to the list and can easily destroy tanks, fliers, units of men if fully upgraded, as well as being able to drop a squad deep into enemy lines. Remember that a locator beacon means you can drop a unit off without scatter and without having to hover as long as you've been in play a full turn.

[tdemayo]

I would prefer the Rhinos. Several Rhinos together can deliver squads in coordination. I've found that most marine squads need to combine fire (or Assault) together to decisively destroy an enemy target unit. This is easier to do with Rhinos, than with the pods. Pods inherently split your forces, putting half the squads into reserve, and scattering what does land. They are random and lack control. (In smaller numbers - a full drop pod force can drop enough units on turn one to allow sufficient saturation and coordination.)

 

Isolated podding units are basically suicide bombs. If there's something you just have to kill and you're willing to sacrifice some Sternguard to eliminate it, then that's okay I guess. But, generally, I dislike throwing units to certain death.

 

Frankly, though, I've never had any luck closing with a guard blob and surviving - not with pods, or Rhinos, or even LRs. If you're buying rhino hulls anyway - why not buy Whirlwinds? The top assembly IIRC is interchangeable with the rhino hatch in the kit. Use them as rhinos if you like, then mix things up next game by taking whirlwinds and hurling Ignore Cover pie plates at the guardsmen.

[Azash]

Your not running anything to draw fire from the Rhino's so a Rhino rush will have little to no chance of success. With your list as is I would go with Drop pods.

 

If your dead set on getting Rhino's I would invest in something along the lines of a Vindicator. It can advance with the Rhino's pull fire from the Rhinos while the Rhino's cover the side armor of the Vindicator forcing him to shoot at the armor 13 front.

[Kaedes Nex]

The way I see it Rhinos are better in almost every way except they give up first blood much easier. Drop Pods are less reliable because half are stuck in reserves with a questionable ETA and the pods are less useful after disembarking because they are static. However, drop pods have a high chance of giving you first blood and a stronger alpha strike.

 

You can always use both. Most people would want their Sternguard in a drop pod, but that doesn't mean your entire army needs to be podded. The rest can go in Rhinos. Sternguard do well in Rhinos too, for that matter. It lets them do their job and be useful over the course of the entire game here and there rather than front-loading all their potential in a first-turn suicide drop.

[Gideon999]

I have used pods quite extensively, and I can echo what was said above.   Unless you have enough pods to really saturate the other guy on turn 1, Rhino's will be better.   I woudl recommend 3 pods at 1500pts or less, and 5 at 1500-2000.   You could go even higher, but then things start to become a bit of a one trick pony in the pod direction leaving you with little mobility or backup plans if your alpha strike fails.

 

Case in point: I played a game against guard last weekend, 2000pts.   My force was imperial fists with ultramarine allies.   I won the roll off and picked going first and deploying first (he had colossus bombasts on the table which lob a S6 AP3, ignores cover large blast up to 240", think a baleflamer with almost infinite range....).   I had 3 pods, 2 melta and 1 flamer.  

 

He stole the initiative and shot the crap out of my force to the point where when my 2 lonely pods came down at the start of my  turn I could barely scratch his bubblewrap.   Needless to say, if I had another pod come alongside them, it would have given him enough to worry about that my assault troops might have been able to get across the table rather than getting shot to crap before they got halfway.