# How to stop a Rhino Rush



## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Ok, something that comes up alot on these forums is something along the lines of 'how do I stop a XXX rhino rush?'

This is a very frequent question due to the 5th editions reliance on Mech/transport. I'm going to give my *personal* approach to dealing with such armies. I appreciate that some of you will not agree, but, its my opinion, nothing more, and nothing you can say will take it away.

*Step one:*
What army do I have?

obviously, we all play different armies, and different inherant styles within each one. For example, I know I play my DE in a different style to the likes of Keelia, Panzy and Blue Liger.

Take a long look at what you have availiable in your relavant codex.

Some armies like Tau, can rely on their basic soliders weapon to take out a Rhino. Some armies, won't even stratch it.

So, Options.
Now, hold these thoughts and move onto step 2.

*Step two:*
What army is he playing?

Is it Wolves, or Blood angels? Khorne Berzerkers or Grey knights? Etc.
This has a strong importance, simply so you can know what he intends to do when he gets out of his Rhino.
Will he charge straight in?
Or do the plague marine thing and get out and just shoot at you from close range, relying on his toughness/armour to see him through?

This is important due to how you set up your army. What units might be worth including. Etc.
Move to step 3

*Step three:*
Once you know how he plays his game, you can pick your options after looking at them (step one).

There is 2 paths to choose.
Reactionist
or 
Antagonist

The first involves letting him make the moves and reacting. A Flyrant would be a brilliant reaction unit. As would deepstriking Assault termies and a Chimeria full of ogyrns.
Let him make his moves and do what you can to stall/hinder/reduce his units then hammer blow them away. You can do this with an Assault of your own, or with Fire power, its your call.
A good reaction tactic is to have a bait unit. Be it Scouts/conscripts/kroot/guardians etc etc. Let that unit 'get in the way'. If he doesnt take the bait, get the bait in the way!
Drop pod assault works well aswell (drop pod being generic term for deepstriking units from all armies). Let him come for you, then slam the units behind/amongst him. At 2k points, having 12 Crisis suits land behind you isnt fun, neither is 3 dreadnaughts.

Next, Antagonist.

This is different in that it forces your opponent to re-think his plans. Cunning use of deployment is needed here. Using terrain and, if your this way inclined, empty transports/pods to block/bottle neck and hamper his units.
This forces him to play you in your own field and fire lanes.
70 points on 2 rhinos basically gives you the option to create a 'wall' along one flank, or a make-shift fortress in the boards centre.
Some armies dont have this option, like Eldar and Tau as the transports are to expensive. That said, Tau/Eldar/DE and Tyranids are much better reactionary armies than they are antagonists.
Drop pods are interesting. They allow you to block off attempts to manuver as you see them. Is his Rhino trying to get between 2 forests? Slam a pod in the middle and make him spend another 1-2 turns going around.

Special note.
Land Raiders/baneblades/stompas are BIG models. They need room. A common tactic is to keep rhinos behind the raider and let it spear head. Block it off. 2 Rhinos can easily park/be destroyed infront of a Raider and stop it going anywhere.

By all means, Guns/power fists will stop transports. But its far more important to have a plan first.

USE YOUR BRAIN!
USE THE TERRAIN!

If you have to move your entire army 6" to the left on turn one to stop 4 Rhinos filled with nutters hitting your lines in turn 3 then do it!! The longer he isnt in combat, the longer he isnt going to have to fight.
A Rhino rush that hits home in Turn 4 or after is a Rhino rush thats going wrong. The longer you can hold it off, the better.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Or you can just spam cheap anti light armor waepons like auto cannons (CSM can have 8 shots a turn from a 230 pt unit), and stop him half way accross the field on turn one. Such a tactic however lacks the finnesse of Orochi's tactica. Orks can do this for a hallariously low cost with looters, and with the avverage strength of light at guns being 7+ every hit will harm the tank of a 4 plus.

Now I may be a tad bias since I have never had a enemy rhino survive past turn 3. I mean their just rhinos a imobalised or can't move or shoot result is just as good as destroyed. Hell thats not even taking into acount that under the current rules unless your stupid enough to allow your enemy to deploy a crap load of large terrain it is increadible difficult to get cover from anything, but smoke launchers (50% of model has to be covered for vhicle cover saves).


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Also not as effective. Any decent player will be behind cover or popping smoke in turns 1-2. Relying purely on taking a big enough selection of anti-rhino guns isn't good enough, because to be guaranteed of effectiveness, you're going to be spending too many points on them, which weakens the rest of the army. For example:

Autocannon on a Guardsman: 1 hit, 5+ to penetrate, 4+ cover save. This means you need 6 hits (6 Autocannons) in order to cause 1 reliable penetrating hit. If my taking Rhinos forced my opponent to buy 6 Autocannons for each one, I'd consider the job well done. Likewise if he took Lascannons at ~30pts a pop, I'd be just as happy, because he just spent the same amount of points on one gun as I did on a tank, and there still isn't good odds of 1 Lascannon taking out a Rhino with a save.

Even a squad of Lootas with 2 shots each only gets 6-7 hits, 2-3 penetratings. After the cover save, only one of those is going to cause damage, and then you need to roll a 4+ to immobilise or destroy. And those lootaz cost you 150pts.

Also there are some armies that don't have access to Autocannon equivalents, for example Eldar, Sisters of Battle and Necrons.

Having a decent selection of anti-transport firepower is essential, but you need to use tactics in conjunction with it in order to reliably stop them. For example blocking/diverting a couple of transports so that you can concentrate firepower on one or two others. Orochi mentions a variety of effective strategies that can be employed.


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## Blind (Jan 24, 2010)

Tau: crisis suits with missile pods, hammerheads/ broadsides, fire warrior spam.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Lol yah with fire warriors or crons their really isn't any thought required just shoot the rhinos with onee squad each, and watch thr rhino was stop in its tracks as each one suffers 3-4 glanzing hits from just scrubs.


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