40K: Rhino Rush Returns?
Will 8th Edition herald in the return of the “Rhino Rush” Era? Let’s take a closer look!
Air Dusters everywhere are getting a workout after this weekend’s announcement that Transports aren’t going to completely suck anymore! Hyperbole aside, Rhinos are starting to sound a lot more viable. With that news, an old school battle plan is rising from it’s long slumber. Here comes the Rhino Rush!
What the Heck is Rhino Rush?
Rhino Rush was popularized in 3rd Edition and it was a tactic most used by armies like the Black Templars, Blood Angels, and Khorne ‘Electric-Football’ lists.
The core concept is that you loaded up your forces in Rhinos and floored it across the battlefield in hopes that you could catch your opponents with a charge before they could escape. “Rhino Rush” just became a catch-all term now used to describe any army that can load-up in transports, drive across the board and deliver their payload – usually directly into Close Combat.
It was a time of High Adventure!
One of the reasons this concept worked so well in 3rd was because most movement was standardized. Infantry moved 6″, vehicles moved 12″, assault was 6″ and most regular guns had a 24″ range. Also, deployment and missions were pretty much the same – Deploy 24″ away and go. This was also in the days before Pre-measuring.
When you combined all these factors, it was actually really easy to pull off a 2nd turn charge in 3rd. (Now this was all thrown off if either player deployed an inch or two off the starting line…but that’s an old tactic from another time.)
Fast forward a few editions and the tactic fell out of favor. Riding in Transports got more deadly, timing the charge out of the Rhino became more difficult, and Overwatch shooting became a thing (again). Oh and of course the balance between shooting and melee in 7th didn’t really help either.
Is Rhino Rush Back?
According GW – sort of…
via Warhammer Community
“In the new Warhammer 40,000, Transports are almost universally, better: they are more durable, faster, many are better at shooting, and all have fewer limitations on the units disembarking from them. For example, a unit disembarking from a Transport is no longer prevented from charging that turn.
Units now disembark at the start of the Movement phase, before the Transport moves, but can then move, shoot and fight normally in that turn. This opens up loads of tactical options for both shooting and combat themed armies, especially now that multiple units can share a single Transport up to its capacity.”
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The key parts here are:
“a unit disembarking from a Transport is no longer prevented from charging that turn.”
“Units now disembark at the start of the Movement phase, before the Transport moves“
Everyone Line-up for your Rhino Assignments
Why is that important? Well it’s pretty simple:
- Transports will still have to survive at least a round (or two) of shooting – based on what we’ve seen so far, I don’t think that ALL of the transports are going to make it across the field. A lot of them just might, but if you need your combat force to be 100% effective when they arrive for victory, that’s not a safe bet. This also means Gunlines will have to choose their targets wisely.
- Assault Armies will still have to plan for that – Knowing that all your assault elements won’t make it across unscathed means you’re going to have to develop a battle plan for that. Deploying your transports in a way that will allow them to get the most “bang for your buck” is going to become a skill players will have to develop to be successful.
- “Shoot and Scoot” becomes a necessary tactic – Gunlines can no longer remain static. They are going to have to plan to fall-back, regroup and maybe even bail out completely. And sometimes, there will be sacrifices to be made. Go get them Kroot!
- Adds a lot of tactical depth to the game – When your transports are tougher than they were before both sides of the equation have to redo their plans. Maybe an unit of “speed bumps” is now worth taking. Or maybe even a counter-assault element. What about a second wave of your assault elements? Are you going to have a way to follow-up if your assault gets stunted or slowed.
These are the types of things players are now going to have to ask themselves before, during and after the game. This should get Tournament Players really jazzed-up! And if you’re more of a casual player this is great news, too. You’ll have a reason to try different units and tactics out. You’ll have a reason to dust off units that might not of seen a lot of play time or pick-up new units you’ll want to try out. It’s a hobby after all – I’ll take any excuse to add a unit to my collection…
Also Transports absorbing the Overwatch Fire before the infantry assault because they can CHARGE is a hilarious concept.
The Warboss said if I punch hard enough, I get to come back as a Battlewagon when they rebuild me!
Based on everything we’ve seen and read so far I really think it’s going to come down to one really big unknown factor: Points. If transports are too cheap, then they can flood the field and ensure their payload will make it. If they are too expensive, then the cost of dropping all those needed transports cuts too deep to fill them up properly. It’s going to be a balancing act on a knife-edge.
The viability of shooting vs melee in 8th Edition rests on the back of dedicated transports. Talk about pressure…
What do you think? Based on what we know so far do you think the “Rhino Rush” is coming back in full force? Are you looking forward to testing your luck vs a Gunline army? Let us know in the comments below!
