There's not really much to say about
the Rhino (none of that introductory crap today, straight into it),
the only difference between it and the loyalist Rhinos (not including
Blood Angels and their special Rhinos) is that it has a Combi-Bolter
instead of a Storm Bolter, which means that it's rapid fire instead
of Assault 2 but also gains twin-linked. Other than that, it's down
to the upgrades, which I'm going to run through now.
The first thing that caught my
attention was the Dirge Caster. I think it's quite quirky.
Essentially, any unit close to a Rhino with a Dirge Caster cannot
fire Overwatch. That's quite a nice little thing to have. The main
problem that I have with it though, is that the Rhino will have to
withstand a turn of fire before it can get this off.
The way that I was thinking this would
work is that the assault troops disembark early, going ahead of their
Rhinos, with them moving up behind. Just as your unit gets close
enough to assault, you can use the flat out move in the assault phase
coupled with the normal movement to speed the Rhino up and stop the
Overwatch, also providing so good cover in case your unit gets out of
the combat in a single turn. That said, the Rhino still isn't very
survivable, and as a Space Wolf player the first thing that I think
when I see a Rhino is, 'ooh, free first blood/kill point!'. So I'd
worry about this staying alive long enough to pull this off.
The next piece of new wargear around
are the Warpflame Gargoyles. Essentially, it gives the Rhino's
shooting Soul Blaze. Really, you don't buy a Rhino for the shooting,
and the odds of you getting a wound with the combi-bolter are low
against the basic troops of most armies, so this isn't going to go
off most of the time. I'd say that here they're just points that are
getting sunk into a Rhino when it's not useful enough to put those
points into such a flimsy vehicle.
The next one up is quite interesting.
The combi-weapons. Now you can take a combi-flamer, melta or plasma
on the Rhinos. For the measly cost of 10pts. Even staying away from
the 40k internets, I've caught snippets of people getting excited by
these, and I don't know why. To start with, it's 10 pts into a single
melta/plasma/flamer shot.
Thinking about the Melta. When is this
really going to get used. Are you thinking of rushing a Rhino with a
combi-melta on it to take out an opponent's vehicle? Good luck
getting it that close. Are you thinking of sitting it back and
waiting for your opponent to bring their tanks to you? Well, what
tanks are going to be coming towards you? Assault vehicles is the
answer here, now let's name an assault vehicle. Land Raider. Now, the
odds of that one Melta shot killing that Land Raider are pretty low,
and even if it does, as an assault vehicle the contents are still
probably going to come over and punch you in the face, as it's
probably going to be full of Assault Terminators, or Death Company,
or something like that.
Combi-flamer. Useful against hordes.
But realistically, it might kill a few Orks/Termagants, but compared
to the number of models that I have on the table as a horde player
I'm not going to care that much.
Now the combi-plasma is a little
better. That said, I probably wouldn't put this on my Rhinos, as I
don't like the idea of pumping 10 more points into a flimsy vehicle
for potentially shooting 1 gun once.
Especially considering for 2 points
more you get a gun with a long range, decent strength and blast,
which can fire every turn rather than just once. It's Havoc Launcher
time. I don't think that it's changed at all, but then again I don't
have the old Codex, but if I was going for a shooty Rhino I'd go with
that. Better against horde armies than a combi-flamer hands down.
Higher strength, same AP, has some range and can fire more than once.
I'm bored of Rhinos now but luckily
there's not too much more gear to go. However, one piece of wargear
did make me laugh, and that is the Destroyer Blades. With the pricing
of 15pts and the limited number of opportunities that you're going to
be able to/want to tank shock with your Rhino, I really don't think
it's worth it. But with a kickback to my Orks, this upgrade has
pursuaded me to take some Chaos Rhinos and give them these. Put
shortly, a Destroyer Blade is essentially the Chaos Rhino's
equivilant of a Deff Rolla. Sweet.
Now onto the final upgrade of Daemonic
Possession. And I use the word 'upgrade' in the loosest possible way
here, so I'm going to put it this way. Positives of Daemonic
Possession. Ignore Shaken and Stunned results most of the time.
Negatives of Demonic Possession: Lower Ballistic skill, steep points
cost, and a chance that the Rhino will eat embarked units, although
doing so will recover a lost hull point. There we go, considering
that Daemonic Possession in points cost is almost half way to a new
Rhino, don't take it.
Today's analysis is over, hopefully
I'll be looking at more exciting units next time. With one half of
the compulsory slots covered, I think it's only fair that I move on
to the over half and look at the HQ choice. Starting nice and
generic. Chaos Lord will be up tomorrow.
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