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I am fairly new to 40k, and I know this may seem a fairly simple question, but while reading the rulebook and building my Mechanized Space Wolves army, I came up with a few questions regarding the tactics used with assault troops (in my case Grey Hunters and Blood Claws) and their transports (Rhinos).

My understanding is that the rules present you with 2 choices. Assuming I have a rhino full of Grey Hunters that I want to assault something with on the next turn, i can either:

1. Move or pivot the Rhino - Deploy - Shoot - wait until next turn, and move, shoot assault as normal.

OR

2. Move or pivot the Rhino - wait until next turn - deploy - move, shoot assault as normal.

#1 obviously leaves my troops open to enemy fire or assault during the enemy turn, but it lets me deploy my troops so they face the enemy (by turning the rhino so the side/back is facing forward, since you can't deploy out of the front), and gives me extra shots during the shooting phase of the first turn.

#2 allows me to keep my troops in the shelter of the Rhino until they are ready to assault, but lets them shoot less, and causes the troops to disembark from the back/sides of the Rhino, unless i turn it to face a weird angle the turn before, which exposes the weak back armor to the enemy shooting, though I suppose Smoke bombs could help lessen this danger.

I feel that option 2 is probably a sounder tactic depending on what you might get shot by, but i was wondering what sort of movement/deployment tactics you more experienced players use.

Basically, my questions are:
1. Is it better to dump the troops out of the rhino early so they have better positioning and are able to fire, or keep them inside and leave the rhino in place on the next turn, so they can charge out, move, shoot and assault?
2. Does your choice depend on certain circumstances, and if so what would they be?
3. Does it help to spin the Rhinos around at the end of its movement phase, letting you deploy troops facing the enemy on your next turn, but exposing the weak read armor to the enemy? Do smoke Bombs make this a non issue? Am i just over thinking this, and it doesn't really if you spin it around or not?
4. Are there any other basic tactics you might use to make sure you get the most out of your units assaulting out of transports?

I hope i am clear in explaining what i am wondering, and thanks for any help.

It depends on your unit. Shooty units want to get out and shoot. Assaulty units don't want to be subject to shooting so they might wait a turn.

To expand on shrubs answer:

It depends on the unit. For instance a unit of grey hunters with 2 melta guns might decide to wait inside so that the vehicle can move 6" and shoot without leaving the transport, or 12" deploy and shoot their meltas at a tank.

If there are no tanks in range, they might wait inside, and if an enemy unit moves clsoe they might decide to deploy, shoot pistols, Mgs, and assualt.

A wolf guard squad with 5 combi plasmas on the other hand will wait in ther transport to zoom over to some terminators, pleague beares/marines, or other hard or espescially killy squad, deploy and start cooking the enemy with their armor ignoring plasmaguns.

In most cases, during that first movement turn you will stay in the transport to protect your troops from enemy small arms fire(and large arms fire that ignore your armor save). Then you will decide to deploy and have your movement and assualt, or decide to move the vehicle first and jump out and shoot. The decsion will mostly be based on: The type of target nearby (something you want to shoot, or something you want to assault) and the units weapon loadout. Anti tank and anti heavy infantry weapons will usually stay inside so you can move unload and shoot, and squads kitted for assualt will usually get out and initiate said assult if a target is in range.

That's a great answer.

And to answer number 3: just pivot 45 degrees. This way you don't show your rear armor but can exit from the side hatch for good assault range.

My opponent from a game yesterday even put a model in front of the rhino when disembarking. I'm not sure if that's possible though, didn't measure it