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I first have to set up the situation. I've been playing for a while and I normally play Necrons, but I decided to start another army and I choose CSM.

Very recently I aquired two rhinos for very cheap. The problem I'm running into is what do I do with them. I have no idea what people use rhinos for and what would be the best way to use them.

This only comes because I don't really have any space marine players I normally play against so I can't see what they use them for.

Any general help would be great.

Mostly they are used for, or at least what I use them for is to hold my Berzerkers to get them into CC as fast as possible. Now the Rhino's are not assault vehicles, so the unit inside cannot charge when it disembarks. But I just disembark behind the to provide cover for my unit until next turn...hopefully.

You can put any unit inside that has power armor. Nothing with terminator armor or jump packs allowed. It also holds up to 10 models. I usually run 9 Khorne Berzerkers and Kharn the Betrayer.

Use them to protect your marines for a turn or two of movement. Then disembark, move your marines onto an objective or into cover and then use the rhino as a line of sight blocker or to contest an objective.

generally first turn is going forward

second turn you can start shenaniganning it. Move up, disembark, shoot some suckers, get the rhino to flat out in front of your squad to give them cover after they shoot. Do it again next turn and give your squad mobile cover, or ram enemy units with the spikes if you bought them/tank shock objective holders & units that need to be in template formation/buy extra guns and warpflame gargoyles for the lols. Rhino's are versatile little things- the more you play with them, the better they seem

So would it be worthwhile to give them guns and kit them out a bit?

One of the best ways to use rhinos is with plague marines. You take five plague marines with two special weapons, drive them around in the rhino shooting stuff. 2x melta for tank hunting, or 2x plasma for MEQ/TEQ/Monstrous creature hunting.

Rhinos don't make good assault platforms any more. But you can stick 10 bolter marines in there, move up, and rapid fire someone off an objective. Then assault them the next turn. Works even better if you stick someone in with the torrent flamer or a doom siren. Or both.

OKay those sound like some great ideas, thanks guys

 Jihallah wrote:
Move up, disembark, shoot some suckers, get the rhino to flat out in front of your squad to give them cover after they shoot.

Doesn't disembarking prevent flat-out now?
Since Rhinos have 3 exits, it shouldn't be a pprobllem, though.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Jihallah wrote:
Move up, disembark, shoot some suckers, get the rhino to flat out in front of your squad to give them cover after they shoot.

Doesn't disembarking prevent flat-out now?
Since Rhinos have 3 exits, it shouldn't be a pprobllem, though.

I think he means in subsequent turns. Park rhino in front of your squad. Move rhino. Shoot with squad. Flat out Rhino back in front for your opponent's turn.

 Chaos Santa wrote:
So would it be worthwhile to give them guns and kit them out a bit?

Only if your list has points to spare. None of the upgrades for the vanilla space marines are that great, as i expect are the upgrades for the csm rhinos

CSM rhinos? Put squads with plasma guns or other shooty goodness in them, such as chosen, and roll up, turn, deploy six and unload.

For assault troops, I'd steer clear of them unless you're just wanting to move them faster on the first turn.

Well, if you use your two Rhinos, use them in tandem.

Suppose you want to move the forward towards the enemy front ranks (as in the former Rhino rush): Deploy one Rhino behind the other or side by side. Then move them forward at full speed, one Rhino behind the other such that the one behind gets cover. The Rhino in front launches smoke. Then next turn, you reverse the situation, the Rhino behind takes the lead (launching smoke) and the Rhino formerly in front gets cover from the one in front.

Does it matter too much what type of troops I put in the Rhino?

Like does putting Berserkers in it work okay? Is it worth it to use it to get my assualty units up close or should I use another method?

Should I just footslog my Plague Marines and put other things in the Rhinos like Chosen or regular CSM?

They can hide a unit need a backfield objective until the last turn or so.

They get your rapid fire guys in range quickly.

They are mobile bunkers for squads with special assault weapons to shoot out of the top.

They protect whatever dumb stuff you want to move forward until it gets there.

They tend to give your scoring units at least 1 turn of 12 inch movement through the game (pretty helpful).

You can block enemy firing lines and movement and assaults with them (really helpful).

You can tank shock with them.

They are dead cheap and tend to require your opponents start feeding expensive weapons into them before they can start messing with your scoring units.

They can come with a neat weapon on top. More combi melta tends to be a good thing in CSM, but the new havok launcher seems like a good buy too. New CSM cost makes it really easy to throw crappy wounds at the enemy, havok launcher helps this, but it also helps shore up your lack of bolters if you are running something like MSU plague marines.

EDIT! Also cover saves for other armor in your army.

 Chaos Santa wrote:
Does it matter too much what type of troops I put in the Rhino?

Like does putting Berserkers in it work okay? Is it worth it to use it to get my assualty units up close or should I use another method?

Should I just footslog my Plague Marines and put other things in the Rhinos like Chosen or regular CSM?

Rhinos are better for shooting units now. Noise marines with bolters, pistols, close combat weapons, champ with lightning claw and doom siren are great for rhino assaults. You drive the rhino up 12-18". Next turn 6" move, deploy 6", should be on top of an enemy unit or objective. Doom siren, rapid fire bolters. Take some return fire. Hit them with doom siren again, plus pistols. Assault at init 5. Its a potent assault unit, fearless and not very expensive.

I keep hearing that Noise Marines are a good assualt unit, how does Chosen work as assualt units?

 Chaos Santa wrote:
I keep hearing that Noise Marines are a good assualt unit, how does Chosen work as assualt units?

Well noise marines are good because they get a doom siren and are fearless and are easily made scoring.

Chosen can be good but in a different way. Access to lots of special weapons and more attacks in assault. But very difficult to make scoring, and no AP3 flamer.

If you are going to take Abaddon to make the Chosen scoring then the chosen are going to be much better, but without being fearless you have to be more careful with them. If they lose combat they could run and get swept, while the noise marines just won't care.

What would be the best option for Chosen if I wanted them to be melee but keeping them relatively cheap?

Should they all just be one weapon type like duel LCs?

 Chaos Santa wrote:
What would be the best option for Chosen if I wanted them to be melee but keeping them relatively cheap?

Should they all just be one weapon type like duel LCs?

Dual claws on a chosen would be a 50 point model. I don't think I would ever do that. If you want that kind of assault power just take terminators. They cost about the same but get 2+/5++ saves. If I was going to make a chosen assault unit I'd take 2x melta, 3x flamers and stick to normal weight of attacks. Let the special weapons do the bulk of the killing before you get into the assault phase.

Yeah melee chosen are almost always a worse idea than melee terminators.

Chosen do have a lot of attacks for their cost though, it's just the special weapons that add up. Khorne chosen end up with a ridiculous number of attacks and are great for popping out of a rhino and rapid firing away!