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I'm probably wrong here but I feel like spammy hordes die too fast, elite armies also don't always fare the best, lots of medium durable troops are nice, flyers kinda suck but where I see the most success is full mounted armies and maybe bikes (bikes are better for grabbing objectives).

Funny how vehicles have become so durable that anti infantry firepower without a whole lot of anti tank seems to do poorly against a full mounted force. Even better if the force has lots of open topped transports for squishy shooters to fire out at the enemy and the guns themselves are fairly solid in large numbers. Transports also provide a shield vs overwatch in case you're facing a few nasty tau overwatches.

Anyway I may be wrong as i havent played much recently but I've been noticing this trend. If i recall it's existed since 8th but more just with normal vehicles.

It really depends on the army in question. The quality in vehicles and troops is so unequal among factions that you really can't make a broad statement about it anymore imho.

From a tournament POV:

Dhrukari - Cheap, efficient and durable-ish troops with invuls and FnPs, coupled with undercosted, very efficient transports.

Guard - Apart from Scions and Bullgryns, all of the infantry is absolute garbage. Most of the vehicles are garbage, too. Tank Commanders, Taurox Primes and Manticores are doing exceptionally heavy duty for the codex. Scions are a good package for their points.

(Chaos) Marines - Vehicle wise, everything without an invul save or -1D is pretty much non existent on tables. Sub-Factions like Thousand Sons and and Black Templar can give invuls to everything and we have to see how it pans out. But still here, taking a transport probably remains to be rare, as a Marine transport is around the cost of a whole Marine unit and you would rather take the additional unit.

AdMech - Super durable troops, no need at all for transports. Flyers got super strong upgrades and are undercosted for their performance.

Just to name a few current examples I'm familiar with. It is very faction dependant what works for you.

Drukhari is topp tier with transports.

Harlequins also has good transport. They used to be topp tier but have suckumb to edition creep.

Lastly GSC are bottom tier trash. But the only viable build that does OK are acolytes with handflamer in cheap open topped transports.

Those are the only factions that run a lot of transports in a good way.

Orks and imperial guard might do it. I do not have a full overview on them. The double flamer chimera is quite good. As is the taurax I believe.

As for other armies they do not run a lot of transports. All of the SM transports are very expensive. Some armies use a drop pod to deliver multimeltas. The rest of the codexes do not run transports.

That beeing said, these are only army lists that do well. I am sure there are more cassual players that run transports that I am not aware about. And they are probably very funn. I only play casually myself, and my opponent runs transports.

So I think the awnser to your question is no. People do not run a lot of transports. But some armies do, notably the few armies with good transports.

If transports are good/cheap and their cargo can get some benefits from being embarked then yes, this is a solid option.

Those who don't really run many transports rely on other tactics mostly because their best units don't need them.

All the armies I play or I've played in the recent past (Orks, firstborn Space Wolves, Harlequins, Drukhari, Adepta Sororitas) can do quite well with lists that contain a few embarked squads.

Pretty sure Astra Militarum and Craftworlds can do ok as well, probably even Necrons.

The necron lists I have seen use PRISMATIC DIMENSIONAL BREACH and a nightscythe to get charges from reserves. It is exspensive and has counterplay. But it is quite good.

How about playing 3 Rhinos in an SM army.
Just move them forward empty if you like to occupy/contests mission objectives.
Plain and simple tactics leaving the opponent scratching his/her head.

 wuestenfux wrote:
How about playing 3 Rhinos in an SM army.
Just move them forward empty if you like to occupy/contests mission objectives.
Plain and simple tactics leaving the opponent scratching his/her head.

I tryed that vs my ork opponent (8th edition codex). With 2 rhinoes.

Turn one his airplanes shot down my long fang ranged support. Oh well.

I move up.

His turn he pops the transports. He ran some flashgits who are D2 S6, perfect for killing marines. I lost 14 marines out of 2 rhinoes. Ouch! Now I was almost tabeled.

I charged his morkanaught with my Space Marine Chaptain on Thunderwolf. He died to the overwtach shots. Mind you he was quite lucky.

My conclition was that the T4 3+ 2W marine profile is above averadge, but it is not good. I think having 30 of the armour powered marines in the army is a huge risk.