Monday, March 1, 2010

Hunting Rhinos

Imagine stalking the crater pocked battlefield with a rocketlauncher pressing it's weight into your shoulder. The seemingly quiet moments before you hear the low growl of your prey. Totally ignoring the rest of the battle as you take a knee. Squinting as you press your eyes to the viewfinder and aim, slowly, deliberately...

Now here we have a unique dilemma for any army, how to deal with the rhino rush. Simply outmanoeuvre it, and present it only with options you preplanned. For example, lets pit two squads, a platoon command squad, and an autocannon heavy weapons team, against ten Space Marines in a rhino. Set it up with the autocannons a little further back in the center, the squad on your right with the platoon command squad, and the other squad on the left, but within four inches of the autocannon team. Alright, the rhino should play like Space Marines, and attempt to crash into what looks like a gunline. Once he is approximately one turn away, I'd say about 14 or so inches, use the command squad to give the MMM order to the squad next to it and run them up the right, trying to get in range of the side armor. Then use your squad on the left and run them forward and a hair left getting very close to the rhino. If your like me and have grenade launchers in your platoon command squad fire all of them at the side, seeing as they used their MMM order on the other squad. Now the rhino has an interesting choice, do I disembark? move in any particular direction? stay put? Well, if he runs away, you win. If he gets out, he has to wait to assault, so you can now out manoeuvre him or shoot him down if you've got the chops. If he stays put, no matter what direction he turns the rhino, its side or rear armor will be available to one of your forces, which should at the very least have a grenade launcher, though I highly recommend bringing rocket launchers, at least one per platoon. There is no right answer for the Space Marine Player. You have provided him with the illusion of coming within a hair's width of breaking your line, and replaced it with him naked and in the open.

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