Hi all,

In my last few games with IW's I've suffered massively from a lack of mobility once my vehicles have been destroyed. I've been thinking about how best to deal with this and came upon a few ideas.

1 - Deep striking units off icons. Icons in place either from Raptors, IC's with wings/JP's or infiltrated chosen. This however only allows me to reach one or two locations (e.g. where the icon is) or risk normal deep strike.

2 - Rhino's thousands of them! Give every unit a rhino even if I don't intent to use it.

3 - Land Raiders, well being able to assault out of them is great and LR's really suit my idea of how a IW army should work, the points cost however is just silly for a vehicle that can be destroyed in one shot.

How do other people cope against the Eldar and Tau's of the game where they just run rings around you and pick off sections of your army bit by bit?

I have to say I can sympathize with you on that point; I too have found a lack of mobility quite infuriating recently.

Currently I don't use any rhino mounted squads as when I have, I like many have found them to be death traps. The altered transport rules and the 'run' option rumoured to be part of 5th edition may remedy this somewhat.

On another note, I've quite recently discovered the delights of Khornate raptors which I've had some great success with.

I use a mix, in a 2000 point game, I have 2 infiltrating chosen squads with icons, 2 squads of oblits, one squad of termies, one squad of raptors and 2 csm squads in rhinos also with icons, usually I get my chosen into two areas, drop a squad of oblits on each of them for support, rush up the rhinos where they need to be and hold my raptors back to jump to wherever they are needed. It worked ok against tau and imp guard, got slaughtered by eldar and necrons though. I hate having to move, things were so much better when I could out shoot everyone else.

Rhinos can be very useful if you don't expect them to survive a game. 50pts is cheap as chips. Against fast-moving armies you can upgrade them to be driving bunkers. This unit weighs in at a fairly reasonable price, and provided you 'cover hop' can prove to be extremely effective.
10 man squad
2 flamers
Rhino
Extra armour
Added Combi-flamer
Added Havoc Launcher

Don't forget you can fire two weapons out the top hatch, and because the flamers are Assault weapons the Rhino can jig about at a healthy 12" a turn and still unleash hot promethium.

The other use they have is mobile cover. Shuffle your rhino along in front of a unit of Terminators. If the Rhino survives, throw it behind cover while the terminators assault. No doubt your opponent, being the speedy bastard he is, will arange to have a big squad of war walkers/battlesuits/etc waiting for the Termies to anhilliate their victims, and get shot to bits next turn. If you get a chance to, park your Rhino in front of one of those units before they can give your Termies the 30-gun salute. If you pull it off, your opponent is just about guaranteed to seethe with frustration.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a fellow IW player using a mechanised force with a fair bit of anti-tank fire support against a horde Tyranid army. A fair amount of warm bodies on both sides, lots of Rhinos and lots of Rending Weapons. Shaping up to be a real bloodbath. He systematically picked off every Synapse unit in range, then played 'Tyranid Roundup' by tank-shocking nearly every one of the 'gaunt units off the table.

In defense to the Tyranid player, who currently looks like a bit of a goit, every infantryman in those mechanised squads met a gribbly, clawed death.

with the new codex you can't add both Combi-flamer and Havoc Launcher, only one of them. And I think at 12 movement not even assault weapons are allowed to fire from the hatch. I could be wrong though.

I did try khornate raptors in my last game (vs Eldar) and they did work very well. So many attacks on the charge!! However they still can't get anywhere really quickly.. 12" compared to 24" is a real difference.

I think what I'll probably try and do is get one unit of chosen deployed near the objective, then drop terminators and obliterators near them depending on the scenario. I'll keep the DP with wings and Raptors for reserves until needed.

I'm so use to being spoilt and using fast skimmers I find it hard to redevelop ideas and tactics for my IW's as well. Especially after the loss of our heavy weapon addiction.

Rhinos work, but then again, easily destroyed. I'm not that much help, as recently, I've been facing assualt-armies (13th Company Space Wolves :furious )

Although, one or two units of faster units, such as Raptors or Bikers, even, to rush in and claim objectives, or even to reduce their numbers to become non-scoring units, works for me.

I just stop them from scoring, wound multi-wound models, kill 6 men from a 10 man squad, immobilise the vehicles, sure, still dangerous, but as long as it's not Apocalypse where they have taken the 'Hold At All Costs' Strategem, I'm almost guaranteed a draw at the very least.

Victory through superior firepower!

I've been using rhino mounted squads more often, they're fairly useful and add quite a bit more mobility to my lists. Eldar and Tau still cause me great pain however...been thinking about adding some bikers to try to take care of those :curse: suits!

It may sound weird but I sometimes use my rhinos as impromtu cover.

They can provide cover in life and in death.

Makes it great when your cheap trasnport gets the bullet and lets your heavy support rain death.



Though now that my Bassies are out of the game due to the new codex...... :angry:

nothing wierd at all about using rhinos for cover, I think that's what they're best at sometimes. run twoard the tau gun line, turn sideways, let the troops off on the opposite side from the enemy and pop smoke. tau guys hate that. that's the only way to use rhinos against tau, since there's no more mutated hull, their rifles will kill your tracks before you ever get into assault range.

Rhino's - mobile bunkers.
If your Iron Warriors feel "the need for speed" -sorry, bad quote- to get quickly engaged in close combat with the enemy, simply upgrade all your rhinos with Extra armour and smoke launchers, and make use of terrain. They'll make it faster to an Imperial Guard line then a Commissar can say; "Oi, ye chaosy filth! die by the energy-wrapped tip of me power sword!"

Raptors - Flight of the valkyries.
Just got to love a fully tooled up Raptor Squad with meltaguns, plasma pistols and a Asp. Champ. with Melta Bombs. Downside is that they're expensive, so only use them in larger games.

Obliterators - fire at...nerve impulse?!?
These lads really add mobility to your army. Capable of moving around AND shooting heavy weapons -the wet dream of every Iron Warrior- they can seriously endanger your opponents flank. Only downside with them is that they aren't as though as they used to be, so watch out for those dreaded S8+ weapons.

-Loki

Ok you have to remember that for the most part Chaos can be a mobile army. First off do not put heavy weapons on your tactical squads. Use plasma, melta, and flamers. That way you can continue to move across the board. Next take a landraider as a heavy choice and not as a dedicated transport, This will help you to move units across the board. You should use 1-2 rhinos in conjunction with it to get special close-combat units across the board. Deep strike terminatiors and put wings on your headquarters. This while expensive will make a fast attacking chaos army. :bionic

Well, if you can call Obliterators mobile...

Again, I'm surviving with footslogging, so I shouldn't really be too much help, but Rhinos as impromptu cover always works, even if they get destroyed, as long as it wasn't anihilation, still some cover there!