Against the average or below player, I find Leman Russ tanks very useful. When you come across the good player, he is often meched up. A Leman Russ (BattleCannon Variant) gets a single large template shot in which to rely upon, and a lascannon. The Lascannon on average will hit 3 times in a 6 round game, and get 2 penetrating hits. Not bad, but its not even a statistical Rhino kill. However, the Leman Russ also has a Battlecannon. It will hit on average 2, maybe 3 times a game. Assuming your firing at armor, with an ordinance hit, you are looking at 2-3pens. All together your battlecannon isnt the tank to break armor. The points... anywhere from 170-240 (demolisher). Tactically, light armor needs to be dealt with early game, removing the leman russ as a light armor breaker.
Now against troops.... cover saves are everywhere. What failed during my finals, was a single tactical marine squad that took so much firepower to kill it cost me the game. First off, final seargant did take a battlecannon hit, and two earthshaker rounds to the head and live. One 4+ cover save, followed by two successfully saved 6+'s. However, what I figured out was, a good player spaces out his units to avoid being hit by templates. A small template can only hit 1, maybe 2 if lucky, while a large template hits only 3. Since the leman russ cant reliably open transports, and cant kill enough of the troops, I removed them from my lists. The only time you really get a unit bunched up for a good template hit, is right after they just lost their transport.
Now Hydras at 225 points for a squadron of 3. These should be behind your chimera wall, to obscure the squadron if possible. Now shooting....... 12 shots twin linked, 72 inches. 12 shots =9 hits. That ends up being 4.5 glancing and penetrating hits. You need 3 pens on average to blow up a transport, and the Hydra gives you just that. Take the squadron down to 2 tanks, and you remove that every round statistical kill. Nothing worse that firing at the same unit for multiple rounds in a game. Give yourself three, and call it good. You should be popping those transports right and left. Back them up with a squadrom of basilisks and what gets popped with flak, also gets earthshakers shells dropped down upon them.
Ive typically went with two squadrons of three Hydras, and squadron of Basilisks in my backfield. Followed up by chimeras for mobility, and a chimera wall. You can almost see your opponents cry when they not only lose their rhino transport, but also the entire unit that it was transporting in a one-two combo.
