I just got my premium Revised Core Set this week (yeah, me!), and I've been playing my way through the scenarios.

Today I played scenario #3, "Forward, Men!". I had the Allies as attackers and the Axis as defenders. And the Allies just got slaughtered. Like, really, really brutally slaughtered. They didn't even manage to take out a single Axis soldier.

Since the defender gets to place all terrain, and since the Axis outranges every Allied unit except the Death Dealers, it was easy for the Axis to set up a heavily fortified position at the end of the bridge and just mow down the Allies as they got near.

I can see how a different Allied force could easily win this, but this scenario seems almost purposefully designed to be unwinnable by the Allied forces included in the RCS.

Is my experience common, or has anyone actually managed to win this with an Allied attacker using only the RCS units?

It's been a while since I played "Victory Bridge", but I just looked up the scenario and I remember managing to win with the Allies - one of the very few wins the Allied managed to get, in fact. I tried to hide my infantery squads behind the Blackhawk so the Axis units had some difficulties firing at them. They were still gunned down but at least came near their enemies so they could take down some of them. At one point in the game, I only had Rhino plus some of the Hammers left against Axis units that were clearly superior to them. Sorry, I don't remember what Axis units were left, but I still know that Rhino and the beaten-up Hammers had absolutely no chance winning a fight against them. I split Rhino from the Hammers and moved the Hammers 4 squares into the Allies' win zone. The Axis player had to kill them of course, so I moved Rhino into the win zone. As the Axis player was unable to kill him before the end of the turn, I won the game with Rhino being my only miniature on the board while the Axis player had at least two full squads remaining.

Of course, I was very glad that I thought about the option to split Rhino and the Hammers at just the right moment - I hadn't planned it in advance but thought of it just as the game was nearly lost. I think that from all the Allied units in the RCS, Rhino and / or the Hammers are the only ones that even have a small chance to reach the win zone.

Sounds like a good win. I had the same problems with the Axis defeating the Allies in most scenarios. Maybe you did what I should have done. Playing the Allies takes more skill than the Axis is some ways (although I generally prefer the Axis).

How often do people choose Rhino (with or without the Hammers). He seems a last choice for me.

In the given scenario, I played Rhino and the Hammers because I only osed the units from the RCS. But in fact, I use Rhino quite often. I normally play two of the Allies' jumping Armor 3 squads (usually Grim Reapers and Tank Busters, once in a while Grim Reapers and Hammers) and attach OZZ to one of them and Rhino to the other. He gives them some survivability plus one improved attack with his Berserk. So while Rhino is not the best Hero around, I'd say he is certainly useful.

I very rarely put Rhino with the Hammers, it just seems like too much of the same thing. A better combination in my book is to put Ozz with the Hammers, since his Heroic Attack allows them to punch dangerous foes like the apes or zombies without fear of retalliation, and his flamer works just as well in tandem with their punch attack. Putting Rhino with the Grim Reapers or sometimes Tank Busters gives them a very useful Berserk for a devastating attack. Sure, he won't get to punch much, but then, nor would Ozz have much chance of flaming people.