I want to make a drop pod list, but I have no experience with drop pods and very few games against drop pod list. Just looking for some basic advice what to go for, advantages, disadvantages any advice at all would be appreciated thanks.
I want to make a drop pod list, but I have no experience with drop pods and very few games against drop pod list. Just looking for some basic advice what to go for, advantages, disadvantages any advice at all would be appreciated thanks.
Phil Kelly is Tzeentch!
just drop HALF way in between you and your enemy. i find theyre more effective at making your opponent think twice about doing something
When playing with objectives, you can use them to contest the objectives. It takes time to take out an AV12 vehicle.
Not to mention what is inside it, be it an unit or a dreadnought.
Remember that they need not be carrying passengers. You can use them as throw away units, to distract the enemy.
If placed correctly you can almost control whether they scatter or not. Since they cannot scatter over units.
You can also use them to divide his army. Unless destroyed or wrecked they create little no-go zones, since he has to keep his distance of 1 inch.
Basically they give you the possibility to put pressure on the enemy, making him react to your actions. And they give the possibility to place units in places they could otherwise not reach by footslogging or hitching a ride.
And do not forget the rest of your army. Podding is nice, but without support from the rest of your army, they are just sitting ducks, waiting to be taken out. They are immobile, open topped and have only 1 weapon.
Against some army builds they can work wonders, against others you will lose badly.
i have run a 5 drop pod army to some success, with it a 7-1-3..
Its a crimson fists themed, with pedro, 3 x sternguard in pod everyone has combi and a single powerfist..usually split with 2 combi flamers and 8 combi meltas, then run 2 squads of tactical with powerfist, flamer ML and srg plasma pistol..The general tactics i use are to drop the sternguard squads into anything dangerous, while starting both tacticals out of the pods allowing pedro to orbital bombard a squad. with pedro i have 5 scoring units which 3 would be deep in enemy territory and the other two at home minding my objectives.
(Greatest achievement, killing a greater daemon of slaanesh with a drop pod's storm bolter over 2 turns.)
Generally not as good as a mech list. Why ? Your army comes in piecemeal and after it's first turn of movement is more or less immobile.
I have to agree with Bartali - after the first turn things arrive piecemeal and it's difficult (but not impossible) to really get the upper hand. I find I use my drop pod list more in scenario based games, where there are other players backing me up with firepower while I drop in and make a mess of something else.
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Interesting. I thought I was the only one who felt that drop pods were best used as part of an army rather than all of it. Now it's become the prevailing wisdom.
Originally Posted by DoctorTom
Do not use Drop Pods. Ever. Half your pods come down on Turn 1. They then have to exit the pod, which leaves them with no cover. To capitalise on this, your oponent simply puts his entire army in reserve on Turn 1. He then brings them on on Turn 2 and annihilates your expensive and dead sternguard/dreadnought/tactical squad. Could have been so good, but are now simply mediocre
@squllum The pod itself can give the unit cover
And guidance system means you can drop almost onto cover without fearing you scatter into it. Your marines have a good chance of running for it in shooting phase, even if you scatter directly away.
I thought I was elitist. Then my wife said she's willing to enter 40k, but she wants a Squat army.
I have played a drop list for some time now, and I've had decent success with it. The first question to ask when deciding on this style is asking yourself what kind of alpha strike can you bring to the table that makes them worth taking over a rhino?
For myself, i love dreadnoughts. Being able to cross the table with them before they get shot down is a great advantage. To maximize this advantage, I chose to go with Salamanders, and took Vulkan and Ironclads. The rest of the list evolved from there. This is my 1850 version.
Vulkan
10 tac squad w/ flamer, mm, power fist, combi melta drop pod
10 tac squad w/ flamer, mm, power weapon, combi melta drop pod
10 tac squad w/ flamer, mm, power weapon, combi melta, drop pod
2 land speeders w/ hf, mm
2 land speeder w/ hf, mm
2 land speeder w/ hf, mm
Ironclad dreadnaught w/ hvy flamer, drop pod
Ironclad dreadnaught w/ hvy flamer, drop pod
Ironclad dreadnought w/ hvy flamer, drop pod
Everything can deepstrike, though I usually deploy the land speeders. Everything has twin linked flamers and meltas, so they can pop tanks or put some hurt on hordes right when they come in. A typical first turn involves the 3 ironclads comming in my opponents face, and the speeders going flat out. The ironclads have a strong chance of de-abilitating priority armored targets, and with AV 13, they usually weather the first turn decently. Just be sure to position them so the pod gives them some cover from the bulk of their army, and that their rear armor is protected by the pod.
Turn 2 forward, the rest of your reserves come in. Ideally, you need to create 2-1 battles with your tac squads. That is where the speeders come into their own. Their mobility lets them support the rest of the list. The dreadnought are the attention grabbers, but the speeders are what keeps your momentum going.
The weakness of this list, is that if you fail to hurt your opponent early, the list can stall out and lose momentum. Again, that is why the mobility of the land speeders is so important, as you are otherwise stuck with a slow foot slogging list.
People say that reserving everything equals an auto-win against drop lists, but thats not true at all. While not ideal, it is still a winable situation. If they go first and reserves everything, then you have the option of deploying everything normally. If he goes 2nd and reserves, then I choose to bring in my 3 tac squads in the first wave (land speeders being deployed normally). They drop down mid field, prefferably near cover, and can then get situated and ready for his army to start coming in piecemeal. I have half my army on the board turn 1, and his comes in whenever. Then my ironclads come in, and hopefully wreck his units just like they would have first turn anyways. Sure, reserving takes some of the bite out of the list, but makes them much more dependant on good reserve rolls.
Thats my take on it. I have seen other decent options as well. Crimson fists with scoring stearnguard, SWs with relentless longfangs, and terminators in pods, blood angels with furiouso and librarian dread fun... Main thing is to figure out how to maximize the first turn advantage.
Oh... And if given the choice.. Always choose to go 2nd. You potentially rob your opponent of a turn of shooting, and ensure that you get the last turn to grab objectives and finish things off.
Something to remember is that the drop pod doesn't need to have guys in it. Lets say for example you have 3 squads you want to arrive on Turn 1. Buy them drop pods, and then buy 2 drop pods for two other units in your book. Those two drop pods will be empty and the unit that bought them generally starting on the table.
While you have an odd number of pods, the rules say that you round up when working how how many can come on in turn 1. Half of 5 is 2.5, rounded up is 3. So your 3 important units can arrive turn 1 in their pods, and the other two pods will be rolled for as usual and can be used to contest objectives and the like.
1 or sometimes 3 pods can be good in the right (wrong) SM list. Any other number (and certainly all pods) is bad. The right list probably involves flamer/melta dreads occupying them, but that gives rise to the question: Why not get that on speeders, make your dreads Riflemen, and drop the pods altogether. So we get to the point that 1/3 works in the right list, but that list is really the wrong list to begin with.
What you have to conceptually get your head around is that Drop Pods don't give you true mobility like meching up does. It just gives you an alternative deployment zone, and at the cost of half the pods coming in piecemeal. In other editions that might be a reasonable trade-off, but currently a fleet of Rhinos wins most every time.
Moreover, the alternative DZ is mostly concerned with getting you up close and and personal, with an army that is only currently successful as a shooty one. Send a lone unit or two into the enemy lines and you can just delete it from the roster, and send lots of stuff over, and you are now playing a bad army - it's not what SM can do (well). Drop Pods are a good unit that doesn't fit what the codex does well.
If the question is "should you run your SM army as a Drop Pod army?" then the competitive answer is no.
If the question is "how should I run a Drop Pod army regardless?" then the starting point is almost certainly Space Wolves. They can certainly make better use of them.
Kelanen
Lol, Kelanen and I always start a list with different goals in mind. He starts by asking, "what is the most competative list possible?", where as I ask "how do i use this, and make it as competative as possible?".
Drop pods at present are not going to win you any high level tournaments. My list was a response to a huge influx of IG parking lot lists that sprung up with the new codex. It does ok. Am I going to win Adepticon with it? Probably not. That being said, its an entertaining play style, and one I very much enjoy playing. Your mileage may vary.
Lol, that would be a reasonable summation! I did try and cover both angles though.
Kelanen
Yeah I would have to agree that drop pods are best when you only take 1-3 or them, but there are few good units to put into them... they're fun to use, like any deepstrike unit really, but I've seen it go wrong for people so many times; to me the risk isn't worth what you get. Besides I believe rhinos are cheaper for most people anyway lol
"I will destroy everyone in 2009."
-Ma "Savior" Jae Yoon
The one good thing about drop pods is that you can place it near an enemy unit and never mishap... As i wrote before, the list i use is pretty decent for pod list, but if the pods are not placed well you can lose half your army from simple mistakes.
Having drop pods is just a different alternative, I agree with Kelanen that Space Wolves do it better, but who does not like a challenge.
One thing you should ask your opponent is if you are allowed to use forge world rules. for a slight increase in points you can get a dreadnaught drop pod that has assault vehicle.
I play many mech opponents and have found the whole 3 pod style works great, do not place all your eggs in one basket and have units already on the field to force your opponent to choose what to shoot. a unit of sternguard combat squad-ed after touch down with combi weapons is nothing to sneeze at.
Yeah, forge world units take it to a new level of crazy. Lucious assault pods, deathstorms, and even damocles rhinos all add to it.
Oh... And Ashmantle coming out of an assault pod can win games on his own.
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