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Since playing 40k ive only ever done xenos, such as Guard, Tau, Eldar and Kroot Mercs(now that is a list that blows the big one) and have decided I want to do something with a little more omphh, and play Marines.

I dont want to do a normal marine list however and I love the idea of drop pods. The group I play with is a competative one so Im not worried about how they will be recieved and for tournies I can just run foot sloggers.

Anyway having lurked around the forum Ive found heaps of threads about defeating drop pod armies but not how to use them. I have a general idea of what I wish to take, 1500pts 5 pods, 50 marines, Cleanse and Purify, but I would love some strategies as to poddiing Termies as well, good pod placement, basically some advice not just on how to make the list, but how to use it.

From my practice games I have had 5 and had 5 draws, with the 5 pods with 2 speeders for back up. I like the list, but I dont like the way I am using it atm and I dont think Im taking full advantage of the pod. Any advice or suggestions or even a thread I have missed would be appreciated.

Speeders aren?t as useful as they used to be since they clarified that they can?t shoot the turn they drop in.

Termies are very nice because Assault Cannons are amazing, and have a good threat range when they drop. 24? range is pretty nice. Dreads can also be good (venerable optional, but tasty), again because ACs rule. A heavy flamer on a dread in a pod is also just nasty, because you can drop right next to the enemy and place the dread anywhere within 2? of the pod to maximize the flamer hits. You can decimate squads this way, even ones in cover. Dreads and Termies also both fire at full effect while moving, which is very nice because pod armies tend to be pretty slow once they land.

Generally pods are well-used to block LOS to your stuff and obstruct the enemy from reaching objectives. They?re also useful for blocking one part of the enemy force off from supporting the other part, while you concentrate your attack on one section. Remember that you almost always want the enemy to go first if possible, because he?ll lose two turns of shooting instead of just one.

There are basically 3 types of drop pod armies.

1- bp/ccw meltagun and flamer swarm, with some dreads/termies mixed in.
2- apothecaries and plasmaguns, with terminators for tankhunting.
3- terminator-heavy, with 5-6 man dual meltagun squads to sacrifice to tank and raise scoring unit numbers.

Fear of darkness librarian in terminator armor is pretty much a 'gimme' for this list. Run him by himself (now that the FAQ allows termie armor models to always deepstrike) or run him with a 2AC squad. Whatever. The FoD librarian is a 'foil' to non-fearless shooting armies, most of the time, which are armies that constantly will give you trouble (Tau, Guard, etc). These armies will have to play tactically around obsessing over your Librarian, or else risk getting run off the board.

If you elect to skip the FOD librarian, a Master for LD10 all around can be pretty useful.

As far as tactics go:

Remember that you can disembark 2" away from your pod from any section of it. That's huge. No need to cluster.

Place your tankhunting pods as close to the enemy as you can and use his units to prevent scatter. Feel free to use impassible terrain to help out with this.

Like Mannahnin said, Dreads with heavy flamers are fantastic. All venerables are great. Remember to buy them all extra armor!

Landspeeders are overrated. Maybe one, at most. Moving, shooting, and assaulting is what you want to be doing - get that extra assault movement.

In a 1500pt list, I would run your terminator Librarian solo so you can sacrifice him and don't have to sacrifice a terminator squad with him.

Flamers are great when you can basically pick where you line up for them.

Post a detailed battle report of your next game and I'll dissect it for you. I've played a lot of games with my pods, and made a LOT of mistakes

I use a mix of meltaguns/flamers and bp/ccw marines with fist sarges, a single termie librarian squad, and 3 dreadnoughts with heavy flamers in pods.

Is bp/ccw a better choice than doubletapping bolters in drop pod lists?

Quick answer: Depends.

If you want your guys to assault and have no plasmaguns, yes. If you want to sit and shoot and have guns that will prevent you from charging (plasma) then no.

If you want to charge, you'll get far more mileage out of shooting bolt pistols then charging (3 attacks, +1 shot) than you will out of not shooting bolters, then charging (2 attacks). Then every round you're in combat you gain one attack, and any time you move, shoot, and charge again you gain even more attacks.

If you play a list that wants to sit back and shoot after dropping, and get more shots on the drop, bolters are the way to go.

What would be the army that is most challenging to drop pods?

An almost two year thread? Really?

I've been using the search function, I wasn't really looking at the date on the post! Wow 2 years old. I guess you could chalk it up to me doing my part in not adding to clutter of starting new threads on already existing topics. But I would almost wager giving that I pretty new to this board anything I start has more than likely already been discussed!

I got a kick out of the first line in your sig

It is generally frowned upon to "raise" threads from the "dead." A thread that is 2 years old is generally fair game to be re-discussed in a new thread. Now, several topics on the same item within the span of a week or so, however, is spamming.

Regardless of the thread's age, he poses a valid question, so I'll attempt to answer it. The strength of a drop pod army is that it can get its units into position to do what they do with ease. So it can target specific portions of the enemy army and take them out. It also has the advantage of being able to get into short range with the enemy without having to risk taking any casualties on the way in. That being said, its weaknesses are that units do not come in reliably. They scatter and they come in on varying turns so the luck of the scatter and reserve rolls can really affect how well a drop pod army works out.

With all this being said, what are the armies that drop pods have the most trouble with? Well the fist answer is any army that deploys well. Half of winning against a drop pod army is deploying correctly. If the drop poder's opponent castles up his forces in one corner, placing his less valuable or most resilient units on the fringes of the deployment area with long range and/or high value units in the back, the drop pods will have little of value to shoot at once they land. SAFH marines with tac squads and/or scouts on the fringes and devastators in the rear work well for this. Shooty foot eldar with guardians or scouts in the front and reapers and/or war walkers in the rear have the same effect. Necrons with warriors in the front and destroyers in the rear have the same effect. Another thing that drop poders have issues with is denial armies. Mech eldar is a prime example of this. Drop poders (for the most part) just don't have the fire power to take out the eldar skimmers. Wave serpents are not affected by melta weapons due to their energy field and falcons shrug off just about any kind of fire that comes their way. After the pods land, their troops are then too close to the eldar to avoid the return fire / assault that then comes their way. This is particularly true since the pod army is unlikely to all come onto the board at the same time.

One other thing that I imagine would be an issue for poders would be horde armies. I doubt that pod armies would be able to do enough damage to a horde army to blunt the flood before ending up in hand to hand. This is, however, based on conjecture rather than experience so it may not be correct.

Hope this helps answer your question.

My tyranids have never had a problem with drop pod armies. The fact that the army drops in piecemeal means that my bugs will always have firepower superiority.

Darrian

agreed w/ darrian13. drop pod armies suck against nids and orks. i know because those are the armies i have lost too. against anyone else you can pretty much chalk up a win.
one tactic that i used in one game to confound a dark eldar player was to reboard the drop pod the turn after landing. its an open topped vehicle so i just stayed inside and shot at his eldar from the safty it provided. needless to say this is only useful in the most dire of straits but it worked this one time. keep it in mind.
also... at the risk of getting in trouble for mentioning stuff off of another forum, bolterandchainsword has a pretty good tactica for drop pods posted somewhere on their site.

Thanks for the replies I have much to consider, both concerning drop pods and bringing up old threads I never thought about an enemy "castling" against me. Good point. I could see an army with podded troops and full devistator squads being an interesting option given some of the feedback here, thanks again.

Sennacherib, I don't have the rules in front of me but I'm pretty sure we agreed you aren't allowed to re-embark into a Drop Pod. (I still want a rematch vs. your Drop Pod Ultras!)

Ozymandias, King of Kings

Ozymandias wrote:Sennacherib, I don't have the rules in front of me but I'm pretty sure we agreed you aren't allowed to re-embark into a Drop Pod.

Sounds like something that's worth bringing up in a "You make the call" thread.

I don't believe you can board/re-board an immobilzed vehicle.

Darrian

Find a rule that says that you can't

I cannot find a rule that states that you cannot embark on an immobilized vehicle.

I looked in the BGB and the codex and the FAQ.

Darrian

I'm pretty sure the DA/BA ones you can't embark on. Might be confused though.

I have found that drop pod armies also have some trouble with the new chaos two prince lists.

For instance I run 3 squads of basic marines in rhinos, asault termies with LC in Land Raider, two slaneshi princes one with lash one with warptime, and Greater Demon(at 1500). If I castle behind smoked rhinos and Land raider on turn 2, marines drop in, do little to no damage, then demon princes and assault tems eat them for breakfast one to two squads a turn.

The only way they usually stand a chance is if they have long range weapons ans stay as far away from me as possible ... but that negates the strengths of drop podding and gives you two turns less to do your killing in, while demon princes can still get to your lines and do their job.

Anyway, just my personal experience in two battles with drop pod marines , one regualar and one space wolves.

I personally think that drop pods are more effective as a one or two squad assualt force with plenty of long range back up from regular shooty stuff. That way your heavy weapons shoot all six turns of the game and tear me down for a round or two before your pods come in on my doorstep and distract me from taking objectives, able quarters, and your shooty elements for a few turns, thus giving your shooty elements time to reposition to grab objectives and generally shoot me to death as I chew on your one or two dropped squads.



Meph

Darrian13 wrote:I cannot find a rule that states that you cannot embark on an immobilized vehicle.

I looked in the BGB and the codex and the FAQ.

Darrian

Try looking up the Drop Pod rules in the SM Codex. I don't have it with me, or I would.

I'm pretty certain that, under the Drop Pod rules, it says you cannot get back into it,

Eric

Mr. X wrote:Is bp/ccw a better choice than doubletapping bolters in drop pod lists?

Here is a common problem. bp/ccw is nice if you know your going to get the charge. Problem is you drop pod and shoot then you're stuck staring everyone down for a turn. Mean time your opponent is likely to assault your squad (if hey weren't wiped out in your shooting phase) They get one or two units in assault range so even if they lose your stuck in combat for a while.

however, if you have true grit and counter charge you're sitting pretty regardless of what happens. If your charges you get to counter charge and still get rapid fire the turn you pod in.

@Magicalmmories, nope, no such rule in there.

@gdurant, You can't/shouldn't have both true grit and counter charge because you NEED cleanse and purify. I would take cleanse and purify first and true grit if I felt I was going to get charged.

Darrian

@Darrian13

I quote the codex:

Transport: A drop pod may carry up to 10 Space Marines, 5 Terminators or one Dreadnought. Once the passengers have dissembarked they may not re-embark.

Also the counter attack and true grit are both from the same trait. You pay 3pts per marine to get both.

Which codex are you quoting?

He is quoting the SM codex. I found the rule that he is quoting in the dedicated transports section. So I guess I was right in the first place.

Darrian