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I am wondering what more experienced players think of my dilemma, and maybe if they have solutions.
Every time I play my Space Marines, I drop in a Dreadnought behind enemy lines, hoping to lay havoc at their flank and chew up armor with a multi-melta. But every time I do this, the Dreadnought biffs and then proceeds to get destroyed. I then proceed to pull out a draw, maybe a win if I'm lucky.
I am wondering what to do. Should I drop in front of my enemies, or just forgo dropping them in and just walk him up guns blazing?
Note: The Dreadnought is the Black Reach standard one with extra armor. Storm Bolter, CC Dreadnought Weapon, and Multi-Melta.

What are you fighting?
I normally drop in a Dreadnought with an Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer and that seems to go well, but I usually verse Tyranids and Orks, it also went well againts a Gunline Eldar army once.

Basically you look for isolated targets that will most likely not be able to kill it before the next turn when it can get into assault. If you drop it in the middle of a large group with a Multi Melta pointed right at their tank, it's going to be a suicide unit.

What might be good is while the Dreadnought is busy attacking them, make the rest of the army rush up, turning the Dreadnought into a distraction.

The Multi Melta one is good for hunting tanks, but you could just use another one which can put out a fair few more shots then charge the tank the next turn, because that Multi Melta is only one attack and shouldn't be relied on too much.


If the entire army is bunched up too much expect to lose the Dreadnought and try to make it land where it can do the most damaged before it dies. Maybe, even just putting the Drop Pod just close enough to contest their home objective as well. That might split the attention a bit.

But for the type of Dreadnought I like to use I aim for the soft units first to maximise damage from it's shooting. If it lives long enough to get into assault with something big, then it's a bonus. Because anything dropped in by itself will very likely die.

I am not an expert with SM but a dreadnought is not a great threat if dropped alone...

You should try with cover or smokers but even then I think it would be useful to attract firepower away from your main army.

Maybe you should teleport also some terminators with him, for example?

Yeah, put a homing beacon on the Drop Pod. That would also open the option of starting with the Dreadnought on the table and dropping in an empty pod to let the Terminators teleport in where they are needed.

Smoke Launchers might be useful, but with how close it will be they would probably assault it and basically everyone except Tau (maybe) could at least get a glancing hit against it in CC. But it would be a good way to trick them.

But like I've mentioned and the above has mentioned, they don't go so well alone so don't expect it to live past the first turn it arrives on.

If you want two you need three Drop Pods

I really like the homing beacon idea. Drop him in their area, cause havoc and send in a regular termi squad. Though I will admit, besides my assault termis, I need more mobility... but that is another topic...

You can use them, just make sure they're far enough away to not die before they get to assault. But, a Land Raider would be better for them.

take 3 pods with at least one homing beacon, two dreds (preferably ironclads), put whatever strikes your fancy in the 3rd pod

First turn; two dred pods land, set them right next to something that needs some melta love. if you are close and with DPs you will be.
the Ironclad is preferable because it can have 2 close combat weapons(with either +1 on damage chart or 2D6 armor penetration )and a melta-gun(shorter range is a moot point)
if you scatter and aren't in Melta range, pop smoke and trust your AV13 to help you survive till the next round. where the dred will absolutly dominate.

Second turn onward; ANY deep striking unit(including other pods) that arrives next to the drop pod/s with a homing beacon will not scatter at all(you can deploy an SM entire army this way)

In short if you take drop pods and dreds take 3 pods and ironclads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

LiberatedObject wrote:I really like the homing beacon idea. Drop him in their area, cause havoc and send in a regular termi squad. Though I will admit, besides my assault termis, I need more mobility... but that is another topic...

Assault squads and Assault termies are good for adding mass to the deep strike charge(Mobility is all about getting into position at the right moment)
give your troops transports, Rhinos/Razorbacks/Landspeeder Storms. they can advance while he is dealing with all that stuff you dropped on his head

Grey Templar wrote:

Second turn onward; ANY deep striking unit(including other pods) that arrives next to the drop pod/s with a homing beacon will not scatter at all(you can deploy an SM entire army this way)

You need to re-read homing beacons.

They only affect people that teleport in. That's Terminators.

That's it. Drop pods, landspeeders, assault marines, and so on will still scatter normally.

I usually pod in a dread with my termies.
This then gives a multiple threat possition that they are forced to deal with.

Do they take out the dread and risk termies chewing them up?
Or do they go with the opposit?

I run a venerable death company furioso dread in a pod (expensive lol)
He is somewhat strong, but unpredictable due to the black rage.

simply pod in, fire a melta from the dread at something, then proceed into combat with it.



Try taking an ironclad with melta

kronk wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:

Second turn onward; ANY deep striking unit(including other pods) that arrives next to the drop pod/s with a homing beacon will not scatter at all(you can deploy an SM entire army this way)

You need to re-read homing beacons.

They only affect people that teleport in. That's Terminators.

That's it. Drop pods, landspeeders, assault marines, and so on will still scatter normally.

That's a teleport homer. Locator beacons affect everything.

LiberatedObject wrote:I am wondering what more experienced players think of my dilemma, and maybe if they have solutions.
Every time I play my Space Marines, I drop in a Dreadnought behind enemy lines, hoping to lay havoc at their flank and chew up armor with a multi-melta. But every time I do this, the Dreadnought biffs and then proceeds to get destroyed. I then proceed to pull out a draw, maybe a win if I'm lucky.
I am wondering what to do. Should I drop in front of my enemies, or just forgo dropping them in and just walk him up guns blazing?
Note: The Dreadnought is the Black Reach standard one with extra armor. Storm Bolter, CC Dreadnought Weapon, and Multi-Melta.

Unless you are ready to make bigger changes to your list and possible add new dreads, the easiest solution would be to walk the dread up.

Fetterkey wrote:
That's a teleport homer. Locator beacons affect everything.

Ah, thank you.

So you're talking about the imperial armory Dreadnought Drop pod with the locator Beacon.

Yeah, those kick ass.

well, you can always start a scout bike squad on the table...have a sergeant with a locator beacon, then infiltrate/scout move to where you want the drop pod force to be....then drop your 1st turn pods nearby, and suddenly yo have a viable 1st turn flanking force...needless to say, you better have the first turn, else the scout bikers may become toast....

kronk wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:

Second turn onward; ANY deep striking unit(including other pods) that arrives next to the drop pod/s with a homing beacon will not scatter at all(you can deploy an SM entire army this way)

You need to re-read homing beacons.

They only affect people that teleport in. That's Terminators.

That's it. Drop pods, landspeeders, assault marines, and so on will still scatter normally.

Ok, i meant Locator Beacons and they DO help ANY unit deep striking in

I quote from the Scout Bike Squad entry where the rules for Locator beacons are found.

"Locator Beacon: Scout Bikers often carry a locator beacon, a signalling package containing a Teliport homer, Broad-spectrum communicators and geo-positional tracking. When activated, the locator beacn up loads detailed positional information to the Astartes Tactical Grid, allowing preision reinforcement by reserve forces.

If a unit wishes to arrive on the battlefield via deep strike and choses to do so within 6" of a model with a Locator beacon it will not scatter."

Something to consider is that you don't need to stick a third unit in the third Drop Pod. What you can do is take a couple of Dreadnoughts in Drop Pods with Locator Beacons and a couple of Tactical squads in Drop Pods with Deathwind Launchers.

You deploy the Tactical squads where-ever, usually with the Heavy Weapons ready to provide a helping hand.

You drop the first pair of pods with the Dreadnoughts in them and they rampage out. Assault Cannons are really the best for that sort of thing since they have versatility. Multi-Meltas are better on Venerable Dreadnoughts that can get BS5.

The last pair of Drop Pods comes in where-ever you need those Deathwind Launchers to frag dismounted troops.

A dreadnought in a drop pod is roughly 150 points. That's less than 10% of your list in the majority of cases.

If you Drop and it's ineffective, it's not going to lose you the fight (by itself), but often times it will force your opponent to drastically shift his forces to prevent it from destroying valuable elements in his army.

Drop into the middle of his army line, fire off a melta or pop smoke, and be content even if it dies; it already did its job just by existing. If it actually kills something, more's the better.

Some units in an army list are expendable. The drop pod dreadnought is a perfect example.

Even better if they are Deathstorm drop pods(impierial armor 2)

I don't think you can deploy the tac squads and the drop pods seperatly

Grey Templar wrote:I don't think you can deploy the tac squads and the drop pods seperatly

You can. It's a Dedicated Transport, so they don't have to start the game in it. Just deploy them in the beginning and then the Drop Pod comes crashing down with no occupants. Good tactic if you want a bunch of Pods to come down in the beginning but keep units in your backfield.

kronk wrote:

Fetterkey wrote:
That's a teleport homer. Locator beacons affect everything.

Ah, thank you.

So you're talking about the imperial armory Dreadnought Drop pod with the locator Beacon.

Yeah, those kick ass.

I was referring to the normal ones, actually. Drop Pods in the 5th edition Codex: Space Marines can purchase locator beacons as a vehicle upgrade.