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So, Deathwind drop pods in a codex marine chapter are overall pretty bland, not many people I know use them, and those that do, dont get much use out of them.

In a Space Wolf army though I see them as a valuable resource of cheap pie plates. Consider a list composed of double meltagun wielding Grey Hunters in drop pods with deathwinds, 2 units of long fangs with whatever weapon loadout you please, with dedicated deathwind drop pods.

gear most of your troops for the serious anti-tank duty (meltaguns on the hunters, missile launchers on the long fangs), stick near the drop pods, and hit closing melee opponents with doubletapping bolters and S5 pie plates.

In a codex list it has major problems because of its range, but in a space wolf list, who excell in the short-range fight, I think it would do very well. anyone have any opinions on this?

I still think Deathwinds are lackluster, even in a Space Wolf list.

Massed Drop Pods are not really viable, as it's too easy for an opponent to react to them. Grey Hunters in a drop pod are a mistake in my opinion, because you are essentially handing a scoring unit to your opponent.

The primary problem with Deathwinds is that they can't fire the turn they arrive, so the idea of an alpha strike with the pod is out of the question. If your opponent knows they are facing it, they are castling to stop your meltaguns from getting a prime shot, or they are playing the reserves game on you.

If I where to go Drop Pod heavy with Space Wolves, it would be a Bjorn list. Bjorn in a Drop Pod, 2 Dreads in a Drop pod, three Grey Hunter Squads in Drop Pods w/ Rune Priests, heavy support to taste. Re-roll the dice looking to go second, then castle the three dreads near the middle of the table. Fire at things as they come in and let the Grey Hunters come in later for objectives and targets of opportunity using the Drads saga to keep them from running. But Deathwinds are still not good in that list.

I don't think it is the most competitive list, but fun.

Bjorn does not have the option to take a pod.

Mahu wrote:The primary problem with Deathwinds is that they can't fire the turn they arrive, so the idea of an alpha strike with the pod is out of the question.

I plan on using these in a BT Tourney list. On page 38 of BT Codex the last sentence says, "Drop pods may fire on the same turn as they land." I plan on using them to bring my dreds to better positions as well as contest objectives and provide a little bit of extra kick against horde armies. Does anyone see this as being viable?

Deathwind launchers basically just give opponents who run hordes a reason to shoot at the drop pod. Everyone else will still ignore it. Overall, not worth it.

I agree with Mahu, massed drop pods is generally a bad idea. I'd say any more than three is too many.

Where does it say that drop pods can't fire on the turn that they land?

I personally liked the idea of 2 dreads + deathwind pods appearing on turn 1, thats effectively 4 dreads in your lines...

I know they cant fire on the turn they come down, but at the same time, consider a list such as the following...

Rifleman dread (or other preferred varient), deathwind droppod
Rifleman dread (or other preferred varient), deathwind droppod
Rifleman dread (or other preferred varient), deathwind droppod
Long Fangs, deathwind droppod
Long Fangs, deathwind droppod
Long Fangs, deathwind droppod
Double melta Grey Hunters, normal droppod
Double melta Grey Hunters, normal droppod
Double melta Grey Hunters, normal droppod
Runepriest

looking around 1850 points, and it allows some options for finesse not available to a lot of other armies.

you can deploy all 3 dreads and long fangs with the runepriest (using living lightning) as a firebase, and plop down 5 drop pods on turn 1 to block lanes of travel, lines of sight, and threaten anything not in a vehicle. Use the ranged firepower to knock out armor and with careful planning and tactics with the drop pods you can force the opponent into pie plate death.

If the opponent starts 100% in reserves then you can pull some sneaky tricks.
In a killpoint mission plop them all defensively just behind your gunline, he has to come to you, and you just fall back behind your armor 12 cover-providing, pit plate throwing walls.
In an objective mission cluster them around an objective, the enemy will be hard pressed to clear them out when you can pop his transports/ranged anti tank with your firebase.
In a table quarters mission place all 5 of them in one of his deployment edge quarters, about 12" away from his edge (just outside 12", preferably between 12-13") your opponent will either have to roll on in the stacked quarter and hope that none of his transports get cracked by your ranged support/melta hunters, or stay out of that quarter and leave himself open to being locked into a single quarter by placing other pods in his exit paths.

Just Dave wrote:Where does it say that drop pods can't fire on the turn that they land?

It says in there codex entry (In C:SM) that when they land, they count as moving at cruising speed. And they're not classed as a fast vehicle, so they can't shoot.

EDIT: oops it's in the BRB not C:SM sorry!

Kapitan Montag wrote:

Just Dave wrote:Where does it say that drop pods can't fire on the turn that they land?

It says in there codex entry (In C:SM) that when they land, they count as moving at cruising speed. And they're not classed as a fast vehicle, so they can't shoot.

Aaaaah OK, thanks, however surely as it doesn't say that in the SW codex (I dont think...) and it's standalone then the Space Pups can? Please, correct me if I'm wrong...

I think it actually says in the main rule book that all vehicles that deep strike counts as having moved at cruising speed, so this applies across the board for all deep striking vehicles.

The main problem with deathwinds are that they are a 20 point upgrade. Thats 2/3 the cost of the initial pod for a weapon that most likely will never shoot.

Ultimately, the real problem with their functionality is that they are really only viable against static horde armies because of the limited 12" range.

Sadly there are not that many of those around anymore.

Will wrote:I think it actually says in the main rule book that all vehicles that deep strike counts as having moved at cruising speed, so this applies across the board for all deep striking vehicles.

Yes Will, you are right, it is in BRB not the codex, so I guess no shooting on arrival even for SW.

Will wrote:I think it actually says in the main rule book that all vehicles that deep strike counts as having moved at cruising speed, so this applies across the board for all deep striking vehicles.

aaaah ok, cheers Will...

Jayden63 wrote:The main problem with deathwinds are that they are a 20 point upgrade. Thats 2/3 the cost of the initial pod for a weapon that most likely will never shoot.

Ultimately, the real problem with their functionality is that they are really only viable against static horde armies because of the limited 12" range.

Sadly there are not that many of those around anymore.

In a Space Marine army I would agree with you, not worth it, in a Space Wolf army I will respectfully disagree, Space Wolves are the penultimate short-range fighters, with double assault weapons, counter attack, bolt pistols and close combat weapons, within 12" is where they shine.

I have built a list that is based around a strong gunline, with Grey Hunters as shock troops backed up by deathwind launchers.

against an opposing gunline, you get elements in their lines early with 5 drop pods on turn 1, 3 of them possibly toting 2 meltas each, all of your firepower would allow for an effective alpha strike. mechvets for example, drop in and pop the chimeras with meltas, then they cant ignore the drop pods, S5 plates would eat the veteren squads in the following turn. when they shoot at the pods your long fangs and dreads continue to rain death from the other side of the field.

against an opposing horde army you get lots of pie plates, path-blocking drop pods, and ranged firepower to whittle the enemy down before they get to you.

against an opposing elite CC army you have the ranged firepower to drop transports, then just focus fire down each CC element one at a time, and use the dreads to try and tarpit units.

against an army that holds 100% in reserve, just drop empty pods in key places, on objectives, approx 13" away from thier table edge, etc.

there are only 2 problems I see with this list/idea.
1. only 3 scoring units, and once they drop down, they are vulnerable to lots of anti-meq fire. this is minimized by being able to drop empty pods on turn 1, but you cant stop them from coming down on turn 2 if you roll them in....
2. Killpoints, this list/idea has 19. thats lolbad. this can be minimized by using the drop pods defensively, dropping them like a wall just behind your long fangs/dreads, and using them as a line of retreat, as the opponent gets close fall back behind them and unload fire.

But what are you going to shoot at? Your using short ranged troops. Troops especially designed for assault (thus two melta guns). You will probably get your one round of shooting from the Wolves when they drop. At that point, your opponent is going to either move back 13" away from the marines and shoot them with longer range weapons. Or assault them to try and get rid of them.

Both of these actions take all targets away from the range of the deathwind. Either further out than 12" or engaged in CC.

Surely one death-wind drop-pod in a drop-pod including army is always a good idea, as you can always get atleast one drop-pod up-close?

Jayden63 wrote:But what are you going to shoot at? Your using short ranged troops. Troops especially designed for assault (thus two melta guns). You will probably get your one round of shooting from the Wolves when they drop. At that point, your opponent is going to either move back 13" away from the marines and shoot them with longer range weapons. Or assault them to try and get rid of them.

Both of these actions take all targets away from the range of the deathwind. Either further out than 12" or engaged in CC.

Place the drop pod 1" away from your enemy, if you hit, deploy marines out the sides, still about 1" away from the enemy, marines shoot and break open a transport, or hurt a squad.

their turn, they either assault the marines (counter-attack!) or run away, if they run they will either not make it far enough because of interveneing terrain, or from being too large a mob, or make it JUST far enough to escape the deathwind, and then either the other nearby deathwinds hit them, or the grey hunters walk up and double-tap a second time (or both).

Black Templar Drop Pods may shoot the turn they arrive as they have power of the machine spirit. So deathwind is more viable in their list. That said, I am not going to spend the points.

hyperviper6 wrote:Black Templar Drop Pods may shoot the turn they arrive as they have power of the machine spirit. So deathwind is more viable in their list. That said, I am not going to spend the points.

wow, that's stupid... not that you have that as a templar but that there is yet ANOTHER version of the drop pod in current GW published rules. so... so far we have:

C:SM drop pod: carries 12, no shooting on arrival, bs 4
C:SW drop pod: carries 10, no shooting on arrival, bs 4
C: DA/BA drop pod: carries 10, no shooting on arrival, bs 2
C:BT drop pod: carries 10, shoots on arrival, bs 2, POTMS

and this isn't even including the forgeworld variants that have been published and updated over the years. hey GW, how about you erratta all the drop pods to use the same rules???

warboss wrote:

hyperviper6 wrote:Black Templar Drop Pods may shoot the turn they arrive as they have power of the machine spirit. So deathwind is more viable in their list. That said, I am not going to spend the points.

wow, that's stupid... not that you have that as a templar but that there is yet ANOTHER version of the drop pod in current GW published rules. so... so far we have:

C:SM drop pod: carries 12, no shooting on arrival, bs 4
C:SW drop pod: carries 10, no shooting on arrival, bs 4
C: DA/BA drop pod: carries 10, no shooting on arrival, bs 2
C:BT drop pod: carries 10, shoots on arrival, bs 2, POTMS

To further keep things interesting, half my pods do not arrive on the first turn. They arrive when availible. Aka, reserves rolls

warboss wrote:and this isn't even including the forgeworld variants that have been published and updated over the years. hey GW, how about you erratta all the drop pods to use the same rules???

How about the land raiders for that matter. Mine have POTMS 2 and still cost for some of the free upgrades new in new codex.

hyperviper6 wrote:
To further keep things interesting, half my pods do not arrive on the first turn. They arrive when availible. Aka, reserves rolls
******snip*******
How about the land raiders for that matter. Mine have POTMS 2 and still cost for some of the free upgrades new in new codex.

i didn't catch that about the pods. i WAS going to say yours were the best (firing on arrival with POTMS for less points) but i don't think that's the case anymore. i realize its popular with the kids to take second turn and put your whole army in reserve vs a drop pod army but i still think that half arriving on turn one is quite useful. as for the land raiders, i try to keep my moaning regarding GW to one topic per thread. otherwise, i'd have to make an 5 page article and repost it every time, lol.