Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Look at the comm relay too.

That lets your remaining pods come in 8/9 of the time - or you have a 55% chance of holding the reserve if you choose.

Another benefit of the aegis is you could go to ground when shot. Sure your snap firing, but with a 2++ cover your going to be failing less saves

Don't have my rulebook here, how much is the relay? In 6th it is 3+ to get in on turn two right, so 2/3rd chance becomes 8/9ths with the relay?

Relay is really cheap, like 10 pts, but it precludes the quad gun.

Its 20.
In armies where I'm relying upon reserves its critical and worth losing the quad gun.

It will only take one game of your other drop pods not coming in until turn 4 to make you see that too

Okay, I knew it was cheap. I've never actually bought one, but if I had a dual stormraven list or drop pod list, you can bet your ass I'd have one. People act like I'm nuts on this, but I have beaten several lists I should not have because of reserves shenanigans that befell my opponent. I hate non-drop pod deep strikes for this reason, as well as arbitrary units in reserve.

Hmm, you are very convincing. Still not home so can't look in my rulebook. Does someone need to 'man' the relay, or does it work without anyone standing next to it?

Any unit near it. Yes even a drop pod can "man" the relay

Drop pods can be very good if used as the centerpiece of an army. Get some Bloodclaws and a Wolf Priest in them, or, Grey Hunters and run some Bloodclaws in a Land Raider. This will bring a furious assault to the enemy, while the drop pod assault gives covering and oppresing fire.

I also have run a Thunderwolf Drop Pod combo list. Send the Thunderwolves up the front and drop the podson the flanks and/or in the rear. Including Wolf Scouts can make this even better, if you bring them in right behind enemy armor, you can clear out a huge spot in which you can bring in the drop pods. Send the Thunderwolves to one side, and have them punch tgrough, and have the pods come in on the opposite if youd like.

Using Drop Pods for Space Wolves can be more difficult, as they have no Deep Striking Terminators(which I prefer) but this can be good. You can either have some fast units head up first to hit hard and get back up from the pods, like with the Thunderwolves, and the Land Raider.

Or, send in the Drop Pods and have some strong Long Fang units sit back and open fire. The Drop Pods will come in xloser, giving even more and greater fire, with this, I run two units of 5-7 Wolf Guard Terminators all with Frost Blades, to punch through the remainder of the enemy forces. No armour saves and plenty of attacks, along with consant covering fire, makes for a deadly and effective combo, that I have used and seen to victory, as will all the above suggested tactics.

As for HQ, obviously if using Thunderwolves, take a Thunderlord with Saga of the Warrior Born and Frost Weapon. Of using a Land Raider, use a Wolf Priest/Rune Priest combination, giving a combat punch, as well as powerful ramge for the Grey Hunters. If using the Long Fang Wolf Guard combination, use a Runepriest and Wolf Lord, obviously put the Lord in with Guard, and keep the Runepriest back with the big guns.

I am debating whether to have almost all power armor wolf guard (besides the heavy weapons) or to have more terminators. power armor guard means more shooting, more of an alpha-strike when they pod down. But terminators can be more durable

Super Newb wrote:
I am debating whether to have almost all power armor wolf guard (besides the heavy weapons) or to have more terminators. power armor guard means more shooting, more of an alpha-strike when they pod down. But terminators can be more durable

Pros of TDA:
More durable, literally twice as durable against small arms for less than twice the cost, and 5++ means they don't need to run for cover (not can be...are)
Come equiped with a PW as standard, they'll be able to do something after the initial alpha strike
Will absorb more shooting. People don't like terminators, but will happily ignore 10 PA marines
Relentless means their bolters or CC prowess won't be wasted on turn 2
Smaller footprint when exiting the pod

Cons of TDA
More expensive, so less men means less alpha strike


The pros I can think of outweigh the single con I can think of. I'm sure there are more people can add so it'd be interesting to see. I personally think the continual threat, and investment required to kill them outweighs the initial alpha strike loss. This can also be mitigated by kitting them with meltas. It's much easier to recoup the investment by shooting a single tank than by plasma rapid firing a squad - 5 meltas is as good as 10 when shooting 1 vehicle imo. Podding in and wrecking a Land Raider or Leman Russ really feels good. 5 meltas is probably enough to take out most MCs too.

The terminators will be great at wrecking one high profile target, whereas the PA will be good at mauling a squad. It really depends what you need. If you don't think your GHs, LFs, Vindi or TWC can handle squads of MEQ/TEQ then the PA would be better. So maybe before you decide, you should look at the rest of your list and see what you think you'll have trouble with.

I just can't justify their cost when they are nothing once they've fired.

You raise good points. 23 points each for PA WG with a combiweapon, but after they shoot their combi weapons they act like regular non-special weapon Grey Hunters, which only cost 15 each. So one round of cool shooting, and one higher leadership. I guess it all depends on how much they can tear up a squad on the other side.

Does anyone do mixed squads? 6 PA guys, 2 TDA, or 4 PA guys, 3 TDA? Is that best of both worlds, or more like jack of all trades master of none?

It might not be a bad idea. You could reduce the hit the alpha strike takes, by fielding more models, but also have terminators left over when your opponent starts shooting back.

If I were to roll that way, I'd go:
Terminator x3 plasma
PA x4 plasma

You could let the PA WG die off first since they're pretty useless once they fire. I still prefer all terminators with melta in my head, but next game I might give it a go. 14 plasma shots will wreck most MEQ or TEQ sitting on the table. It'd be nasty to use it on Ravenwing with their uber expensive units.

combi-plasma on the terminators is cheap and effective. Wondering if an expensive heavy weapon would be any better (missle / storm bolter or assault cannon). None of that is AP2 so maybe not... Higher rate of fire though...

Super Newb wrote:
combi-plasma on the terminators is cheap and effective. Wondering if an expensive heavy weapon would be any better (missle / storm bolter or assault cannon). None of that is AP2 so maybe not... Higher rate of fire though...

It depends on their role. If you want them to maul MEQ or TEQ, then an assault cannon wouldn't be too much of a waste. Especially with relentless. If they're packing melta, then I wouldn't bother with the cyclone. I'd opt to keep them cheap and cheerful. You can't spend too many points on something that is essentially a suicide unit.

Good point. However, I feel like I should put WG with heavy weapons *somewhere.* After all that's the bonus for having a 5 or 10 man squad. Which makes me lean towards putting one or two TDA with CML with the Long Fangs...

Have you not found missile launchers to be rather lack lustre in this edition? The AP3 means you really have to spam them if you want to KO a vehicle.
I like them on LFs because they're so cheap, but the cyclone feels expensive IMO. Which kinda brings me to my point; yes they were a bonus when the book was written, but now the missile launcher doesn't feel like the bonus it used to be. From anecdotal experience I've found the assault cannon to be better. It'd be interesting to see the mathhammer on it.

 Griddlelol wrote:
Have you not found missile launchers to be rather lack lustre in this edition? The AP3 means you really have to spam them if you want to KO a vehicle.
I like them on LFs because they're so cheap, but the cyclone feels expensive IMO. Which kinda brings me to my point; yes they were a bonus when the book was written, but now the missile launcher doesn't feel like the bonus it used to be. From anecdotal experience I've found the assault cannon to be better. It'd be interesting to see the mathhammer on it.

I haven't used CMLs since last edition so I actually don't know. You are right that missiles are cheaper on Long Fangs...

I've done some rough and ready math and it goes a little something like this:

The assault cannon should kill 1.5 MEQ per turn, but that's ignoring rending.
The CML should kill 1.1 MEQ per turn.

So if your target is indeed MEQ, the assault cannon is better. If it's TEQ, then the assault cannon pulls even further ahead.

Against common side armor values (assuming you can access them from a pod). The ones below AV:12 do not include rending, so the assault cannon will look worse than it actually is.

AV10 HP stripping
Assault cannon: 0.78
Cyclone: 1.1

AV:11 HP stripping
Assault cannon: 0.9
Cyclone: 0.9

AV:12
Assault cannon: 0.5 (note, these will always be a pen, not a glance)
CML: 0.7

Av:13
Assault cannon: 0.5
CML: 0.5

Av:14
Assault cannon: 0.3
CML: 0.2


Note: those are all with my pathetic maths skills. It however looks like the assault cannon is better than the CML at almost every situation, as long as it's in range (which it would be if it's in a DP). Being worse at av:12 isn't too bad, it's a rather uncommon side armor.

Against MCs and hordes I'd say the AC is better too. Blasts aren't particularly reliable, especially against SW where your opponent will expect ML spam.

Assualt cannon MEQ number seems really high to me. 4 shots, 2/3rds hit, 5/6ths wound, 1/3 failed saves. That's more like .75.

You're completely right, updated. Although there's a 0.45 chance of rending each time you shoot.

Edit: Personally I never do 5, but that's because I despise buying drop pods. They're costly and a pain in the dick to build and paint.

Footslogging doesn't give you an 'alpha strike' though. You can't hit rear or side armor. You can't ruin a squad with rapid firing bolters and plasma guns on turn one.


But you're right, it is very annoying to purchase pods considering that they land on the table and never move again. I have a couple already and I am going to playtest the list with some cups as pods to see how I like it. If I do get more pods, I'll probably just build the frame (so no petals, no seats inside). Why bother spending time with painting all that stuff when it just sits there and does nothing.

I'm just getting my SW put together. I'm planning on using three pods and a gating libbie (allies). I also have long fang squad, 3 riflemen and a thiunderfire cannon. Now I use meltas in my pod squads. The gating libbie is with the plasma and my LFs are a mix of plasma/mls. I had contemplated adding a WG to each squad but in the end decided ten GH should be fine.

I actually had seven pods - I traded four away for a paint job and some modeling to Kyle Voss. I think that is overkill. I'm not too worried about mobility. I can get behind and in front of my opponent and box him in on any flank.