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Okay so I want to play a space marine army that deploys the majority of its models via deep strike in pods. I've been going over what units to take and I cant really decide. Do any of you that have a pod army or have played against a pod army have any advise. I was thinking of having two units of scout bikers zoom up because they can get into the enemy deployment zone really fast and ensure that the pods come down where I want them. I have a salamander army with hestan, but im not sure what units to dropod down. Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-Ryan

Pods are great because they don't mishap unless you go off the board, so the scout bikes may not be necessary. You can put locator beacons on the first wave so the second comes in more precisely if you want to.

Basically you can't assault when you land so you have to have some really good shooting. Sternguard with metlaguns, combimeltas, combiflamers and heavy flamers seem like they would be horrifying with Hestan on the board. However, you would lose combat tactics, which is important when you get assaulted after podding in. Go with five pods to start, and put sternguard and tactical squads in them. Pedro can also be good cause then your super shooty sternguard can also hold objectives.

Draw up a list and see where the discussion takes it

HQ: Forgefather Vulkan He'stan - 190 pts

Troops: 10 Space Marines, flamer, plasma cannon, powerfist, and drop pod - 235 pts

Troops: 10 Space Marines, flamer, plasma cannon, powerfist, and drop pod - 235

Troops: 10 Space Marines, meltagun, multi-melta, powerfist, and drop pod - 235 pts

Elites: 10 sternguard, powerfist, 5 combi-meltas, and drop pod - 335 pts

Elites: 1 dreadnought with multi-melta, heavy flamer, and drop pod - 150 pts

Total - 1380

I have an extra 120 pts to spend. I have a question do sternguard get to move and fire their heavy flamer?

They can fire the HF. It's an Assault 1 weapon after all.

I would replace the plasma cannons with multimeltas. Vulcan gives MMs reroll on misses.

RB

I had a DS list that used the Chief Librarian which gave rerolls to reserves. I'll find the list when I get home and lay it out. It won about half the time, but was super fun to play.

Well i'll probabley give the sternguard 2 heavy flamers in addition to their 5 combi-meltas. As for the plasma cannons I have learned to never leave home without one. The MM I have found is not particularly useful in a tactical squad however on an attack bike or dreadnought it is brutal with he'stan. So I just want to have 1 MM in my tactical squads. Thanks for all your feedback.
-Ryan

I would add another Dreadnought with MM and heavy flamer. Ironclads are also a scary unit to drop with dual heavy flamers.

I run alot of drop pod lists. Using MoTF can get nasty when you got 5-6 dreadnoughts in your list. Another tactic which I like to do is take small devastator squads with Missile Launchers or Heavy Bolters with drop pods. I'll combat squad my tacticals taking the heavy weapon squad and deploying them with the Devastators in my backfield in cover if I can then, letting the dev's pod just drop empty pod with a deathwind launcher. You can drop the empty pods on or near objectives to shoot troops on them or to contest with the pod. This way you get the advantage of drop pod assault with your Assault units without wasting shooting rounds with your shootier elements of your list.

Here's the list I was referring to:

HQ:
Chief Librarian Tigurius

Troops:
10x Tac w/ Plasmagun & Plasma Cannon (Serg w/ Combi-melta)
+Drop Pod

10x Tac w/ Plasmagun & Plasma Cannon (Serg w/ Combi-melta)
+Drop Pod

Elite:
1x Dreadnought w/ Heavy Flamer & Multimelta
+Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon

1x Dreadnought w/ Heavy Flamer & Multimelta
+Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon

10x Sternguard w/ 10x Combi-melta
+Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon

Fast:
1x Land Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer & Multimelta

1x Land Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer & Multimelta

------------Total 1495 (toss a meltabomb somewhere)----------------

I'd toss the HQ in w/ one of the Tacs or Stern and toy with my rolls on turn 2. I kept the Land Speeders out of play until turn 3 unless I needed some tanks taken out in weird spots I couldn't reach w/ the rest of the army's melta. Its downfall would be melee armies with good armor saves as this army is meant to get in and kill kill kill when it drops in and hope melee with a better stat line is dead after the dust clears. Anything shooting-wise, however, is cake for this list. Lots of tank killing (meltas) and infantry killing (heavy flamers) and everything in between (plasma and Sternguard's 6 different shots with combi.) It's a really fun list I break out every now and then. Being able to toy with reserves rolls and decide exactly where things deep strike in via the 3 Locator Beacons is frustrating for your enemy.

Hope this gave some sort of incite. Best of luck to you!

How can you keep the LSs out until turn three. When in reserve it's mandatory to start rolling on turn 2 for all reserves.

RB

A full unit of sternguard is a serious investment in points are they really worth the 300+ points?

RB wrote:How can you keep the LSs out until turn three. When in reserve it's mandatory to start rolling on turn 2 for all reserves.

RB

Tigurius allows you to re-roll all reserves pass or fail. It's not that you can do it automatically, but you can help the odds move in your favor

All drop list are kind of meh. Your opponent can just reserve his army and 60% of your army is kind of stuck in no mans land with nothing to do. Either you deploy close to his board edge and he rolls on with full firepower/counter assault ability or you land in the middle of the board with most of your firepower out of range and 0 mobility.

As I clearly mentioned, it's just a list for fun.

Not sure on the full 10 of Stern. In my competitive list I have 5 in a Rhino, but in a DS list I found they don't survive long without a glob of them to take some fire.

eNvY wrote:All drop list are kind of meh. Your opponent can just reserve his army and 60% of your army is kind of stuck in no mans land with nothing to do. Either you deploy close to his board edge and he rolls on with full firepower/counter assault ability or you land in the middle of the board with most of your firepower out of range and 0 mobility.

Reserving everything is not the surefire I win button vs. drop pod armies that everyone thinks it is, it's a mediocre defense at best unless your army is based on using reserves also (i.e mechdar with Autarch, some Nid' builds, etc)

Personally I love it when opponents reserve everything half my army of my choice is already on the board where I want them and they are randomly getting their army in that I can take out piecemeal and I still got pods coming down. When building your list you have to take into account people doing this so your ready for it and trust me when you play someone for the first time and they see your droppods they will reserve everything because the "internet" told them too, but they have not planned for it and their initial battle plan just got tossed out the window, most cases you got them on the backfoot already.

General_Chaos brings up a really good point if your opponents throw all their units in reserve they will already have to figure out a new strategy and will not know where their units will be coming from. Already it isn't looking to good for them. While they will be struggling to get into good positions the drop pods will already be in place ready to fight off the enemies.