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I regularly listen to 40k podcasts and one concept I heard about but it was not discussed in depth was a Death from Above SM army concept. I gathered from the discussion that this is essentially an army that is either in all drop pods or a mix of drop pods and deep stirking. The idea really intrigues me but my current SM army that I am finishing building doesn't work that way. After reading the BA codex I immediately envisioned an assault army coming out of drop pods including those nifty death company models. Wow.

So with this vision in my head it got me thinking that I really need to understand if I deduced correctly that a Death from Above SM army is all drop pod/deep strike or am I wrong about that. What are some of the common pitfalls involved with this concept that I need to look out for and what should my list have that would maximize effectiveness.

My initial thoughts were Dreadnoughts in drop pods with deep striking Assault Marines (Descent of Angels making it more feasible) but what else or do I or don't do. I really like the concept of dreads but I'm willing to see their flaws and weaknesses if dropping them in large numbers is a bad thing.

I guess I'm just looking for overall advice on this whole concept because it sounds cool but as I've discovered reading here and other places that in 40k what sounds good is not neccesarily prudent in the actual game.

I can't say for certain but I would also assume that Terminators and Speeders would be viable options for this kind of list, as both can Deepstrike in.

It would appear that Tacticals, Assault Marines or Terminators would handle the main anti-infantry needs of your army, with some Melta or Power Fists in there for up close work. This leaves the Dreads and Speeders to handle anti-tank, which they can do just fine between Assault Cannons and Multi-Meltas. You don't need super long range weapons since you'll be landing where ever you want, so 24" seems like enough to me.

I'm working on a variant of something similar using a 'nilla codex as opposed to BA. Here's what I've worked out so far.

My variation (for reasons of fluff) includes scouts as infiltrators as that seems a natural part of the process (you need intel to know where to land after all). Scout bikes allow you to put a locator beacon on the table before turn 1 so your pods don't scatter... very useful. LS-Storms can also infiltrate & scout.

A MoTF allows you to take dreads as heavy choices, freeing up elite slots for important units like sternguard, and termies. CCWs & HFs are very useful as your dreads are going to get "stuck in" almost immediately. Make sure to give the dreads infantry support How you handle the drop pod assault is probably the most critical part of the game. The danger with deep striking is that after the pod assault in turn 1, everything else comes in piece-meal. That's why the scouts are nice, you can get them into position before your pods come down, them use them to support the more valuable troops while they are fairly vulnerable on turn 1.

It's a fun way to play, but rather than fighting their whole army you end up fighting little pieces of it, one at a time. Things that come in unsupported... are toast though.

I like the concept of dropping dreds in pods, as I had recently just survived a 6,000 pt Planet Strike game were my opponent dropped 4 pods each with a dread. My Interceptor cannons killed 1 drop pod in turn 1 killing the dread as well. Turn 2 I killed another dread with las-cannon hits, and wrecked another with krak attack. Turn 3 my opponent realised he had lost the game as he had no objectives. But if he had dropped his pods in combination with his assualt troops on one side of the board. And concentrated all his attacks on 1 point of my castle I would have lost badly. So yes to drop pod dreads and all the fluff, Assault troops, speeders and even bikes.

If you want to have fun with vanilla SM, try out the termie librarian with vortex attached to a squad of termies (of either type). Nothing says fun like a S10 AP 1 blast being put on your opponent from reserves. (or with gateway and libby upgrade, every turn where you want it.

Gitsplitta I have been pondering the MotF too because the idea of a fielding a ton of dreads has always appealed to me. Of course with BA you get those freaky blood talons but in any event even vanilla dreads can be awesome. Those are the models that got me sucked into this hobby in the first place. It started with "I'll just assemble and paint one dreadnought." Yeah.

The scouts idea is very cool. I have scouts in my current Ultramarines army for the express purpose of deep striking in my Thunderhammer/SS Termies with their homers and it makes sense to carry that over to this concept army just to make deep stirking even more precise and efficient. The one thing I imagine you have to think about is how you want to deploy your amry so that since you're coming in piecemeal you either want to be handling one portion of your opponents army at a time or come down into their heart for a decapitation strike and hope you survive that first turn of shooting.

Should the pods be tricked out with some deathwind missle launchers to add a little more punch or keep them as vanilla as possible to hold down costs?

With this concept army I think getting vehicles is just out however I believe landspeeders can be deepstruck.

notabot187 wrote:If you want to have fun with vanilla SM, try out the termie librarian with vortex attached to a squad of termies (of either type). Nothing says fun like a S10 AP 1 blast being put on your opponent from reserves. (or with gateway and libby upgrade, every turn where you want it.

I'd been thinking about something like this myself, though I'm not sure what kind of Termies would be best. Obviously, Librarians can be beastly in CC, and Assault Terminators with shields could make the unit dead hard, but they'd never get a chance to charge if they're always teleporting everywhere. Shooting Termies, on the other hand, could put down some really punishing fire to go along with that Libby template. Hmmm...

Well, I play my FT (BA) list as a "Death From Above" list mostly... 3 drop pods, usually a Librarian DN, "fire support" (Rifleman) DN and something else to get the 2 pods out there with beacons to have the rest follow in. A few Assault Squads with attached Medics (Sang Priests), Vanguard Vets in a 10 man squad all tooled out... Combat Squad and assault directly from off the board more often than not. It's probably a good idea to have a few heavier AT options like Preds coming in from reserve or Baal types flanking (not heavy AT, but...), but this army is pretty much the "scissors" in a "rock-paper-scissors" sort of thing. Some armies can't deal well with it, others... Well, it'll be a quick game either way :-)

Stravo wrote:Gitsplitta I have been pondering the MotF too because the idea of a fielding a ton of dreads has always appealed to me. Of course with BA you get those freaky blood talons but in any event even vanilla dreads can be awesome. Those are the models that got me sucked into this hobby in the first place. It started with "I'll just assemble and paint one dreadnought." Yeah.

The scouts idea is very cool. I have scouts in my current Ultramarines army for the express purpose of deep striking in my Thunderhammer/SS Termies with their homers and it makes sense to carry that over to this concept army just to make deep stirking even more precise and efficient. The one thing I imagine you have to think about is how you want to deploy your amry so that since you're coming in piecemeal you either want to be handling one portion of your opponents army at a time or come down into their heart for a decapitation strike and hope you survive that first turn of shooting.

Should the pods be tricked out with some deathwind missle launchers to add a little more punch or keep them as vanilla as possible to hold down costs?

With this concept army I think getting vehicles is just out however I believe landspeeders can be deepstruck.

Well, I'm going to cheat a bit... I own 15 of the original Rogue Trader Imperial jet bikes... so while I'll run them as normal scout bikes, as far as my fluff goes they are jet bikes and could get down the same way a land speeder would. Of course being scouts that all happens before the battle starts so I avoid that whole uncomfortable little "but they can't really deep-strike" thing. You could do the same thing with regular scouts in LS-Storms though. That would fit perfectly into your idea and the Storms and scouts would still be able to fill the supporting role for the alpha-striking troops.

I've experimented with the launcher on the pods a bit. It is occasionally useful, but I look at it this way... those pods are easy victory points for your opponent. Anything I do to remind them of the fact that they're actually combat models and not just terrain works to my disadvantage. Most people don't forget... but occasionally people do. Or they keep prioritizing them down as targets until it gets to the point late in the battle that they can't afford to waste shots on them. If I raise their priority by giving them better (not great) weapons, it works against me in the long run. If I knew for certain however, that I was going to get a precise drop and I would likely have infantry targets... I'd be much more inclined to pay the extra points for the launcher as there would be a greater likelihood of using it effectively.

The advantage of podding the dreads of course is that they are the only unit that can fire their heavy weapons on the turn they pod in. Cyclone termies & land speeders have the same advantage in deep strike. Infantry does not, but the excellent ammo and combi-weapon options available to the sternguard make them a fantastic choice for this mission. Death from above is a lot like (American) football... theory is (on offense anyway) that you need to get more guys at one point of attack than your opponent has, allowing you to overpower the defense and advance the ball. With death from above the same principal applies, you want to get pods & scouts to all arrive at the same point at the same time so you have as much force in one spot as possible, overwhelming the opponent's defences. This is important because their arses are hanging in the wind until you get lucky and roll in your reserves. I think a small vanguard squad w/ some power weapons would also be a good choice for this army as they can charge the turn they deep strike. They're expensive, but later in the game that could be real trouble for a thinned out opponent.

It's a fun way to play... but usually either goes really well or really badly.

Death From Above.

Blood Angels

End of discussion.

if you do this you want Locater beacons on ALL your DPs.

this way your Terminators and Landspeeders can land 100% accurately.


you also want to go with a bunch of Tactical squads. preferably the full 6(depending on points) so you can split on landing into 12 squads who can score and provide target saturation.

you also might consider a MOTF so you can fill those HS slots(which otherwise will be empty) with Dreadnoughts. either leaving elites for others or allowing more dreds. he can also fix you dreds if they get broken.

Speeders are good, but you probably want Typhoons instead of suicide melta because the rest of your army is dropping in close so your melta guns will already be close to their targets and you will need the Krak/frag missile support

I've used a similar approach with my Blood Angels armies and it's worked well. All jump-pack armies will have the advantage of arriving around the same time if you reserve everything (roughly 75% odds on turn two with DoA's reroll). Drop Pods do provide locator beacons, which has exceptional synergy with units like Vanguard Veterans or melta-equipped squads. I've used both all-jump packs and mixed jump/drop pod and prefer the latter for having units in your opponents' face (particularly melta-equipped ones....) from turn one, then allowing your jump troops to form a strong second wave.

Like you can imagine, the biggest weakness with these armies is arriving without all their strength at once. If you're sending in pods, make sure you have enough of them coming in turn one (usually having two in on first turn is ideal) and/or make those units inside durable enough to withstand return fire (Death Company with Infernus pistols/Bolters; Furioso's which pop smoke when they arrive). DC have been my superstar units to drop pod; they've consistently arrived beside artillery pieces, melted them, and then withstood the fire of the opponent's army to enable them to engage other targets.