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1) What are it's merits? It is much more controlled than a deep striking jump army because of the drop pod assault special rule. And, there is no threat of mishap.

2) What are its faults? Not very much initial survivability: unlike a land raider, you cannot hide a unit in a drop pod.

3) What chapter could pull it off best?

You seem to have answered #1 by yourself, and I don't own enough codexes to answer #3, so...

2): while they can't hide inside, you can still use a drop pod to shield your troops from distant fire. Despite the fact that it is open topped, and you can see through it, drop pods are vehicles, and as such, (I believe) people can't shoot through them. AV 12 can be surprisingly hard to crack, sometimes.

I think a a useful tactic with an entire army that pods is to have an odd number of pods to begin with.... like 7 or 9.

This way you have more deploying than being held back - 4 or 5 deployed 3 or 4 in reserve.

Then... the cool part.

For those 3 or 4 you hold back - hold them back empty. Deploy the units they belong to without their drop pod. These units should be able to shoot. The 4 or 5 pods you DO deploy can hold nasty things like Sterguard with a Libbie or Dreadnaughts.

When you do bring on those Empty Pods from reserve - a few Deathwind Missile Launchers cant hurt

Something like this would be fun:

Space Marine Captain; Combi-Meltagun; Relic Blade

Command Squad; Apothecary; 3 Meltaguns; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

Librarian; Null Zone; The Gate of Infinity

10 Sternguard; Combi-Meltagun x2; Heavy Flamer x2; Sergeant; Melta Bombs; Bolter; Power Fist x1; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

2 Dreadnoughts; Dreadnought CCW; Multi-Melta; Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

2 Full Tactical Squads; Plasmagun; Lascannon; Sergeant; Drop Pod; Deathwind Missile Launcher

8 Devastators; Missile Launcher x4; Drop Pod; Deathwind Missile Launcher

The Libbie can go with the Command Squad and Captain if you need to Gate Meltaguns around using the Locator Beacons or he can go with the Sternguard if you need to Gate Heavy Flamers around.

As a CSM player, I would LOVE to be able to drop in a chaos dreadnought. Be glad you even have the option.

kaiservonhugal wrote:I think a a useful tactic with an entire army that pods is to have an odd number of pods to begin with.... like 7 or 9.

This way you have more deploying than being held back - 4 or 5 deployed 3 or 4 in reserve.

Then... the cool part.

For those 3 or 4 you hold back - hold them back empty. Deploy the units they belong to without their drop pod. These units should be able to shoot. The 4 or 5 pods you DO deploy can hold nasty things like Sterguard with a Libbie or Dreadnaughts.

When you do bring on those Empty Pods from reserve - a few Deathwind Missile Launchers cant hurt

Something like this would be fun:

Space Marine Captain; Combi-Meltagun; Relic Blade

Command Squad; Apothecary; 3 Meltaguns; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

Librarian; Null Zone; The Gate of Infinity

10 Sternguard; Combi-Meltagun x2; Heavy Flamer x2; Sergeant; Melta Bombs; Bolter; Power Fist x1; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

2 Dreadnoughts; Dreadnought CCW; Multi-Melta; Heavy Flamer; Drop Pod; Locator Beacon

2 Full Tactical Squads; Plasmagun; Lascannon; Sergeant; Drop Pod; Deathwind Missile Launcher

8 Devastators; Missile Launcher x4; Drop Pod; Deathwind Missile Launcher

The Libbie can go with the Command Squad and Captain if you need to Gate Meltaguns around using the Locator Beacons or he can go with the Sternguard if you need to Gate Heavy Flamers around.

This is the best take on a full drop pod army I have ever seen.

very impressive, i myself field a whole terminator army and drop pods can be a blessing or alternately convert captain lysander of the imperial fists and use him for accuracy

The one minor edit I would make to my list is take the meltabombs off the Sterguard SGT and give them to one of the Tactical Squad SGTs. ooops.

@ micahaphone:
You can shoot through the Pod if you can draw line of sight on the model you want to shoot, it just conveys a cover save to the targetted unit.

You can do some cool things with drop pods. If you have two enemy verticals 12 inches apart, or a vehicle close to some terrain. You can set the drop pod down right in the middle. With the inertial guidance no matter where you scatter you will usually end up being dragged back to the middle, which should put you easily within melta range when you disembark.

They also allow you to plant a beacon on day 1, which could be handy for bringing down other deep strikers. Vanguard spring to mind since the accurate drop would ensure they land close enough to get heroic intervention.

Another thing to keep in mind with drop pods is that they can be dropped empty, and they can contest objectives (IIRC). Forcing an opponent to waste fire shooting at empty drop pods because they are contesting an objective is both inexpensive and effective.

One of my favorite tricks with drop pod armies is using the terminator librarian to bounce (gate) around with beacons. Then dropping the vortex of doom on their head.

Rather costly with the libby upgrades (2 powers and terminator armor) and all the beacons. It is a whole lot of fun though dropping S10 AP1 blasts everywhere though.

Maybe give him an escort of shooty termies while you are at it too.

Someday I'd like to run a BA list with loads of drop pods and deep striking land raider redeemers. Just need to make sure that there's enough homing beacons on the field and unleash the silliness...

kaiservonhugal wrote:I think a a useful tactic with an entire army that pods is...

*insert rampant Pod shenanigans here*

Genius, my good sir. When I figure out how to cheaply scratchbuild my own Pods, I'll have to eventually build one for literally every Marine unit I own.