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Drop pods.

At first glance, they add a lot to a Descent of Angels army - specifically, the ability to Deep Strike units that can't equip themselves with jetpacks, like dreadnoughts, tactical and devastator squads, and the like.

But then, you notice the Drop Pod Assault special rule, and all your dreams are crushed. If one or two of your drop pods HAS to show up on turn one, it's going to be a sitting duck, doomed to attract all available fire while the rest of your army is off the table.

What do you do about this? How do you employ dreadnoughts, tactical marines, and devastators - all much-needed fire support in a Descent of Angels army - while keeping your army from arriving piecemeal and being shot to pieces?

I'm a relative newbie when it comes to the Blood Angels - my models haven't even found their way into my possession yet - so all I've done is make lists, stare at them, and toss them up on the Internet for others to comment on. I have played a few games with my first army - Tau - so I have a basic grasp of the rules. However, I won't be offended if you assume my ignorance in all things Blood Angels.

My opinion is a simple one. Don't. DoA lets you reroll the reserve dice, I think even ones which pass, so most things will be coming on at once. Also, note Pods don't have DoA, which annoys me slightly, but there we go!

I would use VVets with Jump packs to tie up vital opposing units until the following turn, when your other marines can charge. Focus on infantry, Assault Marines and the aforementioned VVets in particular. DoA is a very powerful army, but it does take a bit of luck on the reserve rolls, (What doesn't?) and skill.

Personally I love full podding armies. Get 3 furioso's and 3 reg dreads, with 5 lots of assault marines, all in pods, and the battlefield gets sooooo clogged. Especially good against mech with a vehicles large footprint.

EDIT: Ignore fire support, go all out assault.

Pods are great in a pod army, not in a DoA army. 5 man assault squads with a melta and a pod=128 points. That's dirt cheap, and allows a pod army to have a large number of pods. A large # of pods means all your deads can come in on turn 1, and the assault marines can start coming in on turn 2. Also the large # of pods & AV12 saturation means it's really easy to deep strike TH/SS termies with FNP.

Pods have no place in a DoA army. Pods arrive in first turn while a reserving DoA arrives mainly in turn 2. In this way synergy is lacking. In a situation where the DoA army goes first and begins on the board, Pods could be helpful to suppress enemy fire.

You're missing the point - which is that the first turn dumbo-drop gets your locator beacons in place and on the board turn one.

I ran a list a while back that featured three drop pods, two with locator beacons. The two with locator beacons continued furioso dreadnoughts. The other one contained a minimum assault squad with a meltagun. The rest of the army was in Vanguards, assault marines and honor guard (I think I led with a cheapish Librarian).

First turn the two dreads drop down somehwere near the enemy (though not in the middle of them, and using terrain to block LOS whenever possible). The dreads pop smoke. Swarms of fire will be incoming, most of it focused on the furiosos. I ran the list half a dozen times, and only once or twice did an opponent fire anything at my pods.

By turn 2, the enemy will have stuff near your pods. Transports will have come over to drop off squads to shoot/assault your dreads. Now your assault squads and vanguard vets begin to arrive. You bring them in off the locator beacons, making for guaranteed assaults/close range melta shots.

The real trick to it, IMO is getting the placement of the pods right. Too centrally and you will lose everything easily. Too far away and it's not a desirable landing zone.

Droofus wrote:
First turn the two dreads drop down somehwere near the enemy (though not in the middle of them, and using terrain to block LOS whenever possible). The dreads pop smoke. Swarms of fire will be incoming, most of it focused on the furiosos. I ran the list half a dozen times, and only once or twice did an opponent fire anything at my pods.

How often did you lose the furiosos? I'm not arguing that the list didn't work for you, but that's a pretty expensive unit to use as bait.

ElectricPaladin wrote:

Droofus wrote:
First turn the two dreads drop down somehwere near the enemy (though not in the middle of them, and using terrain to block LOS whenever possible). The dreads pop smoke. Swarms of fire will be incoming, most of it focused on the furiosos. I ran the list half a dozen times, and only once or twice did an opponent fire anything at my pods.

How often did you lose the furiosos? I'm not arguing that the list didn't work for you, but that's a pretty expensive unit to use as bait.

Usually one would die and the other would be weapon destroyed at worst. They're not incredibly expensive when you consider a 1850 army. I usually got at least that many points back when my jumpers swooped in. Also, keep in mind that my opponent wouldn't always take the bait and instead leave me with two active furiosos and a safe landing zone for my army.

The only time it really failed was against a Lash of Submission opponent who didn't rise to the bait. He waited for my squads to come in and then lashed me to within charge range of his bezerkers/daemon princes That was an ugly game. Even my vanguards doing a dangerous HI to tie up a daemon prince couldn't save me in that one.