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Hello all

I've been a ghost around the forums but here is my first time posting. I just bought the 6th edition rule book and I am looking to make a drop pod based army....ultramarine 4th company ( I know, i know thats bad but I love the books.)

The question is can an army based off of drop pods still work pretty well? I am not looking to waffle stomp my enimie but atleast have a good game...

Thanks for the help!

BolterJoe!

Some armies will drop better than others, which will also be somewhat matchup dependent. Grab Pedro to make them scoring, load up on suicide Sternguard and Tactical Squads with plasma and lascannons, and tack on a Master of the Forge so you can fill your Heavy Support slots with rifleman dreadnoughts in drop pods.

tack on a Master of the Forge so you can fill your Heavy Support slots with rifleman dreadnoughts in drop pods

Question, why put rifleman dreads in a drop pod. they have a range of 48". The would be better used starting out on the table top, wouldnt they?

An all drop pod army could work.

One thing I think would work VERY well in an all pod army, but I've never seen fielded, is a 10 man devastator squad in a drop pod, packing 4x multimeltas. Combine with Vulkan, and your golden.

Now that you can snap fire, they can fire when they land (and actually land 1-2 shots if you take vulkan), and then set up a 24" no go zone for vehicles, for a relatively cheap price.

Sternguard will of course be a staple in this list, and again, they are more viable than ever now that they can move and fire to full range.

You don't have to drop the dreads, you just want the pods to give you more flexibility with what you drop in your first wave, and because they're great for clogging firing lanes.

Agreed that you can just buy pods for dreads if you don't feel like dropping every one of them-jamming a DZ with pods if you have the chance is hilarious.

I didnt think about the He'stan option with the dev squads... thats just mean spirited...

I am reading the Codex SM right now and I dont see where the MoF makes dreads heavys... or I cant read. Where is it?

BolterJoe wrote:I didnt think about the He'stan option with the dev squads... thats just mean spirited...

I am reading the Codex SM right now and I dont see where the MoF makes dreads heavys... or I cant read. Where is it?

It's in his army list entry on pg. 133. Doesn't show up on his bestiary page for some reason.

Honersstodnt wrote:An all drop pod army could work.

One thing I think would work VERY well in an all pod army, but I've never seen fielded, is a 10 man devastator squad in a drop pod, packing 4x multimeltas. Combine with Vulkan, and your golden.

Now that you can snap fire, they can fire when they land (and actually land 1-2 shots if you take vulkan), and then set up a 24" no go zone for vehicles, for a relatively cheap price.

Sternguard will of course be a staple in this list, and again, they are more viable than ever now that they can move and fire to full range.

This sounds awesome

The other awesome bit is now you get a 6" disembark move to get your meltas and flamers closer, so scatter is pretty much negated.

Honersstodnt wrote:An all drop pod army could work.

One thing I think would work VERY well in an all pod army, but I've never seen fielded, is a 10 man devastator squad in a drop pod, packing 4x multimeltas. Combine with Vulkan, and your golden.

Now that you can snap fire, they can fire when they land (and actually land 1-2 shots if you take vulkan), and then set up a 24" no go zone for vehicles, for a relatively cheap price.

You could also attach a librarian with Smite to that same pod, have the devastators combat squad so that 4 multimeltas go to one squad and the librarian and the sergeant go to the other squad, then have the sarge use signum on librarian giving him BS5 to cast and fire Smite. You have a good chance of killing 1-2 terminators with that Smite.

So now you can destroy land raider with multimeltas, and kill 1-2 termies with smite, all in 1 pod.

I LOVED drop pods in 5th ed, and was sad that I didn't get to play them. In 6th, I've been going back and forth, but I'm pretty sure (currently) that they've gotten even better now.

Plus, they're still the coolest way to play a space marine army (except perhaps all-bikes).

Dreadnoughts got worse, which makes me sad, but assault cannons got better, along with deepstriking tactical terminators, so I really shouldn't complain.

J99Pwrangler wrote:

tack on a Master of the Forge so you can fill your Heavy Support slots with rifleman dreadnoughts in drop pods

Question, why put rifleman dreads in a drop pod. they have a range of 48". The would be better used starting out on the table top, wouldnt they?

I'd go multi-melta/h.flamer or assault cannon/h.flamer on dropped dreads.

Go with lots of tact. squads. Drop and rapid fire the crap out of stuff. Then if enemy charges you overwatch them with massed fire again.

Librarians for HQ for some psyker goodness.

Terminators to flavor as points allow.

I think drop pods got better with 6th. The new disembarkment rules really help.
But i think that it's now impossible to go all reserve even with pods.
You have to deploy 50% of your army turn one,
The pods must start in reserve and do not count toward that number, as is their attached unit,
but IC (and you must have at least one of them as HQ)are counted,so you still have to deploy at least one.
This combined with the fact that if at the end of any game turn you don't have any models you auto-lose mean that you are placed with the following choice :
-either deploy minimum number of models and try to keep them alive untill your 1st turn (doable agaisnt opponent wich cannot deepstrike) where half your pods arrive
OR
- deploy some units with survivability to make sure you don't auto lose, thus limiting the number of units you can deploy within pods

Overall i think it is not that bad as you choose if a unit will arrive within its pod at deployment wich allow you to deploy minimaly or not with the same list.
I don't think that any codex with acces to pods as a HQ selection who as them as dedicated transport, if any had one then that army could go all reserve.

forget most of what i said as there is an explicit exception for dedicated transport arriving by deep strike that include any models embarked
what i was decribing might be applicable for flyers who are dedicated transport tough...there is an interesing debate in ymdc on the subject. So far i am not convinced one way or the other.
Its is also specified in the rules that the no model= autoloose that it is at the end of any game turn, so no worry there too.
sorry for misleading.

Could ally with

Logan (HQ)
6 Long Fangs - 5 Multi-meltas, Drop Pod (HS)
10 Wolf Guard - 9 Combi-plasm and combi-melta (same model) and Arjac, Drop Pod (Troop)

Attach Arjac with Logan and fangs. Logan gives relentless so all 5 MMs are at normal BS.

There's a no tank zone AND a badass assault unit with Logan and Arjac to rock out.

krados wrote:I think drop pods got better with 6th. The new disembarkment rules really help.
But i think that it's now impossible to go all reserve even with pods.
You have to deploy 50% of your army turn one,
The pods must start in reserve and do not count toward that number, as is their attached unit,
but IC (and you must have at least one of them as HQ)are counted,so you still have to deploy at least one.

Deep Strike USR has its own rules about transports and reserves. Those say that any unit (including joined IC's) embarked on a transport that must deploy by deep strike, like Drop Pods, are not counted for the reserve purposes. Same obviously goes for the pods too.

Even if it wasn't the case that the IC's join for counts as. Isn't the rule 50%(rounding up). Meaning half of an IC is 1 IC for rules sake meaning you can reserve your 1 guy?

so, drop pods are viable for 6th.

I do like the dev squad idea. so with allying with other armies I see that there is another FoC for them but is there a certin point limit to what you can bring?

I was thinkning about Allied IG with an astropath so my reserve rolls are better and can get the full army on the board faster... It could be used as a narritive of the desperate hour with the IG and the SM come from the heavens.

I run three pods in my SW list. Two Grey Hunters and 1 dread. I really like that with larger deployment area 6" that I have a much harder time scattering out of range of the dreads flamer.

Also now that its impossible to go null deployment, my two pods that drop down on turn 1 always will have something to shoot at.

So you do have to deploy something in the begining of the game huh?

Since now you can only place half your army into reserves. There will always be something on the table turn 1 for the initial wave of drop pods to shoot at.

krados wrote:there is an explicit exception for dedicated transport arriving by deep strike

Indeed, now that most armies need to deploy at least a few units, drop pod assault will seldom be wasted.
Those that try to deploy very few units(such as flyer spam) will find the first turn really scary against a full pod army(or any with a solid first wave)
Now what will be fun to watch is two full pods army generals trying not to go first.

Exactly. Now that you can't all-off against drop pods...

heh... heh...

Emp. wrote:Could ally with

Logan (HQ)
6 Long Fangs - 5 Multi-meltas, Drop Pod (HS)
10 Wolf Guard - 9 Combi-plasm and combi-melta (same model) and Arjac, Drop Pod (Troop)

Attach Arjac with Logan and fangs. Logan gives relentless so all 5 MMs are at normal BS.

There's a no tank zone AND a badass assault unit with Logan and Arjac to rock out.

Swap Arjac for a Rune Priest with Storm Caller and Living Lightning or Jaws. I allied GK with Space Wolves, I had the Logan bomb come down with Mordrak, his ghost knights, and a Librarian. I gave the Librarian Sanctuary, Shrouding, Might of Titan, Quicksilver, and Warp Rift. After you unleash the Melta Hell you can pop off Shrouding and Storm Caller to get the whole mess a 4+ cover save, and then Sanctuary to slow any assault. First game I played with this combo, the guy castled in a corner an it wasn't as effective but I am gonna keep trying.

You can still do a full drop pod null deployment. It stats you may place half (rounded up) in reserve. Ergo if you only have one none pod model, such as your character, then he can be placed in reserve.

Don't even need to use that. If you have a transport which always deep strikes, it and ALL passengers in it don't count against the Reserve limit. It's in the DS rules.

--------

Anyway, yeah, podding got better in 6th, mostly because enemy armies can't completely Reserve against you as a defense against your alpha strike. Also, pods gained by comparison to other transports, because they don't care about vehicles being more fragile/easier to assault than they used to be. The pods are just as disposable and easy to assault as they used to be.

Caution on deployment: There is some controversy about whether you can indeed deploy 6" out. The disembarkation rules state that you place the model in contact with the hatch (or hull, Open Topped) and then can make a normal move. The Deep Striking rules, though, say that a unit disembarking from a DSing transport cannot move further after getting out. Whether that means you get the 6" or not is in dispute. For my money, I think it's safer to go with the less-powerful interpretation, so when I use mine I'm just going to disembark in contact and not move the 6".

With squats appearing the BGB again I finally decided to make my Mantic Forge Fathers in to a full-on Squats army.

I finally settled on the basic Marine codex for them and will be going with a Drop Pod list for 'em. Of course my pods will be termites but the idea is the same. I'm glad to hear Pedro Sternguard lists will be a good idea in this edition. Very few low/null deployment lists exist now so Drop Pods will actually have a unique element of surprise to them. Especially if someone is feeling cheeky and decides to do a flier heavy Necron list (what's that, you are only deploy a couple of units? Well enjoy losing on the first turn I guess).

Still need to play with loadouts a little though and part of me is wondering if Vulkan may not work better (most Forge Father units are stacked with hammers, flamers and melta-style weaponry... to bad the current character model for 'em works better for Pedro). But since plasma got a big boost in this edition I may try that out on them.

How are thunderfire cannons? The Mantic line has a bunch of quad-gun style artillery (and I am in possession of four) that look perfect for thunderfire cannons. I figure I can set up a defensive back gunline of tacticals, dreads, thunderfires and fortifications and use the podding sternguard to break the lines. Alternatively I could go for broke (those boring machine models are dead cheap so I could pick up enough to do this) and pod in everything.

I really hope that we get to move up to 6 inches after disembarking....
otherwise it would be a pain to deploy a unit of 10 or 12 models ,not only the unit would be in a kind of ring disallowing line of sight to any target with a full unit bigger than a combat squad,but it would be ridiculous to have to invoke wobbly model syndrome every time such a unit disemembark.

however i am kind of an optimist and i think if the correct interpretation of the rule mean that you have to deploy in base contact with the pod,it is probably an overlook bound to be fixed with a faq in the next decade or so...
That simply woundn't be good for model sales

Mannahnin wrote:Don't even need to use that. If you have a transport which always deep strikes, it and ALL passengers in it don't count against the Reserve limit. It's in the DS rules

No, reread the rules. Squads and their DT count as one, the ICs count as one.
So it is not even transport it is dedicated transport.

Null deployment can and does work well.
You can try to table armies first turn, remembering you can easily have most of your army down first turn by having some cheap drop pods to drop later, preferably something scoring to win objectives.