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Is the tactic more or less useful now?

I'd say more useful. Or at least, less risky. There's now only a 1 in 6 chance to get destroyed on a mishap, and dangerous terrain tests are more forgiving to armoured units (the chance of a terminator dying to landing in terrain is almost nil)

Nothing really made it any worse than 5th.

Even better if you play DA!

It's better, and less risky, but you still have to roll to arrive and still can't assault. It's pretty good with drop pods, because you have a lot more control when stuff shows up. Maybe some xeno lists have some cheaper stuff to deep strike that they can live without till it shows up.

Drop pods let you spread out as part of disembarkuing right? Deep striking can't do that?

Super Newb wrote:
Drop pods let you spread out as part of disembarkuing right? Deep striking can't do that?

Well. You can run after you deep strike. But then you can't shoot. Yes, drop pods allow a 6" disembark. Pretty nice, imo.

Deep Striking is now really cool and not nearly so dangerous.

Question: why is it cool sans drop pod? Especially since it requires reserving.

Martel732 wrote:
Question: why is it cool sans drop pod? Especially since it requires reserving.

I play Daemons so I have to DS all my units, but for other armies DS can get you behind an enemy vehicle to get rear armor shots. You can drop units in the opponents backfield to threaten his objectives or go for linebreaker.

There are many places where Deep Strike capable unit in reserve is a useful thing to have.

I guess my problem for regular deep striking is that they are akin to suicide units. Most meq armies lack the bodies for this.

Vanguard Vets still can assault after deep striking, but they are pricey. Blood Angels still scater 1D6" or not at all with Dante, but they are prone to getting shot up after arrival. I like to deep strike a ten man squad with a sanguinary priest to engage backfield fire support or something valuable with melts guns. Drop pods are also fun as pointed out above.

i'd say better because shooting in general is so powerful in 6th than 5th, and you couldnt charge in 5th as it was so its purely getting across the table to shoot something at a good angle.
Infiltrating on the other hand got gimped. I dont know a single unit of any race that has infiltrate thats not some sort of melee-wannabe unit (unless its shootyness is from a kombi weapon). Now you cant assault from infiltrate, so they all suck (Genestealers or Kommandos for example)

 Vineheart01 wrote:
I dont know a single unit of any race that has infiltrate thats not some sort of melee-wannabe unit...

Eldar Rangers.

To the original question, I play a Deep Strike list, and in my opinion it got much better between 5th and 6th. The new rules for Reserves rolls are pretty sweet, as is the new Deep Strike Mishap table.

I think it's definitely better in this edition. Reserve rolls are better and easier to manipulate, and as already mentioned the mishap table is less damning then it was before.

I use Infiltrate/Outflank/DS for CC options all the time. People often muse about it not being a great option for CC, but they seem to forget that the opponent is going to be able to shoot at your CC units regardless of how you deploy them, getting them in close the turn they arrive just limits those opportunities.

Vineheart01 wrote:I dont know a single unit of any race that has infiltrate thats not some sort of melee-wannabe unit

ratlings, scout snipers, stormtroopers, harker vets...

Anyways, deepstriking has been steadily getting better over time. In 4th edition, if you scattered onto practically anything, the unit was just destroyed. Then they added drop pods. Then they added the mishap table in 5th. Then they added DoA, and cheaper icons, and vanguard vets, and sternguard, and more stuff with teleport homers, and tons of other new deepstriking content. Then they made the mishap table even less of a deal in 6th, and prevented you from putting your whole army in reserve, while already plowing ahead with things like deathwing assault.

Pretty much the only thing that deepstriking has had going against it over the years is warp quake.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
I dont know a single unit of any race that has infiltrate thats not some sort of melee-wannabe unit (unless its shootyness is from a kombi weapon). Now you cant assault from infiltrate, so they all suck (Genestealers or Kommandos for example)

Tau Stealth Suits...and to a lesser extent Kroot (everyone know Kroot are for shooting! )

Turn 2, my flyrant , 2 Pod'd Dakkafexin are unloading 36 ST6 shots into your army while my Doom's giant brain is pulling their souls away (regardless if he can see them or not), and a Trygon prime has emerged from the depths to devour your heavy weapons.

Yea, I like DS.

Yeah, its less risky now. GW took the sting a bit out of the mishap table.

Better by far in 6th. Love the 6" movement from pods

 Magc8Ball wrote:

 Vineheart01 wrote:
I dont know a single unit of any race that has infiltrate thats not some sort of melee-wannabe unit...

Eldar Rangers.

Imperial Guard Stormtroopers

Deep strike is in fact IMO better as mentioned before because there is only a 1 in 6 chance of you losing a squad through mishaps, and this allows for more daring strategic deep strike deployments.

 Ailaros wrote:
Anyways, deepstriking has been steadily getting better over time. In 4th edition, if you scattered onto practically anything, the unit was just destroyed. Then they added drop pods. Then they added the mishap table in 5th. Then they added DoA, and cheaper icons, and vanguard vets, and sternguard, and more stuff with teleport homers, and tons of other new deepstriking content. Then they made the mishap table even less of a deal in 6th, and prevented you from putting your whole army in reserve, while already plowing ahead with things like deathwing assault.

Pretty much the only thing that deepstriking has had going against it over the years is warp quake.

I don't know if I've ever agreed this much with an Ailaros post. I'll even add to that, by noting that in 3rd it was even worse, as any scatter distance roll of doubles also killed your unit. The trend has definitely been to make it more forgiving.

 Mannahnin wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
Anyways, deepstriking has been steadily getting better over time. In 4th edition, if you scattered onto practically anything, the unit was just destroyed. Then they added drop pods. Then they added the mishap table in 5th. Then they added DoA, and cheaper icons, and vanguard vets, and sternguard, and more stuff with teleport homers, and tons of other new deepstriking content. Then they made the mishap table even less of a deal in 6th, and prevented you from putting your whole army in reserve, while already plowing ahead with things like deathwing assault.

Pretty much the only thing that deepstriking has had going against it over the years is warp quake.

I don't know if I've ever agreed this much with an Ailaros post. I'll even add to that, by noting that in 3rd it was even worse, as any scatter distance roll of doubles also killed your unit. The trend has definitely been to make it more forgiving.

Not only that, but their was no guarantee that you would even get to Deep Strike a unit on any given mission. Deep Strike was brutal to use back then.

No Balls , no Glory -- if you willing to take risk your willing to take the Reward , And EVERYBODY loves Reward . -- ill give you an example . -- a ten Man Stormtrooper squad with 2 plasma guns and a plasma pistol . that comes up to 205 points , now say i have an area that is 8' in diameter , if i deep strike there i can kill a rediculous amount of enemy troops , so lets just throw an Enemy HQ ( MEQ equivilent ) just for the sake of the argument , now am i going to risk that 8 inch gap ? or am i going to be willing to take 2 Victory points ? ( Unit commander accompinies and the commander himself ) Its all about Risk-Reward . if the Risk is > then the Reward then i say no , But How much are you willing to give to acheive that reward ?

Its less risky, but no more useful. Its still a meh way of deploying and I see no point in doing it beyond a full Drop Pod list or Deathwing.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Its less risky, but no more useful. Its still a meh way of deploying and I see no point in doing it beyond a full Drop Pod list or Deathwing.

Because if you have a unit that isn't going to be effective till it's close to the enemy, you might as well start it off close to the enemy? Not sure how you could miss why that would be a good thing?

I still don't like it much because if you want to fire after you deep strike, you are in perfect formation to get WTF owned by templates/blasts. Drop pods are fantastic because you get a 6" deployment move and *then* shoot. Can't tell you how much havoc my lowly whirlwind causes for demons.

ShadarLogoth wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Its less risky, but no more useful. Its still a meh way of deploying and I see no point in doing it beyond a full Drop Pod list or Deathwing.

Because if you have a unit that isn't going to be effective till it's close to the enemy, you might as well start it off close to the enemy? Not sure how you could miss why that would be a good thing?

If that unit is an assault unit, they should be in a transport so they can assault without exposing themselves. If they have to wait a turn they'll just get shot to pieces.

I can't tell you how many games I've played against Deathwing where they come on and I simply shoot their units off the board before they did much of anything to me.

If its a shortish range shooty unit(24"), they really should start on the board to get more turns of shooting.


And you have the risk of your expensive deep strikers getting delayed in reserves, mishapping, or getting unfavorable scatters. All in all, not worth it.

If you are deamons or sm with drop pods, then deepstriking is worth it. otherwise you have no guarantee that they will turn up when you need it, imo it isnt worth having half your army in reserve, unless they are melee.