Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey Folks, I'm looking to build a completely drop pod based army. (using drop pods as my only vehicles)

Which SM army pulls this off to the greatest effect? I was leaning towards salamanders when a buddy minded me that BT are a frighteningly effective army which allows for tremendous squad diversity, making the units in the drop pods more effective.

So what does dakka think which faction can deliver the greatest drop pod punch?

Caveats, I built and painted all my marines how I wanted them to look with most of the arms magnetized so I could later choose the book which allowed me to play them how I envisioned in my head. The army is all robbed, with hoods and knight style helmets, mostly power armor, lots of large shields and swords all over. And every marine has wings.... So many wings.

I have no dreads, no psykers (one could be fashioned into a psyker if needed), and no vehicle besides drop pods.

Idea is just to have fun with overwhelming alpha strike.

If you want a really scary drop pod army, use SW.

If you want a "look how cool we are" pod army, SM with Kantor or Vulkan.

I haven't really tried too hard to make a workable all-drop list with DA as I only have the 3 pods.. But when I was looking through the codex I saw some interesting options. I should remind that DA pods only seat 10 unlike C:SM which do 12, but DA is less dependent on maxing squads should you need to make room for a character.

Tac squads can take a pod at starting strength, so 105pts minimum. I know C:SM can't do it, not sure about wolves etc.

Pretty much the same dread options, but only 3 unlike the 6 possible in nilla. So in regards to OP you aren't missing out on the potential to have 6 with motf.

Company veterans can load up on combis and become 'poor-mans-sternguard' so suicide drops are still possible.

Again not sure about wolves dex, but DA assault squad can get a pod for a measly 85 points total (lowest I know of), with two flamers at 95, adding a combi for 3 initial flamers at only 105 points.

DA devs are also well costed and can bring pods as well.

When I was making my C:SM lists it was sometimes hard to shoehorn in the 7th, 9th, or 11th pod for a good split, was just thinking DA may have an easier time of it with more readily adjustable units.

I wont mention synergy with DW/RW cause OP wants marines in pods


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh I forgot to mention cheap HQ's with powerfields can help mitigate lack of cover for podding units, though melee friendly opponents could use the everything w/in 3" against you.

I would have to concur with GrimDork. Dark Angels are fairly top-notch when it comes to overall drop-pod ability imo. If you don't have any 6-dred lists or thunderfire cannons that you just 'have' to use, I'd go with the Dark Angels. Your army sounds like it could be a DA successor chapter anyway

PS: I think the deathwind launchers are cheaper for DA too

guinness707 is correct, DW launchers are 5 points cheaper in the DA codex. Not a huge savings but its something.

is there an advantage for DA over SW?

We are cheaper. Outside of that no.

 GrimDork wrote:

Again not sure about wolves dex, but DA assault squad can get a pod for a measly 85 points total (lowest I know of), with two flamers at 95, adding a combi for 3 initial flamers at only 105 points.

Space Wolves Skyclaws can't take Drop Pods, if that's what you're asking - they can't be deployed without Jump packs. They're normally not taken at all, because Skyclaws are based off Blood Claws.

SW all day. The Sons of Russ dont hide secrets like the disgusting lion scum

Mostly power armor SW is a really good idea. Don't bother with the shields though, they are too expensive for your wolf guards


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Exalbaru wrote:
SW all day. The Sons of Russ dont hide secrets like the disgusting lion scum

Also, this.

It'd probably be funnier if I knew what secret was alluded to up there

Sorry, that was a bit unclear. What I was saying is that I don't have access to the space wolves codex (or other non C:SM chapters), but as far as I know the Dark Angels codex can get the cheapest pod via the assault squad backpack swap.

I've heard good things about space wolves podding beyond this post, definitely merits looking into for the OP. I just wanted to point out how cheap some of the pod-able units in the DA codex were.

DA is cheapest? Grey Hunters are 15 points each and a squad of them can get a drop pod for 35 points. I don't know much, or really anything about DA but I didn't think their power armor guys wer eso cheap

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/510381.page#5331257

DA 5 man tac in pod is 105. They are not better than grey hunters. I was unaware you could take 5 hunters in a pod, only have nilla and DA codex, so good to know. My point was that c:sm tacs run you what 205 minimum, which can make shoehorning a desirable odd number of pods into a list difficult so I offered DA as an alternative.

If OP doesn't mind running his robed guys as swolves , they seem like a pretty sick pod list option.

I would say Space Wolves or Vanilla Marines are your best bet for a drop pod army. Space Wolves do well for a couple of reasons. The first is that Grey Hunters are absurdly powerful. 15 ppm, 2 special weapons at 10 men, and counter-attack make them very deadly at close range. Codex marines are your second choice because they have the best options to augment a drop pod army. Ironclads are amazing in pods since AV13 is significantly more survivable than AV12 is thanks to the 6th vehicle and grenade rules (krak's do nothing to Ironclads) and TFC can take pods, which allows you to deploy the cannon on the table while letting you bring down another unit on T1. Their special characters also augment drop pod armies extremely well. Pedro makes sternguard scoring (and sternguard are arugably one of the best drop troops in the game) while Vulkan makes meltas and flamers (the primary weapons of pod lists) twin linked.

I'm also not really sure why people are talking about DA being good for pods. Their Sternguard equivalent are only 2 points cheaper if you give them a combi weapon, and are without specialist ammo and have worse rules (with no character combat tactics is better than stubborn, Pedro makes them stubborn and scoring, and Vulkan gives them TL for free). Their basic infantry is marginally better than the tac squad (since if you are podding you generally want your pods to be full anyways), they don't have access to Ironclads or TFC, and pods have little synergy with Ravenwing or Deathwing (Ravenwing don't have Locator Beacons so pods can't come down accurately using them as a base, and if the pod takes a locator beacon your DW can't come down until T2, and even then it is coming down off of a scattered pod). DA are a good codex, but pods don't really mesh with what makes them good as well as they do for Codex Marines or Wolves.