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.

DakkaDakka,

I know there are already 2-3 well known "Drop Pod Threads" already on this Forum's Website but, none of them have been able to come to a conclusion yet and I'm sure people are getting antsy with finding out the outcome! So here it is.....
The rules that you should consider before voting....

1. Best CT to select
2. Best HQ choice/choices
3. Army composition (IH Dreads, Sala Stern, etc.)
4. An 'All Comers Army' Selection

I'm sure there are many more options to consider when making a Drop Pod army so please consider all of those options. I'm trying to get a feel for it before I start buying my models! Thanks for your time

You forgot Imperial Fists and Black Templars in your poll. The answer to your question is most likely Salamanders thanks to the twin-linked flamers and meltas (with vulkan), but I know I'll be trying out a CC drop pod list with Templars for fun.

You forgot Spacewolves and Blood angels.

I would vote Spacewolves as the best currently.

I made this thread for only C:SM. I knew someone would add that I forgot BA and SW but then again I forgot DA.....I only wanted to see everyone's interest in the new shiny C:SM! I know I will get some hate mail for this one....

Sallies or IH. Sallies because youre gonna be up in someones face with half your army so make it count with those extra re-rolls for melta and purify the land in cleansing flame. IH because... well YOU try to take down up to 6 dreads who drop podded behind you with IWND and techmarines/MOTF's coming in as support. Personally I hope they come out with supplements for each... IH with sallies allied in coming via drop pod? hell yes!

Out of all of the SM options I am really leaning towards UM now. Letting tacticals reroll everything is very helpful for an alpha strike and so is that Tigurius dude with all his psyker and warload trait shenanigans.

Is this better than SW? Not sure.

I gotta go with salamanders all that re-rolls for flamers and melta all up in your face will destroy most armies.

I have been thinking the salamanders as well but I don't want to paint another green army lol....maybe the bronze drakes or something similar for a second founding

UM because TIGURIUS. Basically lets you re roll most of you armies shooting for the first two turns, re rolls reserves, re rolls on psychic charts, re rolls on psychic tests etc.
Sternguard are still extremely lethal and insanely more effective when accompanied by Mr. Mulliganator. If rolling all on Divination there's a good likelihood that he will at least get the ignores cover saves blessing or force re rolling successful armor saves malediction. Even bolters become EXTREMELY effective when rerolling to hit forcing your opponent to pass all his armor saves twice. Can't wait to try this out.

That being said if you want to go ironclad heavy, Sallies or Iron Hands seem to be the way to go.

But still, UM.

So my arguement on the UM CT for Drop Podding.....
Why does one IC (Tiguriues) make such a huge impact on an UM Drop Pod army? Is he that good? I can see utilizing the UM CT for a drop pod army but if it came down to the Salamanders and Ultramarines CT only.....clearly it is one sided???

Well, CT for UM is better than the CT for Salamanders right? The UM one allowd tacticals to reroll everything. Then Tiger what's his name has a bunch of divination buffs

So you are saying that the UM CT allows you to reroll everything for one turn and that is better than TL the entire game. After all a true Drop Pod army is running Strenguard, Tacticals, and a couple of dread right? Most of those weapons that you are going to kit out will either be flamer or melta. Which would mean that Salamander CT are far superior (if also including Velkon) .

Drop pods are about the alpha strike though aren't they?

They are but what happens when you survive for a couple more turns and don't keep the punch to go along with surviving?

Malik_Raynor wrote:
They are but what happens when you survive for a couple more turns and don't keep the punch to go along with surviving?

What happens, what I am expecting to happen, is that Tigurius will continue twin-linking anything that needs to be twin-linked, as well as passing out whatever other buffs he happens to roll. He will also make sure that all your reserves are in on turn two. If you want to give him a telepathy power to increase his offensive potential as well, then this is an option. The Ultramarine alpha strike is the strongest available, and Tigurius more or less makes it last two turns.

I'd also like to stand against the assumption you make about drop pod armies including a couple of dreadnoughts, or even including one. Unless you are using GK psyflemen or BA Furiosos, I would never advise taking a dreadnought.

I see all of your point don't get me wrong but, to rely on one character for the entire game is almost a crazy thought. Trust me, I think is is very powerful but, you only get UM CT for one turn, then he lets you reroll ones (I think) for one turn, and lastly, he can only prescience one unit per turn for the rest of the game. What are you going do for turns 3-5? Hope for the best :/

Also, are you suggesting that a couple Ironclads wouldn't be useful in either a Salamander or UM drop pod list? AV 13 is nothing to sneeze at as they could be useful for a number of reasons. Including; tank hunting, keeping infantry tied up, or even roasting them before they get a chance to charge.

Malik_Raynor wrote:
I see all of your point don't get me wrong but, to rely on one character for the entire game is almost a crazy thought. Trust me, I think is is very powerful but, you only get UM CT for one turn, then he lets you reroll ones (I think) for one turn, and lastly, he can only prescience one unit per turn for the rest of the game. What are you going do for turns 3-5? Hope for the best :/

Also, are you suggesting that a couple Ironclads wouldn't be useful in either a Salamander or UM drop pod list? AV 13 is nothing to sneeze at as they could be useful for a number of reasons. Including; tank hunting, keeping infantry tied up, or even roasting them before they get a chance to charge.

His warlord trait allows a unit within to reroll to hit rolls on shooting attacks for one turn - essentially, a free Prescience cast. Combined with actually getting Prescience and with the other benefits a Divination libby offers, he is quite strong.

And, yes, I am suggesting that an Ironclad would not be a good use of points in a drop pod list. In Blood ANgels, you get the AV13 Furioso that has far more firepower than an Ironclad and it still dies almost immediately every game. Because the Furioso can deal so much damage on the drop, I think it's worth it. Ironclads don't seem to have that offensive potential, so, no, not worth it.

Malik_Raynor wrote:
So you are saying that the UM CT allows you to reroll everything for one turn and that is better than TL the entire game. After all a true Drop Pod army is running Strenguard, Tacticals, and a couple of dread right? Most of those weapons that you are going to kit out will either be flamer or melta. Which would mean that Salamander CT are far superior (if also including Velkon) .

I must jump in here staing how the new C:SM with meltas in all of it's many forms does not rely on sterns anymore. With LotD and far stronger DP tacs (and command squads!) it's a different kettle to make a DP army. If we look at a dreadnought DP army, then yes salamanders are a really solid alpha strike choice.

Overall I'd go with plenty of tactical squads with combi-melta and meltaguns and go Ultra Marines. 1st turn with a high quality alphastrike.

One thing to keep in mind yough is that the opponent will not play along...
If he goes second and reserve key units you may be obligated to waste your two turns of CT use on targets that are not warranting that kind of attention...
Of course, you can delay your own reserve with tigurius but he need to be alive to do it,.Wich means in that case, you can be forced to keep him too far away from combat to use his buffs effectively.
If your opponent has the opportunity he will kill him.You could also drop more defensively but once your pods have landed you are not very mobile.
In any case i prefer to flame or melta my opponent units,That way (in the fluff)they are much deader(yeah i know its not really a word but i kind of lack vocabulary yet)

And another thing to remember about UM CT. the tactical doctrine only allows rerolls of 1 for a turn. As for Tigurius, he only give one unit within 12" of him rerolls for a single turn along with prescience. I under most marines are hitting on 3's but my god help you if you roll a lot of two for CT turn one.

Ultramarines with Salamander allies. Why? flexibility.

With Sallies, yes you can twin link meltas and flamers.

But with Ultramarines coupled with Tiggy, you can drop in first turn Tactical meltas and destroy vehicles, or maybe some gravguns or plasma for other bad guys..

Then the following turn, bring down flamer units to knock off/soften the troops in the open.

If the bad guys don't have vehicles and lots of exposed troops, then the melta aspect of the Salamander list would be weakened. But it plays into a combined UM/Sallies list. You can hit them with flamer units and finish them off with mass bolter fire.

Or you can create your own chapter lol and take whatever CT and HQ choices you want that game! Just a thought

 tomjoad wrote:


And, yes, I am suggesting that an Ironclad would not be a good use of points in a drop pod list. In Blood ANgels, you get the AV13 Furioso that has far more firepower than an Ironclad and it still dies almost immediately every game.

THIS!!!

I've been trying to include Ironclads in a Drop Army for a week now and it just doesn't work.

Tau and Eldar have too much return firepower.

MEQ and TEQ have the armour and armour busting capability to ignore them.

Nids have MC.

Necrons have Gauss.

It's weirdly good vs Guard as you drop them on HW Squads and Command Squads.

It murders Orks.

If I wanted to drop any kind of Dread, it would be a Venerable with a MM, just to make sure that tank I dropped on is going to die. 135 vs a more expensive tank? Yup... Worth the trade. It works against everything else too as you take the HF for games against hordes and you drop them with Sternguard armed with two HF and a good amount of Combi Weapons - Flamer or Melta. Chuckle as you DRINK THEIR TEARS!!!

So is it the only reason reason they are working for the Iron Hands is due to IWND? Again thank you for all the replies. I'm seriously going to form my army off all the data I collect from this tread and it is helping

Malik_Raynor wrote:
So is it the only reason reason they are working for the Iron Hands is due to IWND? Again thank you for all the replies. I'm seriously going to form my army off all the data I collect from this tread and it is helping

I play IH and I cannot get it to work in a drop list.

Ven Dread Rifleman on the other hand are working insanely well as firebase at range.

astro_nomicon wrote:
UM because TIGURIUS. Basically lets you re roll most of you armies shooting for the first two turns, re rolls reserves, re rolls on psychic charts, re rolls on psychic tests etc.
Sternguard are still extremely lethal and insanely more effective when accompanied by Mr. Mulliganator. If rolling all on Divination there's a good likelihood that he will at least get the ignores cover saves blessing or force re rolling successful armor saves malediction. Even bolters become EXTREMELY effective when rerolling to hit forcing your opponent to pass all his armor saves twice. Can't wait to try this out.

That being said if you want to go ironclad heavy, Sallies or Iron Hands seem to be the way to go.

But still, UM.

How does he let you reroll most of your armies shooting for two turns? Prescience only effects one unit. Tactical combat tactics is only one turn

 labmouse42 wrote:

astro_nomicon wrote:
UM because TIGURIUS. Basically lets you re roll most of you armies shooting for the first two turns, re rolls reserves, re rolls on psychic charts, re rolls on psychic tests etc.
Sternguard are still extremely lethal and insanely more effective when accompanied by Mr. Mulliganator. If rolling all on Divination there's a good likelihood that he will at least get the ignores cover saves blessing or force re rolling successful armor saves malediction. Even bolters become EXTREMELY effective when rerolling to hit forcing your opponent to pass all his armor saves twice. Can't wait to try this out.

That being said if you want to go ironclad heavy, Sallies or Iron Hands seem to be the way to go.

But still, UM.

How does he let you reroll most of your armies shooting for two turns? Prescience only effects one unit. Tactical combat tactics is only one turn

His Warlord ability also lets a unit re-roll to hit rolls. So i guess he was referring to that plus divination powers like prescience and precognition (which you will probably get because he is Tigurius) you get a lot of re-rolling. Its not army wide but its still a lot!

Been looking at using Tigurius but am wondering where is best to put him? I have 3 pods with 2 dropping first turn. Don't really want him in the first wave as he will be too exposed. Dropping second means you aren't getting full use of his abilities for the whole game and coming over in a transport is going to limit his casting etc. How have you guys been running him so far?

@OP, for a pure Pod list I'd opt for the Salamanders, it's probably the best choice without Vulkan and is pretty excellent with him. The MC weapons for all characters is both fluffy and useful. I'm opting for the UM CT to start as I think it is pretty solid. I will be trying a few games with the IF and Sallies at a later date. I think the Scars is pretty solid but I'm not going to invest in buying an extra 30+ bikes.

 wildboar wrote:
Been looking at using Tigurius but am wondering where is best to put him? I have 3 pods with 2 dropping first turn. Don't really want him in the first wave as he will be too exposed. Dropping second means you aren't getting full use of his abilities for the whole game and coming over in a transport is going to limit his casting etc. How have you guys been running him so far?

I would drop him turn one. You don't want to keep him in reserve for long.

Hes weak in assault, so you want to keep him out of enemy assault ranges. That 3+ save and no invuln will not last long. At range his LoS should help a lot.

The question is what to put him with. If you stick him with tacticals you can't combat squad out of the pod -- as the capacity is now 10. You also are limited on weapons then, I would think that something like sternguard/honorguard would be better for him in that role. The advantage of that is your not limiting your weapon options, the drawback is that your unit with him is more valueable and a more desirable target.

I have decided to make my own chapter and have the ability to run both armies. So how does on proxy Vulkan and Tigurius? Can I make my own model for my chapter and model him the way I want or do I have to model them the way you would buy that model? Do I just use the stat line and rules of the character and people except that?