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I was thinking and through all my forum crawling I haven't heard or read about anyone deep striking in Riptides. since they have the jump pack doesn't that give them the ability to deep strike? I see people talking about dropping in crisis suits but a stealth team with homing beacon or a well placed Pathfinder team with recon drone could bring this beast in the last place your opponent would want it. Or because its a MC does that mean it can not gain that option? I know I'm not the first person that could have thought of this so if it is able to do it why doesn't it happen more often?

Riptides can deepstrike, certainly. There's just not much reason to do so, since they want to avoid close combat. I suppose it's a way to get a ripple-fire twin-linked fusion blaster into range, but that's an awfully expensive pair of meltaguns.

Quibble: Jetpacks, not jump packs. Important difference.

It's not likely to die turn one and more turns of shooting is better-er.

I was thinking more along the lines of dropping him at range along the opponents table edge to negate most of their LoS cover and hammer them from there. basically create more lines of fire to make hiding from my other stuff more difficult

Brutal Viking wrote:
I was thinking more along the lines of dropping him at range along the opponents table edge to negate most of their LoS cover and hammer them from there. basically create more lines of fire to make hiding from my other stuff more difficult

You could accomplish the same thing in 2 turns with novacharge jumping and you'd still be shooting.

It's not a bad plan.

yeah you're right I would lose a turn of shooting. was just trying to come up with a few ideas to surprise my opponent.

Deep Striking a Riptide makes sense if you see Grav Guns and want to lure them to one side or the other before revealing the "Tide.

You have to accept a significant downgrade in the armies overall firepower, but if the Tide is in jeopardy anyways, better to let your force kill the gravguns or other "threat" to the Riptide instead of just losing it out of a lack of imagination. So yeah, Deep Striking them could be good. Another thing to consider: Riptides with Heavy Burst Cannons in rear armor do a pretty reliable job without the need for Ripplefire, so it could be a decent way to conserve strength, Linebreak, and increase the impact of your weapons fire. Losing that firepower for three rounds potentially isn't crippling, but it is definitely a case by case consideration. I'd hesitate to do so unless there is a threat like Ravenwing bikes and the like that may put the Tide out of commission too soon.

DSing a Riptide comes with certain inherent problems...

You cannot activate you Nova Reactor...
You could Scatter and Mishap due to your large footprint...
You miss out on one turn of shooting...

There are a couple of instances where it could be a good strategy...

Your opponent is bringing a lot of fast Grav...
Your opponent has highly mobile sources of Jaws...

There is obvious risk/reward, but barring these special circumstances you have almost no reason to attempt a Riptide DS. They are highly mobile and 6+2/4d6" per Turn is more than enough mobility to accomplish most goals.

I would love to see this, purely because the idea of "SUDDEN RIPTIDE" just sounds amazing for getting an interesting reaction.

You could just always walk him on the board instead of deepstriking and it'd really have the same effect against a fast grav unit. Their weapon options give them plenty of range and being a Jetpack MC that can land on just about anything really gives it the mobility to get at the backfield units. Though if there were a combination of fast grav units and heavy armor in the backfield I could see it being a useful idea.

At the very least it could force your opponent to play conservatively. If I were to try this, I'd probably have a Stealth Suit squad or Recon drone hiding somewhere to ensure that I always have the option to put it down safely.

Not going to lie though, I've been tempted to try this a few times if nothing more than for the laughs.

DS gives them the Line break though. So it might be a superior choice, if you're reserving.

Jetpacks can deepstrike, and he is a Jetpack MC. Reason noone ever does is because...why?

Riptide is tanky as hell, so hes not afraid of being cleaned out before he can do anything. Riptide has 36/72" guns, so hes not afraid of being out of range.

Only reason you would ever want to deepstrike is rear armor or something hiding out of view. In this case, a small crisis bomb is cheaper and far more effective. Three suits with duo melta and targetlocks and a couple shield drones is only 195pts and those 6 meltas can clear vehicles way easier than a riptide on its own can. Or same cost for plasma and hunt marines/termies.

Deepstrike is usually there to solve range issues with a unit that probably cant walk up the board. Crisis suits that arent sporting missile pods are kinda vulnerable first couple of turns. Riptides are not.

It would just seem like a waste of points to hold it in reserve when it could be on the table wrecking things.

There's always the chance you don't get your reserve rolls, and you keep waiting each turn, keep missing your rolls, and when you finally get it in, it mishaps, and then you didn't get anything for your points except a handicap the whole game.