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Hey mates. Posting this question on behalf of a friend of mind who I finally convinced to play Warhammer 40k, and after some thought he is loving the idea of a Drop Pod Space Wolf Army. I told him that it was a good choice, as Space Wolves by far can make the most effective Drop Pod Army out there in my opinion, and they benefit from having there Grey Hunters be the most flexible and most effective Tac Squad in the game with all the special rules they currently enjoy. Granted they are getting a new book here soon enough, however I really don't expect them to change too much in that reguard, however I am asking this question as I have really not seen a Drop Pod Army in some time. Are they still very effective in this edition? And if anyone plays any Drop Pod Armies and advice and tactical knowledge needed would be appreciated.

yep. All drop pods are scoring now, and those bought for troops are objective secured as well. So just drop em and gain total board control.

You can also have as much as you like in reserves which is another improvement.

Drop Pod armies are brutal in 7ed. Space Wolves do a very good job of it with their special rules, banners, and double special weapons.

The thing that made drop pod armies so nasty in 7ed was that their drop pods and the combat squaded TAC squad inside are now all objective secured. This means that if you land a pod on an objective you now have 3 seperate units that need to be removed before you loose the objective.

I would not say space wolves are "best" at the drop pods tactics as slamanders, iron hands, and imperial fists can all do extremely well at it but in different ways.

Yeah I have no desire to ever face Drop Pod lists now, as they're just like "Okay I always get the first turn" . It's not pleasant at all when they dig in and you have to clear like 40+ Tacticals or MEQs plus Drop Pods, from a Objective.

Dont drop pod get auto destroyed?

 illuknisaa wrote:
Dont drop pod get auto destroyed?

No. They don't.

Drop Pods are a wonderful way to start an army. I think the new Space Marine codex really put them ahead of the pack though, even past Space Wolves. Salamanders are just BRUTAL on the drop, and I've seen an Iron Hands list do some nasty things too.

 ansacs wrote:
Drop Pod armies are brutal in 7ed. Space Wolves do a very good job of it with their special rules, banners, and double special weapons.

The thing that made drop pod armies so nasty in 7ed was that their drop pods and the combat squaded TAC squad inside are now all objective secured. This means that if you land a pod on an objective you now have 3 seperate units that need to be removed before you loose the objective.

I would not say space wolves are "best" at the drop pods tactics as slamanders, iron hands, and imperial fists can all do extremely well at it but in different ways.

I only mentioned that SPace Wolves have the "best" Drop Pod army due to the fact that there army is literally designed to be very effective in a Drop Pod assault, not to mention they are the only Space Marine Army in the game who can get Terminators in Drop Pods. Salamanders do have a solid Drop Pod list with there Chapter Tactics, however I haven't really looked at the Iron Hands or the Imperial Fists as a Drop Pod army to be frank. How effective can they be and why? All I have at the moment is the Space Wolf Codex at this time.

The benefits of Salamander Chapter Tactics to a Drop Pod army is that the main weapons that Salamanders boost the most are flamers and melta. The most effective range for these weapons is sub 8". Therefore the best way to deliver these weapons is Drop Pods which also happen to have objective secured. The Slamanders Drop Pod army is probably the highest initial damage output of the TAC squad drop pod armies with only the pedro sternguard drop pod armies having a hard initial hit.

Speaking of pedro sternguard they are Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics. If combined with the Sentinels of Terra version of the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics which allows you to reroll bolter misses within half range then you can deal out scary amounts of damage. Again the big thing about this is that it is a 12" range to deal out that scary amount of damage which means Drop Pods are important. Even without Pedro the TAC squads deal out a lot more anti infantry damage than most lists. The tank hunter devastator centurions can also be interesting.

The Iron Hands Chapter Tactics are interesting in that both the Drop Pods and the TAC squads become a fair bit tougher to kill. The TAC squads come down with some tough dreadnought and flyer support. You can then put the scoring units down during the second wave.

 ansacs wrote:


Speaking of pedro sternguard they are Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics. If combined with the Sentinels of Terra version of the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics which allows you to reroll bolter misses within half range then you can deal out scary amounts of damage. Again the big thing about this is that it is a 12" range to deal out that scary amount of damage which means Drop Pods are important. Even without Pedro the TAC squads deal out a lot more anti infantry damage than most lists. The tank hunter devastator centurions can also be interesting.

I have always been intrigued by this idea, as although he is leaning heavily towards Space Wolves still, I am tempted to start an Imperial Fists Drop Pod army, as I am a huge fan of the Imperial Fists fluff and have always been tempted to try it out, as the Bolter Drill rule from the Sentinels of Terra Book would definitely make them more a lot more nasty in a Drop Pod list. Has anyone run this list before? And as for the Tac Squads, do you run them with just Bolters, with the Sgt. w/a Combi-Special weapon and 1x Special Weapon or would I want to include a Heavy Bolter as well?

I used to love null deployment and dropping lots of mycetic spores as nids, but that isn't a thing anymore. Would a drop pod list play similar? I liked the precision strike deep striking.

I'm guessing that Iron Hands are going to drop in things like Dreadnoughts, though I can't really see the point in podding a Thunderfire Cannon.

I have a Raven Guard Detachment that I want to expand and use Drop Pods with, though I realize this isn't optimal. The Stealth on turn 1 will help the Podders stay on the board a little bit at least.

edit: Also, the whole scoring Drop Pod thing can be somewhat negated by placing your objectives closer to board edges, thus making it a bit riskier to drop right on top of them.

again: lol... and actually with the emphasis placed on mobility, perhaps RG will get a passive boost? Think of it, use DPA to take control of key areas early on, run interference with MSU Assault Marines. Then outflank a bunch of DTs packed to taste. This could be an idea worth pursuing!

darkcloak wrote:
I'm guessing that Iron Hands are going to drop in things like Dreadnoughts, though I can't really see the point in podding a Thunderfire Cannon.

I have a Raven Guard Detachment that I want to expand and use Drop Pods with, though I realize this isn't optimal. The Stealth on turn 1 will help the Podders stay on the board a little bit at least.

Buying a pod for the Thunderfire can be useful to maximize the number of pods that land turn one.

I have a 5K drop pod based army. With Sternguard squads, tacticals and Ironclad Dreadnoughts.


Now with the scoring rules...



I say do it, do it now and don't look back

Yeah I think I just convinced myself... lol

darkcloak wrote:
Yeah I think I just convinced myself... lol

You can not use the sternguard special ammo with imperial fists or sentinels of terra. Its specifically states that.

 Icelord wrote:
You can not use the sternguard special ammo with imperial fists or sentinels of terra. Its specifically states that.

Im aware of that mate, its a shame but thats GW for you.

uhh but you can use imperial fists special rule for sternguard bolters

 Sir Arun wrote:
uhh but you can use imperial fists special rule for sternguard bolters

If they are firing regular Bolter Rounds yes, but it clearly states that Sternguard do not get any re-rolls when shooting any of the Special Ammunition, which is the whole point of taking Sternguard other then making them heavy w/Combi Weapons.

But not the ammo so he was correct.

If you want a drop pod army, you want to go FW.

Not because FW has great pods (thier pods are subpar) nor because they got something especially worth dropping.

Because they have STAR PHANTOMS.

Honestly, if you even thought "why isn't there a chapter revolving drop pods?", its them.
1 turn of twin link everything (first turn, where the first wave arrives for the alpha strike), then re-rolling 1s to deep strike reserve rolls for the rest of the game, can chapter tactics get any more drop-pod oriented then this?

 BoomWolf wrote:
If you want a drop pod army, you want to go FW.

Not because FW has great pods (thier pods are subpar) nor because they got something especially worth dropping.

Because they have STAR PHANTOMS.

Honestly, if you even thought "why isn't there a chapter revolving drop pods?", its them.
1 turn of twin link everything (first turn, where the first wave arrives for the alpha strike), then re-rolling 1s to deep strike reserve rolls for the rest of the game, can chapter tactics get any more drop-pod oriented then this?

Sounds like a good list. Where can I find the Star Phantoms to look at them?

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/B/FWchaptertactics-v2.pdf

There are quite a few there for other armies too (mantis warriors and raptors are also sweet)

Rommel44 wrote:I have always been intrigued by this idea, as although he is leaning heavily towards Space Wolves still, I am tempted to start an Imperial Fists Drop Pod army, as I am a huge fan of the Imperial Fists fluff and have always been tempted to try it out, as the Bolter Drill rule from the Sentinels of Terra Book would definitely make them more a lot more nasty in a Drop Pod list. Has anyone run this list before? And as for the Tac Squads, do you run them with just Bolters, with the Sgt. w/a Combi-Special weapon and 1x Special Weapon or would I want to include a Heavy Bolter as well?

For the TAC squads I would take melta bombs and combi weapons on the sarges, a special weapon, and a MM if the unit reaches 10. The MM doesn't do a lot on the drop but the turns after it can become a big deal. It also is not bad at snap firing into flyers on the drop.

It is a pretty good list either in the Pedro Sternguard form or the TAC squad form. The sternguard list needs to get all three sternguard pods in turn 1 and needs to cripple the opponent's return strike with the results. A little bad luck or getting out maneuvered will result in a very uphill game. The sternguard being objective secured means that they have to be dealt with even if they pop all of the combi weapons and are out of range.

The TAC squad list on the other hand is all about attrition within a localized area. You need to gain an advantage within range of a number of key objectives and deal out enough damage to tilt the calculus of attrition in your favor. The great thing being that this is often 1 astartes alive versus the opponent's troops killed rather than most lists needing their units to be left almost unmolested.

Rommel44 wrote:

 Icelord wrote:
You can not use the sternguard special ammo with imperial fists or sentinels of terra. Its specifically states that.

Im aware of that mate, its a shame but thats GW for you.

You are correct, however, you already have to take imperial fist chapter tactics to get objective secured on the sternguard so the bolter drill is a nice boost to your TAC squads rather than the benefit to the sternguard.

BoomWolf wrote:If you want a drop pod army, you want to go FW.

Not because FW has great pods (thier pods are subpar) nor because they got something especially worth dropping.

Because they have STAR PHANTOMS.

Honestly, if you even thought "why isn't there a chapter revolving drop pods?", its them.
1 turn of twin link everything (first turn, where the first wave arrives for the alpha strike), then re-rolling 1s to deep strike reserve rolls for the rest of the game, can chapter tactics get any more drop-pod oriented then this?

Star Phantoms are not bad. If they could just take objective secured sternguard they would be amazing. The main thing they suffer from is that their abilities are centered around an alpha strike but the SM don't tend to perform very impressive alpha strikes. There could be some interesting uses with a stormraven grav cents and going for a beta strike instead.

Fire Hawks are also an amazing drop pod force. Their ability to take double hand flamers on their sarges is pretty nasty. If their rules are updated to make assault squads objective secured then they will be pretty amazing.

I like playing against Drop Pod armies. They put the better half of their army in range of all of mine.

I play quite a few drop pod forces. Very viable. Tell your pall to go for it. On the outside chance the new SW codex is a bust, I'd recommend composing your squads so that the units can transfer over to SM if needed.

People who use drop pods got scoring tokens.

People who use rhino's got mobile scoring transports/walls.

People who use razorbacks got mobile scoring transports/walls that can hold off enemies while on an objective.

Add in objective secured, and I ask you why are you having your now foot scoring units so close to your immobile pod token, and how are you taking advantage of having both score when you now have to walk on foot to the objective that your pod is not taking.

 Lobukia wrote:
I play quite a few drop pod forces. Very viable. Tell your pall to go for it. On the outside chance the new SW codex is a bust, I'd recommend composing your squads so that the units can transfer over to SM if needed.

That is what I told him as well, however while he understands that, I think he will be painting his guys as Black Templars as he is a fan of the fluff and paint scheme, plus they can easily be used as Grey Hunters or Tac Marines if needed to be. As for me, still like the idea of Imperial Fists Drop Pod Army with the Sentinels of Terra book. Have you ever ran an army list from that book?

Wow, I must admit that the Star Phantoms' tactics are.. kinda overpowered. They get to perform an alpha strike like regular marine forces(which often can be crippling) AND THEN, after basically getting to drop all the rest of their army thanks to re-rolled 1's in reserves they get to strike even harder with both second wave of pods -and- everyone getting twin-linked?

I don't think my local community would allow anyone to use those tactics as they're a bit too close to the main reason why FW is treated with such prejudice.