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I've seen the suggestion of Drop Podding assassins in a few tactics articles. Two questions:

1) Thoughts on the viability of this tactic?

2) How does on go about doing the Force Org for this? Particularly for non-Space Marines. (Note, I just got back into this from 3rd edition, so there are details I'm still learning).
I.e. is there a detachment option for just a Drop Pod? If not, what else do I have to ally in to get it?

From a fluff stand point (which matters to me), I think the Eversor in a drop pod is just great. And hilarious.

Thanks,

Tactically yes, it is very sound. That said, I prefer a Culexus in a drop pod, though it depends very much on his target. Regardless though, Culexus are a lot harder to kill, and an Eversor is bolter bait.

That said, the cheapest way to get drop pods is actually through Blood Angels allies. You can take a Sanguinary Priest (handy to attach to another squad of your main force for FNP) and a squad of snipers for the minimum requirements, then you can take Fast Attack drop pods. I think the Flesh Tearers detachment also has a good way to get a lot of pods as well, but I don't know what it is offhand.

I'm no rules library, but I think flesh tearers is hq + troop +6 fast attack slots.

Yes, it is. Quit stealing our pods.

1. It's not so great for the calli, eversor, or vindi. All of them want to charge (or shoot from across the board,) and popping out from a pod doesn't help much. The calli gets the most benefit of those 3 since she has a flame template and 1 turn invisibility vs shooting.

The culexus, however, absolutely loves pods. It's not so necessary if the opponent has no psykers, but if they do, giving the culexus the ability to choose whether to come in or wait in turn 1 (assuming 2 or more pods) and being able to drop in right next to the psykers and/or blessing targets in question is a huge step up in his usefulness. If he was only outflanking or infiltrating, a seer council for example would easily avoid his area of influence.

2. Take a fast attack empty pod from any marine detachment. Deploy the assassin in it at the start of the game. I would highly suggest taking at least two pods in the army so the culexus can try and wait for a grand moment to enter, like when you're ready to unload against the seer council/thunder wolf star.

 niv-mizzet wrote:
1. It's not so great for the calli, eversor, or vindi. All of them want to charge, and popping out from a pod doesn't help much. The calli gets the most benefit of those 3 since she has a flame template and 1 turn invisibility vs shooting.

The culexus, however, absolutely loves pods. It's not so necessary if the opponent has no psykers, but if they do, giving the culexus the ability to choose whether to come in or wait in turn 1 (assuming 2 or more pods) and being able to drop in right next to the psykers and/or blessing targets in question is a huge step up in his usefulness. If he was only outflanking or infiltrating, a seer council for example would easily avoid his area of influence.

2. Take a fast attack empty pod from any marine detachment. Deploy the assassin in it at the start of the game. I would highly suggest taking at least two pods in the army so the culexus can try and wait for a grand moment to enter, like when you're ready to unload against the seed council/thunder wolf star.

Why would you charge a Vindicare? He has a 72" sniper rifle for a reason

Edited to fix the vindi like right after I posted. Forgot I mentioned him in that sentence.

Any vanilla Marines Allies will also get you a single FA Pod, though the fnp from the priest probably outweighs the bs 4 on the scouts if you're battle brothers with Marines, otherwise, might as well take vanilla for chapter tactics and better shots from the scouts.

Cheapest way of getting 1-3 Fast Attack drop pods is the Company of the Great Wolf (Space Wolf Detachment).

60pt Rune Priest
10 Servitor
10 Servitor
35 Drop Pod

1 HQ, 2 Elites - Minimum

Just thought I'd bring it up

True, though there's little that the rune priest and servitor can do. I prefer the Blood Angels version, because the Sanguinary Priest can help any Imperium unit that he gets stuck with. Plus with Scouts you get a small ObSec unit that can squirrel away on an objective.

I think the Wolf version is so skimpy on points value that it is 80 points that are effectively wasted.

 curran12 wrote:
True, though there's little that the rune priest and servitor can do. I prefer the Blood Angels version, because the Sanguinary Priest can help any Imperium unit that he gets stuck with. Plus with Scouts you get a small ObSec unit that can squirrel away on an objective.

I think the Wolf version is so skimpy on points value that it is 80 points that are effectively wasted.

The scouts are not objective secured in that detachment if memory serves me correctly.

If you want obsec scouts you'll have to take a Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) which is just the old Force Organization chart. Of course it really depends on what kind of pre-arrangements you make about army construction. If you allow more than one detachment? Are duplicates okay? Can you take more than one CAD.

If you allow for multiple detachments and multiple CADs, I would go with a White Scar CAD. Take the librarian with Hunter's Eye and now you have a unit that ignores cover all the time. You do have to take 2 units of scouts though...but getting an independent character that gives hit & run and ignores cover is hard to pass up.

If you only need one pod, then you can do a regular ally detachment to keep the objective secure.