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So, yeah, drop pods. An army deployed via drop pod has always been a dream of mine. And 30k Ultras seem pretty decent for them. So, here is my basic idea for an army of this:

-Guilliman, a Primus Medicae a chaplain and 10 suzerain in a kharbydis assault claw.

-10 man squad of suzerain in pod. Both suzerain squads are taken as troops as per guilliman's special rule.

-A few tactical support squads in pods armed with volkite chargers, calivers and flamers.

-A heavy support squad armed with heavy flamers in a pod.

-A leviathan in a pod armed with autocannons and that siege drill thing.

-Box dreads armed with flamestorm cannons. In my opinion, box dreads are better suited to drop pod assault than contemptors but I could be wrong.

-Deathstorm drop pods to shore up my drop pod numbers for the drop pod assault rule.

Any tips? Suggestions? Criticisms?

Have you thought about Nuncio Voxes to give accurate pod placement after the first wave?

I'd be careful with Deathstorms. They can kill you as much as the enemy. That said I was always happy when I playtested them.

pm713 wrote:
Have you thought about Nuncio Voxes to give accurate pod placement after the first wave?

I'd be careful with Deathstorms. They can kill you as much as the enemy. That said I was always happy when I playtested them.

I have but you can only really take them with tactical and recom squads which seem fragile when being drop podded in.

I put 6 melta gunners in an Anvillus Dreadclaw. It did reasonably well. Lack of Inertial Guidance is a pain in the Anvillus!

Don't waste your time with the heavy volkite in a pod, stick to the assault version(I don't remember which is which by name). Second the melta support squad, I just bring mine in a regular drop pod., they are suicide vs the targets they go after anyway especially now that they cant sit in the pods anymore. I would consider a plasma squad as well with an apothecary. Had one of those squads save me on several occasions.

Col. Dash wrote:
Don't waste your time with the heavy volkite in a pod,

I would consider a plasma squad as well with an apothecary. Had one of those squads save me on several occasions.

Agreed on both of these points.

Heavy Volkites can only snap fire when you come down with them, then they will get roasted by whatever is in front of them. So you won't get much out of them.

Plasma is good against terminators and Primarchs, which usually have terminator escorts.

 TheCustomLime wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Have you thought about Nuncio Voxes to give accurate pod placement after the first wave?

I'd be careful with Deathstorms. They can kill you as much as the enemy. That said I was always happy when I playtested them.

I have but you can only really take them with tactical and recom squads which seem fragile when being drop podded in.

I found them ok as you only need 1 model alive.

Ah, okay, so a few tactical squads with voxes and CCWs as the first wave. Use them to coordinate a precision strike.

And jesus is this army pricey. I could buy a Warhound with how much I'm blowing on it. But, seriously, who came up with the price point for Suzerain? $90 for 5 power armored soldiers? Did they mean to include 10 but made a mistake with the catalog so now they have to stick with 5? Ugghh.

But hey, who cares? Drop pod armies are great!

That's why most of us who have been here awhile convert a good portion of our armies instead of buying the FW kits. Theres plenty of aftermarket stuff out there to convert pretty much anything decently if you shop around.

 kronk wrote:
I put 6 melta gunners in an Anvillus Dreadclaw. It did reasonably well. Lack of Inertial Guidance is a pain in the Anvillus!

Agreed, I've tested a Dreadclaw twice now, and both times that lack of deep strike protection makes one very nervous about placement.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I put 6 melta gunners in an Anvillus Dreadclaw. It did reasonably well. Lack of Inertial Guidance is a pain in the Anvillus!

Agreed, I've tested a Dreadclaw twice now, and both times that lack of deep strike protection makes one very nervous about placement.

My friend who plays EC had the same issues when he first started using his. He's grown to be quite annoying with it now. He said the best way to get it to work, is to not treat it like a drop pod. Just think of it as a flyer instead.

There is also an HQ rhino tank that prevents scatter within 24", isn't there? If not, that should be a thing.

Col. Dash wrote:
That's why most of us who have been here awhile convert a good portion of our armies instead of buying the FW kits. Theres plenty of aftermarket stuff out there to convert pretty much anything decently if you shop around.

Heh, yeah, I looked into it. Using a mix of Sternguard shoulder pads, FW Ultramarines torsos/heads, anvil industry legs/arms/shields and puppets war axes I can make some decent not Suzerain for half as much.

And Kronk, you are thinking of the Damocles Command Rhino. A nice addition to any army. Sadly the orbital assault does not allow them.

 djones520 wrote:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I put 6 melta gunners in an Anvillus Dreadclaw. It did reasonably well. Lack of Inertial Guidance is a pain in the Anvillus!

Agreed, I've tested a Dreadclaw twice now, and both times that lack of deep strike protection makes one very nervous about placement.

My friend who plays EC had the same issues when he first started using his. He's grown to be quite annoying with it now. He said the best way to get it to work, is to not treat it like a drop pod. Just think of it as a flyer instead.

Which doesn't change the fact that it still has to deep strike onto the board, and do so in Hover mode.

I ran 10 Volkite Chargers in a pod, they did reasonably well, though they do better in a Rhino, so they can chase after the enemy (or run away when your enemy send 4 Taloses and a bunch of ravagers after them, which mine in the pod could not)


Ultrasmurfs in pod... Should be interesting.



Ember

Well, I figured that the Ultramarines work best as a mid-close range army. Drop podding them in elimimates having to slog up the board and eating heavy fire. The only downside to drop podding them is that it's hard to fit in huge tactical squads unless I get a couple of expensive mega drop pods.