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Wanted to go in a very different direction with a new legion and decided wanted to run a pure pod list, as its something I've never done yet.

This got me thinking though, what legion would make the best use of this?
I play iron hands and iron warriors on a regular basis so want to drag them into combat so I can deal with them alot easier and avoid being shredded by tyrant termies for a few turns.

My initial though was grabbing imperial fists and taking sigismund.
This way I can run pods of sword brethren and throw him with them.
I can support that with dreadclaw pods with contemltors and phalanx aswell.

Also toying with deathstorm pods as a distraction, as they can't afford to ignore them.



Would this be viable or are there other legions that can do this better please?

My guess is SoH. Spear tip was their general attack formation preferred in the FLUFF.

Any legion can pull it off really as your best tools are in the general list. Tac support squads and leviathans. I use Night Lords but my Iron Warriors could probably pull it off better simply because of their no panic from shooting thing if an opponent had enough interceptor to actually do real damage like tau. I don't know the new rules for SoH and their short range thing but that might push them to the top if its a standard rule and not a RoW rule.

What you want are lethal short range shooty units and maybe a melee unit. Melta and plasma are your friends, but don't discount volkite and especially don't discount flamers on the support team. A flamer team can burninate almost any t4 or less 1W unit in the game in a single volley just from pure forcing of saves, even terminators.

Support squads are essential I agree, but both armies I play against are pretty much a gunline.
So I essentially want to get into combat as quickly as possible and stay there.

Both players base their armies around 2 basic tac squads of 15-20 men, so a CC unit with atleast power weapons should grind through it with relative ease, but not too quickly.

I do own a leviathan and have a set of each guns plus one of each CC arm, so dropping that off is a possibility.



Essentially I'm looking for a legion that can pull off close range assault and combat as I don't want to be at long range against either player.

I made the mistake of trying to get into a firefight against iron warriors using my mechanicum.
Needless to say, it didn't end too well.
I need a good source of AP2 from the army aswell since tyrant terminators are currently the biggest annoyance.


Even been thinking about running ultras and dropping in a suzerain unit to rush them in.
It's a solid unit with AP2 at initiative.
However, ultras don't offer a great deal more.

Granted I could take my own cyclone terminators, but ultra ones cost a fortune in points.

Flamer support teams are your friends vs gun lines. Cover? What cover? Oh and roll 30 saves.

Vs the Tyrants, plasma support.

Night Lords can do what you are asking as well, just go Terror Assault instead of Orbital assault. Terror squads with volkite + Terror Squads armed for hand to hand, all are troops. Then add some vet squads equipped as you wish either for hand to hand or close range sniper and Night Raptors. Oh and everyone has a 6+ cover first turn, and you likely will have night fight. and their primarch is a beast. And they have the best paint scheme in the game.

You could always do the Word Bearers new Rite of War and take Gal Vorbak as troops in Dreadclaws or normal Drop Pods and flavor with Support Squads as you see fit.

it may sound stupid, but Death Guard can do it very well, just not in the method you're thinking.

Since orbital assault lets you deep strike teriminators, do that route instead: a few tac squads in pods, and then 4 10-man squads in your elite slots (terminators/deathshroud), 3 10-man squads in heavy support (grave wardens), and 3 10-man squads in HQ (deathshroud elites, bodyguards, AND their own HQ slot )

Dark angels could be a interesting choice since blade mastery will help you in tac on tac cc. It's more reliable then the night lords talent for murder in a drop list.

While I love the idea of dropping in terminators, I'm against fire line style armies.
So if I drop in just 2-3 pods of men there's a high risk they will get shot clean off the board early on.
Meaning I lose before the heavy hitters can come in.


Where as with pure pod assault id be aiming for 5-6 pods dropping on T1 to start.
Which is why I like the idea of imperial fists as they have some damn good CC units as troops, plus slightly improved bolt weapons (I know, not a huge deal)




As it stands I play mechanicum mainly, so I'm more than happy to get into a fire fight with most legions as I can throw out a ton of shooting.
And rarely have to worry about small arms fire.


So I'm looking for a more direct, in the enemies face approach to an army.




I also appreciate all the comments so far, given me plenty of ideas to mull over.

Ultramarines aren't bad. Mark them with the pods combi bolter, shoot them with squad...

Hopefully not too much of a necro, but in the Orbital Assault rules it only mentions legion dreadnoughts and contemptor dreadnoughts. Does this mean mortis and contemptor mortis dreads are off the cards? :(

World Eaters. The tactical squad is your best friend either equipped with an extra ccw, or replace the bolter for free with a ccw.

Using their new RoW + Apothecaries could be amusing. The only issue is you would have to mount them in the Kharybdis in order to accommodate the increased tactical squad size.

Three 18 marine tacticals squads, each with a Legion Apothecary and potentially an IC attached mounted in Kharybdis Assault Claws.

Throw in some Contemptor or Leviathan Dreadnoughts with pods as a backup.....

But it would be a lot of points.

White Scars make mince-meat out of gunlines.

3+ jink saves all day and at-initiative +1 str AP2 with re-rolls on wounding (1's).