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Hey mates. Got into a huge debate recently with my mates which I wanted to run by you. If you are not aware, I am playing in a Apocalypse game coming up and I will be borrowing my mates stuff to run a 3,000 point Imperial Fist Sentinels of Terra Drop POd army lead by Pedro Kantor. However as we talked last night about the upcoming battle, I was asked why was I going Sentinels of Terra when there are so many armies that can do a Drop Pod list better. I countered that each Drop Pod list had it's strength's and weakness and that fluff is also something that can play a part, but some of my mates claimed that only a few can be successful Drop Pod lists and that I would be better off either with the Salamanders or Iron Hands. Needless to say, that got me thinking and I ask this question to all of you:

Players: Which Drop Pod list have you had the the most success playing as and why? Opponents: Which Drop Pod list have you struggled the most against and why?

* Salamanders: Obvious choice due to all of the Special Rules and benefits they get with Flamer and Melta Weaponry.

* Iron Hands: Tough as Nails with some of the Nastiest Dreadnoughts in the game, as well as FNP Marines.

* Blood Angels: Tac Squads with Heavy Flamers and the Best Assault Marines who are scoring and have access to both Flamers and Melta's.

* Space Wolves: Tac Squads can have 2x Special Weapons per 10x guys (3x counting there Sgt.), considered Best All-Around Troop Squad for Space Marines.

* Imperial Fists: Primarily Sentinels of Terra, who get Twin-Linked Bolter Weaponry at Half-Range, and Tank Hunters for all Elite and Heavy Choices. Scoring Sternguard thanks to Pedro Kantor.

* Black Templars: MSU Drop Pod Squads thanks to the Crusader Squads.

* Ultramarines: Very Tactically-Flexible with there Chapter Tactic.

These are the primary ones that pop into my head at the moment as they are the only ones I have come across, but if I missed any please feel free to share. Note, the point of this is to actually have a classic debate with a bunch of fellow gamers on why we feel a certain Chapter/Codex can field the most effective Drop Pod list, and it can be for both rules and fluff wise. Please share your reasoning instead of just voting. Would be better if I could offer you all a Pint of Beer to go with it due to Saint Patrick's day coming up but here is a toast for you all anyways .

For me for example, I voted the Imperial Fists through the Sentinels of Terra book. I have always been a huge fan of there fluff and background, and with there Close-Order Bolter Drill, these guys encourage an army of a lot of Tactical Marines, being supported by a few Elite units with specific roles. Plus, adding Pedro Kantor makes Sternguard, probably the best Drop Pod unit for Marines arguably, as Scoring, making them even more worth there points. To sum it all up: Great Shooting, Twin-Linked Bolter Shots at Half-Range, Scoring Sternguard, and lots of bodies on the table.

I voted Blood Angels because 5 man Assault squads with 3 meltagun shots on turn one is pretty freaking good.... and that only costs 115 points

Space wolves for 3 meltas in a squad and counter attack. Drop, pew pew, overwatch, get 3 attacks per when you get charged. Also access to fast attack pods to put all kinds of fun allies in them. Imperial fists are a close second and a good ally choice since they can take dev cents in elite and heavy slots.

Iron Hands. The IWND on the Dreads, and Pods, is nasty, but then you leverage that with IWND support vehicles, such as Predators, and Storm Talons.

Add to that, Chapter Master Smash-Whatever and a few Bike Squads, you can Drop Dreads all over objectives, providing tough support fire for the advancing Bikes. Toss a Master of the Forge with some Honour Guard in a Raven or Raider to have a nearly unkillable delivery system for a very efficient CC squad.

Let your MotF buff some ruins, and drop your Dreads into them for bonus to their cover save, with IWND. If you don't like bikes, go Sniper Scouts with Camo, and have 2+ cover saves on those objective grabbers.

It all stacks together to be sooooo damned tough.

Salamanders.

Space Wolves are easily the best. Use the Wolves Unleashed detachment to get it's benefit. Take Grey Hunters in pods with 3 Meltas. Ally some AM Veterans with 3 Meltaguns and a Democharge and put them into the FA pods ( that's a S8 AP3 Large Blast flying out of your pod the instant it arrives, along with 3 Melta Guns if I remember the stats correctly. The unit doesn't cost much so you won't even care when they die. ) Take 2 bare Rune Priests and some Wolf Guard with combi-meltas to give those 5+ melta shots reroll to hit ( cya tanks ) and maybe an axe for the counter charge + instant death. And yeah, then you have those drop podding 3++ melee monster dreadnoughts for quite a reasonable price for what they are capable of, plus being one of the best threats to land in your opponents deployment zone to scramble their gameplay.


BA doesn't come close to the alpha strike potential of Wolves ( with pods, that is ) and they are the only 2 codices currently who can share their pods with Battle Brothers. Hence leaving other marines far behind. Hence, the Wolves are the most powerful drop pod army.

IG are pretty insane with demolisher specialists in allied pods. Also, SOB with allied pods.

Chaos space marines. Oh, wait, no. Despite being prolific raiders they apparently left them all in the Eye...

100% Blood Angels!

I was going to ask a similar thing just the other day and got sidetracked, so i will put my points in.

I feel there is no right answer.

Salamanders
Salamanders are often the army i think will be the best at drop-podding. however their benefits only cover flamers (unless vulkan is about). This limits their strength to command squads with 5 flamers or assault squads with 2 flamers generically. With Vulkan you can get some more out of meltaguns but it's limited because of the limited number of meltas you can equip.

Blood Angels
I think these are your winners. There is a formation where you can take more assault squads apparently (i dont know what it is). Either way, tactical squads with 4 flamer templates and assault squads with 4 specials are very useful. Couple that with Pods that can carry anything, cheap HQs, and good dreadnoughts it's a good combo.

Space Wolves
An army i wish would be nuked, i just hate the space marines but better and wolf wolf wolf wolf wolf stuff. That being said they have the most logical tactical squads with dual weapons. Other than that i dont think they are great at it, i don't know enough though.

Iron Hands (or Clan Raukaan)
Useful durability i suppose. Other than that they dont shine.

Imperial fists (both kinds)
Useful bolter stuff, which is good because of the number of bolters. but bolters are still not very good so meh. lots of (expensive) sternguard.

Ultramarines
These guys are good but often under valued and too jack of all trades. pick and choose bonuses are useful for a number of reasons. Always take Calgar for pick and choose morale and bonus tactic for a pod list but build for empty pods to get the most out of other things.

Honestly I think i'd go BA for sheer massed specials.

Uhhhh Star Phantoms? Twin-linked everything for a turn I would say beats out a lot of the bonuses the other guys get.

Tyranids. Nothing says surprise like a surprise Dimachaeron, or Hive Tyrant, or 20 gaunts, hell anything surprise from Tyranids is something you'll have to immediately deal with. Sure they have weird drop pods, but still a drop pod.

BA are not a good drop list. I really wish this misconception would die. The BA chapter tactic is furious charge. The BA want to charge at close range. Drop pods turn off our chapter tactic. Furthermore, 3X BS melta shots are NOT that reliable anymore.

I go with Blood Angels. I play Blood Angels, and I will build a foamcore drop pod for them one day.

Flesh Tearer Detachment plus Sisters of Battle (for Dominions and HF Rets). Nasty.

I was thinking if you can put jump pack units in an allied drop pod you could make use of raven guard. Stealth save on turn 1 and move twice. But it's a bit limited.

I'm surprised that Blood Angels aren't winning the poll since they're far superior to other drop pod armies (especially Space Wolves).

SGTPozy wrote:
I'm surprised that Blood Angels aren't winning the poll since they're far superior to other drop pod armies (especially Space Wolves).

I agree especially if the flesh tearers thing is correct. 6 assault squads?

Does anyone know where the rules are for this?

Boniface wrote:

SGTPozy wrote:
I'm surprised that Blood Angels aren't winning the poll since they're far superior to other drop pod armies (especially Space Wolves).

I agree especially if the flesh tearers thing is correct. 6 assault squads?

Does anyone know where the rules are for this?

Exterminatus, iirc.

SGTPozy wrote:
I'm surprised that Blood Angels aren't winning the poll since they're far superior to other drop pod armies (especially Space Wolves).

No, they're not. I'd be happy to demonstrate for any BA player that thinks they are gonna get over on me with pods. The fabled 3 X melta pod ASM are around 50/50 to pop a rhino. I'm quaking in my boots, let me tell you. They're really scary to an IK, because of the point differential, but against cheaper tanks they are meh.

 ultimentra wrote:
Uhhhh Star Phantoms? Twin-linked everything for a turn I would say beats out a lot of the bonuses the other guys get.

Thats quite the truth.

Still think the Allied ODST ig vets are way cooler though.

Space Wolves as they are close quarter fighters.
BA is still meh.

For a pod ARMY, I would probably go with wolves or dreadnought-spam Fleshtearer detachment BA. Furioso libbies as HQ, Cassor as necessary troop, a pod for him as a fast, and fragiosos in the elites. Sprinkle in some suicide asm 5man squads with the other 5 fast attacks to fill points, or drop over to heavy for some stormraven aerial power.


For some suicide squads in pods in an otherwise normal army, I'd take BA all the way.

Fragiosos, double melta/double inferno 5man asm, and heavy flamer/double hand flamer 5man tacs are my goto pod riders. They're fairly cheap, and the enemy HAS to kill them on their turn, else they face the wrath of a second wave of shots at another target plus a furious charge, and all this helps distract from the approaching army.

Haha Blood Angels are winning now!

SGTPozy wrote:
Haha Blood Angels are winning now!

I gave my vote to BA for the same reason that I'm modelling them right now -- they have the best tactical/assault/dreadnought models

However, I think the only way BA would be superior to SW is if you were playing 3500+ points, and took enough drop pods to seriously abuse Angel's Fury/Augur Triangulation.

I don't think I could bring myself to buying 10, 15, or whatever number of drop pods and painting them all one faction, so I think it's irrelevant for me, hehehe. But for anyone that does, I'm sure Games Workshop is very happy with you

I'm a fan of Imperial Fist Sentinels of Terra. Twin linked is great, especially seeing how you're dropping near them! Who exactly are you playing against though?

 luky7dayz wrote:
I'm a fan of Imperial Fist Sentinels of Terra. Twin linked is great, especially seeing how you're dropping near them! Who exactly are you playing against though?

For the Apocalypse game, not 100% sure but all I do know is that I expect to see Necrons and some Chaos Space Marines. That being said, looks like the Salamanders are still considered one of the top Drop Pod lists, however for the BA, surpised by the number of votes they are getting, however then again it seems that the main reason is due to that Flesh Tearers Formation, where you can have 4x Tac Squads and 6x Assault Squads. Space Wolves are a good Drop Pod Army, but I feel that giving Grey Hunters Melta and have them go after tanks is a waste of 7x Guys with Bolters, hence why I never really looked at them.

Reason I love the Imperial Fists Sentinels of Terra Drop Pod list is that my Tac Squads job is to go after the opponents Infantry and claim objectives, while the Command Squad and Sternguard Squads, along with the flyer focus on killing vehicles. Which is great as ALL Imperial Fists Heavy and Elite Units have the Tank Hunter Special Rule, making them even nastier when Alpha Striking and giving the Fire Raptor some extra punch against vehicles and other Flyers. And although it's not much, there have been times where Plasma has been able to do some damage to both vehicles and troops so the Tac Squads can also go after some things that is usually only reserved for Melta's. OVerall, SOT to me are just a very easy, flexible, effective Drop Pod Army that can do a lot and I have had good success trying them out.

SW has a nifty little formation of drop pod WG and teleporting WGT they arrive first turn and close to one another they get twin linked on all shooting attacks.

pay the points for it and you unleash a metric feth tonne of dakka into something that is probably dead

with 3000 points if you had the models to run it then it becomes BA almost hands down thanks to Angels Fury Spearhead force formation

3x Storm raven + 3x Tac squad that then allow the drop pods to DS without scattering, so long as they land within 12in of two Stormravens (the formation rolls for reserves from turn 1 and can re-roll) and the unit inside can then Assault turn 1.

a Bunch of assaulting units out of pods plus 3 Stormravens and 3 tac sqauds in your face turn 1 is a lot to deal with, however it only works in large games of really at least 2000 points.

Lower than that and the BA really only have the 4x melta drop pods which while nice aren't enough to make it the best at all.

BTW, Ultramarines with Calgar have proven to be the most effective full droppod army in GT.