Drop pod tactics

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**vercingatorix**

I don't play drop pods but I play against them pretty often. If you are trying a flamer squad route with a drop pod, do the math in your head. I don't know how many times that flamer squads have confidently dropped in front of my units only to kill 2 guys and then get mauled the next turn. Just because units are tightly bunched does not mean flamers will automatically kill them.

**minigun762**

vercingatorix wrote:
I don't play drop pods but I play against them pretty often. If you are trying a flamer squad route with a drop pod, do the math in your head. I don't know how many times that flamer squads have confidently dropped in front of my units only to kill 2 guys and then get mauled the next turn. Just because units are tightly bunched does not mean flamers will automatically kill them.

Very true and part of the reason that heavy flamers are so nice, as you'll get a lot more kills on average.

**vercingatorix**

minigun762 wrote:
vercingatorix wrote:
I don't play drop pods but I play against them pretty often. If you are trying a flamer squad route with a drop pod, do the math in your head. I don't know how many times that flamer squads have confidently dropped in front of my units only to kill 2 guys and then get mauled the next turn. Just because units are tightly bunched does not mean flamers will automatically kill them.

Very true and part of the reason that heavy flamers are so nice, as you'll get a lot more kills on average.

Even then, it's just real tough to make your points back with flamers. I understand that's not the only use for them but it can be tough. The one exception is 4 heavy flamers from sisters squad. They can actually be pretty brutal.

**niv-mizzet**

Nevelon wrote:
niv-mizzet wrote:
Nevelon wrote:

Statistically you are correct. You should get a third of your force every turn. But the dice are fickle, and if you play enough games, you will see all the odd results. There will be games where everything drops turn two. And there will be games where you don’t see anything until turn 4. Likely? No. But play a reserve heavy list long enough and you will see the outliers on the curves.

I think you're misunderstanding. Odds say you get 2/3 in each turn actually. I was saying that the unluckiest result would be to trickle in 1/3 at a time. (And that depending on the mission, that may not even be a bad thing.)

My point was that you were calling something the worse case scenario when it wasn’t. It is unlikely that, for example, all five of your pods in reserve fail to arrive on turn two. You should get at least one or two. But if you play that list long enough, there could be that game where you roll the bones, and get nothing but ones or twos. And the same thing might happen on turn three as well. This also assumes that your opponent isn’t messing with your reserves, and just the dice being irate.

As wargamers we chuck a lot of dice. So we are occasionally going to see the ragged ends of the bell curve. I think it’s reasonable to plan your worst case scenario as “The dice are below average, but still within a standard deviation” but you should at least acknowledge that there will be times when your dice are possessed by the Dark Gods, and that Tzeench has told probability to get stuffed for a few rolls. Sometimes it works in your favor. Those extremes of luck make games memorable.

“Unlucky” is a variable. If the worst your luck gets is only half the reserves you should get showing up, you are doing OK. Your luck could be worse then that.

Oh I see where you're misunderstanding now. See the worst pod result is NOT having all of them fail to come in. That's actually a fairly good result, as when they do come in, it will be in a large concentrated wave that will be difficult to handle all at once. Bonus points if it's bottom of 4 and the opponent has a single turn to kill half your army before you hop on objectives and start rolling random game length. The worst result is typically for them to trickle in and get killed turn after turn because you never got a big enough wave to still have threats left after their turn.

Unless of course you just get knocked down to nothing on the table. Then none of them coming in is a game loss.

**Oberron**

Take SOB as allies or SM as an ally to a SOB army and toss sisters into drop pods. With basic troop sisters you can have two melta guns for 80 pts or take dominion squad in a drop pod with 4 meltaguns that can ignore cover thanks to their act of faith for 105 pts.

For a bit of a xenos mix use necron deathmarks. Deathmarks see the drop pods as enemy units so the deathmarks can drop in as well, they won't be able to shoot during the movement phase of your turn but they can still shoot during your shooting phase and still wound on 2+. Drop a melta drop pod by a transport with deathmarks near by you clean out the transport then the unit inside.

**niv-mizzet**

Oberron wrote:
Take SOB as allies or SM as an ally to a SOB army and toss sisters into drop pods. With basic troop sisters you can have two melta guns for 80 pts or take dominion squad in a drop pod with 4 meltaguns that can ignore cover thanks to their act of faith for 105 pts.

For a bit of a xenos mix use necron deathmarks. Deathmarks see the drop pods as enemy units so the deathmarks can drop in as well, they won't be able to shoot during the movement phase of your turn but they can still shoot during your shooting phase and still wound on 2+. Drop a melta drop pod by a transport with deathmarks near by you clean out the transport then the unit inside.

I wanted to do a fleshtearers/sisters tournament pod list, but I didn't want to put the next 6 generations of my family in debt for the sisters models.
Another thing they can do is take 4 rending heavy flamers in a pod. Necron ghost arks and ork trukks be sweatin'!

**poolatka**

When playing droppods, think 'Sapper Squads' (Suicide Squads) Don't always expect them to survive, and don't count on it. Don't put your best guys in droppods either. We talking 10 man taxmen, Grav cannon, gravgun, sgt. combi-grav, combat squad just the 5 and drop them next to some MCs. Flamer Sternguard (honestly, stock sternies do fine on the board), Ironclad dreadnaughts. Nothing with a huge investment.... and not your main force. Especially not things built to fight in close combat. 10 man squads combat squadded as they walk out in mass can cause great confusion to the enemy... 10 man scouts or taxmen, split in 5 to make them shoot more than can be killed to put the pressure on. Also, Barren droppods with locator beacons first turn ain't bad either if you play jump infantry.

**Exalbaru**

TheManWithNoPlan wrote:
Just a little thing here: If you can spare 15 points, buy the Deathwind Missile Launcher. Nobody wants to shoot at a drop-pod, so it'll just be a thorn in the side that your opponent will hate.

Just curiosity, does anyone else do this? I've tried the ML a few times and I think its complete garbage. Pods get killed so easy, and the ML has such little range that stuff just can move away from it.

**Martel732**

Deathwind launcher works pretty well for me. It's 15 pts of pure annoyance.

**Exalbaru**

Martel732 wrote:
Deathwind launcher works pretty well for me. It's 15 pts of pure annoyance.

Hm, maybe I'll try it with my next list. But because its a blast and the droppod comes in moving the turn it arrives it cant even fire the first turn, right?

**Nevelon**

Exalbaru wrote:
Martel732 wrote:
Deathwind launcher works pretty well for me. It's 15 pts of pure annoyance.

Hm, maybe I'll try it with my next list. But because its a blast and the droppod comes in moving the turn it arrives it cant even fire the first turn, right?

That changed in 7th. You are good to fire first round these days. Makes them actually viable. Before that the short range and not shooting on drop made them useless IMHO.

**Exalbaru**

Nevelon wrote:
Exalbaru wrote:
Martel732 wrote:
Deathwind launcher works pretty well for me. It's 15 pts of pure annoyance.

Hm, maybe I'll try it with my next list. But because its a blast and the droppod comes in moving the turn it arrives it cant even fire the first turn, right?

That changed in 7th. You are good to fire first round these days. Makes them actually viable. Before that the short range and not shooting on drop made them useless IMHO.

Oh! Thank you! I didn't know that changed, so that makes it much better. Every time I tried it before people either popped it or moved out of range.

**-v10mega**

guys, guys , guys... why do you forget the best formation for drop pods, the battle demi company, take full tac squads split your forces in 2 get one half with melta combi melta and multi melta, then go grav combi grav and grav cannon, put them all in drop pods alpha strike the grav for monstrous creatures and melta for vehicles and infantry. make sure to make a line, and then the next turn finish the line, so your opponent is forced to break the drop pod line and has to do something else, take the scout formation and start them on the board and hold the line

**Big Blind Bill**

Just a little thing here: If you can spare 15 points, buy the Deathwind Missile Launcher. Nobody wants to shoot at a drop-pod, so it'll just be a thorn in the side that your opponent will hate.

The theory is sound, but there is a cheaper way to achieve this.
Remember that drop pods can get objective secured, so that by dropping them on objectives you will force the opponent to engage them.

The battle company or lions blade are the best formations for this by far.
Tactical squads are best kitted out with special weapon + combi (these will usually be meltas).
Assault squads are best given 2x flamers.

**Ubl1k**

Grey Knight purifiers with as many incinerators as possible.
Drop cleansing flame everyone, incinerate everyone and then run to safety.

**Selym**

Arth-Rytis wrote:
What have you found to be the best use of a drop pod? What units do you drop? What is their loadout?
What are some of the most successful drop pod strategies.

I have a fairly nonstandard one, as a BT player who refuses to use Tactical Marines.

My lists focus on zerg rushing the enemy and spamming large numbers of versatile attacks on the defending unit, and I do this with two Land Raiders in a 1500-1750 game. To support them, and to get in the enemy's face right from T1, I place a Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer and a Lascannon/Assault Cannon in a Drop Pod, and slap it right into their front lines. If they have light infantry, they'll be toast. If they have vehicles, they will be forced to waste firepower on it or else it'll melee them on T2. It tends to be a great help at either clearing a blockade, or seriously reducing the enemy's damage output on my main force.

Alternatively, if I know I'm gonna be facing some form of highly powerful MC or GMC, I'll stick grav-cannon devastators in it, and remove the threat on T1 is possible. It's not as efficient as Grav Cents, but it is less rage inducing, and more thematic (i.e, in the BT, even the big guns zerg rush into melee!).