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Hi there,
Usually, the DML is frowned up. People say it is expensive, and useless (very short range).

However, you just have to kill 1 marine to get your points back !

The best experience I had was against an inexperienced ork player, some years ago. My 3 pods (2 had DML) were close, like a corridor, and my marines were behind. So the orks had to pass through this death corridor, and sustained 2 shootings phases from the pods.
They did great this day !

Yet, even if only 1 marine can earn your money back, I have difficulties sometimes to even kill 1 (my marine opponent is better than the ork one, and stay out of range as soon as he can and spreads his marines).

I thought about objective secured drop pod with DML (I know it isn't knew, but never tried it). Does it work ? This way my opponent will have to come close, or at least, to deal with it and use heavy weapons to destroy it.

Or are the DML just trash ?

They are actually very good and force the pods to be dealt with. A single storm bolter is ignorable if its not sitting on an objective but the Deathwind is 12" radius of zone control that threatens whatever is nearby. Pods have little trouble dropping where they want so its not very difficult for it to be in a place that will be useful in some way. The FAQ that makes the doors part of the hull is a nerf to them as you now can't put your blast template over the open doors and you can't shoot through closed doors.

My Orks absolutely hate them. Enough that I send two power klaw units to blow them up, killing more orks in the process. Waaaaaagh!

I think if I have around 15pts left over, I would take it on Droppod. If not, I may not squeeze that 15pts out.

 Vankraken wrote:
They are actually very good and force the pods to be dealt with. A single storm bolter is ignorable if its not sitting on an objective but the Deathwind is 12" radius of zone control that threatens whatever is nearby. Pods have little trouble dropping where they want so its not very difficult for it to be in a place that will be useful in some way. The FAQ that makes the doors part of the hull is a nerf to them as you now can't put your blast template over the open doors and you can't shoot through closed doors.

I somehow have some faith in the door issue, it would be clarified, otherwise, we could houserule it when playing, or ask tournament organizer if pop out.

I always take them for tournaments. Actually, unless know I'll be playing against a terminator or monstrous creature army they're a staple in my lists.

I run Space Wolves so my biggest fear is volume of shots, a large unit of infantry actually worries me more than running into a Vindicator's range so taking something that throws a large s5 blast into their ranks seems like a no brainer, especially when the dreadnought inside follows up with a heavy flamer. If your pod gets one shot off you'll make the points back easily against Tau, Orks, Eldar, Tyranids, Skitarii, and Guard.
Interceptor is a thing though and so are Deathmarks, hell, Necrons in general cause me no end of headaches because their saves are mental.

I'll be honest as an upgrade I usually don't bother running it, however when I do it does tend to make the pod's and it's points back rather easily depending on what army I'm dealing with. If you deal with Shrouded enemies in cover don't bother dropping it near them as you'll probably never even inflict a wound. Up against heavy infantry/mobs however I love to use this thing as I can usually get 4-5 wounds/kills per shot.

Spiritfox22 wrote:
I'll be honest as an upgrade I usually don't bother running it, however when I do it does tend to make the pod's and it's points back rather easily depending on what army I'm dealing with. If you deal with Shrouded enemies in cover don't bother dropping it near them as you'll probably never even inflict a wound. Up against heavy infantry/mobs however I love to use this thing as I can usually get 4-5 wounds/kills per shot.

I hear that, unless your opponent places an objective on their front lines or you place one for them the twelve inch range means it has that annoying tendency to get left behind and you forget about all those points it killed before because it just sits there uselessly for two or three turns.

The DW launcher seems like a cool upgrade, but I usually find myself saying "Well with these 15 points I could get something else more important". I also really like it when a drop pod storm bolter kills something.

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
The DW launcher seems like a cool upgrade, but I usually find myself saying "Well with these 15 points I could get something else more important". I also really like it when a drop pod storm bolter kills something.

I'm firmly in the same boat in this regard, if the Deathwind Missle Launcher had the same range of the Storm Bolter I'd honestly use it more. However only having a 12 inch range makes it extremely situational and not a very great option.

Shoot, given that the doors now count as hull, they're even less useful. Glue the doors closed, and you can't shoot them.

Six ounces of cold diarrhea in a four ounce Dixie cup.

Harsh man. How often are you shooting models on your own doors though or dropping the pod that close to things it can't open?

On objectives they go from being meh to being a menace, you cant just leave a tiny squad of cultists or grots there taking potentially large wounds from it every turn. not on objectives its easy to just skirt around though

I love it when its on a pod with a template heavy dread/tac squad.. but the stormbolter is useful too for those potshots, they can finish off things you almost killed. 15 pts is a lot for 1-2 shots then everything is going to move away from your pod. A few games ago I had a droppod snap shot a lord of change out of the sky with the stormbolter! . I usually run DML with the fragioso.

I haven't found them to be wonderful, to be honest. I have gotten lucky a few times lobbing some Missiles into IG blobs, but that's about it.

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
My Orks absolutely hate them. Enough that I send two power klaw units to blow them up, killing more orks in the process. Waaaaaagh!

Which is only right and proper. Ork out with your spork out, maynard!

Like a few people have said, if you have the points they are very annoying and distract your opponent. However many see that there are better things to be buying with 15 points (plasma/gravguns, power weapon). So it does depend on your army type.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Harsh man. How often are you shooting models on your own doors though or dropping the pod that close to things it can't open?

Those aren't the issue; since no part of the blast marker can overlap any part of the door, models don't have to be on the doors, only vaguely near them in order to negate the placement of the missile launcher. It's range is already very small, and the huge footprint the doors create takes a big wet bite out of what was an unimpressive Moon Pie to begin with.

 Jimsolo wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Harsh man. How often are you shooting models on your own doors though or dropping the pod that close to things it can't open?

Those aren't the issue; since no part of the blast marker can overlap any part of the door, models don't have to be on the doors, only vaguely near them in order to negate the placement of the missile launcher. It's range is already very small, and the huge footprint the doors create takes a big wet bite out of what was an unimpressive Moon Pie to begin with.

That's never really been an issue for me because I've always used it for blasting holes in squads on the first turn so it's pretty rare that I'm not shooting to the very limit of its range anyway. If the pod is still around and shooting after my opponent's first turn it's lasted longer than I accounted for.