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I took my 1850 Pod list  (www.dakkadakka.com/Forums/tabid/56/view/topic/forumid/14/postid/125110/Default.aspx ) against it's first Godzilla Nid army this past weekend and lost.  It was Take and Hold.   The army was 3 God Fex's (HS), Dakka Fex's, 2 Tyrants, and 6 Ravenors.  In my test games and in my gaming group the Pods have dominated pretty well every time I used them, but I never went up against other real power builds other than Mech Sisters (which while being great at anti-pods, aren't quite up there with the rest of the lists).

I deployed only one Terminator squad and deep struck in everything else, he was able to get to the center of the table and win because I just couldn't do enough wounds to his Fex's with rending (plus the fact that there was some extreme dice hating going on: rippers beat Terminators in CC, forced them to flee, and guided them off the table).  Even considering the hilarity of watching Terminators run off the board because of rippers, it taught me a lot about pods versus that kind of army and what it can and can't do, and how to better play versus Godzilla.

This got me thinking about other armies in the game that I'm sure to come up against - Mech Eldar, Mech Tau, Demon Bomb Chaos.

So the idea came to me, just forget about the entire idea of my entire army just deepstriking/podding in, and take the best part of the pod list (Tank Hunting Terminators w/ Assault Cannons) and mix it with the other good stuff of the Marine list: Min/Maxed Las/Plas squads and Speeders with more Assault Cannons.

I've not tested it, but I'm probably going to try and setup another matchup at the local store with some of the people I haven't played against a lot who are planning on going to the coming GT's, I'm also going to take the list down to 1750 and build it around both Las/Plas, Speeders, and Assault Cannon Terminators.    At least this way I have the option of either Deep Striking the Termies against armies where it's warranted (Mech Tau, IG, not sure anything else) and keeping a large amount of firepower (Las/Plas, Speeders) on the table doing their thing from turn 1 onward.

The question is, is this better than pods all around (as I had it built) or should I just try and refine my pod list down to 1750 and try some more.

I think that poding everything is still the best bet for an army build.

However to rely completely on rending to kill the tough stuff is going to be difficult. I find that taking several low ap weapon, such as plasma guns and melta guns, really helps in dealing with such things. I wouldn't run a mixed pod list with plas/las marines.

Pods are a far more complex list than terminators with assault cannons. Pods are all about tempo and point denial. They cut the game to the smallest amount of time available (via deep strike) and then plan to do massive amounts of damage in the remaining turns, while hiding from retribution behind terrain. (specifically their pods) Given enough turns, most armies could win a game against pods, since pod lists lack long range firepower and mobility after the pods land.

What your suggesting removes most of the advantages of pods. First, you can no longer bring your own terrain. (pods) Meaning your terminators will be sitting ducks for a turn. (and make plasma cannons VERY scary) Second, by taking non pod units, you allow them to shoot at you for the full 6 turns. Meaning you have to earn far more points than normal to eak out a major victory. Last, you lack any sense of mobility. (with the exception of the speeders) If you look at every top tier list, they revolve around 2 major strategies, applying overwhelming firepower across the board (iron warriors, SAFH marines, etc) or highly moble concentrated firepower. (tau, eldar, pod marines, etc) Your attempting to do both, but with the numbers to accomplish neither.

I agree that you shoudl go all or nothing on the pods. I would scrap at least one of the dreads and us et hepoints for 3 more pods and perhaps a small unit of scouts for the remaining 90 points.

ender502

Posted By IntoTheRain on 01/10/2007 2:40 PM

) Meaning your terminators will be sitting ducks for a turn. (and make plasma cannons VERY scary)

Who is taking Plasma Cannons?  Are they common enough to take into consideration?  I haven't seen a single one fielded since 4th edition.

I use one in my marine builds for the simple reason of deepstriking termies

Actually it's for more than that. Having a template weapon forces your opponent to spread out, thus not allowing them to use terrain to the best advantage and having them be more vulnerable when assaulted to losing a certain model (Like the PF sgt, for instance)

No their not common, but when i play my friends marine list I like to take them for giggles. The only place i can think of them as common is DE lists, and the occasional leman russ demolisher. (rare) A far bigger worry is ordinance, which has to scatter a good bit to not wipe out the whole squad. 

More than a plasma cannon, watch out for demolishers. Those are ubiquitous guard tanks, made all the more common by deepstriking termies. However, anything that totes a plasma cannon should be first on a termie squad's list of things to kill, and given the deepstrike rules the termies will get the first shot at whatever is toting the cannon. So unless there is plasma cannon saturation or there is horrible scattering action, I wouldn't (and don't) worry about them.