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I am a relatively new guard player. I am wondering how to employ Drop Troop Guardsmen.

What are the advantages of DT IG?

Also, will this help in kill point missions in any way?

Drop troop guard is very effective in that it allows your troops to get within firing range of the opponent without being shot at long the way. Take a look at all of the advantage of drop pods for marines. Now keep in mind that you get more or less all of them. For free.

There is no real reason not to use drop troops, rather than there being needed a reason to use them.

As for KP missions, they will help in that drop veteran unit with meltas, or command squads with flamers will be able to nuke something the turn they come into play, and your army can't be turned into KPs for the enemy until they drop. But in all honesty, KP missions will still be problematic.

With Veteran and Light Infantry squads, you might consider using their Infiltrate rule to Outflank, instead of Deep-Striking.

An efficient drop troop force generally has more small units with special weapons than a standard IG force, and therefor its probably worse affected by the horror of KP in the 5th.

However, now that Lacannons aren't very reliable against A14, drop troops with Melta have become almost obligatory.

With Veteran and Light Infantry squads, you might consider using their Infiltrate rule to Outflank, instead of Deep-Striking.

Its a good idea in some cases, but unlike Droptroops it costs points and is restricted to the board edge. The standard squads only pack 1 special weapon, whereas a JO can be 5 men with 4 melta guns to guarantee a little Kentuky Fried Tank.

Its less risky (no mishap) a bit less random (no scatter, but only 2/3 chance of correct board edge) but very weak against anything thats not near the edge of the board.

I recently played against a drop troop army in a tournie - on the second turn - his entire force successully came in from reserves, and I was still able to board him. I am not bragging nor trying to tick off any guard players out there. I was rooting for the guy dont get me wrong. I play guard and want to find a successful build in 5th edition for this army.

I think dropping the whole army is a mistake. Pieces of it need to no doubt. Real estate gets bogged down quickly with platoons coming down. I would suggest going standard guard line units with max Leman Russ and Hellhound support. Units to drop troop are Tank hunter units, either vets with 3x meltas or Platoon Command squads with 4x meltas. Guard really need to be producing casualties at long range from turn one in 5th. Tanks let you do this admireably and can come on the board and still get a shot off.

The rule about not being able to consolidate into other units after close combat really helps guard alot. Deploy line units near the tanks to prevent opponents tank hunting units deploying within melta range of your own tanks, offer up a squad at a time to close combat and clear his units away with shooting after they consolidate.

Id give the line units autocannons and plasma guns or HB's and Flamers.

IMO, Drop Troops is best used for a few small units that you cann afford to lose in conjunction with a standard firing line. With Kill Points, forget about dropping your Platoon Command squads as they give away two KP each, one for the IC and one for the retinue. This leaves Hardened Vets and Special Weapon squads as the two "best" units to Deep Strike. Both have access to good weaponry and can inflict damage above and beyond their cost. Personal preference is Hardened Vets with meltaguns, send them vehicle hunting. I do still use Platoon Commands with four plasma guns, but in KP missions they stay close to home and use the 24" range instead of deep striking and dieing for minimal gain.

Also, will this help in kill point missions in any way?

I've been curious about this too. I'm not far enough along with my army to try this out, but I've been thinking about a way to mitigate the IG disadvantage in Kill Points if you're using drop troops along with heavy tanks.

What about keeping most or all of your troops in reserve while the armor tries to control the situation into which they'll arrive? Essentially, you'd try to target and eliminate as many of the enemy's anti-infantry assets as possible, and hopefully draw his close combat assets toward the forces that start on the table. The deep striking infantry would then try to land in the safest places they can instead of in the places where they can do the most damage (try to make the close combat specialists run back and forth across the board, land out of range of enemy anti-infantry units, etc). It seems like this would work best when the infantry squads use the the longest-ranged weapons available, giving them the best chance of doing some damage while forcing the enemy to move around in order to engage individual squads. Dropped squads armed with mortars, for instance, could be scattered widely or dropped behind vision-obscuring terrain without losing much power. Light infantry might also be an option if you just want to make sure you can force the enemy to bounce back and forth between the board edges.

The idea behind this strategy is to make the (presumably) smaller number of enemy units move as much as possible for each Kill Point they get while you try to do most of your damage with the units that have the best characteristics for Kill Points games - high individual survivability and great destructive power. I'm not really sure whether or not this is a workable idea - any suggestions or criticisms from more experienced players would be welcome.

I like the way you think Quidlon. Ill test this tactic out tomorrow night.

Thx quidlon, that sounds like a very cunning plan. I'll have to try it out and report back to you later this weekend.

I've been wondering about adding multi-melta sentinels to a drop army, both for the longer range tank hunting and for packin improved comms to help make sure you come in when you want to.

Centurion.

I've been wondering about adding multi-melta sentinels to a drop army, both for the longer range tank hunting

Its a nice idea, but unfortunately Sentinels don't come with a multi-melta option.

"Its a nice idea, but unfortunately Sentinels don't come with a multi-melta option."

actually, Elysians do...

what are elysians?

this might help.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_ELYSIAN_DROP_TROOPS.html

Thats a thing of beauty - multimelta would be fantastic on a sentinel in 5th.
Is it IA only, or tournament-allowable?

Drop is a great army it's tough you have to now what your doing and when your going to do what.

heres my list drop sent's with lascannons are a must have. Thats your only powerful Antitank that has distance.

Not Including the Tanks makes it a Pychs. Ops Job.
The enemy always says you deep strike everything and I replay yes. then they dont now what I will do. Psych. Ops 101 lol

Drop, COD, Hardended vets.ID
>
> HQ Lt. & 4 Meltas ID
>
> 1st Paltoon
> HQ Lt. & 4 Meltas ID
>
> 1st squad Plasma gun
> 2nd squad Plasma gun
> 3rd squad Plasma gun
>
> 2nd Paltoon
> HQ Lt. & 4 Meltas ID
>
> 1st squad Plasma gun
> 2nd squad Plasma gun
> 3rd squad Plasma gun
>
> 3rd Paltoon
> HQ Lt. & 4 Meltas ID
>
> 1st squad Plasma gun
> 2nd squad Plasma gun
> 3rd squad Plasma gun
>
> 3* Vets 5 men 3 Plasma/ 3 meltas/ 3 Plasma
>
> 3* Rement squads of 5 and 1 flamer
>
> 4(3)* Sent's. with Lascannon and Improved comms (one in HQ)
>
> 1 Russ hull heavy bolter side heavy bolter heavy stubber
>
> Exterminator Russ hull heavy bolter side heavy bolter heavy stubber
>
> 2000 pts

These are my main Tatics

Each Drop Zone (DZ) is like this.

Will land 1 Platoon with all squads on a DZ then the HQ and Rement squad (all one troop Choice) Then Land a Vet squad to support them and a Sentinel for anti tank.

And then Visversa with the Rest of the Army.

It's funny I hope to get the whole army in but I also like a platoon to stay in resevres. And thats helped more then its hurt me.