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Made in us
Resourceful Gutterscum




Southern Illinois

Yep, its starting to happen here, too.  People are starting to go crazy with pods.  I've seen threads discussing how to deal with them with various armies, but I've yet to see anything involving webway portals.

My DE WWP army is fairly typical -- a haemy and a sybarite each with wwp, assault squads (wyches in raiders, warp beasts, killy dracon on bike or foot, maybe a reaver squad) in the portals, a couple of warrior squads for ablative wounds until a portal opens, ravagers either in the portal or out depending on the situation.  Sometimes I go heavier on the sniper squads, sometimes more assaulty.  My list varies, but its generally your fairly typical wwp list.

I don't want to tool my army specifically for pods at the expense of other armies, so suppose you show up with an army along these lines and get matched up against pods.  What plans do you make?  Put more or less in the portal?  Try to go first or second?  Drop the portal quickly, or try to hold it closed?  What are the best and worst case scenarios?

Here are my thoughts on the subject:  The ability to bring out your troops after his is key, but it all hinges on keeping the portal carriers alive long enough.  Suppose you go first.  In this case, I'd wait to drop the portals until turn two.  That way, half his troops will show up on turn two after your portals open, and your portal carriers get wasted.  On turn three, your troops pour out and start their attack.  Assuming that the enemy was close enough to kill your portal carriers, you shouldn't have a problem getting into combat.  Just make sure that you don't completely waste the enemy in one turn, and the pods that drop on turn three won't be able to do anything to you.  After the initial carnage, any fast and still-scoring units go for objectives.

If you go second, drop your portal on turn one.  It should have a similar effect to going first, but you won't have quite as much come out of the portal at once when the action starts.

A problem -- when the pod troops kill off your portal carriers, they can surround the portals.  Squads in raiders or reavers are fine, but this makes the warp beasts a less than ideal choice.  Maybe I should dump those from the list and go with all units in the portal being skimmer-based.

So, it looks like going first may actually be as good as or better than going second when dealing with pods?  Not bad, considering that most pod players are going to be trying for second turn anyways.

So, what am I overlooking?  Is my strategy bad, or is it my typically less-than-ideal playing?

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Orlando, Florida

I think you would have an easy time against podders. Just tightly together with a space between your Warriors. That is where you drop the portals. Let your Warriors be the only target for the pods when they show up, than you are in perfect assault range when your unit show up. Unlike any other oponent you face, don't worry about advacing. The best anti-pod tactic is to give the pods very little room to be effective at shooting and than counter assault.

Current Armies: Blood Angels, Imperial Guard (40k), Skorne, Retribution (Warmachine), Vampire Counts (Fantasy)

 
   
Made in us
Tunneling Trygon





The House that Peterbilt

I would keep anything non-skimmer out of the portal (like the warp beasts). Also, create a buffer with your sniper squads and waht not between the portal carriers and the likely areas they will deploy. Fleet helps here as you can take up a good chunk first turn. Sniper squads and warp beasts are ideal for this because he'll have to commit 200+ point units to deal with 75-100 point ones. A corner would be the best place in general (as opposed to the middle where you'd normally deploy a wwp army), as it limits depolyment options of the DPs. Sure, it allows him to avoid the first turn charge by deploying in another corner but unless its a unit of terminators or a dread then he can't do much to stop your assaulters from getting to him or the objetcives in subsequent turns.

I wouldn't drop the warp beasts just because of the pods. They can help create that buffer mention above and if the drop podders don't kill them (because they are going for the portal carries) then they will be an apprecialble assault threat (for a 75 point unit). Either way its a positive for you.

snoogums: "Just because something is not relavant doesn't mean it goes away completely."

Iorek: "Snoogums, you're right. Your arguments are irrelevant, and they sure as heck aren't going away." 
   
Made in us
Tunneling Trygon





The House that Peterbilt

Also, your assesement of the turns seems logical. Surprisingly, first is probably the best way to go with WWP against drop pods because of the way resrves work for the portals.

snoogums: "Just because something is not relavant doesn't mean it goes away completely."

Iorek: "Snoogums, you're right. Your arguments are irrelevant, and they sure as heck aren't going away." 
   
Made in us
Resourceful Gutterscum




Southern Illinois

The more I think about it, the less I'm worried about screening the portal carriers. Unlike most enemies, drop pods allow me to guarantee that I can place my portal before getting shot as long as I play conservatively. As long as I open at least one portal before my opponent's turn 2, there's nothing he can do to stop it. On the other hand, if I wait to open the portal after he drops his pods, I'd have to have my screen set up perfectly to prevent him from rapidfiring my portal carrier to death.

I'll have to play it a few times to see if I can reliably prevent the pods from landing within 12" of my carriers. You're right that the corners are probably the best way to do that. Maybe I'll try one carrier in each corner to help keep him in charge range if he drops far away.

If I can't reliably keep him away from my carriers, then I'll just have to play it safe and open before he drops. A problem I can see is this scenario:
* I open the portal.
* He drops far away from my portal.
* A bunch of guys come out of my portal but have nothing within 21-26" to get stuck in with.
* He drops more guys near my guys and rapidfires them.

So, if I go the safe route, I'll have to drop my portals in a more centralized location to try to eliminate places that he can drop outside of my charge range. The benefit there is that any place he can still drop and not get charged is going to be along a board edge, and those pods could end up drifting off.

Hmmm. A lot of people are complaining about having to deal with pods. This seems like its turning out to be a fun challenge!
   
 
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