Just a quickie for all out there...

Do you think that SM Drop pods are way too powerful, and that is why GW have NEVER released a model? It has been about twenty years since I started playing this game, had a hiatus of about 10 years, and during this time, NO drop pods were released(except by FW-$$$$LOTS!)

Is this because, in reality, they make Marines WAY TOO TOUGH?

The scatter is nice and friendly, RF Bolters are suited perfectly for this style of combat, and putting a Death-wind launcher on them (for a big pie-plate blast Marker) for a total of 50pts is cheap as.

I now have about 10 Drop pods for my Chapter, and it honestly seems that they are almost unbeatable. I am not batting my own drum, because I have a win/lose factor of about 8/1. I really think it has a lot to do with Droppies.

Please let fly with your opinions/observations.

But not about my love life(such as it is!!!   )

I have a drop pod army doctrines with 6 venerable dreads in pods with heavy armor  heavy flamers and A cannons, I also have 9 typhoons, but I generally play only 6.  It's undefeated.

Yes, they are to much, the only vehicle that is not destroyed when deepstriking into enemy models... (ok except the monolith...)

Ought to be wrecked when DSing into models, that alone would fix it.  Or more points, and IMO dreads and terminators don't come in pods, that's a current codex aberation, should be flat out removed.  Teleporting should be better and it's not, wrong.  Also should technically deepstrike. But that's what they wrote...

I played terminator heavy pods for a while, and only nids gave me worries (but the new eldar book wasn't out long, and would have been tough in escalation games). The terminators and their extra range tended to make the army less 'gimmicky', but overall I agree with the sentiments listed.

I think this expresses my views as well.  I don't think Drop pod armies are overbalanced, but they don't create a really fun game to play.  The first time you come across them, it might have some gimmicky qualities to them...but in the end  it creates a game that largely skips deployment, ignores the concepts of manuver, massing down entirely to a game built solely on locallized combat power.

I think when drop pods hit 50 pts across the board, these armies will lighten up in the gaming field.

Yes you did. In the Blood Angels codex FAQ there is a question that asks if Blood Angels can assault after disemarking from a Drop Pod ( yes, it says disemarking).

The answer is a very generic answer that covers the issue at hand. No, as units that enter by Deep Striking cannot assault the turn they enter.

The answer is not Blood Angels specific. It is a very general answer that shows the answer is an obvious one that the questioner should have known.

First, that answer is certainly blood angels specific.

But secondly, the blood angel pods SPECIFICALLY SAY THEY DEEPSTRIKE!

For the average gamer who has a typical guard/ork/non-cheesed SM army, they will have no real shot at beating a well designed pod army, but that is easily the case with any competitive tournament build.  The real issue, in my mind, is that their presence in the game has pretty much made people abandon several archtypical army builds in competitive play.  Specifically:

Guard- The massed foot slogger guard army is pretty much gone from competitive play.  Unlike Nids or Orks, they just don't have the kind of morale defenses and mass CC power to absorb a massed pod landing.

Edar- Its either huddle around the Avatar to avoid Fear of Darkness, or (much more frequently) mount up.  I personally can't remember the last time I saw an eldar army without either of those two builds, even prior to the rescent codex.

Tau- Pretty much in the same boat as the Eldar, only worse, thanks to no defense against the Big Boo or any other psychic tactic.   Fish of Fury was practically invented in response to the Pod threat.

Now, the guys who are stuffing 1-2 ten man tac squads into pods are not the ones causing the balance problems and the way things have been going in the newer marine books, I think it is going to work itself out, but right now the metagame is mostly dorked because of the presence of pod armies, particularly when they combine with AC spam or multi-librarian elements.  When you start seeing more diverse and manueverable SM armies, with larger squads, you will see a lot of the other unbalanced lists become a lot less effective, as well (particularly Nidzilla and Mech Eldar).

Yes and no.  Honestly, as a mech eldar player, a static army full of 5 man las plas doesn't bother me in the least because you can pretty much surgically destroy those units without any fear of reprisal, as an eldar player.  Full sized squads, on the other hand, require a serious commitment of force that often puts you into a vulnerable position, especially when backed up by sizable mobile units waiting to counter charge.  This is why Crons are such a hinderance to Mech Eldar/Tau, as well, because the units are too large to take out piecemeal and every Warrior can potentially down a skimmer.  Larger squads that suck you into prolonged fights are a huge issue for Eldar in general and mech eldar in particular.

Nidzilla thrives on the metagame tendancy towards small MEQ units, as well.  An army with large units sporting powerfists and some mobility can put the hurt on Nidzilla, but no one runs that sort of army anymore, partially due to pods and partially due to every MEQ player being focused on beating the other MEQs out there.    When SM players start building armies around ten man units with mobility again, Eldar and Nid players will have a need for higher model counts and you will see a serious tempering down of the curent forms of Nidzilla and Cylon Death Fleet Eldar.

Obviously you need to crack your white dwarf open and read the 'Inertial Guidance System' entry in your Blood Angels army list.

Because clearly they DO have a Blood Angels Inertial Guidance System.

Mauleed's position is correct, I concur, and I recognize anyone can play by whatever they want, but why play all drop pods the same?  That's like playing all rhinos the same, even though they are called the same thing, with the same model, they have differences accross codexes because that's what they wrote. 

Drop pods are in the same situation, they are context specific in each codex, just because they are called Drop Pods does not mean one can assume they should all have the same rules, they don't.

Ironically the more expensive ones in the DA codex are not as good, but that's what they wrote. ( For the record I think the DA codex is pretty bad.)

Posted By akira5665 on 11/07/2007 2:08 PM
My Drop pods ALWAYS contain the same.
10-man squad
1x Powerfist Sarge with Bolt pistol(the way I roll, a plasma would kill 'im)
1x Melta-gun
1x Heavy weapon.
The traits I give them-Trust your Battle Bro's(Counter attack and True grit)
ALWAYS put a deathwind on top of the droppie(The Ord Temp-S5, AP5). Nice.

I would agree that they are the best marine build at 1500 to 1750 though. I've struggled to find anything else that can compete with them.