Drop Pod Strategy

[Jangalak]

...ok so I play a drop pod army against a buddy with IG army and I was wondering what there was to stop him deploying very few (or no) units and then bringing his army along as reserves after my first wave of DPs have arrived?

 

My first wave tends to be two Ironclads aimed at his armour - if he did this then i would be sat in the middle of nowhere with little to shoot at and potentially a long trek to get into contact.

 

The pro's/con's seem to be:

I guess that this may be a good tactic to counter the drop pod army, although it allows me to dominate his end/side of the board. The downside for me is that his his tanks get the first shot at me and my dreads may never be able to slog over into CC by the end of the game.

 

Am i thinking this through right?

 

Anyone have any experience of this tactic being used against a DP army?

 

As it stands he likes to kick things off in the face of the drop pods but I know others may like to leave my pods 'hanging in the breeze'!

 

Any thoughts?

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

The 'reserve everything' tactic is quite common, particularly when your opponent finds out you have alot of pods. It can be a real pain, but ultimately you have a good idea where he will be coming from and should be able to deploy to protect them. Use the pods and terrain to block line of sight/provide cover saves and concentrate you pods to cut off some of his lines of movement.

 

Also, consider changing your pod order if an opponent does this. 'Castle up' your troops (on objectives if appropriate) with the first wave and then spam the nasty stuff (ironclads etc.) at him later when you know where he's going...

[Coyote]

And don't forget that you may want to deploy some empty. This is especially useful when you're trying to control the order in which your other DP units, such as the Dreads, enter play.

 

So, you could castle some units in your Deployment zone, say to control objectives. Then drop empty pods on his objectives to contest them. Now he MUST come and get you, and must do so from the table's edge in most cases. Now you're back in control of his position.

 

He'll likely start by going for your empty DPs first to drive them off. Good. Once he does this, he now has to slog to your side of the board. At some point, you're going to get your Dreads into play, hopefully freezing his advance. This ends up playing much like a standard drop-all-the-pods-at-once game. Except that you get to shoot him more.

 

If the Dreads come late, then you'll have to rely on your other unit's anti-tank abilities. This can be painful. But even if that happens, you should still be able to tie as he'll have to drive you off both sides of the board to win.

 

Alternatively, in a KP game, you can delay the empties till the end. This denies him the opportunity to take potshots at them, and thus denies them as KPs.

[rat of vengence]

Delay empty pods? How exactly?

 

RoV

[waaanial00]

Delay empty pods? How exactly?

 

RoV

 

Best explained in the following example:

 

2 Dreads in pods

 

2 tacs in pods

 

Deploy the tacs (without the pods) in the deployment phase and then deep strike the Dreads in turn 1. You can then hold your pods in reserve for later in the game. If you are feeling very daring you can even try to force some mishaps (deploy close to board edges) and hope for some delayed results, however just dropping them empty in no mans land later in the game is a little more valid a tactic.

 

Wan

[Andromalius]

Take lots of pods. But don't put things in them at deployment. You don't have to, read the drop pod rules and the rules for squads and transports and all that. So if your opponent knows you're a drop pod force, and he decides to reserve EVERYTHING first turn to prevent a drop pod assault on him first turn, he has nothing on the table, and you put half your pods on the table. Put empty pods in locations that prevent LOS or grant cover to you in good positions. Also, if you have to deploy (or want to deploy) your dreads for example, do it, but put them behind the pods. Those things are still LOS blocking and are cover otherwise. If he rolls out first turn and unloads into your 4+ cover saving dreads, GOOD. Mean while, turn two, you're already on the objectives with your mobile marines. Think about that.

 

If you put a lot of pods on the table, but make sure you have a lot of mobile infantry (your troops), it doesn't matter if your opponent goes reserves or not. He either stays on the table and gets drop pod assault'd, or he reserves, and watches you take the objectives and still has to deal with everything you pod in front of him. Drop pods are a pain in the butt en masse because even if he thinks he can tear you up, piece by piece, if you put those pods in the only places that are good for LOS/movement, it severely restricts his movement of vehicles and stuff. Do that to some guardsmen with an objective mission. He'll whine that pods are broken (right after being on these forums and talking about how he can reserve-win a mass drop pod player.... don't be fooled by the interwebs).

 

The key to putting lots of pod on the table is to always put rhinos and mobile armor on the table. It's all about mobility. Throw a ton of dreads at someone in pods. They reserve, good for you, now put all your rhino teams on objectives. He comes out shooting at 4+ cover on everything, and still has to worry about you shooting/attacking back. If he holds back in cover, it's turn 2 minimum now, and he has yet to get anywhere, while you're EVERYWHERE on the table.

[avatar8481]

however just dropping them empty in no mans land later in the game is a little more valid a tactic.

 

Except you can't choose to not roll for reserve, so you still might get them as early as turn 2. The tactic is still valid b/c you can drop them in corners/behind terrain to save the KP, but you can't not roll for them and just decide to wait until turn 4 when they auto-arrive.

[Koremu]

This is one of the reasons Tigurius is so useful.

[Coyote]

Except you can't choose to not roll for reserve, so you still might get them as early as turn 2. The tactic is still valid b/c you can drop them in corners/behind terrain to save the KP, but you can't not roll for them and just decide to wait until turn 4 when they auto-arrive.

Absolutely correct. The point of empty Drop Pods is to:

1. Control the entry of other Drop Pod units into play. Either by forcing them to deploy early by keeping the empties in Reserve. Or late, by dropping the empties first.
   
2. Gain some control as to when more vulnerable units, like empty Drop Pods, enter play.
   
3. Play nasty I'm-going-to-contest-that-objective tricks with the Drop Pods late in the game.
   
4. Give up a KP in 1/3 of games in order to unexpectedly drop a 3" wide piece of terrain right in front of something.
   

Look, this style of play isn't for everyone. Drop Pods are alabative by nature. You deliberately sacrifice points & Kill Points to gain some strategic advantage. Try to think of creative ways for them to explode. (And mine are painted nicely.) This tends to increase your overall chances of success.

[avatar8481]

Drop Pods are alabative by nature.

 

And their contents too usually :-)

 

Drop-podding dreads will die to a competent player, but hopefully you sacrifice them for some meaningful tactically advantage.

[Grey Mage]

Hopefully you drop in enough stuff that extra armor will cover the average damage :P.

[rat of vengence]

Delay empty pods? How exactly?

 

RoV

 

Best explained in the following example:

 

2 Dreads in pods

 

2 tacs in pods

 

Deploy the tacs (without the pods) in the deployment phase and then deep strike the Dreads in turn 1. You can then hold your pods in reserve for later in the game. If you are feeling very daring you can even try to force some mishaps (deploy close to board edges) and hope for some delayed results, however just dropping them empty in no mans land later in the game is a little more valid a tactic.

 

Wan

As the others said, you cannot 'hold' them in reserve.

 

RoV

[Kadaeux]

Personally dropping empty pods is cheating (I know not by rules, but it is by spirit) because in a real war you aren't going to drop empty drop pods. You wouldn't waste effort firing useless steel shells.

 

And the Imperium certainly wouldn't.

[Coyote]

Oooo, in that case I strongly suggest reading Starship Troopers. Don't bother with the movies, as they're just not the same story. Anyway, Heinlien refers then to dropping empty pod in a 9:1 ratio to loaded ones. This is an extremely efficient way to deal with incoming hostile fire, as simulated in seen in Planetstrike. Let's face it, Drops Pods are cheaper than a squad of trained Marines.

 

Oh, and the Horus Heresy series refers to dropping empties for much the same reason on multiple occasions.

[Koremu]

Decoys have been used in warfare since time immemorial. Just off the top of my head I can think of 5 or 6 historical examples. There's no reason to suspect that the Imperium is any less pragmatic.

[Grey Mage]

Personally dropping empty pods is cheating (I know not by rules, but it is by spirit) because in a real war you aren't going to drop empty drop pods. You wouldn't waste effort firing useless steel shells.

 

And the Imperium certainly wouldn't.

I would... and Id call it a Deathwind missile pod.

 

And as coyote brought up.... distractions.

 

Edit: By the same token, fluff-wise, the opposing side would probly be unaware of the exact timing of a DP assault- and thus couldnt run off the board to "hide" from it.

[I AM THE AWESOME]

Delay empty pods? How exactly?

 

RoV

 

Best explained in the following example:

 

2 Dreads in pods

 

2 tacs in pods

 

Deploy the tacs (without the pods) in the deployment phase and then deep strike the Dreads in turn 1. You can then hold your pods in reserve for later in the game. If you are feeling very daring you can even try to force some mishaps (deploy close to board edges) and hope for some delayed results, however just dropping them empty in no mans land later in the game is a little more valid a tactic.

 

Wan

As the others said, you cannot 'hold' them in reserve.

 

RoV

 

It's not "holding". By not including the empty pods in the Drop Pod Assault, you ensure they come on later via the regular Reserve rules (e.g, Turn 2 or later) instead of via Drop Pod Assault (Turn 1).

 

Personally dropping empty pods is cheating (I know not by rules, but it is by spirit) because in a real war you aren't going to drop empty drop pods. You wouldn't waste effort firing useless steel shells.

 

And the Imperium certainly wouldn't.

 

Have you read Starship Troopers?

[Kadaeux]

@"Have you read Starship Troopers people": Yes I have. And they (despite some severe tactical issues) didn't drop REAL pods. They dropped specially built ones IIRC

[avatar8481]

Personally dropping empty pods is cheating (I know not by rules, but it is by spirit)

 

I realize this isn't exactly on topic but I think it's worth pointing out: Namely, if it's allowed in the rules it's not cheating, not even in 'spirit' since there is no 'spirit'. There's the game, and there's the rules for playing the game. You can argue about the intention of the rules when they're (often) badly written, but you're not talking about that.

 

Part of the problem with the community, or a strength depending on your perspective, is that most people don't want to play it *as a game*, they want to play it as a narrative or a showcase of models or whatever. You'd never hear even a half-way serious chess player say, "I could win now by killing your king with my pawn, but that's not in the spirit of the rules".

 

Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine. And don't get me wrong, I love the hobby aspect as much (or more) than the next guy but play the game and play to win or just accept that you're not really 'playing' but just pushing your toy soldiers around and telling a story about them (but don't expect me to do the same, I came to play).

[rat of vengence]

It's not "holding". By not including the empty pods in the Drop Pod Assault, you ensure they come on later via the regular Reserve rules (e.g, Turn 2 or later) instead of via Drop Pod Assault (Turn 1).

If it isn't 'holding' they shouldn't have used the word 'holding' then ;) . I am fully aware of how these work, it appeared someone else didn't.

 

RoV