what is the best way to use drop pods?

[Yotakka]

well the title says it all.

 

i have had limited sucess using em so i really need some help here.

 

i have seen and heard of people deploying them empty on first turn but am a little skepticle.

 

so how do you guys make a mostly drop pod army work?

[spartan249]

This site has many articles about 40k strategy and tactics that are superb which would help you out tremendously. Read those first, it's a good place to start.

 

After you do that, either study your opponent's codecies extensively or play a lot of games, whichever one you are more comfortable with. You don't even have to use drop pods, you can use a standard mechanized list to begin understanding your opponents.

 

Now, after you learn how to appraise the battlefield and understand how your opposition works (i.e. what is valuable and what is fodder in your opponent's battle plans), you can begin to apply your knowledge to the application of your drop pods.

 

Drop Pods are our strategic scalpel, the cutting edge of an invasion. What this means is that drop pods are perfect at exploiting errors and structural weaknesses in an opponent's deployment and battle plan. Unlike a mechanized list, which simply batters the opposing army into submission, a drop pod list surgically strikes key points and cripples the opponent before they can strike back. This requires much more finesse and luck than the standard rhino rush, which is why mechanised rush is more popular than drop pods. Drop pods are not easy to use, they require you to truly know yourself, know your enemy, and know the battlefield.

 

If it helps, I'll go over how I run my Pod list.

 

2000 pts "Shrike & Co."

HQ

Shrike: 195 pts

Troops

Tactical Squad: 10 marines, Mgun, Mlauncher, Pfist, DP w/ DWML - 255 pts

Tactical Squad: 10 marines, Mgun, Mlauncher, Pfist, DP w/ DWML - 255 pts

Tactical Squad: 10 marines, Mgun, Mlauncher, Pfist, DP w/ DWML - 255 pts

Elites

Assault Terminator Squad: 9 terminators, TH/SS - 360 pts

Sternguard Squad: 10 veterans, 7 combi-meltas, DP w/ DWML - 340 pts

Sternguard Squad: 10 veterans, 7 combi-meltas, DP w/ DWML - 340 pts

 

Here, I use Shrike to allow the Assault Terminator Squad to infiltrate, getting them into position quickly and allowing them to close the distance very quickly. They also happen to give me some control over the battlefield in the beginning, which helps me mold the enemy formation to some degree, and thus preparing them for the alpha strike with my sternguard squads.

 

Once the game starts, there are 2 SOPs I use depending on how the opponent reacts to my Assault Termies. If he's scared of them and decides to avoid them, then I use my 3 pods to close off their escape route and force them to deal with 20 sternguard and 10 tactical marines. If he decides to hit them head on, then I'll use my pods to hit flanks and obliterate targets of opportunity that I believe are vital to the opponent's army, letting the assault terminators and shrike deal with the big bad boys of the opposing force.

 

If the game is objective(s), then I go either one of two ways with the list.

1) If my opponent deploys his army, I use the above strategy.

2) If my opponent reserves his army, I infiltrate Shrike & Co. onto my opponent's board edge, limiting the area where they can come on, thus controlling my opponent's mobility. I then drop my tactical squads on to objectives that are close to each other and combat squad as an anti-melee tactic. I then wait for his army to come on board and deal with them as they come with my missile launchers, sternguard, and Shrike & Co.

[DerekLee688]

Deciding where to drop units is based on what you put into the pod. Iron Clads should be droped into the middle of opponent's army where they can do maximum damage. The drop pod itself covers the Iron Clad's weaker back armor.

 

Tac squads drop on objectives and sternguard with combi-melta's crack tanks.

 

If your opponent reserves his army to take away that advantage. Then you may not want to drop your units in places where they can't shoot the turn they come in on if thats' the whole reason of them in your army, and you don't want to drop them on his side of the board for them to get picked off. In these cases people use their empty drop pods as terrain, and deploy those units with the rest of their army.

[BrotherAtrox]

The fact that they deep strike makes them very valuable units for positioning. Bring them in to set up crossfires, to cut units off from the rest of their army, to screen your units from particularly nasty guns, or to just attract attention. If you want my full opinion, there's a link in my sig for you.

[Giga]

Why would you wanna have a mostly drop pod army?

 

 

 

The way I see it, drop pods should go in pairs, so you can pick which one comes down on first turn. For example, let's say you're running one drop pod with 5 sternguard with combimeltas, and another with a rifleman dread.

 

So, when you want a turn 1 alpha strike on the opponent's land raider, you can land the sternguard first. If the enemy reserves his LR or pops smoke, you land the rifleman and land sternguard in subsequent turns, etc.

[DerekLee688]

I'd rather have my Rifle dread in and firing on turn one. I say put one of your tac squads in one. That way you could either nuke something with sternguard and land on/by an objective on turn one. Otherwise you can have a full squad in place on an objective on turn one with a the pod as a little piece of cover.