Drop pods?

[bushman101]

Poking around the BA list sub-forum, I don't see a lot of mention of Drop Pods.

Are anyone using them at all? If so, what do you primarily put in them.

I hear mention of folks still dropping Dreadnoughts, but never see lists for it or other using them in game.

[Rybnick]

When the codex first came out I had a few lists I tried out with dreads in pods and they worked pretty well for the most part although they rarely lived past the first or second turn. I like podding in Sternguard a little more than dreads, dropping in a 10 man squad and combat squadding them once they land is a nice way to get some combi weapons in your opponents face on turn 1. It is somewhat expensive for a thrown away unit, but if theyir target is important enough it can definitely be worth it.

[Zid]

Drop pods work great for CC dreads, Libby dreads, and Sternguard. If you want to use em for anything else you need to build a list specifically around them, using locator beacons, etc.

[Sviox]

Drop pods work great for CC dreads, Libby dreads, and Sternguard. If you want to use em for anything else you need to build a list specifically around them, using locator beacons, etc.

 

And regular dreads with multi-melta. You can fire the turn you arrive and almost certainly hit the spot, on turn one. So you can drop one behind an enemy tank and pop it on turn 1.

[Zid]

Drop pods work great for CC dreads, Libby dreads, and Sternguard. If you want to use em for anything else you need to build a list specifically around them, using locator beacons, etc.

 

And regular dreads with multi-melta. You can fire the turn you arrive and almost certainly hit the spot, on turn one. So you can drop one behind an enemy tank and pop it on turn 1.

 

Yep, and pretty cheap too at 140 points! My prob is putting the dread so close to your foe without backup. It would be a minor speedbump. I find 2 landspeeders w/ MM's (120 points) is more effective overall unless you do a drop-only list. If your going drop heavy then I totally agree, a vanilla dread is one of your best bets for T1 anti-tank

[jeremy1391]

Drop dreads in conjunction with fast baals scout forward and then moving twelve inches work well together

also if u are going to do this u need three pods, two full of dreads and one with whatever and you need two Baal predators so that puts four armored vehicles down your opponents throat on turn one! Pretty impressive if you ask me.

[Brother-Captain Lucius]

I use 3 Pods currently in my Jump Inf/ Inf/ Dread army list. 2 Pods go with 2 Blood Taloned Furioso's and the last 1 belongs to a devastator squad so then i can drop the 2 dreads first turn. My dreads have survived first contact because i know smoke'em instead of shooting their melta's. The devastator squads Pod will normally come down to contest an objective or support the squad itself.

[Zealadin]

Biggest issue I see is you have to build your list around the Pods, to get two dropping first turn you need 3, which is over 100 points spent, and using locator beacons just adds more.

I see them as being quite good for a Termi/Dread List, but with the blood angels codex there is so much awesome stuff you miss out on when you design a list like this.

 

One thing you can do is give squads the pods, but drop the pods empty for LoS/blocking reasons. Mobile (kinda!) cover.

[Morticon]

As mentioned above, pods are really useful for getting our slow, big target Dreads up close and personal.

 

However, for most other BA units, we lose a lot of our intrinsic benefit when podding. Furious charge is a huge bonus for us, that really should be used as often as possible. Pods sometimes get you too close. For armies like SW that have counter and CCW/BP/Bolter this is a very viable option - for us- not so much.

[Redo]

As mentioned above, pods are really useful for getting our slow, big target Dreads up close and personal.

 

However, for most other BA units, we lose a lot of our intrinsic benefit when podding. Furious charge is a huge bonus for us, that really should be used as often as possible. Pods sometimes get you too close. For armies like SW that have counter and CCW/BP/Bolter this is a very viable option - for us- not so much.

 

Very much agree with this. Furthermore our BA tanks are fast and get out troops to where they need to go very quickly. Quicker than are fellow Marine brothers.

[Chimaera2000]

A nice advantage of the pods is that they're "fire-and-forget" objective-contesters. If you're fielding a mechanized list, it can force your opponent to devote some anti-vehicle fire towards a Pod that might be going towards your Rhinos.

 

So far I've used Drop Pods for Dreadnoughts. I find the magna-grapple really comes into its own when used with a Pod; the S8 grapple does a number on side and rear armor. In a 2 v 2 game, I dropped in a Death Company Dread that used the Grapple to destroy a Tau Hammerhead when it landed and an Exorcist two turns later while clawing apart a Broadside battlesuit in between.

[voi shet magir]

to get two dropping first turn you need 3, which is over 100 points spent, and using locator beacons just adds more.

...

One thing you can do is give squads the pods, but drop the pods empty for LoS/blocking reasons. Mobile (kinda!) cover.

First wave pods are sort of bad, I think. The late drops are as or more valuable, when it comes to shooting-Dreadnoughts and Sternguard. Drop Pod Assault is more of a nerfing rule on drop armies than an amazing alpha strike, since the alpha strike is never all that amazing. If the first wave needs support, then Scouting units are probably more helpful than adding more pods.

 

Empty pods are a nice option to have in a pinch, but hardly something to build into a list. They are, as you say, somewhat costly.

 

However, for most other BA units, we lose a lot of our intrinsic benefit when podding. Furious charge is a huge bonus for us, that really should be used as often as possible. Pods sometimes get you too close. For armies like SW that have counter and CCW/BP/Bolter this is a very viable option - for us- not so much.

 

Furious charge is not intrinsic though. The real advantage is that most units do not have it by default, which means that most units are not forced to pay for it. This does not just make it easier to use shooting units; RAS have many roles in which paying for FC, and even for FnP, is a marginal points expenditure and infrastructure cost which I do not want. For units that do usually have FC, drop pods are not too bad either; if Death Company are the less upgraded variety, they may never need to get back in their rhino, so they can save fifteen points and get a transport which may be more useful than an immobilized rhino.

[Ultramarcos]

I've put my Death Company in a Droppod, with the reletless rule + Bolters you can get some survivability until they are able to charge. As someone mentioned is really fire and forget. I consider this set up rather efficient for it's price. I'm looking for an oportunity to use the Dreads in the DPs as well.