Furioso's - Foot or Drop Pod?

[Joasht]

Was wondering what you guys thought about walking vs podding the Furioso (I'm not taking about Stormravens here, because frankly they won't fit in my army). I'm planning on taking a pair of them, so that means I could either:

 

1) Save myself the points and run them up the board, praying that I have enough stuff elsewhere to either distract fire from them, or they become fire magnets themselves.

 

or

 

2) I suck it up and pay the extra points for Drop Pods.

 

My issue with the Pods is that you have to drop them down on turn 1, and for that whole turn your Furioso is pretty much going to be sitting there doing almost nothing; its not like some shooty unit that can just burst out of the pod guns blazing; this guy sits there, and you pray he survives for an entire turn. Plus the Drop Pods themselves aren't free, if I pod two of them I'd have to think about podding a third squad somewhere in the list, to get two of them coming down on turn 1.

 

What do you all think? Thanks!

[Volchek]

If you buy a drop pod for your dread, there's nothing in the rules that says you have to put the dread in the pod. I use the pod to contest an objective and draw fire and move my dread from cover to cover or march it behind a Rhino with DC inside.

[Brother_Dan'l]

Are they regular or DC? Have you the points to make one or both Librarians? What about giving the Pod a Locator Beacon and dropping in the enemy's half of the board but behind some decent cover, with or without the Dreadnought onboard? Do you have enough Rhino/Razors to give them cover as they cross the board?

 

Lots of items that can very much effect how to answer your original question.

[liberate_tutame]

The only time I use a drop-pod is when I am taking one dreadnought, otherwise I footslog them. With dreadnought being able to run and DC dreadies able to fleet there is very little justification for a 35 point "possible" objective-contesting, deep-striking, vehicle that costs you a kill point without the enemy ever firing at it.

 

In our new codex Deadnoughts are well able to take care of themselves. With Furioso's and their kick-arse 13 front armour I find it a lot harder to bother spending more for the extra armour than in the previous codex. DC dreadies have the awesome "None shall stay my wrath", in fact they are such a good unit they are the main reason that DC are still someway competitive. Yes rage is difficult to deal with, but very few armies can run 18" away every turn and not run out of space.

 

Run them, it means they draw fire that might be directed at the rest of the army, they are extremely threatening in whatever assault variation you choose, blood fists, or blood talons, frag cannons or no.

 

Meanwhile if you choose to Drop-pod them, you are forced to deploy them in a uncertain piecemeal fashion. (sidenote:if you aren't using drop-pods, then why are you buying them? I cannot understand the logic in spending 35 points a drop-pod for something you "might" use, that's not giving you tactical options, it's wasting points that could buy you other units) Not only that but with melta's so prevalent in lists, you are giving your opponents best defense for dreadnoughts (remember immobilized is as good as dead) an entire turn to slag your dreadies once it disembarks before it ever does anything. Everytime.

 

The only time drop-podding dreadies should be considered is in two situations. 1) When you are drop-podding your entire army. This migitages the piecemeal nature of the drop-pod assault. 2) When you are using a single drop-pod and looking for the alpha strike. The works particularly well with a Furioso with a meltagun and a Frag Cannon. You land Turn one, disembark and hurt the hell out of some elite unit (e.g genestealers) with the frag or you slag a vehicle. This also means that your opponent has a threat on his side of the table that really needs to be dealt with, distracting him from dealing with the rest of your army.

[Kunanaki]

Personally, I use the Drop Pod myself with a Blood Talon Dreadnought with a Heavy Flamer.

 

I use it to basically threaten the side wherever it is. Drop down, choose to pop smoke, and basically make sure that if they don't destroy it, they are going to suffer. Personally, I sometimes even hide the Dread behind the pod and whatever I'm threatening, so that it can run around and then dash into whatever needs to die. The only thing a Talon Dread can't threaten is another Furioso Dreadnought, or anything with armor 12 all around......and Monstrous Creatures. Meq's and Geq's are all just fodder for the thing, making them run away or concentrate fire on it, while the rest of my army closes in and crush the spine.

[Joasht]

Are they regular or DC? Have you the points to make one or both Librarians? What about giving the Pod a Locator Beacon and dropping in the enemy's half of the board but behind some decent cover, with or without the Dreadnought onboard? Do you have enough Rhino/Razors to give them cover as they cross the board?

 

Lots of items that can very much effect how to answer your original question.

 

Basic Talon Furioso. I like the DC dread but I'm not the biggest fan of the latest DC (which I would have to take) given that they always have Rage and the Librarian Dread is IMO too expensive for what it does. Some would disagree with me and I'm certain there are uses for it (and I'm almost certain I'd get around to trying it eventually) but *for now* I like my Dreads cheap :)

[Zid]

I always pod in a Furioso with Frag Cannon and BF w/ Melta. It drops in, takes down... something, and usually dies. But I use it to target something thats worth the shot, take it out, and die. Its great to take down some of my least favorite things to tangle with (Demolisher Russes/the plasma russes), or drop in and frag cannon a crapload of orcs or something.

[Spagunk]

I always pod in a Furioso with Frag Cannon and BF w/ Melta. It drops in, takes down... something, and usually dies. But I use it to target something thats worth the shot, take it out, and die. Its great to take down some of my least favorite things to tangle with (Demolisher Russes/the plasma russes), or drop in and frag cannon a crapload of orcs or something.

 

 

Doesn't the frag cannon replace the meltagun arm? I thought the codex outlines what arm can be changed to which weapon.

[Haunter!]

I always pod in a Furioso with Frag Cannon and BF w/ Melta. It drops in, takes down... something, and usually dies. But I use it to target something thats worth the shot, take it out, and die. Its great to take down some of my least favorite things to tangle with (Demolisher Russes/the plasma russes), or drop in and frag cannon a crapload of orcs or something.

 

 

Doesn't the frag cannon replace the meltagun arm? I thought the codex outlines what arm can be changed to which weapon.

You can replace either arm and the built-in weapon that arm has.

[Brother_Dan'l]

There's very little as good at knocking out armor as a Frag Cannon/Melta Gun/Magna Grapple Furioso. And when you can safely dump it into the rear of a Guard army the havoc it causes is magical. Particularly when there is a infantry squad between you and the target vehicle. The Frag Cannon can often kill both units and if not and you get to drag the vehicle thru the survivors... B)

 

But back to the original point...

 

If you are going to field cheap (no upgrades at all?) Blood Talon Furioso Dreadnoughts then you may as well just run them behind your Transports. They aren't equipped to hurt the enemy in the shooting phase nor to survive the amount of fire you'll take if you pod them in. And if you aren't willing to spend the points on EA they obviously aren't that important to your plans anyway. So run across the field and if you get lucky, you get lucky. :P