Drop Pod Assault

[MTMK15]

Drop pod assault states that at the beginning of your first turn, you must take half your drop pods and make a drop pod assault which arrive on your first turn. so if i have only 1 drop pod this rule kinda sucks cuz i have to unleash my ironclad dreadnought way too far of the enemy to use his melee prowess. so is this rule a must do?

thanks

[Isiah]

Yes. If the wording says 'must' then you must.

 

Cheers

I

[MTMK15]

and there goes my drop pod.......

[Tanhausen]

You could always drop him close to the enemy "base" and wreck his gunline.

[Dhx711]

My group has always played with the rule that if you want to Drop Pod Assault, you announce such at the beginging of your 1st turn. If not the pods follow the regular deep strike rules. I don't think the DPA assault is the only intended use for the DP.

[AyanamiKun]

The rules for drop pods are pretty clear (maybe even impressingly clear for GW standards? :rolleyes: ). If you have drop pods in your army list you have to deploy half of them (round up!) at the beginning of the first round. No chance to go around this. So yes, using one pod can be quite useless sometimes. Especially when you have to go first and your opponent puts everything into reserves.

[Tanhausen]

On the other hand, if you go second, that lone pod might be a blessing!

[AyanamiKun]

Yes, if you go second a lone Dreadnought next to the opponent's key unit can be a very nasty surprise :P

 

What helps is to have several pods and just drop some of them empty. You can just drop an empty pod in turn 1 and then bring in the second full pod later via reserve rules. It costs some points though ...

[Ming]

Yep, having a pod and ironclad provide enough threat to make the opponent reserve everything is a great tactic, any day of the week. You then can control game tempo, as his army may dribble in while you destroy it. If you have the long range firepower to hit his deployment edge(s), you now control the game at his peril. In that case, drop the ironclad at some viable terrain to get a cover save , forcing the opponent to likely enter the table at points that are better fire lanes for you. Not only do you now control the tempo, you also control the location, of your firefights and assaults.

[Hellios]

Drop pod assault states that at the beginning of your first turn, you must take half your drop pods and make a drop pod assault which arrive on your first turn. so if i have only 1 drop pod this rule kinda sucks cuz i have to unleash my ironclad dreadnought way too far of the enemy to use his melee prowess. so is this rule a must do?

thanks

 

You do realise you can drop it off pretty much anywhere and if you really want you can deploy him on foot and fire the pod empty :P although I don't see this being much help in most cases.

[MTMK15]

so final verdict is drop pod good for only 1 ironclad?

[chromedog]

If I'm using drop pods I use 4 of them (Unless I'm playing a large apoc game where I use ALL 15 of them). Yes, I DO have 15 drop pod models. No, they are not ALL GW models - but as I do not play in a GW store, or any store at all, this is not a consideration.

 

3 have dreads in them, 1 has sternguard.

2 of the dreads are ironclads - the other is a las/missile dread (his pod gets dropped empty and has a locator beacon).

So turn 1 I drop an empty and another pod and use the pods themselves as cover.

[Grey Mage]

so final verdict is drop pod good for only 1 ironclad?

Yes, its often a good choice, but thats a tactics question.

 

If you want good advice on how to use your pod in any number of situations by all means make a thread in Tactica Astartes, just two subforums down from here.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

If you're only using one drop pod, I would drop on the enemy's flanks and deploy the dreadnought next to a nice, expensive unit. You won't die because that wonderful inertial guidance system and if you deploy behind the pod they don't have line of sight, so they can't shoot you and you can assault them next turn.

[HiveFleetEzekial]

and if you deploy behind the pod they don't have line of sight, so they can't shoot you and you can assault them next turn.

 

That entirely depends on how his local group plays drop pods. Not everyone has official models for them, and not all of those that do model them in the same way either (openable or sealed). And not many can agree on them, so there's not much good telling him in a definite manner that he 'will' be fine doing that.

[Xaraon]

Another suggestion is to drop one, empty or full, close enough to an objective the enemy has controled to contest it. Latter in the game he may forget that the drop pod is still a "unit". It may or may not help to not shoot at models.

[Isiah]

Guys this is the +OR+ - where your tactical insights are out of its remit :) .

 

Please use the +TACTICA ASTARTES+ to ensure that everyone benefits.

 

Original rules question has been answered.

 

Cheers

I