Drop Pod Assault BA Army

[appiah4]

Anyone tried a Drop Pod Assault BA army?

 

Could you share your experiences?

 

At this point I'm trying to decide whether to buy a bunch of Rhinos or make cardboard drop pods for my army..

 

I should probably mention that I'm going for a sort of different army build, lots of tacticals, Bolter Death Company, Tactical Terminators, Shooty Dreadnoughts, Devastators..

[Atlantic]

Dreadnaughts and Drop Pods are a beautiful thing.

 

I think your DC is better served in a Land Raider.

 

I put bolters on my DC. Bolter DC is the only tactical squad worth having.

[Cpt.Machiavi]

I agree Dreadnoughts in Drop pods are nice, but a full Drop Pod army maybe not. Problem is that when Drop pods first came out they came on with a vengeance and marine players were doing some damage with them. But people learned how to beat them and they slowly faded out. I still see a few remnants of those armies being played and depending on the mission or other army being played they usually do not do so well.

 

The army usually lacks mobility to seize objectives for one. Alot of people are playing some real shooty armies and will just kite you around instead of allowing a Blood Angel player to get Fur Chg on them. Even if you have alot of shooty yourself I think you are going to find yourself in alot of positions wishing you had some type of transport for at least some of your units. If you really want a transport I would go Rhino. They are Fast, can get you there , and help dictate the battle and how you want it to go.

 

 

I hope it helps you out some.

[Atlantic]

Just food for thought, but I know a guy who always brings 5 or 6 Drop Pods in every tournament list he makes. He usually leaves them empty and drops them on objectives just to dilute his opponents shooting.

 

It is definitely a gimmic, but I've seen it work pretty well. With 3 objectives, he puts two armoured targets on all of them that must be destroyed. While his opponent is busy shooting them he ends up doing some pretty hefty damage.

 

I've also seen this done with Mycetic Spores.

[knife&fork]

I've also seen this done with Mycetic Spores.

 

Then you've seen someone breaking the rules :)

 

Mycetic spores cannot be dropped empty according to the FAQ.

 

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_Custom...ranids_2010.pdf

[Brother_Byhlli]

I've been looking for a delivery system for my all-Death Company army and I'm considering Drop Pods. I'm thinking Astorath and Lemartes in an elite squad with jump packs, then maybe 30 Death Company spread across three or four Drop Pods plus a couple of Death Company Dreadnoughts, also in Drop Pods.

 

Turn one: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out. Turn two: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out.

 

Let's see you dealing with that!

[Morollan]

I've been looking for a delivery system for my all-Death Company army and I'm considering Drop Pods. I'm thinking Astorath and Lemartes in an elite squad with jump packs, then maybe 30 Death Company spread across three or four Drop Pods plus a couple of Death Company Dreadnoughts, also in Drop Pods.

 

Turn one: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out. Turn two: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out.

 

Let's see you dealing with that!

 

The problem with that is that it could be:

 

Turn one: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out. Turn two: Nothing turns up. Turn three: Nothing turns up: Turn 4: Nothing turns up. Turn five: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out.

[Lesek]

Yes, I have. I've been playing around with drop pod lists for a while now, mainly because I love the imagery and was told I'd never get them to work. Yeah, I'm stubborn like that. The key problem I found with the list was a lack of mobility, gradually my list evolved to counter this. You can find my current list in this thread.

 

The other thing I've found is that you need to play aggressively with them or they will get torn apart. From experience I'd advise against a full drop pod army, but all deepstriking lists built around a core of pods are extremely viable.

[Brother_Byhlli]

I've been looking for a delivery system for my all-Death Company army and I'm considering Drop Pods. I'm thinking Astorath and Lemartes in an elite squad with jump packs, then maybe 30 Death Company spread across three or four Drop Pods plus a couple of Death Company Dreadnoughts, also in Drop Pods.

 

Turn one: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out. Turn two: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out.

 

Let's see you dealing with that!

 

The problem with that is that it could be:

 

Turn one: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out. Turn two: Nothing turns up. Turn three: Nothing turns up: Turn 4: Nothing turns up. Turn five: three or four Drop Pods land in my opponent's deployment zone, twenty Death Company and some Death Company Dreadnoughts pour out.

 

To be honest, I'd probably back my 1,000 points of Death Company against your 2,000 points of whatever if my Death Company start the game slavering in your face, spread in a wide enough net that you're not escaping the charges. But I get your point, definitely.

 

I would fervently hope if I was playing this army that my opponent would see my Drop Pods and hold everything in reserve himself. "Hahaha!" he would say - "I've foiled your alpha strike plans!"

 

"Oh-ho-ho-ho!" I would reply - "look at what's waiting for you in your deployment zone when you decide to come onto the table!"

 

Actually, thinking about it, the biggest weakness this list has is that I quite likely give up the charge with the way of playing I'm advocating. So perhaps I'm not dropping in your deployment zone - perhaps I'm dropping halfway across the table, just outside of your charge range. That makes more sense.

[Brother Landrain]

I am adding Two and maybe three, Drop Pods for my Dreadnoughts for my Shield of Fear List.

I think that they add a tactical Factor to the list.

I guarantee One dropping first turn, and I may or May not have a Librarian Dread in it.

This I think can be usefull in a lot of different situations. This would allow me to deploy a Librarian very deep into the enemy zone at the start of the game.

If I don't put the Dreads in the Pods, I would drop them empty and use them as Roadblocks/Cover Shields to make the enemy move where I want him to.

Also they can be used to contests objectives if needed.

While It gives up 2-3 Kill points, my List already has 23 Kill points, 9 of which are AV13, 3 is not that many more.

It also makes the enemy waste a turn/shoot/assaulting the Pods, when he is not attacking a more important unit.

 

I don't think an All Pod army is very viable, similar to an all DS Army, mostly because of the inherent unreliability of Reserves.

The DPA rules sure help a lot, but the successive waves of DP's are just too random.

This is why I see many Drop Pod Lists that exploit the empty Drop Pod ruling on sucessive turns.

Not being able to assault is also another problem, as you leave yourself usually at close range and sitting out where you can be shot/assaulted.

For that reason, I think that Space Wolves are much better using a Drop Pod Army with counter attack.

As for BA, This would have been a perfect role for a Captain to play, and become more usefull; give the captain a reserve roll modifier/reroll and thus more reserve reliability.

[Brother_Byhlli]

As for BA, This would have been a perfect role for a Captain to play, and become more usefull; give the captain a reserve roll modifier/reroll and thus more reserve reliability.

 

Added to Descent of Angels, we'd be looking at practically guaranteed jump infantry arriving on turn two.

 

Not saying that's good or bad; just pointing out that we do already have a modifier.

[Morollan]

Actually, thinking about it, the biggest weakness this list has is that I quite likely give up the charge with the way of playing I'm advocating. So perhaps I'm not dropping in your deployment zone - perhaps I'm dropping halfway across the table, just outside of your charge range. That makes more sense.

 

That's always a problem with any deep striking army but my main concern would still be the late arrival of any reserves. With an all DC army you are relying on tabling the opponent as you can't claim objectives. If half your army turns up late then you're going to have a hell of a time doing that.

 

Would be fun to try though!

[Brother Landrain]

As for BA, This would have been a perfect role for a Captain to play, and become more usefull; give the captain a reserve roll modifier/reroll and thus more reserve reliability.

 

Added to Descent of Angels, we'd be looking at practically guaranteed jump infantry arriving on turn two.

 

Not saying that's good or bad; just pointing out that we do already have a modifier.

 

I meant that the Captain would only be able to modify non-JP reserves.

Just to make him useful, and not just some extra paper to recycle..