Drop Pod Devestators?

[Montuhotep]

I have a Dev squad of 4 plasma cannons, 5 bolters and a storm bolter on the sarge. I had it in mind, after a few painful experiences on the receiving end of drop pods, that it might be an idea to load them in a pod, then dump them on a flank, or better yet, in the oppo's rear.

 

I know that the heavies couldn't fire off the bat, but there are 5 bolters and 2 stormbolters (if you count the one in the pod) that could lay down a decent amount of suppression fire. Plus there'd be other pods coming down in the same turn - a full squad of Sternguard for sure and maybe an L.O.D squad just for laughs.

 

Given the mutual-support angle that this would throw up, is this still a sensible idea or am I best forgetting the whole concept?

[Captain Juan Juarez]

In theory, and also visually, it does sound quite good but even with that support you're liable to get stomped on because it's easy for your opponent to consolidate is line and turn to deal with you - then the pain begins.

[greatcrusade08]

I have a Dev squad of 4 plasma cannons, 5 bolters and a storm bolter on the sarge. I had it in mind, after a few painful experiences on the receiving end of drop pods, that it might be an idea to load them in a pod, then dump them on a flank, or better yet, in the oppo's rear.

 

I know that the heavies couldn't fire off the bat, but there are 5 bolters and 2 stormbolters (if you count the one in the pod) that could lay down a decent amount of suppression fire. Plus there'd be other pods coming down in the same turn - a full squad of Sternguard for sure and maybe an L.O.D squad just for laughs.

 

Given the mutual-support angle that this would throw up, is this still a sensible idea or am I best forgetting the whole concept?

 

given the cost, its probably unwise to use them like this IMO.

the stormbolter on the pod cannot fire the turn it arrives either, so youve a 250 points unit putting out maybe 12 bolter shots max.. thy have little or no close combat ability so will likely get gimped in your oppoennts turn, as they would pose a big threat.. it would only take a cc scout squad or a few bikers to tie them and wear them down

 

Sw however can take logan in a pod with devs and he can give them relentless, meaning they could fire on the DS

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

I could see it being useful in certain scenarios vs certain opponents. I play against Mechdar regularly with my Wolves and have a hell of a hard time positioning my Long Fangs so that they can actually shoot something. A drop pod into a piece of terrain somewhere in the middle could really help vs an opponent with strong mobility and perhaps force them forward when they otherwise would've hung back and taken potshots at you... it's all about the scenario. I think attaching a drop pod rather than a Rhino/Razorback could be especially useful in a Drop Pod list to up the Drop Pod descent count and provide a deployment option in extreme circumstances, such as Dawn of War.

 

Honestly it's not terrible.

[Wolf Priest Haelaeif]

Why don't you just simply try it and tell us your results? It's not like you'd have to bet money on it to have a few games with that setup. Might be you'll catch your opponent on the wrong foot with something unusual like that, too.

[Orkdung]

My concern would be getting them tied up in HtH, which would be counter-productive.

 

Drop in, miss a turn. Some of the Bolters get shot to pieces, you're engaged and locked into HtH.

 

Just place them well and hopefully things will work out.

 

Maybe good for dropping in on a flank?

 

As greatcrusade08 stated, my worry would be the waste of points, if they got hosed or tied up in HtH.

 

.

[celes]

You can combat squad them right out of the drop pod as well if you want. I had a similar idea not too long ago, only I was thinking multi-meltas for one half and heavy bolters for the other, splitting them up as soon as the doors pop.

[Atlantic]

If it were possible to not drop them until turn 3, it might be pretty scary. (but you'd only get 2 turns of shooting for what you are paying!)

 

Dropping Logen into the mix is an interesting idea, but man that is an expensive point investment for a unit that is pretty well exposed.

[Emperors Immortals]

I use pods quite often and ive found that a dev squad can be combat squaded to make shielding unit for the heavy weapons with another pod (3 podlist) bringing down a plain tac squad.Its the beacon on teh sarge that brings down the termies that are the real plan though, as suddenly youve claimed a table quarter in his DZ.

 

Tricky yes, but getting it right and ,seeing your opponents face, can make all those efforts worthwhile

[Stercus]

I've seen this work in two ways before, but in both cases it's a long way from a sure thing. First was a guy who podded five devastators with two multimeltas in the opponents backfield, got lucky with cover saves from the pod and then toasted a land raider next turn. The other was a full ten man squad with four hvy bolters, a storm bolter on the sarge and Lysander leading the army. This squad podded in on a flank, just beyond charge range of a huge horde of Orks. They ripped the guts out of the greenskins first wave using bolter drill and even survived a turn or two when charged. In both cases, the devs only worked because other units were on hand as support after the initial attacks. It's almost certain you could spend the points more effectively (cough...sternguard), but in both cases it was tremendous fun to watch, and surely thats the whole point. If it isnt fun then you're just solving equations.

[Muctar]

I've used a 10-strong squad in a pod before and it worked out well. I was running 4 MM however, and the rest of my army was built to get into the midfield (and further) quickly. In my experience either the devs got shot up pretty badly and a lot of my army was ignored, or it was the opposite. Either was they were useful, and extremely fun to play with. By the looks of things, most opponents had heart palpitations when they dropped in the middle of the board.

[Oppressor]

I would think that combat squading the full devastator squad so that the bolters and storm bolter squad screen the heavy weapons filled squad would be your best course of action. The turn after they all show up and deploy, if your screen squad is not in close combat, you can move them out of the way to avoid giving cover to units you want to shoot at, but keep them in a position where they can still shoot or intercept incomming units lokking to lock your heavy weapons squad up in close combat.

[Gothical]

I think it could work.

 

I've seen it done with 10 men carrying 4 Multi-Meltas and it was glorious, nothing armoured wanted to get close to that formation. Dropped on a flank (perhaps opposite to your main strike) means that the enemy has to either take troops away from those facing your main assault to deal with them, weakening their army in other areas; or he ignores them and gives you a decent control of that flank - being able to shut down any armoured push means their mobility to counter your own manoeuvres is limited (particularly if opting for Combat Squad deployment).

 

Another that caught my eye was a 10-man squad packing 4 Heavy Bolters, accompanied by Lysander. It is an extremely expensive unit, but it can murder most infantry in short order - and your opponent does not want to counter-charge them either thanks to having the big man in there. If you need to, you can even go on the offensive - they all carry Bolt Pistols to get a bit of damage in before the charge, and there's not a lot that will stand up to Lysander in a fist-fight.

 

There is one aspect that I have often seen overlooked, which may be a game-changer if you are looking at the Plasma Cannon route in an army with more Drop Pods. As far as I know, there is nothing stating that you *have* to deploy via the Drop Pod, it is just like any other Dedicated Transport. That means you can run them empty, and I feel this is best with Devastators (who can act from your side of the board if they need to). So, upgrade it with a Deathwind Launcher and use it to up the number of Drop Pods in the army, and either use it as a first-turn unit (with Locator Beacon to help reserves follow in, particularly if they are using Jump Packs or are Terminators) or hold it back to get things such as your Dreadnoughts down on the first turn. Having a large template and a Deep Strike focal point is going to be a bit of a pain for the enemy (and with no unit inside you can be very daring with the placement, especially as the Pod can't be destroyed/mishap by enemy units and terrain), and will they really want to expend any of their firepower on an empty unit when the rest of your army is advancing/also slamming down around them?

 

It is risky, and certainly not often done - but I do see some potential behind the idea. Give it a go!

[Chengar Qordath]

The problem that springs to mind with combat-squadding drop pod Devastators is that it leaves all you heavy weapons in a single easily target unit with no ablative wounds. Even if you can keep your five bolter models positioned to block a charging assault unit (not at all a sure thing if said unit is jump infantry/bikes/has some other mobility boost), they won't be able to completely block enemy shooting. Plenty of situations where a 4+ cover save won't be enough to save the squishy heavy weapon unit from getting shot to bits.

[MordentHex]

I think it is viable only as a tactical option. It would be good for putting your devs on an objective and/or securing a table quarter or something to that effect. As long as your not dop-poding them right into the middle of your opponents army I think the options it would allow you would come in handy especially in non-killpoint missions

[IronDragon66]

i think its could definetley work.....

- you would need to have a big nasty front line that would take your enemies attention away from the pod coming behind them. Like a bunch of assault squads or tactical squads in rhinos. You just dont want your enemy turning around.

 

IronDragon66

[Brother_Fatiswon]

i think the rule of 3 works well here, ie x3 heavy weapons so you have that extra body to take a wound instead.

 

personally i like using them with ZERO heavy weapons as a Personal guard for my Calgar in PA

[Chengar Qordath]

i think the rule of 3 works well here, ie x3 heavy weapons so you have that extra body to take a wound instead.

 

personally i like using them with ZERO heavy weapons as a Personal guard for my Calgar in PA

Unless I missed something, there's no reason to take a Devastator squad and not give it heavy weapons. If you really want to give Calgar ten PA bodyguards, just take a tactical squad so they can score (plus the free special&heavy weapon might come in handy).

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Does anyone think 10 Devestators with 4 heavy weapons (all the same, either all multie melta, plasma cannon or heavy bolter) and a Sargent in a drop pod would work if the whole army was in drop pods? was thinking of possibly doing a small 500-1000pts pre heresy/heresy era Salamanders and figured to have it entirely mounted in drop pods would make it different from all the other armies I have ever played.

[Sir Blayse]

I actually think that a drop pod would be the best way to get a squad of MM devs into the middle of the board. Just drop them into terrain, if you scatter off a bit, then use that turn to also run and get into position. If you have 2 of these squads, then you could shut down vehicle movement really well, plus kill whatever comes at you. Just need to take full squads and give the pods beacons. Save 2 tac squads to drop in after the first turn. When the opponent comes after the devs, then you can drop in and bolter them to death.

 

This is really good for games where you have multiple objectives in your own area and you know the opponent has to come get them. Otherwise you can drop the pod empty and just deploy the devs as needed.

 

As for 1000 pts and drop pods...

 

 

HQ-Libby -100

2xTac Squads- M/ML( orMM) and Drop Pod- 420

1xTac Squad - Flamer/ML and Drop pod- 205

Dev Squad- 4xMM and Drop pod w/locator beacon- 275

 

Gives plenty of scoring and punch, decent model count for 1000 points.

[Brother_Fatiswon]

i think the rule of 3 works well here, ie x3 heavy weapons so you have that extra body to take a wound instead.

 

personally i like using them with ZERO heavy weapons as a Personal guard for my Calgar in PA

Unless I missed something, there's no reason to take a Devastator squad and not give it heavy weapons. If you really want to give Calgar ten PA bodyguards, just take a tactical squad so they can score (plus the free special&heavy weapon might come in handy).

yup you missed it, it's a matter of presenting target choices to your opponent. any amount of fire/attack that are leveled at a Non scoring unit like this, pulls that attack from effecting "scoring" units.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

But see, a unit designed to hide itself by being bad is just that: bad. I could take a squad of five scouts armed with mixed weapons and charge them across the board, and they would probably be ignored. But they'd still be bad, and wouldn't really do anything. Plus, you've got Calgar in there, so you're going to be shot at anyways, so why not give them standard tac squad options, and have Calgar run around your various tac squads. Spending a full 10% of your points on a unit that won't do squat beyond add wounds to a character who takes up another 10% of your points just doesn't seem very efficient, especially considering the fact that you can't use them as ablative wounds in close combat. If you make them tac marines, you're stil getting ten wounds, but this time the wounds are actually doing something. Have you considered honor guard, actually?

[Chengar Qordath]

But see, a unit designed to hide itself by being bad is just that: bad.

Have to agree there. Designing units to be so worthless that your opponent won't bother to kill them just doesn't strike me as a winning move.

 

If you're worried about having enough scoring units, putting more scoring units on the board is always a good move. Unless you routinely field a full six Troop choices, there's room to add more scoring units.

 

The other alternative to putting more scoring units in your army is fielding dangerous units that demand the enemy try to counter them. Vindicators don't score, but no army is going to like eating their pieplate of doom every turn. Devastators with no heavy weapons don't really demand enemy attention. There's not really much of a target choice for your enemy to make when their options are to kill a scoring unit, or kill a worthless garbage unit.

[greatcrusade08]

i have to agree with CQ.

have you considered ten assault marines with dual flamers.. with calgar your gunna want to assault anyway

sans packs that unit gets thier drop pod for free aswell

[Atlantic]

I'm warming to this idea.

 

I think a full 10 man squad of Devastators packing 4 Multi Meltas could be a parking lot lists worst night mare.