Drop Podding Death Company

[Zynk Kaladin]

I've been working up a list that I am relatively happy with, but I've stumbled into a problem. How do I use a drop podded death company squad without getting their butts rocked in my opponent's turn? I play against my buddy's IG a lot and I've noticed anything I drop relatively close to him has a feast of template, plasma, and melta weapons (those damn chimera vets).

 

As I note in my list thread, I'm thinking of dropping them in midfield against an IG tank/vet list. My reasoning is the drop pod can block line of sight for the rest of my advancing army while my DC hide in cover on turn 1 (and pray for Night Fighting). Then once my army gets there, my DC advance with the giant Midnight tide towards my opponent's army. Heck, they might even benefit from my prescience libby when they charge!

 

How would you guys use them against IG? What about generally?

[Jorre]

You need to give them something else to think about! a combination of Death company and Sternguard or Furioso Dread in pods is an idea. That will mean you need 3 units in pods though otherwise they will come down alone.

 

Or vanguard veterans work well to tie shooty units up, but you will still need 2 units in pods to make sure the DC and Sternguard come in at the same time.

 

Obviously dropping somewhere with cover will be a big help to.

[DominicJ]

Dead centre of the enemy deployment zone is, suicide.

You need them on a flank or mid table

 

They are going to die no matter what you do, the point is, they die for a purpose, they pull the enemy out of posistion, they survive long enough to keep the out of position long enough for the rest of your army to slaughter them.

[Ushtarador]

Just drop them in his flank and advance the rest of your army on the other side, IG has a problem if even only one or two DC guys survive, he'll have to make tough decisions ;)

[MadMek83]

DS with your melta vets and kill the Chimera with heroic intervention + melta bombs. It forces your enemy make his vets deal your vanguard before they can freely deal sterns or DC. Within luck if you got few handflamers you can bait the IG vets charge against your VV's and drop few auto d3 wounds on them. It is suicidial and not guarantee to work but against IG vanguard vet's with hand flamers are quite nasty. IG, Eldars and other t3 opponents hate template weapons. getting hand flamers for vets and ( or DC ) will make IG player have some troubles. Just use your VV's as sniper / assasin unit to play out one chimera and possibly vets they are in there. that buys some times for your drop pod troops to get good potisions near flanks.

[Sviox]

Dead centre of the enemy deployment zone is, suicide.

You need them on a flank or mid table

 

They are going to die no matter what you do, the point is, they die for a purpose, they pull the enemy out of posistion, they survive long enough to keep the out of position long enough for the rest of your army to slaughter them.

 

This.

 

Also, if your dropping the DC, make sure you drop full 10 man with minimum upgrades (especially against IG where basic weapons are enough..). I recommend 10 man with about half with bolters and maybe one power fist to kill some tanks. Hitting them means the rest of your infantry should be able to advance pretty much without fears of being shot and hopefully hits the enemy lines at the next turn or so.

[Sir Blayse]

Also, the new rules for disembarking help you get your unit into a better location and not all grouped up for taking a blast template.

[DominicJ]

I usually suggest all bolters, three fists, but against guard, the extra fists might not be required.

 

As the game progresses, I think the bolters will be increasingly effective

[Zynk Kaladin]

Also, the new rules for disembarking help you get your unit into a better location and not all grouped up for taking a blast template.

 

Hmm, I forgot we can move 6" from a drop pod hull when disembarking. Sweet! This will help me give sweet love to cover. I picture a DC marine sprinting haphazardly from the ashes of a landed drop pod and tearing out a giant chunk of earth while shouting "I've got a jar or dirt!" :lol: . I'm assuming models that have disembarked may run in the shooting phase as well?

 

I agree that dropping them midfield or at a flank is the wisest choice. My experiments with knocking at my opponent's doorstep have ended in too many failures for my to do it with confidence, especially with only one drop pod. I would love to take sternguard as well because I think they're awesome, but I can't manage to squeeze them into my 1500 pt list. However, I'll keep them in mind when I want to try something new. I think just dropping only the death company will work well with my list. It will force my opponent to choose between dealing with an early threat (my death company) or a slightly later threat (2 squads of RAS, libby, sangP). Then when my Vanguard drop in I can eliminate any hard counter anti-air units to secure my raven's safety, bearing talon dready.

 

My next concern appears to be DC squad size. I'm running mine 8 man with 2 PF and, now that I look at everyone's advice, 4 bolters. I realize the extra PF might be too much for guard, but I want to keep my list relatively all-comers oriented so the added CC punch is nice.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Re-posting my reply to a thread by ianj253 about a month ago: Link

 

I've played drop-pod DC several times, and from my experience Pod-DC are all about prediction. I'm not talking about Infernous Pistol Pod-DC; they are handled completely differently. IP Pod-DC attempt to blow up a Tank upon arrival, followed by getting primaried off the table (but the rest of your units generally survive far better since the opponent's focus is on the DC).

 

However, non-IP Pod-DC function in a different capacity. Pod-DC as I mentioned are about prediction, and foiling your opponent's battle plan.

 

Examine his disposition. Determine where his highest value units are, and I'm not talking about points-value, I'm talking about the Units that will be positioned to score Victory Points. Not necessarily are positioned, but will be--- again, you must predict the opponent's moves.

 

So after examining his high-value units, you have to determine where the opponent wants to move them. Not only just where he wants to move next turn, but where he'd like to move them in the next few turns.

 

Once you've determined where your opponent wants to go, you have to decide where you can place the DC so that they will prevent or divert this movement. Two ways to do that are through direct diversion and indirect diversion. Direct diversion works by placing the DC square along the path to that spot, blocking movement and creating obstruction. Indirect diversion places the DC so that movement is not blocked, but the opponent is 'incentivized' to redirect their movement (usually to remove the DC as a threat to a third Unit, but sometimes because the opponent sees them and changes his plan because he takes the bait to divert to go kill them). Both diversions require a certain finesse to ensure the diversion lasts more than a single turn.

 

I'll say again because its important-- a diversion that only lasts one turn is usually a waste of effort (sometimes not, if the cost-benefit is in your favor). Dropping the DC to a place where you opponent can 'solve' them in one turn is rarely a good choice because generally you've only fed them the DC and probably didn't slow your opponent down very much. That's why prediction is so important-- you must get inside your opponent's head to determine "how they would like the win the game" and then placing the DC excactly where your opponent doesn't want them.

 

Drop-Pods deliver a flexibility which is hard to quantify. Jump Packs are a much more blunt and easy to use version of DC (and arugably the most openly powerful). I personally deride DC-Rhinos because there are few things less flexible than an melee-unit inside a Rhino now. But Pod-DC can achieve effective diversions far easier than the majority of other tools available to Blood Angels due to the fact they choose their deployment placement on Turn 1 (instead of 'Turn Zero', game setup).

 

TL;DR ---- drop the DC where they won't get shot or assaulted off the table in one turn. :P

[Zynk Kaladin]

Re-posting my reply to a thread by ianj253 about a month ago: Link

 

Awesome! How did I miss this last month? Quite embarrassing being caught in the act of forgetting the search function, tbh... :wub:

 

I guess performing well on the table does in fact take a certain amount of "know thine enemy" and know the objectives. I'm trying to get out of the point-and-click mentality I developed when I entered the game. It's more fun using strategy/tactics.