Drop Pods:Essential?

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

A friend of mine who plays tau has been telling me all about his new dex, all the new wargear, reduced costs and new units, and when I told him I was giving my thousand sons a brake, and I was going to use my wolves and eldar, he told me that Space wolves nowadays need drop pods so that the long fangs don't get blasted to oblivion before they can do anything, is this true? 

Prior to this I have used a foot force with the odd supporting vindicator, and dreadnoughts and land speeders, so I am wondering, is this true?

[Edge-of-Infinity]

Against Tau then a foot force would be blasted to kingdom come with the new weaponry that the Tau have. Personally I wouldn't give Long Fangs a drop pod. A razorback with some anti-tank weaponry would work in the same manner. The good thing is that the Razorback is more mobile. I haven't seen all of the new weapons for the Tau so they probably do have some nasty anti tank weapons themselves. If you use Drop Pods I'd give them to Grey Hunters. Drop Pods would also be good for Dreadnoughts.

 

Whether it's true or not would depend on the army your against I guess. 

[Forté]

Use cover and smash him in close combat where he is weakest.

[Schertenleib]

With my Thunderwolves and Greyhunters rushing forward, The guys I pay are usually too busy to deal with my Longfangs (in cover, high if possible).

[Rift Blade]

I have 3 Tau players in my club & yeah, footsloggin is a no no against Tau, old or new. They got 2 new flyers--a bomber & a fighter as well appearently some of their battlesuits can now get skyfire. Also, the Sky Ray has been changed & I think one of the guys said it can now have  Sky Fire. I'll probably find out more tommorrow night. One of the Tau players is starting a Necromunda league so we'll talk in between fights. He's the best out of the three as he always reads his rules about a dozen times before he plays & he has been waiting for this Codex for a while. But yeah, Drop Pods will help but are not required. Jaws against their Broad sides still rocks. Get a good sized Gray Hunter pack or 2 into CC with them & you should be good. Oh yeah, if your opponent uses those Forge World Tetras, kill them first! Good luck.

[kyronzz]

charging up the middle on foot isnt a great strategy since all tau units (yes, vehicles too) can overwatch, as well as if multiple squads are close enough to a squad getting charged they can now have a multi squad overwatch. The long fangs could have problems even if they are in deep cover since if there is 2 marks on that squad the tau can completely negate cover saves.

[Reede]

A friend of mine has been playing some Fluffy Salamander's but was having some poor luck against my other friends IG or Tau. They just kept getting shot up before being able to make it to his lines. After adding drop pods to his list, he's really seen a difference in his performance for the better.

 

While I certainly wouldn't say they are necessary (though maybe moreso against Tau) I am particularly fond of them, as they seem to really allow you to get up and in your enemies face much quicker, and as a Wolves player, I am more than happy to do so. 

 

Currently I'm working on a Redmaw list that includes 3 drop pods, so that I can be pretty true to the Redmaw style as I surround my enemies as I leap for their throat. I sadly haven't had a chance to play it yet, but judging from my friends reactions as I tell them about it, the look of pure horror on their faces, I think it might work out pretty well.

[Ghostwolfalpha]

With their new overwatch shenanigans, making it to cc just got harder, so you need to make good decisions about what unit charges first and takes all that overwatch fire. I would have at least one or two pods vs tau or IG, you need to put pressure on them to force their hand and make their decisions for them. We have no chance of winning in a shootoff, so we need to take the fight to them, but be very smart about it. Jaws of the World Wolf and heavy flamers destroy tau. I like to put a Dreadnought in a pod, drop it right behind their gun line, double flamer them to open a hole for my TWC or grey hunters and proceed to club baby seals. Or you could give it a Multimelta and put down that pesky hammerhead or sunshark sitting in the backfield. Last time I played tau, I had an all dp army, and when I told him, he went pale and put all his units in one area to limit my drop zones. It was priceless.

[Ragnars Claw]

Most new tau lists are going to be kicking out 150ish S5 to S7 shots a turn so foot slogging will be a quick way to die against them. Pods will mitigate that a bit but against other armies podding seems like a good way to throw away your scoring units.

 

I guess it depends if you take a generic all comers list or change your list each game depending on what you are facing?

[Blacksad]

it doens't mean cause a unit has a droppod as dedicated transport that they have to be in it....

[Ragnars Claw]

True, and a good point :)

 

I just any see footslogging as viable against the armies I play against typically so kind of forget about it as a tactic. It can definitely have its place though.

[Rift Blade]

If your group allows Forge World, a Dread or a Contemptor in A Lucius pattern Drop Pod is a good choice. You might also try an HQ with Saga of THe Hunter with a Wolf Guard unit & ded.trans of a LR of some type & outflank the unit. A bunch of Termies in a LR showing up on their flank should upset his plans.

[elithren]

With the new tau, av 14 is your friend. Only the hammerhead (S 10) and fusion blaster (9" melta range) can actually pen the vehicle and BS3 gives them a low chance of glancing it to death with the few other stuff that strength 8. While the codex really shuts down on flyers, you'll definitely see an increase of land raiders and monoliths due to their resilience to their shooting.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Most games I play are about 1000-1500.

Are they as bad at those point levels?

How many do you normally use? In my 1000pts for example, by dropping my wolf priests gear, I could give either one of my grey hunter packs or my wolf guard terminator pack the drop pod (in which case the wolf guard in PA with twin wolf claws would proberbly become another termi).

On special/heavy weapons, what do people think will be best? Can land speeders and dreads help?

What heavy weapon is best to give our terminators? I can see a case for a heavy flamer if I take the drop pod option for them, but the assault cannon and the cyclone do have the power to blow anything else away. A heavy flamer would mean, if  I swapped my PA Wolf guard for a termi one with a power weapon, I would not need to drop either my wolf priests Wolf tooth necklace or runic armour..