Drop Pod Army Tactica: My thoughts after a tournament

[nevaenuffbass]

Nothing starts on the table, hence the term "null deployment". However, by the end of turn 1, four out of seven drop pods have deployed. These are pretty hard to kill with corbulo and FNP bubbles. 

[SamaNagol]

My bad, all this Tau and Eldar reading has warped my brain. Grapple is AP2. How silly of me.

 

However, my point still stands.... you raised the issue of giving away First Blood. Clearly one of the most important parts of Alpha Strike Drop Pod lists is securing First Blood and Line Breaker.

 

If the fear of giving away First Blood with an AV12 model is there with the DC dread, it is still there with the Drop Pod.

 

Not that I personally run DC Dreads in Pods atm, but just raising a counter point.

[knife&fork]

 Clearly one of the most important parts of Alpha Strike Drop Pod lists is securing First Blood and Line Breaker.

 

Scoring first blood is a bonus. What really matters is trying to cripple your opponent or at least force him to react against you instead of playing the match according to his own plan.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

One of my regular opponent is a necron player. Every game I have ever played against him using DS / pods he targets a drop pod wherever it lands to get first blood (if I haven't killed a unit that is). It's often been this that has won him the game. 

[knife&fork]

Improve your alpha strike.

 

Doesn't necessarily mean more points in pods, could also be things like long range shooting that can engage him from outside the 0-36" zone where Necrons are at their strongest.  

 

Not an easy job mind you as we are also strongest up close, generally within a 24" zone. 

 

Perhaps you are also spreading your killing power too much? While it might seem wasteful, overkilling a single unit is often worth more than several crippled units (particularly in the case of necrons).

Less units means less options for your opponent on how to play the game, plus you can avoid those annoying situations where single models sneaks off and win a game. 

 

EDIT: Sometimes you have to gamble, simply because you are out matched or outgunned. Sometimes crippling a unit will render it irrelevant. We should just strive to avoid those actions whenever possible.

[nevaenuffbass]

I'm surprised that you struggle to get first blood. Sternguard alone should claim something. It's kinda the point of the drop pod list. 

 

10 months down the track, and i feel like the BA dex and drop pod assault isn't really that competitive any more. Tau with all their interceptor, and the other new books do it better. I'd probably use Codex: SM to build it now. 

[Morticon]

Maybe his buddy is using Pylons?

[Chaplain Admetus]

There's too much unreliability in a pod list for my liking. Pods are easy to kill (really easy, to the point where I'm surprised mine don't die more often) , crons are just better at it than most armies as they're basically the game's answer to mech. They're a real liability in kill point games. Also, you're at the mercy of the dice gods for your reserve rolls after the first wave, and I've been screwed over enough times to not reserve things unless I really need to. 

[knife&fork]

If the opponent have time to go after your pods you are already losing. 

 

AV12 all around is actually pretty durable, being immune to S5 (even in CC) and below is rare for a vehicle.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Hilarious when at first glance it has the same durability as a Storm Raven... but it's hit automatically in CC and any damage rolls have a +1 thanks to it being open topped. But sometimes there are literally no targets other than the pod. The main worry is that pods are better for shooty armies, and we're better off with jump packs in my opinion, barring a few exceptions (Death Company, Sternguard and Furioso). At least with DoA we can come in reliably. I think one to three pods as support elements are fine, but I'm not convinced by our ability to field a competitive pod list compared to other armies out there.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

Gauss weapons glance it to death, so its an easy as hell first blood, rather than say, the death company that emerge from it and don't suffer very many casualties

[knife&fork]

Gauss weapons glance it to death, so its an easy as hell first blood, rather than say, the death company that emerge from it and don't suffer very many casualties

 

The question is why you don't score first blood? Him being able to get it from a pod means you went first after all.

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

True that, I seem to have rolled 1s an awful lot recently, its just made me wary. 

 

 

As an aside, what are people's thoughts on the best unit to stick in one?

Sternguard? Dreads?

[Chaplain Admetus]

Currently, and to my eternal frustration, I only have access to 1 pod (one is in storage...) and it contains either a Frag-cannon furioso or Sternguard armed to the teeth with melta and combi-melta. Basically, you want something that can deal out a ton of damage - sternguard accomplish this either via special-issue ammo or meltaguns, Fragioso's do this by dumping a 2-shot S6 template across a unit and relying on that to do a reasonable amount of damage. Case in point, in my last game a frag cannon/magna-grapple/meltagun furioso slagged 9 out of a unit of 10 scarab swarms on the turn it dropped in, but admittedly swarms are a really, REALLY good target for a S6 template.

 

Were I running 3 pods, I would have a frag/melta/magna furioso in one, sternguard wielding combi-meltas and one regular melta in the second, and a plasma gun/heavy weapon tactical squad in the third. The first two come in turn 1 and score some hits on soft targets (sternguard are great anti-tank/anti-MC with poisoned ammo, Furioso is awesome against anything the sternguard can't really cover), the tactical squad appears between turns 2 and 4 and arrives on an objective, once you know where your opponent is committing their forces. Alternatively, if you feel the need for fire support, they can add an extra volley of fire before your choppy elements launch their assault.

[Chado23]

I know that it's maybe too much to ask, but i think a video or a thread about "how to deplay" your alpha strike would be very interesting and helpful to avoid mistakes, like "streading the force" and so on.