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Drop Pod Or Rhino


Sohail187

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Depends on the circumstances, for example a drop may be good for an alpha strike with a sternguard or dreadnaught to get that first blood and kill points. A rhino will provide transport to and from objectives and across the map quickly. Had a game last week where on turn 4 I got into a rhino and sped across the battlefield and disembarked turn 5 to directly contest an objective.

 

Remember once a drop pod lands it cannot move, and a dedicated transport does not have to transport the unit it is assigned so your rhino could potentially ferry units back and forth. Should it last that long ha ha =]

Iunno, I've tried Rhino's lately and they really just disappoint me. If you don't get first turn or your opponent t seizes initiative, you can almost guarantee they get first blood, and depending on rolls your wolves are either out of a ride, or it's like a bomb just went off in the middle of your army. The last game I played with it I had the horrible luck of it going off, killing 7 of the wolves inside, and three on the outside, along with several of my allies around it (was a 3v1 game). Most other times I've played it, it wasn't much better, it pretty much drops first turn it's in range of shooting. I've never understood how the Imperiums super soldiers get one of the least armoured vehicles possible.

Reede, what you described is extremely unlikely to happen. Horrible luck is an understatement! "Explodes!" is rare to begin with, and the odds of failing 7 saves are pretty low... we're talking a 1/9 chance of death for each model (1/3 chance of wounding, 1/3 chance of getting through power armour). To lose 7/10 is vanishingly likely. About 0.00002....

 

EDIT: Passengers take str 4/ AP - hits, so it's not 1/9, it's 1/6. So the chance of 7 or more failures out of 10 is a bit higher... .0003 (one in 4,000 rather than one in 50,000).

well im the army i have just got my self, i got 4 pods anf 4 razorback (to use as rhinos as well) i will play with both styles. I just feel that drop pods allow me surprised the enemy a little more with random play. Where as with rhinos they can really stop me in my path.

The imminent threat of podding units is also good for distracting and forcing tough choices on your opponent. Plus, its kind of daunting to know that a slew of space vikings are about to come down right next to you and try and ruin your day. It has helpped my opponents to make mistakes quite a bit. (Obviously this doesn't work on seasoned generals) Whenever possible, make your opponent fight on your terms and I feel drop pods do this quite well.

 

Rhinos take planning and finesse now, no more crusing across the board all willy nilly. You have to play the board and know what your facing. Rhinos have always done well for me vs nids and eldar (old dex), but vs just about anything else, drop pods I feel are better.

 

A dreadnought in a pod has done amazing for me recently. Most opponents who use a gunline or castle themselves will see the dread hit and devote tons of firepower to removing it fron the board. This gives your other units time to move up or into cover. If they don't kill the dread, then you have a monster of death to start ruining their day.

Lately I've been mixing the 2. I've  been using a Contemptor(you can use any Dread) in a Lucius Pattern Drop Pod as well as GH pack with A RP in another(Jaws & LL) & depending on the army I'm facing either send in the GH pod empty or full. THis usually forces my opponent to deal with the threat from the pod(s) or deal with the Thunder Wolf pack charging across the board at them. And right behind them come a poack or 2 of GH in Rhinos/Razorbacks. As Ghost Wolf Alpha said, it causes your opponent to make some hard choices. Both have their merits, you just have to figure out what works for you. 

A Lucius Drop Pod is devastating combined with Grey Hunters in regular Drop Pods. Contemptor Dreads are really good to bring in because of the 13 AV, but I've found using Bjorn the Fell-Handed much, much better. Not only does he have 5 attacks on the charge, his Saga of Majesty backs up those 10 man Grey Hunter packs dropping in beside him.

Reede, what you described is extremely unlikely to happen. Horrible luck is an understatement! "Explodes!" is rare to begin with, and the odds of failing 7 saves are pretty low... we're talking a 1/9 chance of death for each model (1/3 chance of wounding, 1/3 chance of getting through power armour). To lose 7/10 is vanishingly likely. About 0.00002....

 

EDIT: Passengers take str 4/ AP - hits, so it's not 1/9, it's 1/6. So the chance of 7 or more failures out of 10 is a bit higher... .0003 (one in 4,000 rather than one in 50,000).

 

Yea I mean that's definitely a worst case scenario, but it is possible. Still even without that, I find if you lose the beginning roll off it's just an easy first blood for the opponent and leaves your Wolves to slog it on foot anyway. I've seen a few games where it makes it around a bit more (one game we lost the roll-off so I held it in reserve which worked out better) but overall, drop pods seem to get the job done a lot better even if it leaves them on foot afterwards. 

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't meaning to imply that it was outright *impossible* or that I doubt it happened to you... just very unlikely to happen in the future. I wouldn't plan my army around such an unlikely event. Most space wolves players would never have that happen in their entire careers (but they might have different, similarly crazy unlikely events happen. E.g. my one: When I was 13 I rolled something like 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6, in that order. It was kinda creeepy).

 

Yeah, with razorbacks, you're quite likely to concede first blood. That said, you're probably taking more than one, and a wrecked razorback still has its uses (especially if it has moved about 12" already)

Against melee armies though you are pretty much paying for a slight disadvantage as you don't want to deploy near the melee army, and are out of cover to boot.

 

Unlike a normal dedicated transport you have to deploy in it i think.

 

Plus with new terrain placement rules you can just hide your rhinos if going second.

I'm a fan of drop pods.  They have the instant gratification of point blank mayhem with pretty limited risks (interceptor and some GK shenanigans being the biggest concerns).  Rhinos get depressing for me; if only half of them are going to reach their destination before being blown up/immobilized, I'd just assume do that with pods on the 1st turn and put my opponent on their back foot from the onset.  

 

Against melee armies empty pods make for nice speed bumps to force them to go through terrain or into firing lanes of my choosing (after scatter, etc) while they race towards my deployed gun line of grey hunters etc.  If you go first, and are a bit loose on your tactical morality, you can rain the pods directly in front of opposing non-skimmer transports and vehicles, essentially denying them their first turn of movement while they are forced to either go around the sides or spend a turn shooting them out of their way.  Even against skimmer vehicles they can be deployed to mildly restrict their initial turn of movement by creating a loose perimeter that they have to either significantly overshoot or otherwise avoid due to the movement rules.

 

In my experience, drop pods somewhat lessen the impact of going first or second, though I do prefer to go second when I have the option when playing an all drop pod army.  Going second lets you avoid one round of opposing shooting/assault and also gives you the final movement phase to grab or contest objectives.  Taking the first player turn can be nice though if you're packing a particularly impressive alpha strike and/or have an opponent with minimal units on the board at deployment ('cron air, etc) giving you an opportunity to table them before game turn 2 for a ridiculously fast win.

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