Drop Pod Army Advice

[Rommel44]

Hey mates, after taking a break from 40k to work, I have decided to jump back in and from looking around, I have always wanted to try out a Drop Pod list as it is very unique to what I am used to. Anyways, I am just looking for tactical advice on how to run a drop pod army in this edition. Any advice, tactics, tips, or anything you can give me related to either of these lists would be much appreciated, especially in this edition since the New Space Marine Book came out, so Im sure there are a lot of good ideas out there that I could try running, as the Marine book has a lot of stuff to chose from.

 

 

Such as:


* Which Army Tactic/Special Rule would fit best in a drop pod list?



* Which Units would work best in a Drop Pod List?



* What Support units would work best in a Drop Pod List.



Appreciate the help mates.

[infornography]

1 Salamanders.  Drop pod infantry work best with close range high impact weapons.  Also known as flamers and meltas.

 

2 Sternguard and Tac squads

 

3 sniper scouts with a quad gun ADL, a storm raven with honor guard or hammernators in it, Thunderfire Cannon

[Muctar]

Ironclads should be included in the list of effective units for a drop pod army. They're short ranged, apart from hunter killer missiles, and effectively require pods to deliver them. They draw a lot of attention because they have to be dealt with right away or they will rampage through infantry squads in subsequent turns after they drop. Ironclads are also  durable with AV13,13,10 and mutli-purpose; being able to handle infantry with heavy flamers, vehicles with a meltagun, and anything but monsterous creatures or things like hammernators in assault. They also work well in concert with infantry like tacticals and sternguard.

[johnyocum]

Crimson Fists also can do well in a Drop Pod army, with the combination of Bolter Drill (Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics that the CFs use, being a Successor to the IFs) and the fact that if you use Pedro Kantor, your Sternguard become scoring units.

 

Salamanders are likely the best, due to their Chapter Tactics, but Crimson Fists are likely second, since Sternguard are so commonly dropped in via pods.

 

Also, pods can be useful for anything deepstriking, with the locator beacon you can give them.  Dropping a speeder or two close to a pod to use those high-impact weapons (Multi-Melta and/or Heavy Flamer) fits with the idea of using drop pods to get those weapons in close fast.

[Axagoras]

Ironclads should be included in the list of effective units for a drop pod army. They're short ranged, apart from hunter killer missiles, and effectively require pods to deliver them. They draw a lot of attention because they have to be dealt with right away or they will rampage through infantry squads in subsequent turns after they drop. Ironclads are also  durable with AV13,13,10 and mutli-purpose; being able to handle infantry with heavy flamers, vehicles with a meltagun, and anything but monsterous creatures or things like hammernators in assault. They also work well in concert with infantry like tacticals and sternguard.

I highly disagree on that point. I run podded ironclads for a long time, and ran a 7 pod list in a tournament last weeekend (placed top 4) with 2 ironclads and 1 sg squad. It hit me in round 3, why am I running ironclads when a sternguard squad has the same firepower on drop for 5 points less (heavy flamer and melta gun vs heavy flamer melta gun and 3 special bolters) and when a SG squad wont get immobilised or 1 shot by a lone fire dragon. Only run dreadnoughts when you are using a lot of them.

[Gideon999]

Agreed.   Dreads are too easy to kill when they drop.  Unless you are intending for it to die the turn after it shoots then go with infantry.   I can't count the number of times I dropped ironclads (or any dread) and had the other guy walk a basic troops unit far enough to shoot back armour and wreck it with boltguns or something.   And since all the guns you care about are very short ranged, it is not very hard to get enough movement to get that rear armour shot.

[Axagoras]

or when howling banshies got out of a imobalised serpent 6 inches, battle focused 6 inches to a quadgun and shot it do death on its rear...

[pyroknight]

I think ironclads depend a lot on your current meta-game. 

However with the armies that are strong right now (eldar, etc), ironclads might not be the best all comers list choice. 

[Scout Mentor]

I just posted my list and tactical thoughts about my Drop Pod army here.  It is kind of a long read.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/283635-1500-points-of-steal-rain-space-marines/

 

Please feel free to have a look at what I am working with and we can discuss why I chose what I chose.

 

I am still working on the army combat tactics question, but I think I have a grasp on the rest.

 

SM

[Frogstar168]

Just to share on this, I played my hybrid pod army yesterday (dreads and tacs in pods, with tactical terminators and TFC on the ground) using Iron Hands chapter tactics. The IWND kept my rifleman alive long enough to finish off some opposing elites in a firefight, and the army-wide 6+ FNP was great, especially for tactical marines with no invulnerable save. Also, I took a MotF who benefitted from the boost to his blessing roll (keep those dreads in the fight!).

[Axagoras]

For rommel44 and Scout mentor For a pod heavy list you really need to throw a lot at the enemy and make sure your 1st turn shooting minimizes any chance of counter attack. I have a series of battle reports of my 1750 iron hands pod list a a torunament fighting 3 very different eldar lists. That should help a bit with what I use my units for.