Orbital Assault RoW tactics

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Anyone play with the Orbital Assault RoW frequently/exclusively for their legion? What kind of units do you recommend putting in Drop Pods and what kind of units do you recommend for fire power support? I was thinking a Fire Raptor would definitely be a big help and that Dreadnoughts are the support needed for ground units. Is there any viability in having HSS deploying in a Drop Pod? 

[Lord Asvaldir]

I don't play orbital assault often, but I play a terror assault drop pod oriented list quite frequently so I'm fairly familiar with drop pod tactics in 30k.

 

Key thing for an orbital assault list, you need to have a jump infantry/jetbike/skimmer unit on the board to avoid losing turn one if you don't get the first turn. My favorite unit for that is land speeders/javelins, since they are fairly small vehicles that are not too difficult to hide when in a unit of one speeder. Jetbikes are also ideal and probably a bit more durable in some regards.

 

As far as fire support goes, yeah the fire raptor is excellent, one of the heaviest gunships you could take outside of LoWs. Lightnings are also really good and even better than fire raptors when dealing with heavy armor.

 

I tend to use dreadnoughts a lot in drop pod lists, often take two in fact coming down in dreadnought drop pods. Sometimes I'll run two contemptors/cortus contemptors with dual fists and graviton guns which is my prefered contemptor build, or I'll run one alongside a leviathan which you can never go wrong with.

 

Heavy support squads are not great in drop pods for the obvious reason of their weapons being useless on the turn they show up. Drop pods work best for close range assault/rapid fire weapons, not heavy weapons. I suppose you could take a hss with heavy flamers, but that's not better than other heavy support choices like fire raptors and leviathans by a long shot.

 

As for the bulk of the army, anything with good rapid fire/assault weapons as I mentioned are best for drop pod. Legion veterans and support squads in particular are the two that come to mind for that roll. An assault oriented squad in a drop pod is also alright, but in that case a dreadclaw is better so they can hide in the transport for a turn.   I also love using terminators with combi plasma, they don't even need a pod as they can just deep strike in. 

 

One last note, some legions are definetly far better at using orbital assault/drop pods than others. RG/NL have their own less restrictive rites for pods, while SoH are incredibly good in pods thanks to death dealers. I'd also say AL can make a pretty good pod list with Dynatt, and IW with Perturabo. Besides those 5 legions though, I'd say everyone else is just ok with orbital assault. Not to discourage you from using a different legion from those 5, just worth mentioning those are the best for it. 

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Thank for the reply Asvaldir. I play Drop Pod Space Wolves for my 40k army and since I went be able to use them all for 8th edition I thought I could make use of them for 30k.

 

Have you ever used Terminators in Drop Pods or any Dreadclaws in your lists? 

[Caboosegg]

dont worry about legion unless your playing tourney players space wolves should work fine.

 

i run a Dark Angeld OA list.

 

fire raptors are a good add they make up for missing firepower well. i use mine as a inf hunter quads heavy bolters are brilliant.

 

deathstorm drop pods are a must i run two

 

Leviathans in dread drops are decent i run a dual CC one with phosphex launcher.

 

i would say OA list require a bit more tatics than the old 40k drop pod armies. it may just be the armies i play buy interceptor is pretty easy to get in HH

[Lord Asvaldir]

Have you ever used Terminators in Drop Pods or any Dreadclaws in your lists?

Dreadclaws are solid for a purley combat oriented terminator squad, but I prefer taking a squad with combi weapons. Saves you pts and let's your terminators do some damage on the turn they drop in. In an orbital assault list it shouldn't be hard to grab a few nuncio voxes to midigrate scatter.

 

I disagree on deathstorm pods, I don't find then all that impressive. You can get more reliable firepower out of support squads in pods. I also usually prefer the autocannons on the fire raptor, bit more versatile than the heavy bolters and really handy for dealing with light/medium vehicles.