Unit of the Week: Drop Pod

[Jolemai]

Welcome to part three of the Blood Angels Unit of the Week Series!

Following the release of the 8^th edition Codex, there is no better time to discuss all the units we have access to. Each week a different unit will appear, with the idea being that we discuss how best to use that model on the battlefield. Where part one will focus on the unique BA units and part two will focus on BA units that are new to this edition of the Codex, part three will discuss how to get the best use the generic units from the past that are still with us (and that many of us have in our armies still).

Note, this isn't to lament any nerfs, etc, from previous editions; the rules are as they are so try to unlock its potential for those who wish to use them all the same. Similarly, this thread is only for using the option being discussed; it matters not if you feel something is a better choice as such comments aren't constructive to the topic and shall be removed.

Without further ado, here's this week's entry:

Drop Pod

What are you thoughts here folks? How best would you use a Drop Pod?

• To compliment a list, or to build a list around? Will the beta rules affect your list(s)?
• Will you be running multiple units?
• What units (if any) will you be transporting and how will they be equipped?
• What optional weapons choices are you taking and does the above affect how you run them?
• Are you buffing this unit? If so, how?
• Stratagems of note?

Over to you.

Please note that the Lucius Drop Pod and Deathstorm Drop Pod will be discussed elsewhere.

[Jolemai]

Should you want your model on display here (or on another thread from the series), then submit a photo here please.

[Captain_Krash]

Still using 1 with a bare bones 10 man tactical squad to save on points. Just for a turn 2-3 objective grabber at least 60 percent efficiency. GW needs to drop the points on these thing immensely...or make them so that they can deep strike within 9 or idk warp how the deep strike rules work for them...as of right now they don't match fuff at all period...in the past they were 100% awesome and were a neat alternative to the humble Rhino. 

 

Krash

[Karhedron]

To use drop pods offensively, you need a unit that has effective short-ranged firepower of the sort that cannot easily be delivered by jump units. Flamers are out of range, melta has competition from jump units and plasma even moreso from Inceptors.

 

Sternguard are intersting but compare poorly to Intercessors who are nearly as good at shooting, cheaper, have double the wounds and are Troops. Packing it with a couple of units of Grav Devastators and dropping them in with a Jump Captain for rerolls sounds good in principle but I haven't seen it used in practice.

 

Turn 3 objective grabbers is interesting but it costs 200-ish points for a barebones, 10-man Tac squad. That is a lot of points to spend on not attacking the enemy.

[Majkhel]

I really struggle to use the poor drop pod. Even with point reduction. Jump packs for 10-man squad cost 30pts. A Rhino is only 7pts(!!) more than the DP and offers increased mobility (that cannot be hampered as easily as DP's), ability to tie things in CC and eat overwatch, and has regenerate wounds rule. And that's the end of story for the drop pod. Still waay to pricey for what it does.

I can only think of using it in more casual games to surprise the opponent. Pack it then with massed heavy gravs, multi-melta, add Mephiston to the mix to give more target saturation once they disembark. Definitely not very short range firepower as that can be hampered by screens all to easily. For character deployment, it's worth remembering that drop pod can protect characters from being targeted. 
Apart from Mephiston, it is the safest (?) way I can think of in order to drop Corbulo to support a crucial melee right at the front. 

[Brother Crimson]

I’ve never had success with BA drop pods to actually carry around troops do deliver punch. With BA access to jump pack they already have a lot of deep strike options and mobility.

However there are two things I managed to pull out of drop pods:

-linebreaker points. They have to waste some of their fire otherwise you can get a couple of points.

 

- smite soak. This is situational but dropping the pod in front of troops to soak up smites can save your marines. It works with rhinos too but it’s a different topic.

[NTaW]

I use two Drop Pods to plant Mephiston, a Sanguinary Novitiate, 5x stormbolter/chain sword Veterans, and 10x bolter/chain sword Death Company in behind enemy lines. I'm not entirely sure it's the competitive choice but it has worked great in the past. Yes, jump packs are cheaper. I also play 10x jump DC in the same list though and only have so many models with packs. Having things in the enemy deployment zone working their objectives has almost always panned out for me and thanks to the loads of dakka (49 bolt shots at 12") and Mephiston they typically need to be dealt with. The linebreaker point is icing on the cake, no one likes shooting Pods off the table to stop that. There has also been times where I've used my Pods to block movement of the enemy, which is always pretty funny to watch play out.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

I love my drop pod that I painted for the ETL a couple years ago.

 

But since 8th completely destroyed almost any viability for more than one of them I actually returned all the others I had planned on assembling. If they fix the issues with them, like not being able to fire because of an enemy within and inch or reducing their price further down to 38-48 before upgrades I only plan on fielding the 1 I have for narrative games.

 

Or as a grav-bomb pay load which continues to give my opponents all kinds of fits!

[Lynnean]

Drop pods are a nope for me with BA. Might use one to drop a full stormbolter deathwatch squad though.

[tychobi]

Ahhh the humble drop pod. I will pine for the glory of days past with furiosos stomping out of pods to frag whole swarms of the foe into oblivion. Sadly the pod the quality furioso and even the frag cannon have have been stolen from their rightful place in our armies but possibly the pod most of all.

For now my 3 pods collect dust and take space on a display shelf. They do not provide utility to offset their cost in 8th.

 

What drop pods are missing is the ability to get troops danger close. My fix would be to add deepstrike 1+ inches from open doors, some mawloc style mortal wound blast upon arrival to nearby units, and a no charge restriction on disembarking units. Flamer devs for the win!

[Djangomatic82]

I keep thinking about drop pods and other than the dev squad others have mentioned, i cant really think of a reason to field one, though i kind of want too just to see if it plays out different on the table. I can see the Auspex Scan protection it gives being usefull, but other than marine armies, i don't know who else has a similar mechanic that would warrant needing a dedicated unit to guard against it.

Personally i wish GW would tinker with it a bit, maybe let it ds at the beginning of the turn or let the units inside disembark wholely within 3" of the DP, instead of outside of 9" of an enemy, but se la vie and i doubt there will be any rethinking of their rules this edition.

PS: I wonder if opening up Primaris to using it would make it any more worthwhile? Hellblasters MIGHT be interesting, but they are a little too expensive imo.

[Karhedron]

PS: I wonder if opening up Primaris to using it would make it any more worthwhile? Hellblasters MIGHT be interesting, but they are a little too expensive imo.

I was wondering the same but I am still not convinced. Plasma Inceptors can drop in and unleash a huge amount of plasma so no real advantage in Hellblasters. Aggressors would be interesting for hosing infantry but 9" puts them outside flamestorm range and again, Bolter Inceptors can put out similar levels of firepower to boltstorm Aggressors (slightly fewer shots but +1S and AP-1 to compensate).

[Majkhel]

Newest FAQ added a note about drop pods having the ability to be placed with their door opened or closed:

Q: Which part of a Drop Pod should I measure distances from and to, especially if the model has been assembled so its doors can be opened or closed?
A: Measure all distances to and from any part of the model, including its doors. If this model has been assembled such that you can lower and raise its doors, then when this model is first set up in the battlefield choose whether the doors will be lowered or raised – you cannot raise or lower the doors thereafter during the battle. Designer’s Note: Choosing to set this model up in the ‘raised doors position’ simply represents the doors closing the instant after its passengers have disembarked.

Now we can legally block quite big portions of the battlefield with a drop pod with opened doors. This also allows for placing of the disembarking models further away from the central point of the drop pod. This also effectively increases the range of Drop pod's armament in all directions...
Still very situational, but in essence we can - place a disembarking unit in one place and block out nearby area with a drop pod.

[Panzer]

Quite good when you can bring in your reserves first and your opponent isn't already in the middle of the board but not really needed with Scouts and Infiltrators I guess. Maybe for some backfield protection.

[appiah4]

Devastator squad, 4 Multi Meltas and One Drop Pod.

[Charlo]

Devastator squad, 4 Multi Meltas and One Drop Pod.

All those points for statistically 2 Melta hits? No thanks. Seems a bit unreliable.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

 

Devastator squad, 4 Multi Meltas and One Drop Pod.

All those points for statistically 2 Melta hits? No thanks. Seems a bit unreliable.

This is where you would want weight of fire, 2 dev squads with MM and cherubs, or 2 squads of grav for the grav bomb. 8d3 + 4 + 2 cherub plasma dev squads are also cool coming in from a DP.

[Panzer]

 

 

Devastator squad, 4 Multi Meltas and One Drop Pod.

All those points for statistically 2 Melta hits? No thanks. Seems a bit unreliable.

This is where you would want weight of fire, 2 dev squads with MM and cherubs, or 2 squads of grav for the grav bomb. 8d3 + 4 + 2 cherub plasma dev squads are also cool coming in from a DP.

 

You just increased the cost but not the efficiency there. They are still far inferior to Lascannon Devs unfortunately.

[Hintzy]

Do the cherubs take a slot in the drop pod?

[Dont-Be-Haten]

 

 

 

 

Devastator squad, 4 Multi Meltas and One Drop Pod.

All those points for statistically 2 Melta hits? No thanks. Seems a bit unreliable.

This is where you would want weight of fire, 2 dev squads with MM and cherubs, or 2 squads of grav for the grav bomb. 8d3 + 4 + 2 cherub plasma dev squads are also cool coming in from a DP.

You just increased the cost but not the efficiency there. They are still far inferior to Lascannon Devs unfortunately.

The multi-meltas? The only positive 5o the MM is the higher chance at not rolling 1s on damage charts. Melta in general needs an overhaul in mechanics. I wont argue that.

 

I personally only use meltacide RAS in for deep strike melta. Otherwise I run Plasma-bombs or Grav-bombs in drop pods.

[Jolemai]

Forgive the lack of link to the update, but how would you use your Drop Pod now and with what?

[Aothaine]

I would use them for area denial. 

 

Spearhead Detachment with 6 units of 5-man Devastator squads all with Heavy Flamers and a combi-flamer on the sgt. Put all of these in three drop pods. Drop them all on the first turn to setup units in cover and create a line across the board. You follow this up with some heavy anti-tank supporting fire on your side of the table and like one blob of Death Company to swing around and act as the hammer to the anvil of the Heavy Flamer Devastators.

 

Also keep in mind that you can hinder your opponent's movements with careful placement of your drop pods. Sure they are kind of easy to kill but that is firepower your opponent is not using against your other units that can kill him/her back. 

 

Something else I've been thinking about since the normal marines seem to be getting price drops is to flood the board with marines. Take 4 drop pods with 10 man bare bone tactical squads in each. Line up your back line with long ranged firepower, Tri-las predators and a few dreadnoughts, smash captain with jp and 1-2 flyers. If tactical marines do drop to 12 points a model then you'll be dropping 40 tactical marines into rapid fire range on your first turn. I still think people underestimate the power of massed bolter fire. This strategy might work better for the boys in blue though. 

 

There is also the option to drop vets with storm bolters and storm shields as well. Very shooty and some-what resilient. drop them on an objective and they should be able to absorb a lot of dmg.

[SnorriSnorrison]

I can see the Grav bomb being better by a significant amount. Haven’t even looked at the other tactical possibilities this offers, perhaps a distraction tactical squad drop on one flank turn 1, might even give incentive to UWoF for a first turn charge after the first volley.

 

This might’ve brought the drop pod back from the shelves. Turn 1 Deepstrike is possibly quite strong and very fitting for the Angels of Death, and even more so Blood Angels.

[Panzer]

Definitely for board control. Drop them turn 1 where you want to have the fighting happen and to limit your opponents movement.

Inside I'd put mostly Tactical Squads. Maybe Heavy Flamer Devastators. The reast of your army usually has enough range to just sit in your deployment zone (you need something for your backfield objectives anyway) or can deep strike on their own turn 2-3.

[Jolemai]

No one considering a squad of DC with bolters? Could even chain Lemartes with UWoF for charge re-rolls if you're feeling confident. (Obviously with fire support)

 

Sternguard/Company Veterans + Company Ancient (and maybe Tycho or equivalent)?