Drop pods viable?

[Chaplain Corvid]

In 8th are drop pods a viable choice for regular marines or are they not useful?

[Subtleknife]

For casual yes they are usable. For competitive they are too expensive and provide a source of easy vp for the oppo once on the board.

[Ishagu]

The schtick of cheap transport with no output doesn't really work in 8th (a lot of players don't realise this and some like Valrak keep asking for cheap transports lol).

 

Especially as most armies can do what a drop pod or a Rhino does for free using a command point.

 

Things like Venoms are popular but they have hit Debuffs, fly, no degrading profile, immense mobility and good firepower.

 

If your transport has no firepower, no substantial defence, no real mobility or is easily tied up/trapped it's not going to be relevant.

The game is about movement, placements from turn to turn and shifting objectives.

[Joukernaut]

They are very good roadblocks since the latest big faq, but nothing more than that

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Don't listen to the naysayers. One, maaaaaybe two, pods to deliver key firepower units at key points around the table at a moment's notice are invaluable. Sternguard and Company Veterans are best options.

 

And Ishagu? Pointing out that other armies can deep strike via stratagem doesn't mean a :cuss ing thing when C:SM doesn't have that stratagem. I'd say we don't have that stratagem *because* we have pods. Yes, they're overpriced and after being placed, they're static...but they also have effectively infinite movement on the turn they come down.

 

Oh, they're also great for circumventing Forewarned, Auspex Scan, and other similar effects because the Errata states that such interception fire can only target the pod not the unit. Webway Strike or deep strike or similar units don't have that protection.

[Ishagu]

I think we should have those stratagems.

 

The Marine book is far behind in terms of Chapter tactics, Strats, Relics, Warlord Traits and Psychic powers.

 

That being said, Marines have a lot of units that can arrive anywhere without a Pod. What are you putting in a drop pod that is better than a squad of 5 Inceptors with Bolters or Plasmas by the time the cost of the pod is included? The Pods don't even arrive on turn 1 anymore.

I'd champion them if they could carry Centurions.

[Vykes]

We can think we should have them all we want, we just don't at this juncture so it's a non issue.  I think all marines should have 2 attacks and free chainswords, but that's also completely unrelated and outside the scope of 'are drop pods going to get me laughed out of a venue?'

 

Honestly, as far as drop pod go, they can be okay for units that need that close-in range that can deliver a good payload: company vets are mentioned for good reason.  And yeah, the protection from auspex and the like is a thing, too.  Hello pricey primaris deep strike units... goodbye pricey primaris deep strike units.  Personally, I wouldn't go wild for them, and because of how they're allotted it's not like we can even do a full deepstrike drop pod army which makes it even harder (and they don't come in on Turn 1, etc).

 

Personally, I look at drop pods then look over at Dreadclaws in the FW index and just have to click my teeth and hiss a bit.  Stock drop pods just don't do enough: they don't get where I need them to (like coming down right between enemy units inside that 9" bubble), they don't arrive quite enough, they can't reposition themselves, they can't embark troops to bunker them or take them out of hot-spots, they can't charge to tie up other units and soak up overwatch, and they're still pricey enough that you have to make allowances for them. 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

They used to be great but not now. All our transports are overpriced imo. The only thing I can see it being good for cutting down your number of drops which is situational at best.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I think we should have those stratagems.

I think we should have cost-effective Fellblades, AP-1 bolters, and Chapter Tactics on our vehicles. I guess we're both walking away disappointed.

 

That being said, Marines have a lot of units that can arrive anywhere without a Pod.

Lots? Not counting HQs, I count seven if the top of my head: Tactical Terminators, Assault Terminators, Assault Squads, Vanguard, Reivers, Inceptors, and Suppressors. How many of those would you put on the table in a serious game? Inceptors, I think. Maybe Suppressors or Vanguard. Just because you have options doesn't mean you have good options.

 

What are you putting in a drop pod that is better than a squad of 5 Inceptors with Bolters or Plasmas by the time the cost of the pod is included?

Better? By what metric? Rate of fire? Close combat ability? Durability? Model count? Because I'll take Sternguard in a pod over Inceptors any day of the week and twice on Sundays. And again, if you drop those Inceptors in front of Dark Reapers, you'll get blasted off the table via Forewarned. Any Space Marine army can do it too with Auspex Scan. I believe Tau can intercept as well. Those Sternguard can't be intercepted because the pod is what is arriving from Reserves; they're just disembarking from a transport.

 

Now I'm not trying to say that pods themselves are good. I'm not saying podded Sternguard are always a better option than Inceptors. I'm saying that despite the price of the pod, they're a *good* option. They have good AP, there's room for buff characters with them which also cuts down on your number of deployment drops, they produce a decent rate of fire, have good stratagem support, can fire at ranges beyond most infantry small arms, can't be intercepted, and can deep strike. It's a lot of benefits that you're blinded to because OMGPRIMARIS.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I really like Sternguard too and want to work a full squad into my Ultramarines army. The last Edition I was running Crimson Fists with Pedro all mounted in drop pods - they were crazy good, so yeah I believe you mate and it’s prolly something that can catch opponents off guard sometimes. A friend of mine runs them in a rhino APC and keeps them tucked away in his back pocket to start the game and they do some work too. :)

 

"Tactical Terminators, Assault Terminators, Assault Squads, Vanguard, Reivers, Inceptors, and Suppressors. How many of those would you put on the table in a serious game? Inceptors, I think. Maybe Suppressors or Vanguard. Just because you have options doesn't mean you have good option."

 

Out of that list I’d rate Vanguard, Inceptors and Suppressors as viable. I’d add certain characters with jump packs to the cut as well. Finally I’ll ass Infiltrators and Scouts since they function in a similar manner plus they’re both viable as well. Blood Angels have some decent units as well.

[Ishagu]

 

I think we should have those stratagems.

I think we should have cost-effective Fellblades, AP-1 bolters, and Chapter Tactics on our vehicles. I guess we're both walking away disappointed.

 

That being said, Marines have a lot of units that can arrive anywhere without a Pod.

Lots? Not counting HQs, I count seven if the top of my head: Tactical Terminators, Assault Terminators, Assault Squads, Vanguard, Reivers, Inceptors, and Suppressors. How many of those would you put on the table in a serious game? Inceptors, I think. Maybe Suppressors or Vanguard. Just because you have options doesn't mean you have good options.

 

What are you putting in a drop pod that is better than a squad of 5 Inceptors with Bolters or Plasmas by the time the cost of the pod is included?

Better? By what metric? Rate of fire? Close combat ability? Durability? Model count? Because I'll take Sternguard in a pod over Inceptors any day of the week and twice on Sundays. And again, if you drop those Inceptors in front of Dark Reapers, you'll get blasted off the table via Forewarned. Any Space Marine army can do it too with Auspex Scan. I believe Tau can intercept as well. Those Sternguard can't be intercepted because the pod is what is arriving from Reserves; they're just disembarking from a transport.

 

Now I'm not trying to say that pods themselves are good. I'm not saying podded Sternguard are always a better option than Inceptors. I'm saying that despite the price of the pod, they're a *good* option. They have good AP, there's room for buff characters with them which also cuts down on your number of deployment drops, they produce a decent rate of fire, have good stratagem support, can fire at ranges beyond most infantry small arms, can't be intercepted, and can deep strike. It's a lot of benefits that you're blinded to because OMGPRIMARIS.

I put Reivers and Inceptors down regularly. One unit is cheap board control (the cheapest 10 wounds you can deepstrike in), the other deals damage.

 

Sternguard in a Pod over Inceptors? Lol by what measure? Surely not damage? Inceptors can deal a lot more damage either through volume of fire or higher strength and ap.

 

5 bolter Inceptors cost less than 10 Sternguard with a Pod and deal more damage against both MEQ and GEQ.

[Panzer]

 

That being said, Marines have a lot of units that can arrive anywhere without a Pod.

Lots? Not counting HQs, I count seven if the top of my head: Tactical Terminators, Assault Terminators, Assault Squads, Vanguard, Reivers, Inceptors, and Suppressors. How many of those would you put on the table in a serious game? Inceptors, I think. Maybe Suppressors or Vanguard. Just because you have options doesn't mean you have good options.

 

 

7 is quite a lot to be fair and how many I would use in a serious game? More than units in a Drop Pod. Not just because Drop Pods are bad, but also because the units that can't be put into reserves on their own and can be put into a drop pod usually don't need it.

[Charlo]

They were Excellent.... In 7th ed.

 

Now they're overpriced (even with the CA drop) and there isn't really any units you'd want to put in them. Sternguard are *okay* but at that point just bring some Deathwatch allies perhaps. You can pop double devastators in there but hitting on 4+ when you land is problematic.

 

If they could still carry Centurions and regular dreadnoughts they may well have been great.

 

My personal fix would be for them to be able to deep strike turn one. Narratively and mechanically it makes total sense and would really feed into the Space Marines primary methods of warfare shown in the fluff.

 

Signed - a dude who used to regularly okay 7 drop pods in his 7th Ed Blood Angels army.

[Ishagu]

I don't know why they took away the Centurion and Dread transport.

 

Meanwhile Orks can teleport in a Gorkanaught that is guaranteed to make the charge on the turn it arrives!

[Toxichobbit]

I don't know why they took away the Centurion and Dread transport.

 

Meanwhile Orks can teleport in a Gorkanaught that is guaranteed to make the charge on the turn it arrives!

 

Because they won't fit inside a Drop Pod. I'm not just talking about the usual "that Rhino isn't to scale, how the hell do 10 Marines fit inside that?" stuff that usually plagues GW transports. In the case of the Drop Pod there just isn't room because of the interior layout without scaling the model up significantly. So much so that in order to start fitting Centurions in you'd either need to tear out the interior and redesign it, or make one so big that it would be able to carry 20+ power armoured Marines.

 

Also, there was a disconnect between what was allowed to go where. If I remember correctly Centurions had the same restrictions as Terminators for transports (Land Raiders, Stormraven, Stormeagle, Cestus, Thunderhawk, Spartan) except that Centurions could go in Drop Pods while Terminators couldn't. Given that Terminators are smaller, it made no sense.

[Charlo]

Terminators could go in pods. 5 men max. They just didn't because they could natively deep strike.