Area Denial Drop

[Cadmus Tyro]

So Frater, 

the next unit I’m trying to figure out is the death storm pod. On paper the pod itself looks useful for pinning multiple units. It also gets to drop turn one and doesn’t roll to scatter, so far so good. 
 

However, the area denial drop rules  essentially state that your opponent gets a free interceptor reaction for any unit that is in range and has LoS against a unit that enters play using an area denial drop deployment. 
 

I would appreciate your thoughts on the value of deathstorm pods and area denial, as I’m afraid it’s yet another unit for 2.0 that won’t see the field of battle again…..am I missing something?

Are there currently any other units with the area denial rule? 

Cadmus 

[Galron]

I was actually thinking of using a Death Storm(I have three, dammit!) as the initial drop in a Blood Angels drop ROW army(I keep wanting to call it day of ascension) and drop it right on the token. Should efficiently provide fire support if the opponent tries to swarm around the token or provide significant discouragement from doing so. In the case of interceptor fire I can either accept the hits or use a decoy assault squad on the token and  put the pod where it can do the most damage. No one really wants one of these on top of a mass of units but my force has enough strong drop units that they will have to think hard on where to use their interceptor fire.

[Cadmus Tyro]

Given the fact the pod doesn’t scatter, it might be possible to position it in a way that protects it from interceptor fire. I.E out of LoS of heavy weapons and out of range of infantry with AT weapons. But that doesn’t seem a very fluffy way to use it!
 

Cadmus 

[Brother Sutek]

On 9/7/2022 at 4:35 PM, Cadmus Tyro said:

Given the fact the pod doesn’t scatter, it might be possible to position it in a way that protects it from interceptor fire. I.E out of LoS of heavy weapons and out of range of infantry with AT weapons. But that doesn’t seem a very fluffy way to use it!
 

Cadmus 

Also that might make it not fulfill its job. If it lacks line of sight it won't be able to start thinning the herd. Unless it has barrage, in which case disregard that comment. I haven't had the cash to buy these, real life keeps getting in the way, so I'll probably proxy a few so I can test them out. I loved the drop rite last edition so hopefully it translates well for this one.

[Lord Krungharr]

It would be neat to take 3 units of 3 Deathstorm Pods and make a big wall of them.  Sure the enemy gets to shoot everything but maybe MAYBE some survive, and the ones that don't become wrecks that hamper their movement hopefully.  And any Deathstorm Launcher that lives will cause them some pain, or even death!

Then you can take them in an Angel's Wrath ROW w 3 Dreadclaws which can Zoom in carrying Line units, and assorted HQs.  That would be pretty neat.  Not sure which Legion might capitalize best upon such a thing, but it would be dramatic, if not "good".

[TheNineteenth]

On 9/7/2022 at 4:35 PM, Cadmus Tyro said:

Given the fact the pod doesn’t scatter, it might be possible to position it in a way that protects it from interceptor fire. I.E out of LoS of heavy weapons and out of range of infantry with AT weapons. But that doesn’t seem a very fluffy way to use it!
 

Cadmus 

Oh, I don't know, seems super Raven Guard to me!

[Volth]

I imagine the Deathstorm to be a ridiculously good choice unless up against fully armoured forces. They are scissors in the game.

So. If one pod gets to shoot to its full potential at four infantry units. That is a chance of 83% to cause a pinning test times 4. You can solidly plan with this:

3 tests are taken - one is botched.

Have 3 deathstorms that is three units which are taken out of action for a turn - sitting ducks, unable to act, react, ready for the butcher.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Volth

[The Scorpion]

Can a single unit use Interceptor multiple times?

[Eternal Despair]

No, units are hard limited to one reaction per phase 

[SkimaskMohawk]

On 9/18/2022 at 5:24 PM, Volth said:

I imagine the Deathstorm to be a ridiculously good choice unless up against fully armoured forces. They are scissors in the game.

So. If one pod gets to shoot to its full potential at four infantry units. That is a chance of 83% to cause a pinning test times 4. You can solidly plan with this:

3 tests are taken - one is botched.

Have 3 deathstorms that is three units which are taken out of action for a turn - sitting ducks, unable to act, react, ready for the butcher.

I'm not sure that math is really accurate. The deathstorm launcher has 9 shots at bs 2; it averages 0.647 unsaved wounds against power armour. The chance of failing a ld 8 test is then 27.77%; each deathstorm volley has an 18% chance to pin a unit, for a total of 72% if you shoot at 4 units.

You can still do some work with a unit of 3 and really disrupt the enemy army, but, as you noted, fall off against tough enough units like big tanks and dreads.

Edited September 20, 2022 by SkimaskMohawk

[Volth]

BS2 hits on 1/3. Deathstorm is S6, so wounds at 5/6. Failed save is 1/3, so the math would be 1/3 * 5/6 * 1/3 * 9 = 45/54

[The Scorpion]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:53 PM, Eternal Despair said:

No, units are hard limited to one reaction per phase 

The deathstorm could be then used twofold: to pin Interceptor units, or perhaps to force them to spend a reaction on a crappy drop pod.

[Cadmus Tyro]

Some interesting thoughts so far everyone. Just wanted to add a few further musings.

I can see a value in the deathstorm pod if you’re using a RoW that front loads deep strike units into arriving turn one. That way you are forcing target saturation and forcing your opponent to make target priority choices. If the pods survive then they stand at least some chance of pinning units thus protecting units that want to assault out of deep strike from overwatch. Although there is some limited utility as deep strike itself will cause pinning on close targets. 
 

Using deathstorms outside of a RoW allowing first turn drops becomes more problematic, as there is no real consequence to activating interceptor on the first turn, you’re essentially feeding units to your opponent piecemeal.

Therefore, in this context more careful deployment is going to be required. Deploying out of range or LoS of weapons that can intercept/pen, but deploying close enough to units that cannot harm the pod with interceptor so as to make use of the unit. I wonder whether it may have some utility against infiltrating infantry units, who are more likely to be deployed without support elements. Units such as seekers or recons that might be deployed to take advantage of cover and firing lanes etc. 

I’m interested to see how a single pod will work in my recon company, the alpha legion are all about shaking things up! 
 

Cadmus 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

5 hours ago, Volth said:

BS2 hits on 1/3. Deathstorm is S6, so wounds at 5/6. Failed save is 1/3, so the math would be 1/3 * 5/6 * 1/3 * 9 = 45/54

Ah I see I fat fingered in the 6 when I went to hit 9 lol. The real number of shots comes out to an average of 0.81 failed saves; 4 units worth of shooting averages 0.9 failed pinning tests.

A bit better than I initially thought, but you still need to get a bit lucky for one to pin a unit. After, you know, the intercepts that can destroy them or the weapon lol.

[Cadmus Tyro]

So, I managed to “utilise” my deathstorm pod in my last game. Forced a few units out of position with infiltrate rules to isolate them, dropped the pod out of range of a Melta gun team and in range of them plus a despoiler squad. No interceptor fire on the drop due to LoS blocking terrain and the ability to position the unit rather than scatter.

 

So far so good…..

 

Until….I remembered the -1 BS when night fighting, which drops the BS of the pod down to 1….

 

Given that night fight is “almost” guaranteed if one opponent wants it, the BS reduction is the final nail in the coffin of this unit, especially as it has to drop turn one. 
 

My death storm won’t be seeing the table until they fix it….ie probably never! 
 

Cadmus