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Billyjoeray
10-13-2010, 12:00 AM
Hello All,
I am normally an Ork player and I have played nothing but Orks for a looooong time. I was thinking of trying a drop pod vanilla marine list just to try something new. Ideally I would like the list to be as competitive as possible while maintaining the drop pod idea. I don't know too much about marines, so I thought I would post up the list I was thinking about and see what the BOLS crowd had to say about it.
The strategy is to deploy the devastators the half of each tac squad with the Lascannons with decent field position and put my speeders in a spot where they can fly up and melt something turn 1. Then infiltrate the sniper scouts somewhere annoying, probably on an objective, and the scout bikes within 18 inches of where I want my first wave to come in, so I can scout move the Locator Beacon right up to where I want them to be and then have them use the grenade launcher/turn 1 grenade assault to break open some critical transports or break some tanks. Then I drop pod the Dreads in turn 1 to open up transports and then have the Sternguard/Librarian squad drop down too to hopefully kill the guys that pop out. The Librarian is there for null zone so the plasma works better and so he can Gate of Infinity the sternguard to better field position. The reasoning for the 10 man devastators squad is because I thought it would be cool to have the option of combat squading them apart so that one with the missiles can engage the transports and the other can use the plasma cannons to take care of their cargo. The Sternguard with the combi-plasmas are in there because I thought they would be a cool way to counter termies and MCs and such. The captain has a lightning claw plasma pistol because the model I have is modeled that way and the Ironclad is in there because I really like the model. The list is slightly over my target of 1850 at 1870, which is where I was hoping you would be able to help. Anyway here is the list.

Space Marine Captain
-Lightning Claw
-Plasma Pistol
PTS: 130

Space Marine Librarian
-Null Zone
-Gate of Infinity
PTS: 100

Space Marine Dreadnought
-Multimelta
-Heavy Flamer
-Drop Pod
PTS: 150

Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought
-Melta
-Heavy Flamer
-Drop Pod
PTS: 180

5 Sternguard
-combi-plasma
-Sergeant
-Drop Pod
-Locator Beacon
PTS: 195


10 Tactical Squad
-Sergeant
-Power Fist
-Flamer
--Lascannon
-Drop Pod
PTS: 240

10 Tactical Squad
-Sergeant
-Power Fist
-Flamer
-Lascannon
-Drop Pod
PTS: 240

5 scouts
-sniper rifles
PTS: 75

5 Scout Bikes
-3 grenade launchers
-Locator Beacon
-Sergeant
-Melta Bombs
PTS: 170

Land Speeder
-Multi Melta/Heavy Flamer
PTS: 70

Land Speeder
-Multi Melta/Heavy Flamer
PTS: 70

10 Devastators
-2 Plasma Cannons
-2 Missle Launchers
PTS: 250
TOTAL 1870

blackarmchair
10-13-2010, 01:51 AM
Well this list isn't bad, you've certainly included a lot of the right units. But if you're looking to make it as competitive as possible you'll have to make a few changes.

Firstly, this list has very divided tactics. If you're going to do something with a marine army do it; then do it again, then do it to death and then do it some more.

What I mean by this is you have too many different units doing too many different things. Between devastators, scouts and land speeders you're deploying in so many different ways that the list won't compliment itself. Most successful drop pod lists I've seen have been Vulkan lists.

They typically include:
- 3x tac squads with melta, multi-melta and a sergeant with a combi-weapon and a powerfist in drop pods
- 2-3x Ironclad Dreadnoughts with various flavors of upgrades in drop pods
- Land Speeders with Heavy Flamer and Multi-Melta
- Something hammer-y; usually TH/SS Termies in a Vulkan list but Vanguard Vets can compliment this army well (especially if the pods have teleport homers)

Hope this helped, personally I think drop pod lists are very cool - very easy to counter - but very cool. Props to you for undertaking the challenge.

Let me know how it goes!

RealGenius
10-13-2010, 08:03 AM
I'm a big fan of having a full squad of 10 Sternguard when they are deployed via Drop Pod.

Then you can hop out and decide if you want to Combat Squad and shoot at two different things when you land. Works well if you have some combi-melta or meltaguns in there against tanks.

Splug
10-13-2010, 08:58 AM
A few points to be aware of with that strategy:

1) 10-man squads arriving by drop pod decide whether to use the Combat Squads rule when the pod lands. My interpretation on that is that either you are all in the pod, or none of you are in the pod; you won't be able to deploy the lascannons on the table and keep the other half in the pod. This is one of the reason multi-meltas are so common in drop pods.

2) Null Zone must be cast at the start of your shooting phase. You won't be able to blast open a vehicle, null zone, and blast the guys inside on the same turn as a result. Hence, the sternguard/librarian need to land next to a vehicle that was blown open on a prior turn to utilize Null Zone.

3) Remember, Gate can be used in combat to pluck your squad out and rain fire down on a now-unengaged adversary. This is potentially a cool trick to utilize with a sternguard squad if you get charged... but that librarian has to survive the first round of combat.

blackarmchair
10-13-2010, 09:59 AM
1) Right!

2) Right again, unless you've got a second unit to do the blasting or the shooting.

3) This true, and very VERY funny when it happens.

Billyjoeray
10-13-2010, 02:42 PM
Hmm... Regarding answer 1). I don't know about that because it says in the codex under combat squads that a unit of 10 marines must choose to combat squad at the beginning of the game unless it is going to arrive by drop pod in which case it can decide after it lands. This led me to believe that if I decided to combat squad them before the game that only half of the squad would deploy in the drop pod.
Also, I am aware that Vulkan drop pod lists were pretty popular, but I was hoping that I could make something that wasn't "just another" vulkan list. I like the idea of having combat tactics, especially since I don't really plan on running TH/SS termies at all so the only benefit would be the TL melta and flamer weapons, but like I said I don't really play marines.

Splug
10-13-2010, 03:02 PM
The first section states the unit must decide when it is deployed - not at the start of the game. Last I had heard, the BoLS interpretation of that rule is that units in reserve are not deployed into the table, and you cannot hold half of a unit in reserve while the other half is deployed. It's a little fuzzy either way, and GW hasn't made much effort to clear it up.

Billyjoeray
10-13-2010, 08:03 PM
The first section states the unit must decide when it is deployed - not at the start of the game. Last I had heard, the BoLS interpretation of that rule is that units in reserve are not deployed into the table, and you cannot hold half of a unit in reserve while the other half is deployed. It's a little fuzzy either way, and GW hasn't made much effort to clear it up.

But it also states in the rules that once you decide to combat squad them out they essentially count as two separate units. So you wouldn't be holding half of a unit in reserve, you would just be splitting the unit into two separate units. One arriving via drop pod and one deploying as normal. I'd really like to get a final definitive ruling on this though, because if I have to deploy all 10 via drop pod I might not even make the list. Also, I am worried that I am missing some needed CC omph, but is that just because I am used to Orks, or will I get rolled once my first round of shooting is over? I was thinking that the Dreads could take care of the majority of CC threats and if not that the Sternguard could plasma them down to a manageable size before the inevitable counter assault.