drop pod assault

[B-rock]

do you have to come on round one or can you reserve it and come in turn one

[DarkLink]

All drop pods always go in reserve. Half your drop pods, rounding up, MUST come in 1st turn. The rest roll for reserves as normal, coming in turns 2-5.

[B-rock]

All drop pods always go in reserve. Half your drop pods, rounding up, MUST come in 1st turn. The rest roll for reserves as normal, coming in turns 2-5.

ok ty so i am taking one librarian dread in a drop pod

so i only have one so is this going to get the librarian killed?

[Judge]

Depends on where you drop him. Rather than worrying about whether he'll die or not, since sending a lone anything is a good way to see it killed, worry about how much damage it can do before it dies. Also, keep in mind that drop pods in their own rights are very survivable given point costs. (12 armour all around for 35 points? Who came up with that? 55 points total for Deathwind Launcher gives you a very effective IG, Ork, or 'Nid killer).

The round it lands, your Dread comes out and gets a shooting attack. Blood Lance comes to mind as a good choice, as you can land on either side of the enemy and fire a 4d6" strength 8 AP 1 auto-hitting lance weapon across their vehicle line. How about Fear of Darkness on a Tau Ethereal toward the rear? Chase him off the board and half of their army might break.

Normally with Deep Striking, you might be concerned about enemies flanking to shoot your rear or sides, but your cheap Drop Pod has given you a 12 armour wall to back it up against, a wall that might be blasting heavy weapon squads with a large template strength 5 attack.

Normally with Deep Striking, you'd be concerned about deviating into terrain or landing too close to enemy units, but Drop Pods become Open Topped to provide egress from any point, and deviate to miss enemy models or terrain - if you want to land near an enemy tank, then place your Deep Strike marker on top of the enemy tank! (Then roll a Hit and argue with your opponent about which way it deviates off).

Drop Pods don't have to land in the middle of the enemy. Say there's a narrow pass that you want cut off. Drop a drop pod into it. Even with minor deviation, you can block off tank access, with your Dread walking out on the safe side.

Personally, if I were going to drop Dreads at all, I'd be tempted to drop three on Round 1 (you'd need 5 models, but you could use cheap squads to fill two - you get to pick which Drop Pods drop in the first round). Say two Furiosas and a Death Company dread dropping straight into the enemy rear lines, shooting and hiding behind their cheap drop pods to limit enemy line of sight to them. Odds are very good that two of them will survive the enemy round, giving you open access to reap their rear line while Fast units from your own deployment zone rush to pincer / claim objectives.

Honestly, mobility in 40k often (used to) come at a high enough point premium that it wasn't worthwhile, but cheap mobility is better than no cheap mobility in almost any circumstance. Proxy in some Coke cans and give them a shot!

[Nabterayl]

ok ty so i am taking one librarian dread in a drop pod

so i only have one so is this going to get the librarian killed?

If you're only taking one drop pod then it would have to come in on turn 1. If you send your single drop pod hurtling into the enemy ranks on turn 1, while the rest of your army is still back in your deployment zone, yeah, that's probably going to get him killed (though as Judge rightly points out, that isn't necessarily a problem). If you drop him closer to the rest of your army then no, it isn't, though if you're going to do that one questions why you'd take the pod in the first place.

If you're hoping to have a drop pod slam into the enemy on turns 2-4, after the rest of your army has already engaged the foe, you're going to have to take more than one pod. Remember that drop pods can always be dropped empty. For instance, you can take a librarian dread with drop pod and a tactical squad in drop pod, and:

1. Deploy the tactical squad on top of an objective or objectives in your deployment zone.
2. Reserve the librarian dread in his drop pod.
3. Drop the tac squad's empty drop pod on turn 1.
4. Roll for the librarian dread's drop pod starting on turn 2.

You'll have to look at your list and preferred tactics to decide whether something like that is worth it, but it's certainly legal.

[Dralafi]

When possible I try to get odd number pods as you round up with the number of them dropping on the first turn. If you're going to use a tac and dread pod, chuck another squad into the pod, dont have to deploy with it as discussed above, but it allows both the dread and tac to drop. Or worse, death company and dread drop close to one another. You can do this quite easily by having a locator beacon on the first pod that drops in.

Another dirty trick I love to do with my pods is drop them into terrain, they only deviate vs impassable terrain, but ruins are fair game. That allows your squad/dread a cover save when being shot up. At the maximum cost of a destroyed weapon (difficult terrain and all that). Having the death company and dread show up together forces the opponent to pick his targets letting (possibly anyway) the other survive fairly unmolested.

And of course finally, AV 12 means that you can drop these pods with little fear of getting destroyed right ontop of objectives forcing your opponent to deal with them at somepoint due to them contesting the objectives.

[Sandman2663]

if you want to land near an enemy tank, then place your Deep Strike marker on top of the enemy tank! (Then roll a Hit and argue with your opponent about which way it deviates off).

Sounds kinda janky. granted the DS rules BRB p95 don't indicate this as invalid and the IGS rules indicate if a scatter is rolled then reduce distance to avoid. I don't think placing the initial DS point on top of an enemy model is valid or ethical but alas I cannot find something definitive to counter your statement other than 'don't be a git'.

I play Drop Marines and love them, never once have I even thought of doing this to my opponent.

[Lord Azaghul]

Sounds kinda janky. granted the DS rules BRB p95 don't indicate this as invalid and the IGS rules indicate if a scatter is rolled then reduce distance to avoid. I don't think placing the initial DS point on top of an enemy model is valid or ethical but alas I cannot find something definitive to counter your statement other than 'don't be a git'.

I play Drop Marines and love them, never once have I even thought of doing this to my opponent.

Pretty sure that's a mishaps. But shady in either case, players shouldn't aspire to start arguments with their opponents.

[Paradox]

Dralafi,

Just curious about the first paragraph of your post here. Had a bit of trouble working it out; have I read you right?

Your suggesting they take 3 pods rather than two so that two pods will land in that first turn, and that third pod doesn't need to have the squad loaded (be it a dummy pod or a upgraded deathwind).

The only point i saw which i disagree with, which I may have misread, was that your stating you can use the locator beacon on a drop pod to help bring in the other on the same turn? I believe the rules for the locator beacon state that it must be on the table at start of the turn in order to be utilised, in a similar vein to chaos icons. Thus it would be too early to use in it in the turn it arrives, but can only be used in later turns.

Your other points are very good, especially the one landing in cover. What units do you tend to use in groups of odd numbers with what marine list? (standard or any of the other more specific marine lists, ie DA, BA, SW, etc)

[Paradox]

The "model on an enemy before scatter" with drop pods is a problem too. This is because you need to place the model before rolling for scatter, which yes would be shortened by the drop pods specific rules if it would see it land on an enemy model of difficult terrain, but still required the model to be placed prior to the scatter roll. You can't place this model on an enemy model in the first instance. BBB pg 95.

Sorry to poke holes, but the others do raise a very good point. you'll jut have to eyeball it near the tank and pray to the dice gods.