Imperial Armour MVPs

[Lerra]

The local monthly tournament has decided to allow Imperial Armour books. I play Dark Angels and Tau - are there any MVPs from those books that are recommended?

So far I've stumbled across a few things that look promising, but it's always hard to tell on paper if a unit is good or terrible. Has anyone seen these units on a tabletop?

For DA:
Damocles Rhino (60 pts for an orbital bombardment, ability to re-roll scatter dice, and re-roll reserves once per turn)
Lucius Pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod (it's an Assault Vehicle 0_0)

For Tau:
Heavy Gun Drones - 25 points for a BS2 Markerlight and burst cannon, or a TL burst cannon.
Drone Sentry Turret Team - give these TL missile pods and use them as 51-pt firing platforms, or give them TL plasma rifles/fusion blasters and deep strike them where needed (with no scatter if you use a markerlight)

[Nabterayl]

The best Tau unit in the IA books, in my opinion, is the XV-84. 15 points for a markerlight and a target lock at your HQ's BS, and you still get three suit systems and hard-wired gear? Yes please.

The Damocles is interesting to me, but mostly in that it's a very cheap HQ - I think of it as paying 60 points to build a space marine list without an HQ, which I think opens up some interestingly possibilities. In my opinion the stand-outs for Dark Angels are the fact that your Land Speeders and armored vehicles are brought up to date not only rules-wise, but points-wise as well.

Lucius drop pods I absolutely go for. Dreadnoughts aren't that scary in close combat, but with a Lucius pod you are guaranteed to be able to assault something the turn you arrive, which also has lots of interesting applications.

[DarkLink]

Lucius drop pods I absolutely go for. Dreadnoughts aren't that scary in close combat, but with a Lucius pod you are guaranteed to be able to assault something the turn you arrive, which also has lots of interesting applications.

Yeah, you can guarentee that you Dreadnought hits that HQ squad with no powerfists or thunderhammers

[Katie Drake]

For Dark Angels, it's all about the Mortis Dreadnought. I mean, sure, Codex Marines can take a Dread with two pairs of autocannons too, but the Mortis can pack two twin-linked lascannons. That's really cool. ^^

[Purple]

two twinllinked lascannons, ok a suppose.

I would have to agree with the lucius drop pod. for a mere 15 pts you can go avoid being shot at for a turn and assault. That is worth alot more than 15pts IMO.

There are a few good things from the Vrak books. Plague orgyns are pretty nasty as are blight drones and blood slaughters

[Ivarr]

Who needs Forge World when you can just buy a Buy a baneblade and field it as a Fellblade. Perfect addition to Dark Angels.

[DakkaVulture]

Punisher vultures are KILLY. 20TL shots @ 12" movement is handy. genestealers + warriors + all bad armorsaves are eaten for breakfeast. My beloved vulture has waaaaay too many kill marks and trophies .warrior head on nose+too much nose art=win!