5th Edition Drop Pod Tactica Update

[Mad Cat]

On the subject of limiting landing zones - is there any consensus on what happens when a drop pod lands in a valid space, but there is not enough surrounding space to deploy the disembarking models due to nearby enemy units, etc ?

I think this is unlikely as the pod must have deviated into a clearing ringed by enemy troops where the pod can fit but the passengers have not got the space to deploy. Ttill it could happen.

I believe the passengers would be classed as disembarking troops from a vehicle so they can use the emmergency disembark rule and if there is still no space they count as destroyed.

[ShotgunFacelift]

Great tactica!

[pilot00]

Yeah well a thought ,

You use your DPs and land and then you rapid fire the enemy.Thats Good.

So if the enemy is a CC army?Would you drop pod many units near a Black templars/Blood angels /or Khorne berserker army?

I mean even if you rapid fire you get assaulted and the number of attacks youll get on your head well i just dont want to count

[ShotgunFacelift]

Yeah well a thought ,

You use your DPs and land and then you rapid fire the enemy.Thats Good.

So if the enemy is a CC army?Would you drop pod many units near a Black templars/Blood angels /or Khorne berserker army?

I mean even if you rapid fire you get assaulted and the number of attacks youll get on your head well i just dont want to count

I use the drop pods as a emplaced barrier and divider between myself and CC orientated foes. sometimes with success

Drop them within range (but out of their assault range) and shoot your opponent, next turn move away and shoot again.
By turn 2 they need to go around the drop pod to attack you with your squad and the SB shooting into them.

Not great in small board games, but can be better on a big table .

[pilot00]

Yeah well most things in w40k need a large table to function properly take the basilisk for instance

[ForgedInTheFurnaceOfWar]

So if the enemy is a CC army?Would you drop pod many units near a Black templars/Blood angels /or Khorne berserker army?

Absolutely. An army like blood angels requires there death company to have a good game. Cut that unit down in the first turn and suddenly their game plan is broken, they will only be slight better than you in assault without the death company.

A khorne berserker army is ideal for drop pods. Slow elite units are sitting ducks. You simply drop pod against one flank of their army. You'll easily overwhelm the few squads you encounter. The enemy will be slow to hammer back, in this time most of your force will be down while they will be butchard under a hail of bolter, flamer, and melta fire.

[Fosner1703]

Next, terrain; there is no penalty for drop podding into cover, or behind it, so use this to your advantage. Terrain is definitely your friend when using drop pods. For example, the enemy might find his force divided between a large forest, or building. Drop podding inside such a piece of terrain will allow you to face only a small part of the opponent's army, and you will get a cover save.

I was reading this tactica to see if there were any tips for fighting against one of these, there were none. But I did find an error in your Tactica. There is a negative to droping your pods into terrain, it then counts as Dangerous, both to the Pod, and to the guys that pop out. (Rulebooke Errata states so in the Embarking/Disembarking in Dangerous terrain) So that is a die that you have to roll for each, possibly killing some marines because there armor is worthless when it concerns Dangerous terrain checks, and if it is rolled for the Pod, it loses its weapon because it suffers a immoblize damage result, bumping it down to weapon. This makes a glancing hit to the pod in subsequent turns even more likely to kill it needing only a 4+.

Can't wait to pull that one on my buddy when he loses X marines to bad Dangerous terrain rolls.

[Red Archer]

There is a negative to droping your pods into terrain, it then counts as Dangerous, both to the Pod, and to the guys that pop out. (Rulebooke Errata states so in the Embarking/Disembarking in Dangerous terrain)

Sorry, I don't exactly see where you read this.
The FAQ do state that if a unit embarks into dangerous terrain it takes dangerous terrain tests. The rulebook also says that for vehicles (i.e. the Drop Pod) difficult terrain is dangerous terrain. But i don't seem to catch the link to the ruling that difficult terrain also counts as dangerous to passengers disembarking from a transport?
So unless the terrain feature really is dangerous the Marines won't have to test for dangerous terrain and thus won't suffer any casualties. Though the Drop Pod's Storm Bolter may be lost in the process - not too much of a loss, to be perfectly direct.
(The paragraph in the FAQ only refers to actual dangerous terrain. It does not refer to terrain that counts as dangerous to the Drop Pod, and nowhere does it read that dangerous terrain for transports also automatically counts as dangerous terrain for its passengers.)

Thanks for updating the Drop Pod Tactica to 5th edition, Mathlete! Great job, though I disagree in some things, for example the minimum number of Drop Pods.
(The Drop Pod Assault rule [is that what it's called in English?] takes away the unpredictability of the dice. In 4th edition you had to take as large a number of Pods as possible in order for statistics to become reliable so that not one Pod at a time becomes available and gets shot to pieces before reinforcements arrive - you wanted to have a considerable fighting force to arrive together on turn 2. Now you have 100% reliability.
If you wanted 2 tactical squads to arrive more or less reliably you'd have to have bought 4 tactical squads in Drop Pods. Now you buy the two and an extra Drop Pod (for your Devastators, maybe) and not only can you be sure that two Pods are there on turn 1, but also that it won't be the empty one, but the two tactical squads you intended to be there.
I will not argue that all-Drop Pod, or at least more Drop Pods, are most often the way to go and beat the effectiveness of lists with only a handful of Drop Pods. But for some lists it may turn out to be a fantastic way to get independent support units to their respective positions. Picture a gunline army with two Dreadnoughts. It won't want to wait for those monsters to slog right up to the enemy but instead drop it off right in front of his units on turn 1 - can easily be done by buying an empty third Pod. Or consider the FW Deathstorm Pod that someone mentioned earlier in this thread: many lists might be effective with only this one single Pod that arrives reliably on turn 1. In fact I think that this one single Pod, properly placed, could win you games even if the rest of your list was Tech Servitors...
To make a long story short: many Drop Pods are "gooder", but few Drop Pods are good too. Depending on what you put in and how you intend to use them. I, for one, sometimes employ suicide squads like a Drop Podding Sternguard to deal with certain threats, e.g. taking out a C'tan before it knows what hit him, or taking out two units of Necron Destroyers, possible by using Combat squads, successfully denying them their WBB roll and thus eradicating them before they even get a chance of blowing up my tanks...)

[Red Archer]

One more thing I'd like to add to the tactica: remember that your Drop Pods count as vehicles (though immobilized ones) and therefore units. Even an empty Pod with its weapon destroyed can (and will, if within range) contest mission objectives!
Most opponents ignore a Storm Bolter Pod once your squad has left its vicinity. Probably even before that. If you land your Pods near objectives their mere existance can deny the enemy the claiming of said objective. It's not an entire strategy by itself, but it helps to keep that in mind and put that knowledge to good use, because often enough it can make a difference.

[Fosner1703]

Sorry, I don't exactly see where you read this.
The FAQ do state that if a unit embarks into dangerous terrain it takes dangerous terrain tests. The rulebook also says that for vehicles (i.e. the Drop Pod) difficult terrain is dangerous terrain. But i don't seem to catch the link to the ruling that difficult terrain also counts as dangerous to passengers disembarking from a transport?

Under your understanding of the rule, the troops inside do not count as Deep Striking, and since they are disembarking from an open topped vehicle could then assault in the assault phase to anything within range. This is incorrect because the guys disembarking from Drop Pod did deepstrike with the Pod. Do Pathfinders Outflanking in there Devilfish not count as Outflanking? I think not. So under this thinking according to the Errata, SM's disembarking from drop pods into difficult terrain, count the ground as dangerous the turn they land and get out of the pod.