Hey there all. So what do folks think of using drop pods in your space marine army. Looking at them, it seems like it is a really good way of getting a powerful portion of your force right where you want them and ready to do some damage. However, it also causes your force to be introduced piecemeal and could result in one's army being picked apart. I have never actually used them and wonder what people think. Thanks!

Jordan

I like them but you are correct in that there's an element of risk involved. List choice also has some effect as well in my experience. I tend to lean more towards Thunderbrick insertions when using the codex list while the Iron Hands list was specifically geared towards drop pod insertion. I find that the combination of orbital barrage and drop pod assault is a really powerful one-two combination that really can overpower an opposing force. OTOH, I've had it terribly backfire and found myself completely surrounded and cut off a couple of time as well!

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If you guess your opponent's deployment well enough, they can be pretty useful. If you're using them, make sure you're going full bore (atleast 3 formations). I usually drop them turn 1, around 20-25cm from the opponent's board edge and no more than 30cm apart. Keeping them close together allows for mutual support or the chance to use the Command ability. Try to deploy the troops in cover and be prepared to keep the pressure up throughout the turn (lots of retains to break). Otherwise they can get overwhelmed. A formation of teleporting Terminators and a few THawks/TBolts are great support for the drop podding troops.

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I echo Dave's thoughts. We belong to the same gaming group and game together often and I've seen him use drop pods to brutal effect.
It is possible to scatter off of the board and lose the unit entirely if you plot a drop too close to the board edge, so you should plan your drop location further than 12 cm from the edge so it is impossible for that to happen.
When preplotting your drop, examine the opponent's deployment zone. Hopefully you can pick out a really good location that your opponent will use to deploy some important and/or fragile artillery units, and target your orbital bombardment there, then your pods nearby.
From a practical standpoint, your opponent is supposed to leave the game board while you preplot, but I find that often still means they are still lurking about somewhere in the room. I often place and measure the location to several "fake" drop locations all over the board so that my opponent doesn't see me milling about a particular portion of the board and get tipped off to where the bombardment and drops will actually happen. Perhaps taking the time to plot and measure to fake drop points is nothing more than me wasting time, but it makes me feel better.
Like Dave, I do my drop on turn 1, but remember the bombardment and drop doesn't have to be your very first activation on turn 1. If you can wait until your third or even later activation in the turn to drop, then that means your opponent will have a few units less to activate and react to your drop.
Keep your drops close to each other for mutual support, and if there is cover nearby, drop so your troops can deploy out of the pods in cover.
Drop pods are just about the only time it makes sense to use dreadnaughts. Dreads would slow down a unit with rhino transports, but by coming down in drop pods they provide a lot of additional offensive punch, can themselves provide cover to infantry units, and make the numbers in the unit just a bit bigger for purposes of blast markers and breaking.
You are correct that once the drop is over, your troops could be taken apart and broken by a determined counter-attack. By having a strong drop of multiple formations (as Dave recommends, at least three) close to each other, they can support each other, but also having other formations that are very mobile or have the means to come in an provide additional support (teleporting terminators, land speeders, assault troops, Thunderhawking in support) will help a lot. I think of my drop location as a forward deployment point, and focus a lot of energy into holding, strengthening, and expanding out, from that point.

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That's not a moon....it's a space station....

Also i noticed that the grim dark bits site on shapeways had some 6mm drop pods. I wonder if they are any good

grimdarkbits has been busy it seems......

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I have to say, even though I have only recently been using my Marines, drop pods are an excellent tool.

For example in a previous game (8k, my marines vs. Guard and Eldar), I podded in two tactical formations with 2 dreads each at the beginning of turn three about 20 cm off the back board edge and blitz. The Orbital barrage broke / killed 2 Artillery fms, a Hydra fm, and crippled a Baneblade - already putting me up 4 formations able to activate. Then once the marines came in, I managed to pull off an engage on a nearby and previously broken LR coy with supporting fire from the second formation which wiped it out. This put me 5 activations up straight away and left the other tactical formation free to move into cover near my opponents blitz.

Having the ability to put ALOT of troops down anywhere you want is golden - my opponents couldn't rush back enough stuff to push me off the objective, and this was magnified by all the of the broken formations they now had from the barrage.

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however two tactical fms with 2 dreads each is a LOT of points, if I were the guard player, I'd have been focusing on reducing your activations as much as possible while 800 points worth of troops + a spaceship was drfting around in the sky doing nothing.... glad it paid off but it's certainly a big risk!

I find orbital barrage + deathwind + podding and sustaining devs to be quite painful and tricky to cope with as it forces you to 'waste' units targeting devs to make sure they don't stick around and become a thorn in your side later on!

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True - but the game was 8k a side, so I had room for manoeuvre!

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Thanks for the inputs all!

My experience is that the more troops that you air-drop, the more binary the result tends to be; if your intended strategy does not pay off, the opponent can often focus on your troops and destroy them. SM Drop pods have Deathwind attacks which can assist - especially where you have several overlapping attacks, though the lack of transport makes the formations much less mobile and also weaker, which is where Landing Craft come in very handy (and remember that Chaos marines Dreadclaws do not have deathwind).

Final thought is to declare corners if possible, because it compresses the enemy deployment area making it easier both to predict where his formations will deploy and where they will move to.

Deploy corners, an under used option.

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Yeah if you are going to use spacecraft without Drop Pods, then bringing the non-slow and steady ones in first turn can be good when playing corners. The opponent ends up with less deployment space, is more packed in, and is more likely to be hit if you position your OB well.

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