Drop pod After action report

I've played 10 games with my Drop Pod marines now. I think I have enough experience to objectively look at the army. The army is simple to use. You drop pod as close as possible and kill what ever needs killing. Drop pod lists work a lot better in 6th edition. In 5th people would just Reserve everything and your drop pod assault would be wasted. Not a lot of armies can start entirely in reserve now so there is more than likely going to be a target.

Where I think the problem with Drop pod lists arises is in the survival of the pod after they hit the ground. In most cases you're exposed and are in range of the enemy guns and assault units. In 10 games I never achieved an uncontested drop. I always will take casualties and will always be on the back foot after turn 1. So how do I make my Drop pods more survivable?

I'm going to try to change the list to get more bodies podded in. I think with 5 pods I'd have a lot more punch on the first turn but the points cost is insane! I can't fit in any reliable AA or assault units in at that point at 1500 points. It may be a case that the army is simply to points heavy to run at 1500 points.

I'm going to run a game tomorrow night (hopefully) and see if how well I do with a heavy focus on short range fire fights.

Winter War Round up

Well The Winter War has come and gone and it was a bloody good time! I had three great games with awesome guys.

My list consisted of:

Pedro

Drop-pod Sternguard with 3 Combi-meltas and a Melta gun- 10 man

Drop-pod Sternguard with 3 Combi-meltas and a Melta gun- 10 man

Drop-pod Dev Squad with 3 meltas and a Missile Launcher

5 man scouts sniper rifles

5 man scout camo cloaks, missile launcher sniper rifles

5 man Thunder-hammer Storm shield Terminators.

Storm Talon with cyclon missile launcher

My first Game was against a Grey Knight Player. 2 purifier squads, a land raider, 2 storm ravens and Crowe. I had first turn and it was brutal. My Sternguard broke open his landraider and killed 16 purifiers. He assualted a combat squad in his turn and killed it, but the 4 purifiers got gunned down. during the top of turn one. His storm ravens came on and tried to salvage the game but at this point I was able to spread out and secure all the objectives. My storm talon shot one Raven down, Crowe was inside and survived the crash only to land right in front of my terminators who laid a smack down on him.
My first game was very successful, but this isn't a mark against my oppenant. His army was simply suseptable to drop pod assaults. Maybe if he had combat squaded and spread out, but it's hard to say. 

My second game brought me up against A Tzeentch Daemon list. I knew this would be a make or break game on turn 1 and fortune was on my side. He didn't get his preferred wave, his mishap'd one squad and I didn't loose a whole unit to flamers, I got good scatters on my pods and was in a position to win the entire game then an there. But my dice went south on me. I had to kill 4 flamers, 10 pink horrors and a Lord of Change. I had over 40 shots to do this with. I know the Math wasn't in my favour and it was a long shot but if a storm bolter brought the lord down to the ground rapid firing hellfire bolters could deal enough damage. 
My dice of course failed me at this point. I did no wounds and my terminators were over watched to death. c'est la vie. The rest of the game really doesn't matter. My opponent played a great game and had a hard as nails list. I maxed his sportsmanship because despite the ass kicking I received it was a fun game. 

My last game was against a Necorn foot list. I planned to deep strike on one flank and roll up his line But i deep struck too close my terminators were to far back to properly support the Sternguard. I was barely able to hold my objective( a morale victory at this point) and killed his warlord in a challenge. In all I ended up 13th overall. Not bad for my first tournament in a long time. 

 I really think Daemons need a fundamental change. A lot of people are talking about how you beat daemons: gems like deploy so they can't flame you, torrent them down and other really "useful' tips. The fact is Flamers and Screamers went from good to insane and it is annoying to play against. Out of all the units that could have been updated why pick two of the already useful ones? When you play against daemons they always have the "initiative" and you're forced to react to them. I know the list isn't unbeatable, but it sure as hell isn't fun to play against. Breathe of Chaos is disproportionately powerful to anything else in the game right now, I mean in the CSM book it's a 2 warp charge power or 50 points for the chance to cast it once. But I had a good tournament and am now thinking about my Nightlords and Out of the Basement in January. 

Holy goodness!

I think that my game on Friday will go down as one of the best of the year. I played another marine player. He was fairly new but had a pretty awesome 4th company ultramarine army. Three tactical squads with two scout sniper squads made up his troops. Two vindicators as heavies, two storm talons and an attack bike squad rolled as fast attacks. Tigerious was the Warlord choice. I rolled up my drop pod list with an additional las/ plas devastator squad vindicator and terminator to bring my numbers up to 1850.

We played kill points on long table edge and man! This game was bloody! My initial drop pod strike managed to kill both vindicators and a put the hurt on Tigerious causing a wound and knocking his squad down to 3 Marines but my damned vengence rounds killed two of my own Sternguard! His attack bike squad duelled with my las/plas devs and snipers and his mounted tac squads disembarked and really put the hurt on my Sterguard. He wiped out one Combat Squad, killed a man or two in every other combat squad. Tigerious Iron armed himself and charged into my 3 man sternguard squad. St9 blows rained down on my squad but their armour held. barely. At this point I was Sweating bullets. I failed all my reserve rolls (with a re-roll) so I had less than 10 Marines to deal with 23 tactical marines, Rhinos and Tigerious himself! I have to admit I was going to call the game at this point; but the sportsman in me said
"Stick it out, this guy is pretty cool and deserves a hard fought game!"

So I pulled up my socks and committed to finishing. Pedro unleashed Dorns arrow and killed two marines, his Sternguard fired their bolt pistols and got another one. Then Pedro waded into combat and killed 4 more Marines! Tigerous continued to be thwarted by the blessed power armour of the sternguard in combat but my vindicator and one more combat squad were wiped out. My terminators refused to come on the board but my multimetla Devs drop poded in and a storm talon arrived! I had a fighting chance now!

Pedro finished off the tac squad and went after Tigerious. The Challenge was short and Tigerious put up a good fight but ultimately Kantors Power fist won out. With Tigerious down the and his remaining tactical sqauds pinned between Two Devs teams and a very angry Pedro Kantor I think my oppenant put over a valiant last stand. He shot down my storm talon and killed Pedro but I simply had to much fire power left for him to deal with.

It was a great game non-the-less. I think the big lesson i took away is that my Sternguard are going to take disgusting casualties. I really need to make sure they have cover, are spread out and have a proper fire support as soon as they land.