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.

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.

Order of Battle! 1500 Point Tournament Lists

I have not played in a tournament in over a year now. It just seems like something comes up or I change my mind at the last second. But for $25.00 and a chance to spend a few hours in Calgary how could I pass this up! The plan is simple. Get Zwiss to go to the Cross Iron mills for a day and BAMN! I am free to game my little heart out!

I need to consider what I am going to take for an Army. 1500 points is not a level I traditionally play at. It’s fairly small and I am really feeling the crunch. I am going to play Space Marines. Here are some sample lists concepts:

Drop pod list: Steel Rain

Pedro Kantor

X2 Sternguard 4 combi-meltas 2 lascannons melta bombs

 10 man in a drop pod

X1 tactical squad. Melta multi-melta, Power Sword and melta bombs

Drop pod

X2 5 man Scouts with sniper rifles, camo-cloaks, missile launcher/Heavy bolter and melta bombs

X1 5 man Assault Terminator Squad

This list gives me a good deep striking capacity. The Sternguard with a follow on Tactical and Terminator Squad can be devastating. My reservations from this list come from the possibility of flyers ruining my day and the lack of AP 2. But mid to short range they are dangerous! It also has a pretty good theme going for it. It not to much of a stretch to say that it's Pedro Kantors Retribution strike force. If I bring this I want to play an Ork player for sure!

Bike list: Rapid Assault

Captain: Bike Relic Armour, Relic Blade Storm Shield

Command Squad x4 vets, plasma guns Power weapons, Storm shields

Apothecary

X2 Bike Squads 2 Multi-melta attack bikes with 2 plasma guns and 2 melta guns respectively.

X2 Storm Talons

X2 5 man Sniper scouts

The choice comes down to 28 models vs. 44 in the Drop Pod list. This list is faster and all the fire power is a lot more condense. I took a Captain over Khan because Khan’s hit and run is redundant now and I want to have my entire army able to take advantage of combat tactics. This list also has the advantage of flyers zipping around but really lacks staying power. If my dice go south on me I am straight up screwed. I don’t have the bodies to take a lot of punishment.

I’m going to give both lists a test run over the next few weeks and see what I like more.