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.