# Those damn drop pods! Advice please



## Chaos Crusader (Aug 26, 2014)

I seem to be posting quite a bit alately so before anyone gets sick of the sight of me i thought id get one more in... 

Drop pods... or dealing with opponents drop pods rather... how do you all go about setting up to minimise their oncoming wrath?

One of my regular opponents (my bro to be exact) runs salamanders and users 3 drop pods in his list (so two auto coming in on turn 1), usually hitting me with a stern guard unit and iron clad dreadnought. I run an aegis line so obvs get cover from that, plus i try to use that in tandem with the terrain around me to minimise the available space for the DP to land, but then just try to weather the storm that comes, generally the stern guard kill something, then die, the ICDN is a little harder to shift...

Not wanting to just focus on my battles tho, id hoped to get a few thoughts on how you take on the task of tackling them.

If this subject has already arisen please forgive me, i had searched for the topic, albeit blurry eyed with a slight hangover this morning...


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## mayegelt (Mar 18, 2014)

NMake your side of the field full with interlocking terrain or swamps and large woods so you can force him to land where you want him to.
otherwise good old things like quad guns and stuff can kill a lot of people with interceptor. Then use plague hulks or defilers or soul grinders and stuff to burn them or or pie plate them.
another option that i love is getting a large unit of plague zombies (couple of 30s) and just leave him stuck in combat with them for the next few turns killing fearless guys.
maulerfiend also will tear most thing up


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

A couple of big Cultist units - anything that takes up a lot of space. Deploy as usual, but then put Cultists everywhere within 6"/12" of anything important. He cannot then deep strike into your army - he'll have to place his pods in front of your army, which will block line of sight for the rest of his supporting units or at least give you 5+ cover (as indeed will the thin screen of Cultists in front of your important things).


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

As a player of Drop Pods I will confirm both Mayegelt and MidnightSun's suggestions. Area denial and bubble-wrap are your two best friends. My buddy uses Cultists and Rhinos to provide cover to his Vindicator, Forgefiend, and other baddies I want dead T1. Sometimes he's so effective with it my only hope for First Blood is popping a Rhino with Melta Guns, which were it not for the point is truly a waste of a T1 Melta strike. As an added bonus counter-attack units that have a 12" movement (Raptors, Flying Daemon Princes, Warp Talons) are all great at jumping over the bubble wrap to assault that now-vulnerable unit. Heldrakes used to be fuckin' terrifying for me in this aspect because of Vector Strikes, but they still have AP3 Flamers you can use to torch stuff (albeit with a normal firing arc now).

As a side note, are people even using the Heldrakes with template weapons anymore or are they more popularly used as anti-air with the Autocannon? Their Vector Strike barely changed against other Fliers, I feel like they're one of the best AA options out of the Codex....but I don't play as Chaos just against them.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

ntaw said:


> As a side note, are people even using the Heldrakes with template weapons anymore or are they more popularly used as anti-air with the Autocannon? Their Vector Strike barely changed against other Fliers, I feel like they're one of the best AA options out of the Codex....but I don't play as Chaos just against them.


If they're taken, they're Baleflamers, but they've all but disappeared completely in my area. Hull-mounted is just such a limitation on a Flyer.


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## Chaos Crusader (Aug 26, 2014)

I run two Heldrakes with the Baleflamer, yes the vector strike has been reduced in strength (against ground targets at least) but it can still reliably take on other flyers, and the AP3 template takes out most troop choices in the game still.


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## Chaos Crusader (Aug 26, 2014)

Once again, thanks for the input guys, my forgefiends are my main priority to keep alive from this attack so ill make sure they are well protected from now on.

Just to say, this site is awesome for advice and tips, especially for beginners to the hobby like myself, appreciate it chaps :good:


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

I generally rely on the interceptor rule on the quad gun or Icarus Las cannon. 

A tactic that I've seen being used once or twice is the cannon fodder/bubblewrap technique. Especially effective with artillery or jump infantry/skimmers behind your own line.
Force the enemy to deploy before you can open fire on what's on the field already and then take down whatever pops up.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Sangus Bane said:


> I generally rely on the interceptor rule on the quad gun or Icarus Las cannon.


While Interceptor is a great answer to Deep-Striking threats, it's somewhat hard to come by without also having Skyfire, forcing it to Snap Shot at a Drop Pod or whatever comes out of one - and therefore, it's unlikely to do any damage even to infantry disembarking from a Pod.

If you use an Imperial army, you could bring Inquisitor Coteaz as an Inquisitorial Detachment, who has an ability that lets his squad shoot at any enemy arriving from reserve within 12". Other than that, I think the only surface-to-surface Interceptor comes from Tau, as an upgrade for Battlesuits (mainly taken on a Riptide - if there's one thing to make Space Marones cry, it's a Str8 AP2 large blast.) If you're not an Imperial or Tau player, it's likely that bubble-wrap and making sure that you dictate which units get sacrificed are your only real defences.


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

MSU CSM squads in rhinos seem like they could be quite effective as a counter while filling required troop slots. A unit of five with a meltagun and combi-melta and melta bombs on the unit leader is cheap and seems suited to do hull points on a dread. If the rhino is still there after the drop you might even be able to circle round to hit rear armour. Two melta shots and a krak grenade without even disembarking.

Or a similar unit with plasma. Plasma gun and combi plasma is good against Meq.


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

Generally what I do is I deploy with my infantry around the outside with the melta vulnerable vehicles in the middle. this then gives enough space to allow the tanks to move out the way when they get chance and your infantry are goingt o be boltered anyway whether it is from the other side of the board or right next to you, but you can just assault thm next turn (so theraptors idea is a very nice one as you can bounce out behind cultists and wipe the unit).

If you have first turn spread out as much as you can possibly move vehicles more mid-field so that deepstriking is a bit less worth it if they try and go near their vehicles when they are only gettin n the way of their own units, if you are going second deploy with maximum cherency and bubble-wrap everything.


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