Dark Angels Review: Drop Pod

Rounding off the trio of dedicated transports is the drop pod.  Used since at least the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras, the drop pods land the troops where they need to be.  Taken as a single unit ensures that the required pod drops on turn 1.  Taking more will result in some not coming down on turn one.  I'd suggest odd numbers of drop pods on that basis.

There are a couple of options here: the deathwind launcher, or the locator beacon.  Note that they do not get access to the vehicle equipment chart like the rhino or razorback.

The deathwind launcher is a nice large S5 splat that can be very useful.  With an AP of 12 all round, such drop pods can cause significant headaches.  I once saw an army at a tournament that consisted of two halves: one half was quite "ordinary" (at least in the sense of troops, HQ, etc.), and the other half of drop pods, each equipped with a deathwind launcher.  The deathwind launchers dropped in the enemies backline and caused significant casualties, as well as impaired movement for opposing tanks quite effectively.  Seriously: this tactic can be completely awesome.  I'm actually surprised it hasn't come up more often in 6th edition really.  It tackles both infantry (through large pie plates) and tanks (through obstruction) in a cheeky way.  I'd certainly welcome feedback on this idea - even army lists - if anyone out there runs such a list, or has encountered it before.  (aside: it didn't work well against me, as I was playing daemons - lol - but it *did* work well against more traditional armies).

The locator beacon is helpful for creating a forward point if the army is highly deep-strike orientated, but many other units in the game also give this option.

I'd therefore consider two builds: (a) a naked drop pod for 35 points; or (b) a drop pod armed with a deathwind launcher for 50 points.