4/5 stars. Changes to Deep Strike limits the effectiveness of Drop Pods in Third Edition.
Background.
Your iconic orbital insertion transport. Your marines embark on a drop pod from orbit and plummet are terrible speeds toward the ground to avoid being destroyed in mid-air and somehow survive the g-forces in operation due to either plot armour, or super human physiology.
Strengths.
Carrying capacity is 10 and you get to deep strike. That's it. That's all there is to know really!
Weaknesses.
AV=12 is okay, but once on the board that won't matter a great deal. The BS=2 isn't great, but sometimes that mounted bolt gun might get a wound, so it is worth shooting.
The deep strike rules in third edition are worth noting here. Firstly, you cannot deep strike on turn one. This is bad. Secondly, you can only deep strike one unit per turn in third edition. This is bad.
The latter might be fixed by specific mission rules, but the whole drop pod assault army has been utterly obliterated if I am reading the rules correctly. Seriously: this is so bad.
Builds.
There are no build options to discuss here. You pay the flat fee and you get what you pay for. End of. The drop pod is absolutely worthwhile, but I want to still see drop pod armies. Otherwise what is the "Drop Site Massacre" all about? One coming down at a time and making it easy for Horus to blast them down?
3 comments:
I'm confused why you gave it 4 stars while the "strengths" is basically non-existent and most of the focus is "weaknesses".
As a personal note, I do feel for the drop pod armies that were built and legal at one point. On the other hand, I've never had a play experience either with or against that was fun for over a decade. Spending 15-45 min driving, 30-60 min setting up/going over lists and rules, only to have one player turn one put half of their army back in the travel case.
All scores are subjective (and biased no doubt as well). Fundamentally, the drop pod still functions as you need it to and is an asset. But just not in great numbers any more, and not on turn one. Put a string shooting squad or combat squad in one and you’ve got a great tactic. Hence it still is viable.
I’ve played against pure drop pod armies in first and second editions. I quite like them! They’re fun to deal with- like a problem to be solved quickly?
All scores are subjective (and biased no doubt as well). Fundamentally, the drop pod still functions as you need it to and is an asset. But just not in great numbers any more, and not on turn one. Put a string shooting squad or combat squad in one and you’ve got a great tactic. Hence it still is viable.
I’ve played against pure drop pod armies in first and second editions. I quite like them! They’re fun to deal with- like a problem to be solved quickly?
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