GENERAL STRATEGY & TACTICS |
TACTICA DROP PODS By ( Grandmaster ==ME== ) |
This article has been reproduced with kind permission from the author. It's use here is not intended as a challenge to the original authors copyright and is reproduced here for the sole purpose of enhancing the Dark Angel spirit and the warhammer 40,000 experience |
Introduction: Since the birth of the Imperium and their creation, Space Marines have been at the forefront of humanity's army of righteousness. The original legions were massive formations, so could easily wage a massive, planet-wide war to achieve victory. But after the Horus Heresy, with depleted numbers, the remaining Space Marines became precise shock troops, causing fear and confusion, before delivering the final surgical blow. Drop Pods were created to aid the Space Marines even further. When using a drop pod army, particularly Dark Angels, in Warhammer 40,000, you must remember two facts to ensure success: 1) surprise your enemy, that's why your dropping after all! 2) Expect to change your battle plans, because that crucial unit will only come one or two turns after you need it, so expect the unexpected. I will go along the process of selecting and building a 1500-point Dark Angel drop pod force, one section at a time. HEADQUARTERS: "The Top Dawg" Your HQ is the head of your army, the big cheese, the head honcho, and should remain that way in your army, leading your troops on to greater feats of valor. Since each unit drops in at different times, you won't always have a screen for your HQ, so it will be exposed to horrendous amounts of firepower if it lands in an exposed spot, particularly out in the open. After shooting at it for a full turn, the enemy will probably try to assault it and quell the threat once and for all. Since you really don't want your beloved Hero and his accompanying squad to go bye-bye to some stray lascannon, or Ork slugga boyz, you need to come up with tactics to make the HQ more survivable. It appears that the Lion Helm was created for this exact circumstance. A 4+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks for all models within 3" is a godsend for us drop-podders. Other special drop-pod saviors are the Standards of Devastation and Fortitude. If you manage to deep strike close enough with your precious bolter/plasma combi-weapons, your foe will not expect to be shot to pieces by the volley of rapid fire. Or, if charged, your poor enemy will reel with the firepower put out at his charging daemonettes. In order to use these goodies, you first require a Grand Master with the Lion helm, and costing whopping 115 points without weapons, making this command squad will be like pulling teeth. We'll give him a Sword of Secrets and a bolt pistol, at a cost of 156 points. If you wish to use the Standards, you'll need a command squad. A nine strong, yes NINE, strong squad should do nicely. You will need the numbers and should have plenty of points leftover from all the vehicles you got rid of (right?). Add an apothecary with storm bolter and narthecium, a Techmarine with a powerfist and storm bolter, and a Standard bearer with the Standard of Devastation and storm bolter as upgrades to the command squad. At 381 points, it takes up a good bit of your forces, but will lay a fusillade of fire from the word go. You could alternatively swap the standard of Devastation for a Standard of Fortitude or replace a bolter with a meltagun or plasmagun for the special weapons marine. ELITES: "The Special Forces" Now, for your elites section, you have two choices: The revered Deathwing terminators, or the ancient dreadnought. They both have their merits, but after such an expensive HQ choice, I'd go for a dreadnought. Give the dreadnought twin-linked lascannons to bust armor, plasma for other marines and well-armored swarms, or autocannon/heavy bolter for swarms and popping light vehicles. Since the dreadnought can move and fire, deep striking is no problem. We'll use a dreadnought with a twin-linked lascannon, extra armor, smoke launchers, and a heavy flamer. I shall now explain the merits of the Deathwing, even though we won't be using them in the current army list. Deathwing, though almost twice as much as dreadnought, are much less vulnerable to shooting, able to hide behind cover and take more casualties before moving to the pit of no return, the side of the table. Once, a six-man squad of Deathwing deep struck behind my enemy, their cyclone and storm bolters popping the dreadnought's pack armor with a volley of fire, then their heavy flamer proceeded to BBQ the remains of the scouts and marines there. Terminators confer 3 unique effects in a drop pod army: 1.surprise- having anything pop up out of nowhere can throw even the most stalwart of commanders off balance, especially when it's the hardest troops in the game! Use the element of surprise to your advantage, keep your foe on his heels, make him second, even third, guess himself, and always keep him confused, do whatever it takes to throw him off. 2.firepower-the sheer amount of firepower that can be generated by a single 5-man Deathwing squad is horrendous, they can obliterate squads altogether, so use this to your advantage. A 5-man squad with 2 assault cannons can lay down 6 S6 AP4 shots, as well as 6 S4 AP5 shots, enough to silence those pesky Dark Reapers for good. 3.psychology-as if having to guess where your foe will show up next, nothing will frighten a player more than five of the hardest troops in the whole game pop up and wipe out his precious Big Gunz. Your enemy will take extra care to destroy your terminators, sometimes ignoring the rest of your army. Use the distraction to prepare a final assault, or to muster your forces for a pincher with your Deathwing. But if he ignores your Deathwing, punish him by using them to destroy and weaken his forces so you can finish him with ease, that'll teach him to ignore your most powerful squad. TROOPS: "Footsloggers, dogfaces, the poor bloody infantry" Your troops provide the numbers and core to your army, use them wisely and in plenty. In a drop pod army, you'll want to drop in close. Take some assault weapons and unleash a hurricane of fire as son as you can, also take Vets with power weapon/fists and drop in for a close visit. Alternatively, you could take heavy weapons and drop behind cover or in a good firing position, so they can unload next turn on the unsuspecting enemies. Use scouts to protect your tactical marines, which means a whole squad with bolt pistols and close combat weapons. Or give them heavy weapons and hide in cover to unleash more firepower next turn, pinning his fearful units and taking out big guns. We'll use three 5-man squads with plasma cannons for fire support and diversionary tactics. Along with two 10-man squads, one with a flamer, another with a meltagun and stubborn veteran sergeant armed with a power weapon. That costs 706 points. Now on to the speedy stuff. FAST ATTACK: "Speed Freeks (no, not the Greenskins)" You will need a mobile counter-attack force or just plain speed to reposition units that scatter too far. The speed of Fast Attack units allows them to compensate for bad positioning and enables them to rapidly take out vital enemy units to support the bulk of your forces. They can easily capture objectives, distract your foe, or be just a general pain in the neck. The Ravenwing of the Dark Angels can, like all fast attack, move and shoot, so they are able to unleash an impressive amount of firepower the first turn they arrive. Assault squads can support your advance and tactical squads in close combat, so deep strike them into cover so they can jump over it into assault next turn. For our army, we'll take a Ravenwing Land speeder tornado with heavy bolter and chin-mounted assault cannon, for speed and firepower, at 80 points it's quite a bargain for what it can do. HEAVY SUPPORT: "Da big Gunz" We have only one unit available for heavy support in the drop pod army, the devastator squad. No vehicles are allowed so this is our only real firepower. They are not able to fire after deep striking, so they will usually be shot up, for psychological reason we'll take a six-man devastator squad with four missile launchers, flexible and deadly for 185 points. |
