1850 Drop Pod Wolves Tournament List

[Bosco]

Hi all,

Long-time reader, first time posting. I wanted to throw my ideas for a tournament list against the communal wall and see what sticks after feedback.

HQ
Rune Priest: Terminator Armor, storm bolter, runic staff

Elite
Wolf Guard Pack (10 models total):

Terminator armor, Combi plasma, Power fist
2x Terminator Armor, Combi plasma, Wolf claw (Packs C & D)
4x Terminator Armor, Combi plasma, Power axe (Packs A & B)
Terminator Armor, Combi plasma, Power sword
2x Terminator Armor, Storm bolter, Power sword, Cyclone Missile Launcher (Packs E & F)
Drop Pod: Deathwind Missile Launcher

Troops
Grey Hunter Pack A:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, MotW, Meltagun
Drop Pod

Grey Hunter Pack B:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, MotW, Meltagun
Drop Pod

Grey Hunter Pack C:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, MotW, Plasmagun
Drop Pod

Grey Hunter Pack D:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, MotW, Plasmagun
Drop Pod

Grey Hunter Pack E:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, MotW, Plasmagun
Drop Pod

Grey Hunter Pack F:
7x Grey hunters, Wolf Standard, Plasmagun
Drop Pod

Heavy Support
Long Fangs Pack

Lascannon
3x Missile Launcher
Plasma Cannon
Squad Leader: Bolt pistol and Chainsword
Drop Pod

8 pods = 4 arriving on my first turn. Deployment/movement puts the terminator wolf guard at the front of the grey hunters to try and soak incoming shooting wounds for as long as possible. Rune Priest brings his staff of deny while either handing out cover and offense from the SW powers or possibly something more supportive from Prescience if I'm staying back and shooting a bit more. Focus is obviously on a whole mess of grey hunters and I'm relying on their versatility to round out my major weaknesses.

The intent is to plop down a bunch of pods with TDA wolf guard + priest, 2 (possibly 3) grey hunter packs, and either deploy or pod in the long fangs as my alpha strike. If there is favorable reason to do so, the long fangs can deploy and I'll put their empty pod out when it comes in through reserves for a stronger alpha strike. The Cyclone wolf guard come down with grey hunters from reserves on objectives farther from the enemy lines. The meltagun grey hunters typically come down in the first wave with the wolf guard to open up transports and get those vulnerable troops out in the open as quickly as possible for the rest of the army to work on in the following turns. If things work out, I load up on one side of my opponent's deployment and force them to lose focus from the first turn.

Against Tyranids, Orks, or anything I just don't want to get close to for a while then I deploy the army and rain empty pods like traffic cones to divert/direct their movement a bit more to my liking while whittling them down with the fangs/cyclones until the bolters are in range.

The major (obvious) weakness I am seeing is my complete disregard for flyers, but podding close enough to the opposite edge should spare my alpha strike units from most airborne shooting except the dreaded hell-turkey. My other concern is any VP mission (which in a tournament there will be), but short of using larger (and thus fewer) units, there isn't much I can do about that.


Any thoughts/input/criticism is appreciated.

[Chris Lee]

Am I missing something here? I was under the impression you could only hold half of your army in reserve? Unless you're just planning on having empty pods come in?

[Falconjab]

You can take an entire drop pod army in reserve. Drop pods are exempt. BUT, Bosco seems like he's putting some units on the table and just deploying their empty drop pods. For instance, TDA Terminators can no longer go in Drop Pods (FAQ'd) and Bosco mentioned tactics like starting the Long Fangs on the table. I would personally take 2 Lascannons or 2 Plasma Cannons in the Long Fangs squad (one of each doesn't really do much), and I'm not sure about the 10 Terminators on the table. Combi-plasmas are great and all, but foot slogging that many Terminators is a recipe for disaster. Plus, most of them have melee upgrades.

[Chris Lee]

Ahh. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm surprised I never came across that rule.

I agree with Falcon. I have NEVER had success with footslogging termies. Ever. They just move too slowly and beg your opponent to smother them in plasma. It goes against your army theme, but would you consider running a landraider? As heavy mech lists are becoming less of a trend, and some newer armies (ie Tau) struggle with dealing with AV13+. A land raider would give you a much greater chance of those termies getting to where they need to be in one piece.

[Bosco]

Thanks for the input guys. I should have been more explicit; all but 4 of the Wolf Guard are going in the drop pod grey hunter packs, hence the melee upgrades (plus I like some variety). I'll edit my initial post to reflect this for future readers/comments.

As far as mentioning a (recent?) FAQ regarding TDA equipped models not being allowed into drop pods, where are you reading this? I've just checked the FAQ/Errata page for updates from GW and haven't seen anything to that effect in the SW or general 40k BRB FAQs after a few searches, but I'm by no means perfect. I was under the impression that SW terminators could still deploy in pods, but counted as two models and couldn't enter rhinos.