Drop Pods incoming

With the new Space Wolves codex coming out today and my main adversary a Wolves player I have a feeling I am going to be seeing a lot of Drop Pod lists in the near future.

I think I need a refresher on Anti Drop Pod tactics. The only thing I know is that once they drop and I survive I need to Flat Out as far away as possible, and let the footslog over to me while I shoot them down. That is of course if my Raiders and Venoms survive.

Any other need to know tactics?

Castling is the traditional defence against drop pod armies. Basically you clump all your units into a small area of the battlefield, forcing the drop pods to come down outside that area and limiting the targets that they can shoot at on the first turn. If you have a strong assault element it also means that you can get a first or second turn assault in on the podding units.

I would also add tot he above, that in the new universe of 'flames on da boats!' I would have your outer castle ring disembarked, with either the infantry or the boats on the outer circle as dictated by the value you place on either to your overall win goals.

a bit more agressive here - manipulate your adversary. Pick where they don't want to land and give them a target there. With space marines what you want is dispicable terrain on one side or non attractive targets and then board edge on the other. While the landing systems don't let them fall on anyone's head they can still scatter off the board. Bubble wrapping too is effective. You are also more mobile than drop pods so set up away from the objectives then they make a choice take the aggressive initiative and footslog to the objective or take the objectives and forsake the point sink into short ranged shock troops (if that is what they chose). also objective placement - space them out so the drop pod and unit cannot take two. Also place your objectives where it is not attravtice to drop pods. try that for starters

I have had massive success castling against pods using a very large Beast Pack. The beasts effectively bubble wrap the entire army and attempt to draw as much fire as possible.

If the enemy pumps all their fire into the beasts, the rest of my army is unscathed and vice versa.

I think I'll be watching pods a bit more in 7th due to them scoring.

Thanks, for the info guys.

By castling, you're making sure that no drop pod can fit between your ships. Because Drop Pods have that auto-landing thing so they don't mishap and the just land where they can if there is space. Also do they have to get all their doors down or just space for one of them to come down so their dudes can get out.

The doors are meaningless. What they need is enough space to land their vehicle (which is its diameter plus a 1" ring around it) and also to disembark legally. (which is, functionally, another 1" ring or maybe a legal oblong area)

How I deploy against a drop pod list is purely determined by what he has. If he is bringing flamers or other template weapons, I try to avoid castling up. Usually, with the template, your opponent will be able to hit at least 2 vehicles, which will mean trouble for it's passengers. Against flamers in pods, I will usually spread out along the table edge, ensuring that he can't hit 2, and has a greater change for a mishap off of the table. The other strategy for this would be to put your vehicles in reserve.

Most important of all, is to get all surviving units away from the pod as quick and as far as possible (even if that means sacrificing a turn of shooting). I played blood angels the other day that landed 2 dreads with flamers in pods. They did tremendous damage on turn 1, but could never catch me again to be any threat after that.

You counter drop pods in your deployment phase, before the game even begins. As stated earlier, set them up to fail by leaving either a big juicy target they cant refuse in an area they don't want to be, or deny them where they want to be with your own deployment.
Also, as stated, Dogs are awesome to bubblewrap.
They come down, they hit pretty hard, but they don't devestate you. your counter attack will be SO much more painful.

The good thing for us about drop pods is the fact that they cannot move, so the controlling player has to really thing if they want to drop their units for TOs or kills. Obviously it is still an excellent and effective strategy remember that they will use these pods to target and kill your shiny expensive things, I.E a venom filled with trueborn and your HQ. The castle approach can work but then it will be a clump vs a clump which can end badly if you play against a lot of flamers haha. Another thing you can do is get your troops out (hopefully you are running 6 in transports) and spread them out on the board as much as you can and keep your elites and HS in reserve. Now he has to make the choice of dropping his super nice units on his second turn, which keeps them out longer more points wasted. Or if he wants to drop his bunker buster units to kill your troops. As far as placement goes the drop pod cannot mishap and will be shifted untill it can land. you can use the terrain to your advantage. A good drop pod commander will not DS it within 12 of a board edge so play the edges. get right on that edge hopefully nestled in terrain so that he is taking a big risk in dropping near you. leave the middle of the field open. The DP will kill things there is nothing you can do about it, but you can really screw him over in board control and Tactical objective gathering. Or he will drop on all of the objectives and then you probably have other things to worry about.

Just bear in mind that with the Objective Secured, most if not all of the drop pods will be super-scoring, and a canny opponent will land at least some of them on objectives. Heavy reserve shenanigans can also work if you have something you really don't want them to be able to kill.