Deepstriking Tactica

[Zakath the slaughterer]

With the new Rulebook giving all jump infantry Deep Strike, it just got me thinking if its worth it to actually Deep Strike some units.

I have always disliked Deep Striking since it is inaccurate, doesn't allow you to assault and even counts as moving so heavy weapons can't fire. That, and I think jump infantry, for example, can reach the enemy faster by jumping...

The only units I think are sensible to Deep Strike are Terminators with their Relentless rule and 2+ AS: they can shoot a lot and take the inevitable punishment next turn so that they can actually be placed somewhere near the action. The other units are anything with the SM landing pod thingy (the name escapes me ) for obvious reasons.

What do you guys think about Deep Striking in general? Are there any special situations/opponents/missions where certain units or armybuilds are better off using this rule?

Is there anything to compensate the inaccuray of
A) the turn the unit comes in play
B) the place they come into
C) if they survive it (mishaps)?

Opinions?

[Aspiring executioner]

I think it's worth it only if you have teleport homers for SM for your Terminators or Personal Icons for Chaos. I usually don't deep strike as my Jump Infantry can usually get there faster jumping than by deep striking. Although Obliterators are very effective tank-hunters when they deep strike.
By the way the SM landing pods are called Drop Pods.

[Gnosis]

I'd only ever deep strike expensive and otherwise slow assault troops - such as Terminators. I never deep strike my Obliterators, I like them to shoot every possible turn.

[Elipsis]

What i have done in the past is in a massive deep strike (we were playing apocalypse)
I sent down 3 drop pods, all of which had Teleport beacons, each of the drop pods were then accompanioed by two terminator squads, all tooled up with assault cannons.
laid waste to an entire flank of orks

[Mr. anderson]

Seeing as I play Eldar, I never saw the point of deepstriking... My army is fast enough without it. The only unit I ever deepstrike is my swooping hawks, and that is only to use their grenade launchers (go rubber banding ).
For the rest I agree with Damnation, at least partially. Units which need to get into combat but are too slow to get their within any reasonable amount of time, should be deepstriked. But I don't think that expensive HQ units (such as terminator guards with chapter master etc.) should be deepstriked unless they pack an awful lot of very close range shooting power - heavy flamers for example. Otherwise you risk that your opponent points all their big guns at them and shoots them at all costs (you could of course take advantage of that, but then - I don't think any space marine chapter would sacrifice their commanders only to draw the fire away from the green recruits ). The other risk is that you might end up somewhere you really did not want to go (the top of a tank is the classic example of a deepstriking attempt epically failing...).
For marines who hardly have any expendable units, drop pods are the safest way to go.
The risk is always the same - either you rely too much on the deepstriking (so that if it fails you're over and done with), or you have enough units to make sure that at least some come down, but then you risk that the units come bit by bit so that the only real purpose for your units is that the enemy gets some targeting practise...
Deepstriking is just too risky for my taste... but you must take into account that my taste is heavily influenced by being an eldar player ...

HUZZAH!

[The griefbringer]

As a Tau player, a huge amount of my army is able to deepstrike, but it isn't usually the best idea. You have to ask yourself 'can I go without this unit for most of the battle and still win'?

If the answer is yes, then deepstriking is sometimes quite helpful, especially for ambushing tanks with melta weapons/shooting rear armor or getting flamers into range.

My favorite Tau drop is a Crisis Suit w/Twin-linked Fusion Blaster and Flamer. Cheap, able to blow up tanks or scorch infantry (whereever he happens to land), and so small that mishaps are rare.

[Zakath the slaughterer]

So everyone seems to be on the same lines as me Although the all-Deep Striking IG is fun, DS is rarely overly effective ability

EDIT: Ps. I'm an Eldar player too, so I definitely hear you, Mr. Anderson

[The griefbringer]

So everyone seems to be on the same lines as me Although the all-Deep Striking IG is fun, DS is rarely overly effective ability

EDIT: Ps. I'm an Eldar player too, so I definitely hear you, Mr. Anderson

I've seen Drop IG armies, where the whole she-bang shows up via the air, do fairly well. It relies a lot, though, on how lucky you are with your reserve rolls.

[Gnosis]

Drop pods will be retardedly good in 5th edition with the upcoming SM codex, or so I've heard. For 35 points you will have a deepstriking AV12 all round stationary vehicle that can contest objectives.

Edit: and deepstriking IG armies perform so well because there is massive redundancy; having your battleplan stand or fall with a successful deepstrike or two is tricky, but having a dozen units drop in with the occasional one landing in is more reliable.

It's what Warhammer (40k) is all about - finding failsafes for bad dice rolls.

[Mr. anderson]

I'm an Eldar player too, so I definitely hear you, Mr. Anderson

I tried to deepstrike half my army once... needless to say that they ended up in very small bits strewn all across the battle field

About deepstriking IG - they can work, but they heavily rely on landing in the right place at the right time. The huge amount of models means that it becomes very risky to deepstrike after a while, especially when there are few zones where you can safely land.
A friend of mine decided to try an entirely deepstriking army... even his heavy weapon teams deepstriked (don't ask me why he did that though...). The result was that the army landed platoon after platoon so that I had one turn to shoot each unit from the platoon up which had just landed and then they'd try to land again, with the same result. The fact that their weapons couldn't harm me a lot (dark reapers in cover with a farseer protecting them are the ultimate weapon against anything) coupled with me not having any infantry in a vulnerable position (my Dire Avengers jumped out of a tank, cleared the field and I made sure that there wouldn't be any units deepstriking within 12" of them), meant that my opponent would have needed all the heavy weapons he didn't have in order to harass my tanks. Deepstriking is just too unreliable, even for IG - either it works, and then its devastating, or it doesn't and then you're screwed - the chances are 1:1... and as an eldar those odds aren't good enough... though I don't know how an IG player feels about them

HUZZAH!

[Demetrius]

Deep striking is good in moderations. If your whole army deepstrikes, your enemy can just deploy in a corner and fight each unit with their whole army. If you have one unit deepstriking, its almost pointless (unless its a suicide tank hunter..)

My main battle plan for my Alpha Legion is putting a 10 man squad with icon and meltas in a Rhino and rushing forward, supported by raptors and vindicator. As long as the icon bearer survives, my 5 man terminator squad with pimped out Lord deepstrikes, tears a squad apart from their shooting, and then next turn rapes the enemy in combat. If the icon is killed, I also keep another 10 man unit as part of my firebase with icon so they can land there. This strategy rarely loses me the game.

Also, because you can run after you deepstrike now, if you scatter too far away, you can run closer to enemy or bail into terrain.

[Deadlydeception]

I like to deepstrike with three of my guardsmen units. Two of said units are command platoons with 4 flamers, and the third is a special weapon team with two flamers and a demo charge. All of these units are under 100 points and can do a lot of damage IF they land in the right spot.

Of course, I don't deepstrike with everything, as putting my platoons into rapid fire range with their lasguns would probably lead to me being charged and wiped out in the enemy's turn. Also, my missile launchers wouldn't be able to shoot.

I wish guardsmen could get teleport homers...