Drop Pods have been a game changer for my Blood Angels demi-company. But not on their own. After getting a few games under my belt I decided the demi-company was too fragile in its current form and relied far too much on the tanks of the armoured company doing the heavy lifting. Bottom line was by the time the line units got close to any objectives, they were already broken and combat ineffective.

My solution was to double the size of both core detachments, assign all the dedicated Rhino transports to the first detachment and equip the second with Drop Pods. As Drop Pods are not a dedicated transport for a demi-company formation, I needed to purchase them in their own transport support detachment. Well, it’s not like I had anything else I was planning to use that optional transport support slot on, so it’s all good.

Assembly and painting

The Drop Pod is a straight forward kit to build, ‘but’ it is fiddly to paint if you plan on having all the doors function as per the design. I did, because I can’t help myself, so all six pods have functional doors that can be displayed open or closed. For the sake of your own sanity, you may want to glue them shut, or open, or a combination to save yourself from getting angry while painting them. You can thank me later.

In game they are super fun and really switched up the dynamic how my Blood Angels played on the board. I was immediately happier with the formation re-configuration, not just because of the Drop Pods, but more the ability between those, the Rhino detachment and a healthier Dreadnought setup to really push the objectives hard and hold them effectively. The Blood Angels could literally be all places at once, deep in your deployment or a combination of the two as the battle ebbed and flowed.

For me, the Blood Angels demi-company is in a good place right now.