Drop Pods are the future ... or are they?

Yup.
Armies these days just fuck you up.
There are so many lists out there that can really put a hammering on you first turn if they get to fire first.
I've tried a lot of armies over the years and I hate coming up against an army that just utterly spanks you turn one and then you have 1500-1400 points left to hit back.
Armies have to be Invisibile, hyper resilient with 2+/3++/FNP, out of range and then out of range themselves turn one.... Or null deploy.

At the recent tournament I attended, I always knew I had a good shot at causing damage due to my two units of drop podding Grav Cents - these were supported by Mephiston hanging out with one of them granting some funky Psychic support as well as counter assault.

So no matter what I was facing I knew I could do damage. Anecdotally, in a bad match up going second vs demons (with a gravcentric army), my grav cents dropped in and killed Fateweaver who was hidden on the ground. It got me 4 points across First Blood, Warlord, Kill a unit in the shooting phase and Kill a flier Maelstrom cards. Sweet.
(Aside: Those were the only points I scored til turn 4!)

Moving to more Centurions is of course an option - 3 units of podding Centurions would mean a significant hit on the enemy force. Serious damage without recourse.

If the game has moved to a situation where armies can put out sooo much hurt that you can't stand a round of unmolested enemy shooting, then don't let it.

11 Drop Pods are perfectly feasible with deadly payloads across a multitude of armies thanks to the Flesh Tearers Strike Force.

I have tried SM Grav Cents, Imperial Guard, Skitarri and have witnessed the effectiveness of Sisters Of Battle/Adeptus Sororitas first hand on the tournament scene..

These all work.

This was you can drop in and put a serious hit in with 6 pods in the first turn.

To be honest, the Skitarii hit the hardest - the radium carbines are insane from the Vanguard, they put ridiculous hurt on ANYTHING! The triple special weapons is also insane...need to kill a vehicle? Drop in triple Rapid Fire Haywire units! Boom! If you take the unit and are concerned with the match up that has no vehicles... well, remember these weapons are still S6.. As for the Plasma Calivers.. heh, forgedda bout it!
Awesome, awesome army.
Do NOT underestimate the Skitarii in Drop Pods. I bloody love them!

Triple Grav Cents also put in the work, naturally... these have been covered in sufficient detail before..

The real question is... I've just finished my 11th pod so I don't have to "rhino-standing-up-proxy" them anymore... BUT the news has just hit that Assault Squads do not get a free Pod as a transport if they don't take Jump Packs...making them more expensive.. Wonder what the new Space Marine Codex has in store for my current favourite method of marine delivery.

Last night I played a more chilled out version of the army with pure Space Marines from a single CAD.

Libbie

2 x 10 Man Sternguard with 3 Combi Melta, 3 Combi Grav - Drop Pods

1 x 5 Man Sternguard with 3 Combi Grav - Drop Pod

6 x 5 Man Tac squads with Melta, Combi Melta - Drop Pods

2 x 5 Man Assault Squad with 2 Flamers each - Drop Pods

Of course, in the new Codex, we know first of all that the list is now illegal lol... HOWEVER, I played against the new Eldar and they performed admirably, the Sternguard accounting for several units of Scatter Bikes and a Farseer in turn 1.. Of course, the little squads (all combat squads) all got a spanking from the remaining Bikes, the insanely fun Eldritch Storm and a Wraithknight.
But I won overall. Love Drop Pods

Please GW....Don't make me paint even more models! Saying that... I do have a secret geek-crush on Terminators and I'd bloody love it if they could be made viable in some way again and I could actually use mine...