Editing Codex - Drop Troops (section)

==Why Play Drop Troops of the Imperial Guard==
If you thought that regular Imperial Guard needed a wheelbarrow to carry around those great brass balls before charging a Carnifex with a flashlight and a butter knife, then the Drop Troops really dial that up to eleven.

From a gameplay perspective, Imperial Guard Drop Troops ditch the grinding war of attrition for rapid strikes from the air. Tanks and heavy artillery get left behind in favour of elite infantry, powerful aircraft and a few light vehicles - with strong synergies between them. This is a highly tactical army to play as you will start games with having most of your army able to deploy from deep strike, allowing you to quickly capture key objectives and neutralise key threats. However, since you have an army of entirely T3 5+ infantry and T7 3+ aircraft - with no invulnerable saves - you will get ground down and take casualties, fast. The key between victory and defeat will be in how effective your opening turns are, and if you can have the patience to keep some units in reserve turn 2 and 3 and deploy them to disrupt your enemy's initiative. As your units are also still cheap, it is very viable to play this as "horde deep strike".

===Pros===
*Lots of cheap infantry that can be buffed through the Orders system by their Officers.
*Drop Troop infantry benefit from Aerial Drop, higher Ld and can take better gear such as krak grenades, demo charges and aux grenade launchers.
*You're still effectively a horde army, so losses won't hurt you as bad as some armies. You can also afford to sacrifice units to keep the enemy tied up.
*You have a variety of elite infantry options with specialist weapons and abilities. Special Weapon Squads and Sappers can bring melta and plasma to eliminate high threat units, and Stormtroopers and Forward Recon Squads are useful for handling objectives. Sniper Squads are some of the most point-efficient anti-charectar in the game, and can be further buffed with camo-cloaks and anti-material rifles.
*Your Aircraft are your mainstay for heavy fire support, with lots of synergies, Pilot Aces and stratagems to get the max out of them.
*Valkyries in a Drop Troops army are Dedicated Transports, meaning you can field a lot more Aircraft per Detachment than any other army in the game.
*Air Cavalry lets you Deepstrike on Turn 1, copying SM Drop Pods.
*You have shit tonnes of opportunities to create your own regiments and kitbash your own unique guys.
*The Codex has a full suite of Crusade rules, and also has a Custom Aircraft Loadout tool that lets you make some crazy combinations for aircraft in casual games.
*There's a lot of fun in playing homebrew rules. It is YOUR game, YOU can make it what you want, and this can help encourage other players too, so long as both players agree before the game.

===Cons===
*Expect to take high casualties. Your whole army is either T3 or T7, with no invulnerable saves. Your strength is in numbers.
*You have the volume to be capable in shooting and melee, but you excel at neither. Most 40k armies are specialised and will be hitting on you for less one way or the other.
*Your infantry greatly rely on Officers, who are very fragile and easy to pick off. They need to be protected by other infantry squads and your elimination of enemy sniper and anti-charectar units is key.
*You trade tanks for aircraft, which are great and have universal -1 to hit protection, but are less resilient than T8 Leman Russ tanks. You also need to be careful with the rules for Aircraft in 9e, as you can easily overshoot the board and put your flyers into Strategic Reserves. It's smart to pre-plan flight paths, or put your Valks/Vendettas/Vultures into hover mode.
*FW Elysians have been Out of Production for many years, and authentic kits go for $$$ on eBay. Your best (legal) options are to either kitbash your own Regiments or turn to the miracle of [[3DPrinting|3d printing]].
*As a homebrew Codex, this army has no official rules support. It is therefore highly unlikely that you will ever be able to play a Drop Troops army in a GW store or tournament setting; this is best kept for club and friendly games. You may also find that "meta" players will refuse to play you, or worse if you do end up winning they may just complain that your homebrew codex was OP. Or it may just be that they are [[That Guy]]. But then again, do you want to spend 2 hours playing a twat like that in the first place?
*Because the rules are fan-made, there is also likely to be a lot of bugs and errors in the rules, which is why the dev team chose to release in Alpha state first to gather playtesting and feedback. It will take time to balance out the rules and expect plenty of significant changes to come in later versions.