Mantis Warrior List Thoughts

I've been running my Mantis Warriors as a bike free Kahn list for as long as I can remember with enough success to keep at it. At some point I hope to do an article about the finer points of an entire army that has the option of outflanking and which units are best at it, but tonight I am pondering a more specific army list question: what use is a Tac Squad Drop Poding with double Melta in an outflanking army? And even though the Thunderfire Cannon is unmatched against xenos, is it justifiable to drop it when faced with so many Mech Marine opponents?

Below is the list I took to a tournament in Long Island, NY and placed 2nd out of 40 players. A lot of the success could be contributed to the Drop Pod squad in rounds 1 and 2 where they claimed a Storm Raven and a Land Raider respectfully (each with assault terminators inside). However in the third round they only managed to immobilize a daka Dreadnought and conceded two kill points. A perfect trade for this unit is 10 Assault Marines with a flamer and sgt w/ twin lightning claws.

DROP POD PROS

can knock out a major vehicle first turn

counts double if it holds a major assault unit

is a scoring unit

DROP POD NEGATIVES

not good against armies without an expensive vehicle

not good against an army in reserve

only works in Dawn of War if you go second

two easy kill points right into enemy deployment zone

the unit NEVER lives to score

Although I have not used the Assault Squad with jump packs yet (briefly used the squad in a rhino but no good) I feel outflanking with an 18"charge range could be great, especially if I find 115pt to add a jump Chaplain. 

So what about the Thunderfire Cannon? That thing is awesome but I might just have to drop it in favor of a jump chaplain for the soon to be outflanking Assault Squad.

LAST TOURNAMENT LIST 1850pts

Khan (160)


Terminators*5 (200); thunderhammers*3, lightning claws*2
Land Raider Redeemer (240); ex armor (15), multi-melta (10)

Terminators*5 (200); chain fist (5), heavy flamer (5)

Sternguard Veterans*5 (125); combi-plasma*2 (10)
Razorback (40); twin-plasma & lascannon (35), dozer blade (5)

Tactical Squad*10 (170)
power fist (25), melta gun (5), missile launcher
Rhino (35)

Tactical Squad*10 (170)
power fist, melta gun (5), missile launcher
Rhino (35)

Tactical Squad*10 (170)
combi-melta (10), melta gun (5), lascannon (10)
Drop Pod (35)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Thunderfire Cannon (100)

~so what do you think I should do? There is a tournament coming up in three weeks in Grapevine, TX which I will bring one of the two lists.