Another run at a 2k all comers Vulkan list!

Couple of thoughts....

1. 3 Tacs is a lot... if you combat squad them then don't worry about the PF on the sgt... that's a bunch of points back into the pool... and in most combats with 5 marines, he may not get the chance to swing back. If you don't intend to combat squad then switch out the ML for something else...
2. Predators are much better with Las sponsons. It gives them a lot more threat
3. Realize that your iron clad is a throw away unit... he won't make it out of turn 2. Also, good opponent's will deploy in a way that he has no good targets (ie a rhino/razorback screen that will force him to give cover to the LR or other juicy target he really wants to go at.

A quick fix for your list would be to drop a tac squad. Then use the points to upgrade two rhinos to TL Las or LasPlas razorbacks. With what's left over I'd buy another predator and see if I had the points to give them las sponsons.

Also, realize that you are essentially running a rock list. The Termies can get very quickly marginalized by a good opponent, so I think the rest of your list needs more punch to make your opponent start thinking about opportunity cost (ie, shooting all at the LR means that you have to ingore the other dangerous stuff)

So really, the lesson here is that a single rock army isn't all that viable for tourney play. It can be fun, but you have to sacrafice a lot to get there. The problem is that adding in another Tac squad means that you're gonna lose two of something else... So you have to make a choice.. do I buff up my scoring units, or do I lose some firepower. *For ME* the result is to reduce effectiveness of the Tacs in favor of more firepower. BTW my tournament list for Codex Marines has 6 scoring units... so I'm not trying to argue that there is no need for scoring units... but if you wanna run a big rock list then you have to make some sacrafices... I think you can get by with 4 and if you're determined to run Vulcan and termies, then you've gotta make some sacrfices in order to buff up the rest of your list.

For pods, you'll notice that pretty much all successfull pod lists are pretty much All-or-None - taking one pod means that your stuff gets shot up and should only be useful for one turn. And a good opponent will marginalize thier effectiveness during his deployment and first turn. Sorry, I just don't see how it's worth 150 points to save your raider from a round of shooting .... and you're assuming I'll have to shoot a significant portion of my list to drop it... That makes it throw away... but perhaps we're just arguing semantics...