I’ve recently heard it suggested that I’m going to have to shelve my Drop Pod Space Marine army. I’ve heard arguments that, even with a Drop Pod army, I can’t start entirely in reserve.

To put it mildly, I disagree. I think GW is pretty clear on this one, although they did leave it just ambiguous enough to cause a bunch of arguments. Here is why you can place your Drop Pod Army fully in reserve:


  • The Basic Rule Book says that up to 50% of your army can be held in reserve. Further, units that MUST start the game in reserve do not count toward this percentage.
  • Drop Pods MUST start in reserve.
  • On page 124 it says “A unit and it’s Dedicated Transport are counted as a single unit for these purposes.” That is a key point.
  • Thus, my unit of Marines and their Drop Pod are one unit. Full stop. Period. The Drop Pod is required to start in reserve.
  • There is NO rule that says I need to separate the two. There is no rule that says I need to break them up. There IS a rule that says “a unit and it’s Dedicated Transport are counted as a single unit for these purposes.” GW is not being ambiguous about this point at all. My Marines and their Drop Pod are a single unit.
  • Thus, they start in reserve. They have to. The Drop Pod's rule dictates that they do. The same goes for all of the unit’s that I choose to give Drop Pods to.


I will close with this: this doesn’t mean that putting troops in ANY dedicated transport gives you the choice to have them start in reserve. I could put Marines in a Rhino. That unit (again, one unit) could start in reserve or could be forced to start on the table. The same goes for putting Marines in a Land Raider. They could go in reserve or could be forced to start on the table. The 50% rule covers them nicely.

That covers Rules as Written. Clearly, I think that Rules as Intended (the spirit of the rules) also means that my Drop Pod army can start fully in reserve. However, I don’t feel that I need to turn to RAI since I think that RAW covers this quite nicely.

Cheers and good gaming to all. Copeland