question about death storm drop pods

[Forlornhope15]

alright so I recently played an apoc game with a friend in my group. He played 3 death storm drop pods, he contends that when a drop pod hits, it puts D3 large blast templates on every squad within 12" of the drop pod and that can stack with neighboring pods

the point of this whole wall of post is I want to know how this thing shoots when it lands, does it always scatter 2d6 even if a direct hit is scored since everything within 12" is inside the minimum range?

I looked up the rules for the deathstorm and all it says is d3 shots with the whirlwind launcher which has the profile as listed below:

Whirlwind launcher (note the no multi-missle)
Str 5, Ap4, Ord 1/Barrage range 12"-48"

since barrage by definition has to have some kind of template, does it use a small one, a large one? or does it just shoot a normal shot at BS2?
my friend who knows the rules pretty well, says he takes it to mean its a whirlwind multi missle launcher using vengeance missles which has a very similar profile

str 5 ap4 ord1/barrage large blast range 12"-48"

i noticed in the older codex's they don't differentiate between large and small blast for ordinance.

what does this drop pod do when it lands, does it drop d3 pieplate templates on every unit within a 12" radius? or does it just shoot d3 shots at every unit within 12 that happen to be ordinance and ignore cover? or does it use a cookie template? how far does it scatter? 2d6 minus BS or the full 2d6 even on direct hits?

[Nabterayl]

Whirlwind launcher (note the no multi-missle)
Str 5, Ap4, Ord 1/Barrage range 12"-48"

since barrage by definition has to have some kind of template, does it use a small one, a large one? or does it just shoot a normal shot at BS2?
my friend who knows the rules pretty well, says he takes it to mean its a whirlwind multi missle launcher using vengeance missles which has a very similar profile

str 5 ap4 ord1/barrage large blast range 12"-48"

At the time the Deathstorm rules were written, "Ordnance Barrage" was by definition equivalent to "Ordnance Large Blast Barrage." In 6th edition, "Ordnance Barrage" implies either Large Blast or Blast, as you correctly note, but it doesn't tell you which to use. Since there is no way of knowing which to use in the current rules, I think it most in the spirit of the game to use Large Blast (since that's what it was when written). But the truth is there is literally no RAW answer here.

what does this drop pod do when it lands, does it drop d3 pieplate templates on every unit within a 12" radius? or does it just shoot d3 shots at every unit within 12 that happen to be ordinance and ignore cover? or does it use a cookie template? how far does it scatter? 2d6 minus BS or the full 2d6 even on direct hits?

It shoots its Whirlwind Launcher D3 times at every unit within 12" (friend and foe). Since the Whirlwind Launcher itself only fires a single [large] blast marker, that means every unit within 12" will get D3 [large] blast markers fired at it, using the barrage rules. As you know, the barrage rules don't ignore cover, but since cover saves are worked out from the center of the template, it's possible that the shots will go over intervening cover. The shots will scatter 2d6-2". I'm not sure what you're getting at about the 12" minimum range, since the Whirlwind Launcher doesn't have a minimum range listed.

[plasticaddict]

Unless it there are new rules for them in Areonautica each unit within 12" receives D3, S4 AP5, Ordinance, 5" Blast, Barrage shots on the turn the Deathstorm lands. After that they may fire as normal at one target within range 48" (with no minimum range listed), all shots are resolved as normal scattering 2D6 -2".