Drop pods and drop pod assault

[Xas]

I'd like to add another dimension to the question:

do the squads have to be dropped in the pod?

example: I have a tac squad in droppod and a dreadnought in droppod.

can I do the following:
deploy the tac squad with the army from beginning and call down the dread turn1. keeping the tac's pod in reserve?

can I deploy the tac squad and call down it's droppod on turn1 as a "sentry turret" with a bacon, keeping the dread in reserve?


this would make stuff liek thunderfires and devastors in pods extremely suefull to "play" with the droppod assoult-slots to either call down your whole army on turn1 (bare a few empthy 35p pods) or keep the more close and personal stuff in for true reserve.

[Arschbombe]

You can drop empty pods. But you have to decide during deployment at the start of the game what units are going in what pods. It's the organizing the reserves part of deployment that requires you to make these decisions and tell your opponent. You can't decide on turn 4 when you make the roll for the tac squad and pod that now they're coming in separately.

[Dingareth]

Yep, my usual army runs three squads of Sternguard, Tigirius, and 2 Thunderfires with Drop Pods. In Kill Points missions I usually try to keep the two empty Pods from the Thunderfires in reserve as long as possible, so that the enemy has less time to get the points for them. But I still need them to bring all the Sternguard in on turn 1... so it's a compromise.

Also, you can use empty ones to bottleneck opponents and contest objectives.

[Ash]

You can't contest an objective with an empty Drop pod, right? I though empty transport vehicles can't contest.

[VinceBlack]

I'm hoping the rumour about all SW having to use drop pods if any are used is wrong. I can't see a fluff justification for it and I think it would be an unnecessary limiter on the SW list. I mean, they want to sell new plastic kits, not 1/2 new plastic kits and a bunch of drop pods (well, maybe they want to sell everything). On a similar note, I really hope SW can get TH & SS. I know quite a few people who will be ripping arms off models if they can't.

Back on topic; I've recently started dropping a pair of Ironclads on the first turn using a locator beacon on a Scout bike that turbo boosted into the enemy's deployment zone. It's nice to be able to put a pair of AV13 monsters right where you want them. Then the enemy army has to deal with them while the rest of your force sneaks up the field. In order to do this I have a third drop pod that comes down empty in later turns. Some people argue that I can't drop an empty drop pod, but I've yet to have anyone show me where it says I can't. It's the same as having an empty rhino really. Hrmmmm...this may not be on topic after all.

Anyway, to the OP; if you want more control over your drop pods then you will need to take more of them. It's as simple as that. I do wish that they had given the player the choice to round up or round down, that way it would be up to the player where the odd pod would go (first turn or reserves).


Dosadi

Actually if you look at the DA FAQ the question about dropping empty drop pods up and it is ruled legal. Now that is for the DA codex so you may want to start there for justification.

[VinceBlack]

You can't contest an objective with an empty Drop pod, right? I though empty transport vehicles can't contest.

Its considered a tansport... if you can contest with an empty rhino you can contest with a drop pod.

[Dosadi]

This is one of the first my gaming group made a house rule for when we analyzed 5th edition. The simple solution was that the vehicle had to be mobile in order to contest an objective. Immobilized vehicles can't contest. We have found that this simple fix makes a world of difference and has caused no perceivable issues within our gaming group.


Dosadi

[Xas]

cool stuff

but contesting shouldnt be that effetkive. AV12 and immobile means allmost everything can kill it.
if you keep them till turn 5 this might be a nice idea though. tigurius...worth a try!

[Dingareth]

Except when y'all play outside your group and try telling someone that the Drop Pod that is keeping them from losing the game doesn't count...

I personally find house rules cause more problems than they solve, I mean if a Defiler was standing on top of an ammo crate, I wouldn't run underneath him to try to grab it even if I knew he wasn't going to run after me! Between the claws, Battle Cannon and Flamers, I wouldn't go near the thing!

[Exlorn]

You cannot contest an objective with a drop pod because its immobile. Immobile vehicles cannot contest an objective as per the 40k rulebook.

If you need more proof then actually read the Immobile special rule on a drop pod. I don't have the book in front of me to exactly quote. It says that the drop pod is immobile and counts exactly as if a vehicle that has suffered an immobilized roll on the vehicle damage chart except that it cannot be repaired.

That rule and it wording is there so that we will know that drop pods can NEVER contest an objective. If a squad gets out that squad can of course, but not a pod by itself. An empty Rhino can if it is mobile, as can any mobile vehicle, a drop pod is never considered a mobile vehicle for game purposes.

Fluff wise I wouldn't consider it mobile either. It just falls, might as well call a rock mobile. "Stay away men, those rocks could jump to action at any moment"

Edit, my last sentence was confusing.