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Hey is it possible that a whole space marine army could be only in pods and during deployment have nothing on the table? Is this allowed? Or do you need to have a unit on the table during deployment even if your units come in during a drop pod assault.

I've played against a german who played Blood Angels, and he started his whole army in reserve. Which, needless to say, scared my gakless.

There is no requirement to deploy anything. Even without pods, you could just start everything in Reserve.

It's frequently not a good idea, but some whole armies are designed to work this way.

Would you say a full jump blood angels army would work good this way?

It depends on the make up of that list.

It can, but it depends on the table and the opponent. Sometimes Deep Striking can hurt you, as you drop into the optimal threat range for an assaulty enemy army. You learn to evaluate when it's a good idea and when it's a bad idea, and better to start on the table.

If using drop pods, always take an odd number, so that you get more than half guaranteed on your first turn.

Consider buying drop pods as dedicated transports for units who have no need for them, like devastators, to up your numbers, and just drop those empty whenever they finally come in from reserves (great for contesting late-game objectives). Then you get more of your killy death on the board quicker, strategically placed for your enjoyment.

The other move with empty pods is that if your opponent reserves in response, you can deliberately drop the empty pods first and save some or most of your full ones until you see where he's coming onto the table.

That's so true, Mannahnin.

I play with Drop Pods and someone with a very mobile army will generally keep most if not all of their army in reserve to avoid the Alpha Strike. Having a few empties to drop until there's something on the table for your Sternguard to vaporize is a great way to counteract this.

I read a story by this one Dakkaite whose opponent put his entire army in reserve. The Dakkaite shot his army across the board so that they were blocking the table edge and his opponent was unable to deploy as a result, causing him to forfeit.

Yeah, I have JUST created a thread with a 3000 points worth, all reserves nid list, and that is usually an advantage, but a clever/fast opponent can use the whole first turn, the second if playing first and even the third if I'm a bit unlucky to spread through the table, increasing my chance to mishap too close to the enemy while deepstriking, getting his/her vehicles at cruise speed (6 to hit in CC) and claiming empty objectives to force me to react to his movements all the time rather than having any initiative left.

Yes, and unless you can DS, outflank or have tanks, shenanigans like this can happen.


The tau player with the -eating grin won on turn zero because the white scars player could not come on via his own board edge since 2 squads of infiltrating kroot had sealed it off.

That was FAQ'ed I think

Deploying in reserve is often a response to armies with an "Assault" rule like "Drop Pod Assault", "Deathwing Assault", and "Daemonic Assault". Some of those units have to be placed in the 1st turn. If you reserve your whole army, you can catch them flat-footed and get the first shot on them.

Some units are also good at entering from reserve. Fast vehicles, bikes, stuff that can move 12" and still fire. Or stuff that just breaks easily.

Finally there's opposing forces, because some armies have rules that affect whether they'll be able to Seize the Initiative or the likelihood of reserve rolls.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:That was FAQ'ed I think

Yes, in favor of the Tau player:

GW_FaQ wrote:Q: What happens when a unit arrives from reserves but is
unable to completely move onto the board? (p94)
A: The unit is destroyed and removed from play.

Shas'O Dorian wrote:Yes, and unless you can DS, outflank or have tanks, shenanigans like this can happen.


The tau player with the -eating grin won on turn zero because the white scars player could not come on via his own board edge since 2 squads of infiltrating kroot had sealed it off.

Yeah that'd be the one.

I love the look on the other guy's face, he's like "wtf?"

Poor fewllow. The table is wide so I understand why he did not use the outflank rule. But if your oponent ever has 30 genstealers and no have no tanks who can tank shock, deploy close to the table edge!