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Okay , so looking into the rulebook you may not move through a enemy model, or 1 inch of them. Models must be always placed within one inch.

The physical size of a drop pod for what it is worth is around the dimensions of 2 x 2 square, for simplistic reasons a 4 inch area . In total of a 6 x 4 board you have an area of 72 x 24 or 3456 inch area. Okay here is where it gets shifty.

Deployment Variations

Let's start with a standard mission 12 inch deployment zone on a standard 6x4 board. Now this math is not going to be perfectly exact.

The actual line we can say is 72 inch squad across. If you place a drop pod on this line you have taken up .05 percent of their deployment zone for that line. 5 drop pods is 4 x 5 20 across. Models though must be placed one inch apart.


Z is there deployment line lets count each 4 inches wide so we should have 18
D is a drop pod and we will count them as 4 inches wide as well.

Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z
D D D D D


So with 5 Drop Pods I have denied my oppenent line of site for about 33 percent of the board. This is with 5 drop pods when that numerical value numbers ten or more it gets even more ridiculous.

Now movement, you cannot move through a enemy model or within one inch of it so for game purposes as far as movement, a drop pod denies a 6 inch line across that you cannot move through.


Now it gets worse. 6 times 5 is a 30 inch wide impassable terrain that you have placed in front of your opponent.

Now this is with just the normal deployment of 12 inches wide.

Spearhead makes this tactic worse.


You have a roughly 24 inch squad but you may not set up with in the center. So for game purposes your opponent has a deployment line of 24 + 24 or 48 inches. The important thing to remember about spearhead is that you may not set up with in 12 inches of the center

With 5 Drop pods
FOr some reason this wont draw correctly
Z
ZD
ZD
ZD D D
Z Z Z Z



Now add 5 more to that for a denial area of movement greater that the amount of their deployment line. Your opponent is effectively stopped in his deployment zone and unable to move out until he destroys those Drop pods 1 at a time.


How do you place drop pods so accurately? Space Marine Scout bikes with Locator beacon may make a turbo or normal move toward your enemies deployment. With 3 squads you can place 5 drop pods almost exactly where you want him.


Did anyone else notice this?

Here is the next kicker, you dnt have to set your troops up in drop pods, you can drop them empty.

I now have a mobile impassable terrain that helps block LOS.

If you have 9 drop pods that is a 54 inch line you can make to denie your opponent movement.

If you're playing kill points, almost any army is going to thank you for dropping that many convenient kill points near them. Heck, I'd be hoping for just enough glancing hits to knock the weapon off so that I can use all that nice cover.

Also, half of your drop pods are going to arrive the first turn, and then it's going to be random for turn 2+. So, you'd have to buy twice the number needed for that first turn line.

And lastly, at $30 per drop pod, while you're at it, I think GW would also like you to buy some more razorbacks, rhinos and spraypaint.

The way I see it you must have enough space for the petals to drop. This is space you can stand on. Thus the closest an actual pod can get to the next pod is about 5". Thisdwill not block fire. In fact the ptals are low enough to the ground that you can normally see the entire enemy model over them base up wards. So no cover save either, unless they are actually in/on the drop pod

Orlanth wrote:The way I see it you must have enough space for the petals to drop. This is space you can stand on. Thus the closest an actual pod can get to the next pod is about 5". Thisdwill not block fire. In fact the ptals are low enough to the ground that you can normally see the entire enemy model over them base up wards. So no cover save either, unless they are actually in/on the drop pod

This depends on whether or not you consider the doors part of the hull (discussed in other threads). If you do not, then all measurements completely ignore them, making them essentially cosmetic.

You dont have to open the doors either I dont think. You can glue them shut.

Sure glue your doors shut if you like no problems with that. But when it comes to dropping the pod an opponent is in the right by asking for the fully deployment of the pod to be taken into account.

Each pod lands in a sequence. So for the first you could claim one or two doors might be blocked by terrain, this why they have five, but other drop pods blocking each others doors is avoidable and so should be avoided.

"Sorry you cant land your pod there, it is landing on the other pods open doors, which extend thus. The drop pods machine spirit will automatically move to clear them by 1" as per every other unit or terrain piece."

The best you could hope for is for the petals to land on each other, plus 1". That would be more than fair whether or not your models have openable petals. Walls of drop pods are cheaty, you are in effect stacking vehicles.

Can enemy troops walk over that. Sure. Can vehicles move ofer that is the question. Logically yes, but does this count as ramming? However if you cant drive a tank over opened petals then you should not be able to layer petals over petals from adjacent drop pods, which thus boosts minimum clearance between pods as the total radii of both sets of petals plus 1". This is hardly a wall, though it might 'counts as' one for enemy vehicles.

There is a lot about drop pod petals that needs FAQ explanations.

This actually had an effect on a game I played which is why it came up. We set up Spearhead and he was droppodding now we were using proxy cause its my friend.


However, having 8 drop pods inside that deployment effectively neutred my army for movement and shooting purposes.

Orlanth wrote:There is a lot about drop pod petals that needs FAQ explanations.

Ain't that the truth...

Until GW puts something in writing, your just going to have to take a few minutes out before the game starts and discuss with your opponent exactly how you plan to resolve the issue of the petals.

Man, I wanted GW to FAQ this during the last edition of the SM codex when folks were using FW Drop Pods. Pretty annoying that they still haven't said boo about it.

The pod lands, the doors blow open, the guys disembark, and the whole pod counts as open topped. I'm not sure whats so hard to understand here.

biztheclown wrote:The pod lands, the doors blow open, the guys disembark, and the whole pod counts as open topped. I'm not sure whats so hard to understand here.

The point of the discussion is not "is the pod open topped". The point of the discussion is how much real estate a pod covers. I personally subscribe to the 'hull' theory. Petals aren't hull. They are ignored for range/1" rule. If you would avoid the back door of a rhino if it fell open for the 1" rule, then maybe you feel differently. No one is right... yet.

To further the discussion created by the OP.

You are on the right track on drop pods. Using them as forward anchor points for your army is where the marines get strong. Land on or near an objective, now they have to kill it to score that objective. Take a locator beacon on the pod and you can funnel in second wave attacks. Like terminators or heroic intervening vanguard. The pod itself plus the 1" bubble make a good movement deterrent. And when you get a second pod next to it, you can have 2.5" of space between them, nothing can get through until one of them is dead. Two of them placed right can lock up about 15" of movement. They shouldn't really be blocking any LOS since the petals should have opened. If my opponent wants to see what LOS looks like, I gladly offer to deploy all the doors, he can pick his models that are in the way up, i'll drop the doors then he can place his models back down.

Stop it Shep your making to much sense. Better by far to exploit it to the full and abuse the current drop pod model.

Yeah we don't count the petals as part of the drop pod for moving.


Just kind of brutal to play spearhead and be drop podded on and I dont think GW realized this at all.


It may sound ridiculous but Drop Pod armies are very viable now with the whole come in on Turn one add in your Space Marine Scout Bikes can Turbo boost and pretty much place one in your deployment and it does not scatter it gets nasty.


My problem is I dont think they realized when making the physical size of the model that it takes up so much goddamn space. If you look at one of the modes its actually fairly large. My 2x2 estimate was a guess. Its probably more like 2 and half to 3.

I dont own any my friend has some.


Its not like normal deepstriking it does something I dont think they counted on and you can basically "funnel" your oppenent.

Shep wrote:The point of the discussion is not "is the pod open topped". The point of the discussion is how much real estate a pod covers. I personally subscribe to the 'hull' theory. Petals aren't hull. They are ignored for range/1" rule. If you would avoid the back door of a rhino if it fell open for the 1" rule, then maybe you feel differently. No one is right... yet.

The thing that I don't like is that the pod is supposed to land, then pop the doors. Well, if I move right up to 1" of your stuff, or into it but stop due to the , how can I then pop the doors? Am I supposed to land with the doors open and ask you to just move your stuff onto the doors until you are 1" away from the hull? Do I just leave one or two doors shut if they would land on your guys? What does this do to TLOS? ARG!

I'm in favor of just gluing the doors shut and saying that you can see "through" it partially. For me the inside of the drop pod is the same as the inside of a Land Raider... there for fluff and art displays, but should have no impact on the game.

I do think that the pods should have been made either smaller or have the doors "blow" off and not have a hinge. I don't want to see a Storm Bolter on toothpicks, but a tripod or something physically smaller, maybe even on a Dread-size base, heck, anything to clear up the "how big is it" questions.

I would have to actually measure it but seriously I played this past sunday against someone and they put one in my deployment zone and it just dominated the entire zone. It is huge.

You know what would be funny? Seeing just how many Drop Pods a Battlewagon could ram, and how many Space Marine squads it could tank shock in a single move. There should be a high score trophy handed out at tournaments.

It wouldn't do anything to the first one and would be stopped there.

nurglitch was smart enough to say battlewagon so even if it moved only 1" it would still be d6 strength 10 so pen on a 3+ keep going on 4+ a deathroller wagon could get 2 or 3 pods a turn

Wildstorm wrote:

Shep wrote:The point of the discussion is not "is the pod open topped". The point of the discussion is how much real estate a pod covers. I personally subscribe to the 'hull' theory. Petals aren't hull. They are ignored for range/1" rule. If you would avoid the back door of a rhino if it fell open for the 1" rule, then maybe you feel differently. No one is right... yet.

The thing that I don't like is that the pod is supposed to land, then pop the doors. Well, if I move right up to 1" of your stuff, or into it but stop due to the , how can I then pop the doors? Am I supposed to land with the doors open and ask you to just move your stuff onto the doors until you are 1" away from the hull? Do I just leave one or two doors shut if they would land on your guys? What does this do to TLOS? ARG!

I'm in favor of just gluing the doors shut and saying that you can see "through" it partially. For me the inside of the drop pod is the same as the inside of a Land Raider... there for fluff and art displays, but should have no impact on the game.

I do think that the pods should have been made either smaller or have the doors "blow" off and not have a hinge. I don't want to see a Storm Bolter on toothpicks, but a tripod or something physically smaller, maybe even on a Dread-size base, heck, anything to clear up the "how big is it" questions.

So far, I have placed my drop pods, then opened every petal I could. The ones that I couldn't open i left shut. I then offer my opponent, "if you want to see what your LOS looks like, I'll drop the other doors... I'll need you to move your models though."

I have a suggestion for you wildstorm... glue your doors shut, and paint them up... but bring with you a drop pod modelled with no doors on it. Don't even bother painting it... just prime it black. Call it your LOS sillouette. If shooting is going to take place through your closed pods, just quickly swap in the sillouette for LOS checking, then bring back in the pretty one.

Nurglitch wrote:You know what would be funny? Seeing just how many Drop Pods a Battlewagon could ram, and how many Space Marine squads it could tank shock in a single move. There should be a high score trophy handed out at tournaments.

0 after the marines and dread with the melta's toast it when they land.

so you toast a battlwagon with your meltas. better hope the guys inside get pinned or they are going to own you.

Khornatedemon wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:You know what would be funny? Seeing just how many Drop Pods a Battlewagon could ram, and how many Space Marine squads it could tank shock in a single move. There should be a high score trophy handed out at tournaments.

0 after the marines and dread with the melta's toast it when they land.

If the ork player deploys right (as in wall of orks placed at max 2" coherency as a front line/body wall with vehicles behind it) or if the battlewagon(s) (cause why would you only take one??) are covered by a KFF, you will have problems popping all of them. Then if you do, you still have to fight the pissed off horde of orks you just landed conviently in front of.

All those battlewagons you are using are within range of tacticals with meltas or sternguard with multiple combi meltas. Tank shock is not your concern, getting a turn with your battlewagons is your prime concern.

With the new rules for TLOS, what happens when you fight someone who cannot open the pod doors, I mean it is open top and you do have visibility thru a drop pod so I am just kind of curious

Yay or nay can you shoot from them

you've only just discovered you can block LOS with vehicles?

God man, have you not noticed Rhinos before?

Hollismason wrote:With the new rules for TLOS, what happens when you fight someone who cannot open the pod doors, I mean it is open top and you do have visibility thru a drop pod so I am just kind of curious

Yay or nay can you shoot from them

With true los you play how they are modeled, there are positives and negatives to keeping them open or closed. I really don't see this being a problem, even in tornys. It could help you just as much as it could hurt you.

In general I don´t really think that using Drop Pods for blocking . Yeah. using vehicles for making moving hard for your opponent or blocking LoS is always useful, but it´s just temporary. Destroying not Heavy armour vehicles is EASY, and there are a lot of ways of doing it.

In the case of Drop Pods, there are a few extra cons than using other vehicles: You need Locator Beacons to be really accurate making the Pods Wall. They are Open Topped (making really easy destroying them). They give easy KP.

Having the chance of making a wall with your Drop pods is nice, but it should be considered just an extra for an all Drop Pods Army, not a strong point to be maximized.

At least that's what I personally think, maybe I´m wrong...

Oh, and of course, as has been previously stated, there can be a lot of potential problems with rules, as the modeling of the Drop Pod (specifically the petals) is really unique.

You can make a brilliant strategy counting on putting your pods really close, and then you can go to a Tournament and find that the judges are not allowing you to put them so close...

Its a good thread.

Good questions.

But I don't see drop pods being used as blocking terrain as any kind of problem. It makes the game a lot more interesting. The more terrain the better.

And it gives marine players a nice angle to set up their play style, something for the other guy to think about and overcome.

Every army has its strengths and tactics.

Drop pods make the contest more interesting.

OTG.