Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here's a quick question before I go kick some butt in an escalation league.

Can a drop pod be shot down?
I have a Hydra flak tank in my arsenal and would like to use it to its fullest.

Thanks guys

Dan

It can be shot.

but you have to wait till your shooting phase to shoot at it.

Generally, no.
There are not general rules for doing so.

Editing to add:
I am assuming by "shot down"you do not simply mean"shot up"and mean shot down before landing. Most anything can be shot once it is in the table.

Was wanting to shoot it down before it landed and deployed its contents.

danpieri wrote:Was wanting to shoot it down before it landed and deployed its contents.

Not possible, as nothing in a regular game allows for you shooting a drop pod before it lands. You are only allowed to shoot in your shooting phase. (Baring the "I've been expecting you" rule and similar rules)

You could run a home made scenario where such a thing is possible though.

DeathReaper wrote:
You could run a home made scenario where such a thing is possible though.

Ugh. Only if the hydras shot at a random drop pod (determined from a list and some dice, probably percentage) and a list full of pods.

Could you imagine? "Hey, which Drop Pod had your Terminator Librarian and 10-man Sternguard Unit? Oh, that one? Ok, all 3 of my Hydras are gonna shot it".

danpieri wrote:Was wanting to shoot [my opponent's drop pod] down before it landed and deployed its contents.

Kirsanth and deathreaper are correct. Firing at drop pods before they land is not allowed.

40k is a "permissive ruleset" meaning if you can't point to a rule which specifically allows you to do something, you are not allowed to do it. As far as I'm aware, there is no rule which allows you to do anything to your opponent's drop pods before they arrive.

Once they're on the board, fire away =)

Good luck in your league! If you're worried about drop pods, I suggest spreading out infantry platoons to maximum unit coherency (1.99999" apart) to "block off" places you don't want to see drop pods land.

Hope this helps!

-GiantKiller

infinite_array wrote:Could you imagine? "Hey, which Drop Pod had your Terminator Librarian and 10-man Sternguard Unit? Oh, that one? Ok, all 3 of my Hydras are gonna shot it".

Which you can do now with any other transport vehicle...

It would be cool/not, (depending on your team) but no


- Edited by insaniak. Sexual preferences have no bearing on whether or not a special rule would be a good idea... so let's stick to using words that actually mean what you're trying to say, hmm? -

insaniak wrote:

infinite_array wrote:Could you imagine? "Hey, which Drop Pod had your Terminator Librarian and 10-man Sternguard Unit? Oh, that one? Ok, all 3 of my Hydras are gonna shot it".

Which you can do now with any other transport vehicle...

But you can also try to hide important transports.

Getting to shoot at drop pods would negate that.

Shooting drop pods, before they land?. The drop pod was invented that it would bring troops to the ground safely, not to be shot down by an under costed hydra flak-tank. The drop pod is already so vulnerable to enemy fire, that even an god damn autocannon will surely kill it. And fluff-wise, the drop pod has been designed to be nearly impossible to be shot down (try to shoot an flying meteorite, thats how hard it is). Shortly, the ability to destroy the drop pod before it lands would be overly OP.

Scott-S6 wrote:But you can also try to hide important transports.

Getting to shoot at drop pods would negate that.

I was just questioning the idea that there would be something unusual about being able choose your target based on what's inside.

The Epic Chaosdude!!! wrote: What an overly stupid idea (no offence).

As a rule of thumb, if you feel the need to add 'no offence' to a comment, it's probably offensive... in which case a better plan would be to say what you're trying to say in a less offensive way, rather than try to mitigate it by pointing out that you weren't trying to be offensive when you said something offensive. That way lies madness.

And fluff-wise, the drop pod has been designed to be nearly impossible to be shot down (try to shoot an flying meteorite, thats how hard it is).

It's been designed to fall from the sky. That doesn't give it some sort of magical invulnerability. Fluff-wise, if anti-air fire can bring down (much, much smaller) missiles, being able to target a large chunk of metal falling from orbit in a predictable trajectory really isn't that crazy an idea.


Frankly, I think weapons designed for anti-air roles being able to take a crack at Drop Pods in mid-descent would be an awesomely fluffy addition to the game.

Well as wrote that post I was in some kind of fluff rage (Im very keen on following the fluff), but that comment was very badly thinked out, sorry for that . But according to the space marine fluff, the drop pod is designed to be impossible to be shot down, during mid flight. AT fire will mostly only glance it if they manage to hit it. But for game-play, shooting down drop pods would be too OP and would make them totally useless (whoops, my sterngurad unit just disappeared in thin air, before they could even do something).

Better start praying the current rumors of the new Necrons being able to screw around with reserves / deep stirke isn't true then, huh?

The Epic Chaosdude!!! wrote: But according to the space marine fluff, the drop pod is designed to be impossible to be shot down, during mid flight.

And according to Imperial fluff, Titans are indestructible gods of war. That doesn't meant that they never get destroyed.

The fluff is at least half propaganda, skewed to paint the army in question in the best possible light. It has no real direct bearing on either (fluff-wise) actual combat ability or game rules.

Sure, drop pods might be designed to be difficult to shoot down. That's a long, long way from 'it never happens'...

But for game-play, shooting down drop pods would be too OP and would make them totally useless (whoops, my sterngurad unit just disappeared in thin air, before they could even do something).

As opposed to 'Whoops, my rhino that had only just arrived from Reserves with my Sternguard on board just exploded before they could even do anything...' or 'Whoops, my Terminators just Mishapped, before they could even do anything'... or 'Whoops, my opponent went first, and my deployed unit just disappeared in a puff of vapour before they could do anything'...?

Well you could...BUT only if it's in planet strike. There are some rules for that I believe.

For the fluff, Im just following what Matt Ward wrote in the codex. According to him the drop pods are almost fool proof (although the same guy wrote about an man who wages eternal war in the warp, terrorizing the chaos gods and making even the greatest demons bow to him). There aren't many space marines, so Im guessing that the destruction of drop pods in mid flight must be really rare since so many chapters use it as their base tactic. And as for rhinos, you can keep them under cover, mishapping in deepstriking only spells doom at 16% chance and your units disappearing at the start of your turn is natural if you have deployed them somewhat poorly or just having an really crappy day. Drop pods are ment to be deep striked right at your enemy's nose, so the chance of return fire is really high. They are already very risky and unpredictable so I don't see any sense on making them more like that.

The Epic Chaosdude!!! wrote:For the fluff, Im just following what Matt Ward wrote in the codex.

I realise that. Which is why I pointed out that the fluff is deliberately exaggerated.

The fluff is a starting point, not gospel.

Doesn't GW's Coteaz do something like that? I thought he gets to shoot in the phase the deepstrikers arrive

Final words about the fluff: Shooting down drop pods in mid-flight is really rare, since if it would happen often then they wouldnt be used. They want those marines safe to ground and the drop pod has been proved to be the most effective and safe-proof invention to do it.

And final words about the game effect: The ability to shoot down drop pods would be too random. Picking up individual drop pods which always house the most dangerous cargo wouldn't make sense (unless they have an infiltrated spy in the cruiser) since if the drop pod would get shot up, then the passengers would immedialety die. If an rhino gets shot, then the passengers must continue by foot. Same thing wont happen with drop pod. Just keep the drop pods, and their rulings original.

VoxDei wrote:Doesn't GW's Coteaz do something like that? I thought he gets to shoot in the phase the deepstrikers arrive

its called 'i,ve been expecting you'.i have the corteaz model, and i have killed countless deep strikers with it

The Epic Chaosdude!!! wrote:Final words about the fluff: Shooting down drop pods in mid-flight is really rare, since if it would happen often then they wouldnt be used. They want those marines safe to ground and the drop pod has been proved to be the most effective and safe-proof invention to do it.

That's a stretch.

The fact that they use drop pods suggests only that they are more reliable than the alternatives... or simply that the Codex Astartes (written at the conclusion of the Heresy, so not necessarily exactly an up-to-date reflection of the state of warfare in the 40K universe... but followed religiously by most Chapters anyway) says that Drop Pods are the preferred method of getting to ground.

insaniak wrote:

Scott-S6 wrote:But you can also try to hide important transports.

Getting to shoot at drop pods would negate that.

I was just questioning the idea that there would be something unusual about being able choose your target based on what's inside.

The Epic Chaosdude!!! wrote: What an overly stupid idea (no offence).

As a rule of thumb, if you feel the need to add 'no offence' to a comment, it's probably offensive... in which case a better plan would be to say what you're trying to say in a less offensive way, rather than try to mitigate it by pointing out that you weren't trying to be offensive when you said something offensive. That way lies madness.

And fluff-wise, the drop pod has been designed to be nearly impossible to be shot down (try to shoot an flying meteorite, thats how hard it is).

It's been designed to fall from the sky. That doesn't give it some sort of magical invulnerability. Fluff-wise, if anti-air fire can bring down (much, much smaller) missiles, being able to target a large chunk of metal falling from orbit in a predictable trajectory really isn't that crazy an idea.


Frankly, I think weapons designed for anti-air roles being able to take a crack at Drop Pods in mid-descent would be an awesomely fluffy addition to the game.

So essentially you want guard to be the only ones with a surefire chance to beat everyone?

AFAIK, no other race has designated special anti-air that has cogitators powerful enough to target drop pods.

BronzeJon wrote:So essentially you want guard to be the only ones with a surefire chance to beat everyone?

No. I was merely commenting on the idea that shooting at drop pods would be unfluffy and 'stupid'...

Including it as an option (whether for everbody or just for certain armies) would likely require a certain amount of re-balancing.

I would allow an IG player to try and shoot at deepstriking drop pods and land raiders if it meant that they would just crush units it landed on instead of mishapping. It would be hilarious to drop a land raider on a leman russ or command squad.

I seem to remember reading something about Drop pods being an insanely dangerous means of transporting units, because of their habit of being shot out of the air. I may be mistaken, but I distinctly remember wishing for some kind of rule for this kinda of Air support after reading it.

I'm sure if they did, AA weaponry would be added to the next edition of C:SM, and every codex their after.

By fluff drop pods are probably shot down on some of the occasions that they mishap.
If that helps anything.

Wow, I wasnt expecting that long of a discussion on my question.
Thanks for the input gang.

Oh, I had my first battle yesterday.
Made some tatical blunders, rolled some bad rolls, got stomped by some clensing fire of GKs and got 35 of 36 troops and 2 tanks taken out.

I made it to the 4th turn though, where others got taken out by round 2 by the same opponent.

All in all, Mortis Extrimus did horrible in battle, but they suuuure looked good dying!

If you want to play merry hell with drop pods, play Apoc and take the disruptor beacon asset. It allows you to re-deploy ANY reserves unit that comes on with a 48" radius of the marker. But only on a 4+

Last time i played it I got lucky and managed to re-deploy all 4 of my opponents drop pods to the far end of thetable. Took an Ironclad, sternguard and 2 termies squads completely out of the game as they had to footslog accross a 7' table. LOL!!!!

DakkaDakka wrote: