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Howdy,

Im not a marine player but am always trying to learn new tactics since theyre mainly what i fight. I just recently found out that marines can deploy on the board and drop pods empty from reserves.

My question is, is there something prohibiting a drop pod from contesting a point? I looked through the rules and I dont see anything... if you can contest with them, seems like a devious and cheap way to mess with your opponent (as long as youre prepared for your guys to do some walking).

Thanks for any help,

I believe that drop pods, after falling, count as an immobilized vehicle,but I don't have a codex for SM so I don't know, so in theory I believe they can contest objectives.

Vehicles may contest but not own an objective.

A drop pod is a vehicle.

A drop pod may contest an objective.

Rather than having troops walk onto the board and have the pod contest it though...it's much more useful to have it full of troops who drop onto the objective and then own it.

Yes they can contest, but this is not really a "tactic" so much as a happy benefit of using any sort of Transport. That Drop Pod, Trukk, Rhino, whatever may not be a huge threat, but eventually you have to deal with it in order to secure the objective. In a lot of games, things tend to grind down to a place where you may not have a spare Meltagun for the job.

Exactly my point Phryxis.

Im not saying Its some great end all be all tactic, but something you might do to jerk somebody around. A tactical squad emerging from a pod likely attacks / contests one objective. If you can use your tactical squad elsewhere and contest somebody's spot with your pod... for 35 points... for a vehicle that scoring units might not be equipped to deal with.

Just a thought.

I'm not sure if this is what you're saying, but yes, in some cases it may be to your advantage to deploy the troops on the board, and try to contest objectives with the Pod. This is particularly the case if the Pod is hoping to be an alpha strike unit, and he's somehow blocked you from doing that (ie. his going 2nd, and in reserves). In that case you might drop the Pod on a midfield objective and force him to waste somebody's time destroying it, while the squad that bought it deploys gunline, or uses somebody else's transport.

Its perfectly legal.
I battled a guy in the GT final 2008 who had about 11 Pods
some of which arriving empty at the board.
The only requirement is to tell prior to the game which Pods will arrive empty and which not.

I do not play space marines, but what a way to win a game. It is not cheating but I think it is dirty pool. Would i do it if I was playing space marines, heck yes. You send in one or two empties on your last turn of the game to contest a few objectives, what a great tactic.

net_junky wrote:I do not play space marines, but what a way to win a game. It is not cheating but I think it is dirty pool. Would i do it if I was playing space marines, heck yes. You send in one or two empties on your last turn of the game to contest a few objectives, what a great tactic.

Well, if you think about it, thats how it could happen in the 40k universe. A Space marine commander isn't going to tell a bunch of orks "hey, I'm going to send an empty drop pod on or near that objective to contest it". It would be a superb strategy to drop empty pods to scare your enemy in thinking they have to deal with a squad of 5-10 space marines.

Now with that being said, I would never use that strategy.

It could work in theory... Although there is a FW drop pod with assault cannons which would do the job better.

Happygrunt wrote:It could work in theory... Although there is a FW drop pod with assault cannons which would do the job better.

If you're allowed to use FW stuff...

Although, empties with Deathwind Launchers could be fun.

brother_zach wrote:

net_junky wrote:I do not play space marines, but what a way to win a game. It is not cheating but I think it is dirty pool. Would i do it if I was playing space marines, heck yes. You send in one or two empties on your last turn of the game to contest a few objectives, what a great tactic.

Well, if you think about it, thats how it could happen in the 40k universe. A Space marine commander isn't going to tell a bunch of orks "hey, I'm going to send an empty drop pod on or near that objective to contest it". It would be a superb strategy to drop empty pods to scare your enemy in thinking they have to deal with a squad of 5-10 space marines.

Now with that being said, I would never use that strategy.

Then you must not use Rhinos to contest objectives either because its exactly the same thing. The odds of a pod staying in reserves until turn 5 is ~2.6%. If you buy a drop pod for Devestators for theme, having it fall somewhere useful despite being empty is not something to be despised. Its no better or worse than last turn genestealers outflanking onto an objective of a weaponless Chimera pushing forward to contest an objective.

PanzerLeader wrote:

brother_zach wrote:

net_junky wrote:I do not play space marines, but what a way to win a game. It is not cheating but I think it is dirty pool. Would i do it if I was playing space marines, heck yes. You send in one or two empties on your last turn of the game to contest a few objectives, what a great tactic.

Well, if you think about it, thats how it could happen in the 40k universe. A Space marine commander isn't going to tell a bunch of orks "hey, I'm going to send an empty drop pod on or near that objective to contest it". It would be a superb strategy to drop empty pods to scare your enemy in thinking they have to deal with a squad of 5-10 space marines.

Now with that being said, I would never use that strategy.

Then you must not use Rhinos to contest objectives either because its exactly the same thing. The odds of a pod staying in reserves until turn 5 is ~2.6%. If you buy a drop pod for Devestators for theme, having it fall somewhere useful despite being empty is not something to be despised. Its no better or worse than last turn genestealers outflanking onto an objective of a weaponless Chimera pushing forward to contest an objective.

odds are far better actually considering the guy has 11? And its a very cheap tactic, since its not really a tactic at all to hope your "vehicle" stay out of enemy fire till turn 5 for a drop contest.. people that do crap like that just need to learn to play their army instead of relying on gimiks that when it works its retardedly annoying, and when it doesnt you just wanna laugh and make a mental note to never play this person again, because at that point was it really even rewarding to win? not in my book.

TopC wrote:

PanzerLeader wrote:

brother_zach wrote:

net_junky wrote:I do not play space marines, but what a way to win a game. It is not cheating but I think it is dirty pool. Would i do it if I was playing space marines, heck yes. You send in one or two empties on your last turn of the game to contest a few objectives, what a great tactic.

Well, if you think about it, thats how it could happen in the 40k universe. A Space marine commander isn't going to tell a bunch of orks "hey, I'm going to send an empty drop pod on or near that objective to contest it". It would be a superb strategy to drop empty pods to scare your enemy in thinking they have to deal with a squad of 5-10 space marines.

Now with that being said, I would never use that strategy.

Then you must not use Rhinos to contest objectives either because its exactly the same thing. The odds of a pod staying in reserves until turn 5 is ~2.6%. If you buy a drop pod for Devestators for theme, having it fall somewhere useful despite being empty is not something to be despised. Its no better or worse than last turn genestealers outflanking onto an objective of a weaponless Chimera pushing forward to contest an objective.

odds are far better actually considering the guy has 11? And its a very cheap tactic, since its not really a tactic at all to hope your "vehicle" stay out of enemy fire till turn 5 for a drop contest.. people that do crap like that just need to learn to play their army instead of relying on gimiks that when it works its retardedly annoying, and when it doesnt you just wanna laugh and make a mental note to never play this person again, because at that point was it really even rewarding to win? not in my book.

Using Drop Pod Assault, 6 pods come in turn one automatically. The remaining 5 all have an independent ~2-3% chance of remaining in reserves until turn five since you cannot link the reserve rolls of individual pods together (i.e. Pod A cannot effect Pod B's chances of coming in and vice versa). They are still AV 12, open topped transports so die pretty easily. And he still has to be able to place the pod by the objective to contest it. It can scatter off completely, be surrounded by enemy troops preventing the pod from landing within 3" or be in difficult/dangerous terrain which the pod cannot land in. Its literally no different than using any other transport to contest. Ninja Tau can do this type of thing better and I don't think anyone would accuse an Eldar army holding a Wave Serpent in reserve to shield its cargo and then boosting on in the last turn to contest an objective cheap. Don't be mad your opponent found something useful for his pod to do. Just plan accordingly and you'll be fine.

but there is one thing it is a dedicated transport so by the rules it couldnt be used empty

ultramarine wrote:but there is one thing it is a dedicated transport so by the rules it couldnt be used empty

You buy it for a squad and never put the squad into the pod. I'm pretty sure the rules say you can do this (not with a pod specifically but with dedi transports).

Ultramarine: review the rules a bit more carefully. It is perfectly legal to start the game with an empty dedicated transport. It may not fit within the context of what you consider fluffy, but that is a separate issue.

It's in the Reserves rules on page 94. It says a dedicated transport can be deployed empty, or carrying its unit, or put in reserve empty, or carrying its unit.

If a dedicated transport can be put in reserve empty, then the unit can be deployed (or put in reserve) independently. It can be done with any dedicated transport, or any other unit for that matter.

So any deepstriking unit, if it happens to stay in reserve until turn 5, can drop and contest objectives. If it were a unit of obliterators or something, you'd have no problem with it. Why is it especially cheap when a drop pod does it?

It's a tactic. You know when a space marine player does it, because he tells you right up front during deployment that the empty pod is in reserve. So you deal with it by preparing--surround objectives with your own (impassable) units, reserve a meltagun shot near your objectives, remind the SM player to roll for reserves every round. It's the game.