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you can buy a razorback or rhino as a dedicated transport, and then choose not to start the game within it. Can a unit choose, not to embark on the drop pod, they've taken as a dedicated transport. And then just deep strike the drop pod empty?

nielsen333 wrote:you can buy a razorback or rhino as a dedicated transport, and then choose not to start the game within it. Can a unit choose, not to embark on the drop pod, they've taken as a dedicated transport. And then just deep strike the drop pod empty?

Yes, you can.

thx

What about spore pods?

nielsen333 wrote:you can buy a razorback or rhino as a dedicated transport, and then choose not to start the game within it. Can a unit choose, not to embark on the drop pod, they've taken as a dedicated transport. And then just deep strike the drop pod empty?

The real question: Why would you do that?

Che-Vito wrote:

nielsen333 wrote:you can buy a razorback or rhino as a dedicated transport, and then choose not to start the game within it. Can a unit choose, not to embark on the drop pod, they've taken as a dedicated transport. And then just deep strike the drop pod empty?

The real question: Why would you do that?

Simple. It's Dawn of War, you are going first. Instead of sending a lone squad down to their doom, you send the pod and have them walk on.

Or, you take 3 Pods, so you can send down 1 empty one on turn 1 and have the other two come in later when they will be more useful.

sexiest_hero wrote:What about spore pods?

Yep. Nothing in the Spore pod rules forces the unit to be in the pod when it lands.

Note that if playing as Black Templars, you have to come in with the pod, so no being sneaky there.

Che-Vito wrote:The real question: Why would you do that?

Or, you may want to hold tac squads in reserve for late game objective grabs.
Or, you may want all of your squads to arrive as quickly as possible so you buy dread pods (that you've no intention of using) to increase the number of pods that arrive on turn one.

Soup and a roll wrote:

sexiest_hero wrote:What about spore pods?

Yep. Nothing in the Spore pod rules forces the unit to be in the pod when it lands.

Wrong. Nothing allows you to send the Spod down empty, so you cannot.

Gwar! wrote:

Che-Vito wrote:

nielsen333 wrote:you can buy a razorback or rhino as a dedicated transport, and then choose not to start the game within it. Can a unit choose, not to embark on the drop pod, they've taken as a dedicated transport. And then just deep strike the drop pod empty?

The real question: Why would you do that?

Simple. It's Dawn of War, you are going first. Instead of sending a lone squad down to their doom, you send the pod and have them walk on.

Or, you take 3 Pods, so you can send down 1 empty one on turn 1 and have the other two come in later when they will be more useful.

Unless I'm mistaken the drop pod assault rules state that you round up, therefore if you take three pods two of them are automatically coming in on turn one.

Yes, you are right. I am a herpaderp. Change that to take "2 pods" and "the other one".

Che-Vito wrote:The real question: Why would you do that?

As a complement to all of the above reasons why, you might also use the pod to simply bottleneck the opponent, blocking an important pass through some terrain or penning in a vehicle. Putting a squad in there doing that might be basically throwing them away, but with an empty pod it can still be pretty useful.

Just thinking out loud and having no experience with Drop Pods; what happens when one lands on a squad?

WARBOSS TZOO wrote:Just thinking out loud and having no experience with Drop Pods; what happens when one lands on a squad?

you can't land on a squad- it's inertial thrusters rule means it must reduce the scatter distance by the minimum required to avoid landing on impassable terrain.

Awwwwwwww. I was thinking about using them as a first turn colony drop. D:

Gwar! wrote:

Soup and a roll wrote:

sexiest_hero wrote:What about spore pods?

Yep. Nothing in the Spore pod rules forces the unit to be in the pod when it lands.

Wrong. Nothing allows you to send the Spod down empty, so you cannot.

Really? P54 says it always deepstrikes and goes on to say that it can carry a single unit. P90 says the spore pod is treated as a separate non-scoring unit. That's all the permission I would need...

I'd imagine this has been argued before so I'll go off and search it up.

EDIT: OK, there is nothing that I can see under dedicated transports or drop pods that specifically allow them to deploy empty. Care to elaborate?

Soup and a roll wrote:

Gwar! wrote:

Soup and a roll wrote:

sexiest_hero wrote:What about spore pods?

Yep. Nothing in the Spore pod rules forces the unit to be in the pod when it lands.

Wrong. Nothing allows you to send the Spod down empty, so you cannot.

Really? P54 says it always deepstrikes and goes on to say that it can carry a single unit. P90 says the spore pod is treated as a separate non-scoring unit. That's all the permission I would need...

I'd imagine this has been argued before so I'll go off and search it up.

EDIT: OK, there is nothing that I can see under dedicated transports or drop pods that specifically allow them to deploy empty. Care to elaborate?

under deployment, i believe. A dedicated transport must either deploy empty or containing the unit it was bought for.

At what point do you have to declare that the pod is coming on empty?

Ah, Found it on P94. Sounds like it is clarifying the rules rather than setting them (the sentence starts with 'remember'. The fact that the spore pod is not a transport vehicle is not enough to convince me that it can't be deployed on it's own, especially when the RAW say it is an independent unit.

Spore pods are labeled as dedicated transports, lumping them in (with some rational exceptions to rules only covering vehicles) with the rest of the dedicated transport crowd.

Their entry states that spore pods can transport up to 20 models (or 1 MC), not that they must.

Except the rules are for Dedicated Transport VEHICLES, not Dedicated Transports.

Alright, so from a purely RAW perspective (with no rational thinking about why Robin Cruddance left the option under a heading entitled "Dedicated Transport"), the entry still says the Spod 'can' carry up to 20 models. 'Can' gives you option to not. It's permissive.

Slackermagee wrote:Alright, so from a purely RAW perspective (with no rational thinking about why Robin Cruddance left the option under a heading entitled "Dedicated Transport"), the entry still says the Spod 'can' carry up to 20 models. 'Can' gives you option to not. It's permissive.

Can is not the same as may.
It says Can because you don't have to buy a Spod.

If it had said MAY, then you could choose.

Oh Gwar you silly goose.

gannam wrote:At what point do you have to declare that the pod is coming on empty?

During the deployment phase, when you are declaring what you are keeping in Reserve. See the Reserves rules on page 94.

Gwar! wrote:

Slackermagee wrote:Alright, so from a purely RAW perspective (with no rational thinking about why Robin Cruddance left the option under a heading entitled "Dedicated Transport"), the entry still says the Spod 'can' carry up to 20 models. 'Can' gives you option to not. It's permissive.

Can is not the same as may.
It says Can because you don't have to buy a Spod.

If it had said MAY, then you could choose.

That doesn't make any sense. You can always choose not to buy the Spod. Once you've bought the Spod you use its rules which state that you can (meaning able to and not required to) load models into it.

Slackermagee wrote:

Gwar! wrote:

Slackermagee wrote:Alright, so from a purely RAW perspective (with no rational thinking about why Robin Cruddance left the option under a heading entitled "Dedicated Transport"), the entry still says the Spod 'can' carry up to 20 models. 'Can' gives you option to not. It's permissive.

Can is not the same as may.
It says Can because you don't have to buy a Spod.

If it had said MAY, then you could choose.

That doesn't make any sense. You can always choose not to buy the Spod. Once you've bought the Spod you use its rules which state that you can (meaning allowed to and not required to) load models into it.

No, Can is there BECAUSE you don't have to buy a pod.

It can't say MUST, since you don't have to buy a pod.
It doesn't say MAY because it's not optional.

It says Can, because you don't have to buy a spod, but if you do, you use it, as nothing says you have the choice to not use it.

Gwar! wrote:No, Can is there BECAUSE you don't have to buy a pod.

It can't say MUST, since you don't have to buy a pod.
It doesn't say MAY because it's not optional.

It says Can, because you don't have to buy a spod, but if you do, you use it, as nothing says you have the choice to not use it.

I think you have got yourself turned around backwards there, Gwar.


The pod can (ie: has the ability to) transport models. That does not confer a requirement to do so. It merely means that it can do so.

Your 'can' vs 'must' argument would apply if the line being argued was referring to the unit wanting to take the pod... but it's not. It's referring to the pod's transport capacity.

A unit is given permission to purchase a pod. The pod has the ability to transport the unit. Nowhere do the rules require the unit to arrive in the pod.

Being able to carry models does not mean you must carry models.

I disagree. I feel that the Can is there because the spod is not mandatory. You can do this with Drop Pods because they follow the Dedicated transport VEHICLE rules, which a Spod is not.

Meh, I stopped caring long ago. I'll drop this one.