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Grey Templar wrote:The entry of a Drop Pod is stated to be enough to kill a man. Only the body of a Marine can survive the descent.

Good thing the Sisters of Battle are women, then.



On a more serious note, I'd say that it is more a case of logistics. Unless you have a drop pod that can land an entire company of people (which might be possible, but ... ehh) it just doesn't pay off. There are regiments that have well over 100k men in them - do you really think it's economic to litter the ground with thousands of drop pods just to get the boots on the ground?

Drop pods are for rapid deployment shock troops. A role not filled by the Imperial Guard. That's what you have the Space Marines for. The vast majority of IG regiments don't even have Valkyries.

Power armor probably helps. Not an option for 99.999999999999999...% of all Humans.

Point taken - though wouldn't it be the same technology used by boarding torpedoes? And naval armsmen don't wear PA either.

Hmm ... I'm not sure, but don't the Marine and GK Codices have some units that do not wear power armour either? Like, Inquisition Henchmen? Maybe even some Inquisitors? I *assume* they can all use drop pods as well.

Boarding Torpedos are actual Torpedos that burrow into the enemy ship. Being the size of Skyscrapers I would imagine they have lots of dampening systems and such.

But IIRC the IN in BFG doesn't have Boarding torpedos on their ships.

Well, they're 60 meters long, though this includes a massive plasma drive. As per the BFG rules, it seems anyone that can launch ordinary torpedoes can also launch boarding torpedoes, so that would include the IN.

But as I said before, there's really no point in launching drop pods for the Imperial Guard if they cannot hold at least several hundred people at once.
I'd say it was doable, but just not economical. Just like the whole "every Guardsman should get power armour" idea.

Grey Templar wrote:
But IIRC the IN in BFG doesn't have Boarding torpedos on their ships.

They have Shark assault boats, they do the same job but with a lot more finesse.

There will be some kind of tech maguffin as to why SoB can survive a drop pod descent (this wouldn't be the first time that there are contradictions in GW fluff).

Palindrome wrote:They have Shark assault boats, they do the same job but with a lot more finesse.

Turns out that is correct, the IN in GW's version of the setting does not use boarding torpedos! I had another impression from some Black Library novels and FFG's Rogue Trader RPG, so I did not look too closely at the BFG rulebook and mis-interpreted what it said in the boarding rules. A closer look at the actual fleet sheet revealed the limitation, though.

Palindrome wrote:There will be some kind of tech maguffin as to why SoB can survive a drop pod descent (this wouldn't be the first time that there are contradictions in GW fluff).

Where exactly did it ever say that drop-podding is only survivable by Marines, though? In their Codex it states merely that drop pods "resemble a ship's life pod in look and function", so unless life pods aren't supposed to land anywhere ...

Dude, the Drop Pod Titan would be so hilariously dumb.

A quarter mile wide pod comes burning into the atmosphere at mach 'ridiculous'. Hits the planet at a couple million megatons worth of force BOOM! The ground actually ripples, a wake ten feet high for the first mile out from the impact or something equally dumb. Massive quake destroys everything and levels the area. The pod crushed an enemy armored regiment of tanks when it hit. And the quake kills four allied foot regiments burying them alive in collateral damage. Then it deploys its drop door. Hopefully the thing only has one. And crushes an entire chapter of marines, WHOOPS! Titan tries to walk out but the damn pod and its drop door are 75 feet too deep in to the planets crust and it can't climb out of it's own crater. DOH! Pilot claims victory any way. Get's out and plants flag.


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Oh and don't the Sisters wear Power Armour and have bodies modified similar in some ways to Marines?

KnuckleWolf wrote: Dude, the Drop Pod Titan would be so hilariously dumb.

A quarter mile wide pod comes burning into the atmosphere at mach 'ridiculous'. Hits the planet at a couple million megatons worth of force BOOM! The ground actually ripples, a wake ten feet high for the first mile out from the impact or something equally dumb. Massive quake destroys everything and levels the area. The pod crushed an enemy armored regiment of tanks when it hit. And the quake kills four allied foot regiments burying them alive in collateral damage. Then it deploys its drop door. Hopefully the thing only has one. And crushes an entire chapter of marines, WHOOPS! Titan tries to walk out but the damn pod and its drop door are 75 feet too deep in to the planets crust and it can't climb out of it's own crater. DOH! Pilot claims victory any way. Get's out and plants flag.

They just landed a robot on Mars using an automated rocket powered crane. In the magical future land of Warhammer 40k they have anti-gravity devices and relatively easy surface to orbit transfer (and back again). Landing a bigger robot on another planet using a combination of magical tech and big freaking rockets is not too much of a stretch.

Kinetic Harpoons and satellite rain are for more tacticat targets, while Roks are a bit orky for Titans

KnuckleWolf wrote:A quarter mile wide pod comes burning into the atmosphere at mach 'ridiculous'. Hits the planet at a couple million megatons worth of force BOOM! The ground actually ripples, a wake ten feet high for the first mile out from the impact or something equally dumb. Massive quake destroys everything and levels the area. The pod crushed an enemy armored regiment of tanks when it hit. And the quake kills four allied foot regiments burying them alive in collateral damage. Then it deploys its drop door. Hopefully the thing only has one. And crushes an entire chapter of marines, WHOOPS!

Well, you just gotta watch out where you drop it, then, don't you?

KnuckleWolf wrote:Oh and don't the Sisters wear Power Armour and have bodies modified similar in some ways to Marines?

Power armour yes, modified bodies no. Pretty much the middle ground between IG and SM.
I'd assume it would take a bit of training either way, though. Rapid descent and retro-thruster deceleration before hitting the ground with a still rather terrifying bump would prolly put half the people in the pod into shock if they haven't been prepared. And they're expected to jump out of that damn thing and start shooting right away!

Anyways, it seems like you can actually put IG in drop pods when playing Apocalypse. Just found out now.