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10/10 would troll with that

I know some lists would take 5 or 6 of those. Could really devastate any troop heavy lists.

The technology to make drops pods work is theoretically pretty simple. The shock absorption has been detailed in many sci-fi novels. The Forever War is what comes to mind immediately, though that was to allow a body to survive light speed.
40k is also sci-fi so... it works however they say it does.

Your friend lacks imagination.

I find your lack of imagination disturbing.

*mental choke*

 Archonate wrote:
The technology to make drops pods work is theoretically pretty simple. The shock absorption has been detailed in many sci-fi novels. The Forever War is what comes to mind immediately, though that was to allow a body to survive light speed.
40k is also sci-fi so... it works however they say it does.

Your friend lacks imagination.

Or he was just saying whatever sounded like a fun description at the time...

 Archonate wrote:
The technology to make drops pods work is theoretically pretty simple. The shock absorption has been detailed in many sci-fi novels. The Forever War is what comes to mind immediately, though that was to allow a body to survive light speed.
40k is also sci-fi so... it works however they say it does.

Your friend lacks imagination.

IT'S A JOOOOKE.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ALSO, PLEASE STOP ARGUING, PEOPLE.

Nah m8, that's what we're here for

Selym wrote:Nah m8, that's what we're here for

True, but it's getting really annoying.

What was your intention for this thread?

 Selym wrote:
What was your intention for this thread?

to tell the joke, and maybe have people tell other jokes. Not to acually have people tell me how drop pods actually work.

Should'a presented it as a joke thread. Tbh, it would have probably been shut down by an angsty mod for "spam" if we weren't arguing about drop pod physics.

To help counter the pressure of atmospheric re-entry or high speed jet maneuvers pilots wear G suits. Small air bladders in the suit inflate to help press blood back towards the head and vital organs. This helps fight the effects of rapid acceleration and deceleration. I believe power armor would help in such a fashion.

I would also go with some suspensor plates as an answer for the way DPs work. Just a few cheap suspensor units, because there hard for the IoM to create and the DPs are supposed to be expendable. As for the heat of re-entry, humans have been successfully dealing with that for 50 years.

@op Didnt your friend ever see a drawing of a drop pod? The giant retro rockets burning on the bottom?

Or see the actual thrusters on the model, although few people bother to actually put them on.

Also, just to throw another wrench in here, the force of entering the atmosphere straight down almost perpendicularly as often depicted would either crush the inhabitants or burn them, or they'd die a combination of both. They need to enter at a very slight angle, so drop pods would have to be fired thousands of miles away from their intended land point.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Makumba wrote:
Don't see the problem with pods and normal humans. Russians space capsuls land on solid ground unlike the american ones that land on water. Doesn't seem like russian astronauts turn in to mush.

Yeah, but space capsules descend really slowly on a parachute, they do not slam into the ground like drop pods do.

I also see no problems with drop pods, it would be perfectly viable, as long as you can soften the force of impact enough not to harm the people inside. Space capsules do this, and drop pods could do it in a different way.

In addition to parachutes, Soyuz capsule does have retro rockets which fire just before the impact. It is rumoured that the proposed replacement for Soyuz will do away with the parachute and only decelerate with thrusters. Difference to Drop pod is of course that Drop pods decelerate very quickly to give enemy minimal reaction time, whilst real-life landing capsule decelerates slowly to avoid turning occupants into mush. Also, of course, landing capsules don't drop with pinpoint accuracy, quite the contrary. However if it had say satellite guidance and steering thrusters, I'm sure it could be improved.

This gave me an idea: rocket-launched air assault troops. They would be launched in drop pods which are bolted on top of rockets launched to suborbital trajectories. Range and surprise factor beat conventional airborne troops handily. Not too practical in real world, but seems very plausible in 40k. In fact, perhaps some Drop Pod assaults are not orbital at all but ballistic, launched from same planet.

 Flanker wrote:
Also, just to throw another wrench in here, the force of entering the atmosphere straight down almost perpendicularly as often depicted would either crush the inhabitants or burn them, or they'd die a combination of both. They need to enter at a very slight angle, so drop pods would have to be fired thousands of miles away from their intended land point.

In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, we have advanced targeters. Which we don't use for bombing. Oh no, that'd make war too simple. Instead, we'll fire pods full of highly elite and highly expensive supersoldiers into a situation they will almost certainly get killed in, because Grimdark.

Lawl.

Padded bench-seats. Four-point security harness. Helmet with O2 feed. As long as the pod decelerates enough to avoid flattening itself, then anything inside it should be fine.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Maybe add this as a house rule to Pods.

Thunderous Impact: If a drop pod would scatter onto a unit, instead of using Inertial Guidance to avoid the collision, the Drop Pod may chose to make a Thunderous Impact. Any model under the drop pod must be moved the minimum distance possible to be 1" away from the Drop Pod. Any models moved as a result of this suffer a Str10 AP2 hit with the concussive rule. The Pod then also suffers a Str10 AP2 hit. If a model under the pod is a Super Heavy or a Gargantuan Creature, move the pod according to the rules of least disturbance instead of the super heavy or gargantuan creature. In addition, if the model under the pod was a super heavy or gargantuan creature the Pod instead is immediately destroyed from the shock of the impact, the passengers may disembark as normal but the unit suffers D6 str5 hits from the impact.

I dig it!

Eh, just give the Pod a simplified version of something akin to Tank Shock. Target unit makes an LD test. If it fails, any model in the unit underneath the 'pod are instantly killed with no saves of any kind allowed. If the unit passes its LD test, it can make a standard Move action, even if it has already acted in the turn, to the nearest "safe" location within range. If there is no location available, the unit is destroyed.

Backfire wrote:
This gave me an idea: rocket-launched air assault troops. They would be launched in drop pods which are bolted on top of rockets launched to suborbital trajectories. Range and surprise factor beat conventional airborne troops handily. Not too practical in real world, but seems very plausible in 40k. In fact, perhaps some Drop Pod assaults are not orbital at all but ballistic, launched from same planet.

Then, what of the ANGRY MARINES?!?!?!?!?!?

 Ubl1k wrote:
I seriously wish drop pods could come down and smush doods that were on the battlefield I mean its a giant bucket from space ffs id literally just pack them full of bombs and drop them next to any big baddy and go "booooooooom" motherfether you dead, they are disposable so may as well get the best out of them.

How is that different from a bomb?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Heck there are not an insignificant number of cases of people freefalling from altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet and hitting the ground and surviving, sometimes with only minor(relatively speaking) injury.

To be fair, after the first 200 feet or so, it doesn't matter how far you fall - you'll be going the same speed when you impact.

Also, at those speeds, hitting the water is about the same as hitting concrete in terms of survivability.

And the people who do survive don't get up and start fighting a battle immediately after "landing".

Somebody please lock this thread...

We are talking about a game where guys with hammers can potentially destroy a mile tall titan. I'm not feeling too much need for realism in this.

 JamesY wrote:
We are talking about a game where guys with hammers can potentially destroy a mile tall titan. I'm not feeling too much need for realism in this.

THANK YOU

What's wrong with a little discussion on how drop pods might work?

Has flash freezing been suggested yet? Maybe advances in cryo could mean they freeze you solid then bam unfreeze you in a puff of dry ice when you land. That's how I'm gonna explain away my guard in pods anyway.

pax_imperialis wrote:
Has flash freezing been suggested yet? Maybe advances in cryo could mean they freeze you solid then bam unfreeze you in a puff of dry ice when you land. That's how I'm gonna explain away my guard in pods anyway.

On its own, it does not explain how they aren't crushed on impact. And a better solution than cryo (due to defrosting times) would simply be either environmentally sealed suits (space suits, or a variant of carapace armour) or just a really beefy air-con system. Or thermal insulation in the pod.

 Robbert Ambrose wrote:
Drop pods actually have thrusters for decelaration, this can be seen in the Dawn of War opening.

Retconned by its own sequel, where they slam down hard and fast, making craters and wreaking havoc on enemy infantry with their impact.

Drop pods, would have to have a great deal of sophistication and a lot of their use of thrusters and anti-grav suspensor plating would be to make that rapid decent down to a planet as consistent an operation as possible. Consider how varied the landing of drop pod would be once you factor in the gravity and atmosphere of different planets.Terminal velocity on one planet isn't the same as the next.