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I want to make a drop pod/deep strike army, is it possible to put EVERYTHING in reserve for standard missions?

Yes. There is no rule saying you MUST start with forces on the board. The entire Daemons codex functions this way, and I've seen more than a few Blood Angels armies that like to drop everything in. It's also a common tactic in Dawn of War games, to deny your opponent a turn of shooting.

Also a common eldar tactic

Wow. Rhinos are useless deathraps compared to drop pods! Drop pods are much cooler anyways! If i knew i wouldnt have bought any rhinos!!!

moarmoarmoar wrote:Wow. Rhinos are useless deathraps compared to drop pods! Drop pods are much cooler anyways! If i knew i wouldnt have bought any rhinos!!!

Rhinos allow you to get around the field in times of need. As well as making obstructing rhino-walls and providing cover for important units. Rhinos are by no means "useless". Once you Drop Pod in - that's where you are. Better like where you land.

@moarmoarmoar

Not really.

Comparing Drop Pods and Rhinos is comparing apple and oranges.
They each bring something different to the table.

You might like Drop Pods better, but saying that Rhinos are "useless deathtraps" is quite the oversimplification.

if you dawn of war i believe you have to put 2 troops on the table at setup. maybe it depends on the scenario.

No you may place up to 2 troop choices and up to 1 HQ. You do not have to.

moarmoarmoar wrote:I want to make a drop pod/deep strike army, is it possible to put EVERYTHING in reserve for standard missions?

yes, barring drop pod assault rules

...which forces you to put the drop pods in reserve, you mean?

DPA then modifies the reserve rules to require half (rounding up) the pods to turn up turn 1. It is still reserve, same as Mordrak is put into normal reserves but can appear turn 1

Which means that half your drop pods have to DS first turn.... so you can't actually have a drop pod army that has everything in reserve! Well spotted...


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nosferatu1001 wrote:] into normal reserves but HAVE TO appear turn 1

fix'd

Sam - no, you havent fixed it. Reread what I posted, and then notice the word "require"

1) All drop pods MUST be in Reserve. Read the DPA rules again
2) DPA then modifies this to require half turning up on turn 1.

So, at the time you finish deploying, EVEN WITH drop podss you can have your entire in reserve.

Oooookay.... You're right, there is a difference!

Who's Mordrak? That actually caused the confusion, I thought you were referring to another poster... oops

GK Special Character, who is a GK GM with some special rules. If you put him in Reserve and Deepstrike him he automatically turns up turn 1 and doesnt scatter...

Convenient indeed. And you were completely correct in that case, sorry! Misleading wording "can" and "require" in the same sentence

But it's all good now...

rhinos and razerbacks definatly have their place, but yes a drop pod army is quite useful... drop pod armies used to be much better when you could get a cover save from the drop pod... but since you now can't it means your at most fielding half your army on turn 1 (fine if you are goign second ... painful if you are going first as you are half str ... vs tau or IG this can hurt. playign with terrain it can be negated somewaht and a god tactic, but drop pod assault still has its weaknesses.

personally i split the difference

3 drop pods 3 plasmabacks with a split tac squad inside if a objective mission

2 drop pods with dreds show up turn number 1 and only have one pod off the table in reserve which could come in and really help... heavy flamers and multimeltas on the dreds so they an put out some hurt

Huh? Drop pods are perfectly able to give cover - just deploy around the other side of it to the enemy. You an easily obscure models in this way.

negitive. drop pods count as having spread apart. when the drop pod is down it is ignored for purposes of los/cover.

unless every tournament I have ever been to is doing it wrong. heck in the latest ard boys in my area (2 weeks ago) somebody claimed cover from from his dro ppod and the gw judge made a joke about this not being (3rd or 4th edition forget which one) and advised drop pods never count as cover

G00fySmiley wrote:negitive. drop pods count as having spread apart. when the drop pod is down it is ignored for purposes of los/cover.

unless every tournament I have ever been to is doing it wrong. heck in the latest ard boys in my area (2 weeks ago) somebody claimed cover from from his dro ppod and the gw judge made a joke about this not being (3rd or 4th edition forget which one) and advised drop pods never count as cover

Well, it seems that every tournament you have ever been to is, in fact, doing it wrong.

Drop pod doors are blown open (according to fluff). But, that still leaves the skeleton of the drop pod to block LOS.

G00fySmiley wrote:negitive. drop pods count as having spread apart. when the drop pod is down it is ignored for purposes of los/cover.

unless every tournament I have ever been to is doing it wrong. heck in the latest ard boys in my area (2 weeks ago) somebody claimed cover from from his dro ppod and the gw judge made a joke about this not being (3rd or 4th edition forget which one) and advised drop pods never count as cover

This is entirely wrong. 5th Ed uses TLOS so if when the doors are open a model is given cover from the fins and hull of the drop pod then they get cover. There is nothing that says a drop pod gives no cover.


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Grakmar got it dead on

dunno.. offical gw tournament judge at an ard boys event. all 4 flgs play it no cover from drop pods

granted it helps out my marines if it did but I'm still not buying them giving cover not only have every game I've played/watched nto used them for cover but every official and unofficial tournament not alloud it when brought up

How does it not provide cover? Its all TLOS if they are blocked by part of the ribbing or the cerntral part that extends out to have the harnesses then it gives a cover save its no different then firing past a rhino when it partially blocks a squad. I don't know who those judges were but they have some goofy ideas of LOS and cover in 5th.

G00fySmiley wrote:dunno.. offical gw tournament judge at an ard boys event. all 4 flgs play it no cover from drop pods

granted it helps out my marines if it did but I'm still not buying them giving cover not only have every game I've played/watched nto used them for cover but every official and unofficial tournament not alloud it when brought up

Hows this, if you can come up with a rule that says they don't give cover then they are right. But as 5th ED is based entirely on the true line of sight method of determining cover, the only way a drop pod would not give cover is if there was no model deployed on the table to block the cover. If the model prevents you from seeing a majority of the models in the squad completely (read: if at any point more than half of the squad cannot be seen 100%) then you gain a cover save from it.

It doesn't really matter how your FLGS or the GW judge played it. By the rules of the game it has been played wrong.

G00fySmiley wrote:negitive. drop pods count as having spread apart. when the drop pod is down it is ignored for purposes of los/cover.

unless every tournament I have ever been to is doing it wrong. heck in the latest ard boys in my area (2 weeks ago) somebody claimed cover from from his dro ppod and the gw judge made a joke about this not being (3rd or 4th edition forget which one) and advised drop pods never count as cover

No a drop pod is counted as an immobalized open top vehicle that cannot be embarked upon once it has landed. It is treated EXACTLY like a vehicle in all aspects. Thus it effects LoS just like anything else would.

I would need to see a specific rule/FAQ entry that states otherwise in order for me to agree to that reasoning, and a quick glance through my BA codex and the FAQs leans towards there not being one.

yea. I just read the faq thinking it would be there... not there I knwo its nto in my space marines 5th codex. hmmm now I have to find some battle reports where they were used to convince people tha tthey can be used for LOS.

if anybody can find some throw me a link please... this is gonna be hard to convince people of in my area but if we're doing it wrogn then I might as well try and fix it ... still the gw judge... oh well he's still a person and could be confusing editions

Actually I'd tell them it is a permsive ruleset. You can prove that the pod is an open topped vehicle and that vehciles do block los, and that true los is used. Then ask them to tell you where the rules state that they don't block line of site. If they can't (which they won't) then there really is nowhere for them to go to to keep claiming this. Now granted some of them will just try to be hard nosed about it. I'm trying to get some games together this weekend at my FLGS and I'll run a pod and post a batrep.

G00fySmiley wrote:... still the gw judge... oh well he's still a person and could be confusing editions

Confusing editions has nothing to do with it. Drop Pods have blocked LOS for as long as they've existed as an actual vehicle.

Tournament judges in 40K don't receive any sort of specialist training in the rules. They're going off their own knowledge just like everyone else... and so areno more immune to getting stuff wrong as anyone else would be.


You don't need evidence to prove this ruling wrong. You just need to ask them to show you where the rule is that makes Drop Pods not block LOS... because without such a rule, they work exactly the same as any other model where LOS is concerned.

G00fySmiley wrote:yea. I just read the faq thinking it would be there... not there I knwo its nto in my space marines 5th codex. hmmm now I have to find some battle reports where they were used to convince people tha tthey can be used for LOS.

if anybody can find some throw me a link please... this is gonna be hard to convince people of in my area but if we're doing it wrogn then I might as well try and fix it ... still the gw judge... oh well he's still a person and could be confusing editions

Try this:

1) Put a broken up piece of terrain on the table that can obscure LoS.
2) Put Tactical Squad on one side.
3) Put Long Fang unit on other side.
4) Get down low to check LoS from the Long Fangs (you know, something you are supposed to do every single time you shoot).
5) Count the number of models you can see completely.
6) Determine cover.

Now repeat, but in step 1, use a Drop Pod.

The rules don't change for a Drop Pod. You still use True Line of Sight. Just set it up, and ask anyone in the store how many models are obscured. If they say "zero", they are lying. If they say any number more than half, then there is a cover. Nothing in the Drop Pod rules say they don't provide cover.