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When you deploy your drop pod, do you count the doors along the ground a part of the hull?

If you do, that gives the missile launcher on it an almost fifty fifty chance of hitting itself whenever it shoots. In my group we play it as the open doors not being part of the hull, but how would you play it?

Been discussed at length many many times whether the doors count for anything or not with no concensus. bottom line is house rule it.

spongemonkee wrote:
Been discussed at length many many times whether the doors count for anything or not with no concensus. bottom line is house rule it.

Fair enough. Like I said, we already did. I was mostly curious what the majority played it as.

And to that effect, I've added a poll.

I thought the general consensus has been that the doors have no game value, as doors are not the hull. It also starts arguments if people glue the doors down, preventing LOS through the pod or from the internal weapon. Or if the doors are left off, I have heard some people argue it was not completed, therefore is an incomplete model.

I say hull is hull, and however I assemble it is my prerogative, its my toy.

We houseruled that they dont count. Would be ridiculous how far a unit could disembark from it in 6th edition after landing. It has also downsides for the controlling player but in the end your melta would just always be in meltarange this way.

 SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
I thought the general consensus has been that the doors have no game value.

depends who you ask, IMO adding a model with major moving parts is just asking for trouble.

FWIW I would ignore them for all purposes up or down.

I have 9 of them and have had to glue a few of the doors shut due to breakages, try not to (have added metal rods in place) but they arent ideal. I also play them as doors do not count, the access points are clearly the door shuts and drop pods can be shot through but do restrict LOS

I move my units out from the edge of the body of the pod, ignoring the doors. I got a couple of my pods on ebay with the doors already glued up so it would be quite confusing otherwise.

 Purifier wrote:

If you do, that gives the missile launcher on it an almost fifty fifty chance of hitting itself whenever it shoots. In my group we play it as the open doors not being part of the hull, but how would you play it?

The Deathwind Missile Launcher is only S5, which can't hurt an AV12 vehicle.

How we play it: the doors are for decoration, and don't count for anything. Otherwise, that would give you a tremendous range of deployment for your passengers if they just had to be within 6" of the open doors...

It would also be a massive movement blocker if you have a few pods, you could pen your opponent in with 3 or 4 drop pods coming down first turn, not that much can hurt av12 really.

I've never run into anyone that counted them as the hull.

If doors were considered hull, them someone could model the doors of a other vehicles in the drop down position (the side doors of land raiders, rhinos) providing an extra couple of inches to disembarkation.

Also if they were part of the hull then they would be considered in the distance from enemy models, whether it landed in difficult terrain(causing it and the embarked unit to take dangerous terrain checks or if it actualy scattered off the table and rolling a mishap.

They're decorative. The fluff states that they are fitted on with explosive bolts and actualy blow the hatches clear off upon landing, the actual rule under the transport heading on pg 69 of the codex also states that the "hatches are blown". They made the model with hinges so that you could open it and not have to keep the doors in a separate place.

I always let my opponent decide, actually, whenever I put a pod down for the first time. I find that to be the best way. (I don't use the missile launchers though.) The first time I play a new opponent, I ask them how they prefer to do it. Most of the time they opt towards counting the doors as hull until I remind them that that would mean I could deploy from the tip of the doors. Then they (unanimously, so far) decide that it would make more sense for the doors to NOT be hull.

The rulebook says to ignore "gun barrels, dozer blades, antennas, banners and other decorative elements" when measuring to and from the hull.
It's absolutely ridiculous that drop pods weren't covered, and the above list doesn't mention doors - leading us to conclude that NORMALLY, they're part of the hull (otherwise you're open to shenanigans with access points and things with large doors like Land Raiders).

So, yeah... house rule, every time. Make sure you cover whether they're counted as terrain, as an enemy model for the 1" away rule, and whether the doors block line of sight or can be moved back into the upright position (yes, TFGs have done this to block line of sight, in tournaments as well!).