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So,

a mate of mine thinks you can resume the good ole' say, Astra Militarum Veterans with Meltaguns in Space Marine Drop Pods -extravaganza by using the Castellans Of the Imperium -detachment. I cannot see why, so let's discuss this shall we?

Points of mine why it doesn't work:

1. The 40K FAQ says:

Q: Can units that are Battle Brothers embark in each other’s
Transport vehicles during deployment?
A: No.

This is one big blanket denial to use a transport that belongs to a faction that is Battle Brothers with the unit attempting to use a taxi service. Space Marines and Astra Militarum, for example, are Battle Brothers. Even if you tried the "they're Armies of the Imperium" -route, they are still Battle Brothers as indicated by the rulebooks Ally Matrix.

2. The 40K FAQ says:

Q: Can units from two Detachments with the same Faction
embark in each other’s Transport vehicles during deployment?
A: Yes.

Two units that are from two different Detachments, but the same Faction, are allowed to mix transports. Space Marines and Astra Militarum are of a different Faction (the Castellan Detachment even goes asfar as to require units with 2 different Factions in it; there goes the Armies of the Imperium -argument, all selectable units are "Armies of the Imperium" so it has to mean Codex Factions.) Last but not least they are from the same Detachment when taken from the Castellans Of the Imperium -it is a single detachment, it is not a Detachment of Formations (an official term used by GW from things such as Gladius Strikeforce.) The choices you can take within the Castellans of the Imperium are not separate Detachments, or Formations (which are Detachments too.) They are choices from Battlefield Roles such as Heavy Support, just like in a CAD.

HOWEVER!

You could argue the FAQ above means Dedicated Transports only, not FA Drop Pods for example.. If this is the case, then the taxi service would work everywhere, with any kind of Detachment combinations. There is no difference with say, SM CAD+ AM AD, or Castellan+ AM AD. Both setups include 2 Detachments. Both setups include units that are from two different Detachments. Both setups only including units that are Battle Brothers among eachother.

In other words, if you'd argue the FAQ only means Dedicated Transports and not say, Fast Attack choices, then the taxi service would be allowed, allround. Not just when it comes to the Castellan -detachment. It would mean putting Skitarii inside SM 'pods is legal, be it from a CAD to AD, AD to AD, or Castellan to CAD. Unless we consider that 40K's rule set is permissive: If it is not allowed separately, it is prohibited (?)

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

If I'm not mistaken, the 2 FAQ rulings seem to contradict eachother a bit, see here:

Q: Can units that are Battle Brothers embark in each other’s
Transport vehicles during deployment?
A: No.

Q: Can units from two Detachments with the same Faction
embark in each other’s Transport vehicles during deployment?
A: Yes.

Units that are of the same Faction are always Battle Brothers among eachother. These 2 effecitvely cancel eachother out, unless it was intended the latter is a special permission to break the former (?)

indeed it wouldn't work

Battle Brothers is part of the Allies rules.

The Allies rules tell you the describe interactions between units of different Faction.

Allies rules are interactions between units regardless of their Detachment.

Accordingly Battle Brothers within the same Detachment still cannot begin the game embarked on each other's Transport vehicles, and units of the same Faction are never Battle Brothers regardless of whether they're in the same or different Detachments.

I believe the intent in the first one was Battle-brothers of different factions. At least, they certainly were aiming at people using blood angels drop pods, for example.

 Mr. Shine wrote:
units of the same Faction are never Battle Brothers regardless of whether they're in the same or different Detachments.

Is this a mistake? "Units of the same Faction are never Battle Brothers regardless of whether they're in the same or different Detachments." would mean an Ultramarine unit inside a CAD wouldn't be BB with another Ultramarine unit inside the same CAD, but something else instead. (Come the Apocalypse? )

No, he isn't something else. He has no alliance level, because he is the same faction.

You only access the ally rules when dealing with different factions.

 Runic wrote:

 Mr. Shine wrote:
units of the same Faction are never Battle Brothers regardless of whether they're in the same or different Detachments.

Is this a mistake? "Units of the same Faction are never Battle Brothers regardless of whether they're in the same or different Detachments." would mean an Ultramarine unit inside a CAD wouldn't be BB with another Ultramarine unit inside the same CAD, but something else instead. (Come the Apocalypse? )

The Allies Table only comes up when units are from different factions. One Ultramarine squad and another Ultramarine squad are both Ultramarines, regardless of which detachment they're in. As such, they're not Battle Brothers, because they're even more trusting of each other than Allies are! Hence, an Ultramarine in one detachment can start in the transport of another Ultramarine detachment.

Ah yes. Well in any case it seems there is a consesus, so far, that taxi Drop Pods don't work I guess. I dunno what the contrary belief was based on but still can't find anything that would enable that to happen.

In the past people misunderstood the rules pretty universally. Since the Rule Book says that Battle Brothers can embark in each other's transports, and damn near everyone aside from a scant few thought this meant you could start the game in their transport. Once the draft FAQ came out saying "nope" to the Taxi-Pods, people scratched their heads and we dove into the rules to figure out how this could be the case. That's when we discovered that "embarking" is done on the table, but that starting in a transport is "deploying" within that transport, which the Battle Brothers rules do not say you can do.

We all had a "Wow, okay, we were all wrong" moment, and adjusted accordingly. The Final FAQ then cemented this.

Yeah, I'm aware of the abovementioned, but before I meant in the case of "Castellans of the Imperium enables it once more."

 Yarium wrote:
In the past people misunderstood the rules pretty universally. Since the Rule Book says that Battle Brothers can embark in each other's transports, and damn near everyone aside from a scant few thought this meant you could start the game in their transport. Once the draft FAQ came out saying "nope" to the Taxi-Pods, people scratched their heads and we dove into the rules to figure out how this could be the case. That's when we discovered that "embarking" is done on the table, but that starting in a transport is "deploying" within that transport, which the Battle Brothers rules do not say you can do.

We all had a "Wow, okay, we were all wrong" moment, and adjusted accordingly. The Final FAQ then cemented this.

I'm aware of the FAQ shutting this down, but where's the rule that prevents Battle Brothers from deploying together? As far as I can tell that section is full of the things you can do including joining eachother's units which can be done during deployment. (I guess I'm mostly asking now for the purposes of units of battle brothers not embarking on transports, but just forming a unit in general at deployment.)

The FAQ answer only covered being deployed in Battle Brothers' transports (which seems to go against the IC and Battle Brother rules). The FAQ didn't say that you can't deploy with Battle Brothers at all, so you can still have an IC deploy with a Battle Brother unit by deploying him in unit coherency as per page 166.

The castellan detachment still lists which codex to use for a daraslate this will prevent any non spacemarine unit from deploying in a droppod even if the unit normally can use a drop pod.

Correct me if I'm wrong but as the castellans detachment is an army list of its own, it would there for not use the allies matrix so. And as the droppod is a fast attack why could you not put any unit in it from the army list..?

mroz wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong but as the castellans detachment is an army list of its own, it would there for not use the allies matrix so. And as the droppod is a fast attack why could you not put any unit in it from the army list..?

Have a read of the Allies rules, and keep a specific eye out for any mention it makes of detachments.

Hint: It doesn't make any mention of detachments at all.

The Allies rules only care about interactions between units of different Faction. Whether they are in the same or different detachments makes no difference.

From 'Levels of Alliance', the sentence immediately before the Allies Matrix diagram in the rulebook:

"The Allies Matrix below shows the levels of alliance between units that have different Factions in the same army."

That cleared that up, thanks.

mroz wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong but as the castellans detachment is an army list of its own, it would there for not use the allies matrix so. And as the droppod is a fast attack why could you not put any unit in it from the army list..?

Yes, it is an army list, but it uses datasheets from many different factions and makes no statement to change anything about their respective factions.
That leaves us with a different force organisation, but also with the exact same rules situation as we would have with an army that contains passengers and taxis with different faction in two separate detachments.

I'm gessing on the same note a IC in the unit of the same faction as the transport would not allow a unit of a different faction to be in the transport at the start of the game. Something like a Chaplin in a unit of ogryns in a droppod. ? Sorry if I'm asking stupid questions..

No, a unit with mixed faction counts as all of these factions. So the IC cannot join the unit in the vehicle while deploying.