Tactical Reserves clarification

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**Nightbringer's Chosen**

Looking at helping a friend with army planning, and he likes Drop Pods. I'm curious about how the Tactical Reserves (no more than half your units in reserve) rule interacts with a few things.
Are transports units just like any other? Does the unit inside count as being deployed?
Do Combat Squads count as two units?

For instance:

In reserve:
3 Dreads in 3 Drop Pods
2 Sternguard squads plus 2 characters in 2 Drop Pods

Deployed:
(3) Tactical Marine squads split into 6, in 3 Razorbacks
2 Devastator squads
2 Predators

Would that be 12 units in reserve and 13 starting on the table?

**Stux**

Well that has been a point of contention for some people. There is an argument that units deployed in a transport (ie your Razorbackd) are not strictly on the table.

Most people interpret the rule to allow units in transports that are deployed on the table to count as on the table for tactical reserves purposes.

As such I would agree with your count, but there are a small number of people who would disagree.

If this is for the purposes of planning a new army though, you should be aware that 9e is probably out pretty soon and GW has dropped hints that there are changes to how reserves work.

**BaconCatBug**

BRB FAQ wrote:Q: The Tactical Reserves matched play rule states that at least half the total number of units in my army must be set up on the battlefield during Deployment. If I have units embarked in a transport, do they count against the number of units I have to set up during Deployment? If, for example, I have a Valkyrie with three units embarked inside it that will arrive on the battlefield during the game, how many other units do I need to set up during Deployment to satisfy the Tactical Reserves rule?
A: Yes, embarked units count as units in your army, so must be counted when referring to this rule. If you have three units embarked inside a transport that will arrive during the game, you need to set up at least four other units on the battlefield during Deployment – equivalently, if you set up three units in a transport on the battlefield, you could set up four other units to arrive during the game.

So in your example, it's a legal deployment.

**p5freak**

The 2 sternguard squads, and the 2 characters, and the 2 drop pods ignore the tactical reserves rule. It doesnt exist for them, with the exception that they are destroyed when they arent deployed by the end of the third battle round. The rest of your army has to deployed according to the tactical reserves rule. The dreads in drop pods dont ignore the tactical reserves rule, because the pods are FW units, with own rules. FW units will get new rules in 9th, so this may change.

**Nightbringer's Chosen**

p5freak wrote:
The 2 sternguard squads, and the 2 characters, and the 2 drop pods ignore the tactical reserves rule. It doesnt exist for them, with the exception that they are destroyed when they arent deployed by the end of the third battle round. The rest of your army has to deployed according to the tactical reserves rule. The dreads in drop pods dont ignore the tactical reserves rule, because the pods are FW units, with own rules. FW units will get new rules in 9th, so this may change.

That rule being in Italics somehow made my brain skip over it when looking over the Drop Pod rule, thanks for pointing it out.

And thanks for reminding me the FAQ exists, Catbug, didn't think to look there.