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Well, I had this idea earlier on today, and I thought that it makes a lot more sense than the current DS rules. (Fluff justifications in a spoiler)

Here I go...

Once a unit in reserve that is coming in by Deep Strike passes its reserve roll, it may elect to perform a Deep Strike Assault. The unit does so as follows:
Place the first model and scatter it as usual, with the exception that the Deep Striking unit may elect an enemy unit as its target*, centring the Large Blast Template over it's final position (The Blast Template does not scatter.)
The Large Blast Template is then resolved with the following profile on every enemy model under it: Strength:8 AP:5 Ordnance Barrage
After resolving wounds from the template, place DS unit as normal, moving surviving enemy models minimum distance required before they are at least 1" from the models in the DS unit.
The entire DS unit then takes dangerous terrain tests. These tests may have no saves taken against any wounds they cause.

*Drop Pods may also perform this operation, if they do so, ignore the Inertial Guidance System special rule they have, and if they roll a 1, they immediately suffer a vehicle explodes result.
Justification:

I would say decrease Str to 6 as its still powerful for fluff justifications and it wont one-shot as many things as a Str 8 would.

Other than that it seems a decent rule my only concern is that you could snipe specific models (such as warlords for example) with this rule, but apart from that it seems ok.

I would also say that if you land on a vehicle and manage to wreck it then you still replace the model with a crater (after all something's just smacked it from high altitude or swallowed it into the ground.. I doubt wreckage would be seen)..

If this rule were ever to see the light of day it would make drop pod spam and Furioso's with Talons (and we all know how much you hate those) the bane of Tau and any gunline armies. It'd be far to strong. Not only would you be able to immediately assault but as you don't declare charges and are immediately locked in combat it removes the chance of overwatch.

Sounds like someone is mad about Interceptors. This rule removes more fun than it creates - maybe think about it, and the issues around its implications, some more.

I appreciate this namely because everyone gets it@ As a counter point though... I cannot help but feel that STR8 might be too good. Along with that, it seems like it might be a bit too exploitable.... intercept problems as an example.

To Redkeyboard, whilst I'm not sure if I missed a part, the dangerous terrain test with no saves seems like an okay drawback since it might make you lose a decent number of units (very similar to the likelyhood of overwatch). I'm not quite sure how this would work... and hopefully drop pods don't get to ignore the dangerous terrain. With that, even I'd have to step back. It'd just ignore the risk and give a free gun.

Also one last thing. Psssht redkeyboard. That's exactly how I feel whenever Tau deploy against my assault army What's that? You want to assault me? Well have fun lasting through 2-4 turns of shots and then living through my overwatch of doom. Oh and if you sweep me, well now I can shoot you again~ and.... imperial guard barrage armies..... *shudders*

 StarTrotter wrote:
imperial guard barrage armies..... *shudders*

Those make everyone shudder.

hmmmm wait that drop pod type rule for assaulting out of into combat sounds familiar... oh yh my 40k legal apocalypse luscious pattern drop pods, allowing my 3 iron clads to charge... it5 is op and i only reserve it for tournaments which even after a few tournaments that allow it the demoralizing look on your opponents face as they realise ive just assaulted and killed their warlord and 2 other units on t1 with 3/5 of my drop podding units and still have 20 sternguard waiting to show is soooo much fun for me but sucks for them

which is why that kind of bad ruling doesn't generally exist

Why not just let the Deep Striking unit, you know, assault instead? You could give the defending unit Overwatch at full BS. A free ordnance blast just seems a bit odd.

 amanita wrote:
Why not just let the Deep Striking unit, you know, assault instead? You could give the defending unit Overwatch at full BS. A free ordnance blast just seems a bit odd.

See my previous post: The defending player never has as much fun as the defending player. This is also the same problem with heavily competitive Tau and IG armies - When your attacks are so effective that your opponent is crippled, no one has as much fun as a serious tactical back and forth.

Allowing more ways of crippling turn-1's - and in this case, turn-1's that can be crippling even after an opponent's devastating first turn - is not the way to make the game more fun or interesting.

Of course, if fun and dynamism wasn't OP's intention with this rule, then I can't comment on it.

@ chrisrawr - actually, I agree. I was just making suggestions to the OP, not that I agree with the concept. I feel that it's pretty silly that soldiers can watch some pod drop in from orbit and yet somehow can't avoid the thing or even get the first shot off when the thing lands and troops come out a-blazing! But if someone wants to incorporate a house rule, I'm all for it...within reason.

I actually like the concept. As others said, perhaps strength 6 instead of 8, but aside from that....

 redkeyboard wrote:
If this rule were ever to see the light of day it would make drop pod spam and Furioso's with Talons (and we all know how much you hate those) the bane of Tau and any gunline armies. It'd be far to strong. Not only would you be able to immediately assault but as you don't declare charges and are immediately locked in combat it removes the chance of overwatch.

I have never said you are automatically in combat...

That's part of the reason it is S8 - so it can do some damage. Because infantry landing in RF range/dreads landing in Melta range is a pretty big risk

I would be ok to lower to S7, but much lower I don't think works, because something fired from orbit and getting superheated by the atmosphere/opening a portal into the warp should be more than able to crush light to medium tanks

 IHateNids wrote:

 redkeyboard wrote:
If this rule were ever to see the light of day it would make drop pod spam and Furioso's with Talons (and we all know how much you hate those) the bane of Tau and any gunline armies. It'd be far to strong. Not only would you be able to immediately assault but as you don't declare charges and are immediately locked in combat it removes the chance of overwatch.

I have never said you are automatically in combat...

That's part of the reason it is S8 - so it can do some damage. Because infantry landing in RF range/dreads landing in Melta range is a pretty big risk

I would be ok to lower to S7, but much lower I don't think works, because something fired from orbit and getting superheated by the atmosphere/opening a portal into the warp should be more than able to crush light to medium tanks

Ahh my mistake when I saw the pile in move I skipped over the until 1" move. If you drop the str to 6 it wouldnt be as bad. It would mean you can still scatter and hot hit anything. It could still be devastating like others have said. Str7 could be ok because it means you are hurting things like plauge marines on 2's but doesn't instant death anything other than Eldar and Tau. But str6 des that anyway.

Edit: Why the rdanance? I understand the barrage thats obvious but not to sure about the ordanance. at str 7 or 8 it would be a pretty effective vehicle killer.

Not quite sure, but Ordnance seems to make sense.

S7AP5(4?) Barrage seems to be better I guess

Leave it as AP5 considering explosions and togeather things similar to this are AP6 or AP- AP5 seems ok.

I think this is a bad idea for a multitude of reasons. On top of all the usual arguments that start when people propose Deep Strike Assaults, adding a free large blast to it strikes me as having extreme potential for abuse.

Case in point:
Daemons- Play it MSU and you could quite happily have ~20 units in even a moderately sized game. If you Strike with half of them, congratulations! Your opponent now has *10* artillery impacts to deal with in the first turn. Not only that, but he is now locked in combat with Daemons without a proper turn to retaliate. This is very likely to be a tabling in 3 turns.

There are many arguments against Deep Strike assaults and this proposal has been repeated before. To add a piece of heavy ordnance to the assault, on top of essentially guaranteed assault by melee specialists, is a death sentence to any army that relies on firepower.


EDIT: It seems I misread something and you won't get an assault when turning up. Obviously this makes an enormous difference and I apologise for the cock-up. That said I stand by my decision that this is rife for abuse. Even removing the ability to Mishap is a tremendous boon.

Youre missing a couple of things there Mozza

You are not automatical;ly in assault, nor can you assault in that turn, as per normal Deep Strike rules.

All im doing is proposing Deep Strikers be allowed to do damage as they land. S7AP5 will not go thorough a lot of things that easily. Sure itll mince a fair few Guardsmen, but what doesn't?

The rule is very Glass Hammer IMO (or should be...) because you either land on target and do a lot of Damage through the pieplate and shooting, or you land perfectly, then take a guaranteed turn of Rapid Fire (Melta in the case of vehicles/Dreads/MCs)

Its just making Suicide Squads a little more suicidal is all

One thing will raise is what is the draw back to this over regular deepstrike?

Automatic unsaveable (bar inv) wounds on a 1, even if you scatter off the target unit for the whole DS unit.

Hmm yeah if they take it even if they miss then I would say its actually ok. Not to strong and hell on a with a unit of 10 your bound to roll at least a single 1.

aye.

Knowing my rolling Ill kill all of my unit for maybe a Guardian being squished

Well Str 7 is a bit more fair I suppose, its a better answer then not changing the Str at all and telling me to put units in "better" positions eh? .

one more concern I have is that you mention that this is meant to be a glass hammer rule... So what about those units that are deep striking such as terminators? for example they have Inv saves so they can still be saved from the dangerous terrain tests, just a thought that's all ..

aye, but theyre either left on 5+ Invs to try and kill some more stuff with shooting, or they sit there for a full turn, getting removed as TDA does: through as Gunline like Wiggy's XD

Wiggy is our friendly local Tau play, who has a habit of building a blob of smaller brincks that spew roughly 120 shots a turn up to halfway across the board

 IHateNids wrote:
aye, but theyre either left on 5+ Invs to try and kill some more stuff with shooting, or they sit there for a full turn, getting removed as TDA does: through as Gunline like Wiggy's XD

Wiggy is our friendly local Tau play, who has a habit of building a blob of smaller brincks that spew roughly 120 shots a turn up to halfway across the board

Sounds like you are trying to come up with a solution to a problem you have at your local shop.

not really...

I personally don't use DS that much, I just don't think it makes sense that multi-tonne armoured vehicles fired from a passing spaceship can be instantly destroyed by like a guardsman

Would rather see a more simplified version of this as to let vehicles that deep strike tank shock and ram while also allowing the unit inside to charge as long as it doesn't fire with mtc penalty.