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Here is a theoretical.

Can you use the Inertial Guidance System on a Drop Pod to increase the range of a Locator Beacon?

Can I place a Drop Pod within 6" of a Locator Beacon to get no scatter, but be within 1" of an obstacle thereby engaging the Inertial Guidance rule and thus move beyond the 6" range?

Does the Drop Pod have to be wholly within 6" of the beacon or just partially?

If you had a beacon locked in combat could you tuck a portion of the Pod into the 6" range, and then move it a few inches over?

The Inertial Guidance rule reduces the scatter distance.

The Locator Beacon tells you that you do not scatter if your model is within 6 inches of the model with the Beacon.

Ergo you can not reduce a scatter if you do not scatter in the first place..

Also note that drop pods can never increase their scatter distance to avoid an obstacle. If you place the pod on top of something (for example, to be within range of the beacon) and don't scatter away to somewhere safe you suffer the mishap just like if the pod scatters off the table. In your case of placing the pod on top of a beacon locked in combat (presumably on top of one or more models) all you will accomplish is giving yourself an automatic mishap.

Hmmm, that does sound logical. Yet so does my assertion and it is not specifically stated anywhere.


Bears more investigation. But I have to go to work soon, so... later on this one.

I'm still leaning towards my interpretation though.

Just because it doesn't say you can't doesn't mean you can do it.

Also you are clearly wrong because you can't reduce by negative inches. Since you scattered 0 inches due to the beacon, to reduce the scatter would be by a negative and you can't do that.

There is nothing to Investigate. You don't scatter so you can not choose a direction to reduce it by.

Not to mention that if you put it within 1" you will mishap if you do not scatter.

The IGS only reduces the scatter. This means the pod can only come to rest at a point on a path between the point at which you initially placed it and the point at which the scatter dice would place it. If the pod is initially placed outside of a locator beacon's field and then scatters into that field the IGS will still put the pod at a point along the path regardless of the locator beacon. If the pod is initially placed inside the locator beacon's field you should treat the scatter dice as rolling a 'hit'. The path the IGS can place he pod upon essentially becomes a single point, meaning the IGS cannot move the pod. If you have placed the pod in a mishap area it will mishap.

What you are suggesting is instead of rolling to scatter you are picking the direction to move the pod yourself.

darkcloak wrote:
Here is a theoretical.

Can you use the Inertial Guidance System on a Drop Pod to increase the range of a Locator Beacon?

Can I place a Drop Pod within 6" of a Locator Beacon to get no scatter, but be within 1" of an obstacle thereby engaging the Inertial Guidance rule and thus move beyond the 6" range?

Does the Drop Pod have to be wholly within 6" of the beacon or just partially?

If you had a beacon locked in combat could you tuck a portion of the Pod into the 6" range, and then move it a few inches over?

As stated, IGS explicitly says that you REDUCE scatter, not increase it. If a pod lands within the bubble of a locator beacon, then they do not scatter at all, and thus cannot decrease the nonexistent scatter.

Second question here: If you place your drop pod in a situation where it would mishap, AND within the bubble of a locator beacon, then the mishap is automatic.

Finally, only part of the pod needs to be within 6" to get the benefit, not the whole pod.

 DJGietzen wrote:
The IGS only reduces the scatter. This means the pod can only come to rest at a point on a path between the point at which you initially placed it and the point at which the scatter dice would place it. If the pod is initially placed outside of a locator beacon's field and then scatters into that field the IGS will still put the pod at a point along the path regardless of the locator beacon. If the pod is initially placed inside the locator beacon's field you should treat the scatter dice as rolling a 'hit'. The path the IGS can place he pod upon essentially becomes a single point, meaning the IGS cannot move the pod. If you have placed the pod in a mishap area it will mishap.

What you are suggesting is instead of rolling to scatter you are picking the direction to move the pod yourself.

See this is really handy because in the book it only says "reduce scatter" and nothing about staying within the area of scatter. You really have to get in there and decipher the true meanings of words. See I just figured it was a matter of moving the Pod slightly so as to not mishap, and really in most cases that's all you're doing but in reality there is that line there isn't there?

 DJGietzen wrote:
If you have placed the pod in a mishap area it will mishap.

Just noticed this line can be misleading, it should have read.

If you have placed the pod in a mishap area and roll a 'hit' it will mishap. If you roll an arrow it will only avoid the mishap if the distance rolled is sufficient to place the pod outside of the mishap area. In this situation the IGS will only reduce the scatter and avoid a mishap if the pod scatters into a second mishap area and there is a safe spot along the scatter path between the two mishap areas.

darkcloak wrote:

See this is really handy because in the book it only says "reduce scatter" and nothing about staying within the area of scatter. You really have to get in there and decipher the true meanings of words. See I just figured it was a matter of moving the Pod slightly so as to not mishap, and really in most cases that's all you're doing but in reality there is that line there isn't there?

It's not like it's written in code. It says you can reduce the scatter to avoid obstacles. So you can reduce the scatter to avoid obstacles. That's as complicated as it gets.

darkcloak wrote:
See this is really handy because in the book it only says "reduce scatter" and nothing about staying within the area of scatter.

So... you have a scatter distance on 2d6 and a direction on the scatter dice. And in your opinion the direction rolled doesn't mean anything? Go ahead and try it with some deepstriking assault marines too - their mishap chance will go down significantly if the arrow is just a guideline.