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Pretty sure the rule book is clear on this but I want to make sure....

1) Is a drop pod the only vehicle allowed to carry a locator beacon? - Locator beacons are shown on the vehicle equipment list (page 99 in my SW Codex) but they are not shown in the list on page 47 with the consolidated list of wargear and point values. Locator beacons are also not shown as an option under any other vehicle's profile in the book.

If drop pods are the only thing that can carry a locator beacon I think that makes beacons pretty useless.


2) Does the drop pod assault rule mean that you can never keep all of your pods in reserve? What if you only have 2 pods and you want to keep them in reserve. Does half still have to come down in the first turn?

The rule makes sense because it would be unfair if someone kept their entire army off the board in the first turn, but I think it goes too far. The requirement should be that half of your Army must be on the table in the first turn, not half of your drop pods.

BigRed76 wrote:
Pretty sure the rule book is clear on this but I want to make sure....

1) Is a drop pod the only vehicle allowed to carry a locator beacon? - Locator beacons are shown on the vehicle equipment list (page 99 in my SW Codex) but they are not shown in the list on page 47 with the consolidated list of wargear and point values. Locator beacons are also not shown as an option under any other vehicle's profile in the book.

If drop pods are the only thing that can carry a locator beacon I think that makes beacons pretty useless.

Why would they be useless if they were only for drop pods?

1) There are a few units that can, Stormravens used to be able to, not sure if they can anymore.

Some scout squads might be able to unless they took that away from them.

2) Does the drop pod assault rule mean that you can never keep all of your pods in reserve? What if you only have 2 pods and you want to keep them in reserve.

2) You can keep your entire army in reserves if you want to.

An earlier edition restricted you to only putting half of your units into reserve, but this rule no longer exists in 7th ed.

So yes, Drop Pod or not, you can hold your entire army in reserves.

Does half still have to come down in the first turn?

The Drop Pod assault rule is clear on this,

The rule makes sense because it would be unfair if someone kept their entire army off the board in the first turn, but I think it goes too far.

Why?

The requirement should be that half of your Army must be on the table in the first turn, not half of your drop pods.

that is not a requirement at all.

You can keep your entire army in reserves if you want to. and half of your drop pods automatically arrive in turn 1.

If locator beacons can only be carried by drop pods they are useless because they have to be on the table at the beginning of the turn in order to be used. Therefore, you have to drop a pod and then use the beacon for the remaining pods on the following turn. And that means, due to the DP Assault rule, you can only use locator beacons for half or less of your drop pods.



My question about the DP Assault Rule pertains to the word automatically. Does it mean that they are required to, or that they can... automatically arrive turn one. For example, if I had 2 drop pods in reserve and the rest of my army on the table, does the DP assault rule force me to land one of them on the table in turn 1?

BigRed76 wrote:
If locator beacons can only be carried by drop pods they are useless because they have to be on the table at the beginning of the turn in order to be used. Therefore, you have to drop a pod and then use the beacon for the remaining pods on the following turn. And that means, due to the DP Assault rule, you can only use locator beacons for half or less of your drop pods.

Not so. If you use Terminators, Legion of the Damned, or anything else that Deep Strikes in your army*, then that works with the locator beacon.
Scouts (I believe) get locator beacons, as do Land Speeders (I think). I haven't picked up my Codex since before Christmas, so this is off the top of my head.

*Look at the allies matrix on how other factions & codices interact with things like the locator beacon

BigRed76 wrote:
My question about the DP Assault Rule pertains to the word automatically. Does it mean that they are required to, or that they can... automatically arrive turn one. For example, if I had 2 drop pods in reserve and the rest of my army on the table, does the DP assault rule force me to land one of them on the table in turn 1?

If you have most or none of your army on the table, and regardless of 1 or 1,000 drop pods, half will always come in.

Also not useless at all, as stated other things can make use of them turn two.

But, scout bikers can take a beacon too. and they can be in the perfect place for the drop pod turn 1

BigRed76 wrote:
2) Does the drop pod assault rule mean that you can never keep all of your pods in reserve? What if you only have 2 pods and you want to keep them in reserve. Does half still have to come down in the first turn?

The rule makes sense because it would be unfair if someone kept their entire army off the board in the first turn, but I think it goes too far. The requirement should be that half of your Army must be on the table in the first turn, not half of your drop pods.

Drop Pod Assault still requires you to put those Drop Pods and any units transported by them into reserve. What I think you mean is whether you must deploy half of your Drop Pods from reserve on turn one, to which the answer is simply yes. Just because they are required to be deployed onto the board (from reserve) on turn one does not mean they are not put into reserve.

It's entirely fair for a player to try to keep their army off the board on the first turn. They would automatically lose at the end of turn one, of course, but it would be their own silly choice to do so and so it would be quite fairly their own fault.

 Mr. Shine wrote:

It's entirely fair for a player to try to keep their army off the board on the first turn. They would automatically lose at the end of turn one, of course, but it would be their own silly choice to do so and so it would be quite fairly their own fault.

To avoid possible confusion, that statement is not 100% correct. There are one or two cases where keeping your entire army in reserve does not make you auto-lose.

Edit: Quotes messed up.

 Ond Angel wrote:
To avoid possible confusion, that statement is not 100% correct. There are one or two cases where keeping your entire army in reserve does not make you auto-lose.

Well yes, that's under the assumption of "unless explicitly allowed for otherwise"

Out of curiosity though, can you give an example?

And for helpful reference to the OP or anyone else, the rule I am referring to is under Victory Conditions in the rulebook and states, "If at the end of any game turn, one player has no models on the battlefield his opponent automatically wins."

Mr. Shine wrote:

 Ond Angel wrote:
To avoid possible confusion, that statement is not 100% correct. There are one or two cases where keeping your entire army in reserve does not make you auto-lose.

Well yes, that's under the assumption of "unless explicitly allowed for otherwise"

Out of curiosity though, can you give an example?

And for helpful reference to the OP or anyone else, the rule I am referring to is under Victory Conditions in the rulebook and states, "If at the end of any game turn, one player has no models on the battlefield his opponent automatically wins."

Drop pod army. If you run nothing but Drop Pods (including the guys inside them, of course), everything will be in reserve. Half rounded up will come in on your first turn (which will be before the first game turn).

 Mr. Shine wrote:
Out of curiosity though, can you give an example?

Any army with Drop Pods, for starters...

I did say keeping the entire army off the board on turn one. A Drop Pod army would not be kept off the board on turn one

 Mr. Shine wrote:
Out of curiosity though, can you give an example?

Any way to make models arrive from Reserves on turn one will work. Off the top of my head Deathwing Assault (Dark Angels), Drop Pod Assault (Any SM book), the Nemesis detachment (Grey Knights), and Combat Drop (Elysians and D99, Imperial Armour 3 and 4) allow you to but there may be others.

 Mr. Shine wrote:
I did say keeping the entire army off the board on turn one. A Drop Pod army would not be kept off the board on turn one

Ah. I understand what you mean now.
As far as I know, there is no way to do that.

Ah, yes. That's rather what I thought then.