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 NAVARRO wrote:
For sure you can have a closed version right?

You'll get your closed pods when the Rogal Dorn gets a floor!

The article explicitly states they cannot be built closed:

"the endlessly fiddly doors that spawned a thousand arguments about vehicle footprints are now fastened firmly in their open position."

"This closed door upgrade set is cast in Forge World resin..."

Its crazy to remove the stormbolter. It has been a genuine gamechanger as far as I have been playing. Countless games has been decided when you suddenly remember the drop pods bolter to shoot down the last guys holding an objective.

Anyway, slightly bigger drop pods is what you call "dreadnought drop pods" in horus heresy, so great to get those in plastic

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

The book, or the Drop Pod?

The book. The included missions require building your army in waves, rather than as a single force. I was immediately turned off by that.

Because there are Spiky models on the Emperor's side.... just step over here... around this blind corner...

Scourged sense tingling...

Are these slightly bigger? I dont see mention of size in the description.

I do wonder if they plan to continue selling the current drop pod for HH though, given that the LI drop pods match the current design and not the new one.

chaos0xomega wrote:
I do wonder if they plan to continue selling the current drop pod for HH though, given that the LI drop pods match the current design and not the new one.

Be weird if drop pods get stormbolters when everybody else has combi-bolters.

 NAVARRO wrote:
For sure you can have a closed version right?

Nope. Article clearly states they are always open:

the endlessly fiddly doors that spawned a thousand arguments about vehicle footprints are now fastened firmly in their open position.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Are these slightly bigger? I dont see mention of size in the description.

I do wonder if they plan to continue selling the current drop pod for HH though, given that the LI drop pods match the current design and not the new one.

I supposed they are slightly bigger, but the picture on War Com main page (not in the article) have a picture of primaris standing by a pod, and it looks to be more or less the same size as the old one. If so its weird.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Quick question, who really wanted a new drop pod model?

I'd bet the old drop pod mold is FUBARed (from being old) and it's too iconic to move to legends, so they had to make a new mold and primaris-ify it.

How come in this day and age of sprue design they cant come up with a system that allows for opened and closed doors?

I really like the idea of drop pods but my interest went from 80% to 0% on this one.

If it weren't for GWs prices a pack of these would probably make some nice terrain pieces.

My issue is this...

Since you cannot deploy models on top of other models, you will have to deploy your troops outside of the droppod's flower petal footprint.

Basing my knowledge on the original (which did not include modular debris), this was a large area... which can be very constricting in today's smaller, more terrain heavy boards.

As much as I would love to rebuild some classic BLOOD RAVEN STEEL REIN! Droppod nonsense - I don't see how it will be viable.

But of course, I could be wrong... again.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
My issue is this...

Since you cannot deploy models on top of other models, you will have to deploy your troops outside of the droppod's flower petal footprint.

Basing my knowledge on the original (which did not include modular debris), this was a large area... which can be very constricting in today's smaller, more terrain heavy boards.

As much as I would love to rebuild some classic BLOOD RAVEN STEEL REIN! Droppod nonsense - I don't see how it will be viable.

But of course, I could be wrong... again.

Drop pods have long been a source of rules debates. We’ll see how they do this round.

I always felt it was best when the doors were ignored altogether, but that was HIWPI, not necessary RAW.

I suspect a closed door option STL will appear within hours of the sprue pics getting into the wild. Assuming there's not some pegs that need to be cut off that would let you pose the doors in other orientations for diorama purposes.

I'm a little surprised that the LI drop pods have working doors but these don't, wonder what bit of the scaling up process didn't work.

But I can certainly see the logic, I would have thought that drop pods need to be pretty cheap (money wise) as they're something you generally might want a couple of but they're pretty boring units on the battlefield.

Cheap and easy definitely seems the way to do them.

It looks like the doors aren't as tall, so the resulting footprint may not be as large as it used to be. That said, with as many L-shaped ruins as the tournament scene likes, these will still have a hard time finding a landing zone. Personally, I prefer a more open space for my games.

 NAVARRO wrote:
How come in this day and age of sprue design they cant come up with a system that allows for opened and closed doors?

I really like the idea of drop pods but my interest went from 80% to 0% on this one.

They can - as seen by the current kit. Seems they opted to eliminate the option for gameplay reasons more than anything.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
If it weren't for GWs prices a pack of these would probably make some nice terrain pieces.

Drop pods are functually terrain pieces from the start, despite the moving doors and turret inside.

After my first drop pod in the 5th ed space marine spearhead (along with the metal thunderfire) this new kit is making me actually excited to build a drop pod. It's like the shift from the metal to plastic land raider crusader.

That spearhead box also came with the first vanguard veteran models and thunderfire cannon as well, maybe contenders for marines 10.5 release?

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
If it weren't for GWs prices a pack of these would probably make some nice terrain pieces.

Drop pods are functually terrain pieces from the start, despite the moving doors and turret inside.

After my first drop pod in the 5th ed space marine spearhead (along with the metal thunderfire) this new kit is making me actually excited to build a drop pod. It's like the shift from the metal to plastic land raider crusader.

That spearhead box also came with the first vanguard veteran models and thunderfire cannon as well, maybe contenders for marines 10.5 release?

Wait. There's a new 'marine codex coming soon? I just thought they were going to finish the Wolves, Sallys, and Shorties (GKs).

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Wait. There's a new 'marine codex coming soon? I just thought they were going to finish the Wolves, Sallys, and Shorties (GKs).

The current Road Map also shows Black Templars, there was a hint image in the LVO presentation that showed Tor Garadon/Imperial Fists, and rumors are saying something for all 4 remaining Loyalist First Founding.

No codex rumors, just a seeming wave of models like the brutalis dread and missile dudes last edition. Things like assault terminators are still missing as well.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 MajorWesJanson wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
If it weren't for GWs prices a pack of these would probably make some nice terrain pieces.

Drop pods are functually terrain pieces from the start, despite the moving doors and turret inside.

After my first drop pod in the 5th ed space marine spearhead (along with the metal thunderfire) this new kit is making me actually excited to build a drop pod. It's like the shift from the metal to plastic land raider crusader.

That spearhead box also came with the first vanguard veteran models and thunderfire cannon as well, maybe contenders for marines 10.5 release?

Wait. There's a new 'marine codex coming soon? I just thought they were going to finish the Wolves, Sallys, and Shorties (GKs).

Rumor is it’s a new marine codex, not Salamander specific, unless we are going back to supplements like 8th. I’d still expect a new marine book though and watch them drop the predators etc from this one.

I'm kinda glad I didn't buy some new Space Marines-if there's the chance of a new book coming out soon.

I'll just set my candle up in the window and wait patiently for my Imperial Knights codex.... yep...
Just sit here and wait....

The drop pod was of a piece with many SM releases around then (09-12/14) when GW were desperately trying to come up with new releases for Space Marines (See the Space Wolf Cavalry and Centurions as the clear exemplars of GW having run out of good ideas) inline with their new "new release" focus that eventually led to the utter madness of the Primaris redo of the whole line leading to lots of good concepts being replaced by roughly equivalent but terrible ones and the non-terrible replacements all being worse from an aesthetic and hobby perspective.

Drop pods were a big deal in the art and background (Coming to life even more with the Dawn of War games both ingame and in the opening cinematic) and so GW knew making a kit would sell well, even only for hobby purposes. They were a missing and iconic Space Marine vehicle small enough to produce in plastic. The bonus was FW had already done a lot of the hard work in translating them design-wise to 28mm and so it was only the issue of breaking them up for a sprue.

But it was hard to just make them just a decorative marker for a deep strike so they got a datasheet of their own making them true vehicles, albeit stationary ones. (Like Hammerfall bunkers but beloved. Seriously, not even competitive players who could benefit from their use when they are meta ever use them!)
This created an awkward situation where their primary role was one suited more to a piece of deployable terrain marker than a true model or datasheet asset. As can be seen by GW's own insistence that it was onerous to have them function as LoS terrain apparently due to disputes. Thus the new version with perma-open doors and no weapons defacto making it a piece of terrain if not truly making it one made from Chinese plastic. Of course the Deathstorm drop pods require them to be treated as datasheet assets but it seems they are gone now to remove the issue in trying to make them terrain markers.


What worries me is how awkward and annoying this new version will be as well as GW potentially pushing it (2 in a box) meaning the spectre of things going one step further and it being replaced, at least at tournaments with a floppy template. The constant push to US-style FLGS and tournament 40k through social media to even young kids playing with friends living near them in Western Europe worries me that eventually we may reach the logical conclusion first reached by Warmachine (Which as a US-based game went straight for competitive FLGS style and effectively went through a lot of the things we see today since GW invite the ITC guys to work for them) and do away with terrain altogether and use flat templates for everything from mountains to lakes. Already objective markers have been replaced with floppy gaudy templates at less and less competitive levels.

Hopefully they just do away with the drop pod as a concept in the game if things get to that, the true model is already dead with this thing in it's place.

Uhh.. I used Drop Pods way before Centurions and Space Wolves Wolf Cav were a thing.

They used to be hyper competitive back in 5th... I still have nightmares about Space Wolf Rune Priests stepping out of them and erasing my Imperial Guard Armoured Company with Jaws of the World Wolf.

It feels wrong to be excited about modular debris but... I am.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Uhh.. I used Drop Pods way before Centurions and Space Wolves Wolf Cav were a thing.

They used to be hyper competitive back in 5th... I still have nightmares about Space Wolf Rune Priests stepping out of them and erasing my Imperial Guard Armoured Company with Jaws of the World Wolf.

Drop pod kit was 2008, thundercav was 2010, both in 5th ed, so not that much of a gap. 2013ish for centurions and 6th ed launch.

Dudeface wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Uhh.. I used Drop Pods way before Centurions and Space Wolves Wolf Cav were a thing.

They used to be hyper competitive back in 5th... I still have nightmares about Space Wolf Rune Priests stepping out of them and erasing my Imperial Guard Armoured Company with Jaws of the World Wolf.

Drop pod kit was 2008, thundercav was 2010, both in 5th ed, so not that much of a gap. 2013ish for centurions and 6th ed launch.

Huh. I guess I just don't remember them being used much. Thanks for the information. As they used to say, "Knowing is half the battle."

The change from resin to plastic drop pod was not a straight conversion to plastic like the trygon and valkyrie, the fw drop pod was a 5 man version, while the plastic made it so 10 marines could logically fit, plus a gun option.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

Dudeface wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Uhh.. I used Drop Pods way before Centurions and Space Wolves Wolf Cav were a thing.

They used to be hyper competitive back in 5th... I still have nightmares about Space Wolf Rune Priests stepping out of them and erasing my Imperial Guard Armoured Company with Jaws of the World Wolf.

Drop pod kit was 2008, thundercav was 2010, both in 5th ed, so not that much of a gap. 2013ish for centurions and 6th ed launch.

Huh. I guess I just don't remember them being used much. Thanks for the information. As they used to say, "Knowing is half the battle."

Rules for"Drop pods" actually existed long before the model. Back in 3rd edition you could have a "Drop Pod Assault" force. The "drop pod" was just the 5-inch blast marker you set troops under. I want to say it limited you to Terminators, Dreadnoughts, Scouts, and Speeders.