Concerning the space marine drop pod rules, I got in touch with Simon Tull, who organises Carnage Events (link) and who has to be one of the firmest people I've ever met when it comes to rulings.We had a brief discussion on MSN regarding the drop pod rules concerning them being open or closed until he found the Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament FAQ which included a large passage on drop pods. Much to my surprise the Games Workshop official ruling on drop pods is very lax and quite abuseable if you ask me.
Question 44) Drop pod footprint. A standard size would be nice and do they block LOS when they land, especially if you keep some petal doors up and some down?
The new Games Workshop drop pod model will be used for this. Use true line of sight for targeting purposes once the drop pod has descended.
It is perfectly reasonable to keep some of the petal doors up as the occupants receive up to date information on the situation on the ground as they descend, thus enabling them to deploy to their maximum advantage.
Please note that if the petals are up or down, this must be represented on the model.
If the petals are up, the drop pod is still open topped and the drop pod’s weapon cannot shoot as the petals block line of sight from the weapon. If you are using home drop pod, this last point still applies.
Having read this, I'm tempted to seal the whole thing shut.
I feel that the whole thing with the petals being open or closed is just too abusable. It should be all or nothing. Otherwise you can just seal up half of the drop pod and open 2 of the petals for the storm bolter to get a good field of fire while hiding units behind the drop pod.
Now as a tournament player I liked the idea of sealing up my drop pods to block line of sight, so long as I sacrificed the storm bolter firing. Alternatively you can open the drop pod up and the storm bolter has freedom to fire, although your units hiding behind the drop pod are more likely to get spotted.
I'm not low enough to stoop to have some petals open and other closed. So it's back to the choice of all open or all closed for me.
7 comments:
June 13, 2009 at 4:17 PM
I'm trying to figure out how anybody gets out of a section whose petals are closed -- Model them open. They should be ruled as being open anyway, otherwise the passengers; the whole reason for the pod being there have no way out. I would like to see a hefty cover save (like 3+). I'm sure that a clever person could even arrange the pod so that the interior bits block LOS>
June 13, 2009 at 4:22 PM
How do the Marines / Wolfs get out of the Pod if the doors are shut? Or are they so polite that they turn around and press the "Close" button before they charge out to war, as there might be a draft otherwise?
I think that the Space Wolf drop pods look awesome and I really think that your Wolfs should be storming out of them with the doors kicked down in excitement for the upcoming battle. Die with your wounds on the fore. Space Wolfs are not sneaky cowards after all.
Besides, if one wins by rule trickery the opponent feels cheated and doesn't feel properly beaten. If beaten fair and square, they have to bow down to your superior tactical skillz.
Now stop reading rules and paint / convert more Space Wolfs, I await more pictures :)
June 13, 2009 at 4:40 PM
True line of sight has screwed with the way things have been done for years. Do all the doors on your Rhinos open? How about your Land Raiders? The line of sight issue is a sticky one, but I don't think saying the passengers can't disembark if the doors are glued shut is a very reasonable statement. I'm an okay player, and a so-so modeler. Should I not have the option of using transports since I don't have the ability to model them with working doors? What happens if someone models the stormbolter on the outside of a drop pod? Can it fire then? Keep it simple, keep it fun. Don't let questions like this keep your gaming group up at night.
June 26, 2009 at 10:33 AM
The rules for the drop pod in Codex SM 5th ed. clearly states that: "Once the Droppod has landed, the hatches are blown..." Furthermore the drop pod counts as open-topped afterwards.
February 16, 2010 at 9:11 PM
I like True Line of Sight and have used a laser for years to prove that I have LoS to a target. However in the case of a DP I think that they should 'block' LoS, many of us use the older resin DP that are solid, some have home made DP's that block Los and make it impossible for a laser to prove LoS and lastly with the weapons mounted in a DP it becomes a very iffy thing to prove LoS or from the 'models' point of view 'make the shot'.
GW should have said DP's open or closed drop LoS weapons can shoot out of them (that's what they were designed for) but drawing LoS through them and firing through them is a no-go.
Thanks.
March 6, 2010 at 9:31 PM
I had a hell of a time just getting my PDs together properly. As i remember though, you should be able to paint the inside and the outside separately then put the whole thing together.
btw. Any chance of getting a PD Tactics done? just curious.
March 8, 2010 at 3:13 AM
Do you mean DPs, not PDs?
I haven't felt the need for Drop Podding many units at the moment.
Drop Pod tactics are pretty straight forward. You want to go 2nd and hope that your opponent is daft enough to set up his whole army at the start of the game. You then assemble half of your force to deal with his tanks or troops and launch them all against one of his flanks and kill him with massed firepower.
In the following turns your reinforcement drop pods bolster your position, land on objectives or attack the other flank if in sufficient numbers.
If you end up going first with your Drop Pod army you're at a major disadvantage and need to castle somewhere (around the middle or across objectives) and use your reinforcements to bolster the defences.
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