Drop pods and LOS

[Archenemy]

Hi, I'm a bit of a lurker around here, hopefully I'll be a bit more sociable now I'm assembling my first 40k army and I'm hoping I can get a few answers about Drop Pods before I assemble them. Never having actually played 40k and not being in an area where anyone plays I have no experience or other 40k players to confer with.

 

Being a slow painter I was hoping to take a few shortcuts and glue 2 of my 3 Drop Pods permamently shut to cut down on painting the interiors, do the doors of the Pods block LOS when in the open position on the ground or is it negligable in reguards to LOS. I guess I should also ask wether a Pod totally blocks LOS when open or can you shoot through an open one?

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Isiah]

This has been debated here at length before with no real conclusion. I think it's best discussed with an opponent before the game starts as to how (your) pods will work whichever way the doors are actually fixed.

 

All I'll say is as per the fluff – doors are blown off to allow the embarked unit out. There is no mention of them being closed again. One could assume that a pod sits there with its doors open from the point of disembarkation onwards – meaning possible LOS through the pod. However, there is no specific ruling this way.

 

Doors glued shut thus presents a problem as no True Line of Sight is possible.

 

Cheers

I

[krewl]

Also note the model has a storm bolter on the inside... with door glued shut they would have a hard time shooting anything.. (Doors beeing AV12 and all).

I take it the model is intended to open up, and act as cover save generator, not per se as a los blocker.

 

As I am currently cutting 3 pods from their sprue I can agree on the sentiment though, those safety bars that hold the marines in place are a POS to cut lose without breaking something OR cutting your finger... I have a thumb criss crossed with straight lines atm... and I'm not done yet.

[Archenemy]

Thanks for the replies, guess I'll just make them open up to be on the safe side.

[Bobman]

I have a forge world pod which is glued shut as my skills are weak. I don't get that many arguments after I explain why it is glued shut but I am looking at try again just to remove the problem.

[Spacefrisian]

I have Forgeworld as well, but my doors can open. If you dont want to paint much just stick with a metal colour and maybe some highlights. It doesn't take that much time.

 

BTW: its quite funny that mine always block LOS as they are of Forgeworld.

[Commander Sasha]

Before the GW model was released, which was only fairly recently, the majority of droppods you'd see on the table were homemade, with the AdMech taking a lot of influence from Heinz and Pringles..!

 

Most scratchbuilt and cardboard cut-out pods have closed doors, so I would clear it with your opponent, but expect closed to be acceptable.

Until GW adds an FAQ to the rulebook that we are only allowed to use their miniatures, and to tell us how to build them (and I bet JJ dreams of this every night!), anything that is not specified should allow a certain amount of wiggle room.

 

I can't speak for tournaments, though.

[Agrab]

I use hand-made card-stock all of the time, and they are closed. I have never had an issue with it, and nobody seems to mind. We treat those as closed, and my other as open WHEN OPENED (sometimes doors are closed for balance)

[Ming]

Pod doors actually pose another problem of sorts -

 

When the pod comes down, according to the rules, it scatters, but is then corrected to no drop on any other models/units, just "close to them". Does the pod have to drop far enough away from a unit or dangerous/impassable terrain for its doors to actually open?

 

We seem to all agree here that the immediate dismount of the unit inside is "within 2 inches of the hull", so a Pod might have to land 3-inches from an adjacent opject for that to occur. After that, the unit can only shoot or run.

 

What happens if you have an opponent ("we'd never do this ourselves"...) who's pod doors pop down onto your unit? Move your units to be on top of the doors before the opponent dismounts? Regardless, he is not supposed to have a model within an inch of yours...

[Agrab]

Pod doors actually pose another problem of sorts -

 

When the pod comes down, according to the rules, it scatters, but is then corrected to no drop on any other models/units, just "close to them". Does the pod have to drop far enough away from a unit or dangerous/impassable terrain for its doors to actually open?

 

We seem to all agree here that the immediate dismount of the unit inside is "within 2 inches of the hull", so a Pod might have to land 3-inches from an adjacent opject for that to occur. After that, the unit can only shoot or run.

 

What happens if you have an opponent ("we'd never do this ourselves"...) who's pod doors pop down onto your unit? Move your units to be on top of the doors before the opponent dismounts? Regardless, he is not supposed to have a model within an inch of yours...

 

The pod scatters to one inch away from the unit, if it falls in a circle, and the models inside can not get out, then they mishap.

as for being far enough to open the doors, they do not count as part of the model (the hull) so they can, in theory, overlap with the enemy

[ShinyRhino]

Pod doors actually pose another problem of sorts -

 

When the pod comes down, according to the rules, it scatters, but is then corrected to no drop on any other models/units, just "close to them". Does the pod have to drop far enough away from a unit or dangerous/impassable terrain for its doors to actually open?

 

We seem to all agree here that the immediate dismount of the unit inside is "within 2 inches of the hull", so a Pod might have to land 3-inches from an adjacent opject for that to occur. After that, the unit can only shoot or run.

 

What happens if you have an opponent ("we'd never do this ourselves"...) who's pod doors pop down onto your unit? Move your units to be on top of the doors before the opponent dismounts? Regardless, he is not supposed to have a model within an inch of yours...

 

The pod scatters to one inch away from the unit, if it falls in a circle, and the models inside can not get out, then they mishap.

as for being far enough to open the doors, they do not count as part of the model (the hull) so they can, in theory, overlap with the enemy

 

Actually, I think the unit would be destroyed as it cannot diembark, but the pod would not mishap. Of course, you'd have to scatter into a perfect circle of the enemy for this to even be remotely possible. It'd be like winning the lotto...twice.

 

As far as doors dropping over a squad, why not just leave those doors shut, and only open the ones that won't overlap the enemy? It's a good middle ground. Or, leave the doors that would overlap up until the unitm oves away, but count them as open.

[Agrab]

Pod doors actually pose another problem of sorts -

 

When the pod comes down, according to the rules, it scatters, but is then corrected to no drop on any other models/units, just "close to them". Does the pod have to drop far enough away from a unit or dangerous/impassable terrain for its doors to actually open?

 

We seem to all agree here that the immediate dismount of the unit inside is "within 2 inches of the hull", so a Pod might have to land 3-inches from an adjacent opject for that to occur. After that, the unit can only shoot or run.

 

What happens if you have an opponent ("we'd never do this ourselves"...) who's pod doors pop down onto your unit? Move your units to be on top of the doors before the opponent dismounts? Regardless, he is not supposed to have a model within an inch of yours...

 

The pod scatters to one inch away from the unit, if it falls in a circle, and the models inside can not get out, then they mishap.

as for being far enough to open the doors, they do not count as part of the model (the hull) so they can, in theory, overlap with the enemy

 

Actually, I think the unit would be destroyed as it cannot diembark, but the pod would not mishap. Of course, you'd have to scatter into a perfect circle of the enemy for this to even be remotely possible. It'd be like winning the lotto...twice.

 

As far as doors dropping over a squad, why not just leave those doors shut, and only open the ones that won't overlap the enemy? It's a good middle ground. Or, leave the doors that would overlap up until the unitm oves away, but count them as open.

 

either way, this would be interesting

 

i usually leave them closed to make it work, and then they never open. We try not to alter models