New Drop Pod

[Joe]

I quite like the thought process behind adding terrain to the pod itself - although the doors being locked open isn't ideal, and the model itself isn't a significant upgrade or downgrade on the original.

 

I imagine the old drop pod SKU will get shuffled off to Heresy moving forward. That or they'll refresh the pods in that range at some stage, bringing the shield generator drop pod from 8mm into 28mm.

[Sky Potato]

I don’t dislike the new ones, in all honesty.

 

I’d definitely kick myself if I had a mish-mash of different variants for a company of marines, but I’m not against using these new ones for a different chapter.

 

As others have mentioned, I’d be curious to see what they do with the Drop Pod based kits like the Deathstorm, Kharybdis Assault Claw and the Anvillus Dreadclaw - which are Forge World resin kits that use the plastic Drop Pod as the base - both kits currently out of stock on the GW website, by the way.

 

I’m also very curious how the new kit will align with Heresy rules, as the drop pod rules there specify the weapons currently included in the kit.

[INKS]

the argument being put forth to me is that the old one you could easily see though (people still think you can easily see through this one as well, to which I think you can hardly see... ) and so people would model it with the doors closed to gain advantage....

 

if your opponent is trying to shoot through the legs of your models I don't know what to say to that or through a drop pod...

[Sky Potato]

11 minutes ago, Joe said:

I imagine the old drop pod SKU will get shuffled off to Heresy moving forward. That or they'll refresh the pods in that range at some stage, bringing the shield generator drop pod from 8mm into 28mm.

The easiest option for Heresy rules plus the FW models I just mentioned. Re-box the old (current) drop pod to be Heresy specific, like they’ve done with the Deimos Rhino and Land Raider Proteus.

 

 

[Valkyrion]

I don't think folk dislike the model, it looks cool enough. Folk are rightly questioning the need and application though.  I say 'rightly' as though GW care or even acknowledge the opinion their customers, but it is fair debate. 

 

I think maybe the epic ones would have looked better coming like this, maybe on a base? 6-10 of these spread out over the battlefield generating cover - nicely cinematic, thematic and useful. If this kit is ETB then it'll be hilarious if the epic drop pod has more pieces than this one though! 

[DemonGSides]

21 minutes ago, FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants said:

Looks like I'm completely alone here, but I like them.

 

I do appreciate the small stylistic upgrades (And not having to build the harnesses again), and I don't mind the removal of a gun (It was stupid to begin with and more times than not was blocked by the Drop Pod itself from being able to target something if you were using literal LOS for its weaponry), but I do not like the lack of open or closed.

I also have two, so I'm not really looking for more.  Boards are too small for the Drop Pod anymore, which is sad in a way.  But I also don't think the limit of 10 units is going away, so their practical use in how the game operates (wrt leaders) makes them a shakey prospect.

I did have an idea to do like a Company Heroes squad, which is 5 guys, and then a 3 man eliminator with a Librarian attached, and then the Loan Ops Phobos LT, but I'm not sure what the point would be?  Just fun?  Maybe if you then had a hellblaster squad dropping out with them it might make sense? I don't know.  Regular intercessors pouring out of these seem meh compared to just running up or pouring out of a LR/Repulsor.

Hopefully this is just the first FB vehicle to being updated; imagine if they gave Rhino's a new datasheet that made them work with Primaris.  Be still my heart.

[phandaal]

15 minutes ago, INKS said:

as well, to which I think you can hardly see... ) and so people would model it with the doors closed to gain advantage

 

Them: model it closed to gain an advantage.

 

Me: model it closed because I am too lazy to paint the inside.

[Sothalor]

31 minutes ago, Sky Potato said:

The easiest option for Heresy rules plus the FW models I just mentioned. Re-box the old (current) drop pod to be Heresy specific, like they’ve done with the Deimos Rhino and Land Raider Proteus.

 

 

 

Seems optimistic to me to believe that the old kit is being retained for Heresy. It seems more likely that they'd just Legends the kits that used parts from the old model. 

[Bouargh]

2 drop pods sold in a single box... Hum I wonder if it means that the vehicule will shift from transport to dedicated transport keywords. Otherwise fielding 3 of these will be an investment oddball...

Edited yesterday at 05:49 AM by Bouargh
Typos

[Joe]

Just now, Sothalor said:

 

Seems optimistic to me to believe that the old kit is being retained for Heresy. It seems more likely that they'd just Legends the kits that used parts from the old model. 

 

Isn't a practical (nor likely) outcome - as the drop pod;

 

1. there is no precedence for sending a plastic kit to Legacies in the system
2. is a major component of listbuilding in the system, be it as the standard drop pod or other kits

 

As previously mentioned, they recently produced new CADs for drop pods in 8mm, which included a new variant (shield generator drop pod). They'll either re-release the current one with a new sprue to cover that, or just replace the drop pod with a new kit outright (and ancillary kits building off of that).

 

Curious to see how this factors in to the teased Dreadclaw from Nachmund Gauntlet.

[Nephaston]

5 minutes ago, Sothalor said:

 

Seems optimistic to me to believe that the old kit is being retained for Heresy. It seems more likely that they'd just Legends the kits that used parts from the old model. 

 

They could also come out of left field with a deimos pattern drop pod for heresy.

 

Yes, I might be overdosing on hopium. No, I do not need an intervention.

[LemartesTheLost]

The fact we lost the storm bolter and the doors must stay open ruined it for me.

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

Vintage Drop Pods have been sold out in a matter of hours from one of Germany´s online retailers. I will probably order two SM Predators today as these are still available and are next in line of getting on the chopping block.

[Maschinenpriester]

Since I dont play SM i can't be too saddened about it. But having built and painted one I can say that it was a tricky kit to build and paint with movable doors. But I savoured the challenge. I can imagine that painters with less experience will have some challenges with it. Whichbis probably why it got simplyfied.

I do like doors that can be opened .

This a downgrade in my opion. If you have terrain on the table it will wobble.

The old one you can slam in a slope and the doors adjust to the uneven floor. It is just more atmospheric.

Edited Monday at 05:23 PM by Maschinenpriester

[jaxom]

It still vexes me that 8th edition forward, when vehicles and monsters became basically the same, has not seen vehicle kits with bases become default. Would completely solve the footprint issue.

 

Otherwise, I don’t see how this pod is any different from the old one in any way that matters to me. I don’t care about losing a single stormbolter and it never made sense to model them with doors closed when it’s supposed to take a full servitor crew to recover one post-impact. Sucks to transport but so does a lot of the model range; nothing new there.

[Orange Knight]

The model is being updated and evidently changed, so we might get lucky and see some great rules.

 

Imagine if this thing is quite regimented in use, but only costs 35 points. I would be happy to pay that to deploy a unit of Hellblasters in the enemy lines, for example.

 

I think that we need to see the rules before we pass judgement.

[HeadlessCross]

I know there's complaints about the doors being open, but at the same time I feel like they should be deployed with open doors to begin with. It isn't like they're other dedicated transports where you go in and out. It's just a giant machine that drops you off and that's it. 

[Tastyfish]

I can see the appeal of trying to make them as cheap as possible (money wise), given they are not the most exciting unit. Staying the same price but being two to a box would make them pretty tempting to pick up, especially if they end up dedicated transports.

 

As for transportation in the real world too, I wonder if you would have the flat base of the doors being easily to separate from the vertical elements. So you could stack a bunch of bases on top of each other and then just slot in the fairly small hull pieces on top to make them easy to cart around.

 

 

[Valkyrion]

Modelling open vs closed could've leant into cool narrative and competitive rules.

e.g 'Doors Closed' 5/6 chance your unit dies, but it lands on an opponent dealing whatever damage (must be excessive) - orbital space bullets

or 'Doors Open', the disembarking unit is as nature intended but gains +1OC, or Line, or +VP - all your base are belong to us

 

[Wispy]

A next generation drop pod from Crawl would have been preferable to this. A new kit with hull embedded weapons to solve the "safety hazard stormbolter" problem, with an alternative kit build for style Deathstorm style to deep strike stationary weapon platforms. 

 

I'd rather have this than no drop pod at all (as Primaris troops had no option to for many years of their existence) but this is just giving up on the drop pod as a vehicle kit and and turning it into scenery. 

Edited Monday at 07:23 PM by Wispy

[Marshal Reinhard]

So... it has modular tactical rocks?

[Valkyrion]

9 minutes ago, Marshal Reinhard said:

So... it has modular tactical rocks?

 April 14th, brother, so it is no joke. 

[Moonstalker]

Don't care that they lost the storm bolter, a single storm bolter is basically meaningless (even more meaningless with servitor/machine spirit ballistic skill).  If I was playing a tournament I wouldn't even bother rolling it to save time on the clock.  I don't like drop pods that are closed when deployed, as they should be open when they land.  The practical considerations of transport and being able to physically place the model on the table are what are concerning.

 

I'm not worried about them reducing it to 5 models per pod, when it's clearly modeled with harnesses for 10.  It wouldn't be the first time that the rules team and modeling teams didn't talk to each other, so I am sure it's still possible that they'll mess it up.  But in all likelihood they'll still transport 10, which will continue to be awkward for 10 guys + a leader.

 

Hopefully the price is reasonable.  If it's 100-120 for a box of 2 of them, then I dunno what the point of putting 2 in a box is.  But if you get 2 pods for 60-something, that's quite reasonable.  Likewise, points cost needs to be low for something that's one-and-done.

 

Rules-wise, I wonder if they will do something interesting like give it the equivalent of infiltrate.  In the past, drop pods allowed you to deep strike half of them on turn 1 automatically, where other units had to wait until turn 2+ to come in from reserves and needed a roll to do so.  To maintain that kind of early mass deployment, would they get a kind of turn zero deep strike via infiltrate?  That might prevent the pods from being screened out by early enemy movement.

[jaxom]

33 minutes ago, Wispy said:

this is just giving up on the drop pod as a vehicle kit and and turning it into scenery. 

 

Do you mean a Fortification? That's what all the other terrain pieces with T, W, and Sv are called. It's what a Drop Pod really is when one considers it has no movement value. The only difference is it's not deployed before the game starts.

[Corswain]

Fixed doors is disappoitning from a modelling standard but it doesn't look like it would be difficult to do myself.

I might just pick up a couple of the old ones for scenery pieces before they go away. I love a crashed drop pod.