The new drop pods ... questions

[Helias_Tancred]

Well we know they're coming out with new drop pods. They say they're about an inch taller, I'd imagine slightly wider too? They will come two to a box and they are built with doors down and open. They are also going to release their new rules when they release the new drop pod(s) kit. 

 

I have questions.

 

1. If they come two to a box does that mean GW will make them be used in pairs? No more placing a single drop pod in your list, it's gotta be 2 as a minimum?

 

2. If they come with the doors open and down does that mean the new rules will state that they cannot touch any terrain?

 

3. Will GW get a clue and make their capacity 12?

 

4. No weapons on them anymore?

 

Those were the four questions that sprung to mind when I saw GW's reveal a week or so ago. What do you guys think about this, and/or other things that could be possibilities with their new rules?

 

 

Edited April 28 by Helias_Tancred

[Tacitus]

1 hour ago, Helias_Tancred said:

Well we know they're coming out with new drop pods. They say they're about an inch taller, I'd imagine slightly wider too? They will come two to a box and they are built with doors down and open. They are also going to release their new rules when they release the new drop pod(s) kit. 

 

I have questions.

 

1. If they come two to a box does that mean GW will make them be used in pairs? No more placing a single drop pod in your list, it's gotta be 2 as a minimum?

 

2. If they come with the doors open and down does that mean the new rules will state that they cannot touch any terrain?

 

3. Will GW get a clue and make their capacity 12?

 

4. No weapons on them anymore?

 

Those were the four questions that sprung to mind when I saw GW's reveal a week or so ago. What do you guys think about this, and/or other things that could be possibilities with their new rules?

 

 

1) I'd bet the rules strongly encourage you to use groups of two i.e. Half can come in automatically on turn 1, the rest roll like normal.  The old Drop Pod Assault rule returned.  Or something similarly engineered for pairing.

 

2) Hard to say.  On the one hand I find it hard to believe GW would be stupid enough to make Drop Pods unplayable because of terrain.  On the other hand, Hammerfall Bunkers.

 

3) this one is 6:5 and pick 'em.  Could easily go either way.  They should go to 12, but GW isn't known for that kind of thinking.

 

4) They'll keep at least the two weapons they had - People will still likely be able to use the old ones because GW doesn't want to make it obvious they want you to churn models.  Best guess is they keep the original two, and either the sculpt is just THAT much better, or it comes with an obvious upgrade choice only in the new box that makes the stationary pod more of a threat to offset the Stationary Part. 

 

Edit to Add:  My guess 

A) The sculpt is so much better people buy them on Pre-Order week just for the sculpt and assuming they'll have roughly the same rules, just making the FAQ stuff about the doors built into the model+Datasheet.

B) The sculpt is not WAY better (Roughly the same or possibly even worse) and people wait until they see the rules before they buy. 

Edited April 28 by Tacitus

[DemonGSides]

8 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

Well we know they're coming out with new drop pods. They say they're about an inch taller, I'd imagine slightly wider too? They will come two to a box and they are built with doors down and open. They are also going to release their new rules when they release the new drop pod(s) kit. 

 

I have questions.

 

1. If they come two to a box does that mean GW will make them be used in pairs? No more placing a single drop pod in your list, it's gotta be 2 as a minimum?

 

We have no idea.  They don't mind people taking 5 Intercessors or 5 Hellblasters, so that's technically only using half a box, so I don't think it's impossible that they stay as singular things.

 

8 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

2. If they come with the doors open and down does that mean the new rules will state that they cannot touch any terrain?

 

There's no way to know.  PRobably can't intersect terrain but I'd imagine butting right up against it is fine; vehicle can touch terrain currently and there's only downside, but since the drop pod doesn't have weapons, the downside is just targetability, which I strongly doubt people are going to bother targetting this thing.

 

8 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

3. Will GW get a clue and make their capacity 12?

 

I"m going to guess no as well.  Doesn't seem to be a major modification to the size so therefore adding two more seats into it, even if it's all just abstraction, seems unlikely.  I bet they stay as 10, I'll happy if they go to 11, over the moon if they go to 12.

 

8 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

4. No weapons on them anymore?

 

Explicitly stated that they removed the weapons from these.  Which makes sway more sense than where they had them previously.  Would've been cooler if there were gun ports at the top and they had guns in the style of the hammerfall bunker where they're just jutting out the side of it.  But I also think removal is fine.

8 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

Those were the four questions that sprung to mind when I saw GW's reveal a week or so ago. What do you guys think about this, and/or other things that could be possibilities with their new rules?

 

GW is very against Deep Striking into melee unless you go through a bunch of hoops, so I think most of what I want out of Iron Rain is never going to happen; the drop pods being used offensively like living bombs that disgorge mutated human nightmares that cleave through the enemy.  That's never going to happen on the tabletop, so I think as long as they aren't just an extra anchor to deal with, I'm happy

[Tacitus]

8 hours ago, DemonGSides said:

 

 

GW is very against Deep Striking into melee unless you go through a bunch of hoops, so I think most of what I want out of Iron Rain is never going to happen; the drop pods being used offensively like living bombs that disgorge mutated human nightmares that cleave through the enemy.  That's never going to happen on the tabletop, so I think as long as they aren't just an extra anchor to deal with, I'm happy

Eh.  They're mostly against it.  That said, they do like to hand it out rarely like with the Sanguinor.  But that's part of why they make it so hard otherwise - to preserve that wow factor.

[DemonGSides]

14 hours ago, Tacitus said:

Eh.  They're mostly against it.  That said, they do like to hand it out rarely like with the Sanguinor.  But that's part of why they make it so hard otherwise - to preserve that wow factor.

 

14 hours ago, Tacitus said:

GW is very against Deep Striking into melee unless you go through a bunch of hoops

 

[Karhedron]

22 hours ago, DemonGSides said:

GW is very against Deep Striking into melee unless you go through a bunch of hoops

 

It makes sense I guess. Deep Striking and shooting a target does not disrupt it too much assuming it survives. But charging into melee then ties the unit and prevents it shooting next turn at the very least. If Drop Pods make charging too easy, you will see people spamming them with cheap Intercessors just to gum up the enemy lines, even if they don't expect to realistically do much damage.

 

Then you have armies like Blood Angels who would be all kinds of broken if they had a cheap and effective way to hurl multiple squads of Assault Intercessors into the enemy Turn 1.

[Tacitus]

2 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

It makes sense I guess. Deep Striking and shooting a target does not disrupt it too much assuming it survives. But charging into melee then ties the unit and prevents it shooting next turn at the very least. If Drop Pods make charging too easy, you will see people spamming them with cheap Intercessors just to gum up the enemy lines, even if they don't expect to realistically do much damage.

 

Then you have armies like Blood Angels who would be all kinds of broken if they had a cheap and effective way to hurl multiple squads of Assault Intercessors into the enemy Turn 1.

Ironically its much much easier to fall back and shoot than Deep Strike and Charge. 

[Deafbok]

Something just sprung to mind - triggered by the mention of possibly having a new weapon type to push the old kits out:

 

What if drop pods are given some kind of aura rule? Think of the Space Marine games where you pick up weapons, purity seals, etc, then extrapolate that to some kind of hit/wound/save bonus for models around the pod. Possible option?

[Happy-inquisitor]

Sort of prompted by this discussion - but for those playing on various tournament rules layouts are you actually able to use the current drop-pods?

 

My local store has gone really heavy on terrain (its the same area coverage as the GW maps but everything is fully built up so basically no areas of walls under 2") and its basically impossible to use a drop pod with the doors open like the Emperor intended. I don't know how common that would be elsewhere.