The Anatomy of a Drop Pod

Due to the amazing amount of ignorance in the comment section of my last BOLS article, I figured I would take some time today to offer a little clarification on how drop pods work. I made a reference to how drop pods became more dangerous because of the increased amount of disembark space. Previously, a model could disembark 2" away from the hull. Now they can be within a 6" radius.  That pretty much doubles their range and greatly reduces the impact of a poor scatter roll.  Oh and by the way, I wrote that BOLS article Sunday morning, the day after 6th ed was released. It was called "First Impressions."  It is laughable to see some of the commenters complaining that I admitted that I did not have a full grasp of the new rules, mere hours after their release.

Well, my devoted cadre of BOLS comment fans couldn't help but tear me a new one. (I don't post over there very often so I bet some of them were in withdrawal. Especially Warboss Stalin since he is banned from commenting here for being a total dick!) 

Any way, you can read the comments for yourself, but I was getting accused of cheating, feigning ignorance to get an advantage, abusing kids in tournaments, and making douch-bag interpretations.

All based on the fact that I said you measure from the FIN when you disembark from a pod. It seems some of the more anxious commenters jumped the gun before fully digesting what I said. (Pointing at you Flekso!)  But others actually ignored the words I used, and inserted their own. "He meant door." Despite the fact that I clearly used the word FIN.

Well kids, lets take a look at some drop pod pictures and I will explain to you what a fin is on a pod as opposed to a door, and how the rules work for measuring and I will try to break down disembarking from a drop pod based on the new rules.

First, here are some rule book quotes:

Page 79:

"Place the first model in base contact with one of the vehicles Access Points." 

"The model can then make a normal move, but it must end it's move wholly within 6" of the access point it disembarked from."  This "normal move" is part of the disembark.

I may have described it as a 6" disembark, when actually you disembark base to base with the pod then move up to 6", but there is really no difference. 

To be thorough, I tried to see if there were any rules elsewhere that would limit this.

On page 36 it discusses Deep Striking and DS transport vehicles.  It says that deep striking units cannot move any further (In reference to what happens after they deep strike) other than to disembark from a deep striking transport vehicle. 

Since it does not elaborate, we must assume we are to use the normal disembark rules on page 79 that I just listed.

With me? 

So a Dreadnought that comes out of a pod is placed base to base with the access point, then moves up to 6" so that it's base is wholly within that 6", measured from the access point from which it disembarked.

Now we get to the meaty part. 

On a drop pod, what is considered hull? What are the access points? One dude exclaimed that "A drop pod has access points, you disembark from the access points! After calling me a cheater."

First of all. A drop pod is an open topped vehicle. 

Page 82:

Open Topped Transports.

Open-Topped vehicles do not have specific Access Points. Instead, all of the vehicle is considered to be an Access Point, regardless of any base they may have.

Translation:

You disembark from any part of the drop pod because a drop pod has NO access points, the entire pod is an access point.

Now, I could not find any information about how to handle open doors such as a Land Raider's front ramp, a Rhino's back ranp, and yes, a drop pod's five doors. But I can say that, from my experience, it is universally accepted that you do not measure from the extended door, but instead you measure to the point it occupies when closed. On drop pods, this means that you pretty much ignore the doors once they are open. But to really look at it, based on the rules I found for 6th edition, it could be argued that the open doors actually are part of the hull, and are what you measure from. I could not find word to the contrary. Perhaps you could help with this?  TO BE CLEAR, I am not advocating using the doors as your measuring point for disembark.

We can accept this as truth right?

Well what's all the hubbub bub?

 Lets look at my first picture. This is a top down view of a closed pod. It looks like a rounded pentagon. There are five little protrusions, one from each point of the pentagon, extending out about half an inch. I call these FINS for lack of a better word.  Fins are considered hull.

Here is a side view of the closed pod. As you can see, the fins make up a major portion of the hull of the vehicle.

Here is the pod now open. Ignoring the doors, what do you actually have to shoot at? Just those fins! They are pretty much the ONLY thing a drop pod has for hull.

Here is a pod with it's doors open. Again, we ignore the doors completely. Deploying from the tips of those doors would be pretty outrageous, silly and broken. Good thing that is not what I am telling you to do! It is amazing that since I did not directly point that out in the article, so many people jumped to the conclusion that I was trying to cheat.

So lets break it down.

Drop Pods are Open-Topped. I could not find any thing in the book to clearly define the issue of where to disembark from a drop pod. BUT I could find this...

The picture on the right appears on page 79 and has to deal with emergency disembark. This is only relevant for two reasons. First, it explains that a unit uses the normal rules for disembarking, then goes on to show the maximum 6" radius and all of the models within that radius.  But more importantly, it shows a model placed base to base with the tip of the dozer blade tooth, then moved normally. This is important because it shows clear precedent for what is considered hull and how to use it.

In fact, I don't believe that previously dozer blades were considered hull... interesting. Regardless, they certainly are now.

So how does this affect drop pods?

Here is a dreadnought about to disembark from a pod. Since pods are open-topped, any part of the hull is considered an access point. Roger?  (Again, we ignore the doors.) And we have clearly shown that the fin is indeed hull.

That means based on the rules for disembark, you first place the dread base to base with the fin as pictured above. Sure, you could place the dread between the fins, base to base with the pentagon side, but this is not necessary! Is this using an interpretation of the rules for advantage? If you are a glass half full sort of gamer, but look at the picture in the book... A model is using the very tooth of a dozer blade in the exact same manner. In the second picture you see that the dread has moved out 6" from the fin, just like the guardsman moving out 6" from the dozer tooth. Granted, that is a picture of emergency disembark and this is a picture of drop pod deep strike disembark, but they are essentially the same thing for purposes of this conversation.


If you are going to call me a cheater, then you have to call the guys who wrote the book and drew the diagrams cheaters too.

There are actually times when it may be more advantageous to keep the dread between the fins, like in an attempt to grab a cover save from enemy return fire without popping smoke. But the point here is that based on the rules, we have that option. But we can indeed place that dread base to base with ANY part of the HULL (Fins), because any part of the hull is considered an access point on open-topped vehicles.

The only unclear part here is do you move the dread or do you leave it base to base since the pod deep striked? I think that until we find a clear answer to this question (FAQ), we MUST play it as above.

At the very least, this article should clear up the question of what is considered hull, and where you measure from when disembarking.

Jawaballs

EDIT:
FYI I enabled comment moderation. Your comments will not post right away any more. I will need to ok them first. This is the only way I can enforce a block of a certain ass hat who cannot seem to accept the simple rules of posting on my blog. Be respectful. You are welcome to share your opinion and tell us all how you feel, but you have to adhere to the basic rules of civil interaction. Just because you can post online, it does not mean you can say whatever you damn well please. I check my email often throughout the day so you should see your comment posted within hours.  Thanks for your support!