I'm currently playing in a mixed Dark Heresy / Deathwatch game. Our valiant Throne Agents are about to enter a city held by the vile Tau xenos in order to find and eliminate some demagogues who preach against Our Lord on Terra. Basically the Throne Agents are going to find these heretics, then call in the team of Astartes, probably via Drop Pod.

So I'm wondering if anyone out there has attempted any house rules on exactly how much destruction is wrought by a drop pod landing. In Rites of Battle it says "The landings are devastating, blasting the surrounding area as if a small meteor had struck, the drop pods act as offensive weapons as well as delivery systems."

I was thinking in the realm of 1d10 +5 Impact damage within 5 meters of the landing (plus an Agility roll to stay standing), and 1d10 Impact damage within 5 to 10 meters as something that sticks to the wall.

I don't really consider a Drop Pod a dirrect offensive weapon. Sure, it would do a bunch of damage if it landed on you, but they are not that acurate. They really aren't even acurate enough to hit a medium sized building consistently.

As for actual damage, I would say if it lands on you, your dead, pretty much who ever you are. But that isn't reallyu something you can do on purpose. Take 100% GM Fiat.

As for structural and armor damage. I don't think it would a heavily armored vehicle or fortified building. Though it probably would destroy a unarmored building

However, if you have even one Devistator Marine in that drop pod he is really coing to put the hurt down once it opens.

Well, the Throne Agents have a locator beacon, so even though there are no scatter rules in Rites of Batttle the pod won't scatter. We're planning on planting the beacon on or near the target's guards, which are likely to be about a half dozen Tau power suits, like Broadsides or Crisis Suits, and a small contingent of Fire Warriors and/or Kroot. The GM said one fo the Astartes can make a Pilot Roll to try and hit something other than the locator beacon.

We're going to have to figure out things like the effect of a Drop Pod landing in a horde of Kroot. I feel like going by the fluff it should just decimate them brutally. Fire Warriors, due to their armor, might fare a little better.

And if we get it to hit something more sturdy like a Broadside, how much damage would it cause? A Drop Pod and a Broadside are both Enormous, and both have 30 wounds/ structure, but a Drop pod has 24 armor and a Broadside has 12. I guess you resolve it like ramming? That would probably be 2d10+24 to the Broadside, which I guess makes sense.

glavyin34 said:

A drop pod WILL NOT hit an area of 20-40 meters wide with a battle-cannon type damage blast (5d10+20 or whatever). It'll cause a small indention in normal ground, flatten tall shruberies about 4-8 feet around it, and crash through a small house and maybe a few floors of a multistory building; all this mainly due to its weight.

A locator beacon is short range. Is your throne agent standing less than 25 feet from that broadside? Probably not anymore… well maybe his boots are still there…

It is a vehicle, a loud roaring and streaking vehicle which is very likely to appear on Tau radar screens… Its also firing quite powerful retro thrusters and using an anti-grav system to slow its decent before it hits. So its obviously not going supersonic when it lands. That and the machine spirit actually in control of the pod which is programmed only to land the device at pre-arranged coordinates doesn't really need help piloting a course with only 1 direction (down).

Then there's landing in the middle of a dozzen power suits… never a good idea. Unless of course your GM roleplays them as retarded power suits who have no ability to do anything other than stand still and make 1 standard attack a turn and not use any of the special abilities, talents, and rules which make them increadibly deadly.

Overall, I'm just saying you probably shouldn't be trying to turn a drop pod into a dedicated weapon. Some times a cigar is just a cigar.

On the other hand when a drop pod lands in the DOW2 it pretty much destroys everything under it and scathers the squads under it.

- the Pod may not be super sonic any more but the impact (inside) is enough to kill most normal life form, it is oftne coverred that only the astartes super physique allows them so survive the impact (and that is inside the pod), which as impact dempening technologies.

- The doors are probably opened by explosive charges, a adamantine slab rushing out or downward may still force apower armoered suit out of the way..

- the strom bolters, all drop pod have 4 storm bolters, those thing usually provide cover fire fro the unloading squad…

- Usually there are decoys pod, thsoe don't have marines and have a pretty nasty missile payload in them, (a bit like a nuke you don;t want the enemy to just shoot the pod in the air havign a few decoys prevent that, there is always the unlucky shot but war is war).

your call at this point…

also it is pretty much standard tactic for any armed force (not going into heavy populated zones of course) to soften the target prior to landing troops with a very big arsenal barrage… say a few lance strike? failling that a few missile pods should send your tau into cover long enough ofr a propoer deployment.

glavyin34 said:

I agree with what has been said above. A drop pod is a vehicle not a weapon. It isn't an exploding macrocannon round. I don't think it would have very big blast radius.

If it fell on a horde (Kroot or Fire Warrior) it would kill some of them I would say reduce the horde vale by five or so. I think if the drop pod landed on a suit it would probably kill the Tau. But landing on something as large as a broadside might damage the drop pod.

In fact is my understanding that the machine spirit of the drop pod is programed not to land the drop pod right on top of enemy troops, because then the landed troops would be surrounded.

If the kill team has access to a warship in orbit, then orbital bombardment might be what you want to do.

I didn't just make up that a Drop Pod does 2d10+24 damage, that's from the ramming rules on page 167 of Rites of Battle. It also says there "If the vehcile is ramming another vehicle (or something equallty large and solid, like a plascrete wall or promethium storage tank), it also takes damage equal to the AP of the vehicle plus 1d5. For every point of damage the ramming vehicle inflicts, it also moves its target 1 meter."

So by RAW, a Drop Pod (armor 24) can "ram" a Broadside (armor 12), do probably significant damage, and not have to worry about taking damage in return (1d5+12 can't hurt a Drop Pod with Armor 24), and knock the Broadside clear.

I'm getting the feeling that no one wants to engage in the thought experiment with me of how a Drop Pod would affect a horde, which is what I'm wondering. Obviously it would do at least 2d10+24 damage by the rules, but that would only do 1 magnitude, which doesn't seem right. Maybe I'm more trying to figure out what kind of damage a horde takes from getting rammed. Has anyone tried ramming a horde?

tank shock rules from TT may be easier to handle, the horde takes little damage but must make a hard pining test ask the vehicle tramples thier position they jump asside, also adding to this the suppressing fire from the 4 mounted strombolters.

I would not go against using the drop pod against a light vehicle, especialy something as light as a flyier that usualy uses manaveur instead of brut armor to avoid dmaages. Drop pod maybe made for hard impact but I doubt they would damage a gargant or a MBT.

As for dropping into enemy, if you can't use lance or rolling artillery barrage at the very least, the drop should/must be covered by smoke grenade, smoke artillery barrage, flash bangs, etc. Giving the squad time to gain the initialive.

crisaron said:

What's TT? Is that a book?

TT is Table Top, as in the actual Table Top Warhammer 40,00 game.

It's a complicated set of circumstances you are setting up.

Firstly you'll need to get within about 12m of the target, and then the pod won't appear magically. It'll take about 30 seconds per 100 km altitude it's being launched from. That's a lot of time to be near a bunch of enemy battle suits. Especially when transmitting a powerful signal, them trying to destroy your beacon is real possibility.

When it comes down onboard cogitators will bring it down on target, the Marines themselves aren't piloting it. These cogitators will automatically stop it landing on anything big and heavy enough to damage it. even if youve desigated a target that isn't safe or stops becomes unsafe when it hits.

In the TT it'll not land on troops or vehicles at all but that's partially because of the generic deep strike rules. I wouldn't have thought it would have be specifically avoiding troops as they wouldn't harm it, but then it might be set to avoid landing on troops so as not squash freindlies, including marines landed from earlier pods, but if you want to crush some kroot or fire warriors then i don;t see why not.

But it'll be set to avoid vehicles, things the same category as it would be way to dangerous to land on. Even smaller lighter vehicles that would come off worse might mean that it doesn't land flat and if it tips then it's potentially catastrophic.

For a good crushing scene you could have the target point a safe way back but time it so that advancing troops are on top of it when it hits. Some charging kroot for instance.

When it hits, if there's a guy unfortunate enough to be under it (and I know you want it to) then that guys is just gone. The force of the retros and the impact will throw everyone back, the damage is likely to be fairly light but would be more if there is rocks to be thrown around rather than mud. Finally another bunch might be crushed by the doors blasting open.

TT = Tabletop. Derp, don't know how I missed that one.

Anyway, thanks for your replies, everyone, particularly Face Eater. The session is tonight and I've got some good fodder for the discussion, we've got a Techmarine on our team with the "Orbital Drop" tactical specializtion, so the GM said he's going to allow a Tech-use roll to program the targeting cogitator to strike a very specific place within the locator beacon's range, . We decided last time that since in TT (new acronym for me!) targeting cogitators can avoid enemies with accuracy, they can also hit them if reprogrammed. We're also going to assume any orbital defense guns that can't hit the landing site can't shoot the Pod (which is none), because it's going so fast before it gets there and it would derail the campaign if our Astartes got blowed up.

Also our Throne Agents are going to see what kind of local rabble can be roused to affect the mission, so it's possible that just accurately landing the Drop pod nearby would be better. Then the Astartes pop out and act as a Devastator squad to cover the Throne Agents and whoever they've hired. Still a lot of variables, but it's good to nail down this particular tactical option.

In the second (?) Sandy Petersen Dark Heresy novel a DW Kill Team drop pods in to say hi to some rogue psykers. The Throne Agents present thought that they hit hard enough to kill the occupants but there was not much devastation beyond the immediate impact site. Also they fire thrusters before impact so there is also the possibility of a fire when landing on flammable objects.

And there is also the wacky fun time of a Deathstorm Drop Pod ; great for softening up an area and taking out powersuits.