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Scouts + Drop Pod?

443 views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  Lord Malachi 
#1 ·
Last night while rereading my codex as I am wont to do, I discovered that I could use a drop pod for my scouts (SMC, pg 21). Now this may not come as a supprise to most of you learned commanders but hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. First thing was "wow, so thats how they infiltrate" so its fluffy, second thing was "why, I'll lose my ability to infiltrate if I take that". So with that said here's my question for yall.

Has anyone bothered to DP scouts. If so, why and how did you use em?

Now befor you unlimber the Heavy Flamer and fire it up, I did a quick search for both Drop Pods and for Drop Pod scouts and after the first 40-50 posts quite looking. As one search had close to 750 entries and the other 500.
 
#2 ·
First, thats NOT how they infiltrate, thats deepstrike. Secondly, given that you can already infiltrate them, i dont believe deepstriking scouts is wise. It would be better in virtually every situation to DP a tactical squad as they are not hindered in any way by the drop pod, whereas scouts are denied the power of infiltrating in order to use it.
 
#5 ·
I agree that smashing into the planet like a meteor isn't stealthy but it COULD be fluffy depending on what the chapter uses its rookies for. Chapters that like to drop right on target are going to take massive casualties and the newbies would likely be tossed in with the rest of the pile for target saturation reasons. Afterall they are new and the easiest to replace.

The only reasons to pod scouts I can think of is 1) you don't have any other way possible to drop a squad that is equiped with BP/CCW behind enemy lines, or 2) it is a misguided attempt to save points over real marines, or finally 3) your fluff is having negative impacts on your army design.
 
#6 ·
True they could have hidden it but the enemy would still know that they are out there as they saw and heard the thing crash land. so they would have senturies set up. I see the story line for a kill team here. The scouts then have to work there way into the enemy positions to place markers for orbital bombardment.
 
#7 ·
but what if you DP about 20 miles away from your orginal destination and then to walk the rest of it to the objective remember that scouts will have about all the implants marines have and thus can walk that distance without problems and still be fit enough to fight the last bit.

So it could be very fluffy and I don´t see why they wouldn´t, a thunderhawk gunship will make more noise I think than a landing DP.
 
#8 ·
Whether or not a single drop pod landing would be noticed is debateable. On a feral or other low-tech world they may not posses the technology to detect such a landing. In the eyes of a primative people it may look like a shooting star if they saw it at all. Even on a more advanced planet (e.g. a hive world) there could be factors such as a space battle that distracts them, or a warp storm may effect their satelites, etc.

Drop podding Scouts onto a planet seems fluffy enough, especially if they are dropped far from their intended target. A drop pod would be tougher to detect than a Thunderhawk as Dicegod said. Gamewise I don't see it happening much as it wouldn't make sense dropping them into battle when they could just as easily infiltrate.
 
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