Current state of the * Drop pod *

[Cheekie Monkie]

A niche but very good ability in my opinion. Even losing a single model can be pretty serious business to SM's ability to push and/or defend at a critical point. The focus of the drop pod would then be to capitalise the fact that you suddenly have a 450 squad on the board AND a fully reinforced army to either push for map control/gen bash or to save your gen farm. You absolutely need to push this advantage before your opponent can take advantage of the (normally) suboptimal composition of 2 tacs in 1v1.

[xerrol nanoha]

I would rather the reinforcement point effect be removed from the drop-pod and the cost reduced further.

It doesn't make sense to me that a drop-pod with tactical marines in it will teleport in scouts or assault marines or whatever by being near it.

It also bothers me that the techmarine has to choose between the drop-pod and the relay beacon, both of which basically do the same thing with different costs + or - a tactical squad.

[Adeptus Noobus]

The relay beacon is also a retreat point and has a healing aura (however low it may be).

[Tinibombini]

It also bothers me that the techmarine has to choose between the drop-pod and the relay beacon, both of which basically do the same thing with different costs + or - a tactical squad.

Maybe it is just the wording but the TM does not have to choose between the drop-pod and relay beacon - he can use both and has more flexibility in this regard than the other two commander which only have access to the drop pod.

Do you mean that you would like the TM to have global besides the droppod because it is somewhat redundant with the relay beacon?

[egewithin]

It also bothers me that the techmarine has to choose between the drop-pod and the relay beacon, both of which basically do the same thing with different costs + or - a tactical squad.

I use them both, haven't seen any problem with that.

[xerrol nanoha]

I think I would just prefer the drop-pod to behave more like a tactical marine callin that reinforces other squads nearby, than as a reinforcement beacon. It doesn't make sense to me for it to be a reinforcement beacon and I feel like there should be a way to make it good enough if it simply reinforces other squads and gives a squad.

So here's an idea: What if each version of drop-pod delivered a different variant of unit?
It could be a different variant of Tactical Marine based on the commander, for example: Techmarine drop-pod would come with rocket launcher, apothecary drop-pod could come with a plasma gun, and force commander drop-pod could come with a flamer (then have drop-pod require the respective tier where that weapon upgrade is available).
That or each drop-pod could deliver completely unique units depending on the commander, such as force commander could get tacticals with a weapon already attached (like flamer), apothacary could get assault marines, techmarine could get a devastator.

Or (what I would like to see more, but i'm not sure if balanced) what if drop pods had a healing aura instead of providing permanent reinforcement so it lands on the field, spits out a squad of units, refills nearby squad cap, and then provides constant healing to allied units nearby (allowing you to synergize with a razorback or relay beacon for reinforcement).

Maybe tactical marines are just "that bad" that having a 300req callin that gives them at a massive discount and reinforces is somehow balanced. Not that I'm saying it isn't balanced, but it seems like something is wrong with tactical marines if they cost 200req relative to the other effects of the callin and getting a reinforcement point is somehow okay.

I mean, what if Eldar webways cost 300 req and after building them a squad of banshees came out? Maybe that would be balanced (i don't think so), but it's muddying the purpose of the ability by having too much utility that raises the cost when you only need a portion of the utility in any specific situation.

I guess the point for me, is that I do not like having too much overlap among characters and abilities for a faction; like techmarine having mobile reinforcement for both drop-pod, relay beacon, and razorback. I feel like it discourages other unit and ability use, and I would rather see those abilities and units all designed to synergize together than be interchangable.

[egewithin]

What if we only remove the reinforce ability after the landing but not the reinforce in the time that it lands?