Ah, yes. Thank you. I'd forgotten about the "peeling an onion" tactic.

Agreed. Indeed, the marines need to keep together for mutual support, otherwise invidual formations are easily picked off.

This is how we played it, and to be honest probably feels the most correct to me.

As the other side to Gingers game, the set up was I had a wall of jet bikes 10cm in front of my falcons set up so the deathwinds could not hit my more vulnerable falcons, the first deathwind came in and kiiled a couple of bikes, creating a nice little hole that the second pod could potentially get in and hurt my poor little falcons. Hence the discussion as it is unclear i the rules about this. In the end we rolled a die for it I think.
Each deathwind did however add an extra blast marker for firing, so the poor bikes were well and truely broken. Could certianly do with a FAQ on this

I guess the real question is do units that are destroyed by the first pod still exert a ZOC until all pods have been resolved?

Surely you land all the pods and discover where they come to a rest before starting to resolve the attacks to avoid this very problem?

That would work! Then its down to the attacker to select the order of pods to try and maximize hits.

I am not so sure. What I think you are proposing is:-

1. Indicate where the Space barrage lands, and also mark and scatter each pod to indicate it's potential landing point noting the order of resolution.
2. Resolve the Barrage and withdraw any broken formations
3. Move Drop pod #1 to the nearest clear space, resolve its Death wind attack and withdraw any broken formations.
4. Move and resolve drop pod #2 etc

This does commit the attackers to the landing zones (which broken enemy can avoid). But it still allows the 'peeling onion' tactic to attack screened formations by first breaking the screen. Is that a major problem?

Ok, a supplemental question.

If we don't apply the effects of all the barrage/pin point/drop pods until all have attacked when exactly do formations on overwatch shoot the disembarking troopers? After all shooting and is resolved and any broken formations moved? Or as each formation disembarks?

As each formation disembarks. With planetfalling, disembarking is the trigger for overwatch.

As Zombo says, for 'air' movement OW happens after disembarking, so the complete sequense (for one pod) is
1. Space cruiser barrage
2. Drop pod placement (scatters etc)
3. Deathwind attack
4. Disembark troops
5. OW attacks

Note the order of resolving the effects and placing new pods is open to debate, so I guess this would also affect the resolution of OW. If you decide to completely resolve the effect of each pod, I can see some nearby OW fire being resolved on one pod before a subsequent pod lands nearby inflicting casualties that would potentially reduce or even break the formation on OW

O what a tangled web . . . .

Exactly Ginger, the more you pick the worse it gets!

But an agreed "timetable" of the process should help everyone get on the same page.

I think I provided the timetable, but the issue is whether each step is resolved completely or whether each attack is resolved separately. And there are pros and cons to each argument.

If the effects of each attack is processed separately, the defender may get more OW shots in and may be able to extract Broken formations. However the attacker may be able to hit more formations (peeling the onion) and potentially hit broken formations that have strayed under the next pod.

If each step is completed before the next, the defender may restrict the number of formations hit and has fewer concerns over where broken formations move. However the ability to concentrate multiple attacks in a limited area will have a greater impact on the defenders formations. It may destroy defending formations before they have the opportunity to withdraw, and will potentially reduce or even remove any OW capacity before it can be used.

The only real issue to my mind is whether there is a significant difference between the end result of each approach. Much depends on the relative positioning of the defending and attacking formations. Where both are widely dispersed, there will be little difference in the end results. Where the attacks are concentrated on a concentration of defending formations, I suspect the end results may be widely different, depending on the order that the effects are applied.

Because of the difficulties associated with planetfalling, I would tend to favour rewarding the attacker for 'getting it right', but even then I am not sure which approach achieves that aim.

So in the end, is this just a case of picking the simplest mechanism and going with that one?

Based on the way the Planetfall and Deathwind rules are written, I'm inclined to say that Deathwind attacks are resolved as each formation lands. The Planetfall rules reference disembarking (or deciding not to) before the next unit is placed. Deathwind attacks occur before units disembark - "After the Drop Pod lands, its Deathwind... Then any troops carried must disembark...". A Deathwind pod might strip off enemy zones of control via casualties and change the valid landing area for subsequent pods.

The only remaining question is when to review the effects of the various attacks. I'm still inclined to leave it to the end. That's going to mitigate the worst of the abuses enabled by the drop/attack/drop mechanic. You can strip ZoC by casualties but you can't outright break a formation to remove it as a screen. Also, it prevents chasing broken formations with following waves of pods. On the negative, it does keep a formation from potentially retreating between waves of pods. I think that's about as good as we're going to do and if we need justification, we can go with the "It's planetfall and coming in too hot for the opponent to react coherently" idea.

Would you still apply blast markers generated by barrage/deathwind to suppress units that want to shoot overwatch at disembarking troops? I say yes but you could argue that you are not applying some effects until the entire operation is resolved so these bm's don't suppress for overwatch purposes either.