Venerable Dreadnought Burkhard

[Brother Mord]

Well Brothers,

I finally got to play a game of 40 k over the weekend and decided to go with my Black Templars. I wanted to field my venerable dreadnought that I painted up for the last painting challenge.

So Venerable Dreadnought Burkhard (Thanks guys for helping me name him) hit the war torn battle field of the far future, pitted against the foul minions of Chaos in the form of a Khorne demon army.

I never bothered to field a dreadnought as a venerable dreadnought before and to tell the truth I did not expect much from him than I would get from a normal dreadnougt.

The Khorn bloodletters, khorne dogs and demons on the juggernoughts all popped into exsistance on the first turn and my dreadnought, rhino with CC armed troops and a landraider (standard one, I have a habit of throwing models I have not used in a while out on the table) all took off towards them while my smaller shooty crusader squads opened fire on the demons with bolters and heavy weapons (they were also holding my home objectives).

My Venerable dreadnougt shot at then charged a until of three juggernoughts (If Im remembering their name right) and killed two, they apparently were not able to damage my dreadnougt at all as my opponent didnt bother to attack back. So good start for Burkhard.

The dread stayed in combat with the remaining jugger until a greater demon (Bloodthirster) appeared and eventually charged my venerable dreadnought. I fully expected the Bloodthirster to rip my dread appart but forcing him to reroll on the damage charts kept Brother Burkhard alive for a total of 6 close combat turns (3 in his turn, three in mine). This kept his bloodthirster and the remaining juggernought tied up for the whole game.

Much better results than I ever expected. True my oppenent had poor rerolls on the damage charts. But Burkhard lived to see the end of the game eventhough he had no weapons left, was immobilized and stunned for almost all of the close combat rounds he was in.

Keeping the Blood thirster tied up the whole game let my troops concentrate on destroying his Bloodletters ( he never got to charge my Templars, so no furious charge for him) and controlling three out of four objectives. If the Bloodthirster was free to cause mayhem it could have very easily been a different story.

I know the venerable dread ability could have just as easily worked against me (re rolling a six instead of a two) but I was pleasantly suprised by such a cheap point cost addition to my dread.

Man of the match

Brother Burkhard

[Brother Loring]

Hurrah to Brother Burkhard!

[T3mpl@r Crusade]

hurrah!

all i can think of right now based on your equipped weapons and opponent is...

 

"TANKRED ENDURES!"

[Luisjoey]

excellent conversion

 

dreads are good bipods, i like their fluff but they are not worthy in combat just against vehicles but not so great in close combat, i would like a real CC dreadnought for black templars as the bloodangels deathguard.

[Galadren]

I you think about it, a Venerable with a close combat arm with Furious Charge would be hitting at Str 11 on the charge. That'll auto-Pen a Rhino, auto-glance other stuff, and to glance a Land Raider you'd only need a 3, 4+ to Pen.

[Chimaera2000]

Wouldn't you still be better with Tank Hunters, though? That way you'll still have effective S11 in close-combat against vehicles but also add the same penetration bonus to your ranged attacks. The only situation that comes to mind where Furious Charge would be more desirable would be against I5 Monstrous Creatures like Daemon Princes, where a charge would let you hit at the same time rather than your opponent acting first.

[Galadren]

This is true. You have me there.

[Brother Mord]

I gave him furious charge for this battle. When I charged the Juggers laid out some good damage. Don't forget I got to shoot an assault cannon and storm bolter at the unit on the way in as well. If it wasn't for the intervention of the Blooodthirster He would have finished off the last jugger and waded into bloodletters next, who wouldn't have been able to do anything against him either.

 

A dreadnought defently had uses in battle. He is a very good supporting unit as well and when playing against one heading towards your line you defently feel the need to deal with it asap.

 

I seem to usually have the luck of: If I am using a dreadnought it dies easily. If my opponent is using one against me I can never seem to kill it and it runs all over me (not always but seems that way).

 

P.S. he's not a conversion but he's the Forge World Black Templar Venerable dreadnought model. Good stuff from forge world.

[Acebaur]

Dreanoughts with Furious Charge are not S11. S10 is the max strength for anything in 40K. You'll notice there is no 11 on the to wound chart and in the Walker section under DCCW it says that the DCCW doubles the walkers strength to a max of 10. The strength bonus for FC will only apply once the DCCW arm is destroyed. So basically all you get is the +1 to In. Tank Hunters is far better as you still can get effective S11 as the +1 is to armor penetration, not strength.

 

 

As far as the battle goes, I'd say that Ven Dread earned his points! I guess he was tied up with them because he failed to kill off the Juggernaut or Bloodthirster?

[Brother Mord]

As far as the battle goes, I'd say that Ven Dread earned his points! I guess he was tied up with them because he failed to kill off the Juggernaut or Bloodthirster?

 

Yes, He had one wounded Juggernaught left to kill off until the Bloodthirster charged him. He kept getting damaged and using the reroll on damage chart ability kept the dread alive but at the cost of eventually getting immobilized and having both weapon arms destroyed.

 

I managed to keep reducing most of the results down to stunned or shaken which reduced my attacks down to one. I kept directing my one attack at the juggernaught thinking it would be easier to kill as the WS of the Bloodthirster was so high I would need fives to hit it, and my strength was reduced to 6 after losing the ccw arm.

 

Of course with my one attack I kept missing or rolling a one to wound. Not to much to get upset about since my opponent was failing to roll high enough on the damage chart to finish off my dread.

[BigDunc]

Hail the Venerable Burkhard!

 

Just remember, the MVP of the battle certainly doesn't have to be the model that kills the most but rather the model that effects the battle the most... ie Brother Burkhard!

[Head Mook]

Hurrah for Venerable Brother Burkhard! Thats a fantastic duel! It brings to mind a less impressive, but still tactically fantastic dreadnought story of my own: 1500 points against Orks. Brother Barbarossa tied up two full mobs of orks for 5 turns of combat, keeping them from slaughtering the 5 marines holding my objective. Two power Klaw Nobs took his arms and his mobility, but couldn't get the rolls they needed. He is now Venerable Brother Barbarossa and posses a number of Ork trophies.

[Brother Mord]

Hurrah for Venerable Brother Burkhard! Thats a fantastic duel! It brings to mind a less impressive, but still tactically fantastic dreadnought story of my own: 1500 points against Orks. Brother Barbarossa tied up two full mobs of orks for 5 turns of combat, keeping them from slaughtering the 5 marines holding my objective. Two power Klaw Nobs took his arms and his mobility, but couldn't get the rolls they needed. He is now Venerable Brother Barbarossa and posses a number of Ork trophies.

 

Although they are not always the most effective units, Dreadnoughts have always been one of the "coolest" units in the marine arsenal.

 

My two dreadnoughts are the only models in my army that actually have names.

 

I love the Brother Barbarossa story above and the decoration of ork trophies. Makes using him in games even more fun I suspect.