Fire support dreads

[Quantus]

Being a mechwarrior fan before I found the blessed light of the imperium, I look at a dreadnought and see a massive potential for purely style conversions. I have never run shooty dreads, in honesty I've never fielded them much at all, so I have no idea what weapon loadout works well. At the moment I am planning to put missile racks on the shoulders, twin autocannon on one arm, twin LC on the other arm. My marines (the Raging Panthers) call this a madcat pattern dreadnought. (intentional joke, mechwarrior fans can hurt me later)

I never plan on taking this to a tournament so i can simply declare which two weapon systems I'm using. My question is: Are those the weapons I want to have available? I want to be able to cover the common shooty configs for a dread, be codex legal, and have something i can make look good for my conversion.

 

So for those of you that run fire support dreads, what do you prefer to run?

[Justicar Valius]

twin assault cannon. DENIED

Missile racks on shoulder. You may have one hunter killer missile but otherwise DENIED

twin lascannon. :P yup you can have that. Bear in midn if you take one shooty weapon arm you may only have a DCCW, twin linked autocannon or missile launcher on the other arm

[Quantus]

twin assault cannon. DENIED

Missile racks on shoulder. You may have one hunter killer missile but otherwise DENIED

twin lascannon. :) yup you can have that. Bear in midn if you take one shooty weapon arm you may only have a DCCW, twin linked autocannon or missile launcher on the other arm

 

I edited my initial post to clarify. When i used AC i meant autocannon, that was my error.

 

The racks of missiles will represent a missile launcher on one of the arms. The idea is i will have one model to represent the following configurations:

missile + twin LC

missile + twin autocannon

twin autocannon + twin LC

 

My question is, is that what I want my options to be?

[KhorneHunter57x]

Personally, I prefer the "Rifleman" 2x Twin Autocannon dreadnought for fire support. Cheap, accurate, and puts out quite a bit of firepower. Great for transport and light infantry shredding.

 

The other version that I like is a Venerable with Twin Lascannon and a Missile Launcher. Tough to kill, accurate, and good against medium to heavy vehicles and MCs. To convert this one, I would consider putting one Lascannon on each arm (and explaining that it is twin-linked and only counts as one weapon) and getting a set of the Land Speeder missile launchers and putting these on the shoulders (and again explaining that it only counts as one weapon). Mad Cat anyone?

 

I personally think that if you are going to take a TL Autocannon, it is better to take 2 instead of mixing and matching with Las and Missile. The latter two tend to go together well.

[Quantus]

To convert this one, I would consider putting one Lascannon on each arm (and explaining that it is twin-linked and only counts as one weapon) and getting a set of the Land Speeder missile launchers and putting these on the shoulders (and again explaining that it only counts as one weapon). Mad Cat anyone?

 

Now that I may have to try for. That's the look I'm wanting and the loadout I was leaning toward.

[Koremu]

There was a Dreadnought model in one very early game with the body shaped like the Mad Cat torso too...

[KhorneHunter57x]

Oh yes, the old Dreads. A friend of mine's Marine army is made up entirely of the older models (all Beakies, has a Mk 1 LR and a hue amount of Mk 1 Rhinos) and he has a couple of those. I personally think they are a bit small, especially considering that a 'Mech should be about the size of a scout Titan.

 

Now that I may have to try for. That's the look I'm wanting and the loadout I was leaning toward.

Glad I could help!

[Terminatorinhell]

maybe for the legs you could use sentinel legs (which mech had legs kinda like that?)

[Quantus]

maybe for the legs you could use sentinel legs (which mech had legs kinda like that?)

 

Those would be more appropriate for the look, especially if i added some plasticard armor.

[Jackelope King]

Seconded on the 2x TL Autocannons. A walker with 4 TL autocannon shots every turn is pretty nice. Especially when you run 3 of them.

 

As for converting them, the Aegis Defense Line kit has a quad autocannon, and each half (each TL Autocannon) is a perfect size for a dread. The price isn't too outrageous, and you get some pretty portable terrain out of the deal.

[minigun762]

Another version that I think has potential is Missile/Plasma Cannon.

 

Unlike the RifleDread which is focused on killing transports/walkers at range, this combo is geared mostly to put wounds on infantry and MCs at range.

 

For light stuff, you have 2 blasts, for heavy infantry or MCs you have blast/kraks. If you have to it can also threaten light armor but thats only as a backup.

[Gearhead]

Considering that the "Rifleman" dread is nicknamed after an inner-sphere Mech, it's a good place to start. THe Typhoons and Lascannons make a great Mad Cat, as the lascannons could either be PPCs or Gauss Cannons. You could swap LCs to an Assault Cannon or T/L Heavy Bolter is you want more anti infantry.

 

A big problem with converting Dreads into mechs is that smaller mechs have jump jets, which doesn't translate well. Miniaturizing a smaller mech is a good comprimise. Also, if you miniaturize an Atlas, you will be a great man.