How many Dreadnoughts are too many?

[Zeke]

Hello brothers,

 

It has been awhile since my last post, because college has been kicking my ass. But my personal life aside, my friend and I were discussing dreadnoughts. I currently field 3 dreads, one of which being the Bjorn model. Now my friend, who is a vanilla marines player, states he can only take 3 in his army. Now I don't have my codex in front of me, or much less looked at it in the past couple of months, so forgive me if my facts are a little off. If my mind serves me correctly, we can take a dread as an HQ choice, so does that mean that I could take one dread as an HQ, or Bjorn, and field another 3 as Elite choices, or am I just completely off?

 

And another question: The new ironclad dreadnought; are we as SW players allowed to field their weapons, or not?

 

Much thanks brothers,

 

-Zeke

[Demonslayer]

I believe you can take Bjorn the Fell-Handed as HQ, then 3 Venerable/Dreadnoughts as elites.

 

As for the Ironclad Dreadnought I can't see any options to take them, but I could be blind

[Draketh Firewind]

Ok your friend who plays vanilla marines can take much more then jsut 3 dreads, in fact he can take a whooping 6! dreads! He jsut needs to take the master of the forge which allows him to take dreads as elites and Heavy Support I believe.

 

And yes while we can take 4, Bjorn and 3 dreads, ven or not I don't think that is overly great. Personally I prefer Bjorn, 2 ven dreads and then an iron priest will full guard to run behind them hitting them to fix them if they get immoblised or weapon destoryed. Always fun to repair that lascannon/meltagun/multimelta/etc damage on a 2+.

 

And no we can not take the Ironclad, just like we can not take the furioso dreadnaught of the Blood angels, though I'd love to be able to feld a dread with 2 close combat weapons. So maybe I'll start a Blood Angel army then...if I had the money. :(

[Evilbob]

I don't think you can own too many, I just love the models. I have 6 with different weapon load outs just cuz I love how they all look. As for how many to take on the field, I stick to just 1 since my elite slots are usually taken with scouts and wolf guard. I haven't had a chance to play any games over 1500, so I haven't taken Bjorn yet but I can't wait to.

[nurglespuss]

Sounds like you need the new wolf codex...

 

The previous one allowed a dreadnought HQ option, in this one its only Bjorn as a potential HQ dreadnought.

 

So you could have 4 dreadnoughts: Bjorn + 3 normal or 3 Venerable dreadnoughts.

 

Not sure about current Space marine codex.

[EricBasser]

I currently run three. Bjorn with Plasma Cannon. I always take that, his BS and the points for it make it a no brainer. Then my other two dreads are just regular dreadnoughts with two twin-linked Auto Cannos.

 

About the Iron Priest. I might be forgetting a core book rule, I don't have it in front of me, but do 1's always count as fails? With full Survitors and Saga of Iron Wolf that adds four to his fixing rolls, so then wouldn't he fix things on 1+? It makes sense to have 1 auto fail, but I couldn't remember if all rolled 1's failed, or if it was just combat orriented.

[Grey Mage]

Yep yep... SWs can run 4- Bjeorn + 3 buddies, but Id like to eventually have 12, for apocalypse stuff :P.

 

That being said, Dreads are awesome, and I dont think Ive met a player yet who had to many.

[whitewolfmxc]

Speaking on topic , ive started a similler topic in the BA forums , fee free to join in XD

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=191475

[MagneticFreak]

I tend to think that 1 Dreadnought is already too much.

 

Too fragile for my tastes.

[Oldenhaller]

They're great for taking a punichment from in front...however with the profusion of things which can get behind them on turn 1 then they're appearing a little like glass cannons. Last night I rather unlukilly lost a ven dread on turn one to a drop podded Ironclad's heavy flamer....this won't stop me taking Bjorn and his two buddies again tho bjorn alone walked through a tac squad a drop pod an ironclad and started wailing on a land raider...lots of fun ;)

 

~O

[Hfran Morkai]

I don't typically run Dreadnoughts because I simply can't find the points in regular sized games (I have too much awesome stuff to spend it on) I'd consider it at about 2000 points but I've already used my three elite slots by that time and Bjorn is an expensive guy.

 

However in Apocalypse I will be running Bjorn (plasma cannon probably) along with two Venerable assault cannon dreads and two standard dreads with lascannons, all will retain their close combat weapon though because they're going to get up close and personal. (However the standard dreads will simply keep storm bolter underslung)

 

I aim to use the Ancients Assault Force (with an Iron Priest replacement naturally) I just have to get the book...

 

Also, a roll of a one is always a fail. However it means that with an Iron priest with Saga of the Iron Wolf and three servitors that you can have a servitor die and stilll repair on a 2+ which I like the sound of.

[Dark Bjoern]

You can´t have too many dreads. I have 10 and most the time i field 4. Bjorn and his "retinue" are an amazing mobile firewall.

[Wolf Guard Nostromo]

You can't have too many, but the loss of ironclads was a real negative for me.

 

I don't use them much in small games anymore (apart from in pods as a shock tactic from time to time). I strongly agree with the earlier point that they can get hit from behind early now so are less useful as ranged firebases.

 

Ancients assault force is brilliant fun though - My five love to wander on and unleash hell! Worth it for the look on your opponents face and for the sheer awesomeness of having, effectively, a pack of them. Great stuff!

[MagneticFreak]

With the proliferation of witch blades/powerfist, dreads are not what they were in close combat. In shooting, they are OK, but typically their job is better done by LF squads (are cheaper as well...)

[SamaNagol]

Just got my magnets through so I only need the 2. I can't see me ever fielding more than 2 at once as I only play 1500pts. But now Bjorn and the FW Ven are both sorted so I can arm them with pretty much anything. Might pick up 2 x T/L Autocannon to round off the selection.

[HERO]

I tend to think that 1 Dreadnought is already too much.

 

Too fragile for my tastes.

 

I agree. Much better with a CF/SS Lone Wolf.

[SamaNagol]

You can't put those in drop pods and blow up 200pt tanks in the first turn though.

[Vassakov]

Out of the crucible of war, a shape stirs in the ruins of what once was a building. Massive, too large for even Astartes. It's fist crackles with power and fury, and it's weapon is the howl of the death wolf.

 

But what is most terrible of all is the Son of Russ, trapped within forever - no longer truly alive, but spitting in the face of death. For him, only one thing exists - vengeance. for Russ, for the All Father, and for himself!

 

As you might have guessed, I'm a bit of a fan I have 5 right now, and the new FW Venerable will be my Libraium Painting Challenge (for you naysayers, the thing is glorious!) The Key to dreadnoughts is to take 2+ or none at all. One is just too fragile, and will have "TARGET" painted on the sarcophagus. Also, BS5 Plasma Cannons are mean.

[TheLastHuzzah]

I would say that in the Standard Force Org. chart, 5 would be too many (as you can't field all of them!). I have not yet used Bjorn, but he looks like good fun. I normally only take Dreads in my Hybrid mech/pod list (3 pods, 2 Dreads, 1 GH) 1 with HF/Asscannon, 1 with HF/MM, and go for tanks or a bunch of guardsmen a bit too tightly packed in that set of ruins. It gives my opponent a serious threat to deal with and keeps fire off of my transports.

 

-Huzzah

[Grey Mage]

I tend to think that 1 Dreadnought is already too much.

 

Too fragile for my tastes.

 

I agree. Much better with a CF/SS Lone Wolf.

If you guys say so... I find the LW dies alot quicker than the Dread- My Vendread died all of 5 times in the two years we had the old dex in 5th ed, gaming every weekend.

 

Lone Wolves seem to drop far to easy to massed fire.

[nurglespuss]

I always run 2, one 'shooty' and one midrange-advancing.

 

I never tend to lose both... and at least one makes its points back by tying up a squad for most of the game.

[Chodjinn]

I currently have 3. Two with Assault Cannon/Multi Melta, CCW and Heavy Flamers. Planning on giving them extra armour and drop pods. Great as a team for tarpit or shock value, but would really only be playing them for fun like that.

 

I also bought an Ironclad before the codex came out as I like the model, now converted to a Bjorn stand-in. I'm planning on getting 2x twinlinked Autocannons and turn him into fir support, and get the new Forgeworld Vendread with Plasma Cannon/CCW for a much nicer Bjorn. The rules for Bjorn are insane and I think he would be worth his points more often than not, just a shame he won't drop pod!

 

They can be fragile I guess, and you can get more bang for teh same points, but then again they can be awesome and be a nightmare for some opponents. I personally love the models! :lol:

[Zynk Kaladin]

Hey guys I am "that friend"

 

Honestly I forgot all about the Master or the Forge so I stand corrected. Now would 6 rifle dreads be too excessive in a game? That would be a scary sight indeed with a typhoon (ml,hb) landspeeder squadron.

 

I'm looking forward to crushing Zeke's new "wolf-in-a-can" models if he fields all of them. I just got into combi-melta sternguard and he wants to go dreads... fun stuff. OR I could field my dreads and we can play BattleBots. Either way I am gonna win :lol: