Are Dreadnoughts any good? Why or why not.

[chaplain belisarius]

exactly! dreads and tacticals work well together-the tacticals get the punch of the dread and the dreads get back up from the tacticals...:)

[Hellios]

Well if you believe that I doubt I will convince you otherwise. Personally, I would find the weaponry of a Dreadnought very useful, and if someone is shooting the Dreadnought they aren't shooting the transport.

 

I think this is all very situational... I'm pretty sure I can make a list that has enough power to kill a dread and a transport (even a raider) in 1 turn. I love theory hammers... they look great and then you use them... and they shatter into little bits...

 

5 Death company dreads in pods is the way to go... you do not need scoring units...

[Brother Captain Josef]

I can understand why people rave on about the rifleman loadout but a plasma cannon / heavy flamer dread is not to be sniffed at - and to get the heavy flamer you need to keep the DCCW - which in my opinion aint a bad thing.

 

The rest of my 1500 pt army is mech so i have a saturation of armour and i have 2 of these dreads that i find very useful in a variety of scenarios -whether it's dreadlocking blood letters and the like, instagibbing otherwise troublesome characters, blocking LOS and charges to putting the hurt on FnP and Sv2+ stuff - plague marines hate them. When used right dreads can be very annoying to your opponent and an invaluable tool to a savvy player.

[Gothical]

I can understand why people rave on about the rifleman loadout but a plasma cannon / heavy flamer dread is not to be sniffed at - and to get the heavy flamer you need to keep the DCCW - which in my opinion aint a bad thing.

 

I like the Plasma/Heavy Flamer Dread - it hits really hard no matter the target (bar Vehicles) and doesn't break the bank either. They are ace if your opponent likes Drop Pod Sternguard, as each vehicle can easily decimate the 5-man Combat Squads.

 

Another one I've been impressed with is the Plasma/TL-AC Dreadnought - same role as a Rifleman, but has an easier time against monsters and can double-up as an anti-horde unit if there are no vehicular targets that suit Str7, and it can also help against Terminators and other 2+ enemies.

 

The rest of my 1500 pt army is mech so i have a saturation of armour and i have 2 of these dreads that i find very useful in a variety of scenarios -whether it's dreadlocking blood letters and the like, instagibbing otherwise troublesome characters, blocking LOS and charges to putting the hurt on FnP and Sv2+ stuff - plague marines hate them. When used right dreads can be very annoying to your opponent and an invaluable tool to a savvy player.

 

Hmm, I'm working on a Mech army at the moment and I'm struggling to fit in some "distraction" armour to draw attention from my Rhinos. Do you find you Dreadnoughts working well within the army? I am a little concerned that they will be too slow, as everything has the option of moving 12" whilst they are stuck at 6"+Run at the most?

 

As I'm struggling with my list, do you think you could PM me your list, or direct me to it if it is posted online, as I seem to be going wrong somewhere and it'd be nice to have some ideas?

 

++++

 

In other news, how do people feel about the "ranged" Ironclad?

 

Podding it seems to be extremely expensive, and unless terrain is favourable it's usually suicide (that most people use them as suicide units, which I feel is wasting their potential, is irrelevant). I am wondering what the gaming community thinks about running them with a Hurricane Bolter and a pair of Hunter-Killer missiles.

 

I am thinking that 2 of the beasties supporting a Rhino-mounted Tactical Squad could be quite the killer. They can target vehicles fairly reliably (particularly if carrying a Meltagun on the Seismic Hammer); they are potent in close-combat, they can decimate hordes with the bolter-fire (and Heavy Flamers if you go down that route instead of the Meltas); they are hard to take out with their increased AV and they can still bash things about in close-combat.

 

A bit expensive at 160pts each (with Heavy Flamer) and it may not be the greatest idea (given that they are the Codex Marines' only Dreadnoughts with more than 2 base attacks, it seems like a shame to waste that for a Hurricane Bolter). So yeah, if you could share your thoughts I'd much appreciate it.

[deity12]

drop pod dreds are awesome, give them a multi-melta(cheep too) and they can quite easily take out a tank worth more points than them, and then if they survive the next round of firepower(actually not that bad odds, but still small) they can assualt and tear most things, especially IC's with power fists to shreds :)

 

all that for only 140 points, not bad. or you can use venerable to make it more survivable and have better odds of hitting with the multi-melta(but venerable is a bit too expensive for me)

[chaplain belisarius]

a pair of cheap and cheerful dreads with multimeltas work pretty well...(plus the models very nice!) :P

[thade]

I'm a fan of the Rifleman (2xTL-Autocannons) and "half-Rifleman" (TL-Autocannon, DCCW), the latter of which I field very frequently to keep long range pressure on enemy transports and other light armor.

 

ML Dreads are nice but the lack of range often means if they are in there on their own, they are GOING to die after *maybe* grounding one target.

 

I've never played with a plasma cannon, ML, or lascannon dread, but they all seem kind of expensive to me for not a lot of hurt. I've been wrong before though.

 

I *love* melee dreads, though I'm so far fundamentally bad at using them. <_<

[DarkGuard]

I've recently started using Rifleman Dreads, initially just the one to see if it was better at transport vehicle hunting than my Typhoons (I use two of them singularly), and so far the results have been impressive. Though their weapons are only S7, they make up for it with an impressive rate of fire and accuracy, plus they're on a more stable platform than a Typhoon. It went up against 3 Eldar tanks, immobilizing all of them, and blowing the weapons off a couple in one game (quite impressive when you consider S7 vs AV12), and in another game took out a Rhino first turn.

 

I'm now thinking of using two of them, and with good reason too, as the new Dark Eldar will prove tricky, and autocannons should shred their vehicles and decimate their infantry, even when they have FnP. Plus, I love the look of them when using the autocannons from the Aegis line, very menacing <_<.

 

EDIT:

 

I'm a fan of the Rifleman (2xTL-Autocannons) and "half-Rifleman" (TL-Autocannon, DCCW), the latter of which I field very frequently to keep long range pressure on enemy transports and other light armor.

 

I'm not too sure about the half-Rifleman Thade, I can see where you're coming from, that DCCW being handy to protect base units and other aspects of your firebase, but it really does cut down on what the Rifleman is supremely good at, which is keeping up a constant torrent of highly accurate and deadly fire. As far as I'm concerned the TL-LC would be better paired with the DCCW as you can do the same, and if the lascannon hits that vehicle is going to be glanced or penetrated. The 2 autocannon shots are less likely, but the reason the Rifleman does so well is because it has 4 shots, and those shots are going to hit, so one of them at least will go through the armour. I really do think it's a case of all autocannons or none.

[DerekLee688]

The half Auto-cannon is for protecting the flank of vindi's when you use them agressivly. One of my old staple formations was TL-AC/DCCW dread, vindi in middle, and Scoring Tac raider on other side. I took the board 6" at a time but it was a solid armor spearhead.

 

Dreads usualy fall into three roles with me. Long range/mobile fire support(rifleman), armored bookend (half-rifle), or Tac. escort(assault cannon/DCCW). I wan't to get an Ironclad because I happen to have a single unused Drop pod, and am looking forward to using the Storm Raven if it does become available to all other marines.

 

After all, Dreads are the SM's functional rule of cool and embodyment of what marines are, walking tanks.

[waaanial00]

I think an assault cannon dread would work better in a flanking role than a half rifle, what it lacks in accuracy and range it makes up for in frequency of attacks and rending.

 

Still on the topic as a whole I rather like using Dreadnoughts, I currently run TL-LC/HF and Dual TL-AC. Along with my 2 Typhoons and 2 MM landspeeders I have little to fear with AV12 and below. Frequently they are used to buy my force more time to achieve its aims or to bolster assaults, locking an enemy in a losing combat so I can Combat Tactic my way out with a tactical squad if its unwinnable or lending some high strength attacks to hopefully tip the balance further.

 

Overall they are rather cheap, 125 points for 4 mobile S7 twin linked AP 4 shots at 48". They frequently shine and only rarely fail to earn their keep.

 

All this talk of top tier makes me laugh, a top tier player is just as capable of throwing 1's for armour saves just like the rest of us. Having a tweaked list doesnt provide him/her with an extra cover save or anything. The mechanics which work against a fluffy list are exactly the same so you are just assuming that people arent smart enough to know tactics or application of force.