What to do with a dreadnought?

[Upstartes]

By which, I mean, how should I build/convert it?

 

I have an Assault on Black Reach dread - comes with multi-melta & DCCW. I'm wondering how best to model & paint him. Options that I've thought of are:

 

1. Leave him as is. Add some bling and paint him as venerable/deathwing. Put him in a drop pod and bring him down with the deathwing assault.

2. Buy a right and left autocannon arm and make a mortis dread (for when Forge World is allowed) or a simple codex rifleman (when FW is not allowed).

3. Go full mortis and get a pair of TLLC arms.

4. Convert him into either a Blood Angels dread (death company or furioso) for use with the Blood Angels allies that I am also working on.

 

This is kind of just an extra model I have lying around, and I don't plan to buy other dreads to complement him in any way. I'm just trying to think of the best way to utilize this one guy.

 

Thoughts?

[Darkangeldentist]

Paint him up as Deathwing and make him venerable. Could put him in a drop pod but I wouldn't say it's essential, just being a cheap BS 5 multimelta is good. If you go with the drop pod option I would model him with a heavy flamer if you can. Just because it really ups his threat against infantry.

 

Dark angel dreadnoughts are cheap and if you don't spend points on the weapon upgrades our venerables are still ridiculously cheap for what you get making them excellent slot-in choices for many lists.

[Isiah]

I slap a lascannon and missile launcher, or two autocannons on him, stand him at the back and shoot things. That's all I've ever really done with mine.

Colour me unadventurous .

Cheers

I

[marvmoogy]

I bought the Aegis defence line kit and like many, used the autocannons to make him a rear-guard shooty dread.

 

To make him a little difference, I cut down 3 of the 4 barrels so he looks like he's mid-firing sequence, much like the old WW2 pompom anti-air guns.

[hardimanm]

It all depends on what you are having the most trouble handling.

 

I have no trouble taking out tanks will all the melta guns in my Raven Wing AS  or all the powerfists in my Deathwing squads.  But i am always out numbered by my oppenent due to the high point cost per model in my army.  This i take a dreadnought that can thin out or wipe out sqauds. 

I do this in two ways.

Dread #1:  I have it fitted out with a plasma cannon and a missle launcher.  This is a nasty way to handle everything,  The krak and plasma for tanks, walkers, ect and the frag and plamsa for troops.  This makes troops squishy

Dread #2:  This one is mostly anti-infantry.  Twin Linked Heavy bolter and Twin Linked auto cannon.  Nearly always 5 hits a turn.  I have this one with a spare assault cannon arm that i can replace the heavy bolter if the need arises.

 

So...basically.  If you are having trouble/fighting more infanty armies go with more shots or blast weapons:  Heavy bolters, assault cannons, plasma cannons, auto cannons, missile launchers.  If you are having trouble/ fighting more armor, walkers, MC go with the plasma, Missile launcher, las cannons.

 

Even better.  Get some small magnets and extra arms from ebay and have all the options to fit your mood and the army you are facing.

[Tiger9gamer]

most of the people I play with don't mind the regular mortis. So far, in all the games I played with him, he only disappointed once me (unlike my vindicators and predators) he even killed an full wound Daemon prince by himself (four wounds, four dead). He provides a mobile quadgun and is incredibly cheap for what he does.

[DarkGuard]

I slap a lascannon and missile launcher, or two autocannons on him, stand him at the back and shoot things. That's all I've ever really done with mine.

Colour me unadventurous .

Cheers

I

This is what I normally do with mine. Although sometimes I'll be more adventurous and use a DCCW/HF instead of the HF for assault support. In case anything slips through my nets. :P

But sadly, that still seems the most cost-efficient way to use them, although they are cheaper than C:SM ones.

[Upstartes]

I just realized that I also have bits I could use to make a plasma cannon arm. Anyone have experience running a plasma cannon dread?

[marvmoogy]

afraid not....but I'm building one up at the mo, so will hopefully be able to comment after my next game :)

[hardimanm]

yes.  as posted before i have mine armed with plasma cannon and missile launcher.  This is a nasty combo.

[Brother-Captain Stacius]

I normally chuck two down in pods turn 1. Assault cannon and heavy flamed for troop killing joy. But with a multi melta I would consider ven to get that hit out.

[Nemo vas Varya]

I am experimenting with Dreads. Just converted a plasma cannon to stick on my dread, who deepstrikes alongside a pair of Termie squads. It is brutal backfield mayhem with all that fire power being tossed about. All of my termies and dread are shooty focused to take advantage of the brutal amount of fire that can be brought to bare to soft targets on the wrong side of the cover typically. Few people wrap an aegis around, resulting in peoples butts hanging in the air without cover.

 

Plus Librarian's wearing Infravisors babysitting Dev squads, plus DWA and Drop pod Dread, plus nightfight, on turn one, it is just beautiful. Beautiful, bloody, violent, and devastating. The list I run has had a lot of success with the two pronged attack of shooting up front, shooting from behind, and bikes running to cause problems where they can.

 

(By turn 2, tactical squads and bikes are engaging the midfield, and their backfield is normally a mess. 4 Plasma devs are disgusting, and when you get perfect timing on the libby, even better.)

 

Anyways, I approve of drop podded dreads, dirt cheap, and synergize well with your deep striking termies. Plus it gives the other player one more annoying hard to kill target to shoot at and may give speeders or the termies such much needed relief from high strength fire to do some damage.

[Interrogator Stobz]

^{I used to run two Plasma cannon Dreads regularly in 5th (and have a little 6th experience with them), I would keep them in either in reserve or hidden in the back field awaiting deepstriking nators, BA suicide squads etc. and other high value targets.}

^{I found that when I used them aggressively they got killed straight away, but defensively they were as awesome at shaping the battlefield as they were at killybangbang.}

^{I use their range to cull squads that disembark poorly mid to late game and find that far more valuable than including them in an alpha strike section of my army, they often accompany my 2-3 Whirlwinds as a protection force. Now with a PFG toting Techie they just got even moar betterer :D}

 

^2c

^Stobz

[march10k]

In this codex?  If you aren't making an autocannon mortis out of it...shelve it!  And that's coming from the guy who frequently fielded three vennies in past editions.  I'm not using dreddies at all in this codex, but if I did, it'd be the classic mortis.

[Tanhausen]

My first GT with 6th was with 3 dreads (pure DW build): 2 with auto/las and the other with plasma cannon/DCCW/HF.

 

The auto/las are a VERY pesky unit for the opponent...because they are usually in the corners by themselves and if he sends a unit to deal with it, its not killing terminators...ya know ;)

 

The PC/DCCW/HF dread is perceived a big threat so he takes a lot of beating...again providing the terminators with a bit more time hehe

 

I'm not that fond of MMs in dreads, but I say model whatever appeals most to you, you'll probably be able to field it :)

[march10k]

auto/las?

[Dark_Master]

auto/las?

Twin linked Autocannon + twin linked lascannon I'm thinking.

 

DM

[march10k]

ah.  For the points, I'd just go mortis.  Wait, I already said that, lol...

[Dark_Master]

ah. For the points, I'd just go mortis. Wait, I already said that, lol...

Mortis here too, but interestingly 2 auto/las dreads costs the same as a auto Mortis + a las Mortis.

 

So if you can't play forgeworld just swap the arms over.

 

DM

[Onisuzume]

 

 

ah. For the points, I'd just go mortis. Wait, I already said that, lol...

Mortis here too, but interestingly 2 auto/las dreads costs the same as a auto Mortis + a las Mortis.

 

So if you can't play forgeworld just swap the arms over.

 

DM

 

 

Hm... interesting mention there.

Of course, the Mortis is vastly superior to the codex' dreads.

[march10k]

 

ah. For the points, I'd just go mortis. Wait, I already said that, lol...

Mortis here too, but interestingly 2 auto/las dreads costs the same as a auto Mortis + a las Mortis.

 

So if you can't play forgeworld just swap the arms over.

 

DM

Yuck.  I'd much rather have one las mortis and one auto mortis.  The two weapons aren't really designed to kill the same targets.  They cost the same, but they definitely are not the same!  Not to mention the difference in terms of the enemy's choices in case of a weapon destroyed result.  With "pure" mortis dreads, there is no choice! 

[Tanhausen]

Not going to compare FW units, since I honestly have neither the knowledge nor the time to look them up properly ATM.

 

But the auto cannon / lascannon (sorry for snipping words, just habit) bring something more useful than only cost or saturation: punch.

 

Ya know, S9 AP2 is a HUGE difference from S7 AP4. And not only the obvious, but also that you make "sure" that when you hit a vehicle with a lascannon, you're upping the ods pretty importantly.

 

Just for fun, 2 x auto cannon(mortis) shots vs auto/las (BS4 dread, both weapons twinlinked vs AV12 of a flier):

 

Chances of taking away 1HP:

- mortis= 41%

- auto/las=41%

 

Why isn't that surprising!!!

 

Chances of making a pen-hit:

- mortis=0%

- auto/las= 15% (quite meh, TBH)

 

Chances of bringing the bird down:

- mortis 0%

- auto/las= 5% (only?)

 

Interesting exercise...however, when I took my dreads, they were my long range rhino-like hunters...and usually, each dread blew up a transport per turn ;)

[BigGumbo]

 

 

ah. For the points, I'd just go mortis. Wait, I already said that, lol...

Mortis here too, but interestingly 2 auto/las dreads costs the same as a auto Mortis + a las Mortis.

 

So if you can't play forgeworld just swap the arms over.

 

DM

Yuck.  I'd much rather have one las mortis and one auto mortis.  The two weapons aren't really designed to kill the same targets.  They cost the same, but they definitely are not the same!  Not to mention the difference in terms of the enemy's choices in case of a weapon destroyed result.  With "pure" mortis dreads, there is no choice! 

Actually, with the random allocation of weapon destroyed results that we now face, you might conceivably be better off with asymmetric loadouts, albeit at the cost of the reduced combat efficiency that you alluded to.

[march10k]

Ah, good catch, lol, on the random weapon destroyed thing.

[Mattias]

Most of the builds suggested are for Dreadnoughts without a DCCW and with two long range guns.

 

With the release of the new codex has anyone been exploring the combination of Black Knights and Dreadnoughts with a DCCW, this gives the Dreadnought another role as monstrous creature deterrent? With the grenade support the Dreadnought will be striking first and causing instant death to a lot of the monstrous creatures out there. Does this extra string to it's bow make it more viable?