Unit of the Week: Death Company Dreadnought

[Charlo]

Admittedly I haven’t used them much lately, but when I have they’ve been successful at what I want them to do. The ability to re-roll charges (against vehicles), To Hit and To Wound all independently is phenomenal as a fire-and-forget weapon of “oh !” proportions.

 

+ 6" consolidate.

[Thoridon]

DC Dread is one of my favourite units in 8th. I've said before that many of my games use PL, where the DC Dread is actually less cost efficient than in the full points system compared to many other units, but I still enjoy using it as a big metal box of ragey death.

 

I tend to use it as a hammer. Point it at a something big and nasty, charge in and tear its face off. Mine is built as Cassor from 7th and the melta is hit and miss being single shot but the talons have often nuked monsters on the charge. I think the one time it failed horribly was against Necrons, where it succeeded with all hit and wound rolls only for the Necron to make all 4++ invul saves.

 

Anyhow, it's a fun unit to play "smashy face" with and with the new CA points changes it'll be cheaper to run in the full format, which is alwaysa plus.

[Brother Crimson]

Magna grapple only gives +2 charge now, not a reroll. Lemartes can give a reroll to charge however.

 

The problem I always had was that they just die so quick to any form of anti-tank. As many list can cripple a knight the poor dreads are just too easy to kill.

 

With recent point changes we almost get an extra one to play 3 and have redundancy, if you lose turn one you can use prepared positions, if you get turn one you pop smoke. Hopefully one or two of them can make it for some damage. Add in the also cheap triple furioso and maybe I’ll start to get some form or saturation.

[Panzer]

Considering you can just re-roll with a CP I actually prefer +2 to the charge range anyway. ;)

[Majkhel]

Considering you can just re-roll with a CP I actually prefer +2 to the charge range anyway.

Same for me! +2 is a definite improvement. Especially since the charge re-roll with Lemartes just got cheaper as well.

[Jolemai]

For the moment I'm struggling with these.

 

Currently running two in tandem along a flank (my 1250 DC list). Both have a meltagun (for a potshot when it advances), a heavy flamer. and Furioso fists. I'm finding that the heavy flamer is the wrong choice due to its range and they are nullified too easily. For example: if I'm advancing then I can't pop smoke; cover can be hard to come by; and their reputation is such that all the heavy weapons are trained on them.

• Probably going to switch to a storm bolter. I feel a heavy flamer requires a delivery system to get into 8"
• Not using a Lucious Pod as 1) I can't do WYSIWYG and 2) it would be at the cost of the second DCD, can't afford a Stormraven in this list
• Should I use them as a counter rather than trying to get into combat ASAP? Be more patient, skulk around in cover, etc? How would you footslog one?
• I suppose if the enemy is shooting them they are ignoring the rest of my force, but what is good for target saturation on a Dreadnought? Pretty much anything else T7/Stormtalon?

[Dont-Be-Haten]

I've been having a bit of trouble with them too Jole. I have the melta × heavy flamer variant too.

 

The storm bolter always giving 4 shots with the beta rule does seem like the best choice now. Otherwise you need a bird.

[Jolemai]

The 8" on this particular platform is just too prohibitive imo. It's not even a charge deterrent when the enemy is 8.1" away.

 

Perhaps I just can't get the flamer/heavy flamer/frag cannon to work in general, but that's an entirely different discussion.

[shanewatts]

Jolemai - FYI, you can totally advance and pop smoke. It is in one of the FAQs, not sure which off the top of my head.

[Jolemai]

Hmm, not having much luck finding it so far. Will keep looking :tu:

[Karhedron]

There are plenty of armies that have access to flamer-style auto-hitting weapons with ranges over 8" it seems odd that things like the Frag Cannon and heavy flamer are still so restricted. :(

 

Personally I lean more in favour of the Stormbolter on the DC Dread, particularly with the "Bolter Discipline" rule. Like most other DC units, the Dread is something of a glass hammer. It can kill a lot if given the chance but it goes down quite easily. A 6+++ only gives the equivalent of 1-2 extra wounds. It is one of those units where you need to go big, or go home. You don't need to spam DC Dreads, but you do need to run it alongside other tough and threatening targets to give it a fighting chance of reaching the enemy.

[Majkhel]

Hmm, not having much luck finding it so far. Will keep looking :tu:

Having a melta should be enough- Assault-type weapon are allowed to shoot after advancing, right? So pop smoke instead of firing a meltagun.

[shanewatts]

It is in the BRB FAQ. You don't need to have an assault weapon either, so you can rock stormbolters for less points, advance and pop smoke turn 1.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I used one for narrative gaming... twin heavy flamers, always does great things. I love the 8" movement - catches a lot of people off guard.

[Panzer]

Yeah with that FAQ they basically removed the whole "you need to be able to do something to be able to forego it" theory.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Oh and I usually go with talons unless I know I’ll be up against Knights.

[sebs_evo7]

Mine is usually on point if I know my enemy is looking to deep strike stuff in but then I know I’m basically giving him up to enemy shooting, it’s a hard sell because it’s still a lot of points I guess. Will the 5++ power from our librarians work on him?

[Morticon]

I really wish he could use forlorn fury :( 

Would be amazing. 

[Karhedron]

Will the 5++ power from our librarians work on him?

Yup, it works just fine. His Black Rage gives him a 6+++ "ignore wounds" roll. That stacks perfectly happily with an invulnerable save.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I really wish he could use forlorn fury  

 

Would be amazing. 

 

May have been an oversight .

[YogiDaAngel]

9th dusting off. So I was crunching some math and rolling some imaginary dices and came to conclusion that I found use for this bad boy. Hear me out brothers.

We load it up with twin heavy flamers and talons. Next take 2 of them, march middle with assault termies TH/SS or run one on each flank. They will kill ~1/2 blight lords per combat and 3/4 Plague marines, 8 ork boyz and so on. Can absorb some fire power with 6++ and -1dmg AND -1 hit (from smoke launchers). You can give them 5++. One unit of 3 eradicators can't kill them and if more units focus them the more power to you coz they only cost 135-145 points (talons and normal fists are near identical in output but vs DG talons are better). 
They look pretty good at supporting our punchier units and absorbing some firepower or screening our assault units/make for bait to be charged by enemy. 

 

Un supported they are tougher then redemptors and can punch elite infantry with good effect. As for delivery to punch range we don't have to worry about that just park them turn 1 after advancing near objective and wait for enemy if he don't take bait better for us we can rank up some points with intercessors or th/ss termies (if its middle obj).

Edited February 3, 2021 by YogiDaAngel

[Bonzi]

9th dusting off. So I was crunching some math and rolling some imaginary dices and came to conclusion that I found use for this bad boy. Hear me out brothers.

 

We load it up with twin heavy flamers and talons. Next take 2 of them, march middle with assault termies TH/SS or run one on each flank. They will kill ~1/2 blight lords per combat and 3/4 Plague marines, 8 ork boyz and so on. Can absorb some fire power with 6++ and -1dmg AND -1 hit (from smoke launchers). You can give them 5++. One unit of 3 eradicators can't kill them and if more units focus them the more power to you coz they only cost 135-145 points (talons and normal fists are near identical in output but vs DG talons are better).

They look pretty good at supporting our punchier units and absorbing some firepower or screening our assault units/make for bait to be charged by enemy.

 

Un supported they are tougher then redemptors and can punch elite infantry with good effect. As for delivery to punch range we don't have to worry about that just park them turn 1 after advancing near objective and wait for enemy if he don't take bait better for us we can rank up some points with intercessors or th/ss termies (if its middle obj).

That's a good point. Death Co Dreads haven't been on my radar in 9th but the truth is with most fights happening in the center of the board over objectives, a regular 6" movement unit isn't in need of transport like they once we're. The only question is how they stack vs venerable dreads.

[Indefragable]

The biggest draw for DC Dreads to me is the built-in re-roll To Wound with Blood Talons. Fists may be better in many cases, but that reliability of "Shred" makes them quite useful in my book, above and beyond the 7A on the Charge. 

 

The -1D to all Dreads and the 6+++ from Black Rage are nice-to-haves. 

[Xenith]

DCD's can now use Forlorn Fury, which might help a lot in getting it into cover T1. 

[Karhedron]

With the boost to Dreads generally, I think there might be mileage in these boys. Since they have negligible firepower. Maybe reserving them T1 and only coming on T2 or even T3 when most of the heavy hitters have been whittled down or at least deployed in a known location.

 

I guess whether the VenDread is better depends on whether you want firepower. A MM VenDread is a pretty good all rounder but the DC Dread does have certain blender potential.