It is now time for my Chaos Space Marine Unit articles to take a look at the Chaos Dreadnought. First off, let's address the 900 pound gorilla in the room ... though Forge World makes some mean looking Chaos Dreads, there is no way in the 9 hells most Chaos players would take one outside of an Apocalypse game or to a painting contest. With that being said, there are different stokes for different folks, so let's talk Dreads.
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Dealing with Friendly Fire We all know that our dearest dreads are capable of some serious party fouls when it comes to rolling a 1 at the beginning of a turn. Nobody likes getting popped by their own units. There are two types of players who feild Chaos Dreads - the careful and assaulty OR the brave and bristling with weapons.
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The careful and assaulty player knows that if there is nothing in range for the Dread to shoot, then he gets to do as he pleases that turn. Having a dread with two Dreadnought CC arms, a heavy flamer and the manditory twin-linked bolter (you can only replace one of them). This gives you the least chance of being able to shoot yourself. Extra armour with this layout will also give you a better chance of making it to assault. The big benefit here is that it is cheap, but you will almost always find your dreadnought just outside of mutual support capability and even though it is cheap, you could better invest those points in almost anything else in the codex.
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The ballsy and bristling with weapons player either cares not for the fire frenzy (what's the chances?) OR he plays with his dread all the way accross the table from him. If you are this guy, you will probably roll with a Missile Launcher and either a Lascannon, Plasma Cannon or a Autocannon. While there are benefits to being able to lay down that kind of fire power from a dread, it still is sub-optimal at best. If you keep your dread away from the rest of your army, chances are, you will find the enemy is also going to be far from him. If he is close, cool, but the stakes of a fire frenzy are even worse. If you think it won't happen to you, I have fire frenzied three times in a single game with one dread. If you like 'em fine, but I won't field them anymore unless it is sheerly for the fun of it. If I was on a desert island and the only elite choice I had to fill in my 1750 was a dread, I would take the CC dread.
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Armies where dreads fit in There are army builds where the Chaos Dread fits right in and that is in the MC/Walker spam lists. Basically, as many Daemon Princes, Defilers and Dreadnoughts as you can fit into a list. You arm the dreads for CC, and run them forward. In this case, their numbers will get them where they need to be (even if it is one at a time). Your DPs could be Lashing (get the enemy into range of CC) or they could also be CC monsters (Nurgle with Warp time ect.) and the goal of the defilers is to either blast with battlecannons or to run forward with the dreads assaulting tanks and squads! This list can be a TON of fun and if you have the models, I recommend you run it at least once! You will either win HUGE or die HARD in any given game! Either way both players tend to have some fun.
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Outside of the BIG GUY spam, Chaos dreads seem to perform better in numbers as it can sometimes be hard to deal with for the enemy and he often WILL have to deal with them in CC (barring any serious melta/AT spam), but again, I would rather spend my points on more dependable units that lend more to my principles of prosecuting tabletop warfare.
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Random Thought For all the great references in the Chaos fluff in the Codex and all the times I read about old legions going to war in them during the Heresy ... and in Storm of Iron ... there is no Chaos Drop pod option in the rules. What the hell? I know, I know, we don't want to have too much of a loyalist feel, but I would pay full price for one WITHOUT the drop pod assault deployment and if we could do that, then Chaos Dreads would be on the top of my elite choices right now for obvious reasons ... so if there are any GW designers reading this, you know what to do. In any case, that's my two cents. Feel free to comment.
The dreads would be fine if the Fire Frenzy was limited to nearest enemy unit, and if there was no enemy in range, they could act normally.
ReplyDeleteBut, that's not quiiite the case, so yeah.
I have had an opponent run a pair with missile launcher/CCW arm. "Oh, fire frenzy. Rhino, take two frag missiles to the side. Oh, Dreadnought, take two frag missiles to the side."
Past that...yeah. They're fire magnets because they require specialist kit to kill in CC. If your army does not HAVE said specialist kit, then the Dreadnought gets to eat squads in assault. I think the missile launcher replacement for the left arm and the switch to bolter/CCW other arm makes it a 100pt unit.
I am tempted to do the Chaos-Zilla list, but I'm not sure it's worth the hefyt investment for 3x Defilers and the DPs; AoBR dreads can come cheaper and DPs are potentially conversion fodder, but still.
The chaos dred got hosed in 4th edition with the new chaos codex. It is surprising to me how many people fail to recognize how awesome they are in 5th. I would now take cheap dreds over defilers any day. For the points they are damn nice ... place them on a flank away from your own units and run them ... if your opponent focuses on them ... woot ... if they ignore them ... woot! what is not to like?
ReplyDeleteThe hundred points I could invest in better units for our very small and pricey army is what could be better. I wish they were better and I wish I could justify the points, but they take away 1.5 oblitz or a half a squad of cult Marines or a squad of Chosen, all of which I would rather invest in than that crazy box of bolts.
ReplyDeleteLast night my buddy, who faces my Chaos army all the time decided that I should just use the 3.5 FF rules.
ReplyDeleteHe suggested this because he wants me to finish painting my two FW Chaos dreads. Gotta love a Shiny new House Rule for the man-cave!
HA, good call from your friend, Jim. I would really love to take our dreads more often and I do take them in the garage from time to time, but other than that their rules are just too ... Dread-ful ...
ReplyDeleteAmen Brother! BTW, this is a great series of articles you've got going!
ReplyDeleteThanks Big Jim. Its goos to hear that from another Chaos player.
ReplyDeleteJust a suggestion, You might call me a cheese maker at the time this is over, but
ReplyDeleteDread- 90
Missile Launcher- FREE
Plasma Cannon- 15
Put a
five man squad with power weapon-105
around it, touching the base.Deploy in semi isolated flank.
If the dreadnought rolls a fire frenzy, it can't shoot the squad because the template would touch itself. It can't shoot itself under any circumstances, so it would have to choose another target. Plus, that bodyguard squad can help out a little in combat.
Cheese, don't you love it? Just don't try to pull it off in a tournament or something.
I read an article that might help with the fire frenzy. The exact text says that on a roll of 1. the dreadnought turns to face the closest VISIBlE opponent and then fire's twice. In the 4th edition codex, Visibility was 360 degree's. In 5th edition, Visibility is line of sight, Line of sight for a vehicle with hull mounted wepons is a 45 degree arc in front of it. So as long as you have your dreadnought facing an enemy unit and keep your units out of his line of sight. You will always fire twice at the enemy and if there is nothing in his line of sight you just play him as normal.
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