Crouching sarcophagus, hidden powerfist

[koszkamade]

So I've been teasing with the idea of Dreadnought goon squads for a long time. With the release of the new surf codex, it is actually a pretty scary prospect that you may be going up against squads of dreadnoughts!!!

Lets break it down:
For 330 points you can have 3 dreads with multimeltas and heavy flamers. 9HP AV12 walkers that can sling 15 power fist attacks on the charge at I4.
Its a pretty decent amount of damage and threat for a fairly low point cost. Remember, for the same amount of points you could have a warden knight titan, or for a bit less, you could have a wraith knight. The question is, is this unit worth it?

I know for a fact that this unit in a white scar army would be devastating ( hit and running dreads!!!!) 
I'm looking into taking a unit of ironclads with my raven guard. AV13 front armor, and 18 chain fist attacks on the charge! Another cool feature is that they have move through cover, and access to assault launchers ( assault grenades!) They come stock with extra armor, smoke launchers and search lights. I think the smoke launchers are interesting for the raven guard; having a 3+ cover save turn one is pretty rad ( Smoke + shroud!). Sadly, the unit costs 405pts. Yikes!

What are your thoughts on this concept?

[nettik189]

You know my opinion on hit and running dreads im thinking about a gladious w/ 3 iron clads

[theblackknight]

Are they just walking in formation or do they have a way of getting across the board? Against anything in combat, yeah I'd be very afraid of them but I can see getting there might be a problem.

[dudeisuck]

They are walking across the table, hiding behind av13 and 3+ cover. It could work.

[nettik189]

Mine would be with a gladius strike force or a bike heavy army. But w/ rhinosyou have a mobile 5+ coversave. The issue with raven guard is you only get that 3+ turn one and if you dont go first your going to have some troubles.

[calypso2ts]

The real issue with that unit is Speed - most of the successful assault walkers have a 9"-12" move with a threat range of 24" when it comes to charging (Maulerfiend, AdMech guys, Knights). I wish there was a good delivery mechanism to short circuit the problem - like a Deep Strike.

Having played the Helbrute Deep Striking formation (I know they are not a unit), the results were a bit underwhelming. It always felt like they had somewhere to be but no way to get there.

That said, I think this would be a lot of fun to play and in a White Scar army has a lot of potential. Their own Hit and Run is great and the white scars are fast enough to lock down threats - and then leave - to enable the dreads to hit home.

[koszkamade]

I understand they are pretty slow, but I have few ideas to keep deliver them into the enemy.

1. Skyhammer - Utilizing combat squads, you could potentially pin up to 4 units a turn with them. You could even possibly tie up units with assault marines.This will give the dreadnoughts precious time to get up the board and into melee.

2. Operation Storm....errr. storm - A decent amount of land speeder storms could force a lot of blind checks. This could considerably hamper offensive power of your opponent. Not to mention Scout squads could jump out and engage the enemy; pulling fire and attention from the seemingly slow dreadnoughts.

Having AV13 on front, you could run all the dreadnoughts back to back to create an AV box.

[nettik189]

IMO Skyhammers not good, most things you will play will be unaffected. I love the storms blind if my favorite mechanic. Watch out with that AV box cause once the first on is gone the next one will be quick to fall. Can you levitate the unit or is it only for the casters unit?

[koszkamade]

Levitate only affects its own unit

Its going to be a long trek to the enemies deployment zone...

Yeah the AV box still has side AV12. It all comes down to what kind of army I'm up against.


Also, I love that if its night fight turn one you have a chance at a 2+ cover save turn one. hahahaha

[theblackknight]

You could try invisible dreadnaughts, have a librarian on a bike following them around with invis or shrouding always giving them a cover save. That can solve the possible being shot off the board part but speed is still what gets me.