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I'm trying to help a friend set up a Deldar army but I cannot for the life of me come up with a decent way to deal with Dreadnoughts in close-combat besides specifically fielding wyches with haywire grenades, even then its a push.

Thoughts?

Don't let the dread get into CC? That's really all there is. You're army should be much faster than a dread & should be able to take it out from far away.

Razerous wrote:I'm trying to help a friend set up a Deldar army but I cannot for the life of me come up with a decent way to deal with Dreadnoughts in close-combat besides specifically fielding wyches with haywire grenades, even then its a push.

Thoughts?

Heat Lances and Darklight weapons. Seriously.

If you want to get into CC with a Dred, you need to field a Talos.

Other than that, DE get creamed by Dreds in CC.

The short answer is that DE can't deal with walkers in combat outside of a couple of unusual situations. Haywires could do it, but thats not something you want to rely on. An Archon with a completely full Soul Trap would rip Dreads apart, but that isn't going to happen very often either. The answer is to shoot them with Dark Lances before they get into combat.

About the only way you survive in close combat is the options listed above, or you take Hellions and use Hit and Run like a boss.

Wyches can tie up the walker for a long time with a few sharnets and a 4++ but hitting on a 6+ with grenades means you deal no damage back

a Talos will probably murder most walkers in combat. With a bunch of attacks and 2D6 armor penetration you are good to go



any other unit will probably just end up being stuck with them forever. AVOID/KILL the walkers. Honestly the ability of walers to tie up units like this is why a lot of people take them.


on an un-related note, do people think that an Ork Kan-wall style army would be hard for the DE to deal with. You have a lot of walkers and horde units, which seem to be both of the weaknesses of the DE book, kinda.

Well, the old agonizer had a chance to take down a Dread.
Actually I did it quite often. But now, the cc weapons of DE are rather useless.

on an un-related note, do people think that an Ork Kan-wall style army would be hard for the DE to deal with. You have a lot of walkers and horde units, which seem to be both of the weaknesses of the DE book, kinda.

Well, nine Killa Kanz can be a pain.
Dark matter shots should take them down. But I know its hard thanks to cover saves.

Wish I could pretend my wraithlord is a walker v_v

Haywire Grenades on Wych units do the job eventually. The Wyches aren't going anywhere fast (shardnets + invulnerable save) and you're going to start rolling meaningful damage results at some point.

They're a pain to deal with though and Wyches aren't and efficient answer at all. You should be able to control the Dreads with your Lances and Blasters, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Your stuff should mvoe a lot faster than Dradnoughts can, so keep that to your advantage and get shots on them with your Lance weapons. If you have to tie one up to hold it in place because you can't put Lance weapons on it and it is absout to cause serious problems, a unit of Wyches will last a very long time against it.

I dont see what the problem with wyches CCing Dreads is...they do it pretty well.

10 wyches coming in with Haywire....you're going to get 1-2 6's at least. You dont have to bust armour...just dont roll a 1, and you're going first.

All you have to do is stun/Immobilise and next turn you're hitting on WS value which will be a 4+ (3+ with a Combat Drug WS increase).

As pointed out...shardnets make it really hard for the dread to return damage when combined with the 4++ dodge.

Obviously you want to SHOOT dreads..but if you're in a situation that you need to charge one to shut it up/destroy it, wyches are pretty good at stopping the dreadnoughts. Especially since it takes generally two turns at least to kill one in HtH. "1st.... charge, stun, stay in combat. 2nd...remain in combat during opponents shooting phase, hit dread on 4+ with 9 or so Haywires, Kill it....free from combat on your next movement."


I kill dreads/defilers ALL THE TIME with my wych unit, generally on the second turn of HtH....as a matter of fact, the main reason they're in my army is to HtH Dreads. (I run a primarily Kabal list.)

Sure wyches dont charge and DESTROY dreads on the turn they charge...but think of the reverse. Dreadnoughts fight HORRIBLY against wyches with haywire and shardnets...they will do NOTHING until they finally die to the grenades. It's only a matter of time.

Wyches and Talos, as described, are pretty much it, unless you get some crazy Archon with his S10 courtesy of a soul-trap. Generally, avoid it or tarpit it.

The kan wall has potential against the DE. IMO, the kan wall (mass rokkit kans, rokkit buggies, lootas, and shoota boyz supported by a couple KFF meks) is the "best" overall ork list, for what it's worth, and can give lots of armies fits.

Beastmaster units should do well. Get a clawed fiend, stick a few wounds on him from shooting, and he should be around 7-8 attacks on the charge at str 7-8.

Really, though, shooting is the best option. Haywires are dangerous, because there's the chance to blow the dread up, which can kill a lot of wyches.