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as all marine players know each legions dreadnought does a different abillites or rules, but my main reason for posting this is about the chaos dreadnought and with its fire frenzy rule, if you role a 1 at the start of the shootiing phase he has to shoot all of his weapons twiceat the nearest visable unit, friend or foe unless out of range, thus treating it as a sane result, now this rule alot of people that ive talked to says it is bad news and to stay away from dreadnoughts, but i did a bit of research and found out that its not as bad as you might think, now im not much of a big person on chance but the chances of roling a number other than a one is in your favour and if your dreadnought is in the middle of the enemy and you happen to punch out a 1 then it will work in your favour.
And the last thing is the bloodrage rule, never liked this rule, its to risky, mainly because if you do happen to role a 6 and run like hell at the nemy, you could fined yourself running into a death trap, but it can also have its advantages, like getting you across the table alot faster.

Whats you oppionion on these rules?

BDA

Some people like them, some dont. People who play in tournies never use them, because you don't know conclusively what it will do next turn, thus downtoning the strategy of the game. People who play exclusively for fun seem to like them more though, I myself have Three

thats the fun of them. go the dreads!!!!!

Chaos Dreads are worthless (they didn't get a new model kit, so of course they are!). Never mind the fact that AV12 vehicles die in an instant, the fact that you can't control them for 1/3rd of the game just makes them impossible to use.

Spend the points on something you actually have control over.

BYE

Here are their problems:
1, Armor 12 is terrible and there is no way to improve it with upgrades other than extra armor. No venerable for Chaos

2, They are unreliable, you do not know what they will do 1/3 of the time.

3, They suffer from poor weapon loadout. You cant make them a long range heavy weapon platform because they might kill your own guys. You do not have the jack-of-all-trades weapon that marines have (assault cannon).

4, They are much slower than the marine counterpart becuse they cannot be drop podded.

5, The model is the worst in the current CSM line. Unless you go Forgeworld and are willing to pay a hefty price.

yeah,
I don't think they are 'worthless' but i can't argue that they are unpredictable.
I've been chewing the fat in another thread working out viablity as a CCWx2 dread
and i've realised that a few of the cheap weapons loads don't do as much damage as you'd expect when you roll a unfortunate 1 when your own blokes are closest

For 100 pts you get a cheap threat that can't be ignored
as long as you move forward every turn after turn 2 chances are the ememy will catch the fire/blood frenzys
and while enemy consentrates most of his antitank on your dreads AV12 does die but not straight away, then the rest of your army can breath easy...
like all dreads if they hit a squad with no powerfists or strength 5 or less, they can't loss the combat.
field three in a 'squad' that's a mear 300-400points that screams "look at me i'm a threat" and when one fire frenzy's it's likely he hits another and you can turn both so the hit is on front armour so maybe it survives...maybe.
I've been running them to underwhelming success in my recent battle reports... but as you can see they attract fire, stand up to a bit of punnishment and occassionally make their points back... (links in my sig)

FW dreads arn't that expensive... can hear the laughter... but really:
£28 for the body 12 for a pair of weapons plus postage 4.80 £44.80 total (extra arms £6 a pop?)
compared to GW £30
so it's £15 more for a much better dread...
maybe 50% more is alot... i dunno...

PaniC...

To be honest I'm in the Chaos Dreads suck hard camp. But I run one. I don't play in tournaments, if I ever did start having the chance I would completely retool my list but in my FLGS I run that one dread because of that tactical edge you might need to make it work. I always keep it out of LOS of my other units unless it is extremely close to the enemy. I never let it pair up against something I know it can't hurt (doesn't always work out that way). I've never rolled a 1 with it before although it wouldn't have been able to see me and hurt my units. And it has rolled some 6s so I know what it's like when I could have stood there and laid down some heavy fire then watch it charge into CC without a Dread CCW (I run it ML/HB).

I also didn't purchase the model I converted mine out of some old Star Wars minis and a bunch of bits. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it and it's not even finished or painted (Still waiting on some IG HB bits from a friend). Even if they were any good I probably still wouldn't buy that model. I think any metal Dreadnought really isn't worth it. And it doesn't look all that great either.

As for the dread rules themselves I wish it was different the "OMG Chaos is Random! Random action chart yeah!" attitude that GW took is ridiculous. They are all also statically the same, no venerables or anything. It would be nice to see them with a purchasable firefrenzy flavored ability or purchasable blood rage ability. As is they just aren't good. But it leaves GW another chance to not screw up in the next Chaos codex.

Edit: Dire Avengers seem to ignore it as it runs up behind them, farseers too. It always seems to get the drop on Eldar.

I agree with most of the posts here and thats why i've been trying to make deadnoughts work.

I have to correct Darrien13 when he said they can't be drop podded. If you own a dreadclaw assault pod then your chaos dread sure can drop in.

Dropping them with dreadclaws make them much more effective.

Another thing i noticed when pouring over the entry in the new chaos codex was the ability to replace a single close combat weapon with a missile launcher. So, i've been experimenting with using a missile launcher and close combat arm configuration. It only costs 100points and if the missile launcher shoots you own guys just have it fire frag instead of krak, thereby decreasing its ability to kill yer own dudes.

for just a couple more points you can also give it a heavy flamer. Its not very expensive in this configuration and it adds some nice long range fire and close range protection from infiltrators and the like.

I dont know, i need to try it more but this seems like something most people have over looked.

I think at 100 points the CC Dread is a bargain. Its unpredictable. I play a more Shooty Chaos list and I use one to protect my gun line as I don't upgrade my units to have champions or war gear. I try to hide it and sometimes it goes nuts and pops its head out of terrain. The base cost of Marine dreads is 125. So for 25 points less you get a Dreadnought that is superior in combat.
The problem I find is people look at a codex entry, the points cost and what else can I get for that value. Instead of trying to work with a unit. I use possessed and they make their points back at least 3 quarters of the time. Every unit has a niche, if you don't use it properly of course its going to suck.

Typeline wrote: I think any metal Dreadnought really isn't worth it. And it doesn't look all that great either.

Actually I like the old rediculous models... make for at least highly entertaining models.

Typeline wrote:As for the dread rules themselves I wish it was different the "OMG Chaos is Random! Random action chart yeah!" attitude that GW took is ridiculous. They are all also statically the same, no venerables or anything. It would be nice to see them with a purchasable firefrenzy flavored ability or purchasable blood rage ability. As is they just aren't good. But it leaves GW another chance to not screw up in the next Chaos codex.

I understand completely where you are coming from, the random aspect of Chaos is something GW seems intent on preserving... it does add a different element to the mix.

Personally I enjoy the complete random aspect of my chaos army. They always get their kills (although sometimes from their own ranks). I run a Fabius Bile horde of marines, mix in some dreads and spawns for some random support.

Is the army a 100% win condition? No... do I have fun 100% of the time... you bet!

Since I play competitively, I do not consider dreadclaws a viable choice since it is illegal in RTT and GT play

Darrian13 wrote:Since I play competitively, I do not consider dreadclaws a viable choice since it is illegal in RTT and GT play

Same, it would be a nice option. If it were legal. GW could definitely sell me some plastic chaos dreads with plastic chaos drop pods if they made chaos dreads good.

yeah,
If drop pods become legal for Chaos I'll buy 3 pronto, dreads would become a totally viable unit!
and probabily buy another 2 just to deliver some other squads... my plague marines told me they 'don't like to walk.'

If PODs are loyalists only GW missed a pretty big boat...

PaniC...

I am hoping they add them to the chaos list via white dwarf. then yes i would pick up some for chaos. 6 or so
3 for the dccw dreads and 3 for the thousand sons.