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Do you prefer to field chaos dreadnought in to your army even though they are crazy? And what is your best tactica for them?

Yes. I initially thought they were terrible, but theyre now an option I always take.

The best way to use them is to either give them an extra close combat weapon or missile launcher (possibly a plasma cannon if you run a second) and run them up the board. The missile launcher can be a nice way to shake enemy tanks up, and is a minor threat (or none at all if you run two) as you can simply use the S4 blast mode if it goes crazy.

If you are always thinking close combat first, then theres only a 1/6 chance your dread wont do what you want it to do. If you run two side by side, it's a 1/36 chance both wont.

The fact is, in a chaos list you run out of long range support extremely fast (heavy support slots). The dreadnought is cheap, gives you more armour running up the field, is good in close combat, and can shoot at long range. Dont depend on it for a crucial move, but it is a great support unit.

Total agreement. Although I haven;t used my dread with a gun attachment in a while, they are great as cheap percieved threat multipliers and can demolish tanks and troops alike. Obviouly they wont be beating th/ss terms anytime soon, but at only 110 points a pop for 5 s10 attacks on the charge is nothing to scoff at.

Yes, Dreads are cheap and effective, but your list has to be built to support them. They aren't something you can just throw into a list and expect them to do well. Running in multiples, or with a Landraider are the safest ways to midigate friendly fire if you take the ruling too harshy. I don't use them, although I stand by the ruling that they only attack what is in front of them (they find a target, using LoS from their guns according to BRB, THEN turn them to face their target). If you go for the second ruling you can be a lot more open with their builts, and they are much more useful as fire support. However you must always field them with atleast 1 CCW.

Night Lords and Darkhound have got it.

The rule specifically says "NO HOLDING BACK" so if you take a Missile Launcher you are obliged by the rules to fire the most damaging firing mode if you enter a fire frenzy. At least in tournaments I've been to.

If you run Plague marines, then you can get away with giving your Dread Autocannons since you get your armor save, and the FNP save. I usually spend 115 for the Autocannon and Heavy Flamer options in my Nurgle army.

Sure sometimes a Plague Marine takes one for the team, but mostly it chews up incoming transports and then cooks the squad inside. Occasionally it runs up and punches the transports, but it still works out.

He doesn't always get to come along to fights, but if I suspect I will be facing lots of mech on an open field, he gets to play.

I always take a chaos dreadnought with 2 DCCW's, a twin-linked bolter, and a heavy flamer. They are fantastic close combat units. Even if it does shoot your own models, it probably won't do much damage, if any.

Yep with that set up you can actually run the dread with rhinos and not have much problem even if it does hit rear armour(as you need 6s to glance it). The problem i ran into with them when running them with 2DCCWs is mine have a tendency to not make it to the enemy lines sometimes. This is why i have been running the ML dread when i do run him as of late. Usually i can get a few shots off before he gets popped.

Nitros14 wrote:The rule specifically says "NO HOLDING BACK" so if you take a Missile Launcher you are obliged by the rules to fire the most damaging firing mode if you enter a fire frenzy. At least in tournaments I've been to.

Uhhh, what? The only place I can think of it saying "no holding back" is in reference to close combat. You must move all your models into base to base, even if it means taking a dangerous and/or difficult terrain test.

I ran 3 against marines, probably 1 too many. But when they went crazy I just move another one in front of it and pivoted it so it hit on the side and couldn't even glance. I think they're best when running more than one. I do love when you roll a 6 though

I won't leave home without 1 and now I love running two of them with 2 DCCW.

I love the things. Dual CCW dreads are cheap and effective. its hard to beat 5 S 10 attacks on the charge. Take 3 and keep them all together and you have a block of CC armor that is very difficult to engage.

To utilize them though you need to know how to equip them. Against hordes I think you really need the ML, but against MEQ's what do you equip them with, 2 DCCW?

multi melta all the way. the only way to get relatively mobile longer range melta.

i run 3 with multi melta/extra armor with 2 demon princes right behind. gives the DP cover and 3 multi melta gives you some hope against vehicles.

ser_hag wrote:multi melta all the way. the only way to get relatively mobile longer range melta.

i run 3 with multi melta/extra armor with 2 demon princes right behind. gives the DP cover and 3 multi melta gives you some hope against vehicles.

wat

No, do not do this! Your Dreadnoughts will kill each other before you make it to the enemy. Don't forget that the Firing Frenzy fires twice; two shots of Melta is more than enough for a Dreadnought.

If I let my dreads get in each others fire arcs then I would deserve to let them blow each other up, but its not hard to keep them so they are out of each others multi melta arc. It's only 90 degrees after all.

Ah, you're one of those then! Well, you need to say these things, because most people assume Walkers use Infantry LoS, in which case the Dreads would utterly eat each other.

Yeah, I would agree that walkers use infantry LOS, which makes putting a whole bunch of them together with MM's a bad idea.

Also, under the fire frenzy rule, don't you still have to shoot twice at the nearest unit with your TLB's on the DCCW's/flamers/etc? Which means they are still not going to be doing anything useful 1/3 of the time even if you arm them with twin DCCW's.

Don't get me wrong, I love dreads and have 5 myself (used to have 6 but I turned one of them into a summoned greater daemon ), but you have to appreciate that chaos dreads are a mixed blessing and can indeed be a curse.

This might help

http://www.theruleslawyers.com/2009/09/chaos-dreadnought-fire-frenzy-in-5th-edition/

I didn't actually realise you could still pivot in the movement phase. Hell, I might have to finish my Malal Dread project and get it into the fight.

Well, I have a FW EC Dread with a lascannon.
I fielded it several times in my EC army.
But this guy tends to get crazy in 1st turn so that he shoots twice my units. Too bad.
Therefore, I deploy him at the opposite flank to counter his damage potential.

DarkHound wrote:Ah, you're one of those then! Well, you need to say these things, because most people assume Walkers use Infantry LoS, in which case the Dreads would utterly eat each other.

yeah, i am 'one of those'. if by 'one of those' you mean 'plays by the rules of 5th ed'. that ruleslaywers post illustrates it beautifully.

if it wasnt like that i would totally agree with you, chaos dreads which are currently only marginally good with mm/xtra armor would be absolute trash

No, no, I do agree with that ruling. The issue is most people are uneducated and any attempts to educate strangers on the subject comes off as being a rules lawyer, TFG, WAAC, whatever.

So now the Dread is even more useful. Spin 'em sideways and let them blow smoke if they don't want to cooperate. I might just have to get a Venerable kit and get another Plasmacannon in my list.

yeah, it sucks having to explain it to people. luckily pretty well everyone at the shop i play at understands the way it works so its not a prob for me.

the reason i say mm over any other weapon is cuz its one of the few ways for chaos to get multis. melta is so important in 5th ed and the best melta platforms (oblits) sometimes want to stay far away from enemy where the dreads have no problem getting stuck in with just about anything (mostrous creatures being the biggest exception). plus the mm is so good that it actually makes people decide between it and the dccw when they get a weapon destroyed result on them.

the other reason i like the mm so much is cuz the other choices are just so...meh. the lascannon is too dangerous to your own troops to have it sitting back doing long range shootouts, and lets face it, oblits do the long range lascannon thing better. same thing with the plasma cannon and the autocannon. missile launcher? plague marines do the anti tank/anti troop hybrid thing better.

That article was very helpful, and is really making me want to try 3 MM dreads instead of 3 CCW dreads.

ser_hag wrote:yeah, it sucks having to explain it to people. luckily pretty well everyone at the shop i play at understands the way it works so its not a prob for me.

the reason i say mm over any other weapon is cuz its one of the few ways for chaos to get multis. melta is so important in 5th ed and the best melta platforms (oblits) sometimes want to stay far away from enemy where the dreads have no problem getting stuck in with just about anything (mostrous creatures being the biggest exception). plus the mm is so good that it actually makes people decide between it and the dccw when they get a weapon destroyed result on them.

the other reason i like the mm so much is cuz the other choices are just so...meh. the lascannon is too dangerous to your own troops to have it sitting back doing long range shootouts, and lets face it, oblits do the long range lascannon thing better. same thing with the plasma cannon and the autocannon. missile launcher? plague marines do the anti tank/anti troop hybrid thing better.

i converted a plasma cannon and MM for both dreds i have, but with so many meltaguns in my CSM squads i go apeshit with the dual CCW and xtra armor

My opponent always fields 1 and on most occasions fields 2. In all the games we've played its rarely caused a major issue when he roll's 1 or 6. On occasion it has caused him a hinderence and given me the advantage but it rarely lasts.

He usually fields a plasma cannon dread and a lascannon dread

DarkHound wrote:No, no, I do agree with that ruling. The issue is most people are uneducated and any attempts to educate strangers on the subject comes off as being a rules lawyer, TFG, WAAC, whatever.

So now the Dread is even more useful. Spin 'em sideways and let them blow smoke if they don't want to cooperate. I might just have to get a Venerable kit and get another Plasmacannon in my list.

The CSM FAQ says you can't blow smoke launchers on the turn a dreadnought does fire-frenzy!

No, I didn't mean activate smoke launchers. I was using a common phrase. Blowing smoke means you're saying something that isn't true to make yourself seem bigger than you are. By saying the Dreadnought would turn around and blow smoke, I implying that its threat of shooting everything in sight wouldn't match the reality of its actions.