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Has anyone used a dreadnought armed with a plasma cannon and close combat weapon or a plasma cannon and missile launcher or auto cannon? If so, how effective was the dreadnought and any recommendations you may have?

I have recently been fielding Bjorn with a plasma cannon and it works really well. Plasma cannons are so nasty against infantry and the fact that they don't get hot on vehicles makes them a great choice. If you're going for a normal dreadnaught then consider making it venerable for the extra bs so it doesn't scatter as much. Use meltas to pop vehicles then target the juicy inards with the dreadnaught's plasma cannon.

Well, they aren't one of the more popular dreadnought configurations, but I'm sure they have their uses. The best reason to take them, in my mind, is if your list lacks Marine killing power.

The main advantage is that Dreadnoughts are the only units the Space Wolves and vanilla Marines have that can take plasma cannons and ignore Gets Hot! rolls, which is always good.

I'd also say that an autocannon or missile launcher would be a better choice than a DCCW.

Autocannons work nicely paried with a Plasma Cannon. Against MCs and light transports, you get three shots, (instead of 4 with dual TL-Autocannons) but one is now AP2. Against Marines and Terminators, you'll do the most damage with the Plasma cannon, with the extra firepower from the autocannons.

Missile launchers are okay. You get two small blast templates this way, which is always nice, though Marines generally don;t worry about Frag blasts. You can also threaten slightly higher armor values. A missile launcher also insta-kills a Marine, if it wounds.

I think the only poor choice is a DCCW. Since the main reason for bringing this thing is anti-MEQ, you don;t want to put it in assault range with Marines. They come with Krak grenades, which need some awesome luck, but can threaten your Dread. It also means that you'll be in melta range, which is never fun, since Marines are usually always packing melta.

Hope this helps.

A Plasma Dread is one of my personal faves. It's cheaper than a Lascannon, especially in scenarios where I need more anti-TEQ firepower, and I personally almost never take Assault Cannons on Dreads so I would recommend it.

My brother uses a PC dread and well it ruins our Marine armies quite fast if we got in range. However whenever something hits it's face it keels over like someone kicked it. Quite amusing

Juvieus Kaine wrote:However whenever something hits it's face it keels over like someone kicked it. Quite amusing

that is true of any dread tho so that shouldn't be a factor for deciding to take the plasma cannon or not.

Problem is that it is already too expensive with just the PC, and replacing the DCCW off the other arm just makes it an even harder sell. I just think the points could be better spent elsewhere in the SM codex, and most definitely in the other Marine codices.

With the arrival of the new DE and the possibility of almost an entire army packing FNP I will admit that you will see a few more plasma guns mixed in with the melta out there, and plasma cannons have more use than before. Sadly however they still cost the same.

I've been building a DA "Deathwing" force, and their DN with the Plasma seems to work out quite well for me... Especially since I can keep the Techmarine BtB hiding in it's shadow :-) I'm seeing a lot of Terminator type targets locally, but YMMV of course...

Cheap Dread w/PC is nice against FNP.

It's also good in an aggressive mechanized list, as your opponent has other pressing targets for his heavy weapons, and the forward-moving Tanks/transports can bunch up enemy units via Tank Shock to make for nastier PC hits. And the relatively low strength of the PC keeps the risk of scattering onto your transport not too scary.

Dreads are also a nice situational tool against certain enemy armies/units, like Chaos: Daemon Bloodcrushers, or Ork armies using Snikrot.

Plasma Dreads are trap units, with its intended targets such as TEQs, and MEQs, they are really bad, because any half decent player will maximize coherency giving you only 1 target to hit. And whats even worse is if that target is in cover, you merely reduced his save from 3+ to 4+.

And then there's the issue of scattering. Marines are basically BS4, the chances of hitting with a blast weapon is lower so you are giving yourself a handicap. Paying extra points to handicap yourself is not a good idea. A Multimelta is better on a dread as it gives you a deterrent weapon, 1 MM is not a guaranteed tank kill but it will guarantee your opponents steering clear from it.

If you really want plasma cannons, get them from tacs.

I disagree. Dreads can be vulnerable, but they can also move & fire, which makes them a better platform for PC than a Tac squad.

Squad clumping still happens, expecially when people want to drive up in their transport, jump out and shoot. Or when you Tank Shock them to force the issue.

You definitely need to mitigate the cover issue, but that's not an insurmountable obstacle. If there's a lot of cover on the table, the Dread tends to become a lower-priority target for your opponent anyway, and you can focus on getting him into a position to get a clear shot or to assault at S10.