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I'm thinking of picking up a deff dread for my orks, but I just wondered whats the best way to run them?
Also your favourite loadouts for them.

I bet most people will tell you get killer kans instead. However, I load mine with rokkits and a red paint job. It function in my army is a counter charge unit.

Back in ye olde 5th, the ancient generals would run Deff Dreads in what was known as the "Kan Wall", a formation where you'd take two big meks with KFF to take two deff dreads as troops, took max killa kans, then put them in a way where all the walkers would be covered by the KFF for a +4 save (because vehicles that were in cover always counted as having a +4 cover save) while the rest of the army ran behind it (because you got +4 for intervening units).

Sadly, 6th edition kicked that list in the teeth. KFF now just gives +5 to vehicles, intervining units give +5 and only to models that are hidden behind a walker rather than the whole unit, and killer kans now have 2 HPs. Even in 5th, deff dreads weren't very good on their own due to being slower than the mech heavy meta and requiring a lot of points for something that can be hit once and be turned into a 100+ point piece of terrain and sucks at the long range game. They're made worse due to hull points and now that grenades hit based on WS rather than only hitting on 6+ which makes your main target, space marines, a prickly enemy to assault (as well as the general assault nerf). As something to bodyguard a objective they might not be too bad since the enemy would have to come to you, but it's still not optimal.

As for my favorite load out, that bs 2 makes any ranged weapon pointless, so I either take 3 dreadnought weapons and a burna, or go the full 9 yards and take 4 dreadnought weapons.

I don't usually use a dread but this works for my cans so it should work for you:
run a squad of boys/gretchin in front of him, it gives him his own personal meat sheild and then ethier two rokkits two big shootaz or dreadnought close combat weapons depending on the situation.

j_p_chess wrote:I bet most people will tell you get killer kans instead. However, I load mine with rokkits and a red paint job. It function in my army is a counter charge unit.

Yeah i've been toying with the idea of Killa Kans, but I want something more hard hitting in cc.

Luke_Prowler wrote:Back in ye olde 5th, the ancient generals would run Deff Dreads in what was known as the "Kan Wall", a formation where you'd take two big meks with KFF to take two deff dreads as troops, took max killa kans, then put them in a way where all the walkers would be covered by the KFF for a +4 save (because vehicles that were in cover always counted as having a +4 cover save) while the rest of the army ran behind it (because you got +4 for intervening units).

Sadly, 6th edition kicked that list in the teeth. KFF now just gives +5 to vehicles, intervining units give +5 and only to models that are hidden behind a walker rather than the whole unit, and killer kans now have 2 HPs. Even in 5th, deff dreads weren't very good on their own due to being slower than the mech heavy meta and requiring a lot of points for something that can be hit once and be turned into a 100+ point piece of terrain and sucks at the long range game. They're made worse due to hull points and now that grenades hit based on WS rather than only hitting on 6+ which makes your main target, space marines, a prickly enemy to assault (as well as the general assault nerf). As something to bodyguard a objective they might not be too bad since the enemy would have to come to you, but it's still not optimal.

As for my favorite load out, that bs 2 makes any ranged weapon pointless, so I either take 3 dreadnought weapons and a burna, or go the full 9 yards and take 4 dreadnought weapons.

Yeah I was thinking if I go for it, 3 dccw and a burns, with keeping my big mek with KFF within range to try and keep him in the game until he can wreck havoc.

DA SPEED FREEK wrote:I don't usually use a dread but this works for my cans so it should work for you:
run a squad of boys/gretchin in front of him, it gives him his own personal meat sheild and then ethier two rokkits two big shootaz or dreadnought close combat weapons depending on the situation.

Yeah gretchins are a great cheap meat shield, I was thinking mainly cc, but I might attempt to magnetise the weapons so I can switch them around depending on what im facing

Two Skorchas, two DCCW. I tend to give them Riggers as well.

You need to pick your targets carefully and make sure the opponent has other units to target to ensure your Dread can get to his destination safely, unless you use a lot of large terrain in which case you can hop it from cover to cover to block LOS. The Skorchas don't rely on BS and are geared towards softening up targets before you charge. I wouldn't use him as the main heavy hitter of an army (boys beofre tyos and all that), but while the horde is getting stuck in I would use him to go after vehicles and other smaller units, or as was said above, to lurk in a part of the board you want to guard.

I used mine yesterday pretty well to sit near an objective. He ended up dying but took the fire from a stormtalon for those two turns.

Because of my Big Mek he was a troop choice. I loaded him out with two big shootas for the long range support. But really with front and side armor 12 and 3 HP, he did pretty well at soakin up attention while I was able to work elsewhere around the board. for 85 points, thats a pretty cheap and effective way to contest/hold an objective.

Does he become scoring if hes troop? He still falls under the rules for not scoring/denying as he is a vehicle. i could never find anything saying Troop vehicles could score/deny.

I'm pretty sure he isn't scoring or denial.

As for the best way to use Deff Dreads? Non-competitively.

Dreads excel at very low-point games where your opponent simply can't deal with the large number of cheap hull points. At 750 or 500 you can easily swarm them with just too much.
For example, in a 500 point game you can take a KFF mek, 2 Deff Dreads, and 5 Killa Kans. If your opponent brings aircraft you are probably screwed, but still. You've got 16 Hull Points with 5+ cover at all times.

I'm looking at running 2 Deff Dreads and 3 Kans in a 1000pt tournament. Theres no fliers and no duplicate non-troop unit choices ergo why I can take two Dreads. Reckon it'll work?

 Dakkamite wrote:
I'm looking at running 2 Deff Dreads and 3 Kans in a 1000pt tournament. Theres no fliers and no duplicate non-troop unit choices ergo why I can take two Dreads. Reckon it'll work?

It should. You'll need a KFF Mek backing them up and ideally a Battlewagon loaded with Shoota boys too. 2 dreads and 3 kans only knocks you back about 300 points, so you can easily fill the gaps in that list.

Vineheart01 wrote:Does he become scoring if hes troop? He still falls under the rules for not scoring/denying as he is a vehicle. i could never find anything saying Troop vehicles could score/deny.

You couldn't find it, because it doesn't exist. Vehicles can't ever score or deny for any reason.

The deff dread simply exists in the wrong context. Comparable units in other codices are either AV13 which is a huge jump in survivabilty (Soul Grinders, Ironclads, DC Dreads), have some sort of "cheating" themselves into melee range (drop pods, deep strike, storm ravens, 12" movement) or get special rules to make them faster or more survivable (invulnerable saves, IWND, four hull points). When checking on all these walkers, you'll find that most of them aren't used a lot either. Our dread pretty much eradicates anything in close combat, but needs three turns to get there. You're basically spending 100 points to have your opponent dedicate a single lascannon to stopping it. Even the most expensive lascannons are about 35 points a piece, go figure.

 Jidmah wrote:
You couldn't find it, because it doesn't exist. Vehicles can't ever score or deny for any reason.

You might want to read Mission special rules again. Vehicles can score in both Big Guns Never Tire and the Scouring

Jidmah wrote:Our dread pretty much eradicates anything in close combat.

Unfortunately not true. With Init 2, our Dread gets his ass kicked by *a lot* of things before it gets a chance to swing. Nearly all monstrous creatures, other dreads or dedicated CC units will wreck him, and now that Krak grenades hit at WS, even a Tactical squad can make his life a living hell.

Dreads and Kans are in a very bad spot atm, and need a complete overhaul in order to become viable again. If you want to play competitively : not using them is the best way to "use them".

The dread (unlike KANz) only gets hit by by kraks on a 4+, and five out of six don't hurt it at all. A good friend of mine has recently bought two deff dreads, and from the games I watched, they always tore up anything they charged - if they got that far. Even CC experts usually struggle with our dread, since most high-strength weaponry is unwieldy. Most of the time they end up as big shoota sentry guns though.

Of course, you should never charge any combat oriented monstrous creature, since MCs are the paper to walker rocks. It should do fine when charging riptides, tervigons or similar MCs though.

Yea i ran a couple dredds once against a Nid player and charged into his flyrant that charged my lootas and somehow didnt wipe them out in 1 turn. He turned and Smashed the Dredd, wrecking 2 weapons before i could swing so i had 2 less attacks (and 1 hp left). And that was lucky on my end thats all that happened lol.

They can have what is it 8 attacks on the charge? im always a bit fuzzy on how the wording is for them (the FAQ confuses me more) for how many base attacks they got. All at I2 and S10 AP2. I2 doesnt sound like much but as mentioned before the main threat in melee is I1 stuff.

Orks really need something to deliver them. Give them some like 25pt upgrade to add a Drill 'Ead or something so it can burrow lol

What I want to know is... it begins with two DCCW, is the bonus attack included in its profile?

But yeah, that INT 2 really, really cripples it. Go all that way across the board, braving a torrent of S7 shooting, only to strike last against 90% of opponents when it actually gets into a fight.

I don't see a problem in that. How many opponents besides other walkers and MCs have a bunch of S6+ attacks above I1? I can't think of many that aren't named characters.

And named characters shouldnt be beaten by a 90-120pt model lol

Don't let your warboss hear that

I usually go for dual scorcha because his crappy bs makes shooting a joke.

 Jidmah wrote:
I don't see a problem in that. How many opponents besides other walkers and MCs have a bunch of S6+ attacks above I1? I can't think of many that aren't named characters.

The walkers and MCs are the issue.

The Deff Dread is an assault Dread. Yet its gonna lose handily to much more shooty dreads from other factions. Its one job is to wreck gak in melee and it can't even do that. I'd say the duel skorchas are going to do more damage with one shot than the DCCW will do for the rest of the game worth of assault phases.

A dread will easily munch any kind of MEQ troops in combat, including Khorne Berzerkers and Purifiers, has a high chance of causing more damage to a terminator unit than it costs and will completely wreck any kind of vehicle not armed with a dreadnought close combat weapon, including Eldar warwalkers, rifleman dreads and landraiders. It simply never gets that far.

Deff Dreads (with 2 Skorchas and 2 CCWs, or 1 Skorcha and 3 CCWs) work pretty decently in a Green Tide list. You'll have so many targets moving at the same speed that it'll be hard for your opponent to deal with anything. Either he'll spend a lot of time/guns shooting at your Dreads (which soak up a lot of fire) and your Boyz will get to combat relatively unscathed. Or the reverse.

 Jidmah wrote:
Don't let your warboss hear that

my warboss costs 160 so hes not in the range i gave lol

I imagine the opponent would simply say "Deff Dreads? Good, gives me something to shoot at efficiently with my Lascannons" and negate much of the benefit of a Green Tide.

One place where Deff Dreads really shine is Zone Mortalis. It seems to be a rule really - if it sucks in 40k, its probably good in ZM