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Originally I saw lots of peoples reaction to this unit, mainly the fact that it wasn't a 35pt drop pod and so just glanced over it in my book. But after seeing a thread in which a poster suggested running kharn in a dreadclaw for anti-knight duty, I woke up and had a proper look and consideration.
The mistake I (and I imagined many others) made, is that I fell into the trap of its name. It's not a drop pod AT ALL. To use it as such is a massive waste of points.
It's really an av12 3hp fast skimmer, with ASSAULT. It has a 4+ jink and deepstrikes T1. Now this last point cannot be overstated, that means if you are going second, you're guarenteed its going to turn up, and your opponent has missed a turn of shooting at it. It also means you can 'counterdeploy againt them - with its 18" turboboost + 6" next turn + 2" disembark + charge, the only way to avoid that charge is to destroy it. And since it is an assault vehicle, you can charge next turn if it is wrecked anyway, so only an explodes will stop the charge.
Talking about wrecking it, it has av12 all round, and has a 4+ jink, making it as durable as a serpent (edit: without holofields) (although a serp doesn't have to come in range of stuff a dreadclaw does admittedly). It's deamonic possession ignores 2/3 of the damage table, and since it doesn't have a weapon, this means it is 5/6 as effective as a serp shield in defensive mode (not including ap1/2). We all know that's incredibly durable.
Once it has dropped off its cargo it can go into flight mode and zoon over lots of units in an 18-36" line, causing d6 st5 ap5 ignores cover hits to every unit it does so.
It's not just kharn that benefits. Terminators can fit inside (think chainfists maybe), as can abbadon, bezerkers, any infantry unit you want in combat.
Another major advantage it has is that it can be taken as either a DT for CSMs or chosen and thus get access to OS, or can be taken as FA for any other unit.

So don't think of it as a drop pod. Think of it as the games toughest assault fast skimmer with plenty of other benefits besides.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Edit: actually you can still charge out of an assault vehicle that has suffered an explodes result as well can't you?

Yes you can charge from an exploded Assault Vehicle

I agree that they must not be thought of as regular pods, but I still think they are too expensive. 70-75 points would be good. The fact that they might mishap and that they can eat your models are pretty big downsides for me, too.

Oh, and if I want them for any decent unit I have to use a Fast Attack slot, which I would rather use for bikes, spawn, heldrakes, hell blades or even raptors. If they were dedicated to cult troops, I'd be all in.

Although a Razorback with upgraded gun costs 75pts, which doesn't have anywhere near as many advantages.

Advantages of the razorback over the dreadclaw:
-Doesn't eat a passenger 1/6 of the time.
-doesn't worry about mishaps
-has a 6" disembark
-can ram

Advantages of the dreadclaw over the razorback:
-has transpot cap of 10.
-is a skimmer
-is fast (so has 18" flat out)
-has 4+ jink
-has av12 all round
-is an assault vehicle (huge)
-can fly
-ignores stunned and shaken on a 2+
-doesn't care about weapon destroyed results

-its arguable which has the best attacks, razorback can shoot from t1 and has either a tl lascannon/tl ac etc, the dreadclaws attacks have ignores cover, automatically hit and can hit a massive amount of units in one turn. I personally can see the dreadclaw causing more points of damage over the game.

Do those advantages really balance out?

I think the single dreadclaw to deliver a high damage unit has potential. I think they are a bit pricy to build an army around (also you only get half T1).

Wonder if abbadon + termies/mutilators would work in one. Abbaddon can switch of the eating, which is handy.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Abbaddon can switch of the eating, which is handy.

Can he?

He's a technomancer so yes. He can even make it eat someone of his choosing to get back a hull point.

Whats interesting is that this rule is useful in the regular chaos codex, but you dont learn about it unless you have ia13

He's only a Technomancer if your Army has more than one Infernal Relic though.
Note that the Dread claw isn't one.

Hmmmmmmm

Thats a bit weird. Not that the infernal relics aren't worth taking.

This is the reason i'm getting one.

Does anyone have a side by side size comparison of the old dreadclaw versus the new one?

The Daemonic Possetion is a pain, especially when you stick a Contemptor in there.
Just can't help rolling anything other than a 1

Take 3 dreadclaws, abbadon and kharn in the first two with attached squads. Take Be'lakor. Zoom Be'lakor forward T1 close to centre of opponents force. Drop first two dreadclaws in safe enough area within 24" of Be'lakor. Cast shrouded. Flat out pods to within 6" of belakor.

Dreadclaws now have a 2+ jink.

Assault 4 different targets with 2 squads, abbadon and kharn.

A classy idea. It might fall short on assault range. move 6, disembark 6 (or 8 or 2? did we get to the bottom of that) then 2d6 charge. probably worth the icon of wrath.

Give a Dreadclaw the Legacy of Ruin - Auloth the Primordial Iterator and anything with an icon of Wrath within 12" of it gain FNP and Fear. The vehicle also gains Pinning on all its weapons. And its only a measly 40 points.

uh, yeah that was my thought, but the daemonic possession means thats not allowed :(

Oh yeah, the whole "Already a warp spirit" thing. Forgot about that. Oh well, Id rather the 40points on something like a Land Raider XD

You can only use the fire attacks while the drop pod is in hover mode. Can't do it while zooming. And they cause a penetrating hit on a 1.

 Spellbound wrote:
You can only use the fire attacks while the drop pod is in hover mode. Can't do it while zooming. And they cause a penetrating hit on a 1.

Where in its rule does it say you have to be in hover mode? It says every unit it passes over in the movement phase suffers d6 st 5 ap 5 hits, counting as a flamer attack. It doesn't mention anything about having to be in hover as far as I remember (at work atm).

The paragraph above that states that it's used when hovering.
Fun fact though. because its not a shooting attack, you can fly over units in combat and burn them! A nice little support for the troops you just dropped off.