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So i have been trying to find a good way to take them out. My thoughts are plasma is the best but i could be wrong. What are yalls thoughts. I am open to ideas.

Lightning Claws are Shred, Rending 6+, and grant two bonus attacks if you have two of them.
Seems worth a shot.

 JNAProductions wrote:
Lightning Claws are Shred, Rending 6+, and grant two bonus attacks if you have two of them.
Seems worth a shot.

didnt think about that. will have to give it a try

Yea, Lightning Claws are basically the most efficient way to do it. You can do it in about 20 plasma shots too.
Other things I've had success with: Throwing a 5 man recon squad with melta bombs into it. They kill 2 recon marines but the last 3 can plant their bombs and watch the fireworks.

There are not a lot of good ways to deal with contemptors in 2.0, one of the biggest failings of it.

edit: also, other contemptors with their melee fists.

 Rihgu wrote:
Yea, Lightning Claws are basically the most efficient way to do it. You can do it in about 20 plasma shots too.
Other things I've had success with: Throwing a 5 man recon squad with melta bombs into it. They kill 2 recon marines but the last 3 can plant their bombs and watch the fireworks.

There are not a lot of good ways to deal with contemptors in 2.0, one of the biggest failings of it.

edit: also, other contemptors with their melee fists.

thats a good point. yah the dreads seam realy powerful and its been so long that i have forgoten how to fight nidzila i was going to use the same tactic to fight the big nid monsters to fight the new dreads.

+1 for lightning claws. Especially if it's raven talons those obliterate dreads. Plasma support squads are also very effective, as is haywire and destroyers with meltabombs (wounds on 2+ due to the rad grenades and rerolls failed wounds, no armour saves and d3 wounds each)

There's quite a few good ways to deal with dreads but it's very different to v1 where they were vulnerable to anti tank weapons like lascannons and missiles. It's just a change it mindset to adapt to. Same as land speeders being very durable against single shot AT but getting ruined by volkite and heavy bolters

Bobug wrote:
+1 for lightning claws. Especially if it's raven talons those obliterate dreads. Plasma support squads are also very effective, as is haywire and destroyers with meltabombs (wounds on 2+ due to the rad grenades and rerolls failed wounds, no armour saves and d3 wounds each)

There's quite a few good ways to deal with dreads but it's very different to v1 where they were vulnerable to anti tank weapons like lascannons and missiles. It's just a change it mindset to adapt to. Same as land speeders being very durable against single shot AT but getting ruined by volkite and heavy bolters

i never played 1.0 but i played 7th 40k. for me this is new and exciting.

Why would lightning claws be preferable to power fists or chain fists when fighting dreads?

 Strg Alt wrote:
Why would lightning claws be preferable to power fists or chain fists when fighting dreads?

Because the fists are Unwieldy, so the dread smacks you first.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Why would lightning claws be preferable to power fists or chain fists when fighting dreads?

they swing last. but i made a unit that is half single claw and half powerfist/chainfists. that way i can get some hits in at the same time as the dread and then after i remove my dead the fists and hopfuly finish it off.

Brutal weapons.

No serious brutal against anything with wounds.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Why would lightning claws be preferable to power fists or chain fists when fighting dreads?

As others have said, unwieldy, but also less attacks and same amount of damage.
So you're paying for 3+ to wound by getting smacked first. I'd rather the 6+ to wound on 6-7 attacks per model.

Not Online!!! wrote:
Brutal weapons.

No serious brutal against anything with wounds.

thats what my vindicator is for. brutal 3. st 12

Instant Death, despite it's reduced capacity against contemptors still seems a viable way to go if you can rustle up enough attacks.

If you play 1st Legion then Knights Cenobium with Deathwing and either Slayer of Kings or Hunter of Beasts are a good choice. Plenty of Terranic Greatblades which have rending 5+ and murderous strike 5+, hitting at 1+ thanks to Deathwing and rerolling failed to wounds thanks to Hunter of Beasts or rerolling failed to hits with Slayer of Kings. Hunter of Beasts is likely the better option though
You will strike last due to TG's being two-handed but hopefully with the Invul 5+ you'll keep enough guys alive to take it down.

As well, the Consul Paladin is another option. Again, Deathwing/HoB with the terranic greatblade and the paladins WS of 6 will see some damage done.


Yes the whole thing is kind of reliant on the Rending and Murderous Strike activating. But it's a way that will get the job done.

 Snrub wrote:
Instant Death, despite it's reduced capacity against contemptors still seems a viable way to go if you can rustle up enough attacks.

If you play 1st Legion then Knights Cenobium with Deathwing and either Slayer of Kings or Hunter of Beasts are a good choice. Plenty of Terranic Greatblades which have rending 5+ and murderous strike 5+, hitting at 1+ thanks to Deathwing and rerolling failed to wounds thanks to Hunter of Beasts or rerolling failed to hits with Slayer of Kings. Hunter of Beasts is likely the better option though
You will strike last due to TG's being two-handed but hopefully with the Invul 5+ you'll keep enough guys alive to take it down.

As well, the Consul Paladin is another option. Again, Deathwing/HoB with the terranic greatblade and the paladins WS of 6 will see some damage done.


Yes the whole thing is kind of reliant on the Rending and Murderous Strike activating. But it's a way that will get the job done.

Two-Handed doesn't make you strike at I1.
You're thinking of Unwieldy.

Funny enough, nemesis bolters actually seem like a good reliable and cheap way to address the dreadnaought porblem on the field from across the board aswell

Take a recon squad and a vigilator, all with nemesis bolters. The Vigilator special rule gives him rending on a 2+, all the others have rending on a 5+.

Now why this is important is because rending not only buffs the wound to AP2, but it also wounds the target regardless of its toughness. So a S5 nemesis bolter is able to force a leviathan dread to use his invuln save from 72" away on a wound roll of 5+

Now not ideally the best solution, but its one more thing that makes the recon marines much more appealing and a cheap was to plink wounds off of a dread.

Noticed this thread and was going to post about Instant Death, but someone beat me to it. I just double checked all the applicable rules, and dreadnaughts seem to be vulnerable to it.

On the traitor side, a unit of WE Rampagers can take two-handed chain axes with Murderous Strike (5+), Shred, and +2 str. So while unwieldly means you'll lose 1-2 guys before you swing, each survivor will hit on 4s, wound on 4s, and ID on 5+. And they'll have 4 attacks on the charge. Give a squad jump packs and they can efficiently hunt dreads, especially those oriented towards shooting and therefor lacking the capacity to punch through their power armor.

 JNAProductions wrote:
Two-Handed doesn't make you strike at I1.
You're thinking of Unwieldy.

Oh you're absolutely right! Two-handed doesn't get the 1+ attack for two weapons. That's a better trade off.

So the Consul Paladin will be striking first with 3 attacks and a 5 man squad of Knights Cenobium will be dishing out 11 attacks (16 on the charge) that strike at the same time as the contemptor.

 morganfreeman wrote:
Noticed this thread and was going to post about Instant Death, but someone beat me to it. I just double checked all the applicable rules, and dreadnaughts seem to be vulnerable to it.

As I said, they are still vulnerable to Instant Death but thanks to the Automantic Deflector it's not a sure-fire thing, given that it only takes D3 wounds per wound instead of outright death. Still, when you have a potential 16 attacks coming at it, there's little chance of it surviving too long.

 morganfreeman wrote:
Noticed this thread and was going to post about Instant Death, but someone beat me to it. I just double checked all the applicable rules, and dreadnaughts seem to be vulnerable to it.

On the traitor side, a unit of WE Rampagers can take two-handed chain axes with Murderous Strike (5+), Shred, and +2 str. So while unwieldly means you'll lose 1-2 guys before you swing, each survivor will hit on 4s, wound on 4s, and ID on 5+. And they'll have 4 attacks on the charge. Give a squad jump packs and they can efficiently hunt dreads, especially those oriented towards shooting and therefor lacking the capacity to punch through their power armor.

I'd have to double check, but the rending 4+ on falax blades makes them superior to the chain axes against dreads (and honeslty most other targets).
Barbed hook lash or whatever is even better iirc.

The axe isn't super great option against most existing targets.

 ashlevrier wrote:
So i have been trying to find a good way to take them out. My thoughts are plasma is the best but i could be wrong. What are yalls thoughts. I am open to ideas.

Is there something wrong with meltas? Ten meltas on a squad of marines in a Rhino with a Multi-Melta turret ought to do it.

 Togusa wrote:

 ashlevrier wrote:
So i have been trying to find a good way to take them out. My thoughts are plasma is the best but i could be wrong. What are yalls thoughts. I am open to ideas.

Is there something wrong with meltas? Ten meltas on a squad of marines in a Rhino with a Multi-Melta turret ought to do it.

3+ to hit on 10 shots means 6.6 hits, so if all of them wound and they fail all of their 5+ invulnerable saves you can kill it. But you only have 3+ to wound (hey, re-rolls if you're within 6"!), so...

Iron Warriors check the potential Dread meta.

How so? My friend plays Iron Warriors, and we played on planet bowling ball (no terrain). I put 4 dreads down, and in 4 turns he had done 1 damage to 1 dread with his Tyrant Terminators. He could have taken heavy support squads with lascannons but it still would have taken ~ 2 squads of 9 (or 2 turns of 1 squad, or 1 squad with a BS boosting armistos centurion + tyrant of the lyssatra WLT, etc) to destroy 1.

 Rihgu wrote:
How so? My friend plays Iron Warriors, and we played on planet bowling ball (no terrain). I put 4 dreads down, and in 4 turns he had done 1 damage to 1 dread with his Tyrant Terminators. He could have taken heavy support squads with lascannons but it still would have taken ~ 2 squads of 9 (or 2 turns of 1 squad, or 1 squad with a BS boosting armistos centurion + tyrant of the lyssatra WLT, etc) to destroy 1.

That seems like very lucky saves rolls.

My thoughts are that IW can hit a volume of quality fire that others cant since they get the +1s vs dreads. Drown em in dice and they fail saves. Meltas/krak also wound em on 2s for IW, and plasma/auto on 3s

 Rihgu wrote:

 morganfreeman wrote:
Noticed this thread and was going to post about Instant Death, but someone beat me to it. I just double checked all the applicable rules, and dreadnaughts seem to be vulnerable to it.

On the traitor side, a unit of WE Rampagers can take two-handed chain axes with Murderous Strike (5+), Shred, and +2 str. So while unwieldly means you'll lose 1-2 guys before you swing, each survivor will hit on 4s, wound on 4s, and ID on 5+. And they'll have 4 attacks on the charge. Give a squad jump packs and they can efficiently hunt dreads, especially those oriented towards shooting and therefor lacking the capacity to punch through their power armor.

I'd have to double check, but the rending 4+ on falax blades makes them superior to the chain axes against dreads (and honeslty most other targets).
Barbed hook lash or whatever is even better iirc.

The axe isn't super great option against most existing targets.

Yeah you're right. I totally forgot about the atomantic shield and such.

IMHO I don't think that LC are worth for killing Contemptors, you can make some damage with them, but that WS5 is far better than you can think at first sight

In my games I'm using:
- Castraferrum Dreadnoughts with 2 Gravis Lascannons
- Contemptors with Gravis Lascannon and Gravis Fist
- Leviathans with Cyclonic Melta Lance and Siege Claw
- Assault Squads with Inferno Pistol
- Kratos/Spartan/Heavy Squads with Lasers

No one of that units are great killing other Dreadnoughts but they are something

The only units that I've used who are able to kill even a Leviathan in one single round are
- Tactical Support Squads with Graviton Shredders (IH) - Haywire special rule on a 5 guys squad with 10 shots
- Dark Furies (RG) with Chaplain - Rending 5+ with HA4~5, Hate and Shred and Sudden Strike to hit before enemy does
- Deliverers (RG) with or without Chaplain - Same as above but with 15 guys with HA5 and Battle Hardened, instead of Sudden Strike, to not die in front of a Gravis Power Fist at their single attacks (and mitigate Brutal USR)

Maybe the units of WE with their Rending 4+'s weapons can destroy it in a single round too but is a Legion who I don't play

As it's been pointed out, instant death attacks are quite effective against dreads, as are other dreads closing the distance to gakker it with it's own brutal fist.

As for ranged attacks, so far I haven't worked out anything that seems effective other than massed firepower. Anyone else got ideas for ranged options?

Plasma support squads, lascannon squads, and recon marines are decent at range.
Land speeders with grav/melta aswell.

The impossible happened to me last night, bolters, assault cannons, and volkite chipped down my contemptor enough for an Osiron to smack it's last 2 wounds off.

I agree that plasma support squads work decently, but disagree on Lascannon squads. Too few shots, they bounce off the deflector and the hits that do get through only do 1 damage. It takes a LOT of lascannons to burn through a Contemptor.

Autocannons are better, especially IW. We can put them on BS5 havocs and they get +1S