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I'm quite new and I was just wondering something about Dreadnoughts. My friend doesn't like them and that is because whenever he uses them they usually miss their target and then blow up. But then I hear others talking about how good they are. I'm mostly asking because I was thinking about getting one.
Are they worth it or does my friend have bad luck?

They can be good, but your friend should have some realistic expectations on what "good" means. If you want something that always hits what it's shooting at you don't want a dreadnaught unless it has twin-linked weapons and even then it will still miss, but at least it has two chances to hit.

You also should understand that models, units, and vehicles that are big, tough, and have the potential to inflict high damage or instant death are ones that your opponents will aim for first. So if you have 1 dreadnaught sitting out in the open it's going to get shot at, and it will blow up. You need to utilize cover where possible and block line of sight between the dreadnaught at opposing enemy units that can damage or destroy it.

They are like pretty much any unit, play them efficiently and they're more than worth it. Be it sending it into a squad to stop iot from charging you, be it sending it on a one way mission to destroy a land raider and stop you opponents HQ and retinue from charging... Every unit is "worth it" when used correctly.

When I play dreads, I usually play 3 or 4, I use furioso dreads with talons, brilliant for charging infantry not so for charging vehicles!

Again, you can use riflemen dreads pretty well too!

If you're unsure about buying one, I'd say proxy using one for a couple of games, or ebay!

disdamn pretty much covers it. They're generally not great and not terrible.

They suffer from being vehicles, which everyone but GW agrees they really shouldn't be.

Thanks people, I appreciate your answers

I like dreads. There is something iconic about the giant walking coffin, striding across the battlefield meting out death to the foes of man. They are not nearly as tough and awesome as the fluff makes them, but they are far from useless.

First thing to keep in mind is armor saturation. If you have one vehicle, it's going to eat a lascannon turn one and die. If you have 5-6 targets, some are going to live. And if the dread is the one that dies, he just gave the rhino full of marines a turn racing towards the objective in their box, rather then footslogging out in the open. Even in death, he serves.

The second thing to keep in mind is what you want it to do. Suicide drop? Fire support? TAC troubleshooter? While you can do OK in CC, watch your targets. There are a lot of things out there that will just tear you in half. On the flip side, there are a lot of things that just go away when a dread punches them. Low number of attacks keeps you from blendering squads, but a S10 power fist tends to crump what you do hit.

What gun you stick on it is dependent on what you want to do with it. While you can get firepower for less points elsewhere, there are some advantages of taking dreads. Being able to fire at full effect while moving is a nice one. Looking cool is another. There are few bad options, so pick one that fills a gap in your army's firepower. As a plus, the arms fit snugly on the pegs, so if you paint up the options, you can easily swap, even without magnets.

Yo, the "friend" here. Ork killer: I didn't say I don't like dreadnoughts, I was being specific to that game. No I like dreads, I just dont think the two did to well in that game, it was at school see, so we didn't have any terrain.

I like them, but they seem to be a little on the expensive side for how fragile they are anymore. As loathe as I am to say that something isn't viable, I just haven't figured out the right way to run them yet.

I love dreadnought models.

Not so keen on how badly they got mauled by the changes to the vehicle rules for 6th edition. They lose weapon options due to the snap shot rules making blast weapons largely pointless, and they die far too quickly thanks to Hull points.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
Yo, the "friend" here. Ork killer: I didn't say I don't like dreadnoughts, I was being specific to that game. No I like dreads, I just dont think the two did to well in that game, it was at school see, so we didn't have any terrain.

Oh right.

Just remember: If you get one you want to get the Venerable Dreadnought Kit to get all the weapon options.

I got a venerable dreadnought and it does absolutely fantastic for me! core squads ruining you're day? no problem, send your dread in to CC with them, that way the squad cant fire on your troops so they can get to a objective or charge something more important etc and you also get a half decent chance of crippling some dudes with that S10 power fist. As you can see if you use them correctly they could be game savers, but if you use them incorrectly then its a waste of points

Thanks very much guys. Another question. What do you mean when you say: S10 power fist?

Hit or miss, in one game, I quickly blew up my friend hellbrute with suicidal grenadiers.

In another game, said friend Hellbrute ate a Nob biker squad in a turn or two.

I used to run a lot of deff dreads on my Orks. With the new rules I haven't used them too much but I think the models are great.

Same with the SM dreads. I fit mine with a plasma cannon and claw and go hunt chaos marines. Ap2 blast and then a claw is pretty nasty if it can survive. He would either be ignored and do well or die immediately and be a waste. That seems to be the problem with them.

And S10 power fist means - Strength 10, power fist. Dreadnoughts can take the Dreadnought close-combat weapon (the fist/claw) and it doubles their strength (to 10) and allows them to ignore armor. Because they are a walker they strike at normal initiative instead of being reduced to going last due to the "unwieldy" type of normal power fists.

Ralis wrote:
Just remember: If you get one you want to get the Venerable Dreadnought Kit to get all the weapon options.

While the ven kit makes for a very cool dread, it does not have all the options. It is the source of the plasma cannon though, you don't get the ML though.

None of the kits (bar FW) come with a MM, or the TLHF, TLAC, or TLHB options. The old AoBR dread was the place to get MM arms, but they don't make those anymore.

My Imperial Fist army has a Master of the Forge and I run five dreads and a thunder Fire cannon. Armor saturation. You can't shoot them all and they're putting out a lot of dakka in the meantime. (Rifledreads: Dreadnaughts armed with two twin-linked autocannon) One has an assault cannon and missile launcher and another has Twin-linked las cannon and missile launcher. They're mobile fire support as my infantry take objectives or whatever else they want to do.
(Imperial Fist, but I use Iron Hand tactics.)

That's one way to run Dreadnaughts. I've been infatuated with dreads since Rogue Trader days and I refuse to have an army without them.

I love my Venerable Rifleman. Duck and weave and shoot anything that moves. If it doesnt move, shoot it anyway ....Also DC Dreads with Blood Talons against big squads = blood bath.

 Nevelon wrote:

Ralis wrote:
Just remember: If you get one you want to get the Venerable Dreadnought Kit to get all the weapon options.

While the ven kit makes for a very cool dread, it does not have all the options. It is the source of the plasma cannon though, you don't get the ML though.

None of the kits (bar FW) come with a MM, or the TLHF, TLAC, or TLHB options. The old AoBR dread was the place to get MM arms, but they don't make those anymore.

I'm working on... Something, relevant to this post.

Plus if you're going for the rule of cool, the venerable dread looks awesome. With the gw ven kit you can set up different looks for it. So even if you just run them as standard dreads you can have a mix of different looking dreads, which adds a lot of character to an army.