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That unit still clocks in between 400-500 points for a unit you have to carefully drop pod in (no inertial guidance system), wait a turn to be shot at and hope jink protects you, and then move towards the enemy, deploy, and charge. All anyone has to do is either shoot down the claw before you can get close or tighten up their defenses. You'd get better point mileage out of suicide raptor deep strike.

Unless they change the rules for charging out of dreadclaws or give them inertial guidance (which, as pretty much big daemon possessed hunks of metal, they should have some kind of equivalent), I don't see them being all that useful of a transport unless you put everything you own in them.

It is almost impossible not to get close if you want to with a dreadclaw. You deepstrike then flat out, as a skimmer 18", in the shooting phase. You then move 6", disembark 2" from the base, and charge on the next turn. So you are charging at something as far as 26+2d6" away from where you DS.
It is more difficult than you think to shoot down a jinking av12 skimmer. Only slightly less difficult than shooting down a serp with holofields, exactly the same as shooting down a serp without holofields. Also as long as you flat out next to what you want to assault, even if they shoot you down you are still going to get the charge. Disembark + move + charge. Lets say the charge avarage of 7". That means if you flat out next to your intended target, they have to move more than 18" away to be reasonably safe from your charge, even if the dreadclaw gets shot down.
I use a Dreadclaw a lot. It is THE best unit avaliable to CSM imo. Better than the Fireraptor, better than the Sicaran, better than the JuggerLord better than the Black Mace MoN Winged DP.

I don't understand your last paragraph. Dreadclaws are assault vehicles so they don't need any change of rules for assaulting out of. Also they DS T1 so are assaulting T2 so thats not an issue either. And since they can pretty much flatout 18", then move 6", they don't have to risk a dodgy drop like a drop pod would so definitely don't need inertial guidance.

Maybe I need to get myself a claw. I'm not too happy about the whole , eating your own guys, part. And doubt I want a technomancer on top of everything.. still, they are gnarly.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Maybe I need to get myself a claw. I'm not too happy about the whole , eating your own guys, part. And doubt I want a technomancer on top of everything.. still, they are gnarly.

You're very unlikely to eat your own guys. A 1 needs to be rolled and THEN you have the random factor. Even if you only had 5 guys accompanying Kharn, there would only be a 1/36 chance of him being eaten. That's not bad for being able to guarantee a T2 charge!

I don't own a proper one. Everytime I've used it I've taken a drop pod and asked if its ok to use as a stand in. Its been ok with everyone I've asked so far. Obviously won't be in a tournament though. That and a Typhon are my next FW purchases. The difference between a dreadclaw and a drop pod isn't too bad but you can only get away with using a LR as a Typhon a handfull of times before you begin to look like a douche as the discrepency in sizes is a lot bigger!

Alright you've sold me, everything you said makes perfect sense and makes me interested in dreadclaws again, but I wouldn't be taking CSM and R&H, I'm looking at CSM and KD. You'd still get rerolling wounds if you take kharn with a herald of khorne with a locus. The next question is: possessed or berzerkers? I feel like possessed, while being a little more expensive, are waaay more powerful than zerkers in melee combat.

That's a good idea. The Herald is more dangerous in assault too. I'd never thought of possessed tbh, a dreadclaw may actually make them viable, and since they are a compulsory part of the detachment, why the hell not eh?

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Maybe I need to get myself a claw. I'm not too happy about the whole , eating your own guys, part. And doubt I want a technomancer on top of everything.. still, they are gnarly.

The idea is to have multiple threats so the enemy cannot dedicate lots of firepower to the dreadclaw of doom. I deep strike it in tight so it does not count as hovering... works awesome every time !

Kharn + 24 cultists in a chaos spartan supported by mauler fiends and other fast nasty stuff.

Cultists or zombies

Ok, so bought a drop pod. Gonna smash it,put it back together as a dreadclaw. Should be fun.

To improve upon the 'jink and pray' strategy , how about comboing with belakor and shrouding. 2+ jink thanks. Then something else can be invisible.

Yes.. this'll work nicely


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1750

Kharn in the hounds , zerkers in the claw. Horrors in the bastion.

Gorepack
····Chaos Bikers - kitted out

····Chaos Bikers - kitted out

····Flesh Hounds [20x Flesh Hounds]

++ Chaos Space Marines:

+ HQ +

Kharn the Betrayer [Warlord]

+ Troops +

Chaos Cultists [13x Cultists with Autopistols, Mark of Khorne] shotgun

Khorne Berzerkers - 8 tooled up.

+ Fast Attack +

Chaos Dreadclaw Drop Pod

++ Chaos Daemons:(Allied Detachment) ++

+ HQ +

Be'lakor, The Dark Master

+ Troops +

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch [16x Pink Horrors]

+ Fortification +

Imperial Bastion

I've used a Belakor + MoK DP with wings and AoBF + Abaddon & termis in dreadclaw with Belakor casting shrouding for a 2+ jink for everyone as a spearhead in a couple of 2k games. It works exceptionally well!