Blood Angels Dreads; What to take and what works

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**Lord Corellia**

Hey all, I'm working away on my BA force. I got the big Death Company bundle and am planning on the Chapter Ancients set in the near future, too. My question is what works when it comes to BA Dreadnoughts? Should I always take a frag launcher? Are Blood Talons better then Blood Fists? Did the Dreads get the extra attack FAQ'd in with the new book?

I'm currently building a Death Company Dreadnought to go with the DC formation. Should I give it Blood Talons? An underslung melta or heavy flamer?

When I get my next 3 Dreads, should I do them all as Furiosos or should I make one into a Libby?

Any insight would be appreciated. I do realize Dreads aren't necessarily optimal, but they're iconic and I love the newer kits.

**Xirax**

I got all my dread arms magnetized.. So I can swap between normal, fragioso and even a librarian dread.

I'd take talons (cassor the damned) dc dread and for furioso frag cannon and heavy flamer. Never tried rifleman kit, but could prove ok bodyguard unit for backfield devastators if I happen to run couple devastators.

**Martel732**

Just make sure you take the magna grapple.

I'd drop pod in a DC dread with dual heavy flamers. That makes it fragnought lite.

**peirceg**

Just annoying that the DW frag cannons are better :(

**Martel732**

Most of the time, you are going to use the frag mode anyway.

**Dantes_Baals**

peirceg wrote:
Just annoying that the DW frag cannons are better :(

That irritated me too. I mean I know DW loves their snowflake amko, but a Frag Cannon is a Frag Cannon...

Bring a fragioso, a Libby dreadnought (absolutely love em) and run your DC dreads as Martel suggested (I would add talons). I would actually considering extra armor for the dreads. The only thing more frustrating than losing a dread right after he pods in is suffering a stunned result so it can't move or template. I mean it's 30 points, but since you're running a CC dread formation anyway, if it works even once on any of em, that would be worth 30 points to me.

**Martel732**

How useful is shred on a s10 weapon?

**rhavien**

That's for countering your 1s while wounding. Lets be honest, there is always at least one...
But mostly I'm ending to get rid of them at the end, because I need some spare points for other toys in my list.

**Slayer-Fan123**

How much are the Talons? Anything above 5 points is wasteful.

**Crimson Devil**

10 points

**Slayer-Fan123**

Yeah that's bad, especially after the errata for 4 attacks on Dreads.

**koooaei**

It's actually better after 4 attacks. The more attacks the more chancesit comes into play, isn't it.

**Slayer-Fan123**

koooaei wrote:
It's actually better after 4 attacks. The more attacks the more chancesit comes into play, isn't it.

They're already S10 and the chances are super low of needing it after getting more attacks. It was more important with only two attacks because they needed to matter, but they got two attacks for free. This saves on cost.

**niv-mizzet**

Make one DC dread with talons, SB and meltagun so you can run cassor the damned if you want. Other than that, don't take talons at all.

**koooaei**

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
koooaei wrote:
It's actually better after 4 attacks. The more attacks the more chancesit comes into play, isn't it.

They're already S10 and the chances are super low of needing it after getting more attacks. It was more important with only two attacks because they needed to matter, but they got two attacks for free. This saves on cost.

5/36 increased chance to wound - 0.069 wounds per attack assuming you're hitting on 4-s. For 2-3 attacks it's a 0.138 and 0.207 increase and for 4-5 it's 0.276 and 0.345 increase. So, you kinda get more bang for your buck.

Although, i'd rather spend this 10 points on a combi-grav for a bikersarge or any biker character.

**Ghost_Raptur**

Take the talons, I've regretted everytime I haven't. They are definitely worth it.

**Martel732**

Ghost_Raptur wrote:
Take the talons, I've regretted everytime I haven't. They are definitely worth it.

How so?

**Slayer-Fan123**

Martel732 wrote:
Ghost_Raptur wrote:
Take the talons, I've regretted everytime I haven't. They are definitely worth it.

How so?

My guess is that they roll more 1's than normal and feel that justifies the non mathematical feeling.

**Voidwraith**

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Martel732 wrote:
Ghost_Raptur wrote:
Take the talons, I've regretted everytime I haven't. They are definitely worth it.

How so?

My guess is that they roll more 1's than normal and feel that justifies the non mathematical feeling.

You always remember the times you failed to wound over the wounds you've caused.

**snykyninja**

Take the libby dread. Ml2 with a meltagun in a pod. But go careful taking more than one as they get expensive fast. Always roll on sanguinary, the primaris is amazing on the dread and some of the other powers can be useful too. I would suggest taking the talons on the dc dread as it pumps out enough attacks (8 on the charge!) to make it worth it. Don't take them on the furioso. Give that a frag cannon if you've got the points to spare but with av13 it's durable enough to do ok as a pure cc dread.

**Ghost_Raptur**

Voidwraith wrote:
Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Martel732 wrote:
Ghost_Raptur wrote:
Take the talons, I've regretted everytime I haven't. They are definitely worth it.

How so?

My guess is that they roll more 1's than normal and feel that justifies the non mathematical feeling.

You always remember the times you failed to wound over the wounds you've caused.

The points for all re-rolls to wound for a Strength 10 AP2 weapon is superb. Even if those re-rolls end up killing a simple SM, that's already trading more of the opponents points spent than yours. Against monstrous creatures, demon princes, Terminators etc, think about the trade off in points for the damage done in those cases, especially when you are instant killing T5 and below.

My honest suggestion; when you finish your list and you have some points left over, try out the blood talons and see what they do for you over several games. Give them a chance, and judge for yourself how that extra wound or 2 during an assault may have impacted the course of the rest of the game. Also, compare against digital weapons that is the same cost for only 1 re-roll to wound.

I will say that in key fights, yes, haha that seems to be the case with missing possible wounds leave an impression on what could have been.

**Slayer-Fan123**

I barely buy Digital Weapons either. Those 10 points can go to either 2 Melta Bombs or a Combi-Weapon.

**Qwerty2jam**

Sssssssooooooo, as someone interested in allying in the new chapter ancients formation from Angels blade, I'm looking at possibly dropping 3x fragioso with heavy flamers.

How do they perform these days? All the info I can find on them is from 2+ years ago, how hard do they hit? I imagine it's going to hurt when they fire 3 templates twice in a single turn.

From what I can tell it seems to be one of, if not the best non FW dreads out there. I just can't see a CC dread being much good without a way to charge from reserves

**Martel732**

If your opponent is meched up, you don't hit that hard. But a frag cannon and heavy flamer will devastate infantry. Being assaulted by the furiosos isn't fun, either.

**Dantes_Baals**

Well you can shoot twice once per game, so as long g as you aren't trying to open up a devilfish, serpent LR or battle wagon you could probably wreck the transports, then the guys inside in your shooting phase.