Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So who exactly is allowed to go in one? The fluff I have read seems vague saying a chapter 'hero' is allowed to be put in one, but what do you define as a hero? a captain or just a particularly heroic battle brother? Im sure it varies from chapter to chapter but I would like to know more.

Usually a character who has proven themselves in battle time and time again.
Doesent seem to be a set rank requirement for it though.

Dreadnoughts tend to be the ruined yet still alive remains of a Battle Brother who has been injured during somehting heroic.

The OC-D

Its increible rare that an Astartes will survive such a hideous wound that they cant heal from.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Its increible rare that an Astartes will survive such a hideous wound that they cant heal from.

Its increible rare that an Astartes will survive such a hideous wound that they cant heal from.

It will either be after a long period of honourable, exceptional service. Or after a single act of outsanding bravery and valour on the battle field.

In the 5th edition codex it says (qouted word for word),"However,the mighteist fallen,those within the spark of life and honour still burns bright though thier body be rent and torn,are preserved from final rest.For such a man the eternal battle is not yet done.His skills,his wisdom and his fighting spirit must continue to serve,even if they do so in another form."
This possibly means that anyone who can still fight must.

penut the butter wrote:In the 5th edition codex it says (qouted word for word),"However,the mighteist fallen,those within the spark of life and honour still burns bright though thier body be rent and torn,are preserved from final rest.For such a man the eternal battle is not yet done.His skills,his wisdom and his fighting spirit must continue to serve,even if they do so in another form."
This possibly means that anyone who can still fight must.

Only the Mightiest get to. It is very hard to make Dreadnoughts, and most are just refurbished ones of old ones that died. Most Battle Brothers who die get their Geneseed Harvested, their Armour and Weapons handed to the next poor sod in line and then burnt/buried/sent off into space/eaten/whatever the chapter does.

It is not the ones who die.The ones who get the honour of being a dreadnought are the ones who have a bit of life in the them.Imagine a fire that has a few embers left. If you let them die the fire is no more and youy must light it again. But if you continue to feed it with sticks and cardboard it may become a blazing fire again. Which means that if the trooper has the spark of life and the will to survive and you put him in a dreadnought he will survive to become a great veteran.

Ok, die was the wrong word. Even battle Brothers who are near death, but wont make it, have their geneseed harvested and etc etc etc.

Only the Heros get a chance. And if they were a proper hero, they would either win or die trying.

Hmmm, well it's said that yes those that perform acts or bravery and valour... which must be outstanding bearing in mind Astartes do that as a matter of course anyway... get interred into a dreadnoughts body. Of course, they would have to be still alive, only just, but also somewhere where they are close to their homeworld or access to a Dreadnought in the first place.

My understanding of it is that the high ranking battle brothers who have already served for an age, who are so elite and get sent into the most impossible of battles must eventually come to an impossible battle and be cut down trying to win. All odds point to his near death/ death leading to a decisive victory anyway and instead of losing all that experience, knowledge and wisdom by letting the poor sod rest in peace, they put him in a dreadnaught and send him off to fight once more because it would take an age and too much effort to get another marine of his prowess and experience.

Keefer wrote:My understanding of it is that the high ranking battle brothers who have already served for an age, who are so elite and get sent into the most impossible of battles must eventually come to an impossible battle and be cut down trying to win. All odds point to his near death/ death leading to a decisive victory anyway and instead of losing all that experience, knowledge and wisdom by letting the poor sod rest in peace, they put him in a dreadnaught and send him off to fight once more because it would take an age and too much effort to get another marine of his prowess and experience.

DoW2 had some interesting insight in the process of being inducted into Dreadnought-hood. I think it is just the heroic stupid ones, because the mind shattering realisation that you are in a dreadnought tends to make one less than lucid (Davian Thule can't hold himself together for longer than a short battle). This goes unchecked for Chaos Space Marines, and we know what happens then... So no, I think experience plays less of a factor than battlefield heroics and dumb luck.

Mmmm... fair enough. Hey what about Librarians? What if i Librarian was put into a dread? would you have a psyker with an AR??? that'd be sweet

Keefer wrote:Mmmm... fair enough. Hey what about Librarians? What if i Librarian was put into a dread? would you have a psyker with an AR??? that'd be sweet

That would be awesome (and fit in with my blood raven fluff nicely) but I think that the process of being interred into a Dreadnought would not be without some damage to the mind. And if the mind of a psycher is futzed with, bad things can happen.

Good question, and I don't think there is an official answer.

From what I know, I don't think that is allowed. Librarians are distrusted in most chapters, almost to the point of being shunned. Now, if it were to happen (in a chapter like the Blood Ravens for example) it would be difficult in the extreme to maintain control over your powers even with a psychic hood. In such a delerious state, I think a Librarian would be too susceptable to the perils of the warp to risk the potential gain.

The only real lead I can think of are the Grey Knight Dreadnoughts and the Psi-Dreadnoughts. I'll go chase down their fluff and see about any conflicts they have. Grey Knight Dreads don't get any rules representation of psychic powers so maybe they put a psychic hood on him so he can't use them?

I would say for a more disciplined group like the Grey Knights it would be possible, as they are all latent psychers. However in their fluff there are darn few of them as they quite literally win or die trying; no middle ground. During interrment, I would think they are given a psychic hood or at the very least mind-wiped to prevent warp containment.

I've thought about this before, not in line of fluff but in terms of game rules, a dread has no wounds so what happens on a failed POTW test? KABOOM!!!! well perhaps a little extreme, and as for spells might of the ancients has no real use to a dread, a dread Gate of infinitying would be crazy stuff, he might machine curse himself if he's not careful. null zone would be effective, quickening would be a serious boost in dread attack power and the rest of psychic shooting would be fine. But what i'm trying to get at is alot of fluff and rules colide around a psyker dread.

Dawn of War II certainly had some interesting fluff regarding Dreadnoughts. Davian Thule is mentally unstable after being entombed in a Dreadnought, and seems to be pretty paranoid and quick to anger.

My guess would be it is all dependant on rank. Also, consider there are three different types of Dreadnought, the Reg, Venerable and then Ironclad. Plus in some instances, great heroes might even get a customized one. So maybe there is the possibility that a regular old guy dies heroicly, Reg. A great hero dies, Venerable. Crazy guy who likes to hit stuff, Ironclad. And then super fantastic heroes get a nice custom Dread.

i think it comes down to who gets wounderd just enough when a new dread becomes available.

LiberatedObject wrote: [a] super fantastic heroes get a nice custom Dread.

Mmmmm... MotF Dread with a buhzillion servo arms and a MC beam... Drool....

Most chapters aren't going to have empty dreads just lying around. So, there's going to be a fair bit of circumstance involved as well:

:heroic
:almost, but not quite dead
:able to survive transport to wherever the chapter's nearest empty dreadnaught is

There's going to be a lot of heroic spacemarines that just die because they can't hold on quite long enough or there just isn't a spare dread available.

Mmmmm... MotF Dread with a buhzillion servo arms and a MC beam... Drool....

The lucidity of dreadnoughts might vary, also. Granted, the DoW dreadnaught was crazy, but maybe he was brain damaged before his interment. Or, maybe the Blood Ravens just take poor care of their dreads. The two dreadnaughts that I have seen so far featured in the Horus Heresy series have seemed just fine. They seemed like they had a cognitive, rational thought process, and in fact seemed a little more calm and collected than the marines around them.

The two Salamander dreads in the Salamander novel seemed stiff and robotic. Again, the difference in author interpretation is vast, which means that dreadnaughts vary. Some seem crazy, some like automatons, and some like regular people in a really cool suit.

My interpretation on how they all get chosen is thus: It seems like its pretty random. If you are too injured to fight, but aren't going to die, and there is an empty dreadnaught available, then congratulations, you just got promoted.

A friend brought up an interesting idea too. The dreadnaught sarcophagi may be more numerous and available than the armor itself. Some chapters may have buildings with dozens or hundreds of sarcophogi bound warriors awaiting a suit of dreadnaught armor for their own. Kind of a creepy image, if you ask me.

Hmmm that last point from jimsolo was interesting, and I love the ideas for librarian and techmarine dreads! (consider those ideas stolen.....)

In the Horus Heresy series there was a book where the filthy Word Bearers create a monster ship designed to nail the Ultramarines homeworld - dont want to say more cause it may spoil fluff for those yet to read

In that there is a seargent who gets interred in a dread

they also mention there is row upon row of dread suits waiting

so at the time of the heresy Mars definately had the capability to build loads of full suits

so unless that capability was lost in the aftermath, it stands to reason new suits can be built..

for me its a mix of sufficient rank that the chapter cares for the loss and battlefield conditions allowing recovery and internment - remember the loss of a marine is supposed to be rare in the fluff, in the iron snakes fluff the loss of 60 marines was catastrophic even though they nailed thousands of orcs

realise tabletop is a bit more balanced but the fluff has the marines much more powerful than the minature

think white dwarf ran an article speculating what the stats of a SM would be if they mirrored the fluff - anyone read that?

Loricatus Aurora wrote:so unless that capability was lost in the aftermath, it stands to reason new suits can be built..

The ability was not lost, but the Capacity was. Dreadnoughts (Both Standard And Tactical) are VERY hard to make in "Current" 40k.

Loricatus Aurora wrote:

realise tabletop is a bit more balanced but the fluff has the marines much more powerful than the minature

think white dwarf ran an article speculating what the stats of a SM would be if they mirrored the fluff - anyone read that?

Ya it's called movie marines and they are kick-***!!!!!

A friend brought up an interesting idea too. The dreadnaught sarcophagi may be more numerous and available than the armor itself. Some chapters may have buildings with dozens or hundreds of sarcophogi bound warriors awaiting a suit of dreadnaught armor for their own. Kind of a creepy image, if you ask me.

This would make sense if the sarcophagi are like sleeper pods or stasis tombs, since much of the fluff talks about "awakening" a dreadnought from it's slumber.

One point regarding the Venerable Dreadnought: it's not necessarily only a great hero that's interred, but a dreadnought that's been around for a very, very long time. IIRC, Bjorn the Fell-Handed was around during the time of Russ, but was only a little kicker back then.