Dreadnoughts: What Am I Doing Wrong?

[Grenadier]

Of all the models for Space Marines I love the Dreadnought most. Especially the venerable. And so I take great delight in building them and painting them. With visions of conquest filling my head. I'm always eager to bust out my latest Dreadnought having convinced myself I have a powerful new unit that my opponent shall fear.

But in game terms they never live up to my hopes and dreams.

My first issue with them is assault. As I understand it they are supposed to do well in assault. But mine rarely ever make it to assault. Since they move 6 inches per turn most battles see my Dreadnought exploding in flames by a good shot from an enemy heavy weapon. I just can't seem to get them across a battlefield safely. I've only ever been able to get one into assault. Or rather my opponent assaulted it. With Terminators who were packing powerfists. Needless to say my Dreadnought perished. I have been able to assault a stray tank here and there. And the Dreadnoughts do perform well in this regard.

Having had such limited experience in assaults with my Dreadnoughts I pretty much abandoned this role back in the early days of the 4th edition. And now that all enemy hits count on the rear armor of vehicles I'm more reluctant to try assaulting with them.

Instead all of my Dreadnoughts have been relegated to heavy fire support. I took off all their close combat arms and slapped on the missile launcher. And here my Dreadnoughts finally began to shine. Especially for my Black Templars. I've always hated the assault phase you see. And so all my armies tend to be shooty. My philosophy is shoot the crap out of everything and then I'll have less assault to deal with. But since the Templars lack a lot of heavy firepower I can't rightly play the way I normally would. But my Dreadnoughts acting as mobile heavy weapons platforms make up for the lack of heavy fire power.

Still, I would love to unlock a successful strategy for using them to assault the enemy. Any tips?

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

One small note - unless they're Immobilized, enemies in Close Combat only hit the Front Armour of Walkers.

But yeah, there's not a lot a Dreadnought can do that other options can't pull off more efficiently. They're kinda hamstrung by having to carry a mix of shooty and choppy gear. If you're getting full use out of the DCCW, the ranged weapon is going to waste, and vice versa. So yeah, they usually seem to be most popular for long-ranged fire, particularly the rifleman. Drop Podding a Multi-melta + DCCW Dread in also seems popular.

[doom-kitten]

Drop Pods. Take two dreadnoughts kit them out for CC death, personal favourite is Flamer, Fist and AC and drop em in your opponents lap. I use a third DP with Sternguard so I can land both Dreads with the Drop pod assualt rules, the opponent will freak and likely target them but atleast their in his/her face turn one. Provided you place em right or luck is with you, your dread might live and cause some carnage in the opponents DZ.

[Rissan4ever]

Drop Pods. Take two dreadnoughts kit them out for CC death, personal favourite is Flamer, Fist and AC and drop em in your opponents lap. I use a third DP with Sternguard so I can land both Dreads with the Drop pod assualt rules, the opponent will freak and likely target them but atleast their in his/her face turn one. Provided you place em right or luck is with you, your dread might live and cause some carnage in the opponents DZ.

This tactic has been used against me many times, and I can attest to its effectiveness. Stormravens work well for this, too, if your chapter can get them.

Another way to get your Dreads in close is to hide them behind something bigger and scarier, like a Land Raider. While your opponent is wasting time trying to blow up the Land Raider, your Dreads are getting steadily closer to their goal.

Also, don't forget that Dreadnaughts can run! That extra d6" of movement gets you closer faster.

[newtoncain]

Can't Dreads assualt after being dropped off by a StormRaven (moving 12" or less), because it is an assualt vehicle?

[AbusePuppy]

The honest truth is that Dreads are _tough_ in close combat, but not actually all that good- as you note, they are rather slow. Moreover, even strategies like Drop Pods still leave them vulnerable to simply being Meltagunned out of the game as soon as they arrive.

Dreadnoughts will usually serve you better as a counter-assault tool than an assault threat. The possibility of an AV12 walker diving into a unit and grinding it down is usually enough to discourage all but the largest of threats from closing with your lines.

Fire support Dreads, specifically the kind with two pairs of Autocannons, can also be very useful; they put out a lot of shots at long range with the possibility of hurting pretty much everything in the game, and unlike most tanks they can shoot to full effect on the move and climb into ruins, etc, when needed.

(Venerable Dreadnoughts, unfortunately, are a pretty bad buy in anything but the GK codex. Their stat bumps and reroll on the table just aren't enough to justify a 50% price increase.)

[Grenadier]

Hmm...I always forget I can "run" now with my units. And isn't the Stormraven a Blood Angels only unit? My opponent plays Dark Angels but it hasn't stopped him from using that special Dreadnought the Blood Angels have on me. The one with that magnetic grappling crap. Oh how I hate it. Right now there's a lot of great units unavailable to the Templars due to having an old codex. One would think Vanguard squads and Honor Guard squads would be perfect fits for the Templars. As well as wargear like relic blades. They need a new codex.

I have noticed that using my Dreads in a fire support role has its downside: whenever my opponent deepstrikes in they now become very vulnerable to assaults! I've lost a few in this fashion.

Another tactic I thought of is the counter assault. But only when I'm defending. I figure I could slap some close combat weapons back on them and hide them behind stuff until the deepstrikers come in on me. Then lurch out of hiding to smash em good.

[FortheEmperor!]

Can't Dreads assualt after being dropped off by a StormRaven (moving 12" or less), because it is an assualt vehicle?

Yes they can and it works wonders!! I play Blood Angels with 2 stormravens. One has 10 assault marines, a sanguinary priest, and a Furioso Dreadnought. The other has 7 death company, a chaplain, a librarian and a death company dreadnought. If the storm raven moves 12" or less the dreadnought (and infantry) can assault right out of it!

[vharing]

I love dreadnoughts to the point that I own seven of the damn things. I feel you pain about having them die before they can do anything. I see a lot of people think the drop pod will protect the dread when it comes down, but that is never the case. I find giving your opponent something to shoot at works best. Having something else out there that can do the same or more damage can be distracting.

[Wolfshade]

Drop Pods + Dreadnoughts = Awesome
Standard DCCW/MultiMelta dropping behind a tank line popping rear armour is always fun! Your opponent then has two choices either drive away from the threat opening up his castle, or turn around and address the nearest threat leaving the rear armour exposed to the rest of your force.
Not to forget that if it survives into turn 2 it can then assault and regardless of the vehicle facing always rolls against the rear armour just as infantry.
Playing as Blood Angels a Dropped Death Company Dread with built in Meltagun works similiarly well. Plus as previous posters have mentioned you can assault out of a storm raven!