# best way to use a chaos dread



## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

i was looking at the venerable dreadnought model and just saw it as a chaos dreadnought and im gonna get one soon and convert it problem is i have no idea how to use a chaos dreadnought can someone give me a good way to use them


----------



## ThaPinkPownerFatty (Aug 12, 2010)

give it a multi-melta and missle luncher send it too the front and pray for a fire frenzy. the multi-melta is good on vehickels and the missle launcher works best for infantry and light vehickels


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

the best way to use a dread is to leave it in your box. never use a chaos dread maybe someday GW will make a dreadclaw assualt pod and we will have the stat line in are chaos codex but until that day just leave your dread at home. take chosen or terminators. but seriously chosen are the best.


----------



## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

i want to use one i know there bad but i would like to use one


----------



## Malgron (Jan 6, 2010)

I think you have to have a specialized army to use them at full potential, combined with a little experience at predicting enemy movement. But, that could be said of almost any unit.

This is my theory on their use. It is more friendly than tournament.

The Friendly Chaos Dreadnought: 

You can load them up to the tits for whatever role you want them to play, but it will cost you. I don't have the codex handy but I think the MM, PC, extra CC, and ML are all close to eachother pointswise. I don't like the ML as it has the versatility at the cost of power. Dread MAKE situations, they don't react to them. MM or PC are deadly, but to you as well, CC depends on how you want to deploy.

A nice trick with the Rage rule is that it is ignored the turn the dread comes in from reserves. This will give you 1 shot 6" from your board edge at whatever angle you walk him in on, to the target of your choice. After that, it's anyone's guess what mayhem will ensue. But you did have all movement phase to get your units as far from him as possible or into CC during assault. Better yet, if you have rushed as much of your army across the board as possible when he arrives, the closest enemies will likely be tender scouts or deeptrikers. Heh or your other dread- who can say.

This way, you don't have to worry as much during deployment about clustering your guys away from him. A CC dread is simple and effective, but other units are probably better compared to a metal melee thing haphazardly running across the board with a TL bolter.

There is just something Khorny about a headlong rush at an enemy objective with mass KB rhino's and DP, while enemy units try to stand or capture objectives away from you, they move closer to where Defilers and dreadnoughts rumble into action, belching noxious exhaust from the tree-line, launching ordnance on the scattered formations and wading through those that thought they could outflank death itself. Sorry, imagination runs wild 

Can you use them effectively? Go for it. Try your best and learn what the rest of the army can do to help them out. A lot of the "bad" unit choices are ones that seem to be made for randomness. Spawn mindless - ignored 1st turn out of reserve. Dread -same. Possessed can get outflank if held in reserve (with a lord if in a Dedicated transport). Defilers are big and scary and will be targeted first- hide them in reserve and hope they will have juicy targets in LOS unobstructed when they walk on. Randomness screws over reliability.

If you aren't willing to take a risk though don't use them..._cough_Loyalist_cough_


----------



## Annabelle (Nov 24, 2008)

I use my chaos dreadnought as a paper weight. He stays on my desk until I get a new codex. After killing 2 of my own rhinos in back to back turns, I had enough.


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

yea dont get me wrong Chaos Dreads are way cool but they just arent worth the points to take. ive heard a lot of people say to take a close combat weapon and a missle launcher because if you shot a gun at your stuff you can chose frag instead of krak. but all in all they just suck, worst unit in the game other than spawns.


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

oh that reminds me the funniest thing i have ever seen was a team game against black legion chaos and tau and i was sporting my noise marines with orc. the black legion guy took 3 dreads and 3 defilers so it looked scary but the thing i chuckled at was he had a multi melta and a close combat weapon on his dreads. the first turn of theirs it went crazy and shot his teamates hammerhead gunship from 7 inches away 2D6 blew the thing up on a 5+1 for ap1. turn 2 it happend with a different dread shot his defiler and destroyed the battle cannon. then of course my 12 lascannons took th other 2 defilers. but yea he didnt do it again the rest of the game but in his new list ive seen currently he runs no dreads. but yea it was hillarious. watching his tau ally face as he rolled the destroying shot on his hammerhead. the dreads never reached shooting range of my stuff i killed all 3 the last defiler and the enemy tau players broadsides the orc player used my lash to get his boys into combat on the 2 turn. i lashed 2 squads of fire warriors into combat with the guys nob biker squad then he whiped both leadership sweaping advance. then turn 3 i lashed a squad of kroot and a squad of chaos space marine generic no marks. over all it was flawless. we didnt count that game as a 10,000 point team game because it only lasted 2 hours. ha ha it was great.


----------



## Deathscythe4722 (Jul 18, 2010)

If you want to use it for Anti-infantry and/or CC, a good way to use it is have him hug the side of a Land Raider until he gets in range of the enemy. That way if you hit a Fire Frenzy, he'll just unload all his guns harmlessly into the side of the LR.


----------



## clever handle (Dec 14, 2009)

I've had success running one with the CCW/TL bolter & CCW/HF combo before but all he was really doing was successfully drawing fire from my own troops... The problem with chaos dreads is two-fold: either you've equiped a dakka dread & you're going to potentially fire frenzy that long range power on your own soldiers OR you've built the close range version & need to run him across the table for two or three turns to get him into combat where he belongs. Loyalists have drop-pods which are the perfect dreadnought delivery system - we don't.

There is great potential in a denied flank move with them, either by castling on one side of the board with everything else & leaving a dreadnought to watch the other flank or potentially walking him on the other end of your long board edge from reserves in spearhead but I dunno... there are so many better options


----------



## Daddysen (May 31, 2010)

For 115 points i take one with Missile Launcher and Plasma cannon and along with my Obliterators they wreck shop. the randomness just adds fun to the game. ( I picture all the other soldiers farting in his oxygen tubes before a battle and calling him "Tuna" thats why he is so pissed off and if he does kill something on my side i figure he found out who farted in his sarcophogus.) They are not crap. they are supercheap for as tough and as hard as they hit and they dont draw as much attention as the Defiler which i think needs to be made tougher


----------



## telemicus (Apr 10, 2010)

I find that running 2 CCW Dreads, W/ Heavy flamers, in tandem with 2 Defilers, a DP and a LR full of Zerks or Termie's is quite nice, back that with Rhinos full of troops and perhaps some Lesser Deamons, very nasty.


----------



## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

i was thinking if i get a dread with 2 flamers fire frenzy is pretty much over


----------



## MJayC50 (Oct 30, 2007)

paper weight?  

sorry could not resist


----------



## Supersonic Banana (Jul 23, 2010)

you can only take one heavy flamer.

I think that CC dreads are best but only if you spam them olong other scary stuff like defilers and KBs to distract your opponents. I think that dreads are good BECAUSE of all the stick that they take as your opponent wont shoot them in the hope that they shoot your own stuff and then cries when they hit their lines


----------



## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

I've included Chaos Dreadnoughts in my lists since second edition. Though I could lament both the loss of their relative firepower from second edition or their ability to melee frenzy 1/3rd of the time under the last codex; I think its worth considering them because of the style they impart to a list.

Granted I always fielded 2 Blood Slaughterers as melee dreads, and screened them with the rhinos carrying my Berserkers. That still works. Dreads with 2x CCW and maybe extra armor provides almost no threat to you, but lovely support for close combat units. Of course they don't ever double their attacks now, but when charging a Chaos Dread still has 5 attacks of almost instant death.

They are probably not the most efficient use of those points as they relate directly to enemies killed; but there is an awful lot to be said for large baroque killing machines lumbering along beside the corrupt and malevolent chaos renegades, and dealing death.


I'm biased though. Such is my affection for Dreadnoughts, I've collected 8 of them from various eras of the game, with another unpaited waiting for me to finish sculpting him a new gun arm.


----------



## jondoe297 (Jan 6, 2010)

I love dreads, last game ran two, both 2 ccw! One did jack shit poor placement on my part I suppose the other though, oh he was brilliant, I rolled 3 6's in a row, surfice to say he made it the their lines very quickly and munched alot of things! 
I think the two best options is A take double close combat weapon dreads or Tool them up with ML and PC and stick them near a LR! Happy days! Keep the dread alive!


----------



## Deathscythe4722 (Jul 18, 2010)

The only way i'd run them is in a full-on Walker-spam list. Their weaknesses will (hopefully) be mitigated by having more than one, and the Defilers/DPs will be juicier targets, allowing the dreads to reach combat alive.


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

+








= the best use for Chaos dreads:victory:


----------



## jondoe297 (Jan 6, 2010)

That is such a bad model! Forgeworld all the way! I suppose its easier to run oblits less taxing and easier! ..... please note the sarcasm!!


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

it hurts buts true chaos dreads blow


----------



## search116 (Aug 9, 2010)

Ram it into enemy lines and pray it goes into a fire frenzy


----------



## Lash Machine (Nov 28, 2008)

Best way to use a Chaos Dread?

Get a couple of metal ones and then track down the guy who wrote the codex and then hurl them at his head.:biggrin:

I would perhaps really only consider one with two close combat weapons but sadly there are far better options in the codex unless you are playing a large game.


----------



## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

You can make Chaos Dreadnoughts something approaching not completely crap by giving it a missile launcher and a close combat weapon. If it fire frenzies, shoot the missile type that will hurt your troops the least. So if it's going to shoot at your Rhino fire frag missiles at it.

No matter what you do though, Chaos Dreadnoughts suck. It's just the way of things.


----------



## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

In a friendly game use them just like a regular dead, but keep in mind their chances of firing on your own troops/running forward like idiots. In a competitive games.... just don't use them ever.

Now for the pointless ranting parts .
Why the hell did they change the rules for CSM dreads in the first place. Seriously no one complained about them being overpowered so why the hell where they nerfed. Seriously their idiotic tendencies to go insane used to confer benefits, which would counter act the huge tactical liability they presented. Now all their stupid special rules do is compromise their effectiveness. I mean who was stupid enough to think the crazed rule was even playable!

Here are some obvious suggestions that would have made the damn things useful.
1) Make them 10-15 pts cheaper: That way I can justify wasting points on suicidal armor.
2) At least bring back the old blood frenzy, I mean come on who gives a flying fu&^ if a single model gains fleet for a single turn. Its like having a random roll for your rhino where it moves forward 4 extra inches, but then idiotically turns around to show its ass armor...its just not helpful in the vast number of instances.
3) Change the fluff so it becomes cannon that CSM dreads are idiots that are too mentally unstable to serve in battle (CSM leaders have served for 100 if not thousands of years I really doubt they would waste the time to incarcerate damaged marines in dreadnoughts or even deploy them with their forces if they stood a chance of losing it and firing on your own incredibly finite supply of CSM's)
4) Give them some crazy ass options that negate their blaring weaknesses. Something like automatic Daemonic possession, or some crazy weapons like ap3 flamers or the option to take three main ranged weapons. Hell even some of the funky old DCCW they used to have would help make them less horribly useless.

Now I know most codexes have throw away units for flavor, but damn don't take the prolific CSM dread and make it unplayable. Which it is do to its 33 percent chance of being useless. Hell if you take three of them your more or less guaranteed one of them will do something moronic at any given turn.


----------



## ROT (Jun 25, 2010)

They're awesome, in the way that they completely suck.

The only effective way to have them not kill everything your fielding is to Missile launcher one of their arms, and run it next to a LR, when frenzy happens, you fire a frag missile at side armour 14. But then again a walking-point-sink with nothing to offer but a Missile launcher straight up blows.

This is a big example of Space Marines getting codex love, the idea is to make something over all neutral and equal to its equivalents, The Chaos dreads have this HUGE flaw called frenzy, but you expect something good to make up for it so it's equal to its Loyalist equivalent. But no, the only other major detail that differenciates it from it's loyalist equiv is it's £35 price tag.

Fuck you GW.

EDIT: Rep for the guy who just ninja'd me, with a better rant, rendering mine as completely useless and boring as a CSM Dread. (Yes pun intended)


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

Just to point out chaos dreads arent retarded they are crazy. the reason they are crazy is because they have been locked inside the damn dread for thousands of years. Also space marine dreads are turned off when they are not in battle giving them rest. chaos dreads do not get turned off. Chaos dreads are maned by Prisoners of the army. not for hostile people but warriors amongst the chaos army who are insubordanent. a lot of the time its just a punishment for screwing up and you will be sentenced to serve in a dread for 1,000 years or so. so just think no sleep and you are traped in their, wouldnt you go crazy. But yea chaos dreads suck because GW hates Chaos.


----------



## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

I'd go missile launcher close combat arm with a heavy flamer. Put it on one side of the board, rest of your army on the other and pelt it foward. Worst thing is dread against tactical squad with powerfist normally means dead dread, same applies for your friendly chaos dreadnaught especially if sane so quite simply its poor all round.

The sad thing is your using your points on shit weaponry to make your dread better. Its just a set of shit rules I'm afraid.


----------



## 5tonsledge (May 31, 2010)

even if youre dread got killed he still probably killed the squad down to 2-3 people. plus chaos dreads are cheap. but they suck


----------



## obimoshman (Oct 21, 2009)

I have a friend who runs chaos list with dread in it and all he does to attempt to mitigate fire frenzy is run squad of 2 spawn as the closest unit to it all about keep everything else away except the spawn.


----------



## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

obimoshman said:


> I have a friend who runs chaos list with dread in it and all he does to attempt to mitigate fire frenzy is run squad of 2 spawn as the closest unit to it all about keep everything else away except the spawn.


Ack!

I don't understand this. :shok: Unless he's got some sort of really strong attachment to his Dreadnought what is he doing? Spending an additional 80 points _on top_ of what you're already spending on a crap unit to make it oh-so slightly less crap... :headbutt:


----------



## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Not to mention he can`t control the spawn so its likely they will zip ahead of the dreads their escorting (Unless he she it is cheating by ignoring the mindless rule).


----------



## Daddysen (May 31, 2010)

you could take 2 of them with duel CCW for 100 pernts each and put them at odd ends of your army and use a pincher tactic with them if you get fire frenzy then your just pepper something with a twin linked bolter and if you get blood frenzy then you get to fleet sounds good to me. for a hundred points i think its not bad. Just Model them scary, like they should be, i mean there is a psychotic chaos warrior stuck in it and he aint happy. just remind your opponant of that ,hehe. I have a small Kharn force i use one in there just casue its a hundred points and it takes the heat off my zerkers. my opponants always waste two to 3 turns trying to kill it


----------



## Supersonic Banana (Jul 23, 2010)

yay I just got fleet! :yahoo:

wait a second... he just charged the Nightbringer:shok:


----------



## Stockholm (Jul 6, 2010)

i just saw this thread.

the best way to use a chaos dreadnought is to put it on top of a stack of important papers, especially if they are near a door or window so that they don't get blown away. you will look over as the door is closing and see the papers edges ruffle in the gust but they'll hold fast. and you will look at the chaos dreadnought and smile and appreciate it's usefullness.

in all other scenarios, it will just piss you off.


----------



## Daddysen (May 31, 2010)

now skeeter he aight hurtin nobudy !
haha lighten up guys you should play one game a month using troops that you think suck. just for the sake of fun it is a game after all. and just think if you do wreck shop with that dread oh the humility that your opponant is gonna have to admit and if he totally "fubar's" well did you expect any thing else.

I think i am gonna name mine "tuna" and use him just to mess with my opponant.


----------

