Unit of the Week: Black Templars Dreadnought

C Swizzy here and I'm going to start the Unit of Week, normally posted up on Thursdays. I will be going over 40K as well as Warmachine units over here.

So lets's get started with the Black Templars Dreadnought. I am not going to touch on the regular 5th Edition Space Marines Codex, or the Space Wolves, Blood Angels, etc. All of these books have different variations of the Dreadnought, but the Black Templars one is in my opinion the most versatile (and also the one I know the best).

For starters, base is 105 Points and it comes with the Assault Cannon and Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon (DCCW) with a Storm Bolter. Ok so that's basically the same as almost every other Dreadnought. You can also change the Storm Bolter to a Heavy Flamer, and you can also take out the Assault Cannon and add a Twin Linked LasCannon. You can also remove the DCCW and replace it with a Missile Launcher. Nothing new here.

Here's where things change. The one vow that almost every Black Templars takes with their Emperor's Champion is "Accept any Challenge, No Matter the Odds". This gives all infantry units Preferred Enemy (rerolling to hit in assault) The last line of this rule states that it also aplies to Dreadnoughts. Rerolling to hit with a Dreadnought in Assault is nothing to over look. Rerolling some Str 10 attacks if you have the DCCW is pretty freaking AWESOME.

Now for 20 points you can upgrade to a Venerable Dreadnought. The Black Templars version of Venerable still give you the option to make your opponent reroll a penetrating hit roll, but it does more than that as well. You can also take a Veteran skill for 10 additional points. The only 2 options are Furious Charge and Tank Hunters.

Lets touch Furious Charge first. The only benefit I see from it is the +1 to Initiative. If you have the DCCW your already at Str 10 so the +1 Str doesn't apply. The +1 to Initiative might be useful against high initiative units (Eldar, Dark Eldar, Noise Marines, etc..) but I think if you go the veteran skill route your better off with the other option...

Which is Tank Hunters. Oh the joys of having an old codex! So Tank Hunters basically give you a +1 to your roll against vehicles. So against vehicles your Assault Cannon is now Str 7, Missile Launcher is Str 9 (krak missiles) and that Twin Linked LasCannon is Str 10!!!! Correct me if I'm wrong but this is the only Str 10 LasCannon in the game.

Personally I always take Venerable with Tank Hunters. If you have a fire support Dreadnought (Las and Missile) it costs 160 points which gets you Venerable, Tank Hunter, TL LasCannon and a Missile Launcher. Granted you can only shoot at 1 unit with this Dread, but it sure does bring the pain with a Str 10 and Str 9 shot against vehicles. I also take Venerable with Tank Hunters with the standard load out.

As for the best uses for the Black Templars Dreadnought there are 2 ways I normally use it. The first is the Fire Support role with all the goodies I just mentioned. It's mobile, hard to take down, and can still hold it's own in Assault. The second is the standard load out with Venerable, Tank Hunters and a drop pod (or as Rich and I call it, the DDASS). 4 Str 7 rending shots is nothing to scoff at and the Venerable will make it that much harder to kill you. You can also exploit the Black Templar Drop Pod rule that allows for the Drop Pod to shoot the turn it comes in by taking a Deathwind Missile Launcher. That's a lot of firepower that originates from basically any spot that you choose.

So moral of the story is Old Codexes still have a few tricks up their sleeves!