Why all the Dreadknight hate?


This is a pet peeve of mine.

The Dreadknight seems to take an awful lot of hatred from people on the net, both for the model and the rules.

Now for the model thats a personnal taste thing, not gonna argue with people there, each to their own and all that.

As for the rules... well so far I have played 20 games with my Grey Knights, I have never left home without a Dreadknight or two, and the Dreadknight (or two) have always had a Personnal Teleporter.

Yes I know its expensive but hear me out...

Now I must have cost the Grey Knight chapter around about 30 Dreadknight suits of armour. They can be killed, and for me nearly always are. I play aggressively with them to force the Opponent to focus fire on them instead of on the rest of my army.

The last 10 games I have played have all been tournaments, and so far I haven't lost a game. 7 of those games had two Dreadknights in my army, the last three had just 1.

Lets look at the pluses of them compared to something else in the army of a comparable cost.

My Dreadknights run at a cost of 230-235 points each.

For that cost (plus or minus say 30 points) I can get the following instead:

2 Rifleman Dreadnoughts
A Landraider
A Stormraven
A 10 Man Strike Squad with 2 Psycannons & Psybolt Ammo
A 5 Man Terminator Squad with Psycannon & Psybolt.

Those are the models I own or can easily convert, but feel free to post other suggestions in the comments.

Now my problem with the first three options are: They are all Vehicles! A Devastator / Longfang / Tank could conceivably kill all of these with 1 shot (2 for the 2 Dreadnoughts) and thats all those points wasted. It hasnt absorbed any firepower and half the time it hasnt helped you (if you dont go first).

The Standard Longfang Squad that you see out there (6 Rocket Launchers) can do damage to a Landraider, although it is not likely. Against my Dreadknight they are gonna be lucky to do anything, and what they do do (always makes me laugh when I write that) to it will not reduce its effectiveness.

Even against Railguns, which are the bane of Landraiders, my Dreadknight is still getting a 5+ Invulnerable save. It might not be much, but your will be surprised how often it can come good for you (just ask a Daemon Player, or a Guard player when he is allowed to take armour saves).

Now the Strike Squad & Terminator squad, both take more shots to kill, and can all deal out more damage at range and in combat.... they just dont have the movement that I want to threaten my enemey lines (I also dont own enough Stirke Marines at the moment, and 10 Terminators in an army seems like enough).

When they get into combat they are throwing out 4, WS5, S10 attacks. 5 on the charge. These guys tear through Vehicles of all descriptions.

What about Horde units I hear you cry!? Well yes against a Horde unit he will have a problem. I had one charged by 14 Kroot who managed to land 7 wounds on it (very good rolling) and I failed two of them. Now at this point my Dreadknight was already down two wounds, and had got me 2 Kill Points already.

Thats also why I run him with a Heavy Incinerator. Ignoring cover saves, Strength 6 with AP4... Horde units hate it. You can break or severely reduce a horde units ability to hurt you with good Incincerator positioning. Or say that company command squad hiding behind all those Guardsmen?

In another Kill Point game I had one Dreadknight Die in turn 1 without doing anything, and the second reduced to 1 wound before it got into combat.... when it got into combat though it chewed through an Ironclad, Librarian, Tactical Squad & Predator before it died.

A lot of people seem to struggle to deal with a T6, 2+ Save creature, thats before you consider its shunt, Heavy Incinerator or 12" movement.

I also think that all these games in, if you are gonna take a Dreadknight, take 2. One of them can die very easily.... but when people have to consider splitting their fire... thats when it gets interesting.

Now if you have had bad experiences with Dreadknights I would love to hear about them. Its gonna happen to me, and I would like to know what people are finding is killing their Dreadknight.

Anyway, enough of me Rambling. Just my thoughts on the Dreadknight. People who play me now celebrate when they kill one... which is fine, cause at that point the rest of my army is poised ready to deal out a whole bucket load of hurt.

Here are some examples of the most basic of overviews of what my Dreadknights did for me in my last three tournaments (of which I won all 3 and didnt drop any of my 10 games).



Game 1: 2 Dreadknights went into this game. 1 came out. Between them the Dreadknights killed: Rhino, Rune Priest, Lone Wolf, Grey Hunter Pack. They were also in involved in the destruction of 2 more Grey Hunter Packs and the Long Fangs.

Game 2: 2 Dreadknights went into this, none came out. They killed 3 War Walkers, and a Harlequin Unit. In addition to holding the Harelquins up for over 4 rounds of combat.

Game 3: 2 Dreadknights went into this none came out. This was a Kill Point game, and in addition to absorbing two turns of shooting from the Salamanders. They got me 4 kill points. Libby, Tactical Squad, Ironclad & Predator.

Game 4: The Dreadknights were much less effective in this game against the space wolves. Although they did again get me 2 Rhinos, Rune Priest and a unit of Long Fangs

Game 5: Sieze Ground, Pitched Battle. 2 Dreadknights went in, 1 Survived. They helped kill the following enemy units – 2 Tactical Squads, Company Command Squad, Company Commander, 2 Landspeeders

Game 6: Capture and Control: 2 Dreadknights went in, 1 Survived. They again helped kill 4 Deathwing Squads, and Belial was the sole responsibility of one of the Dreadknights as well.

Game 7: Annihilation: 2 Dreadknights went in, none survived. They killed the Pathfinder squad & the Broadside unit before both were dead.

Game 8: Annihilation: 1 Dreadknight went in and survived. He killed the Mek Boy, Ork Warboss & 3 Kill Khans.

Game 9: Seize Ground, 1 Dreadknight went in and Died. He killed a Rune Priest and assited in killing the Grey Hunter unit. He also absorbed all of their Rocket Fire and an Orbital Bombardment.

Game 10: Capture and Control: 1 Dreadknight went in and died. He killed 8 Fire Warriors. He then took the shooting of the entire Eldar and Tau force before dying.

In total.

10 Games
17 Suits of Dreadknight Armour Employed.
4 Survived
13 Suits destroyed in battle.

Given the above stats I am pretty sure the Chapter Master does not want to lend me any suits of Dreadknight armour in Future! Regardless of how good they are, the Grey Knights will just be running out of suits.

I should clarify here that I dont think they are the most survivable model in the rules but they do a job, and used correctly they do it magnificently.

Comments

jabberjabber said…
I don't have too many problems with dreadknights and their rules. Sure, they make me focus on them at the expense of other areas of an army. But, so do big tyranid bugs; daemon princes (etc.)...
Kraggi said…
That is the main advantage to Dreadknights... people feel they have to kill them.

And if you want to ignore my Dreadknight then thats fine cause with a 12" move I am gonna have fun targetting something you dont want to lose lol.

The main difference from them and the nids, is that the Dreadknights are harder to kill, but you will see less of them in a game (considerably less of them).