The Nerd Store: Everybody Throw Your Hands in the Air

Up next in my WIP Imperial Fist army is my ironclad dreadnought. Honored Brother Gaius Decius Avitus (maintaining the naming convention from last post) is typically armed with a dreadnought close combat weapon and a seismic hammer. As I am still getting the feel for the ironclad's capability and how he works in with my army I decided to make the arm load outs exchangeable.

All of the Arms in the Ironclad Box

To do this I added rare earth magnets to the arms. The dreadnought shoulders are inset with a standard size machine nut. Each magnet has a small nub of plastic in the center. This fits into the hole in the machine nut and keeps the arm in the same place while handling/playing. I noticed without this the magnet tended to move off center from the shoulder.

The All-Up-In-Your-Face Load Out

So far I have used him as a spearhead with the command squad. He soaks up a lot of anti-tank firepower that would normally be directed at my rhinos. Its a 50/50 shot for him to survive till close combat, but typically he can take out whatever vehicle or monstrous creature I aim him at. The problem is that he has to run to get there, he usually lasts only one turn after that, and is easily swamped if my opponent throws a large squad at him.

I have noted I may play him as a big missile, which is pretty one-dimensional. I am looking to experiment with the hurricane bolter. I have loved them on Land Raider Crusaders but I don't know how well they will field on a dreadnought. It would involve holding him back a little farther in the battle.....One of the reasons I don't field that many dreads is because they seem like one-punch-chumps. Any stray missile launcher shot just stops him dead in his tracks, and he is easily brought low by meltas. I always feel like its a waste unless the big fellow uses his high strength.

More Dakka

Its really very freeing to not be bound by my weapon load outs. Especially this early in getting used to my army. If I decide that what I really need is some range I can easily pick lascannons and missile launcher sprues and outfit them with magnets. There really is nothing that marks him as an ironclad so later I can use a venerable to see how his survivability plays out. Or even go cheap and play him as a regular, I'm sure I can find a use for another 35-50 points. In fact this will probably be the one area where I make up points in my army depending on adding/removing wargear later.