Sunday, September 4, 2011

Ironclads: Any Good?

courtesy of the Dakkadakka Howling Griffons project
Student Teacher has already mentioned a dread list with Ironclads. I understand the allure of front and side AV13, free extra armor, and dual dccw but I have one significant beef: range. Without HKs and a storm bolter they don't have very good range. Generally they take a meltagun for popping armor and a flamer for anti infantry purposes. Unfortunately those both work at short ranges. I have found that mech armies generally don't have much trouble avoiding ironclads. I have even used them with drop pods. Still no gravy. So, readers, interwebs elite, tell me why ironclads merit attention in a dread heavy build for Codex Marines.  I personally think that regular MM/DCCW dreads fit the bill just fine.

Also, keep list ideas coming. I am anxious to see how people envision this type of list looking. For more details check out my last post outlining my criteria for building a C:SM dread list.

__________________________________________________________

Did you find this article useful? Subscribe to Gone to Ground for more great updates.

5 comments:

joe m. said...

After using an Ironclad in my recent games, I'm beginning to come to the same conclusions; range is definitely an issue with them and they start to get pricy in points if you add a lot to them (HK missiles, drop pod). You end up needing to buy a drop pod for them to get anywhere which brings the total cost up to just shy of a terminator squad.

The AV13 is nice but I find that it works out better when you have a saturation of AV13 or better throughout your army, otherwise it'll be the first thing to go in every game. With the abundance of melta these days, the IC isn't that much more survivable than a regular dread.

I too love the idea of an all dread list and it can definitely be fun to play with. I just find my regular dreads with longer range guns tend to do better.

Dave said...

I tend to agree with your assessments, Joe. The Ironclad seems to easily avoided and dealt with. Looking at the points cost for an Ironclad with two HKs and a pod versus a normal dread with MM/DCCW with heavy flamer and pod, I save 50pt. Close in, AV12 and AV13 are relatively similiar in regards to melta, so it seems to me that the cheaper dread would be a more efficient use of points. I like your statement about using a saturation of AV13 to actually make Ironclads better. That is a distinct problem with a dread heavy list. You either go with 6 Ironclads with 2 HKs apiece to get a wall of AV13 with some range or you sacrifice some dreads to add in predators. Then you don't have a dread heavy list.

Has anyone had much positive experience with Ironclads? If so, how did you run them, loadouts, deployment, and execution?

Dunn911 said...

I use one in my Pedro list. He is used defensivley to keep assault units off of my troops, razorbacks, and predators. He is a match up problem for some armies.

My elites are Sternguard, assault termies, and Ironclad. Keep him in pedro's bubble and he is very useful. I keep him stock with zero upgrades.

Saturdays rtt he was mvp killing 10 plague marines and a deamon prince game one, 3 kans and 20 gretchin game 2, and helped kill 20 beserkers and anoth deamon prince game 3.

All cases I needed him to tie up something and he did his job.

Dave said...

I like what you are saying there, Dunn. WS4 and AV13 make an Ironclad very hard to hurt, even with power fists. They are great for plowing into a scary unit that needs to be tied up and holding it there for awhile if not all game. Thanks for that comment.

Honda said...

I like my Ironclad. He has 2 x DCCW + 2 x HFlamer. I put him in a drop pod, just like the rest of my army.

It's been my experience that one dread is a waste of points, three is a serious problem for your opponent if you get them into his lines.

I've never really seen the point of walking dreads across the board, so I always put mine in drop pods and then put the rest of my force in drop pods as well, to saturate the area I want to dominate with targets.

I'm pretty much what you'd call an "iconic" space marine player, so tacs in drop pods, dreads in drop pods, then termies to clean up.

It's how I like to play my SM. YMMV.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...