I has Kamikaze

No, not this kind

With the advent of 6th edition the once mighty Space Marine Dreadnought has, according to the tinterwebs, taken a bit of a kicking.

However, being the sceptical old sod that I am when it comes to internet wisdom, when running Iron Hands I never leave home without at least two of them in my army list.

Apparently, like many other units, they're no longer the super dooper paratrooper, be all and end all when it comes to close combat.

Hello. They are.

What has happened is that it's harder to get them into close combat, which is mainly due to the undeniable shift that 6th edition has given us towards shooting and the introduction of overwatch which puts its charge against haywire grenades and meltaguns etc.

Nonetheless, if one of these baby monsters gets close enough to get a hold of your troops, it's either going to make a mess of them, or tie them up.

However, I'm not going to prattle on about using them in close combat, instead I'm going to offer my thoughts on using them as most people now think of them, as a drop pod suicide unit, and not in the manner you're thinking of.

Recognise this?

Yep, it's a Venerable Dreadnought.

'But I has to has an Ironclad as a suicide unit'.

Why?

'An Ironclad with a flamer and multi-melta doesn't cost much more points wise than a Venerable with a flamer and multi-melta and you get slightly more armour value and I want my Ironclad to survive'.

No extra armour here.

Ok, how many Kamikaze pilots have you heard of who took extra armour to survive?

No doubt some really good history buff will prove me wrong, but I'll hazard a guess and say none. And Kamikaze pilots and your drop-dread share a common purpose; they're bloody suicide units that aren't expected to live much past initial impact.

The reality is that the interceptor rule and new rules on drop pod assault aside, you're hoping to plonk it behind your opponent's bestest ever unit or most dangerous piece of armour so that it can shoot the shit out of it.

If it dies having managed this; and there's a very good chance that it will pop its clogs in your opponent's next shooting phase even if it is an Ironclad; your Kamikaze has achieved the glorious end that all good servants of the Emperor so dearly crave.

Did you see what I did there?

And this is where being a Venerable suicide unit rather than an Ironclad one, gives you a slight edge in achieving your kill that mofo objective; the multi-melta you're toting hits on a +2, not a +3. As I've said previously, I'm not that much into mathhammer, but even I know that you've got a better chance of hitting what you're aiming at with a +2 roll.

Another benefit, is that being Venerable allows you to make your opponent re-roll penetrating hits. Are these good enough reasons to take consider dropping the Ironclad for?

Well I think so. Over to you.