Dreadnought

An Ultramarines Venerable Dreadnought. Who said Tau are the only mecha fans in the entire galaxy? Also, it looks more badass than Tau battlesuits, proving that being more crippled than Stephen Hawking is no excuse in the Imperium to stop being pimp.

Space Marines are phenomenally tough, but there's a limit even to their durability. A battle-brother may be so grievously wounded that no amount of cybernetics and cloned tissue can bring him back to fighting strength. In cases like these, an Apothecary has two choices: grant his brother the Emperor's Peace and extract his gene-seed, or have him installed in a specialized life-support sarcophagus and attach that to an array of weapons and mobility systems, turning him into a Dreadnought.

The advantages to becoming a Dreadnought include the ability to support the battle-brothers as a walking siege engine, blasting vehicles and fortifications with heavy weapons and ripping open hard targets with hydraulic claws. Heavily-armored and no longer feeling pain, a Dreadnought can wade into swarms of light infantry with near-impunity, smashing, stomping, and shooting until nothing's left but greasy stains. The life-support systems in the sarcophagus allow the Dreadnought's occupant to live nearly forever, as demonstrated by Bjorn the Fell Handed of the Space Wolves, who has lived in such a state since the mid-31st millennium. Therefore, Dreadnoughts tend to gather lifetimes of experience and are often called upon to share that experience with newer battle-brothers. Having a Dreadnought on the field is both a force multiplier and a morale booster.

All that power comes at a cost, of course. The near-dead battle-brother no longer has senses of his own, his eyes and ears wired to the sarcophagus's auspex arrays. He lives in a bath of cool fluid, numb and sleeping without dreaming, when his services as a warrior or historian are not needed. Should he be crippled on the battlefield, he can do nothing to save himself and must have faith in his brothers and the God Emperor that they will retrieve him.

Tabletop wise, Dreads are an effective all-rounder and are fairly cheap to boot. They're good at any role they're tooled for, whether it's for blowing up tanks with twin-linked lascannons or melta guns or mowing down infantry with an assault cannon or heavy flamer. They can also be formidable close combat units as they can be tooled with power fists, for example. You can also deep-strike them in Drop Pods, ensuring hilarity when you get lucky and they end up where they precisely need to be.

Do note, however, that many enemies focus anti-armor weapons on them (especially if there isn't a Land Raider to distract them). A footslogging Dread, without heavy use of cover, will be a burning hulk of points within two turns, relying on the deep striking Drop Pods to get them where they need to go.

Dreadnought Variants

There's a whole bunch of Dreadnought variants that do different things. There are also Wraithlords, Deff Dreds, and Helbrutes, which used to be called Eldar Dreadnoughts, Ork Dreadnoughts, and Chaos Dreadnoughts, respectively.

Castraferrum Pattern

Is the name for the traditional "box" dreadnought that everyone is familiar with, comes in MkIV and MkV flavours (just so you know, MkIV are the ones with the helmet-head). Designed by the Mechanicus during the Great Crusade, specifically for its smaller size (to assist battle-brothers indoors), while its reactor runs on pretty much any fuel and the chassis is completely customisable; hence, there are a terrific number of variations, though the Castraferrum is usually outfitted with a hydraulic claw with mounted bolter or flamer and a heavy ranged weapon.

• Hellfire Dreadnought: The most common variation of shooty dread, this swaps out its close combat weapon for a missile launcher.
• Ironclad Dreadnought: Even more heavily armored melee dreadnoughts with a Seismic Hammer, Hunter-Killer Missiles, and a built-in Frag Assault Launcher, designed to put giant holes in tanks and bunkers. It may also be equipped with a Hurricane Bolter if you need a big blob of light infantry killed fast.
• Siege Dreadnought: Specialized bunker-busting Dreadnoughts equipped with Assault Drills and Inferno Cannons. If they manage to come close enough to any building, no matter how fortified, they would wreck it and burn the shit out of anyone inside.
• Venerable Dreadnoughts: Simply put, they're really old Dreadnoughts that have been locked up for a long time and as such are better at fighting and... stuff. Also tend to get sleepy and lose their keys.
• Chaplain Dreadnoughts: Some Chapters have Venerable Dreadnoughts that used to be Chaplains. This basically means they have all those special effects that Chaplains do... in a Dreadnought body.

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  Hellfire Dreadnought

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  Ironclad Dreadnought

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  Siege Dreadnought

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  Venerable Dreadnought

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  Chaplain Dreadnought

Chapter Specific Dreads

• Furioso Dreadnought: Heavily armored Blood Angels dreadnoughts with two close combat weapons designed to RIP AND TEAR lots of troops in brutal close combat! Sometimes they even put a blood-crazed maniac from the Death Company inside, which turns a Furioso into an unholy, uncontrollable, and unstoppable rape machine.
  • Furioso Librarian Dreadnoughts: Blood Angels can also lock psykers up in Dreadnoughts, creating unholy amalgamations called Furioso Librarians. In addition to the badassery above, they replace one of their fists with a force weapon and can kill you with mind bullets. Furioso Librarians were once capable of flying (DAMN YOU WAAAAARRRRDDDD), but no longer while they are between codices.
• Mortis Dreadnought: A variant supposedly exclusive to the Dark Angels that sports two copies of the same ranged weapon, for maximum dakka. This was apparently due to the Dark Angels' talent for writing things down (for entirely practical reasons, like keeping track of grudges, rather than writing down some bible for space marines or the repressed/begrudging teeming masses) as all Legions had access to this pattern, but only the Angels remembered how to make a leftie dreadnought ranged weapon that wasn't a missile launcher.
  • Deathwing Dreadnoughts: The Dark Angels venerable dreads are all members of the inner circle and so reserve special hatred for The Fallen FILTHY CHAOS SCUM.
• Doomglaive Dreadnoughts: A specialist dreadnoughts used by the Grey Knights, comes with a nemesis force weapon and a psycannon as standard. Can attempt cleave attacks in close combat and try to hit additional dudes.
• Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought: Not exactly unique in design compared to other Venerables, but the veteran Wolves interred in them are so viking that they want to keep on vikinging even after death, meaning that the Iron Wolves of the chapter figured out how to give them a Blizzard Shield and a fucking huge Frost Axe. They lack ranged weapons but, you know, Dreadnought-sized double-headed axe!

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  Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought

Contemptor Pattern

Yes, this is a Contemptor of the Grey Knights. And no, they don't have them. Why the fuck did they not use these instead of the goofy Dreadknight? (Because the Ward, that's why.)

Really old Dreadnoughts from before the Horus Heresy that are bigger and stronger than "modern" Dreads. A few Chapters still have them and deploy them to the field. They look more humanoid and Anime-like, and people get puzzled as why did they not use these instead of the goofier Dreadknight, but the reasons they don't use them are exactly the same as why they started using the Castraferrum pattern instead; plus, Contemptors are becoming rarer and rarer in 40k, because the Adeptus Mechanicus keeps forgetting how to build things competently.

They have a bunch of mysterious cybernetic/AI stuff, which probably means that you should keep these away from the Adeptus Mechanicus, since they like stripping them out for parts to use on their robots. Unlike regular Dreads, they have access to Cyclone Missile Launchers, Heavy Conversion Beamers, Chainfists, Graviton Guns, Plasma Blasters, and the Kheres-Pattern Assault Cannon. They also have an advanced Atomantic reactor which no-one knows how to make anymore, that is coupled to a field generator that gives them an invulnerable save at the expense of making a Vehicle Explodes result more dangerous.

• Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnoughts: A modified Contemptor Dreadnought most often used by the Dark Angels that puts out a massive amount of dakka... so massive, in fact, that modern autocannon Dreads live in jealousy. Also, they have targeting arrays to fire at flyers.
• Contemptor-Furioso Dreadnoughts: While any contemptor can be kitted out with two close combat weapons only the Blood Angels do this exclusively, since they don't have access to "regular" contemptors in the rules, which also means they don't get access to the cool relic weapons.
• Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnoughts: A more easily produced Contemptor, made from less sophisticated materials and spare parts cannibalised from other dreadnoughts, resulting in less armour, less effective shielding, and a worse user interface. However, they are faster and more cost effective than the standard Contemptors, and can overcharge their reactors for even more speed at a risk to themselves.
• Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnoughts: The Osiron Class Dreadnought was a type of Contemptor used by the Thousand Sons. These dreadnoughts were created by Magnus himself, and consisted of a mortally wounded psyker Space Marine laced with a psychometric barrier for his brain. This allowed the Dreadnought to perform psychic abilities that was far safer to the user and its allies. As such, these Dreadnoughts were equipped with Force Weapons. Think of them as the Doomglaive Dreadnought of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Essentially speaking, Magnus had psychic dreadnoughts before it was cool. Who knew Magnus was such a hipster Template:BLAM!
• Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts: A Contemptor Dreadnought that is part of the Adeptus Custodes and is thus automatically given the title of 'Venerable' cause their just that badass. Essentially a golden Contemptor Dreadnought that is armed with a standard issue Autocannons, Power Fists and Multi-Melta. For just 30 more points you get the Aegis (Which grants a 5+ invulnerable save), and Deep Strike abilities, plus the aforementioned venerable. Considered as a cheaper alternative to the Custodes' walkers (Yes, the Contemptor Dreadnought is considered as the equivalent of a worn down rented car for the Golden Bananas. This should tell you how OP they are).
• Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnoughts: Used exclusively by the Adeptus Custodes, these Dreads were badass. How badass? Besides being more advanced overall, they came with an extra shield for solid defense, and a Sentinel blade with a built-in heavy flamer. Truly a marvel worthy of the Emperor's bodyguards.
• Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnoughts: Yet another variant of a Adeptus Custodes exclusive dreadnought. The Contemtor-Achillus swaps the giant sword and shield with a ECKS BAWKS HUEG FUCK OFF Power Spear called the Dreadspear with an inbuilt Corvae Las-Pulser and a hand-mounted Storm Bolter. If you want to skewer the rear ends of Land Raiders, this is the walker for you.

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  Contemptor-Cortus Dreadnought

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  Contemptor-Osiron Dreadnought

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  Venerable Contemptor Dreadnought

• File:===Deredeo Pattern===
• File:===Leviathan Pattern===
• File:===Other Patterns===
• File:So far the Castraferrum, Contemptor, Deredeo and Leviathan are the only patterns of dreadnought that are available as models. ''(unless you count some of the chaos daemon-engines, but who knows what they started as?)''
• File:Other types have been named though, and it is also said that some of these older pre-heresy patterns could have been piloted by non-astartes. So we can cross our fingers that more dreadnoughts may be coming eventually.
• File:*'''Lucifer:''' Said to be the prototype for the Contemptor, but doesn't have the advanced systems, instead it supposedly has shitloads of frontal armour.
• File:==Meme==
• File:==The making of a Dreadnought==
• File:2: Cut him in half (hopefully before he does the same to you)
• File:4: ???
• File:==Gallery==
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  After his internment into a Dreadnought, Brother Koolaidius has specialized in dynamic entry at any location, usually attending to battle brothers with refreshment needs.

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  Fear the motherfucking Breadnought.

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  Even in death, I still fuck your army.

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  I have come to destroy your anus.

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  The Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines are also known as the Belligerent Engines.

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  Suck it.

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  I came to reap the souls of those Traitorous Scum...if there was any...

See Also

• Tankred, the original memenought. He endures, for he is here for the bitches.
• Donovan
• Chaos Dreadnought, the evil (well, more evil) version
• Grandpa Dreadnought
• Bjorn the Fell Handed, of the Space Wolves, and the oldest living Space Marine in the Imperium.
• Davian Thule, of the Blood Ravens, also known as Davian Cool.
• Belligerent Engine, a catch-all term for the Dreadnoughts of the Angry Marines.
• Spared, a short story about a Dreadnought and some Tau.
• Entombed, a not-so-short story about a Dreadnought.