MotF List 4: Drop Dreads

So probably the most common and final generic MotF lists: Drop Dreads. This type of list is only really possible with Blood Angels and Vanilla Marines because they are able to take at least six dreadnoughts. This gives them great flexibility on the Drop and puts a lot of armor in the opponent’s face quickly. The MotF unlocks this list for Space Marines as you can take six Dreads so let’s take a look at how we can make this list work.

We want to Drop Pod everything in or at least have them start with the Drop Pod option so we have the numbers to drop the Dreads in on T1 if we want. This list is based on this premise. We need to start with a MotF shockingly enough. We have some options here in how we set him out. He can drop in with a Tactical squad and sit in the backfield and use the Conversion Beamer but this squad can be quite vulnerable and is a lot of points for just two heavy weapons so for the moment we’ll take him bare bones where he can lend some combat support to an infantry squad and potentially repair things… From there we’ll buy six basic Dreads w/MM, Heavy Flamer w/Drop Pod and Deathwind launcher which costs 160 points each. This sets us back 1060 points total so we’ve got 940 points to work in 5 more Pods and scoring units.

The most basic scoring unit and pod setup is the full Tactical squad with meltagun, MM, combi-melta (or flamer) and Pod which is 220 points. Four of these sends us to 1940 points but we then don’t have enough pods (sitting at 10) to be able to drop all the Dreads we want so we need to squeeze in the points for another Pod + Squad. We could cut one of the Tactical squads down and change it to two small squads but we then lose the special weapons which isn’t really what we want so let’s look at a small ASM squad. Yes I know, ASM in Vanilla Marines but a small 5 man squad can take a Pod and a flamer for a pretty cheap 110 points which means we need to shave 50 points somewhere; yikes! We’ll drop all of the combis then from the Tacticals and one of the Deathwind launchers from the Pods and gives us a round 2000 point army with 11 Pods, 6 Dreads and 5 infantry squads. Perfect! Let’s check out the list:

Master of the Forge
3x Dreadnought w/MM, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod w/Deathwind launcher
4x10x Tactical squad w/meltagun, MM, Drop Pod
5x ASM w/flamer, Drop Pod
2x Dreadnought w/MM, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod w/Deathwind launcher
Dreadnought w/MM, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod

Totals: 2000 points
17 vehicles (11 Pods)
46 infantry

So a very basic list without much in terms of special Dreadnought equipment. This can of course be bought and the number of Tactical squads reduced to pay for this whilst maintaining the same number of Pods (again going for small ASM squads). The style of the list though allows one to drop either Dreads or Infantry in your opponent’s face depending upon who gets first turn and how your opponent defends against a full Pod list. You can see a similar styled list for Blood Angels here which offers up more variety but the Vanilla styled list is a lot more stable in midfield with 40 Tactical Marines.

And that really wraps up the main MotF list series. If there are any other lists someone would like to see with the MotF in, just let me know and I’ll see what we can whip up. Picture from FTW by Ron and brought to my attention by Alexander.