Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 Dreadnoughts Are REALLY Badass – I Want!
Goatboy here with how GW can make Space Marine Redemptor Dreadnoughts as badass as they are in Space Marine 2.
Goatboy here and I don’t know about you but man does the Redemptor dreadnought in Space Marine 2 seem like an awesome badass. It makes you question why aren’t the dreadnoughts in 40K this awesome. Why can’t they just be mad at Magnus and go around wrecking stuff like encased hero living a tortured existence between life and death?
I know I have talked about Redemptors before but I thought of some other neat ideas that could be awesome. I am wondering if we move away from the whole – amazing death machine – and instead create a being that inspires those around him. Or at least makes them think that if they get damaged in battle they make sure they die so they don’t get locked in a box like some kind of Alice In Chains song.
Dreadnought Inspiration
Heroes of Old
I think the simple thing we could do is just create a “Space Marine hero” aspect around the dreadnought. These are death slinging machines and house great heroes from the Chapters past. This means these guys should help their brethren out and make them feel like they are being lead by one of their old heroes from ancient days. So why not give some bonuses to them? They could be simple things like rerolling Battle Shock tests, breaking Battle Shocked units back, or just even giving them some kind of simple cover Aura just due to being so big and bulky.
Or – we set up each dreadnought to have abilities based on what occupant is locked in there. This could be something that would bring back old Librarian dreadnoughts. Or how about Chaplain dreadnoughts? Heck just an awesome Captain or Lt that could help spread out their old aura and give something unique to the army that truly fits a flavor for Space Marines. Imagine a Dreadnought kit with a sprue of bits to let you customize it based on the type of occupant!
All the other Dreadnought-like units from other armies are really just methods for the army to have a robot without saying it’s a robot. The Aeldari have giant machines run on spirit batteries of their old dead bros, but really don’t have much of a personality. Ork Dreadnoughts are just crazy Grots strapped into a metal tube. Helbrutes are tortured and completely insane Chaos Space Marines; more a force of desturctin, and less of a hero locked away. Heck the only other aura like ones are the Dark Eldar tortured machines like the the Talos, that show up too. Why not let Dreadnoughts and Redemptors become central pieces of the Space Marine army?
Dreadnought Detachments?
Heck you could just give an extra set of rules or enhancements that could just show up for “Dreadnoughts” in a special Space Marine Detachment. These would be simple point add ons that could let you create these little cool leader like units and let you have something unique. I think just creating a cool detachment would be the easiest way and let you have some fun with this, create some cool heroes, and let you make something unique that hopefully isn’t broken.
Does this sound like too much? Could this just be a fun little 2 set of rules for a Space Marine army? You wouldn’t have to change the Datasheets and just let you get a simple extra rule and keyword shift to help make true old heroes of the Imperium who are locked away until the time is right to release these Ancients on the battlefield? Or heck just have a bunch of Dreadnoughts running around yelling for vengeance against Magnus or Mortarion as they hit the tabletop.
We’ll leave the Dreadnoughts throwing terrain pieces at Heldrakes for another day…
