Warhammer 40K: Brutalis Dreadnought Needs a Hug
Goatboy here with a Hot Mess of a Warhammer 40K model that I actually kind of love – the Space Marine Brutalis Dreadnought.
Heck I think a few things would make the Brutalis Dreadnought an actually decent choice and it isn’t dropping its point cost. It is cheap enough already it just needs a little bit of love to create something those dirty Marine players would actually like to have in their armies. Let’s dive in and see if we can make this little dead boy in a suit become more Brutal.
Brutalis Dreadnought is Cheap – YAY!
Really the only thing going for this monster is that it is a very cheap dreadnought body. The new current Space Marine dreadnought options are all rocking a 2+ armor save, a decent amount of wounds, and a tough body. Some get some damage prevention and others are supposed to be brutal close combat options. This guy should be brutal in combat, and while it can some cool mortal wounds on the charge it isn’t nearly as good as it should be. Let’s start by the easy fix.
Better AP!
First of all make all its close combat weapon attacks have AP -3. The AP-2 it current has is just terrible on this giant robot coming at you angry at your life choices. Yes a lot of the time AP-2 just gets a tough unit onto the invulnerable save but when you mix in Armor of Contempt options and other AP reducing strats you start to see how this guy just doesn’t do enough. The first thing I would do is give this guy AP -3 and let him start to cook with that option. Just look at his chompy hands!
A Tad More Damage Please!
From there I would shift its damage ability. I think locking it into increasing what this model can do when it makes the charge will be one of the ways to “make it better” without having to up its cost. I think a simple little add on rule to its Brutalis Charge would be a simple – it can do a form of tank shock and its melee weapons get a +1 damage. This would help its Talons and Fists got to Damage 4 and lets its sweep attack hit that sweet spot of Damage 2. This is huge and helps it clear hordes like it feels like it should do. It also locks into its charge ability so while powerful it only happens when it angrily charges in like some kind of toddler who sees you have candy in your hand.
Just a Little Beefier Please!
From there I would do the final thing to help “toughen” the Brutalis Dreadnought up a bit. I don’t like the -1 damage option as while cool it really shifts a lot of the gameplay around removing it and would force an “increase” in cost to justify adding that. Instead of doing that I think a simple add on of having a 5+ invulnerable save would be better or even an option for a form of Feel No Pain. These types of things would let it live a little longer, still lets you do damage to it, and soften some of the damage curve into it. Each of these options come with some threat to the points cost but I think just allowing this on the tabletop would be ok at its aggressive current costs.
What do you think? Do you think a wholesale change to the dreadnought chassis would be the best? Are some of these Dreadnoughts too good? Would having too many Dreads be awesome just make the Marine army into a Custodes Solar Spearhead Lite style list?
I really just want Brutalis’ to be cool.
