Hey all, Jawaballs here
I got to play a furioso dread recently for the first time in an Hard Boys practice game. I joyously included him in my army, with extra armor, magna grapple and blood talons. I couldn't wait to get him into combat!
Since it was a practice game, Danny Internets and I threw my army up against his "Leafblower" list and I gave him the alpha strike. The idea was to see if I could survive it, and just how well he could pull it off. More on that some other time.
So he scout moved a Valk full of vets up towards my Land Raider Crusader. Then on his 1st turn got out, and moved his vets up, who then charged my Land Raider with meltabombs. My Furioso was hiding behind it. Fantastic, my first catch of the day! On my turn, I ran out from behind, and charged the vets. Muahaha, I would be done with them in just a second, then be on my way towards the next squad in line.
Someone forgot to tell my dread it was uber. I hit the vets, and rolled 3 out of 4 threes. Then to wound, I rolled a 1 on one of the dice. Only two die. :( But I get to make two more attacks! Bah. A 1 and a 3. The wound is successful though... I get another attack. A hit and wound! Ok, that is more like it... the next attack is a miss. For all of the elite anti troop greatness that is the Furioso dreadnought with blood talons, I managed to kill 4 measly humans. The survivors got their attacks back with meltabombs, and scored a hit, luckily only managing to shake the dread. The vets made their leadership. What the hell? I have been dreaming of playing one for a month... and I only kill 4 guardsmen? I felt ripped off.
On his assault phase, I got 3 attacks. Two hit. One wounds. I go on to kill two more. The squad again makes leadership. Drat. Stuck in with a couple of hive world sewer rats. A couple kids barely old enough to have zits are bogging down a Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought while packing a squad full of the most ancient and powerful weapons in the Imperium. (The squad had 3 melta guns and they all had melta bombs.) How humiliating for one of the Blood Angels most venerable and elite warriors.
Finally on my next turn I manage to kill the squad and massacre roll ahead. The next turn I run up and take a shot at a Valkrye trying to grapple it. I am short on range. Danny ignores the dread, knowing he can obliterate it at any time. On the next turn, I manage to get close enough to actually grapple and "Scorpion" a Valkrye... Muahahah, "Get over here!" Some how I manage to pull it a total of 5 inches or something. Too far away to assault. Drat.
Now Danny is sufficiently annoyed by this Furioso nuisance that he decides to expend some resources to fly behind it, and blast it off the table. Drat. Fun over.
The minute I got home I went to my computer, loaded up Army Builder, and erased the Furioso Dread from my list. I replaced him with Corbulo and some upgrades. At least now those points will buy me a second chance at seizing the initiative, which is infinitely more valuable then killing a squad of snot nozed, teenagers.
More to come...
Jawaballs
So what have been your experiences with the Furioso Dread? Are you as underimpressed as I am? What do you think about Corbs? Will his reroll be worth using on a Seize the Initiative? After our game, we reset the table and allowed me to shoot after he scout moved as if I seized... 6 dead Valkyries and scores of dead vets later... the game would have gone very, very different...
Check out my Blood Angels blog for batreps and pictures.
Edit: I realized since writing this that they get to reroll wounds. Nice, it helps a little, but still does not make up for all the misses...
