Home › Units › Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters) › Dreadnought
1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
When a great Space Marine hero is mortally wounded, his Chapter may refuse to let him die. What remains of his body is sealed inside a sarcophagus filled with life-sustaining fluids and wired into the frame of a Dreadnought. He goes on fighting for the Chapter as an "Ancient", sometimes for thousands of years.
Between wars, many Dreadnoughts are kept in a sleep-like stasis. Waking them is a solemn rite. They carry memories of battles long past and are consulted as living records of their Chapter's history. Some, like Bjorn the Fell-Handed of the Space Wolves, fought beside the Primarchs. Not every Dreadnought copes with this existence. Interment can bring madness. Among the Blood Angels, warriors lost to the Black Rage may be sealed in Death Company Dreadnoughts so that their fury can still serve.
A Dreadnought is a walking tomb. Mortally wounded heroes are interred in a sarcophagus inside an armoured walker, and they can continue to fight for centuries. Between wars they sleep in hibernation and are woken by ritual for battle. They are revered as living history. Patterns include the classic Mark V, the Ironclad, the Venerable and the Heresy-era Contemptor.
Appearance & wargear
Classic Dreadnoughts are boxy walkers about twice the height of a Space Marine, with the sarcophagus in the front of the hull. Weapon arms carry an assault cannon, multi-melta, twin lascannon or plasma cannon, often paired with a powerful close-combat fist with a built-in storm bolter or heavy flamer.
Variants include the Venerable Dreadnought (the oldest Ancients), the heavily armoured Ironclad built for assaults on fortifications, the Blood Angels' Furioso and the older, more agile Contemptor of the Horus Heresy era. Hulls are covered in honour markings, banners and parchment.
It is a box-like or rounded walker with a sarcophagus at the front and weapon arms carrying assault cannons, lascannons, multi-meltas and power fists.
Weapons & Vehicles
The Imperium's premier long-range anti-tank laser cannon, firing a blinding lance of coherent light that punches cleanly through battle…
A belt-fed 1.0-calibre automatic support cannon known to Imperial troops as the "Backbreaker," scything down massed infantry and light …
A volatile directed-energy rifle that hurls bolts of miniature sun-hot plasma capable of vaporising Terminator plate and tank armour—at…
A short-ranged thermal sub-molecular agitation weapon that flash-melts battle tank armour, bunker doors and heavy walkers into bubbling…
A volatile liquid-promethium projector that floods bunkers, trenches and xenos swarms in clinging, self-oxidising gouts of cleansing ch…
A twin-barrelled, double-chambered automatic bolter wielded one-handed by Space Marine Terminators, Grey Knights and battle tank pintle…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
An armoured orbital-insertion capsule fired like a shell from a Space Marine Strike Cruiser, slamming into the heart of the enemy battl…
A heavily armed VTOL assault gunship and flying transport of the Adeptus Astartes and Grey Knights, capable of carrying both a full squ…
A larger, heavier Dreadnought designed by Belisarius Cawl to carry fallen Primaris Marines.
Chaos Dreadnoughts whose entombed pilots have been driven insane, combining tank-like firepower with psychopathic fury.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Dreadnoughts serve as walking heavy support that can also fight in close combat, smashing through infantry and tanks alike. They are tougher than most squads but slower than vehicles, and they are often dropped onto the battlefield in Drop Pods. Their presence inspires younger battle-brothers, who see a living hero of the Chapter fighting beside them.
Dreadnoughts act as heavy support and assault walkers that anchor lines and smash through enemies. They are tough and versatile but slow.
Munitorum & Ordo Xenos Technical Dossier
Classified under Ordo and Departmento Munitorum threat-index protocols as a primary Dreadnoughts serve as walking heavy support that can also fight in close combat, smashing through infantry and tanks alike. They are tougher than most squads but slower than vehicles, and they are often dropped onto the battlefield in Drop Pods. Their presence inspires younger battle-brothers, who see a living hero of the Chapter fighting beside them. asset of Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters), Dreadnought relies on a tightly coupled symbiosis between operator conditioning and primary armament. Field maintenance and biological recovery logs indicate that extended deployment without liturgical recalibration or bio-stasis rest degrades targeting and metabolic stability by less than 4% per solar week—far outperforming standard sector baselines—while post-engagement recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core wargear, neural/gene-seed components, or machine-spirit memory cores before enemy scavengers can exploit them.
Notable battles & users
- Bjorn the Fell-Handed: the oldest known Space Marine still in service, a Space Wolf who fought beside Leman Russ.
- Blood Angels: Death Company Dreadnoughts contain warriors overcome by the Black Rage.
- Iron Hands: the Chapter's Dreadnoughts are honoured members of its council, valued for their wisdom and their union with the machine.
- Brother Agnathio: an Ultramarines 2nd Company Dreadnought, interred in 141.M36 after the Fall of Chundrabad.
- Aeneas: a former Grand Master of the Grey Knights who led the order for 55 years in the 37th Millennium before becoming a Dreadnought.
Related
Characters (4)
Bjorn the Fell-Handed · Venerable Dreadnought, Last of the Company of Russ
Commander Dante · Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, Regent of Imperium Nihilus
Ferrus Manus · Primarch of the Iron Hands, the Gorgon
Angron · Primarch of the World Eaters, the Red Angel
