If you caught our rules preview for the Brutalis Dreadnought, you’ll know it’s a scary beast. But does this punching power on-paper translate to real-world performance? With Strike Force Agastus coming to pre-orders this Saturday, we gathered our favourite brawlers from the Warhammer 40,000 cabinet for a no-holds-barred fist fight.
The Rules
The Brutalis Dreadnought isn’t the speediest machine in the world, so we rolled off to decide who went first in each bout – with a free round of shooting as an extra prize. We equipped the Dreadnought with its signature Brutalis talons.
Brutalis Dreadnought vs Deff Dread
As the first up to the plate, the Deff Dread traded its big shootas for extra dread klaws, as it’s the orky thing to do. The Brutalis lost the roll-off, but at least it didn’t have to suffer any shooting.
The Deff Dread slammed into the Brutalis with great enthusiasm. Five of its seven attacks connected, though ultimately only two got through to strip four wounds.* The Brutalis responded by cleaving through the Deff Dread’s armour with four attacks for 17 total damage.
Result: 1-0 to the Brutalis Dreadnought. Deff Dread down.
Brutalis Dreadnought vs War Dog Karnivore
War Dog Karnivores are lean, mean beasts, with punchy close combat weapons to choose from, so this bout will be a desperate race to the finish.
The Brutalis Dreadnought won the initiative and blasted the War Dog with its multi-meltas for seven damage – an excellent start. It was less lucky in melee, hitting with just two attacks, though its to-wound re-rolls and high AP dealt a further nine damage, wrecking the War Dog without reply.
Result: 2-0 to the Brutalis Dreadnought. Could have gone either way.
Brutalis Dreadnought vs Carnifex
The Carnifex is a Tyranid bio-Dreadnought with an arsenal of organic weapons – armed with four scything talons, this beast had a blistering 8 attacks. It won priority and hocked a gout of bio-plasma at the Brutalis, knocking a single wound off.
Its charge was much more effective, with eight attacks connecting – its Strength characteristic of six is normally potent enough to deal with most foes, but against the Brutalis’ high toughness, only three of those hits wounded, just two of them piercing the armour for a total of six damage. This was enough to degrade the return swings from the Brutalis, but swing it did. When the dust settled, two hits had dealt seven damage,** leaving the Carnifex with enough juice for another go.
Another six damage left the Dreadnought on just one wound, but this was all it needed to tear the monster’s head clean off But the Tyranid rolled a six for its Death Throes, resulting in a glorious double KO.
Result: 3-1 to the Brutalis Dreadnought. Even in death I still serve.
Brutalis Dreadnought vs Maulerfiend
In preparation for the battles to come against Vashtorr the Arkifane, our Brutalis squared up against a dark and corrupted Daemon Engine – the Maulerfiend. Could this unholy fusion of iron and the Empyrean finally chalk up a clean win against our hero?
No, no it couldn’t. Although the Maulerfiend packs plenty of wounds and a 5+ invulnerable save, a volley from the multi-meltas followed up with four brutal claw hits – wounding with ease with their Strength 14 and re-rolls – tore right through it, dispatching the daemon within and sending it screaming back into the warp.
Result: 4-1 to the Brutalis Dreadnought.
Want to stage your own giant mechanical punch-ups? Add a Brutalis Dreadnought to your army when Strike Force Agastus goes on pre-order this weekend. We’ll look at the very flexible new Primaris Lieutenant tomorrow.
* The Duty Eternal ability reduces the damage of each hit by one – very handy in a fistfight!
** The Screamer-killer had its own damage-reducing ability, Armoured Exoskeleton.