Mysteries of the Pre Heresy Dreadnought

Today Forge World released the latest of their incredibly late 'Next Babab War' releases, one of which was pedestrian at best - namely the blinking Space Sharks for Nurgle's sake! - but the other i'll admit is quite interesting..
Especially when you consider this paragraph.

A Space Marine Contemptor Dreadnought is an Elites Choice in
a Codex Space Marine, Codex Dark Angels, Codex Space Wolves,
Codex Blood Angels or Codex Black Templars army. Until a
specific variant of this unit is featured in a forthcoming book, the
Contemptor as listed here may also be used in a Codex Chaos Space
Marines army.

That's right... WE FINALLY HAVE A VENERABLE DREADNOUGHT AND we have confirmation of a forthcoming book, either IA: Apoc 3 perhaps (for the Phantom) or IA 12, as afterall IA 11 is already Eldar, being a Chaos vs. Imperium book. Again. Only this time with Mareens. Of the Chaos AND Imperial variety. And yet another attempt to shoehorn Culln into being super smexy awesomeness. That's both good and bad, admittedly, at the same time, I suppose. Hope that it's Emperors Children/Thousand Sons vs. Iron Hands - three really strapped for releases armies in one go and the chance to finish off a Resin Cult Legion quartet? Sign me up.

But what is the 'Contemptor Dreadnought' as this is being called? Well, it's a mix of Defiler (AV) and Death Company DreadI guess (with the statline), but comes at the premium price of 175 pts for 2 Strength 7(10) attacks and a Heavy Bolter... And the equivilent of a Storm Shield integrated. Huh - that explains the egg shell then, eh?

The options are pretty standard for a Dreadnought - mix of Furioso and Normal I guess - but what intrigues me is the 6 blanked out parts which must be, respectively:
- Heavy X (8 or 9 letters)....................+20pts
- Twin Linked X (6 letters?)................+25pts
- Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with Inbuilt X (5 letters?) Y (6, 7 letters?)......+20pts
- Replace Boltguns with Heavy X (5 letters?) +20pts each
- Replace Boltguns with X (Looks like Surge, 5/6 letters?) Y (6-8 letters) +30pts each
- Add X Y (can't see anything) +1/2/3-0pts
I'm no ancient body when it comes to this, but presumably these are revamped versions of 2nd edition weaponry to match the blatantly 2nd edition dreadnought.


Anyway, it's a good release, and presumably one which also fits into the Siege Company list I guess as a linebreaker. Still only 15 Dreadnoughts - 9 Troop, 3 Heavy, 3 Elite - allowed in it but... I guess that's enough until Dreadknights get canonised for all of the chapters rather than just GK to shift more units.