2500 - finally playing with a dragon

[Korpacz]

I've been playing a fantasy war game for 2 years and I've never had a dragon. That just seems wrong. So here is the dragon list I'm hoping to have ready (unpainted) for a local tourney in December.

Vamp Lord
Level 1
Zombie Dragon
Talisman of Preservation
Nightshroud
Potion of Foolhardiness
Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Shield
Redfury (thinking about switching to Quickblood + Beguile + Dreadknight)

Banshee
Banshee
Necro - Level 2, Dispel Scroll [Vamp/Death Lore]
Necro - Level 2, Cursed Book (maybe upgrade for hex scroll or feedback scroll?) [Vamp/Death Lore]

30 Crypt Ghouls + Ghast
20 Zombies + Standard & Musician
20 Zombies + Standard & Musician
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves

7 Crypt Horrors [or get rid of 1 fellbat and take 2 x hexwraiths]
2 Fellbats
2 Fellbats

Terrorgheist
Mortis Engine + Blasphemous Tome

I intentionally avoided 2 terroghiests beucase people here on the west coast will hit you hard on comp and go so far as giving you bad game votes if they don't like your army. 1 terrorgheist seems to be OK, but once you take a second you're the devil's spawn.

The dire wolves run interception while the fellbats hover around the lord to deflect charges. The banshees are wild cards, screaming and holding up anything without ranks like chariots and stegadons. The two necros have a bunker each and the bunkers ride behind the crypt ghouls and crypt horrors. The Crypt Ghouls are running 5/6/7? wide aiming for high T, low armor targets. The crypt horrors and mortis engine are there to soak up cannon balls turns 1 and 2 and then get stuck in against whatever else I can't tackle.

2 questions:

[1] Does this look viable? Meaning can it hold it's own against any army? I know there will be some bad match-ups like dwarf and empire gunlines, but with a potential 3 invocations and the mortis engine buffs I think it should stand somewhat of a chance against even those armies.

[2] Would this be a fun list to play against? Would you groan if you saw this across the table?

 

[Erik]

I like the list! Personally, if you can't bring red fury and quickblood together, than pick quickblood & beguile! Ah! and what about lance? In that way you have 5 s7 attacks re-rollable on the charge plus dragon's attacks
If you want to run ME, keep horrors.. they gain full regen and eat many things.
Of course your primary mission is: "hunt warmachines like hell"

 

[Lord Coenraad Vonn Forongkry]

Love it! Reminds me of the list I'm building - to the best of my ability, I'll never go to battle unless I'm mounted on a dragon!

 

[Adam_Barrow]

I'm worried about warmachine hunting for you, but when I put a Lord on a monster I bring x2 SH, 3 Vargs + champ, and two units of Fell Bats. You're Hero heavy, so maybe you can squeeze some points there. Cannons will drop a dragon so cannons becomes kill priority #1.

 

[badfox7]

He doesn't need a lance because he has a great weapon. I agree that I like red fury and quick blood. That way you will be striking before your opponent and not at the same time with your vamp. A concern of mine would be that you do not have a lvl 4 caster in the army so you will probably be beat in magic a lot. I think you should keep the crypt horrors as a nice anvil unit. It would be nice to see some vargheists for war machine hunting but you do have the fell bats and if needed the terrorgheist to do so so it isn't that big of a deal. I wouldn't put dread knight on your lord because then you have to challenge and you want to kill rank and file models with him. And a couple spirit hosts would be good

 

[Korpacz]

With nightshroud, a 2+ armor save and 4++ ward and -1 to be hit, I'm not as concerned about him dying from wounds as I am about him dying from combat res. in round 2 of the combat. The great weapon ensures he's wounding just about anything and the red fury gives him the chance to squeeze out an extra wound or two for combat res. I just don't see the lance as a good option becuase he's most likely going to be stuck in for a round or two of combat due to steadfast and with only S5 he just won't get the wounds he needs for combat res against 1+ AS T6 models.

I don't see why you wouldn't take Dreadknight on him since he's almost always going to be fighting alone and any half decent player will always challenge him. It just ends up giving him a nice offensive and defensive boost against things like a demon prince, and high WS characters.

Comparatively the QB+Beguile+Dreadknight w/ GW clearly makes him more survivable, but the QB only makes him strike at initiative order which doesn't seem like it's worth XXpts. Maybe go with the -1 LD aura or the No inspiring presence/bsb ability to help with beguile and screams for the TG and banshees.

 

[badfox7]

Dreadknight means you have to challenge. Some players don't want to. With night shroud you make them strike last and then quick blood males you strike at initiative which is before your opponent.

 

[Corien Sumatris]

Dreadknight is scary to me. I like mowing through the cute little dudes instead of trying to cap a character or ending a champ. It's moreso I don't wan't someone charging in with like a unit of giant slayers and then boom, that guy gets to kill 1 model a turn. Ick. Although slayers don't really scare me lol. Bad example I guess.

 

[Korpacz]

Since you're a lone character and you have nowhere to hide, you must always accept challenges, you cannot refuse. 99% of the time your opponent is going to issue a challenge to prevent his unit from getting wrecked, so being forced to challenge doesn't seem like much of a drawback since your opponent is going to force you into a challenge anyways.

 

[badfox7]

I would say take quick blood, beguile, and aura of dark majesty. No dread Knight. Because if you get a multi charge with your dragon and another unit then you have to accept with your lord and not a unit champ of the other unit. To risky.

 

[Corien Sumatris]

^that and what happens to a lord that runs into a unit of blood knights?

 

[Korpacz]

^that and what happens to a lord that runs into a unit of blood knights?

He murders one in a challenge and the other 4 break and get rundown

 

[Corien Sumatris]

Oh ... duh, they crumble lol. I'm bad at this game! I guess it's pretty much just bad if you double charge.

 

[badfox7]

Which if you are considering he wraiths or crypt horrors to run support, it will happen a lot.