Dragonlord Army Suggestions 2500 points

[GhoulKing505]

So I know it's not the most competitive. I know I will lose a lot of games one the first or second turn. I don't care. The Vampire Dragonlord is way too BA for me to ignore any longer. I had great ideas for an UL list but as that has been voted down by many it's time to return to my roots and make a VC only list.

What I'm looking for are suggestions of how to build a list around him. 2500 points. What things would you include? What should I watch out for (besides the obvious)? What other characters should I take to support the dragonlord and the rest of my army? What magic level should the dragonlord take?

My Dragonlord will look like this:

Vampire Lord
Red fury, qb, beguile, heavy armor, shield, lance, nightshroud, talisman of preservation, the other tricksters shard, zombie dragon

Any suggestions welcome... Except for "don't". That is unwelcome advice at this point. Hahaha!

 

[Nicreap]

I'd say you would want 2 terrorgheists to march up with your general and present target saturation, and if you give him lore of vampires he can heal all three. hex wraiths would probablly go good as well since they can keep up and harass.

 

[Patrunkenphat7]

Don't feel like you have to explain yourself for running a Lord on a Zombie Dragon. It is a BA model, and it is sick to run the most killy character in the game on a massive undead dragon. If you are willing to play your list under Undead Legions rules, I actually think the Lord on the Zombie Dragon can be quite competitive (the lack of crumble when he dies means you can still manage to pull out a win if he dies early, especially if you are running something like a level 4 lore of death Master Necro). People over-exaggerate how often characters on dragons die to cannon balls. You just need to be more tactical against armies with cannon spam. Yes, it will happen once in a while, but shrug off those games and remember those times when you are running train on your opponent with the most killy character in the game.

Like the above post says, run 2 Terrorgheist alongside your vamp. An alternative build to what you have listed above would be swapping the Lance and Nightshroud for Sword of Anti-Heroes and Dragonhelm and swapping Beguile for Dreadknight. Both builds are good, so try them out to see what you like. Also with the new 50% lord rules I like to give the lord level 1 and have a level 4 of Death Master Necro shambling up with your core.

 

[GhoulKing505]

I've found that my build is extremely hard to kill. Near impossible really. I have beguile as a defensive measure and because it works well with the cloud of flies. I don't want to use dread knight because of the challenge thing. I want my lord killing what he wants. I plan on taking wolf darts with champions and combo charging with them so they can take the challenge instead.

With my UL list I would have a lvl 4 lore of light priest. My idea was phas protection and speed of light. I am going to miss this as the only plausible way to get it would be a forbidden lore vampire. Being only lvl two doesn't give me the spells I need. I took a look at lore of heavens though and liked it. The signature spell combos well with the cloud of flies and it being the signature means I automatically get it. Would a lvl 2 forbidden lore heavens vampire be worth it? There's also the spell that makes a unit reroll 6s which would also combo well with cloud of flies and the high toughness of my dragon.

I do like the idea of dual terrorgheists with this guy. Target saturation is big. And if I needed to I could use them as meat shields for my general. I also really love hexwraiths. I will almost certainly be using them. It's all about finding the points though.

 

[Patrunkenphat7]

The challenge part of Dread Knight is basically irrelevant to a lord on dragon unless you are in a multiple combo with another one of your characters (which is probably not going to happen).

 

[Nicreap]

No it is very relevant to a Zombie lord on Dragon. If he is stuck in a challenge then he can lose to CR alone. A VL on zombie dragon really wants to be swinging into rank and file.

 

[Patrunkenphat7]

Read the "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide" rule on page 102 of the rulebook. If it is beneficial for the opponent to challenge the vamp, they are going to do it, and you can't refuse the challenge anyway. This makes Dread Knight basically a free roll since the downside already exists on your character.

 

[Nicreap]

for 50 points you can have a direwolf unit with a champion, or 3 vargheists with a champion to accept those challenges so you vl can mulch the unit.

 

[Patrunkenphat7]

Multiple combat with Direwolves is usually not going to end well for your Vampire Lord unless you are up against completely garbage infantry. Your lord will very likely crumble from combat res during the 2nd combat. Vargheists + champ with Vampire Lord on Dragon can be a reasonable tactic, but that's not something you can consistently pull off, and even when you can your Vargheists die very quickly to anything that's not crap infantry. I would rather be killing expensive units with characters with my Vampire Lord than going after their crap rank-and-file core even if it takes a few turns. I think your opponent is happy if you charge their core infantry with your 700 point dragon and another unit. Your Dragon probably won't even earn his points back by doing this.

Like I said in my previous post, the only time Dread Knight is relevant is when you are in a multiple combat with another one of your characters.

 

[Pirate Robot Ninja of Death]

Multiple combat with Direwolves is usually not going to end well for your Vampire Lord unless you are up against completely garbage infantry. Your lord will very likely crumble from combat res during the 2nd combat. Vargheists + champ with Vampire Lord on Dragon can be a reasonable tactic, but that's not something you can consistently pull off, and even when you can your Vargheists die very quickly to anything that's not crap infantry. I would rather be killing expensive units with characters with my Vampire Lord than going after their crap rank-and-file core even if it takes a few turns. I think your opponent is happy if you charge their core infantry with your 700 point dragon and another unit. Your Dragon probably won't even earn his points back by doing this.

Like I said in my previous post, the only time Dread Knight is relevant is when you are in a multiple combat with another one of your characters.

Absolutely incorrect.

The only time this is true of vargheists is if they're fighting things in the front, which they should never be doing. Start them way out wide and run them up then in, and they should almost always be hitting things in the flank unless your opponent decides to show his flank to your centre.

For the dogs, run them in 2-wide darts to mitigate incoming damage. With the champion in a challenge your opponent is hitting just 25mm of frontage. If your VL can't overcome that then he's not trying.



If I were running a ZD lord I'd probably pair him with one terrorgheist and 2-3 units of 4 vargheists with champion, run 2x2. You want to minimize the frontage of those units as much as possible to minimize incoming attacks. It also increases their maneuverability. Terrorgheist is really just there to catch cannonballs and draw fire away from the ZD.

I'd also be hesitant to NOT run the ZD VL at level 4, TBH. You want him casting spells to keep his mount healed up, along with his terrorgheist buddy. Depends what the rest of your list is, but I feel with a ZD you're not goign to want to split your forces by having your wizard with the useless troops rather than your mobile hammers.

That changes in a UL list somewhat, but I'd probably try fitting in dual level 4s in that case.