Allright! Hope I'm not to late for this one, I've been playing Blood Dragons like Crazy for some time now and thought I should summon it up a bit here now. I had hoped to have time to play von Carsteins as well but couldn't find the time I'm afraid.
Me and my friend who plays DE have been testing the new Blood Dragon skills and power for a total of eight games now at 2250 pts. Six of the games I've used this list:
Vampire Lord
-Master of Blades
-Crown of the Damned
-The Cursed Book
-Great Weapon
-Full Plate Mail
Vampire
-Red Fury
-Sword of Striking
-Flayed Hauberk
Vampire
-Master Strike
-Additional Handweapon
-Full Plate
Vampire
-Defender
-Quicksilver
-Sword of Battle
-Enchanted Shield
18 Skeletons, FC
18 Skeletons, FC
18 Skeletons, FC
18 Grave Guards, FC, Banner of the Barrows
18 Grave Guards, FC, Standard of Strigos
6 Black knights
6 Fell Bats
His List for all games was
Master
- Great weapon, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, Pendant of khaeleth
Master
- Battle Standard (Dread Banner), heavy armour, shield, sea dragon cloak
Sorceress
- Darkstar cloak, Lv 2
Sorceress
- Seal of ghrond,Tome of Furion Lv2
30 x Dark elf warriors
- standard, Champion, shields
30 x Dark elf warriors
- standard,Champion, shields
10 x Crossbowmen
- shields
10 x Crossbowmen
- shields
5 x Dark Riders
- musician, repeater crossbow
18 x Corsairs
-Standard, Champ
5 x Cold Ones Knights
1x Cold ones Chariot
2 x Reaper Bolt Thrower
War Hydra
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His army is the same I usually faces with my "normal" VC's. And whn I play with the normal rules I kind of gets a massacre 80% of the time so he has pretty much tired to fight my normal VC's. So when I asked him if he wanted to playtest some experimental rules for the blood lines he was in!
Already after our first battle, which I won but only with a minor victory, he tells me that this was "so much more fun than facing the ordinary knows-everything-VC" and also that this was one of the best games he had ever had with me! Yay! :D
He immediately wanted a second game with these new rules! Also this one was a minor victory to me but he wasn't bothered.
Over the next weeks we had several good games with my blood dragons vs his dark elves and every game was a great experience!
For two games I changed the list to include some blood knights, and a lord with unliving legend, horse lord and strenght of steel. Just to try them out. These two games were the least fun to play, mainly because neither me nor my fried is a big fan of death stars and these skills really creates just that, a death star unit. More on that later.
I will now go over each separate power and give my comments and his on each one.
First, the Stat changes.
Me: "These are pretty similar to how the looked in the previous edition if I'm not mistaking. In my opinion they represent a blood dragon quite well and the part where you lose a spell instead of one magic level is really good! Warhammer nowadays is pretty magic oriented so not making vampire heroes totally lacking in magic is a great thing! If I'm not mistaking the fluff says that even lesser vampires have control over the dark arts so this fits really well! The fact that they also come with full plate armour is a nice touch and why shouldn't they since sylvannia is an empire province?"
Him: "I don't know much about the vampires fluff and all but they really represent combat vampire well! The fact that they know less magic is also good and is compensated rightly with the fact that they come with the equipment of your choice."
Strength of Steel - 10pts
Me: " A Great and cheap skill. Most useful on a mounted vampire that wants to use a magic weapon instead of his lance, but well worth ten pts!"
Him: " An ok skill, not to useful if the one using it is on foot or is mounted with a lance, but mounted with a magic weapon then this is the skill for you!"
Horse Master - 15pts
Me: " This skill is a killer! Too cheap in my opinion, especial if combined with unliving legend in a unit of blood knights. So too cheap for a lord but ok priced for a hero since a hero cant pack the same punch as a lord. Has its uses with black knights but to remove their etheral movement simply doesn't make it worth taking. "
Him: " Next to unliving legend, this skill was the least fun to face. Making the already powerful blood knights charge like bretonnian knights is just a bit too good! maybe up the price a bit? at least if a lord takes it!"
Honour or Death - 20pts
Didn't use this one, sorry!
Defender - 20pts
Me: " Best skill for a hero vamp ever! Makes that fragile T4 W2 hero so much more survivable! Rightly priced as well, could maybe cost 25 but 20 is ok! I for one wont leave home without this one on my heroes!"
Him: "An annoying skill to face but a good one! Seen it before in other armies and its really great! Especially on heroes! Those vampires gets much more difficult to take down with this one! In lower points where heroes are generals, use this skill and the item that reduces ws to 1 on your general to make sure he survives! "
Master-strike - 45pts
Me: "A fun skill! I used it on a vampire with two handweapons in a unit with strigos banner ad he ate through everything! Maybe restrict it from being used in conjunction with magical weapons?"
Him: " KB is alway a scary thing to face and with the ability to re-roll wounds this skill is a real killer so to speak. Its ok for 45 pts though since it takes up all points in powers for a hero level vampire."
Red Fury - 50pts
This one has been around for a while so we all know how it works so lets just leave it. :tongue:
Unliving Legend - 55pts
Me: "The least fun skill IMO. It completely takes all the challenge away with Blood Knights and it creates a deathstar on the same time. No thanks! Tried this in two games but tired really quick. The words point and shoot just got a new meaning I'm afraid. "
Him: "I don't understand the meaning of this skill, it makes frenzy controllable and together with the horselord power its makes blood knights one of the worst death stars out there. Combine with flag of blood keep and drakenhof banner and you're home. "
Master of Blades - 100pts
Me: "A great skill well worth a hundred points! This is how I really pictures a Blood Dragon Lord! I combine it with a great weapon for that extra punch! Put this guy in a unit with hellfire banner and he'll take down a hydra quicker than, well, something that's really quick. Anyway, rightly costs 100 pts, worth 100 pts this is how every blood dragon lord should look! "
Him: "This skill creates a Close Combat monster! But the again it was combat vampires this was trying to create right? makes the already powerful lord even more powerful, but its cost of 100 pts makes up for this! Its actually a fun skill to use since this really limits the lords other skills actually giving him some weakness! "
All in all:
Me: "Blood Dragons are really entraining to play and it really gives character to the army. Its too bad actually that I didn't have time to try any other family to see if they give the army the same character as this blood line does! A work well done and my hat of to the people who have developed this and and extra hat of to DoN who made all this possible! Thank you!!"
Him: "This was like a thousand times more fun that facing the normal vampires. The problem with them is that they have no limits! They can have everything in the same army without any restrictions. With these new blood lines, vampire counts get a lot of character. I would like to try and face other families as well to see if they are as balanced as this list is!"
My Total summary is that with these blood dragon rules, powers and changes the vampire army get so much more balanced and much more challenging and entertaining to play with and against!
Looking forward to try the other blood line lists as well!
Fallen Angel out!
