4 game tournament, 2000 points, short

[dabber]

I took a nasty Star Dragon army.

Star Dragon with tank lord on top (AoC, Vambraces, amulet of light)
BSB with "Banner of Win" on horse
scroll caddy
2x10 archers (duh!)
2x7 Swordmasters
6 Dragon Princes with ignore terrain banner
3 RBTs
Eagle

In practice games before, I was just 2-4. The Star Dragon couldn't kill enough and the rest of the army accomplished little while usually dying.

Round 1 I face a Lizardmen army. Slann in TG, one Engine, 2 blocks of Saurus, mixed unit, couple skirmishers. Lore of Death doesn't provide the tools to stop the dragon and he didn't push the pace enough with the rest of his army to get to mine. BSB ran with DPs. Skinks were not used to divert them, so they killed the skinks, overran into Saurus and killed them. Turned around and killed other Saurus. Shooting injured stegadon and the Star Dragon got a flank charge on it (from behind the TG) to finish it and overrun into flank of mixed unit. RBTs gunned down most of the TG and Star Dragon finished it off. Lizardmen tabled on turn 5 with few elven losses.

Round 2 I faced relatively friendly VC. We played this game twice earlier in the week and IF Beast Cowers killed me. Here I screw up gloriously on turn 1 and get my Dragon charged by a Vargulf. Its a 175 pt thingy, I'm a 600+ pt dragon, I should kill it, right? No, its a Vargulf. I kill it on my turn, but that stuck me in place to get charged by Grave Guard. I break, rally, get charged, break rally, get charged. Took out lots of GG along the way, but they got back up. Finally got the Wight King after rolling double 6s for necessary dragon armour saves against a D3 wound weapon. Fourth charge was followed by another IF Beast Cowers then a killing blow on the Prince. Dragon finally runs off table. However, during that, I got my BSB and 7 Swordmasters into the flank of the Vampire Lord's skeletons. Popped the entire unit in round 1. Then, in the same combat phase the dragon dies, the "Banner of Win" rolls a 6 to exactly pop the Vampire Lord. Shooting cleaned up most of other undead, but I lost the DPs and Swordmasters for a solid victory.

Round 3 I get friendly Dark Elves. I hide the dragon from one of his RBTs and from his magic. But the other RBT, with just 2 shots, puts 6 wounds on the dragon. Crossbows take the last one turn 2. The dismounted Prince took revenge upon that RBT then bounced 80 crossbow shots off his armour. Eagle took the second DE RBT, leaving the shooting field to me. My RBTs delivered, gunning down the Black Guard and warriors and some characters. I kept him off me, but lost the DPs to a stupid charge and almost everything else to shooting and magic. Objectives required unit strength 5 and I didn't have that on the table anywhere at the end. Minor Victory.

Round 4 I get nastier pure combat DE. Like before, the DE win the first turn, but this guy knows the situation immediately and hauls butt straight forward. For 4 turns I'm stomping him by not engaging in combat. I've lost half the DPs, half a Swordmaster unit, and some archers, while I've taken out his shooting, the Black Guard and butchered the corsairs. Then I get stupid and figure a dragon should be able to take out the Corsairs. Except the assassin will pop up and killing blow my Prince, so I send in more help. Oops. Assassin drops the entire Swordmaster unit instead (which is about average) while my dragon cannot kill the 1+ save and 5+ ward noble. Idiot me, never get in combat with a Dark Elf character. NEVER. It's pointless. Dragon rallies and lives, but that means my shooting only gets to drop one character instead of three. My DPs charge the Cauldron, blow my armour saves and die outright, so we get a draw.


My battle points declined every game - 20, 17, 12, 9. No losses still put me near the top of a very congested score sheet, but not the top. With 24 people total involved I don't know the exact numbers.


I'm a huge fan of Dragon Princes, but they aren't cutting it for me. They keep dying, as 2+ save isn't enough for a 200+ point unit with few wounds.

[geoguswrek]

My battle points declined every game - 20, 17, 12, 9. No losses still put me near the top of a very congested score sheet, but not the top. With 24 people total involved I don't know the exact numbers.


I'm a huge fan of Dragon Princes, but they aren't cutting it for me. They keep dying, as 2+ save isn't enough for a 200+ point unit with few wounds.
drop the banner, run 5 naked, for 150 points they are excellent.

dragon lords shouldn't go anywhere near DE infantry units, you are risking KB. Use the breat weapon, and kill any knights, hydra and DR around. (a s4 breath weapon against t3 5+ sve is horrible)

[Lord Anathir]

So.. you need more dp in that unit? Bulk up to 10 and you've got Mr. Spiers list

What do you think of the dragon? You think its a must along with 3 rbt?

[dabber]

What do you think of the dragon? You think its a must along with 3 rbt?

The Star Dragon is by far the most effective thing in the book.

[madelmo]

i'm surprised you did so well without having an anvil unit. nice!

my 2250 list is 1 less unit of sm and 1 more big unit of pg. maybe i should try ditching that pg unit for more choppy!

[dabber]

i'm surprised you did so well without having an anvil unit. nice!
my 2250 list is 1 less unit of sm and 1 more big unit of pg. maybe i should try ditching that pg unit for more choppy!

The combat units in this list accomplish almost nothing. I'd say the only thing they really accomplished this tournament was killing the VC skeleton unit, but they left the Vampire Lord alive and only the Battle Banner rolling a 6 the next round took him out. The DPs helped kill some Saurus, but the Saurus didn't really need killing that quickly. The shooting matters, and the characters matter, and the Eagle can help, but the lesson of 2008 power books is most units have no significance. Characters, monsters, and shooting crush almost all other stuff, certainly stuff that isn't up to the individual power of chaos knights and wraiths.

[madelmo]

with that, would you more often than not advise HE generals to take archers over spearmen as core choices?