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XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:16 pm
by Lord Drakon
Welcome to my Army Blog where I will play with my dragonlist. My former battle reports and list building were focused on a single deathstar of either Dancers of Yema or Executioners. Now I want to learn something completely different, a Dragonlist. Another reason to start this new thread is that I want to combine my gained knowledge about making battle reports with tactical ideas and showcases of the army.

:: Thread overview ::

Background
Army List
Army Rationale
Army Pictures
Battle Reports
Dragon List Tactics

:: Background ::

I started collecting and painting Warhammer when I was a little boy and bought my first blister of the epic dark elf Black Guard. A bit later I discovered the even cooler Executioner models and bought my first army book even while I could not read English yet, intrigued by the beautiful illustrations. Over the years I learned more English and began to discover the epic tales of the Druchii. This was the 6th edition army book by Gav Thorpe, and it remained my biggest Dark Elf inspiration book ever since. Already from the start I was intrigued by Khaine, Har Ganeth, its Executioners and the sacred ferocious Manticores. The combination of awesome models and epic fluff has made me stay with the Druchii ever since.

As all of us, I really did not liked the end of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and its replacement Age of Sigmar. Especially because I just started playing Warhammer in 2014, at a local club. Therefore I am intensely grateful for the 9th Age and the hard work of all those volunteers supporting my beloved hobby. I always wanted to play with my Dragon and my two Manticores into one list, and since my first game with them I realized I arrived at the list I was looking for the past couple of years. This army blog will be devoted to my experiences, thoughts and progress with the Dragonlist.


:: Lord Drakon on his Dragon, Luna ::



I will build on this post and this thread in my evenings and hopefully transform it into something epic and a pleasure to read for my fellow Druchii generals.

:: List Summary ::

A Dragon list that is focused on the offensive able to get fast into strategic positions for deadly combo-charges. A relative well armoured and fast moving Dread Elf force, that is extremely disciplined and hits hard on the charge. It has opted to not include any casters trying to make use of the fickle winds of magic, by including the critical magical defense given by the Crown of Scorn. It still has enough shooting to clear chaff and war machines without sacrificing in the fundamentals of the list.

:: The XIII Legion ::

Characters :: 1792
Prince, Great Weapon, Charm of Cursed Iron, Lucky Shield, Dragon - 840
Captain, Cult of Nabh, BSB, Heavy Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Midnight Cloak, Manticore - 537
Captain, Heavy Armour, Hardened Shield, Flaming Lance, Crown of Scorn, Manticore - 415

Raiders :: 180
5 Raven Cloaks, Paired Weapons - 180

Core :: 1158
20 Corsairs, FC, Handbows, Banner of speed - 510
15 Corsairs, Handbows, Musician - 310
8 Dark Raiders, Champion, RXB - 338

Special :: 650
5 Dread Knights - 260
5 Dread Knights - 260
5 Harpies - 130

Destroyers :: 360
1 Dread Reaper - 180
1 Dread Reaper - 180

Menagerie :: 1250
1 Kraken - 360

Total: 4500

Again, welcome to my blog and you are very welcome to leave some feedback in the comments!

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:17 pm
by Lord Drakon
Reserved: Army Rationale

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:17 pm
by Lord Drakon
Reserved: Army Pictures

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:18 pm
by Lord Drakon
Reserved: Battle Reports

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 8:19 pm
by Lord Drakon
Reserved: Warhammer Tactics

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:57 am
by Lord Drakon
Battle Report #1: Warriors of the Dark Gods

Introduction
Greetings to my first battle report with the Dragonlist! I just watched the newest episode of the Game of Thrones series, and I feel epic. I will not give any spoilers or talk further about it, but I might write this battle report a bit more enthusiastic than usually haha. Those that saw the episode will understand, and its similarities with this battle. In this battle I faced the Warriors of the Dark Gods, against a list a failed horribly against my last battle. The benefit ofcourse was that I knew his list and how it worked, and could therefore better deploy and play as my gameplan became clear before the deployment. We rolled for frontal clash and our secondary objective was to secure the target.

Friendly list
I took my Dragonlist, with three flyers made up of a dragon and two manticores.

Prince, Great Weapon, Charm of Cursed Iron, Lucky Shield, Dragon - 840
Captain, Cult of Nabh, BSB, Heavy Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Midnight Cloak, Manticore - 537
Captain, Heavy Armour, Hardened Shield, Flaming Lance, Crown of Scorn, Manticore - 415
20 Corsairs, FC, Handbows, Banner of speed - 510
15 Corsairs, Handbows, Musician - 310
8 Dark Raiders, Champion, RXB - 338
5 Raven Cloaks, Paired Weapons - 180
5 Dread Knights - 260
5 Dread Knights - 260
5 Harpies - 130
1 Dread Reaper - 180
1 Dread Reaper - 180
1 Kraken - 360

I described the list rationale at the beginning of this threat and the army summary. A fast and aggressive list without magic, focused on board control and all reliable units to achieve victory.

Enemy list
Unfortunately I forgot to take his printed list with me, so the exact equipment will have to follow later. He brought

1 Sorcerer Lord, Lust, Shamanism
1 BSB, Lust, Skullsplitter
18 Warriors, FC, War Standard, Lust
20 Barbarians, Musician, Paired Weapons
20 Barbarians, Musician, Paired Weapons
1 Fallen Beast
1 Fallen Beast
4 Chosen, Champion
3 Trolls
1 War Altar
1 Elder Dragon Centaur
1 Elder Dragon Centaur

A lot of points invested in magic with the Sorcerer, Chose conclave and Altar in total 7 spells. His Warrior block with BSB is quite hard and difficult to hit with the Lust and shields. The Elder Dragons are as strong as a Druchii Dragon except that they can not fly and I experienced how sturdy the Trolls can be. War Altar is annoying with its -1 to hit and bound spell, but against my combat list not such a big issue. Fallen Beasts as his chaff can ambush to take out warmachines, but against my list they would be too late to make a difference. Only skullsplitter to deal with my chaff besides his magic so I should have full board control. I should focus to dispell his DT spell on my dragon and just hope he will not be able to do much because of bad magic rolls. After all, he should just get 2 or 3 phases before I can charge his Sorcerer!

Pre-game thoughts
I have learned by know that even while Warriors of the Dark Gods is a combat army, and I have more shooting, I should not let that put me in a defensive setting, as my combat units or generally better than his, especially when combo-charging. I would advance as fast as possible to his lines, with the Corsairs and Dread Knights in the centre, flanked by at one flank a Kraken and Manticore and the other flank the Dragon and BSB Manticore. I was planning to trick him deploying his Elder Dragon Centaurs to one flank opposing my Dragon and Manticore and then I could just fly to the centre of the battlefield in my turn leaving his EDC out of position!

His Sorcerer got Awaken the Beast, Swarm of Insects, Break the Spirit and Totemic Summon, a great selection if you ask me, however I only had to focus on dispelling Break the Spirit and should be relative unharmed by his magic phase.

Deployment
I will focus on our Terrain at the start of the deployment phases, as learning to utilize this part of the battle will become a great asset for my Dragonlist. I won the roll to pick a side and this was the terrain we had.

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Either a side with two forest to hide in, or two hills to hide behind. I reasoned that there were several benefits from him in the forest side, as in a forest his units lose steadfast against my flyers, he would get easy cover against my shooting, but I was not planning to shoot more than two turns anyway! Also without hills I could always have line of sight and therefore charge him when in range. The hills would provide the Reapers with some nice line of sight, so I picked the side with the hills. It had a piece of impassable terrain at my side, but that should be no problem for my flyers or fast cavalry

Image

We deployed until the last drop one by one, and my plan of his EDC opposing my Dragon and BSB Manticore worked. He realized his Fallen Beasts would be without use as ambushers and deployed them as some more drops and possible redirectors. I think my deployment was good, and it was great to have a battle plan before we started deploying. Especially his left flank was weak where my Manticore, Kraken and Dread Knights would easily break through. Also his Trolls trying to provide cover against shooting I think where in a position I could snatch the opportunity to overrun into his Warrior block. I am also happy about the Artillery deployment, as they have line of sights to the EDC while far away from each other. I do forget to vanguard with the Dark Raiders.

Turn 1 - XIII Legion
I had one drop less and therefore +1 to start, and won the roll to begin. Here we go!

The Knights pass their stupidity tests, what is nearly impossible to fail with LD10 re-roll bubble. I advance my units as far as possible while making lucky charges for him impossible. Dragon and BSB Manticore move up to position where they can either commit to the centre or to the flank. Corsairs also move up to provide some ranks in combat and Dread Knights to charge if he comes to close. I keep my harpies behind the Reaper in case he does something unexpected and the small unit of Corsairs remains behind to catch the objective (later I discovered I only had to capture his objective, not both) while on warmachine protection duty in case he gets a Totemic Beast off. Again, I am happy how I advanced, not giving away any risks while getting ready for charge positions in my second turn. He has no options than to wait or retreat, as otherwise I counter-charge.

Normally this would be the place for my magic phase, but the lack of it deserves some notion. By skipping the magic phase, my turns became much shorter and much easier. This gave me the time and focus to concentrate 100% on the movement phase, which was very liberating and I think is a great support to learning playing with this list. Another nice addition is that there is nothing that I can screw up, as no miscasts and our reapers also never blow up. The time of killing my own troops by miscasts or sacrifices is over! I first thought I would miss magic, but the awesome movement phase with all those fast units and flyers makes up for it!

Image

I used my Raven Cloaks as early drop to lure him to deploy a bit wider, but now they are out of position to do much useful as otherwise they would just be in the way of the important units, so I just advance them as quickly as possible to get into enemy flanks. Dark Raiders try to inflict a wound on a EDC, and I also shoot with my Reapers on his most right EDC. With T6 and 3+ AS I opt for single shots, one fails to hit, the other fails to wound. Should I multi-shot in this case, probably yes as multi-shoot is generally better, but with a lucky shot the chance to 1 to 3 wounds is also great. No damage from ranged attacks in my first turn, especially in my lists where ranged attacks are the focus, this is a change from play, but also here it is absolutely liberating to know that this does all not matter as it is combat where I will do the damage.

Turn 1 - Warriors of the Dark Gods
The enemy has no choice and must castle, he moves his EDC back to counter-charge a flank attack and most units shuffle back a bit besides the Trolls. Also his chaff moves back to provide crucial redirections in the next turn.

He gets 8 power dice, fails Awaken the Beast on the dragon, then gets a Swarm of Insects of the dragon that inflict three wounds, nice one! One is removed by the lucky shield and another one is saved, first wound on the Dragon. I dispell the Awaken the Beast bound spell and Totemic Beast. No real damage done, and only two magic phases left..

Image

His BSB shoots with his Skullsplitter on the Dark Raiders, hits two, wounds two and kills them both. This causes the Dark Raiders to take panic test, I roll 11 and with the re-roll 10 which is enough. Note about this battle, I rolled very high for my leadership every time, lots of 9 and 10's, which would have easily screwed up certain units such as the Dark Raiders in this case, but the LD10 re-roll is just amazing reliable even with such bad luck!

Turn 2 - XIII Legion
Time to move in position for lots of combo-charges in my next turn! I pass both my stupidity rolls only just. The Kraken, Manticore and Dread Knights at the left flank get into nice positions to get into the enemy flank while the Dragon and BSB Manticore deploy into the centre with the Corsairs. The other Dread Knights and Raiders make sure his EDC's can't charge them and his Fallen Beast is also too far. Raven Cloaks will not be able to inflict much damage anyway so just advance, but this should be done more usefull. Harpies get behind Corsairs so they are able to redirect if something goes wrong.

Image

I focus fire again on the right Elder Dragon Centaur (EDC) but fail to inflict any damage.

Turn 2 - Warriors of the Dark Gods
Encircled without any possibility for good counter-charges the enemy is trapped and can't do much. Both Fallen Beast advance in a desperate try to redirect some units such as the Dread Knights and Kraken but out of position to redirect the important Corsairs. His trolls move up forward a bit, I think to maybe create the possibility for my flyers to get stuck or in a failed overrun towards his Warriors, however the distance was only 6 now. His Sorceres gets to the other flank, while his EDC's get ready to counter-charge the incoming flyers as soon they as stuck in or in front of his Warriors. His Chosen get to the board edge as close as possible making the distance between them and the Kraken 16"

He gets 7 dice against 5 for me. He uses 5 dice on Awaken the Beast on my Dragon, which I dispell and then the other 2 dice on another Awaken the Beast on my Dragon with his Altar, but I use the Crown of Scorn. Amazing to have this item, as it can really shut down the enemy magic phase for at least 1 crucial phase. I survived the two most crucial magic phases, with all those points from him invested in magic (1000+) against my Crown of Scorn that is only 30 points.

Image

His BSB tries to kill and panic the Harpies, but fail to hit.

Turn 3 - XIII Legion
HERE WE GO! I first charge with my Kraken into his Barbarians, he passes his LD test. Then I charge the Manticore into his Barbarians, he holds and finally the Dread Knights, also in his Barbarians, and he decided to flee. Then something amazing happens. His Barbarians flee through his Sorcerer general off the board as expected but this forces his general to take a panic test. He rolls.. 10. Re-roll.. another 10!!! He flees off the battlefield. Kraken redirects into the Chose, Manticore fails redirection test and makes a failed charge while the Dread Knights redirect into the Fallen Beast. The Dread Knights at right flank also charges the Fallen Beast. Then the important charge in the Trolls. Corsairs, Dragon and BSB Manticore charges, and he is stupid so can only hold. Kraken needs 10 for the Chosen, makes it! Corsairs need 5, make it! Dragon needs 6, makes it! BSB Manticore need 7, also make it! BAM! I'm in. Foreseeing the counter-charge in his next turn when I overrun, I put the Dragon at the right flank and the BSB in the middle, flanked by the Corsairs. I do make mistake here, as I could likely redirect one of his EDC with the Harpies and another one with the Dark Raiders, but I don't. Raven Cloaks do not do anything as they will be no nothing left, actually a mistake as I should be ready for the worst case scenario. Still thinking I need also my own objective for the points, I send my war machine duty Corsairs towards my objective.

Image

I fail my shooting again against his right EDC.

I start with the big combat. I use the breath weapon of the Dragon to be sure to kill them all, as last battle they remained steadfast and I got stuck. In my head I needed to kill all of them completely to succeed, but ofcourse when they are less than three they also have no ranks left. Because of the attacks from the characters the Corsairs are out of combat. A single troll with 1 wound stays alive, but fails to inflict any damage and auto-breaks. Both the BSB Manticore and Dragon pursuit and overrun into the Warriors for an exciting next turn. The Kraken kills two Chosen, and they fail to hit the Kraken in return. They break and run off the table while the Kraken reforms for a flank charge next turn. Both the Dread Knights kill the Fallen Beasts without much effort. He has one last chance to score at least some points from the Dragon or BSB Manticore.

Turn 3 - Warriors of the Dark Gods
His Elder Dragon Centaurs and Barbarians charge into the flank of the Dragon.

Image

He challenges with his Warrior champion and I accept with my Dragon, making his flankers useless besides some combat resolution. The Dragonlord easily slays the champion with maximum overkill for a 4+ to the important CR. His BSB drinks the potion of speed and hits first. He also uses his breath weapon item and it inflict a wound. The attacks of the BSB inflict another wound (+2 CR for him). The BSB has three attacks, hitting on 4+ and hits two. To wound, he rolls double 1!!! But Killer Instinct saves me, as I get to re-roll and I wound him twice. He fails his armour save and I inflict two wounds, 4 with multi-wound, and his BSB his dead! His Warriors inflict some hits, 1 wounds, but I save it a 4+. The Manticore kills two more Warriors. "OK, but I still win.." he says, but then we count the combat resolution. He has 3 ranks, 1 standard, 1 war banner, 1 charge, 1 flank charge, with full ranks, 2 wounds = 10 I have 1 BSB, 1 charge, 4 challenge kills, 5 wounds = 11, and win combat! His Warriors break, and run off the table, the Barbarians also break, and so does the first Elder Dragon Centaur. The situation is so hopeless that the enemy surrenders...

Result
20 - 0, his whole army wiped off the table while I only lost 2 Dark Raiders!

Post-Game Thoughts
Just, WOW. I have never won so decisive as this battle, and it was glorious! It was great to close in on my enemy as a predator on prey. While I did 0 ranged damage, I won very big, and it has convinced me that I prefer to play with movement + combat oriented lists from now on. It was actually great to not have any magic, as it allowed me to focus on the movement phase and I think that went pretty well besides the redirectors. I can definitely improve my game as that is what I will be doing in the next battles, but this was a great way to start playing with this list. I think having three flyers that are as big as the Dragon and Manticore is pretty strong, and I think the support units also fit in there pretty well. Even when I had not won that last battle in the first round, they would have likely stuck in combat with LD10 re-roll, and then the rest of the forces finished it my next turn. Thank you for reading, I hope you will leave a comment to juice up this army blog! Until next time!

MVP
The MVP I think was the BSB Manticore, for killing the BSB and his Manticore 3 Warriors winning me the combat, resulting into the massacre that followed. He was also crucial in several panic tests or stupidity tests on the Dread Knights.

Re: XIII Legion Dragonlist: Dread Elf Army Blog

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:14 pm
by SpellArcher
Bravo Lord Drakon! This looks like a real labour of love.

:)

Unfortunately I'm not au fait with 9th Age but those Monsters look like a real handful!