Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

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Live_waaaaagh
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Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:51 pm

Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

#1 Post by Live_waaaaagh »

Hi all,

After a long hiatus with lots of work trips, we have some time to get some games in this week and we'll be fielding the Dragon Princes for the first time.

Quick reminder: We play smaller games in our 3x3 table. 1200-1300pts max usually.

The list to be used will be:
Mage lvl 2- lore of ?
Sea Helm BSB

20 Seaguard w/ shields
5x ellyrian reavers

15x Swordmasters
1x Skycutter
5x Dragon Pricne

Certainly not a hard list, but more of a themed list. :)

Going up against Dwarfs, TK and Wood Elves.

The question:
How do you use Dragon Princes? What sort of opponent to they have to go after?

thank you in advance!
SpellArcher
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Re: Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

#2 Post by SpellArcher »

Live_waaaaagh wrote:How do you use Dragon Princes? What sort of opponent to they have to go after?
The obvious answer is ones with Flaming Attacks! But those are unusual. I guess you need to use the Movement 9, which often means a flank deployment. On the whole they need to win on the charge. Stuck in combat with a Steadfast Infantry block is generally bad because they revert to Strength 3, though the 2+ armour save can help them hang around. Better to pick on mediocre fighters, unless you can get another unit in to help.
Live_waaaaagh wrote:Going up against Dwarfs, TK and Wood Elves.
Should be pretty useful against Wood Elves because of the 2+ armour though enough of those Armour Piercing arrows will still bring the Princes down. In particular watch out for Waywatchers who ignore the armour and Wild Riders who are just broken. DP's are good against Tomb Kings because they can't be Stomped and TK's tend to lack solid fighting units, they can go through quite a lot of stuff (helped by Unstable) on the charge, especially if you can shoot/magic it first. They'll be fine in combat against Dwarfs shooters but a good player won't let you into those easily. Combat blocks will pin and grind the DP's down, so only charge those if you've hammered them first or got a combo-charge on.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

#3 Post by Prince of Spires »

For a unit of 5 dragon princes you have a few uses.

The first is going after smaller units which you can break on the charge. 10 S5 attacks can do a lot of damage. Things to watch out for here are heavily armoured units who don't care much about S5 (though you'll probably not see very many of them at 1300 pts) and steadfast units. A unit of 20 infantry doesn't care if it loses 10 models. It's still steadfast and will probably stick around on a ld8 + reroll from a BSB.

A variation of the above is character assassination. You could actually run them 3 in the first rank, 2 in the second, which gives you 8 attacks on a character model (unless it's on the edge of a unit, which would get you 6 attacks).

Supporting other units in combat. More or less the traditional hammer and anvil tactic. Attack a unit with your Seaguard or SM (or get one of those units charged) and then charge in the dragon princes for that extra combat resolution. The infantry unit provides the ranks, the DP's the kills.

Lastly, they can be used to keep other stuff busy. With dwarves for instance, charge them into a unit of shooters. Even if they have no hope of breaking them (because of steadfast / numbers or stubborn), they will prevent them from shooting for a couple of turns and will let your other units remain unharmed. In the same way they can charge larger infantry units you want to keep in place for a couple of turns or redirect something. Never hesitate to throw something under the bus if it helps you win the game. :)

Rod
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Live_waaaaagh
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Re: Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

#4 Post by Live_waaaaagh »

Thank you both for the feedback!

First game took place last night: http://www.livewaaaaagh.com/home/2017/5 ... wood-elves

Dragon Princes went after a unit of 3 Treekin and they did very well. Unfortunately for them, the Treekin rolled double 1's on the break test. they were deployed on a flank and did well, but like spellArcher said, after the charge, the STR 3 attacks couldn't bring much down. It didn't help they were double charged by two treemen either.
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Prince of Spires
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Re: Dragon Princes + Games coming up!

#5 Post by Prince of Spires »

Live_waaaaagh wrote:but like spellArcher said, after the charge, the STR 3 attacks couldn't bring much down.
One thing that helps here is magic. A spell which improves their S is great on them. Wildform is great if you want a signature spell to achieve this. But Mindrazor is the classic and most powerful option for them. There's a few other options as well. But, it should be noted that this is mainly an option in higher points games and for bigger DP units. At 1300pts, it can be a bit expensive to rely on this option (though it's nice as a backup).

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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