Black Dragon Tactics

[Cicciuz]

I really would like to use a Black Dragon but i have never tried it and I have fear that now can be killed easily by anyone given that the T6 could be reached even by a night goblin.
have you tried it before and is it survivable?
how does it do against shooting armies?

I was thinking to put a Life SS4 in the army to kind of protect him.
can I heal him with the lore attribute?
Can I use Regrowth to resurrect him if the dreadlord is still alive (at the endo of the day he is still part of the dreadlord's initial unit!) ?

does it worth to use the 300 points for a 2.4k match?

[Sangfroid]

Simple bits first,

Yes you can heal it with lore attribute but not with re growth spell itself.

The dragon is a great option but it's a lot of points so you have to a) use it and b) expect that it will die because it will be a magnet for your enemies shooting and magic if they can get it.

When I say use it I mean you have to be aggressive get it forward and munching up something ASAP preferably something that is going to take you two combat rounds to kill (and you not suffer a counter charge you cant handle) so you can reform and charge something else, or something you can blow thru and overrun into something else in a single round.

You have to sometimes though run the gauntlet and stick her (yeah dragons are like ships) in a gamble knowing that you may have to risk a canon or two but if you live your going to town (against dwarfs and empire mainly) a good solution to this is too have multiple threats (peg lords or masters, hydra, kharybdiss, chariots, manticores etc... That you surge forward with so they have to pick which they go for (usually the dragon sadly but hey if they are shooting that the other stuff should get in cleanly)

They are great for getting in the back field and hammering solo on bunkers, or charging into knight busses (with support if possible) challenge out any characters and then once the threats are dead if your dragon and Lord have survived they can usually chomp thru the rest of the unit, same goes for monsterous cav in the flanks.

You do need to avoid units with base high strength attacks (execs, iron guts, white lions, hammers etc...) because although you will hurt them they will also hurt you back.

It's not unusual to finish the battle often with a wound or so left on her but all I can say is, if you do not go on the front foot and take chances, spending your time hiding behind buildings or out of range of stuff all you are really doing is gifting your opponent a 550pt advantage.

It's gonna die, sometimes quite often (especially against canon armies) but with practice and paitence it can be really fun and rewarding to play with. And most of all don't forget that if you play against our wussy cousins the high elves and they take the banner of the world dragon,..... It makes you stubborn if your with in 12 inches of the unit so a dragon Lord is an execellent counter to a silverhelm or dragon prince bus, charge them flank or rear, challenge thru the characters and you should grind the whole thing out eventually

[Akholrak]

The biggest threat will, of course, be Cannons. As Sangfroid mentioned, this can be mitigated somewhat through target saturation and bringing in other potential cannon targets.

You need to make sure you get into combat ASAP in order to avoid all the fire that will be coming your way. However, don't put yourself into combats that you either can't win, or will get challenged out by a unit champion and then countercharged. An effective counter to this would be to take the champion upgrade on your Dark Rider units. Charge both of them into a unit that will likely contain a unit champion and get the Dark Rider champion to accept, allowing your Lord and Dragon to go to town on the unit.

Prime targets would be Monsters, Chariots, Cavalry and Monstrous Cavalry, but it wouldn't do too much harm to charge into Infantry (not GW-wielding troops) and thus take advantage of Thunderstomp, but you will have to contend with Steadfast.

Do you have a Dragonlord build in mind? Or do you plan to mount the SS on the dragon?

[Cicciuz]

I was thinking a Dreadlord with full mundane, lance, CoT, OTC, Dawnstone and enchanted shield.

I was thinking to field it either with Morathi (so the opponent need to decide where to shoot and the other one survive) or with a Life SS (in order to cure him when he gets wounds).

does he survive a shooting army?
I usually fight army with at least 20 shooting units and some war machines..

[Sangfroid]

I would suggest either one of these builds

Ogre blade, dragonhelm, armour of destiny: with this you have a 1+\4++ plus 2++ against fire, if your dragon dies your dreadlord still has the same protection. Everything you have hits at st6 and so you can confidently attack armor and know your going to be able to cut through it somewhat.

Or if you want to do a challenge build (as it's likely you will be challenged often)

Black amulet, other tricksters shard, dragon helm and a great weapon (or sword of striking)
This build will give you all the same protections and with the GW option you give up reroll said to hit to make your opponent reroll ward saves. The black amulet is a great item and helps level the field against our only really superiors in combat (vamps, chaos lords and daemon princes/greater daemons) if you want a magic item the sword of striking is good as your DL hits most things then on a 2+ so is good if you plan to go for low armour infantry.

The reason I'd keep the cloak of twilight off the dragon Lord is because you are going to be sometimes in a grind, also having a peg master with the cloak allows you to position him in front of your dragon so any cannon balls have to go thru hi first and if they don't kill hi they stop (whereas if they hit your Dragonlord, even though he might ward the ball it still hits the dragon, this is also a great tactic of you have a peg lvl 4 (but not morathi) as you can bait firepower into her from canons etc... And just hope the cloak holds :-)

If you do go cot on dragonlord then consider this build
Cot, dawnstone, dragonhelm (lance or great weapon as your prefer)

[Cicciuz]

does the dragon helm give the 2++ on dread and dragon together? does it protect against magic missiles?

btw which set you think is best, BD and Morathi or BD and life sorceress?

[Phierlihy]

The riders equipment does not benefit the monster beneath.

Dragons want to get into combat. Wizards do not want to get into combat. Mixing the two is not what I think to be an ideal build.

[Sangfroid]

I'd agree with phierlihy with the exception that the only sorceress that I think could work on a dragon would be life, I've come against a life sorc on a star dragon once and it worked well plus I remember dalamar from these forums having success with one.

Myself I'd worry taking one because if you roll a crap magic phase or your opponent dispels well/luckily it's high risk

That said a T10 dragon that heals itself with 4++ regen, and the ability to cast dwellers in combat is quite tasty :-)

[Cicciuz]

sorry i was mislead

I meant a Dreadlord on a Black Dragon and Morathi or a SS Life sorceress (2 distinct character, i want to have the Dreadlord on the BD)

[anglais]

ogre blade, talisman of preservation and the other trikster shard.
some harpies and fast cav to kill the cannons and champions for unnessassary challenges.
off we go