The Dragonlord and the Archmage

Trying to keep sane for one more month..

The two playstyles that I adhere most to when playing my High Elves is the Dragon Lord, and the Archmage.  Both playstyles can win you games, and they're both radically different from one another.  The Dragon Lord focuses on the Prince on Star Dragon.  With the new book coming, it's safe to say that things will be completely different than what we have now.  I've made an earlier prediction that we won't see a 4+ equivalent armor similar to Gromil, instead we'll have Lion Cloaks that'll give us +1AS.  The important thing to note is that all of our magic items will change.

What excites me the most is that the Star Dragon will probably see a statline adjustment to match that of the Greater Dragon from Storm of Magic.  We're talking about T7 here folks for 20 points more than the Star Dragon is right now.  Everything else is the same.  What further stands out is the fact that the normal Dragon, which is obviously the equivalent to the Moon Dragon is 300 points.  You know what's stopping High Elf players from taking this one?  The fact that he only has a 4+ AS.  Fear not, all the dragons in Storm of Magic have 3+ Scaly Skin and I bet all the money in the world HE will get the same treatment.

The only thing I'm not sure is how GW will work out the breath weapons.  I can perfectly see the Sun Dragon having S4 Flaming, but what about the Moon and the Star?  Perhaps S3 Breath ASL for Moon and Storm Dragon-equivs for the Star Dragons?  Doesn't sound right.  I'm thinking they'll just be more powerful versions of the same breath, or maybe we'll see GW invent something completely new and unseen.  All I know is, Forest Dragon is obviously Wood Elves, Black Dragons obviously Dark Elves, and well, only Frost and Storm are left.

Regardless, I'll be bringing my Dragonlord to the field again.  My list will have a Prince on Star Dragon, either Nobles on Phoenixes, smaller Dragons or maybe even Griffons, or if rumors hold true and we see a Warrior-Mage, I'll bring him on a Dragon too!  Add in 2x Phoenixes in the Rare slot and fill the rest with cavalry, Archers and Eagles, I'm pretty sure my entire army will be fast and mostly flying.  I can't tell you how excited I am to field this army right now.

After I gorge myself on experimental dragon lists, I'll probably delve right back to magic-heavy lists.  I was a big advocate of fighting fire with fire, so I promoted the use of Teclis/Book vs. other people's beardy armies.  For that, I get quite the flake over at Ulthuan.net.  That's fine though, because as long as they rock their ETChammer and different comps, they're playing a different game than me.  I look at building army lists with double Stank, Hydra, Gutstars, 2x Iron Blaster, Mourfangs, 2x Skull Cannons...etc in mind.  For this reason, all my army lists are hard lists with min-maxed potential.  I'll talk about how all this affect Dragonlords in tomorrow's post.

If prices don't change from what we have now, my army will pretty much look the same.  Several blocks of infantry, Spearmen, supporting Archers, Eagles, pretty much a balanced, toolbox army.  To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here's my go-to list at 2500.

2492
11 deploys

LORDS:
Lv.4 Archmage (Annulian Crystal, Robe, Dragonbane) = 350
Lore of Shadow

HEROES:
Noble (BSB, GW, AoC, Dawnstone) = 168
Lv.1 Mage (Sigil) = 140
Lore of High Magic

CORE:
41x Spearmen (FC, Discipline) = 409
10x Archers = 110
10x Archers = 110

SPECIAL:
19x Phoenix Guard (FC, Banner of Sorcery) = 365
23x White Lions (FC, Eternal Flame, AoL) = 400
5x Dragon Princes (Musician) = 160
6x Sword Masters = 90
6x Sword Masters = 90

RARE:
Great Eagle = 50
Great Eagle = 50

Note that there is no Book or Teclis in there.  This is under the impression that the dude I'm playing is not a total cheesehead and I don't need to bring out the big guns.

You know what's the funniest thing about this list?  Check out my 8th Ed. VC list:

2498
12 deploys

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 548
Lore of Vampires
Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Heavy Armor, Shield, Barded Nightmare
Dragonhelm, ToPreservation, Ogre Blade

HEROES:
Lv.2 Vampire = 263
Lore of Death
BSB, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile
Heavy Armor, Lance, Barded Nightmare
Enchanted Shield, Scroll

CORE:
40x Zombies (Musician, Standard) = 130
37x Ghouls (Ghast) = 380
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
12x Black Knights (FC, BoSwiftness) = 357
5x Hexwraith (Hellwraith) = 160
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225
Terrorgheist = 225

You can truly see the age of the High Elf book when you compare it to something like this.  If I ever faced my own VC list with my HE, I'd probably just shit bricks.  There's very little I can do vs. this kind of army.