Dragon Wars

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I’m thinking a lot about Dragon Wars; a lot because I’m excited about showing off my Dragon, but mostly because I haven’t really played in any tournaments this year: there was the Baltimore Grand Tournament last November and the Fantasy Escalation League tournament in March(?) but that’s it.

I’m trying to figure out what I should take.  What you can take seems to be pretty lax: Dogs of War, Regiments of Renown and alternate lists seem to be okay.  The only requirement is that you have to take a dragon (with a generic option for those who can’t normally take dragons) and that a Lord has to ride on the dragon.

I’ve never played in a Dragon Wars before, but I understand the scenarios to be nutty, goofy and not what one expects.  Victory is entirely dependent on wounding/killing your opponent’s dragon.

Do I play it safe, and run a list very much like the list I normally run except with the Dragon?  Or do I go all in and put something crazy on the dragon?  For some reason, I’m not altogether interested in sticking a Grey Seer on the Dragon.  The Dragon needs to be stuck in combat, and that’s really not where a Grey Seer wants to be.

Dragon Wars #1
2,000 Points – Skaven

Lords & Heroes
Warlord – General, Dragon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield, The Gouger
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll x2

Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2

Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x5
Jezzails x5

Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon

This is my “safe” list.  It’s the most like the list I currently run.

In fact, it’s pretty much my regular list, trading my Chieftan BSB with Storm Banner for the Dragon and a few other tweaks to make the numbers add up.  I could easily swap the second Engineer for the BSB (though not with Storm Banner, which I expect won’t be quite as useful, but maybe something like Banner of the Four Black Winds which costs a lot less and could be nearly as annoying with Dragons running around).  I could also swap out The Gouger for Skavenbrew, which could make things more fun: a Frenzied or Hateful (or Frenzied and Hateful) Dragon could be rad.

Dragon Wars #2
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Chieftain – General, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Cautious Shield
Deathmaster Snikch – Dragon
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x5
Jezzails x5
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
This is my goofy list.  Yes, it’s nearly identical to the list above, but it loses nearly all of the heroes (because Snikch consumes both a Lord and a Hero slot, the Dragon consumes a Hero slot, which makes that one model consume 835 points, a Lord slot and two Hero slots) and a lot of the redundancy I’m used to.  I have to take a Ld 6 hero to be the General (because Snikch is too busy stabbing mofos to lead an army), which rules out an Engineer (and any magic defense at all); I can’t see it being a Plague Priest or a Master Moulder.  I suppose I could take the Priest, buy him the Liber Bubonicus to make him a wizard just so I can take a Dispel Scroll… but that seems wasteful (and would cost 42 points I don’t know where to find).
I normally deploy my army in a pretty symmetrical fashion: the left flank looks a lot like the right flank.  Here, can’t really do that because I’m losing half my Night Runners and Giant Rats.
This is probably a bad build, but I’m tempted to take it because Snikch on a Dragon would be insane.  He’d be next to impossible to shoot at and would be a whirling deathmachine in close combat.  It’s also just a fun idea.
Dragon Wars #3
2,000 Points – Skaven
Lords & Heroes
Throt the Unclean – General
Warlock Engineer – Accumulator, Condenser, Warp-Blades, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon
Core 
Clanrats x24 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Clanrats x23 – Full Command, Ratling Gun
Slaves x20 – Musician
Slaves x20 – Musician
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Night Runners x5 – Throwing Stars
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Giant Rats x24 – Packmasters x4
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2
Poisoned Wind Globadiers x2

Special
Gutter Runners x6 – Throwing Stars
Jezzails x6
Jezzails x6
Rare
Warp-Lightning Cannon
This is another approach: still using a goofy character… but one that can actually be a General and uses up several hundred points less.  Throt instead of Snikch, which lets me have an actual General and many more points left over for other units.  Ugh.  But only two characters?

I think I’m probably going to run with that first list, since it gives me three characters.  Dumping three slots into a single model is painful.