Druchii Monstrous Cavalry? Ice Panthers!

[CitizenKhaine]

I have always liked the way the Druchii have lots of monsters to play with and we have the very cool cold ones to ride, but where are our monstrous cavalry ?
We need a unit of large terrifying beasts that we can slaughter and enslave the lesser races with! With all the gribblies crawling out of the northern wastes surely there is something that can be harnessed to do our bidding?
I was thinking it would fit to have either the cold ones big brothers or an ice cat of some sort. I would prefer the cat as they go with as cats and Dark Elves have much in common.
My pick would be
Ice Panthers
M-8, WS-5, BS-0, S-4, T-4, W-3, I-6, A-4, LD-8
Rare unit 3+
Special rules, 5+ Ward due to their preternatural reflexes, Fear, Stomp and Disembowel (Killing Blow)
Ridden by Knights like the Cold One Knights but not using lances - but instead nets and clubs for 2 Attacks and -1 Initiative to enemy in base contact.
These are very large cats that hunt in the northern realms so are fast and tough as the land they prey on. They can be formed into units because if anyone can herd cats, the Druchii can.
They are used to capture slaves and other monsters using the nets and clubs to subdue.
What do you think?

[Thraundil]

Like the idea. I really would love some MC action for the dark elves... Lots of races get them, and while the high elves would then be "the only elves without MC", they still do have monster choices which somewhat surpasses ours. And more resilience, too...

What kind of armor would they have? 5+ ward is great vs the typical war machines, but it would blow if the standard dark elf vulnerability to low-strength missile fire would just carry over. The ward save is maybe then a little much

Anyways, they should have somewhat lower I. At I6 they strike before almost anything... Lets give the opponents a fair chance.

Cost? With killing blow, they would be very pricy, but a welcoming addition to our rare selection, which currently numbers warlocks as the only really nice choice.

[flatworldsedge]

Awesome idea. The artwork on the Magic The Gathering 2015 card "Frost Lynx" would be perfect for this concept - all icy, glaring evil with long twisted ears and glowing eyes.

[T.D.]

Ive mentioned before in the Ideas forum about Witch Elves riding battle cats. While GW *may* have hoovered up some ideas from this forum (Medusae) while creating the newest book, there was no sign of any big cats.

Possibly because it would be too close to WoW Night Elves:



Or possibly because it does not fit into their race profile strategy.

But yeah, would love to see Dark Elves with MC Cats

[CitizenKhaine]

Ive mentioned before in the Ideas forum about Witch Elves riding battle cats. While GW *may* have hoovered up some ideas from this forum (Medusae) while creating the newest book, there was no sign of any big cats.

Possibly because it would be too close to WoW Night Elves:

Hey T.D is that picture from WoW? It is very cool!
I guess seeing that picture made me wonder if the big cat idea was big enough to be MC?
@Thraundil - I realised later I hadn't thought about armour. Not sure, fur and muscle could stretch to 4+ I guess, but that wouldn't compete with other MC armour and you are right, we need armour. Unless they had a scaley skin rule, and armour on top like T.Ds picture.

[T.D.]

There are already big cat MC in Warhammer:

White Lions!

[Red...]

I like the idea, and the stat line looks fair. Maybe one less attack (four seems high) and armour piercing ( for those razor claws). I think that a 4+ armour save seems about right - it could be their slight weakness - they'd be fast, hard hitting, and mean, but a bit fragile. No ward save - that's overkill and would make them a bit too silly good.

[CitizenKhaine]

When MC fight in two+ ranks - for the second rank attacking - is it the rider, the beast or both that get al their attacks?

[Dalamar]

Just the rider and up to 3 attacks per model.