Preferred Flying Mount for Dreadlord and Why

Vorthain · Post by **Vorthain** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:52 am

I, like many of you, am reworking my Dark Elf army with the new rules. Right now, I have a magic-light army with a dreadlord mounted on a pegasus. My specifics are beside the point, though. After fighting a large, terror-causing monster, I certainly see the virtues for the point cost.

Dark Pegasus: cheapest/low cost, impale, no real benefits otherwise

Manticore: mid-high cost, no armor, and large target but terror, more wounds, attacks, strength, etc than the pegasus, and possible frenzy

Black Dragon: highest cost, but highest stats, good armor, breath weapon, and terror

So, in light of that, I was wondering with the community's thoughts are on monstrous mounts for our fighty lords. What do you use and why?

Nightblade183 · Post by **Nightblade183** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:07 am

For the toughest guy in the army I always give him the toughest mount, the dragon. Personally, I just love having such a big fighty creature on my side (points cost be damned :lol:

). This makes him a really tough threat and gives him the best protection. The only other mounts I ever give him are chariots or cold ones. This is because I want him to be manueverable but not have his mount killed out from under him. Manticores and Peggys have lots of uses for me but I never put an expensive fighty lord choice on something that can be brought down so easily. Rarely do I put him on a mant and only when doing a triad style army (three peggys) do I mount him on a peg.

Drazeel · Post by **Drazeel** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:20 pm

You can't really go past the dragon, particularly now with Hatred limiting the likelihood of a bad set of hit rolls spoiling your day.

The ability of the Dragon/Manti to threaten the flanks of any army can't really be ignored and I have found this to be especially useful against Brettonians and their knight formations.

The choice really comes down to how careful do you want to be with your lord and do you need the points/character slot? The manti is very vulnerable to shooting and combat against tough characters (less so now with killing blow) whereas the dragon can simply plough forward and take the worst that the enemy can throw at it (aside from maybe great cannons). I find the biggest mistake that a player can make with such a creature is to be too cautious and not get any return for the large points investment.

My personal feeling is that I generally don't need the extra character slot and the extra T, W & AS allow the dragon to be far more aggressive than the manticore, which is what I want from my big point investment. I haven't rated the dark peg as a lord mount since I charged some dryads, fluffed the hit rolls and watched them run the lord down due to outnumbering fear causers...

Irtehdar · Post by **Irtehdar** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 3:59 pm

ive almost exclusively always gone with Pegasus because of it being much easier to hide(behind other units) and the much lower cost. I like the pegasus because it is the cheapest path to achieve what I ultimately buy a flyer for. (mage/machine hunting)
Having said that I have hardly ever used a flying lord since my chaos days (5ed) or any lord character for that matter.
6ed changed the game to something where the core troops are important parts of the armies and for me it led to a deep passion for core based armies led by hero lvl characters.

So for now until Ive tried out the big expensive lords all tooled out riding big monsters with the 7ed book Im gonna stick with Peggy being the best. This is largely because of the style of play Ive addopted and loves.

Lord_jimmy_ · Post by **Lord_jimmy_** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:03 pm

Dark Pegasus for exactly the reasons Irtehdar laid out.

I cant see myself going any larger in the near future.

Post by **Kinslayer** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 4:03 pm

my favorite? without a doubt the dragon. Weather this mount is the best in terms of cost and effectiveness in games is another matter, but it is certainly my favorite. Mainly because i love dragons and have them all throughout my house :p

Vorthain · Post by **Vorthain** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:28 am

By saying the pegasus is 'easier to hide,' do you mean the model physically or because its a large target? I use a Bret peg for mine, so its physically visible as it's on a flight base. What exactly do you mean?

Mordru · Post by **Mordru** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 1:50 am

I'll go out on a limb and surmise that he means the pegasus is not a large target while the dragon is a large target. This will be true no matter how big a base the mount is on or how high you hold him above the table. !wink!

Bounce · Post by **Bounce** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:15 am

That always seems to confuse opponents as i try to explain to them that my Lord on Pegasus is actually hiding behind 5 Harpies who are about half the size.
This is very helpful when you want to hide him.

Irtehdar · Post by **Irtehdar** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:36 pm

Mordru wrote:I'll go out on a limb and surmise that he means the pegasus is not a large target while the dragon is a large target. This will be true no matter how big a base the mount is on or how high you hold him above the table. !wink!

Correct. Thats what I meant with easier to hide. If there is no forest or building to hide behind a peggy can hide behind a unit. A dragon or manticore cannot. I just dont like the idea of an expensive model standing in plain sigh calling attention to himself.

Back when I played chaos in 5ed it was different. Setting up a 1.3k large target chaos lord of nurgle packed with defensive stuff right infront of a wood elf gunline would mean my army had the freedom of movement because he could handle it. But a Druchii Lord cant.

In 5ed such a chaos lord meant:
Randomise the shots - 1+ AS - 4+ save(chaos gift) - unmodified 4+ save(another chaos gift) - 3+ Ward save - T7
And if I went down to a Sorc Lord he only had a working T6 but I could add in a ''Escape Card''(5ed magic system) and also give him regeneration that was better than that of trolls and worked even if he was dead. (chaos gift)
The only downside to this guy was that due to his price I could only bring him in 3k+ battles and he was the only character I had.
Im aware this guy sound outrageous after the new rules but this was how crazy chaos lords could become in 5ed.
His mount would die but this guy was as good as immortal.

Delhien · Post by **Delhien** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 12:58 pm

I usually prefer the Manticore. Its cheeper than the dragon, dont take up a additional hero slot and the modell is stunning. The Manticore can do nearly the same thing as a dragon as long as Im careful with it. Im also looking forward to try the new Master. Perhaps its possible to get a hero-monster combo this way that is just as effective as the Dreadlord manticore combo...