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After having my Chaos army being continuously spanked by my friend's High Elf army and my other friend's Dark Elf army I have decided to just say screw it and get a Chaos Lord on a dragon. I know it's a crutch, but I feel like I need it to at least get off the ground. Also, I have a cool conversion idea so modeling / painting it will be fun. Anyway, if you were going to mount your Chaos Lord on a dragon, how would you kit him out? Would you gear him specifically for maximum survivability (I'm thinking Regeneration or ward saves)? Or would you maximize his killing power to be able to overcome the static combat res of blocks of infantry? Or actually, since he costs a whopping 600 point without any upgrades, would you just give him a shield and the cheapest magical sword you can find?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Even harsh criticism is better than none at all, as long as you can back up your statement.

How do you think a Dragon would help you get over the hump against Elves?

What weakness in your army do you think this shores up?

It's very rare that the addition of a huge points sink monster actually adds to the overall worth of the army?

Thank you for replying, I'm glad to hear your concerns.

Up until now, my knight units (which are the hammer of my army) have been picked apart slowly by an onslaught of arrows and magic. By the time they finally get up there to do some damage, there aren't enough of them left to do much besides maybe kill one semi-important unit. After that, the magic and arrows wipe the rest of them out. I have a few units of warhounds to that I use to shield the knights but it just isn't enough.

I feel a Chaos Lord on a dragon can help me in the following ways:

1. Distraction. By moving him up the side of one flank, my opponent will be forced to focus his attention on that dragon or let it plow through his line. This will take some pressure off of my knights so that enough survive to break through his other flank or up right through the middle.

2. Killing Power. I mean its a freaking dragon. He should be able to take many things down by himself. Although elves tend have a high leadership, Terror may have an impact and if the Lord + Dragon doesn't kill the unit outright, it should automatically break.

3. Mage hunting. The Dark Elf player loves to pump as many points into his 4 sorceresses as possible, and then spread out the remaining points among as many units as possible to make me work to get any points at all. Most of his points lie in his Sorceresses, and he keeps them out of danger extremely well. They will be hard-pressed to hide from the dragon since it flies, and every sorceress that goes down is a huge bonus.

That's the plan anyway. I don't know, maybe it doesn't make sense to do this because a dragon would constitute about 1/3 of the entire army, the rest of which being marauder horsemen, knights and maybe warhounds. I've given up trying to out-magic him because he simply has way too many power dice. I tried an Infernal Gateway list and he shut me right down. I'm not sure what to do next so any suggestions, advice, tips, pointers - anything would be greatly appreciated.

Let's peel back a layer,

What does your army look like?

You make it sound like there's some level of attrition concerning how absolutely long it takes to get your knights into combat.

Last time I checked, they can be in combat on turn 2 if they want to, turn 3 at the uberworst.

I've got a buddy who's running 2k points that is a unit of 8 Khorne knights with a dude on a juggernaut,
2 units of chaos warriors (15 each)
3 units of marauder horsemen (5 each)
2 spawn
2 chariots
and a single Tzeench Mage

I had to take a doubletake at it when I played against it with my Tomb Kings.

It was a hell of a battle, but he made a big mistake early and I hamstrung him, and then picked him apart at my leisure... the problem was, things that I'm used to just being pure win, didn't do nearly as well as I would have liked. Single giant on the flank of the khorne knights was lolbad, and the eye of the gods was pretty silly too.

I'm not saying a Dragon is terrible. It is a pretty solid, and very interesting option, but realize this: Your army will be 1 dragon, with a superdude on top, one unit of knights, and the rest is core trying to get you to fill out at 2k points. Maybe a chariot.

If your opponent is a smart opponent, you're boned even worse.

The problem is, was, and always will be. Very few single models in the game can beat a 20 man unit of ANYTHING heads up so resoundingly that the combat was worth the gamble. that even a character on a dragon is relegated to 3 full turns of doing nothing, before he claims a unit, and then MAYBE claims another unit at the end of the game.

Just do the math. You charge, champion challenges, 3's to hit, and 2's to wound, you have like what 5 attacks on the dragon, and 4 attacks on the lord? We'll say they are the same across the board, no saves allowed.

9 attacks
6~ hits,
5~ wounds.
If he's allowed saves, even at a 6+ you've lost this combat a very large portion of the time. Hell just by odds, you've already lost, because full command will leave your opponent at +1 for combat res.


And all it takes is one, just one round of rubber-lance syndrome, and you're out a dragon. 700 points down the tubes? no thanks.

BUT, a well played dragon, can have additional consequences on an opponents game, the real question is, can you get your points worth out of him, and still support your army in such a way that his purchase is worth the time.

De-Construct his typical route:

1) get into a situation to charge a war-machine
Pray to god the war-machine doesn't kill him
2) assuming my opponent didn't offer me a sacricial unit, charge the war-machine
kill the war-machine
3 turn around and get ready to charge, notice that if you didn't have a war-machine to charge, your absolute best choice here is to land either behind or to the flank of your opponents battle line. I prefer behind facing your own table edge. Pray to god that magic doesn't interfere with his charge, or start whittling him down, or that there aren't OTHER war-machines ganking him
4) Finally get into combat with the rear of a unit in the battle line. Nice. This is what we wanted... assuming his army didn't turn and face your dragon, but that would be just stupid... right. Run em off, run em down
5) I MIGHT be able to charge a unit of cavalry that rampaged against my own stuff, if not, I'm going to try to maneuver to use my breath, or find a charge in the last turn
Turn 6 is always way up in the air, and really turns 5 and 6 are pretty much unpredictable, turns 1-4 are very predicatable though...

But you have 2 turns to justify having spent so many points on a gorgeous model..... that doesn't ever seem to kill a lot of stuff.

If the HE opponent is playing 4 wizards why don't you do the same?

Personally I'd go nurgle on all of them and start off with magnificent buboes spam at his mages, and make sure the infernal puppet is carried.

But back to your original question...

I'd go....
Lord.
Mark of Nurgle (so you aren't forced into stupid frenzy charges and can float around breath weaponing the enemy flanks until you decide it is time to charge (preferably flank or rear), remember with the 2 breath weapons you will smash any of the HE infantry units. Also the -1 to hit with shooting may end up being very important.
Chaos runesword (+1 WS, +1 S, +1 A)
Crown everlasting combat (regenerate) to defeend vs bolt throwers.
Chaos armour (free). Shield (3+ armour save)

Defendable vs shooting and artillery.
Monster in combat