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I am building a Reaper bones skeletal dragon, very nice model and with some resculpting site nicely on a 100x150mm base. It has far more presence than the zombie dragon model.
Dragons are high risk, and only partly mutable by Nehek. Its a nice model concept but themore I look at it the more I ask why I am bothering.

How do I build a vampire dragon rider lord, and how do I build an army around him? Crypt horrors as a shield come to mind, and I do have them, but they are also expensive. By the time I have paid for core tax and bought necromantic levels elsewhere there is precious little to buy on army.

Anyone had any success with zombie dragons, at any points level.

Answers for 6th, 7th or 8th are relevant for purpose.

Some success. In my experience a ridden monster in any edition from 6th on winds up costing you basic unit footprints, so I'd put as many cheap infantry down as possible. The Terror bomb can't be overlooked in editions that it applies to, but it isn't going to break many units unless you get lucky and spam Overkill in a challenge.

A lot depends what size game you are playing. In 8th if you are playing 2000 or less, leave that dragon at home. In 2500 is iffy but I think the dragon is better in 3000 or more. In 3000points you can afford to have multiple threats to take the pressure off him. A dragon supported by some Vargiests, Terrorgeist, or Vargulf will help. A large unit of grave guard or Crypt Horrors isn't a bad idea either.

I cant use a dragon in 8th at all at 2000pts or under. Doing so properly is hard to keep under 500pts, for a vampire lord doubly so.
With lord and hero slots to burn instead it becomes more plausible.

 Mr. S Baldrick wrote:
A lot depends what size game you are playing. In 8th if you are playing 2000 or less, leave that dragon at home. In 2500 is iffy but I think the dragon is better in 3000 or more. In 3000points you can afford to have multiple threats to take the pressure off him. A dragon supported by some Vargiests, Terrorgeist, or Vargulf will help. A large unit of grave guard or Crypt Horrors isn't a bad idea either.

I would consider that to be good advice in any edition from 6th onward.

Thing is, I am not here to play smarter, just to play well at all. dragons are part of the game and a major part of fantasy.

So sometimes I just want a big winged lizard and want it to not cripple my play too much. If its horribly unviable it will have to be a once in a blue moon event, but I would like it to be somewhat more common than that, though by no means a usual build option.

I made my peace with taking hippogryphs, gryphons and wyverns and still having viable armies, but i want to move on to the top monsters.

In some editions at least it was possible to get -2 to hit your lord on dragon (-1 from the dragon and another from some item or power)

Like I said, it depends on what you back him up with. If your dragon rider is surrounded by expensive Elites, you'll fare poorly. As well, Zombies are your friend here. Key, though, is making sure you have something to hit the unit with simultatneously with the Dragon.