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Like I think many of us I’m starting tomb kings in the old world with the new boxed set.

The skeletal dragon can have either a tomb king or a high priest on it, and you’ve got to pick one in order to build the character’s platform.


Who should I put on it? The Tomb King would give me a melee character on a dragon and the high priest would give me a caster on the dragon. I have no idea if one is an obvious trap/terrible idea or not.

I kind of like the tomb kings sub-list where you can take tomb guard chariots and stuff but I’m not dead set on it.


What’s everyone putting on their bone dragon?

I would put a rombking on the dragon if you want to make use of its strenght and attacks,
if you put a priest ontop you using him for the movement and fly your better of giving him the flying carpet.

A King with the Blade of Antarhak and Talisman of Protection is going to be an enormous problem that many lists will struggle to deal with.
T6, W9, 4+/5++/5+++ is pretty horrible, and then you add Arise and Antarhak on top to recover wounds.
Your final 25pts can be spent on a Relic of the Desert Sun to remove any vulnerability to Flaming, or the Collar of Shapesh for a last gasp in the event you are pushed far enough.

The king tends to have more use on the dragon, with a variety of defensive and offensive builds that lets you chew through stuff. You can't do talisman of protection and either collar shapesh or relic of the desert Sun, since all three are talismans. You could do armour of meteoric iron for 5+ armour that needs to be straight ignored by a special rule.

The biggest issue with the priest is so many of its things are locked by combat. Arise, from beneath the sands, and most spellcasting gets turned off by being in combat, and that's kinda...the draw of the dragon.

But, if you go with the mortuary cult and have a priest as a general, you can get a massive command range of 18", allowing you to cast some massive lore of nehekara buffs, spread a +1 to cast from the army rule. Something to consider at least.

Opinions on this might change as the edition goes on.
A wizard on the dragon is obviously less powerful in combat. However this gives the wizard A LOT of versatility in casting. Large target so it can see over units, tons of movement so it can get in range/dispel range if need be.
Also it's probably the best way to make the wizard very survivable.
Even then the wizard will still be very strong in combat.

Obviously if you want your dragon to fly in and fight other dragons you would rather have a stronger character mounted on top.
I struggle to see how atm we can really call one of the options clearly better. whichever option you choose dictates HOW you play I believe, rather than HOW WELL you will play.

Thanks for the opinions guys. I think I will start with a Tomb King and maybe eventually also make a High Priest. Still mulling it over though.

PaintedWisdom wrote:
Opinions on this might change as the edition goes on.
A wizard on the dragon is obviously less powerful in combat. However this gives the wizard A LOT of versatility in casting. Large target so it can see over units, tons of movement so it can get in range/dispel range if need be.
Also it's probably the best way to make the wizard very survivable.
Even then the wizard will still be very strong in combat.

Obviously if you want your dragon to fly in and fight other dragons you would rather have a stronger character mounted on top.
I struggle to see how atm we can really call one of the options clearly better. whichever option you choose dictates HOW you play I believe, rather than HOW WELL you will play.

It definitely has advantages, but i think you're over exaggerating some of them.

You barely need vision for casting spells any more; hexes, enhancements and vortexes just need arc and range. Most magic missiles suck, which means you usually just want to sling hexes from out of los, using your 360 arc for being on foot. The dragon locks your arc and only benefits you by beefing your command range.

And as you can now be seen by everything, you can also be shot by everything in range. You know what's more survivable than that? Being untargetable unless closest, and also ethereal with spectral steed (it also gives you better flying).

The wizard is also not very strong in combat. The dragon is solid in combat, with the wizard being ws3 STR 3, i2 a2; the absolute best you can hope for is to do like ogre blade and doppelganger. It ain't bad until you remember you can't use any other spell or arise when locked in combat, which is a huge drawback.

Is it a bad option? No. Is one option clearly a better choice for one character over the other? Yes.

It definitely has advantages, but i think you're over exaggerating some of them.

You barely need vision for casting spells any more; hexes, enhancements and vortexes just need arc and range. Most magic missiles suck, which means you usually just want to sling hexes from out of los, using your 360 arc for being on foot. The dragon locks your arc and only benefits you by beefing your command range.

And as you can now be seen by everything, you can also be shot by everything in range. You know what's more survivable than that? Being untargetable unless closest, and also ethereal with spectral steed (it also gives you better flying).

The wizard is also not very strong in combat. The dragon is solid in combat, with the wizard being ws3 STR 3, i2 a2; the absolute best you can hope for is to do like ogre blade and doppelganger. It ain't bad until you remember you can't use any other spell or arise when locked in combat, which is a huge drawback.

Is it a bad option? No. Is one option clearly a better choice for one character over the other? Yes.