With the rules for The Old World being in most everyone's hands for at least a week or so there's been a lot of fun speculation about winners, losers, and what a competitive meta might look like. I try to stay out of these, for now, unless they're fun and hopelessly speculative. This write-up will absolutely fall into that category. Today I'd like to engage in some speculation about Dragons, and similar Mounts, with the caveat that all predictions are wrong or your money back.
The Ultimate Glow Up
If you're a newcomer to The Old World, you might not know that for most of the previous Editions, Dragons were a laughably bad option for nearly any army. I won't delve into why this was, to put it simply they were extremely expensive and the rider could take hits independently of the dragon (or most mounts really) among other reasons. This would lead to an extremely expensive single model that often got unseated/slain by War Machines and Magic early on in the game.
Now? Dragons are an apex predator. The combined profile for large mounts and their riders in TOW has transformed these models into mini-Deathstars, possessing high Toughness, Wounds, and a bevy of special rules. You'll likely have seen some powerful Character/Dragon builds online or in your local group: half the armies or so can take a Dragon of some variety. One of the things that makes these combined profiles so powerful is the model benefits from any defensive rules, whether they come from the Rider or Mount.
Many Dragons count as having Full Plate, so there's no need to stack armor on the Rider, I don't think a 3+ is necessary compared to other options. What the Rider should contribute is a Ward or Regeneration Save, ideally both. Most of my favorite Characters on Dragon take the Armor of Destiny, without a Ward Save these big points investments can still die to shooting despite their large Wound pool. It gets even better when you can tack on Regeneration, like High Elves and Vampire Counts can, because even War Machines start to have a tough time getting through all those dice. Artillery Dice/Scatter Dice, roll to Wound, possibly a 6+ Save, 4+ Ward, and 5+ Regeneration? Oof. Fly 10 doesn't afford those Cannons much time to fire either.
Unless some form of composition, as discussed in my last article, prevents a Lvl 4 Wizard and a "fighty Lord" from being in a single army becomes popular, I expect Dragons to be a common sight. Yes, they're expensive, but many armies slot them in rather well. Even expensive Factions like High Elves and Wood Elves can build around a ~500 point Character. I'm happy that Dragons aren't plug and play, you won't see them in every army, but every army that has access to a Dragon can use it effectively.
Some advantages of a Character on Dragon is that all those points are tied up in something that's very difficult to kill, this includes the bonus Victory Points for your General (in all likelihood). That's another reason I favor a defensive build for these center-pieces, just a Lance or Great Weapon and the Dragon itself will cause plenty of damage. These monsters are also unlikely to lose Combat because of how many wounds they can inflict and the ability to pick their fights thanks to incredible maneuverability. Another positive is that the Dragon will almost always do something productive: using a Breath Weapon, blocking a Charge (dare them), Enemy Sighted on demand, etc. Of course the wyrm wants to be in Combat as often as possible, but it's important that even when it's not you be getting some value from it. Lastly, having an armies biggest combat threat on a mobile, Flying platform makes it easy to throw the Dragon into whatever fight you need it in. Other potent combat Characters can either be avoided for awhile if they're on foot, or threatened if they're in a small Cavalry unit before they close the gap.
What to Pair a Dragon With
While the Rider/Dragon are going to take up a significant portion of your army list, there's still plenty of points to work with regardless of the Faction you play. First, I try to identify a second melee threat to provide backup for my army: the Dragon is mobile but can't be everywhere at once. Not having a second threat will allow an opponent to spread out and focus their attention on where your monster isn't, not ideal. This can be anything but I favor Cavalry/Chariots or small units of Infantry: you don't want to invest too many points in the backup.
Next, you want a very durable battle-line that can hold on until the Dragon, and other threats, show up to help. Ideally these will be numerous Infantry blocks who can provide Ranks, a Standard, and Combat Order to the fight. Examples would be Marauders, Skeletons, Spearmen, etc. Not every army has great units for this role, such as Wood Elves, but they can simply play another style. Continuing with Wood Elves, I'd opt for Glade Riders and try to play keep away instead of having several Anvils: it's always important to know what your Faction can and can't do.
Lastly, you want to invest points into units that can help handle threats to the Dragon: Magic and War Machines are an excellent start. I've already talked about the necessity of a Lvl 4 Wizard before and since we don't want our expensive center-piece being Hex'd or running into an enemy loaded with Enchantments, that'll be high on the list of necessities. Fast Flyers/Skirmishers, like Harpies, Fell Bats, and Great Eagles, are ideal for War Machine hunting and I'll take 2-3 units of them to help keep my fire-breather in the air.
Wyrm-Slaying
With all this talk of Dragons, you might be thinking "How am I going to kill one?" and that's a valid question. The simplest answer is to of course take one of your own and let them punch it out during the game. Some armies are better at this than others: High Elves can destroy enemy Magic Items which tips the scale while Vampire Counts can heal their wyrm, just to name a few example. On the other hand, you might play a Faction that lacks access to a Dragon or you might not want to take one. Fortunately there are still options for you.
Challenges
An annoyance for a Dragon is going to be Challenges, since the model must accept any that are thrown its way. This means your Champion is going to die a horrible death, but will also spare you a Turn of losing bodies from the unit. While the Dragon will still likely win the combat thanks to Overkill, you'll get to keep your Ranks and so on intact for longer. In turn, this means you're more likely to Give Ground and eat up valuable time.
If you play a Faction that can resurrect Champions (like Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings) or has a mobile unit with many Champions (like Grail Knights), this can be a major threat to tie the Dragon up for the entire game. A unit like Hammerers likely wouldn't work as well since the Dragon will avoid them, although that too can be used to your advantage.
War Machines
When you need to bring down a big target War Machines are usually the go to and this is no exception. I'd recommend avoiding Bolt Throwers for the most part as they only wound on 4's usually, Cannons and Stone Throwers are going to land more often. In addition to hurling large objects at the Dragon you'll also need to be able to protect your War Machines, this can be done in a few ways. One method is to take a small unit that can block or challenge the Flyers/Skirmishers sent your way, it usually helps if this unit is itself Skirmishers.
Another is to get creative with Deployment and turtle up in a corner. This will simply deny landing zones for the Dragon and anything else sent your way, I'd recommend this for Dwarves and Empire players in particular. By doing this you can shuffle your proper units left and right, providing Line of Sight lanes for the War Machines, while forcing enemies to go through your lines. Since The Old World Scenarios only use Victory Points, there's little downside to this tactic.
Monster Slayer
The game provides a Special Rule for dealing with large threats: Monster Slayer. While not reliable, as you need to Hit and then roll a 6 to Wound, it will instantly remove the Dragon (and almost certainly win the game then and there). Of course if the opponent assigned a Ward Save to their model then they have a chance to stick around, and a wise Dragon will avoid any model with this rule as best they can. Still, any Faction can make use of this rule via the Dragon Slaying Sword in the Common Magic Item list, so it's one of the few solutions available to any army.
I'd opt against this unless you play in a meta that's heavy on Monsters to begin with. Choosing a Character to carry the sword is difficult since it's a poor weapon outside of this role but you want the best Weapon Skill and Attacks characteristic you can find to fish for those 6's. If you're going to give this a try, I'd take a simple "Lord level" Character with some armor and the sword, keep them as cheap as possible. Of course, if you have a Character on a Dragon who can get a cheap Ward Save or Regeneration Save, it might be worth investing in the sword for other large threats.....
Debuff and Avoid
When all else fails, you'll simply have to give the Dragon something to deal with while you try to handle the remainder of their army. Some Spells can do this for you, such as Miasmic Mirage from the Lore of Illusion, although most will just take the edge off the model's combat potential. I'd be looking at Illusion, High Magic, and Elementalism if you want to go this route.
Avoidance simply means pushing past the Dragon and focusing on the rest of the opponent's army. This can be hard to do, especially for slow Factions, because a canny adversary will delay you reaching them until the Dragon has done what they want. If you want to follow this strategy you're going to want high Movement anywhere you can find it. Some army builds can make this their primary strategy by simply Fleeing from the Dragon and playing very spread out: Wood Elves are the king of this but other Factions can do the same.
If you're playing to avoid, try to force the Dragon to Charge something inexpensive but with access to good Combat Resolution and Leadership. One Turn will be spent eating the Champion but you can hold on for another 1-3 Turns with some luck before your Ranks and numbers wear down. Allowing your expensive and minimalist units, like Chaos Knights, to be Charged is playing into the Dragon's claws since they can easily gobble that up along with its Victory Points.
Keep an Eye on the Sky
For all the reasons I've detailed Dragons are likely to be a common sight in The Old World, a general would be wise to consider them when assembling a Muster List. Not having a plan to deal with this threat will lead to frustrating losses as you get steam-rolled by something you can't handle. Anyone taking a defensively built Dragon is certainly playing a competitive army, if that's not the type of experience you're looking for then it's a good idea to speak up and advocate for the type of game you want.
Not all Dragons are built equally, despite universal access to the Armor of Destiny. High Elves run a wyrm the best for several reasons and can even take two at 2000 Points, if they want to. Warriors of Chaos, Tomb Kings, and Vampire Counts are my next best homes and after that everyone is kind of in the same category. As I said at the beginning though, every Faction with access to a Dragon can make it work, so if you're a fan of fire-breathers don't lose heart just because you play something like Orcs and Goblins.
Personally I'm happy that Dragons are a viable choice now, as long as they fall short of being all-conquering which certainly seems to be the case. Large center-pieces are fun to see on the table and the challenge of either using such an expensive piece to its utmost, or denying that endeavor, is an interesting change of pace from more normal play. I'll certainly be running a Zombie Dragon in my Vampire Counts army while my Beastmen are set up to try and beat one to death, or distract it while I do other things. Every Faction has the tools to deal with these beasts, it's just a matter of finding and understanding them.
Until next time, may the wind of wyrms always be at your back.
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