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Why so many Death players use the Vampire on Zombie Dragon?


Ranwulf

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If you compare the VLOZD to other Dragons that are out there you'll see it's actually pretty awesome. It was buffed in the LoN book when it was already the best Dragon around by quite a ways. Its special rules are OK (self healing etc), nothing special, but they're good enough and its raw damage and attack numbers and cheap cost (for a dragon) more than make up for it. Comes with a nice command ability, too, that we can now use!

In addition to this, it's also a spell caster (important for various missions now), something that not many other high-end monsters boast.

Unfortunately big monsters are not the best units in Age of Sigmar - lots of cheap wounds with efficient attacks (and a high model count for missions) are generally better - so we can't really leverage our awesome Dragon as much as we'd like to. But having access to one of the best around is great and trying to skew games by running 3 of them is a good tactic (if not all that effective in reality).

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It's a do everything model.  Fighty, tough, fast, flying, self healing, spellcaster, hero, good invocation, decent command ability, can carry an artifact and a faction spell.  Pricey, but not as pricey as other monsters that don't even do that much.

In 1e, it was our only hero apart from nagash with a chance of surviving shooting attention.  In 2e that issue has softened a little, but still matters, and there's a lot of nasty items and spells for it to take advantage of, especially if your tables play with the narratively fun if somewhat inappropriate for matched play realm rules.  Sure, without a casting bonus he's not sneaking anything past a nagash, arkhan, or tzeentch list, but we have a way of overwhelming the boosted dispel attempts of most other factions.

If you want a monster he's arguably our best one, and inarguably our best one that costs less than 800 points.  Though a terrorgheist, unridden or with ghoul king on top, does come very close.

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Zombie dragon lords are hardly anything to fear if you have the right unit to kill it. My three 20 Blood Sister units kill them in one round of combat consistently due to our mortal wound attacks and volume of regular attacks. Most players are using two nowadays for the double whammy attack, but they can still be killed. Just choose the right units and they’ll never be anything more than a nuisance.  

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2 hours ago, Honk said:

Well, he is ”the“ hero, if you need a beefy general and don’t want to field a mortarch...

And with the magic lore, command abilities and artifacts playable with a variety of load outs.

It’s a freaking game of balancing for sure.  At 2k having to avoid LoS if I want to field Arkham is a little sad.  But that doesn’t last long once Harbingers with  halberds and four attacks each show up.

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41 minutes ago, Honk said:

3x20 blood sisters are 420 each so 1260 points vs 440 should cut him into fine ribbons...

Everything can be killed somehow, stupid sisters are a mean bunch of crazies

Somebody need a zombie dragon killed? Who ya gonna call? Dragonbusters!

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As mentioned, he's basically one of the best hammers available for our army. Beyond that he's also a total swiss army knife. He brings a lore spell. Mobility. Practically guaranteed board-wide reach for unbinding. A solid command ability. He's even pretty defensive. I like to toss an Ethereal Amulet from Shyish Realm Artefacts on him and watch him become an actual monster to deal with. 

I think 3 VLoZD is excessive because at that point you're almost stopping yourself from leaning into some of the strengths of Death but my friend runs a "Double Dragon" List as Legions of Night and it's quite potent.

Sometimes you just want a giant monster to actually be a giant monster. The VLoZD is as advertised. You pay the points. You get a badass on the board. That seems understated but it's actually a good thing when you think a model is one thing and it actually is.

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4 hours ago, Mephisto said:

Sometimes you just want a giant monster to actually be a giant monster.

And with all his might, he also carries around a big bullseye, don’t want to call him distraction carnifex, but he is something your opponent has to deal with, while the rest is grabbing/holding objectives.

I mean a necro with a banshee and 40 skellis is also around 480 points and quite potent, but will not really stress your opponent like good ol Vlad on his mount.

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On 7/20/2018 at 10:15 PM, Scythian said:

Zombie dragon lords are hardly anything to fear if you have the right unit to kill it. My three 20 Blood Sister units kill them in one round of combat consistently due to our mortal wound attacks and volume of regular attacks. Most players are using two nowadays for the double whammy attack, but they can still be killed. Just choose the right units and they’ll never be anything more than a nuisance.  

However that means in a 2k game you've used over half your list to take out one of my hero's, leaving me plenty of time to counter attack and turn your sisters into a new handbag or 5 :P

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1 hour ago, Arentius said:

However that means in a 2k game you've used over half your list to take out one of my hero's, leaving me plenty of time to counter attack and turn your sisters into a new handbag or 5 :P

Ha! Trust me, while one unit is defanging Dracula, the other two will be mopping up his walking dead! ?

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We‘re back to name calling and such... I like:

You little brats all will bow to my superior tactical genius and stuff, grovel in the dirt befor me unworthy underlings!!!

 

I guess a fast alpha-list with blender units will pose a problem for an aggressively positioned VLoZD. But somewhere in this forum a guy rambled about your game-role with wild comparisons to MagicTG and stuff(aggressiv/defensiv/early game/late game). And while he probably is some hermit living under a rock proclaiming his wise truth and deep understandings of cosmic things to his flock of seabirds, there were speckles of truth shining in the dirt.

Where are you stronger, what is your game plan? And not only your own strengths, but also your weaknesses have to be considered. After reading the Sun-Tzu book, it seems the strength and weaknesses of your opponent also have to be considered...as well as his mental state (puppie speedbumps with countercharge might show them sisters not to pet our doggies).

aaaand the mission objectives and of  course the time your wife/husband/ relationship/ pet/ yourself want you do be done playing with little plastic pieces.

so the VLoZD tends to be somewhere between awesome and disgusting as all things are... 

 

 

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