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Magma Dragon


GlanceOnASix

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So I've been daydreaming about a next project for a while, and I keep looking at one of my favorite models that I've ever seen, the FW Magma Dragon:
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-FI/Magma-Dragon

Have any of you guys run one?  What sort of army did you build around it?  It seems rather pricy points wise, I believe 520, and Im not sure how it is in physical size compared to the cabbage, but there is somthing about the spikes and its low profile that calls to me.

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I have yet to run one, but I would try to run a full-on monster mash list if I did.  There's just something about dragons that are really cool, and I feel that is one area where they can really expand in AoS - more dragons!

And speaking of cheaper alternatives, here is one that I have:  Reaper Miniatures Marthrangul

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/price/77542

It's also a lot cheaper than a Maw-krusha, and is an appropriate size for comparison.  I have seen some folks bend the wings down with hot water with the intent of running them as Magma Dragons for AoS.  That's on my plan of projects in the future.

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You know, I've never heard of anybody running one.  I was looking at it for a GA Destruction list, but I went with a Dread Maw instead (purely because it looks redonkulous).  

The Magma Dragon does look cool though, and on paper it looks like a decent competitive choice.  I guess the downsides are that it seems to be priced quite stiffly (as you said), and it can only be fielded in GA Destruction, with the associated allegiance ability and battleline problems.

Personally, I reckon you could make it the centrepiece of a fun mid-table army?

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Phukk it I'm gonna buy one, let's be Magma Bros!

I am a sucker for the Destruction monsters, that's my favourite thing about the faction.  This could be a cool model in a monster mash list as you pointed out @BunkhouseBuster

Run it alongside the Dread Maw and two "guest star" Behemoth spots.

Zero synergy, just a rabble coming at you!  Proper Friday night Beerhammer stuff.

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I believe Vince Venturella and TheSustainableCenter came up with the #3MagMeta list, which consists of three Magma Dragons (using cheap Reaper Bones dragons, of course) and cheap Gobbos for General and Battleline.

If maintaining friendships is a low priority, it might be an option.

Edited by Kyriakin
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@GlanceOnASix - Before The General's Handbook and matched play was a thing, I was running a Magma Dragon in my Ironjawz army. Under one of the old community points systems (Clash/SCGT) it was 20/100 of your army, equating to 400pts in new money. That, tbh, was quite the bargain and it was very effective in the club games I used it at. Never got my Mierce Angrislaug painted so haven't used it in a tournament field.

I actually love the official FW model as well. Unfortunately due to my preference for Ironjawz > Destruction armies, I haven't really given it a look in of late. Ruleswise though it's clearly pretty powerful and a Destruction monster mash would be great fun for sure!!

Lets see some lists!!

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I've been considering running it with my two Thundertusks as a replacement for my now useless Stonehorn. With the command trait giving your general +1 to Rampaging Destroyers, you have very good chances of doing an alpha with it (22" move), and the 12+d6 mortal wounds at 18" range in the list are sure to put a dent into anyone. A sample list:

A sample list:

Tyrant, general, 160
Butcher with cauldron, 140
Huskard on Thundertusk, 380
Huskard on Thundertusk, 380
6 Ogors, 240
10 Orruks, 90
10 Orruks, 90
Magmadragon, 520

2000 points. The Tyrant, Magmadragon and Ogors pack a punch, the Orruks screen and score objectives and the rest pump out mortal wounds at range. I haven't tried it out, but should be decent (mixed Destruction lists are not ever going to be top tier in this iteration of the GH though).

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Funnily enough I was toying with this idea this week, adding a magma dragon ou dreadmaw to a mixed destruction list, but with Beastclaw Raiders/Ogors theme...

they may be expensive, but compared to the Frostlord at 460pts, they started to look much better, and since BCR and Gutbusters lack a lot on the army synnergies field, having those monsters on a list doesnt look bad...

only problem for me will be converting the models to look good on an ice theme... maybe an ice mammoth... kkkk

I would love to see some list suggestions with monsters like this on a mostly ogor army...

cheers

AJ

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On ‎08‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 10:00 PM, PlasticCraic said:

What do we think about his "Realm of Fire" stuff...not a thing in Matched Play?

Well it's actually just part of the main 4 page rules. Unless you're at an event that explicitly states you don't use "The Battefield" section of the rules then you could call on this;

Untitled.jpg.591231be5f2cea4724a9bbf3c13461bf.jpg

I think @Ben was doing this with his Legion of Azgorh as they have some rules that benefit from playing in the Realm of Fire iirc (don't quote me on this, I may be wrong).

Basically it would likely just end up coming down to a roll off as to whether you could take advantage of the bonus I guess!!

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  • 5 weeks later...

Thinking about this one over the weekend, and what if anything the Magma Dragon synergises with.  I can't think of any direct synergies as such, although obviously in terms of building a coherent list, this would be a highly mobile ass-kicker and source of a few mortal wounds and heavy rend, so you'd want to accompany it with some objective grabbers.

The only one I can think of would be the standard Gordrakk ability, but with only 2 melee profiles and no batallions it can be a part of, I don't think it would be a great use of that Command Ability.

But that in turn got me thinking...I'd love to see a warscroll batallion for a Destruction army (maybe another Ironjawz batallion in GH18, or a Gutbusters one in there?) that allows you to take "Any One Destruction Monster", kinda similar to how Gnarlroot can take any Order wizard.

I think GW are really nervous about Gordrakk being in a batallion (understandably), so you could maybe limit it to Monsters without the Hero keyword for example.  That being said,  even with Gordrakk in a batallion, I don't think it would be any worse that a lot of the stuff that's already out there now.

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So with that said - it's kind of hard to build a list that specifically maximises the Magma Dragon, but I've built this one that I think is semi-coherent and would be good fun. 

Because what's more fun for your opponent that a massive FW monster, a gunline and a bajillion Grots?  That's right: all of the above plus a Maw Krusha :P

I've had some success at 1k points with a list built around a Fungoid Cave Shaman:

Spoiler

 

Allegiance: Destruction

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (460)
- Artefact: Hammerblade
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (80)
- General
- Trait: Ravager

Battleline
1 x Grot Wolf Chariots (40)
- Gitmob Grots Battleline
10 x Orruks (90)
- Choppas & Shields
10 x Orruks (90)
- Choppas & Shields

War Machines
Grot Spear Chukka (120)
Grot Spear Chukka (120)

Total: 1000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 56

The idea here is to build everything around the Maw Krusha and Destructive Bulk.  You can get the Maw Krusha charging in the hero phase (making the new Rampaging Destroyers actually useful rather than restrictive).  The retreat with it, and charge again.  Add in some shooting from the Spear Chukkas to soften your targets up, and you can start to chain together On Da Rampage.  Because you can also run, it’s pretty easy to get to those support characters in the backfield – you will have those games where you go BAM BAM BAM through their heroes.

You can also alpha strike with a turn one hero phase move + 12” fly + run + charge, if your opponent deploys poorly.

Hammerblade gives you some crowd control and the Wolf Chariot can zoom around picking up unguarded objectives (it’s a really useful piece at 40 points).

The biggest weakness is probably the Orruks, they’re not amazing at 90 points.  At 1k though, my experience is that they only really need to screen for one turn – that is enough for you to dictate terms of what your Maw Krusha is hitting first.

 

I’m not sure how well that army would scale up to 2k, but the Magma Dragon being a very modular piece is probably as good a way as any.  Also it gives the opportunity to expand your batteline slightly, to something actually kinda useful.

Spoiler

Allegiance: Destruction

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (460)
- Artefact: Hammerblade
Gitmob Grot Shaman (80)
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (80)
- General
- Trait: Ravager

Battleline
60 x Gitmob Grots (270)
- Spears & Shields
20 x Gitmob Grots (100)
- Spears & Shields
10 x Orruks (90)
- Choppas & Shields

Behemoths
Magma Dragon (520)

War Machines
Grot Rock Lobber (100)
Grot Rock Lobber (100)
Grot Rock Lobber (100)
Grot Rock Lobber (100)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 168

What I like about it is that the key damage pieces are all very flexible - they have heavy rend and / or mortal wounds for hard to shift units, but also artefacts or bonuses against large units.  You have output across all phases.  And you are taking the Harbringer and actually using him - so for that reason, if I was going to an event that used Malign Portents rules (like SCGT in the UK) I'd give it strong consideration.

What I don’t like is that the army has a million drops, and in some ways feels a little bit "Collection of Models" (although it does have its own tricks).  Also at 1k I didn’t care about Battleshock, whereas here you have to choose between using the CA on the Maw Krusha and using Inspiring on the Grots, as the situation dictates.

I do think you’d be able to achieve mid tables with it though.

What does everyone think?  Anybody else got any Magma Dragon lists?

Edited by PlasticCraic
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I used one in a narrative event admittedly we allowed monsters to cross grand alliance so mine integrated into my Fire Aelves. Currently designing a new destruction faction of which the magma dragon falls under the banner and is available as a mount. Beautiful model and lots of fun.

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A very silly list I want to try out at some point... 2000 points of silliness on the nose. Not going to effective, and certainly not going to be worth buying 3 magma dragons to try out, but I'll give it a go one Friday night for the laughs.

Leaders

Fungoid Cave-Shaman

Units

3 x Ogors

-Pairs of Ogor Clubs or Blades

3 x Ogors

-Pairs of Ogor Clubs or Blades

3 x Ogors

-Pairs of Ogor Clubs or Blades

Behemoths

Magma Dragon

Magma Dragon

Magma Dragon

 

Edited by Ritual
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  • 2 weeks later...

So the big fella arrived on Friday, and I modelled him up on Saturday.  In all honesty it's not the easiest model in the world to put together - you know what it's like trying to put three separate pieces together with superglue, and the "leap of faith" where you just hope you've glued something together at the right angle!

A fair amount of green stuff was used but it's now in decent shape.  

One tip I would definitely have for anyone is to buy the Citadel saw.  It's invaluable for taking resin off the sprue - it's one of those where you could never go back to not having one!

My next question is colour schemes, what would people suggest?  One thought I've had is something like the black Magmadroth colour scheme?  What are people's thoughts?

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Auric-Runesmiter-on-Magmadroth

@Chris Tomlin do you have any photos of yours you'd be willing to share please?

Edited by PlasticCraic
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The kit is somewhat challenging, nowhere near as much gap filling as the squigggoth but I did have to greenstuff some of the joints (more so on my second one due to reposing him but thats on me)

 

The black scheme would look good, I dont think I've seen one like it yet, mine both gravitated toward yellowy brown with red glowing elements

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