Jump to content

Are Dawnriders a thing?


WAAAGHdogg15

Recommended Posts

I know Sentinels are flavour of the month for LRL at present, but I keep looking at the Dawnrider scroll and can’t help but think there’s something there. What do folk think of this?:

Great Nation: Zaitrec

Cathallar - General, Gift of Celennar, Fast Learner, Lambert Light

Cathallar - Silver Wand, Speed of Hysh

10Wardens

10 Wardens

20 Sentinels

20 Sentinels

10 Dawnriders

10 Dawnriders

10 Dawnriders

Battalion: Dawnrider Lance 

Total: 1980 points

It has the manoeuvrability to be constantly threatening objectives. Zaitrec means relatively reliable casting of Speed of Hysh and Power of Hysh, which means the Riders (one unit per turn anyway) potentially moving 28”, getting extra attacks, rerolling 1s to hit and doing mortal wounds on 5+. Backed up by 40 sentinels with wardens to screen, I feel like I’ve happened upon a fairly potent glass hammer but am happy to be proven wrong since I haven’t bought all the models yet! 

Downsides are no Teclis, no endless spells and relatively high number of drops, but this, to me, looks fun. What do you think?

Edited by WAAAGHdogg15
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you built and painted a Dawnrider already? If so, and you still find this a good way to go, I bow and draw my half-moon hat before you. : )

From a fun perspective, it's definitely better than putting 80 Sentinels on the table (and I think that's more of a meme than anything real). If you have the chance to test it via TTS or so, that might be good. Deathrider-centric OBR builds seem to be pretty successful, and I think you likely would find good success against some armies for sure. 

I just have found Dawnriders being somewhat underwhelming against anything that's not 1 wound (but then I've never put units of 10 on the field). And 30 could just be the sweet spot from where they become viable. Sentinels also start to really become powerful once you field 30+ of them. 

If it works it looks like a really fun build, and also visually impressive. Could also throw people off at first. 

You might just have to live with some armies being a pretty good counter to your build (but then you have that with most builds so...). 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always try to fit at least 1 unit of 5 dawnriders into my list. The list I'm building to at the moment takes the battalion and 25 dawnriders. Their speed is amazing for threatening objectives that your opponent could otherwise safely walk away from knowing it will take you a couple turns to get to with your slow ass wardens/stoneguard. The games I've played (on TTS only unfortunately) without them I have always felt that I'm missing a unit that can move fast to take advantage of openings. As others have said however, they are an absolute pain to build and paint.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Either/Or said:

Are two units of 5 or one of 10 sufficient as a baseline for a non-teclis list?  Are 15-20 a better place to be?

What would you do with the points saved from this? Add the Auralan Legion as well, or squeeze in some of the useful endless spells maybe? I’m not quite sure why 15-20 would be better than 30...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played against LRL competitively quite a bit on TTS. The most I've seen in a list was 15.

Generally I think they are quite strong, but they are very feast or famine depending on what they are up against. They are pretty awful with no attack bonus, decent with +1 and excellent with +2. 

As a result it's very risky to overload your list with them as you will have a very hard time in certain matchups. Armies like Orruk Warclans, SCE, Ogors, Fyreslayers that pretty much exclusively have 2+ wound models will be tough, as will quite a few builds of other armies (most IDK, some DoK, StD/Nurgle, etc.).

I think 5-15 is probably the sweet spot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, that helps.  I am new to AOS, though have played a lot of (most) other GW games.  It’s helpful to get an idea of how much is right for each element as AOS feels like a bit of a different animal from the others. The Dawnriders seem important, but as you said it sounds like there is a sweet spot unless you were perhaps going all-in on a cav list or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...