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Ever wondered how cool the Saurus Knights would look if their mounts weren't goofy as hell? Step this way. The Order Serpentis represents a portion of the old Dark Elf line that has been bundled together to form a small elite army that's heavily themed on it's love for drakespawn and dark dragons. They're fast, mobile and very durable, and the low model count and awesome centrepiece model means it's easy to get started. Where do I start? As per the usual, we need a hero and two battleline choices at least before we look at anything else. Picking a hero is easy, after all you've only got one. The Dreadlord on Black Dragon is no joke however, the dragon's already deadly combat profile is accenuated by the character riding it, unlike the sorceress version this guy packs a mean punch. Your battleline options are both things we'll be taking anyway, the Drakespawn Knights and the Drakespawn Chariots, both charge focused, durable melee bruisers. Where to next? More chariots and knights, more more more. And to spice up the mix, lets throw in a War Hydra or two. These nasty behemoths are melee focused beasts with a decent shooting attack and a monster stat profile that doesn't get dramaticaly weaker as it takes wounds. But here's the kicker, the hydra heals itself for THREE wounds in each of your hero phase. Three wounds, not d3. This means it's frustratingly difficult to chip down and any enemy trying to whittle it down and tie it up with chaff will quickly discover it's not locked up with them, they're locked up with it. I would reccomend building around the Ebondrake Warhost batalliob, for the cost of a Dreadlord on Dragon, 2 - 3 Drakespawn, 1 - 2 Chariots and 1 - 3 Hydras you get to reroll all wound rolls of one, and once per game everything within 8 inches of the Dreadlord can charge in the hero phase. What to ally? In this, the age of magic, we need some spellcasters. The Order Serpentis can ally from any of the old dark elf model lines, as well as Stormcast Eternals and Idoneth Deepkin. We're going to stick with the cheaper stuff because Stormcast and Deepkin casters tend to be focused more towards their army's playstyle, a style we don't fit. The Sorceress is always a nice choice, and you can always take a Scourge Privateer Fleetmaster for 40 points to fill out your hero slots for certain scenarios. In that vein of thinking, a few cheap Black Ark Corsairs to hold objectives is rarely a bad thing. But wait, there's more I swear to god I plug the Firestorm Allegiance abilities so much Games Workshop should be paying me by the post, but seeing as you won't be allying Stormcast or Deepkin your army will fit the requirements for the fre city Anvilgard. Now this free city is my favorite (I'm building around it curently, post to come). With a highly mobile army you can rope around the enemy and cause the to just straight up die because they can't get far enough away from you. Better yet, this allows your Drakespawn Chariots to charge again and again, constantly refreshing their charge based bonuses. Let's take a look at what we can hammer out from this. Allegiance: Order Serpentis Mortal Realm: Ulgu Leaders Dreadlord On Black Dragon (320) - General - Lance of Spite & Shield - Trait: Inspiring Sorceress (100) - Allies Sorceress (100) - Allies Black Ark Fleetmaster (40) - Allies Battleline 5 x Drakespawn Knights (140) 5 x Drakespawn Knights (140) 5 x Drakespawn Knights (140) 2 x Drakespawn Chariots (160) 2 x Drakespawn Chariots (160) Units 10 x Black Ark Corsairs (80) - Vicious Blade & Repeater Handbow - Allies 10 x Black Ark Corsairs (80) - Vicious Blade & Repeater Handbow - Allies Behemoths War Hydra (180) War Hydra (180) Battalions Ebondrake Warhost (150) Total: 1970 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 400 / 400 Wounds: 127 The plan here is simple, set up for a turn two charge into the enemy, and then from there hopefully get a few Anvilgard rolls off at the start of your hero phase before promptly using the batallion to charge into the enemies that just ran away from you. While this is going on, the corsairs make a break for the objectives while providing Look Out Sir protection to the Sorceresses, who focus on dispelling spells and using Word of Pain on big enemy units. The Fleetmaster is here purely for an extra hero to hold objectives, he's only 40pts so might as well pick him up. This list is a fun elite army to run with, I myself have a lot of the models to make it and plan to get started once I've finished my existing projects.

The first Drakespawn Knight. Bit of a test really. I really like the old skool look of these cold one riders, so I really wanted to give them more of a dungeon-punk vibe. I swapped the slender lance and elegant shield for something a little more gnarly looking. Feel like it fits the rag-tag band of raider which I have in my head. I might add add a few more bits and bobs to make them more barbaric looking, what do you reckon? i still ill have a bit of tidying up to do. Smoothing out the GS, mould lines and such. Excuse the messy desk