I know we had that Sun Dragon thread a little while back, so sorry if this is covering old ground, but does anyone have any bright ideas on how I can nobble (or at least neutralise) a Star Dragon and rider (Lord with re-rollable armour save and a ward) with my Vampire Counts?
Last time I played one I got very lucky with my Wraiths, the Helm of Commandment and Vanhel’s Dance Macabre all in one go, but I can’t count on that happening again. Please bear in mind I don’t want my army to be too cheesey.
Please bear in mind I don't want my army to be too cheesey.
He's using a Star Dragon... :~ you will need a bit of cheese to stop it.
Basically there's two ways: Pin him with zombies or kill him with elite stuff.
Pinning with zombies is fairly straightforward and is possibly the safer method, a neat little trick that will help a lot is the wolftrap: 7 Dire Wolves inc Doomwolf. Charge him, Doom Wolf challenges, you lose by 5 (overkill of 6 vs outnumber) and 1 wolf survives. Then he can't move in his turn as the lone wolf is still in combat with him, buying you a turn of moving. Then zombie him, preferably flank or rear. Or charge him with another wolftrap if you really want to annoy him :) You can even just engage him with a block of Skeletons or Grave Guard with War Banner and Helm of Command. He's got to kill 7 to win, unlikely when he will need 4s to hit. If he fluffs his attacks and runs, make sure you have some cheap stuff behind him so he flees through you and dies, as you are unlikely to catch him with a 2D6" pursuit. You will need reliable Vanhels to pin him with infantry, a lord with Forbidden Lore or a Necromancer with VanHels and 2 power stones will do the job.
Killing him is a lot riskier but doable. Best unit for the job is a lord on Zombie Dragon with: Red Fury, Walking Death, Dreadlance and other stuff of your choice. Usually I would take Balefire Spike and Infinite Hatred (so the Zombie Dragon re-rolls too) but Dragon Armour stops that. Kill the star dragon (a lord with this build will do it most of the time) and fear outnumber. Run him down. Blood Knights can also do the job but will require some very careful movement and some VanHels spamming to get into him. I think Wraiths have better uses against HEs than tying up a dragon, they will take time to kill it and there's always the chance he has that amulet that gives the whole model magic attacks.
Last time I played one I got very lucky with my Wraiths, the Helm of Commandment and Vanhel's Dance Macabre all in one go, but I can't count on that happening again.
The trick with VCs is to make sure you can count on it happening every time :) Forbidden Lore is your friend.
Carpe Noctem is a better bet for VC queries btw http://www.vampirecounts.net/index.php
If your opponent is foolish enough to have just stuck with a mundane Lance or Halberd (as mine once did), then just charge him with a pair of Spirit Hosts, or a bunch of Wraiths if you want to actually try doing him some damage.
Another way is to take your lord with forbidden lore and choose beasts… and use beast cowers on him… he cant move. LOL pisses them off… just spam Invocation to drain his dice before casting it. then throw a unit of zombies into the flank of it and keep the unit above 20 models for as long as possible as he cant kill you outright then.