March 22, 2011

Fire dragons.

Have you ever felt when you first take a look at a mini that this mini is awful and adds nothing to the range it was made for?

That was my initial feeling on the fire dragons, at first instance I took a look and thought "Meh, this minis are totally like the old ones, but kinda taller", but when I bought the box and start to paint them I was amazed of how the fire dragons were updated while still showing the same spirit of the old classic ones, so they become one of my favourite minis of the whole range.

The only thing I don´t like is how plain they look together while looking at the same direction, but this is totally compensated by the exarch, a truly loveable mini indeed.

And another question:

Have you ever felt when you first take a look at a rulebook that a unit isn´t that good for the role that is supposedly assigned for?

When I first put my eyes on the Eldar codex I saw this guys and my thoughts went to the tau codex, in which a unit, with the aproppriate upgrades can target more than a single unit making the XV-88 apoc suits a very reliable anti tank unit.

The dragons cannot do this so they have to shoot the same unit, overkilling most of the things, but while reading the book again I realized that the tankhunting role can be taken by the Wave Serpents and Falcons (or even vypers and seer council) and make the dragons change his (fluffy) role into chase and hunt termies or powered armor guys and to pop tank squadrons, and, indeed they seem to be really good at it.

Now one very important question is... Should the exarch pick up the flamer or the pike?

I like the flamer, It is a very good weapon, but since most of the armies are pillboxed into transports the´flamer isn´t as useful as it used to be (one at a time, of course, cause some destructor warlocks or a huge ork burna squad are uber IMHO) so I decided to put the pike on the exarch, and if later I buy another box I will use the flamer to diferenciate the units.

So my idea is, put a 6 man (5 + exarch with pike) into a bright lanced falcon and throw them out hunting armoured foes and tank squadrons.

And here they are my 6 (5+1) squad.

I kept the craftworld scheme, cause I don´t like the eldar armies that look like an explosion in a paint shop so I adapted the scheme to fit this guys.


The grenade tossing guy in a close view so you can see the scheme better.
Hmmmm... they are fisically fit, aren´t they? :D

The exarch... an awesome miniature.
The same guy from the back.
Another point of view.
A closer view to see better the details.
Same.
As ever comments are welcome.
.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Those are some really nice dragons, and some great questions too. I will attempt to give my humble opinion;

I love both the new and the last fd's, the exarchs are brilliant.

I find that relying on one or two dice to destroy a tank is folly, the dice gods can be mean. Six dice on the other hand....

Firepike. When you are going after the hardest things on the table, specialize.

I have two units of 6 fd's in falcons, but my birds are armed for anti-infantry. They cover each other's backs well.

On a side note, Tank Hunters is useless. Firstly, you have meltas, fast ones. Second, meltas are ap 1, which gain a +1 to damage result no matter what.
Just my observations...

John Stiening said...

These are really beautiful! I love the color scheme and the execution.

Rebilated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grajo said...

.- Ricalope: Thanks mate :)
I will tune my FD´s serpent for anti-tank cause my fellow gamers usually put lots of 3+ or 2+ armour saves on the table, so I need as many high str low ap shots as possible, but when fighting tau or IG I will do as you said, pure antitank with a pike exarch.

Good observations indeed :D

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