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Including Draigo in your list


Bennicus

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At what point level do you start thinking seriously about taking Draigo along in your list? Is 1500 too small a game for him? 

 

Thanks to a happy accident, my local GW had the model in stock so I picked it up and will get him ready for battle, but I'm not sure if my slowly developing army will make better use of Draigo or some allied ranged killing punch to support termies, interceptors, and a couple DKs.

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It's such a weird situation, isn't it?

 

Every other army I play, if you ask me if I want to dumpe 250ish points into a character I'd tell you, 'no way'. I can't even stand putting Calgar in my Ultra's... I don't touch C'tan, or even Daemon Princes in chaos (I know they're good, I just DESPISE expensive HQ's). Same with Dark Angels... hate using the big names.

 

I'm a big believer in HQ's as a force multiplier and you could argue that "Calgar" Is a direct force multiplier. But this is the secret sauce imho. Draigo IS a force multiplier in a weird way. First off, in a really odd way he fits in to the small list type. He's 'easy' to fit... he's in Termie armour. It's pretty straight forward.

 

But the 'secret sauce' is taking enough libs and Daemonica to try to ensure Sanctuary. Then... (this is the contentious part so ignore if you please) Paladins with an Apothecary. Roll up Sanc, have him in front, and take on all the nasty AP2 killy stuff, rolling a 5+ FnP (nothing can really insta kill him aside from D).

 

You don't need Paladins for this to work, it's just something I've been dabbling in lately. Because I know there is a hate on for them , but in larger games, with him, I find the Apothecary is the gravy part of that combo (the rest are all suspect to normal ID issues). 

 

But it's not for everyone. Not the Paladins, not the tanking. Trust me, you gotta have iron will to try this.... I just did it against 3 Grav Centiurions.... I took the full 15 shots, and with Paladins just for the Re-roll He took 2 wounds. Yow... I'm not gonna like with so many hits, I was tinkling in my pants a bit I think.... But I didn't lose a guy.... 

 

I've done this a few times now. It takes practice, and really sizing up the situation. But in a nutshell I believe that's how you make a force multiplier out of him. To be 100% honest if he didn't have a stormshield + access (indirecty) to Sanctuary, I'd probably almost never take him. That's just me... there are other ways of leveraging AP2 and Gate. 

Draigo's big draw is that unlike most beatstick HQ's (looking at you Abby and Calgar), he adds utility in the form of massive mobility. Which is exceedingly rare on generic HQ's, nevermind a named one. So, he's not only a combat monster that will tear down anything short of a Knight-Titan (and even then, I'd put money on Draigo), he is also teleporting his bodyguard across the battlefield with very little the enemy can do about it (they can only Deny on 6's, and you'll probably throw a couple of dice a it to stop random 1-2 Deny successes stopping it). 

 

I still think he's better with Allies  though, in particular Grav-Centurions. The simple truth is that Paladins would be his natural home, but they're awful and overpriced. Grav-Centurions also boost him to T5 (which makes him even more absurd at tanking damage), and they add substantial firepower while he protects them from melee attempts and AP2. There is a reason it's a tournament staple. 

I am soon to be running Draigo in an 1850 in a big deathstar unit.

 

The unit is:

 

Draigo

ML3 Libby with Domina Book

Coteaz

OX INQ ML1, Force Sword, Rad and Psycho Grenades

Sang Priest with Angel Wing

10 TH/SS BA Terminators

 

Big unit eh? The idea is to try and get Invis and Sanctuary from the Psykers as the main two powers. The unit then will have 2+/2++/5+FnP so a tough unit to crack even without Invis. The OX INQ is there for another roll on a table plus the sheer fun of reducing Wraithknights to T7 and Thunderwolves to T4 making them Instakilled with the TH.

 

Lot of points but hey!

Draigo

ML3 Libby with Domina Book

Coteaz

OX INQ ML1, Force Sword, Rad and Psycho Grenades

Sang Priest with Angel Wing

10 TH/SS BA Terminators

 

Pretty amusing. Deathstars are losing a lot of effectiveness these days though. 

The other thing about Draigo... is I foresee him going from 'super tank' in my lists to must take as the game changes to 'mini-Apoc' more and more every year.

 

outside of allying, how else am I going to have a shot against stuff like Wraithknights? I don't know really... Vortex? that's a lot of stars lining up. So I see his role shifting for me a bit. I was enjoying -not- using him for a few games, but I'm back to using him as I am facing some competitive lists that aren't holding much back so I don't want to end up in a so called 'leisure' game with no answer to the nasties.

The other thing about Draigo... is I foresee him going from 'super tank' in my lists to must take as the game changes to 'mini-Apoc' more and more every year.

 

outside of allying, how else am I going to have a shot against stuff like Wraithknights? I don't know really... Vortex? that's a lot of stars lining up. So I see his role shifting for me a bit. I was enjoying -not- using him for a few games, but I'm back to using him as I am facing some competitive lists that aren't holding much back so I don't want to end up in a so called 'leisure' game with no answer to the nasties.

 

Our only real alternative to Draigo as a general purpose beatstick is either more Terminators or Dreadknights. The former is slow, but they're Troops and they make all the absurd Destroyer/high Strength firepower wasted because they're only 1 wound. DK's are a lot better normally, but against say wraith weaponry you run the risk of that lucky 6 just melting you with no saves. 

 

 

Brett, there are several on eBay.

Yeah but I want to paint my own Draigo and give him some custom flare! It's only a 20$ (US) model so I will wait patiently haha!

 

-Brett

Several of those on eBay are unpainted, and you can always strip the paint and start over, if you win one cheap that happens to already be painted.

I've ran him in a 1250 point game... The army actually performed well!

 

-Libby, Combi Weapon

-5 Terminators, 2 Hammers, Psycannon

-Stormraven

-Dreadknight, Sword, Psycannon, Incinerator, Teleporter

-Dreadknight, Sword, Psycannon, Incinerator, Teleporter

-Draigo

 

Sometimes, in a smaller game the tough, expensive units like those above can be a system shock for an opponent...

if you cannot get Dragio get Lysander drill out the head put a GKT head in add loads of GKT bits to him along with the GKT sword and Poof a Lysnader converted to Dragio

 

Persoanlly i run a 1500 pont list with Dragio

 

 lvl 2 lib

10 Terminators

5 paladins

2 NDK's and Dragio

 

its brilliant and I have had a lot of fun with it

I find Draigo to be almost auto include in most of my army lists. His mobility, strength, and combat abilities are too good. Of course, you could get a normal beaststick GM, but Draigo has all of that plus a 100% Gate of Infinity chance. Gate of Infinity is key to the lists I enjoy running and I can't chance not getting it. 

I do feel bad taking him some times in low point games ~1500 because he is a LoW and rather strong.

 

I am not a fan of Draigo, although I realise I am in the minority here. I acknowledge his strenghts, I just loath relying on a particular psychic power to go off (or risking perrils by throwing 4+ dice at it) and Deepstriking without scatter reduction. I run my lists in a way that I absolutely try to minimize risks, so naturally I tend to avoid units like Draigo.

What's really frustrating for is random psychic powers. I guess I got over my rage at the changes in 6th to Psykers, but everytime I see set powers I wish all psykers could do that. Sanctic and even stuff like Pyromancy or Telekinesis would be viable, if you could reliably select the most relevant powers. As is, you really risk rolling garbage or redundant stuff, just for a shot at money powers like 'Gate', 'Vortex', 'Levitation'...Telepathy is full of duds with two amazing defensive powers. 

 

But 7th is the apotheosis of forged narrative and RNG = game design. I mean hell, they actually created an entire format whose premise is random VP's for chasing your tail, while the enemy just table wipe you (Maelstorm). So, random buffs it is. 

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