SFR, Inc.

[TheLazyhase]

I am never very sure of the best way to choose your dragons and dragonkins.

As far as dragon go, I see two rules :
* if my army is magic-heavy, regular dragon ; else wyrm. The main difference is that drake tend to fly away, which I see as an advantage when I can actually resummon them easily. Otherwise, drake hit a bit harder on average, while wyrm breath more often and have a slightly higher chance to do high damage.

* as far as color go, I tend to go hybrid my main color / red. That's because the red auto-killing and possible burying effect seem the most versatile one for me. Green / black is another option if I go green or black, since green provide possible burial, and black automatic destruction.

If I have only two dragon, I tend to take two that would not attack each other. If I have three or more, I would take the third one as a different color (so I can distract my two first dragon with the third one if need arise), or take a white one.

White dragon, by the way, seem dangerous but useful. Dangerous, because they are harder to summon, hit hard, and cannot be splitted at two terrain like two dragon can be. Useful, because they are way more likely than two dragon to do impressively high damage : you have 1/12 chance to jaws for 24 damage, for example, while two dragon only have 1/144 chance to do the same. And usually, 24 damage then 0 the next turn is better than 12 then 12 the next turn

As far as dragonkin, I tend to go 1 champion, 1 rare, 1 uncommon, 3 commons, while trying to get them all of a different color than my dragon (it I play frostwing, I will take red/blue dragon and black dragonkin, for example). I don't really have strategy or opinion about their distribution between steed, heavy, and light.

[frdm02]

I choose my dragons and kin based on situation. If I opt for a cav mage army I like to take dragons I consider less likely to be used against me (ie ivory the stay where I put them unless killed) or ones I consider less likely for my opponent to be able to summon my dragons or have matching ones that I could be facing off against 4. If I have an army that has some saves and melee then I tend to lean on the dragons more apt to do real damage in play with a breath.

Kin as well depends upon my game strategy. If I anticipate I can leave my mages at a terrain for a fair amount of time I will bring in assorted sizes. If I anticipate a lot of terrain movement I bring all one pointers as they are easy to bring in. The type I tend to mix to help with attack and maneuver results.
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5,117 dice and counting (not all races are counted yet)

[cliffwiggs]

All options have a place. it just depends on your strategy and personal play style
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[AC]

From what little I have seen/theorized (we didn't have hybrids back in my day! And arrows only cost a nickel!), the way to go for hybrids is black/blue (though blue/gold works in a pinch). Blue dragon breath has the mildest damage effect (roll for saves, no burial included) because it has the most devastating secondary effect (that army is dead to you until your next turn, if it lives that long). Combine this with black (no IDs, often halving if not eliminating a unit's ability to generate a save) or gold (for any race that uses maneuvers for saves) and that army either retreats or is toast.

When the dragon breathes on your enemy, you pick black breath damage. If you happen to have the hybrid breathe on your army, as the dragon's owner you get to choose the breath damage. So you pick blue and get to save, then retreat your army. Red is also nice, for the burial. Really, coupling anything with blue is outstanding.

[Dolus]

I'm curious about strategies regarding kin color and your dragon color. I can see the benefit to having a Dragonkin Champion matching the color of your dragons, so you can move it. But other than that, why do so many people play with all of their kin the same color as their dragon? With the possible exception of magic doubling, I see this as only a weakness. Your kin are virtually useless against your own dragons, and there's no guarantee until you know what you're facing that your dragons won't be attacking you at some point.

Also, I've started playing with the idea of instead of champion, rare, uncommon, 3x common, to try out 2x common, 2x uncommon, 2x rare. I've never made use of a champion, yet, and by doing a 2/2/2 setup, you immensely increase your chances of being able to promote more than one dragonkin if you happen to kill a dragon. Has anybody else considered this?

[chuckpint]

I always bring 2 to 3 colors of Dragonkin. Since I usually play 2 races with one color in common, I bring 1/2 the common color, and 1/4 each of the other 2 colors. That gives me options on which to summon based on magic doubling or other factors. It also lets me have a chance to have some dragonkin can roll against a dragon.

The dragons I bring usually are or have the common color. That's so I can summon them easily if I decide to use them.
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You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Diceâ„¢ sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Diceâ„¢, 20,000 Daemon Diceâ„¢, and others (too many to count).

[DEEPBLUEB2]

PM sent to avoid flareups.

[piMaster]

[Blindfury]

I don’t pick my dragons or dragonkin based on each other. In my experience, I try not to build my forces based on the idea that I’ll be losing. I use hybrid dragons in the primary colors of my army and/or white dragons.
As for dragonkin, champions are all well and good, but I’d rather have a tiered approach in 36points or less. I split the difference, 2 common, 2 uncommon and 2 rare, split between the army’s colors. As has been said, it’s better to be able to promote, it’s better to have a mixture of summoning options based on available magic points, and it’s good to have a selection depending on how much magic you are able to generate.

[Urfaes]

Dragons: If I'm planning on winning, I hybrid blue. Blue has an amazing breath effect and basically controls your opponent. If I'm just playing, I hybrid ivory. I actually look forward to having my opponent summon my dragon to the table; it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Dragonkin: I pick one color and take mostly commons then uncommons. Rare and Champions are reserved for higher point games, but I prefer small 24 point games so I rarely use anything larger than uncommon. I also focus primarily on the heavies because I tend to summon them with my home based mages; capturing the 8th face requires slogging through the melee phase, which is where the Dragonkin will be most helpful. Although I may try using Dragonmounts for maneuvers and Dragontroops as ablative shielding next.

[Dolus]

Has anybody considered bringing uncommon, rare, or Champion dkin that don't share a color with what you can summon? Obviously, you can't summon it, but you can promote to it. It's another way to prepare for not knowing what dragons you're facing. And of course, anybody with limited dkin could use this strategy to make full use of the 12 points of dkin they're allowed.


Next question, does anybody differentiate between the three types of dragonkin? I personally classify them as heavy troop, light troop, and cavalry due to the icon distribution. Which do you prefer to play with? Or do you even care?

[cliffwiggs]

I always bring two colors to account for different dragons, but rarely bring a color I can't cast.

Dragonkin used to be used a lot more, but lately I bring them and just never summon them. must be the types of armies I'm playing.

and I almost always bring the one which is most balanced between maneuver and melee (which isn't the same type as it promotes). I don't know for sure which of those two I need, so I just split the difference.
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[chuckpint]

Since I usually play 2 races with one color in common, I'll bring 3 colors of dragonkin. 3 health of each "off" color, and 6 health of the common color. I'll bring a mix of heavy melee and cavalry types (I never use the "light" type). Usually the off colors will be all commons, the common color will be one common, one uncommon, and one rare.

So if my opponent is throwing dragons at me, I'll bring in the heavies (of course in a color I can roll). If I need maneuvers, I'll bring the cavalry.
_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Diceâ„¢ sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Diceâ„¢, 20,000 Daemon Diceâ„¢, and others (too many to count).