Theme - Children of the Dragon
This mk3 Theme Force has no equivalent in mk4. You can build a similar army in Unlimited Legion (if/when the models in this theme get ported to mk4 rules) |
Reshaped by the dragon's power, the blighted Nyss serve as formidable fighters within Everblight's legion. Utterly devoted to the dragon, whole shards sometimes join battle together to enact their master's will. Such highly skilled and self-sufficient forces strike fast and hard with a combination of blade, claw, and bow. Supported by agile dragonspawn and powerful nephilim, these Nyss shards can strike anywhere the dragon directs them, moving unnoticed through enemy territory to secure objectives while outmaneuvering larger armies.
Theme Rules
- For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.
Theme Restrictions
An army made use the Children of the Dragon theme force can include only the following Legion models:
- Legion warlocks
- Non-character warbeasts
- Azrael
- Typhon
- Zuriel
- Throne of Everblight battle engines
- Template:Blighted Nyss models/units
- Template:Virtue models/units
- Blight Archon solos
- Forsaken solos
- Template:Succubus solos
- Incubi solos
- Spell Martyr solos
- Forsaken solos
- This army can also include one Minion solo and one Minion unit that will work for Legion.
- These models/units can be included even if they have the Partisan [Legion] rule.
- Minion units can have non-Ranking Officer attachments
Full model list
Requisition Points
You can spend each Requisition Point on either:
- One Blighted Nyss weapon crew unit
- One Legion command attachment
- Five Incubi solos
- One other small- or medium-based Legion solo with a point cost of 5 or less
Theme bonuses
- Nephilim warbeasts in this army gain Unyielding.
- Warlocks in this army gain Tactician [Blighted Nyss].
Thoughts on Children of the Dragon
Children of the Dragon in a Nutshell
Children of the Dragon is your combined arms list, allowing you to enlist the Blighted Nyss infantries beside the Legion's full warbeast arsenal. Whereas Ravens of War favours ranged warfare and the Striders, CotD allows you to unleash the full spectrum of Nyss units, while the Tactician bonus actively supports close combat too. The newly added Virtue models also provide great utility in the form of board control due to the Scather templates, while Blight Clouds help them to form a cloud wall in front of the rest of your army. Their superior speed compared to the Nyss infantry also helps not only to keep up with them but also to form a vanguard, and save your troops from getting their souls harvested by the enemy.
This theme also offers quality character beasts in form of Zuriel Azrael and Typhon, and with the exception of the latter they all benefit from the Unyielding theme benefit. The arrival of the Blight Archon not only boosts the infantries' prowess via Veteran Leader, but may also help for the less battlegroup-centric warlocks to run these beasts at top form.
Thanks to this versatility almost all the warlocks may find this theme an appealing one.
Theme Weaknesses
- Typhon and your non-nephilim warbeasts will get no Unyielding.
- Tactician won't work on your Minion choices or the Virtues and there are several warlocks who cannot take advantage of it by themselves as they are not Blighted Nyss warlocks (both version of Kallus and Thagrosh, Fyanna2, Anamag, Bethayne2 and Bethayne1 while moulded with Belphagor).
List Building Tips
Nephilim warbeasts get a sort of interesting Unyielding bonus, but that should not encourage you to spam them, since the overall usefulness changed little throughout the years. Nephilim are not outright bad, but their performance is questionable (outside the characters) and ranges from adequate (Nephilim Bolt Thrower) to mediocre (Nephilim Soldier). Their points cost also deters you from spamming them, and two out of the four Nephilm are more support beasts than combat beasts; essentially, you wouldn't take more than one or two anyway. Let's discuss them in detail:
Nephilim Bloodseer - The Bloodseer is an interesting support piece with varying utility depending on other available beasts. Unfortunately the mainstray beasts of this list are characters, meaning you cannot cast their animi. If you won't bring other worthwile choices (Carnivean, Mekanoshredder, Archangel or the Naga Nightlurker, for example), you may find its Primal Magic a moot point. Despite its poor personal contribution, Telemetry will help your warlock, Hex Hunters, Ice Witches, Sorceress, and the Blackfrost Shard. In that case consider a single Bloodseer.
Nephilim Protector - Another utility piece, this one is there to enhance your warlock's safety. You are unlikely to choose this beast over other, much cheaper Shield Guard options (Ogrun Bokur, Valkyries). It gets Unyielding in melee though, so it can provide Guard Dog for your warlock in the danger zone for a prolonged time when engaged. Sadly, the list offers no offensive bonus beyond that, and its offensive prowess is limited at best already. It is expensive for what it does but the Safeguard animus may occasionally come very handy
Nephilim Bolt Thrower - One of the more popular Nephilim, but unfortunately gets next to none from this theme force. It won't stay too long in a fight even with Unyielding, and if you have to rely on that, the enemy is probably dictating the flow of battle already. The +2 ARM does offer you a modicum of defensive flexibility. If you are in a situation where you must walk out of melee and receive a free strike (or if you charged a weak enemy looking to trigger Quick Work but failed), Unyielding might keep your Bolt Thrower alive an extra turn.
Nephilim Soldier - Oft regarded as the most mediocre light warbeast in the Legion's arsenal. It has the task of going toe-to-toe in a heavy fight. Whether Unyielding will be enough to protect him depends on the support you can bring to bear. The Blackfrost Shard, as well as the Nyss Sorceress is near mandatory. With Brutal Charge and Precision Strike, a Nephilim Soldier stands a decent chance of disabling key warjack systems, moreso if you bring a warlock who can also buff their STR or melee damage rolls. Into warbeasts, bring a source of Grievous Wounds if you want this tactic to be more effective, or if you expect your warmachine opponents to bring repair models. Between Zuriel and Swordsmen under the Warlord's aura you can have quite a few models who can carve out systems and aspects with great accuracy.
Lesser Warbeasts, unlike in Ravens of War get no bonus here. The Mekanoshredder still worth consideration due to its ever useful animus, and if you plan to go infantry-heavy, 1 or 2 Spawning Vessel may put those corpses to good use.
Zuriel - With his surgical melee strikes against warbeasts and jacks he almost always finds his way into the CotD lists - usually under the care of a Blight Archon to provide Sprint and/or ARM buff. Though for raw damage output you may rather want a Carnivean, Zuriel is your go-to choice for targeted destruction and utility.
Azrael - A strong gun platform, Azrael is a relatively tough Serpentine warbeast; an ideal choice if you can buff his Strength further. His price tag makes him less of an auto-include than Zuriel, but his fire immunity animus is really nice if you are going against fire-heavy enemies, like Menite forces or a Legion mirror match.
Typhon - The strongest and second most flexible beast in the faction after Zuriel (with a matching price tag). If you can keep his Fury output in check he can wrestle with pretty much any other model in the game bar colossi and gargantuans.
You may also consider the following beasts:
Blightbringer: Its auras synergize greatly with your close combat elements, especially with Swordsmen and Legionnaires.
- Blighted Nyss Swordsmen - Of all the units out there, Swordsmen profit the most of the Tactician Bonus. With it, you can set up charge lanes even better, or stride through your skirmishing Hex Hunters and the like.
- Blighted Nyss Raptors - An excellent combined arms unit, Tactician helps both their positioning and the other Nyss units around them.
- Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters - Great unit into Incorporeal models and to put Shadow Bind onto Battle Engines (with Bayal's presence).
- Blackfrost Shard and Ice Witches - You want to take at least one of them. Though you get access to heavy warbeasts for brawling the opponents' heavies, both units can support your most prized list elements offensively.
- Spawning Vessel - If you have any affection toward this model, this might be the theme for you. You will definitely lose models on the advance, so there will be plenty of corpse tokens to cook lesser beasts. Also, replacing the model with an Incubus will give you both the Incubus AND corpse tokens. Keep in mind though that Lessers are often lacking so the points may be better spent elsewhere.
- Speaking of another rarely used unit, this might be the rare opportunity to consider including the Scather Crew, as one of your free card... Unless you're not tempted by the other excellent free choices, that is.
- Virtue Champion and Virtue Host - This is a complete package (though the champ may be included on his own and still gets work done) which brings utility, anti-infantry board control and cloud wall on demand. Just mind your order of activation, since your Nyss troops are not immune to corrosion.
This - and UAs - might be your most contested section for the free cards, providing so many excellent choices.
- Incubi - They are the second most expensive solo(s) available to get for free in theme. Obviously, their inclusion will require some small based infantry already on the table, but you're likely going to want to bring at least one infantry in CotD to begin with. Sadly they don't benefit from the Tactician bonus, so plan their deploy accordingly.
- Blighted Nyss Shepherd - If you want to exploit your Tactician bubble, it is always nice to have around some Shepherds to allow your battlegroup a bit bigger footprint.
- The Forsaken - A game changer in this theme, if you want to go beast-heavy. Works especially well with Typhon.
- Blight Archon - Speaking of game changing solos, you should strongly consider at least 1 Archon into any CotD list. Even the ARM buff and the Veteran Leader would be great, but the other utilities (and sometimes, raw combat potential) really make the Archon a must-have.
- Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion - Both Zuriel and Azrael are grateful for free charges and some help with their Fury management. Also, Archers with Blight Storm can cause a whole lot of headache for high ARM targets.
- Annyssa, Yssylla, Craelix, Fyanna and the Nyss Warlord are all available for the list, and apart from Annyssa all are accessible as free solos.
CotD has a bunch of universally good, expensive solos that you want to consider as you requisition options, namely: Yssylla, Virtue Champions, Craelix and batches of Incubi. You will not be able to get all of them for free, but pretty much any constellation of them should work nicely regardless of how the rest of your army is constructed. The respective CAs for your units; Bayal, Falior, the Warlord, or Ammo Porter can also be taken for free.
Starting a 25 point Brawl list
In 2020.11 Jaden Iwassa, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. He even wrote about it's playstyle, which you can read here.
- Absylonia1: [+31 WBP]
- Blighted Nyss Shepherd: [1 pt]
- Craelix, Fang of Everblight: [Free] Template:Grey
- Spell Martyr: [1 pt]
- Swamp Gobber Chef: [1 pt]
- The Forsaken: [4 pts]
- Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (Min unit): [9 pts]
- Command Attachment: [5 pts]
Total RRP: USD $247 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.03)
Then in 2021.04 Jaden did another list which you can read here.
- Bethayne1: [+22 WBP]
- Carnivean: [17 pts]
- Mekanoshredder: [4 pts]
- The Wastelander: [5 pts]
- Virtue Champion: [Free] Template:Grey
- Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (Max unit): [15 pts]
- Command Attachment: [5 pts]
Total RRP: USD $174 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.04)
Simarily, in 2021.01 Phillip Melvin, another of the LOS authors, put together this list and this guide.
- Kryssa1: [+31 WBP]
- Azrael: [19 pts]
- Nephilim Bloodseer: [8 pts]
- Mekanoshredder: [4 pts]
- Craelix, Fang of Everblight: [Free] Template:Grey
- Blighted Nyss Shepherd: [1 pt]
- Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Max unit): [13 pts]
- Command Attachment: [4 pts]
- Ice Witches: [7 pts]
Total RRP: USD $222 plus the cost of Kryssa (based on PP's online store prices 2021.03. Kryssa is not in the online stock as of 2021.03)
Warlocks Thoughts
Warlocks who have their own character warbeast have a leg up over those who don't - all warbeast points are valid for the theme bonus, so these warlocks can spend fewer points on Nephilim. These characters won't gain Unyielding, but it does offer a select few warlocks a little more flexibility.
She is a turd-polisher without equal in the Legion, she offers everything you need for a Nephilim spam. She can also take Proteus to help dragging key enemy models closer to your other beasts. Sadly, she offers next to none to the units in the list, and you will struggle to control FURY as you cannot bring Forsaken in theme. That means your only way to control a swarm of Nephilim is three Shepherds and Abby herself. Consider other warlocks unless you like a lot of jank.
This army composition is surprisingly suitable for her. Though Deceleration alone will not save most of the infantry, Blood Thorn it purpose-made for infantry support and the Throne of Everblight also works well with her toolkit.
She can have Zuriel with her great bond, Thrones of Everblight for all the teleporting shenanigans during her feat, and infantry support both via Dash and Occultation. to have one heavy beast, though most likely he will soften them up for your other beasts/units. She also prefers mix arms/infantry so she can make better use of the free points than other warlocks. Raptors are available in theme and she brings them Occultation, which they love.
She can have one awesome turn, when you can drop Blight Bringer, get your warbeasts stuck in, feat, and watch your opponent trying to dispose of your super ARM buffed warbeasts. They also get a backhand-slap from each beast for fun.
A Saeryn + Zuriel combination might seem tantalizing, but sadly, she lacks any sort of damage buffs and will struggle to get work done after this one turn of super ARM.
And of course, her buddy, Azrael. With her, he's DEF 14/ARM 18 at range and DEF 14/ARM 20 in close combat (vs living 12/20 into jacks) with Serpentine. Add that to his usual tricks - he sets anyone tries to scratch him on fire, and hits at P+S 20 under Kryssa's feat. Azrael with Kryssa and Unyielding can be pure terror.
She also has some amazing infantry support to help the units get into the fight (Tactical Supremacy to speed a unit up and Ashen Viel to keep one safer), and hit hard during her feat as it affects her entire army. Total Obedience is great with Legionnaires and their CA, for a no-knockdown-tough-Vengeance-Battle-Driven combo. I you want them to be a really obnoxious tar pit, add in two sets of Incubi, which will spawn on failed tough rolls by your Legionaries and will in turn gain Tough, too.
While her feat is decidedly solid for ARM cracking and allows almost everything in your list to get a good amount of damage done, strongly consider the Blackfrost Shard with her regardless. Without it, you still will often find yourself lacking the punch to get work done turn to turn against warjack focused opponents.
He is Typhon's best buddy, often forming the anchor of his battlegroup. He also runs mixed arms reasonably well, while Unyielding with Death Shroud stacks for an effective +4 ARM boost to the Nephilim he brings.
He can built a Battle Lust focused list with Children of the Dragon with reasonable success. Some of his preferred infantry aren't available (Grotesques especially come to mind), but there's enough selection there to try it. Bolt Throwers have excellent hit and run with their Animus and Overrun as well. It may not be an optimal Kallus build but it can be made to work.
Free Incubi and Blazing Path combo well into each other/Kallus2's feat.
Kallus2 may have some difficulty delivering his infantry in this theme as he can usually rely on fast or evasive infantry (read: Striders) to jam and drop Incubi far up the field and spread fire everywhere. Hex Hunters are the best option he has for with CotD.
Other
Trivia
Released in the themopolcalypse (2017.09)