Curu Olannon's Path To Glory - Starcoven

Post 2: Army Lists with Rationale and Development


.::. Current List .::.


Prince on Star Dragon: Dragonhelm, Star Lance, Crown of Atrazar, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Shield = 598

Noble BSB on Barded Steed, Banner of the World Dragon, Heavy armour, Shield, Lance = 172

Noble on Barded Steed, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Ogre Blade = 134

Mage L2 on Steed, Scroll = 155

Mage L2 on Steed, Ironcurse Icon = 135

Heroes = 596, Characters = 1194



16 Silver Helms, Full Command & Shields = 398

5 Ellyrian Reavers = 80

5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (swap) = 85

5 Ellyrian Reavers, Champion = 90

Core = 653



3x1 Repeater Bolt Thrower = 210

Frostheart Phoenix = 240

2x1 Great Eagle = 100

Rare = 550



Army total = 2397





.::. Rationale .::.



While magic received a huge boost in 8th edition, games are still largely won (or lost) in the movement phase. Being able to dominate the board and apply more pressure to a specific point on the battlefield than your opponent is crucial to victory. Playing High Elves allow us to do this very well, in a number of ways. Personally I`m a big fan of the biggest and baddest of them all when it comes to this: with a statline of 7 and flying, the Star Dragon is arguably the best board controller in the game. With the Star Lance on the Prince this unit alone delivers 10 S7 hits on the charge, 4 of which allow no armour save. While in our last book the Prince could be geared almost fully for a 2.5k game, the Star Dragon`s increased cost means the Prince will always have to settle for a compromise now. Effectively, I think he works best as a delivery system, i.e. here`s mainly around to bring the Dragon to the table. Don`t get me wrong, 18" LD10 Inspiring Presence is nice as well, but trying to tool the Prince to do anything but deliver the Dragon is a faulty approach, in my opinion. To this end, the Other Trickster`s Shard is mandatory as it is the single item that helps the Dragon out the most. To increase the odds of this item being around (= Prince alive) when you hit home, the Golden Crown and Charmed Shield are both excellent choices. The problem with the latter is that you really want the fireward: in a lot of matchups flaming ranged attacks can be what`s really threatening the Dragon (Dwarfs, Daemons and Tomb Kings to name the most common) and in this case, you want to give the Prince a decent chance at conserving the points, should the Dragon go down. It`s also very helpful against metal magic and High Elf Loremasters, both of which aren`t too uncommon these days. The compromise is thus Golden Crown + Dragonhelm, since Dragon Armour is simply too expensive. Lastly, to make the Prince actually matter when he charges, the Star Lance is an excellent choice. Given the meta where high-T 1+ save troops dominate, this build is in my opinion the best you can get at 2400 points.



I`ve tried a number of variations concerning hero support for the Star Dragon. To make a long story short (read the battle reports for more in-depth analysis), I believe it is necessary to include 2 level 2 mages to make the most of the available magic phase since you basically get the winds for free. It is also my experience that these two need to be protected by the Banner of the World Dragon, which is a mandatory item to provide the Dragon with Stubborn, because Elves really hate miscasts above and beyond everything else. Dark Elves get away by letting their Warlocks pull a lot of the magic phase, Wood Elves usually have a Sisters of the Thorn or Skirmisher bunker, neither of which are as vulnerable to miscasts as our elites or cavalry busses. I don`t believe neither White Lions nor Swordmasters can function well in an offensive list as they are just inferior to Phoenix Guard, and the latter really need the Razor Standard. The question then becomes whether to take a unit of Dragon Princes or to simply put the banner on the BSB. Since the mages have to go where the banner is, you`re looking to push them into the second rank, which means 2 Nobles are mandatory as well, or you could get away with just the BSB if you take the Crown of Command. This latter option allows a unit to operate with weird formations like 2-3-4 wide, but in this case a bus doesn`t provide static combat resolution. By taking a solid unit of Dragon Princes, you`re spending a lot of non-core points on something the Silver Helms can effectively do better: provide static combat resolution. No matter what, it all boils down to the fact that are our cavalry are useless in a grind as their S3 will never achieve anything of importance. The superior option then is to leave the Dragon Princes at home, which means the BSB has to carry the Banner. The last question is then whether to go with the Crown (allowing for one less Noble, potentially) or to take the 4th hero. In a setting where you need to run across the map and score big points (which is fairly typical for a Star Dragon list), you`re looking for the Silver Helms to provide static resolution. The more combat resolution you can generate, the better. For this, I think the Crown of Command is a flawed approach. It is a defensive item in an otherwise offensive list. True, it helps you get out of some iffy situations by simply placing a 25 wound 2+ save block with 2++ vs magical damage in the way of whatever it is you need to block, but it doesn`t help you achieve the objective of actually hurting stuff and generating combat resolution. For all its worth, the Crown of Command is useless on offense. Besides, I think a list like this can deal with iffy situations in other ways (more on this later). The conclusion then is that the natural 4th hero choice is indeed added, with fighty equipment. The lores on the mages is also debatable, I`ve found that none even come close to the flexibility of High Magic: being able to default to Drain Magic and Soul Quench alone is invaluable, whereas Apotheosis, Arcane Unforging and Walk Between Worlds are all killer spells. Having +1 to cast from this lore is the icing on the cake, allowing the Level 2s to put more pressure out in the magic phase.



With the characters set and knowing we need Silver Helms, what should the rest of the list look like? First of all, lacking the Crown of Command is a big issue. Bad situations will happen, so what then? The best thing to do is to dominate the board as much as you can. Reavers in core are excellent, as are Eagles in rare. Shadow Warriors can also help in this regard, but unfortunately the points simply aren`t there and for protecting a unit, their board control presence is inferior to Reavers/Eagles. The bus is sized to provide just enough ranks for maximised combat resolution, assuming noone dies. While this might sound stupid, it`s often the case that they make it into combat and have the full +3 rank bonus for the first round. The core points are then spent on as many Reavers as possible.



Looking at the rare section, our number one priority is of course the Frostheart Phoenix. In an offensive Star Dragon list, this is by far the most crucial unit to have. After this, we need board control. Maximising Eagles is mandatory, with the rest being spent on RBTs: while many High Elf players feel these are underwhelming, they provide tremendous board control value for their points. This leaves us with 50 points to spare (600 heroes, 600 lords, 600 min-core, 550 rare), which we throw into more Reavers, maximising our board control with an amazing 5 chaff units.



Some might question the amount of drops, aren`t offensive lists supposed to have few drops to get the initiative? Well first of all, having the initiative is no doubt nice. However with 5 chaff drops your opponent almost always has to commit to a part of the table before you deploy your heavy hitters. This can be crucial, as playing against a well-deployed refused flank can be disastrous. Besides, you still get first turn once in a while: indeed many lists have more drops than this so you still get +1 for first turn.

Post 4: The Necessity Of Multiple Mages To Support The Star Dragon – 17 Aug 2014


The following analysis is based on 2400 point armies



This is a topic whose headline I find to be the sad truth, unfortunately. I have been completely unable to create a list that I like which doesn`t feature at least 4 levels in magic alongside a Star Dragon. First, let us look back at how it used to be: In our old book you always got Drain Magic for free: A spell that was cast on 7+ and increased all casting values from there on out by +3. Tremendous spell to get for free if you ask me. Furthermore, we got Shield of Saphery as a signature spell, a 5+ to cast 18" 5+ ward augment. Together, these spells were almost always useful, easy to cast and, perhaps most importantly, you always got them if you wanted them. Add to this, we had potential game-breakers such as Vaul`s Unmaking (remove a select magic item 24", 12+ to cast) and Flames of the Phoenix (24" S3 flaming hit on every model in unit, increases +1S per turn, 11+ to cast). Between this, I found we could get by with a single Level 2. He gave me amazing amounts of return for the tiny investment, also in big parts due to Annulian Crystal. I`m not saying it was optimal, but I do believe it was feasible. Freeing up the points you`d otherwise spend on a second mage allowed for a LOT of freedom. I feel the following report demonstrates this very well (pay attention to T1 and T2 magic offense. The mage cost ~180 points). HE vs VC.



So, fast forward to our new book. We now "only" get 2 spells. On the upside, we have 2 signatures, both of which are quite good. On the downside, both our signatures are heavily dependent on context: Soul Quench has short range and cannot be cast if the mage is in combat, Shield of Saphery really only benefits a unit if it`s being targeted and Drain Magic only works to dispel enemy magic, rather than prevent it as the old one did. Why I wouldn`t say High Magic got worse (the inclusion of spells such as Apotheosis and Walk Between Worlds are total game-changers), it became less flexible for a barebones mage investment. Furthermore, the casting values have increased, so despite the +1 to cast you need to spend more dice: especially since you`re likely to try and boost Soul Quench/Walk Between Worlds every now and then. This significantly increases the frequency of miscasts, which leads to BOTWD protection pretty much being a necessity. This is doubly true bearing in mind the short range of High Magic spells, meaning your mage often has to go close to the action where death snipes etc are abundant.



Why have I only considered High Magic thus far? Long story short: No other lores sport more than 2 spells (whereas High Magic used to, hence the logical starting point) and no other lores come close to High in terms of flexibility in the context of a Star Dragon list. True, lores like Beasts and Heavens have really good signatures, but what else? There`s no healing, no damage prevention and what you`ll get will vary greatly from game to game with few game-changers.



But but, I hear you say. There are items that provide you with more spells! Yes indeed, there are. The problem with these is that they are just as situational as our signatures. If we had the Empire`s Ring of Volans, we might actually consider a one-mage approach... But then again, taking that ring is a one-use only and it`s too expensive to combine with a dispel scroll, so probably not. The question is then, can you possibly create a context where the Ring of Fury is worthwhile? This context essentially means that the mage has to stay out of combat, which means that the BSB has to stay out of combat to provide BOTWD protection as there is no other sensible unit to carry the BOTWD with the purpose being to stay outside of combat. Keeping the BSB out of combat is, contrary to popular belief, a very sensible option seeing as he`ll always be squishy when he carries the BOTWD: Even fully armoured on an armoured horse he`s only T3 2+ W2 - not much to write home about. The question then becomes bunker. What kind of a bunker could these guys possibly benefit from? In a nutshell, there are 3 options:


- Silver Helms

- 2 or more units of Ellyrian Reavers

- Infantry


Silver Helms obviously provide the best protection with a way stronger armour save than Reavers. They do however suffer from a lack of mobility since they are not fast cav. With 2 units of Reavers acting as dedicated bunkers, you could possibly run them around swapping characters every turn (in effect they would still maintain fast cav benefits). I have found that this works well with Light Mages, at least well enough to warrant more playtesting, but there`s a huge difference between Light and High: Banishment has the range of a Bolt Thrower. Soul Quench has the range of a Short Bow. Whereas Reavers are relatively easy to keep safe when you can stay far away, having to get them up in the face of your opponent is nothing short of insanity. Infantry are an interesting choice because they have the most wounds to cover your characters per points invested, but in a meta where armour and speed dominates, you`ll have a huge points sink that is easy to grab for a skilled opponent. Effectively you need to dedicate the rest of your army to keep them safe - if you want to do so - which is detrimental to their intended role: They are there to support the Dragon, not the other way around.



That leaves us with Silver Helms. A unit that are only 3 wide with Full Command are relatively mobile: With such a small frontage even relatively big wheels expend fairly little movement, their armour means they can get relatively close without fearing a wipe-out, and lastly they are strong enough to probably wipe out anything that isn`t dedicated to combat. Could it work? Possibly, but given that we need Reavers and/or Helms darts and/or preferably a bus to bring some static res alongside the Dragon, our Core Tax is running out of points. It`s thus time to see a barebones setup and perhaps calculate some points to see what, if anything, we have potentially gained from this trade.



BSB BOTWD Horse with horse armour, stuff to protect dude, stuff to provide dude with some much needed S6 on charge = 172 points

Mage with mandatory level upgrade, bound spell item and 1+ scroll on naked horse = 180

Hero points spent = 352/600 - 248 left to spend.

12 Core cavalry with mandatory armour upgrade and front rank occupiers = 306

Core tax spent = 306/600 - 294 left to spend.


Actually, this kind of looks half promising. The big question is, can we get something real for the rest of these points? First, let`s turn to the rare section: We want at least a Frostheart and an Eagle and 3 RBTs. From here, we can either add an RBT or another Eagle, but not both. Let`s assume the Eagle, this makes our rare section cost 550 points. In other words, our core can go up to 650, which means we can potentially bring the following: 14 Silver Helms with Shields and Full Command = 352. I assume we can ditch one model from the bunker for the sake of argument, which means we have enough for 3 full ranks (woho!). In a perfect world then, our Silver Helms provide +3 static combat resolution when helping out the big Dragon. If we want this configuration, we are sacrificing Reavers in core. An alternative setup is 2 barebones Helm darts (250 points), leaving us enough points for a unit of Reavers. This setup has no static res bonus worth speaking of and no way to break any kind of steadfast.



The first setup allows us to field 2 more Nobles on Barded Steeds with fairly decent setup. This does provide a bus that has unparalleled power compared to most SD support busses, but it lacks magical protection from BOTWD. The upside is of course that you -can- of course place the BSB here. With 3 Nobles, 2 of which are decently equipped, we are starting to get some serious fighting power out of what is essentially a supporting unit. Let`s have a look:


Noble on Barded Steed with Ogre Blade, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour = 134

Noble on Barded Steed with Potion of Strength, Heavy Armour, Shield, Lance = 117


This brings our hero total to 603, which is slightly too much. We could ditch the BSB`s Lance for a Spear though, saving 4 points. This adds up and we`re pretty much at the very edge of what we can afford. 2 fighter heroes that are expendable sounds nice, but remember that we haven`t only lost our second mage but also our Reavers.



The second setup doesn`t care about grinding anyway, so we might as well continue our Blitzkrieg approach. For 260 points, we could get a Noble on a Griffon with Dawnstone, Enchanted Shield, Lance and Heavy Armour. Degrading Lance to Spear for the BSB, we still don`t have the points though: 168 + 180 = 348, so we need to cut 8 points from this Griffon. The only logical place to do this is the Dawnstone, which allows for very little in terms of defense. The best I can do for this guy (remember 17 points to spend) is probably Potion of Foolhardiness, Luckstone and Lion Cloak.



Are there other setups here that make sense? Dual-Noble on Eagles sounds interesting, but are there points left over to make this worthwhile?


Noble on Eagle x2 = 240. Dang, nope, I`m sorry. What about one on an Eagle and a barebones one to ride with the naked Helms?

Noble on Eagle with Dawnstone, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Lance, Potion of Strength = 180

Noble on Barded Steed with Lance, Shield, Heavy Armour = 97


Total = 277, which is far too much given our 252 budget. There is nothing obvious we could ditch either, as even leaving the Potion of Strength and the Lance for a spear, we`re still not there (601 points). We could leave the Dawnstone, which makes the Eagle a glasscannon if there ever was one.



To summarize then, our options include 2 decent fighter nobles, a griffon noble with fairly minimal equipment and lastly a naked barded steed noble + fairly naked great eagle noble. At this point, it`s time to remember what the rest looks like: by taking this approach we also gave up a bit of our core flexibility and we`re down to 2 units of Helms (one for protection, one for assault) or one protective unit of Helms + MSU cav support. Furthermore, our magic is tied up to S4 18" ranged magic missiles and we have invested a hefty amount to keep that magic around (if successful, lots of points are preserved as well though). It`s important to remember that we`re not trading 2x L2 for 1x L2 + some more fighting power and core changes, we`re also trading out massive amounts of magical flexibility. Anyone who`s ever gotten a crucial Apotheosis through on a Star Dragon knows what I`m talking about, and 2x L2s have a 90% chance of getting one specific spell whereas a single level 2 has only a 44% chance. Risky, at best. Madness, at worst.



Taking a step back then, here is a sample of the alternative, go with the magic investment:



Prince on Star Dragon: Dragonhelm, Star Lance, Crown of Atrazar, The Other Trickster`s Shard, Shield = 598

Noble BSB on Barded Steed, Banner of the World Dragon, Heavy armour, Shield, Lance = 172

Noble on Barded Steed, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Ogre Blade = 134

Mage L2 on Steed, Scroll = 155

Mage L2 on Steed, Ironcurse Icon = 135

Heroes = 596, Characters = 1194



16 Silver Helms, Full Command & Shields = 398

5 Ellyrian Reavers = 80

5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows (swap) = 85

5 Ellyrian Reavers, Champion = 90

Core = 653



3x1 Repeater Bolt Thrower = 210

Frostheart Phoenix = 240

2x1 Great Eagle = 100

Rare = 550



Army total = 2397





In the light of this analysis (which turned out to be lengthier than I`d have thought), I believe it`s safe to say that it`s obvious that this is the superior setup in an all-comers, competitive setting.



TL;DR - Star Dragon needs at least 4 levels in magic supporting it

Post 6: META Game Thoughts – 7 Aug 2014


Here are my thoughts on the matter (warning: wall of text). I`m assuming 2400 point competitive armies/play in the following post. Also note that when discussing metagame(s), exceptions are irrelevant as we are looking to analyse the main trends. Many people do this subconsciously when writing lists, which is why I believe in curveballs so much and continuously strive to make lists that people haven`t faced and hence, don`t know how to play against.



First of all, we are a magic dependent race. Regardless of how you build an army, you should have at least a lord caster or two hero casters. Like our Elven brethren, we simply cannot work well without strong magical support. While the +D3 powerdice from the Banner of Sorcery are gone, we can now do more with less: +1 to cast on High Magic and Book of Hoeth help us out a lot. Don`t get me wrong, the magic phase we had with our old book was insane, but what we have now is still strong. Speaking of our Elven brethren, let`s take a step back and consider them first and how they make their magic work.



For Dark Elves, it`s easy: they rely on Warlocks. Soulblight is ridiculously good and Doombolt is often a very strong spell also. Furthermore, an L4 seems to be the sole mage they take and she`s frequently mounted on a Peg or in a unit with Hotek. What this means is that a Dark Elf wizard character is inherently well protected against opponent`s magic, and with the Warlocks doing a lot of the casting the L4 will cast less spells => less miscasts. This is how Dark Elves inherently reduce the impact of miscasts. Wood Elves are a little trickier as their Sisters are no-where near as good as Warlocks, but in return their army is less reliant on characters as well. Furthermore, a Wood Elf L4 is almost always bunkered with either Skirmishers or the 4++ Sisters. Both of these provide excellent protection against miscasts and MR3 is a natural item to include with the BSB + L4 Sister bunker. Lastly, Curse of Anraheir is an excellent spell for many Wood Elf armies. This is how Wood Elves inherently reduce the impact of miscasts



Now let`s look back to our High Elves. More often than not (I`d say the vast majority of times in fact), our mages are in the combat units, frequently engaging in combat fairly early. The reason for this is that we simply don`t have any unit such as Sisters/Warlocks, nor mounts as good as a Dark Peg with 3++ vs everything you`re afraid of, NOR do we have Skirmishers that even come close to Shades or Wood Elf Scouts with enchanted arrows. Thus, a unique challenge for us is how to make our mages work in these combat units. I`ve spent a lot of time discussing this relative to our Elven brethren and now I want to explain why: It`s quite simple actually, this seemingly small difference dictates the entire way we build our armies.



Since our mages go in the combat units, how do we protect them? Basically, it boils down to 2 choices: force them into the second rank by means of other characters or give them a solid ward, hopefully to stack with Shield of Saphery. The latter is a risky proposition at best (with the Loremaster being an exception who you rarely push into the second rank), but the former is very popular. Competitively successful High Elf armies have inevitably come to the point where putting multiple characters into a unit or two is how we play. This forces the mages to safety and allows our characters to protect the fragile units from being hit back. The famous S7 cavalry prince with a 1+ re-rollable armour save is probably the best example here: an awesome fighter in his own right but doubly strong because he protects both the mages and the unit.



With having multiple characters in a unit, protection is essential. While MR3 is a real steal at 45 points, for a meager 5-point increase you get the infamous Banner of the World Dragon, by far one of the most game-changing items in Warhammer. Even if all you do is protect 2 mages, the BOTWD is worth it. Its inclusion then is pretty much mandatory. True, some concepts could conceivably work without, but by and large this is a cornerstone of our army. Please note that I don`t think is because the item itself is so insane, but because the way our army plays necessitates strong protection.



From this, it probably sounds like HE are a super-boring army to play. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: We can create balanced, combined-arms lists, defensive lists, rock hard lists and super-pushy lists, all based on the above. In the same way that WoC live and die by their super-powerful characters do we live and die by tailoring our characters and mages to the units they go in. Achieving a balance here is absolutely crucial to playing High Elves.



Apart from this, we are arguably the best army in the game at controlling the board, with the exception of Lizardmen which are just ridiculous when it comes to board control. We have core fast cav that can beat most fraction`s WM crew on a 1-by-1 basis, good LD to operate on their own and again: they are CORE. Furthermore we have RBTs, great utility for little cost and lastly there`s a rare option called Great Eagle, possibly the most game-breaking chaff unit in Warhammer. Whereas Dark Elves have to spend 50% more points for a flying unit that has less LD than the Eagle and are harder to move around and Wood Elves lack RBTs and core fast cav that start on the table: We have it all. I think this is brilliantly designed because our army functions much more unit-by-unit now than what the case is for WE and DE: again this boils down to how our characters work effectively. Why is this so brilliant? Remember the good old 3++ Chosen of Chaos that everyone loved to hate? Personally I never had a problem with them, M4 and low board control isn`t that hard to deal with if your list possesses board control elements and this is the heart of the matter: in low-to-medium skilled games where the WoC player could simply point-and-click his Chosen unit at whatever was worth the most points in the opponent`s army, the unit is brutal. What will it do however when faced with up to 7 redirectors (3 reaver units, 2 eagles, 2 single characters for emergency situations), while the rest of the army is crushed by non-redirector elements?



In a nutshell, the roles are reversed now: Now High Elves are the ones with the Chosen units (think PG with Shield of Saphery and cavbusses with BOTWD), but as opposed to the old WoC, we do have the tools to ensure we can reach meaningful combat. Taking enough of these elements to accomplish this task is crucial. Playing High Elves is hard because the T3 nature of our army is very unforgiving, once things start going south the entire army will fall apart very quickly. This is doubly true when facing skilled opponents - if you don`t have enough board control your main units will either receive too many enemies to handle, or they will simply be bogged down and short apart, depending on what you face.



So, TL;DR state of affairs for High Elves: characters together in units, well protected mages, one unit with BOTWD. From this, you can go multiple ways depending on your playstyle: load up on RBTs, Sisters, Shadow Magic and Core Archers for defense, cavalry for offense or a Star Dragon + Frostheart for pushing.



Let`s take a look at the rest of the lists out there. To try and start with a macro-view, the game features very few deathstars these days. The inclusion of unkillable stuff such as the 1+/3++ stubborn chaos lord, Daemon Prince, steam tank etc means that a deathstar is hugely vulnerable to simply being locked down indefinitely while the rest of the army is dragged down. The few deathstars we see are cavalry-oriented, which can hopefully use their mobility to get out of these situations. Take a step back and consider this in the light of what I wrote earlier: with our units stacked with characters and other units rarely/never being deathstars, our units can go toe-to-toe with almost anything in the game and come out on top. The meta then, from a macro perspective, is inevitably about force conctration and board control. Looking at the usual suspects: WoC, DoC, Emp, DE etc we see that all these lists are terrible to face if they can bring multiple threats to bear at once. WoC with DP + 2x 3++ T5 W3 heroes along with 2 units of crushers will kill anything we can field, no exceptions. The same thing goes for Empire with double demis alongside a knightbus or DE with multiple flyers and Witchelves. In a nutshell then, High Elves want to engage a main unit into a single opposing unit while denying the opponent support, whereas the other army is trying the opposite: force the High Elf army to fight against multiple threats at the same time.



Some exceptions exist here of course: Skaven bellstar will murder anything we have that isn`t stubborn on combat resolution alone, Vampires hit ridiculously hard and Daemons are resilient beyond belief. Regardless though, even these armies play the same meta and we are one of the few armies going against it. Being aware of this is very important whilst both designing the list and playing the game.



Lastly, almost every army now comes with a balanced approach: you almost never see an army without at least 4 spells and decent shooting. This makes the game very multi-dimensional where it`s hard to assess how your army is threatened. The most important rule when it comes to this point is to evaluate who has the bigger advantage at a distance and can thus hold. Being forced to push with a non-pushy army is the worst thing in Warhammer. Trust me, I`ve played enough with/against fractions like Dwarfs and Chaos Dwarfs to know that this is even more hopeless than facing 4 cannons with a Star Dragon. If you have the ranged advantage, holding back makes it a LOT easier to get the favourable fights and force your opponents to take risks and make miscasts. Likewise, holding back when you have to push can lose you valuable time and inevitably lose you games. When designing a list then, it`s important to consider how many (and what type!) lists you have to push against and how hard this is. Vice versa, how many lists have to push against you. If you estimate that you have to push against roughly half the armies in your meta and your army is defensively oriented, you`re gonna have a hard time playing Warhammer. With this said, it`s important to realize that some matchups are close to impossible: if you face Dwarfs with 3 cannons, 2 GTs and 2 Organ guns and a big block of Longbeards and you field a Star Dragon, just don`t even bother. Just go hide in the other corner and play for 10-10, or a small win if you have Heavens with comet or something similar.

It looks like you're leaning pretty heavily on the ultimate HE crutch - Banner of the World Dragon. Learn to play without it; it'll make you a much better general.

Then when you play at a hardcore tournament you'll be better prepared to use the rest of your force to it's maximum capacity instead of relying on the crutch to prop you up.

Ah. My mistake.

I still think these armies are strong enough to stand up to anything less than ETC and the like without the BotWD, and one is generally better off not using it except in hardcore tournament play.