Hobby Update: KoM Dragon / KoM Monarch

One of the newer players I've been introduced to over the last month has already jumped in signed up for a tournament. It is the Dragonfall GT, where you field your army plus a special dragon on a titanic base for your games. I lack stats details, but was looking for a hobbying palette cleanser after all the shiny Stormcast Ogres I've been hobbying on the last few months, so I decided to pick up a Wizkid's dragon for the Regnum. I don't plan on attending the event, but figured this would be fun to paint up, and then I could give them some better practice games if they desire.

The mini is Nolzur's Young Blue Dragon on a rock, since I didn't want to futz around with the opaque flying stand the other variations had. Not a bad mini, but it comes firmly connected to the rock, which does complicate the painting a bit. It is a very big rock. Given the close quarters, I decided to try out some more of the Army Painter Speed Paints I got back in March 2022. I was hoping the more liquid nature of this paint would help get it into all these hard to reach places. I ended up trying out three new paints this time: Hive Dweller Purple, Pallid Bone and Crusader Skin.

I failed to take any WIP pics, so you just get the finished mini. It's even got tufts already.

Since this was to be for the Kingdoms of Men, I wanted to get some purple and white going. I quickly decided on a purple hide. The rest took some time to decide. So to begin, I used a few passes of Hive Dweller Purple to get good coverage for the hide, and ultimately decided not to to do any additional wash or shade. After I painted up the rest, I went back and added a few strokes here and there of Hive Dweller Purple to clean up a few things that got some errant brush strokes, like along the wings and claws. So, this color kind of "book-ended" painting on the miniature, both starting it off and finishing it up. 

I liked the final look of the wings. The slightly off-white should match nicely with the rest of the army. The wing's "fingers" have slightly better coverage that the picture shows. The coverage with this style paint isn't great, but the final acrylic spray seal also gives a bit of glare with the kitchen's overhead light.

The dragon had a number of armor plates, and a very armored tail. I was considering light purples or pinks, but eventually went with a dark beige / dark bone color for this. I did a dark beige base coat and then a light beige dry brush. This was followed by a layer of the Pallid Bone speed paint, followed by another light beige dry brushing pass to make it all pop. The mini has a surprising amount of details and these Speedpaints could really pick up. 

The mouth was a bit odd, being a large gaping mouth. I did not want this purple, but felt red or dark flesh color wouldn't look well. I went with a thin layer of Crusader flesh to test out that paint. I actually liked the gradient it made as it dried, and just decided to keep it. I think this paint would be too pale for lots of flesh across an army, but applied over an existing flesh tone I think it should give some good results. 

For the wings, I was also considering some light purples or pinks, but eventually settled on more of an off-white color. I started with a light beige base, and then dry brushed my way up from there, mixing in an ivory to the light beige for a few passes, then passes with just the ivory, then passes with white. The gradient looks nice, and I decided against any kind of wash, as the wing folds look fine and distinctive enough without adding anything else, and I wanted to keep the wings a lighter color and not add too much contrast to it.

And a shot of the wings and the darker, armored tail.

Aside from the purple hide, the dragon's colors match pretty well with the sand and rocks. This was intentional, as I was going for both a beast in their element, and wanted to link all the colors back to the Kingdoms of Men. I think it works.

When working with a "pre-primed" miniature like this, or something like with a Reaper Mini, you should definitely give it a good wash / rinse before you do any painting. I forgot to do so, and while painting the mini, the paint on the rocks started to rub off. I painted those again, and then hit the mini with the same acrylic sealer spray (Aleene's Acrylic Sealer) that I have been using for my terrain. I typically haven't been sealing my minis, so we'll see how that all works. So far, so good.

Outside of potential practice rounds for that specific event, the Dragon here could be used as a stand-in Monarch in the Kingdoms of Men list.

From what I've seen online, reception for the Monarch has been underwhelming. A base flying version will cost 285 points, or 95 points more than our usual General on Winged Beast. For that increased cost you get three extra attacks, and 3 additional nerve and switch from CS2 TC1 to a simple CS3. All good things, but that seems like a hefty price. Comparing it to a few other big and scary flying things though, the Monarch doesn't seem so bad actually.

The Clan Lord on Fire Drake (Salamanders) has been showing up across the table pretty frequently from me, and costs 5 points more than the baseline flying Monarch. It has far more attacks than the Monarch. However with 4+ to hit instead of our 3+, the difference in hits aren't too great, and against stuff with Defense 5 and up, our typical damage should actually start to pull ahead. The Clan Lord has a breath attack too, but it seems relatively comparable to the Monarch overall.

The Vampire on Undead Dragon (Undead), Dragon Kindred Lord (Elves), and  Archfiend of the Abyss  (Forces of the Abyss) are all heavy hitters. They are all quite similar to each other, having the same price point, and nearly identical stats. All have some kind of ranged attack and a few special rules are juggled around to differentiate them.

They are also pretty similar to our Flying Monarch. Many stats are the same, so roughly speaking, they are paying 20 points more than us for a breath attack and another minor ability (Lifeleech2, Elite, or Vicious), which seems about right. Breath attacks seem to go for around 15 pts, like with the Undead's Revenant on Undead Great Burrowing Wyrm or the Varangur Jabberwock. So, with these powerful titans all around the same points, our Monarch looks to be an OK purchase relative to them, getting a pretty suitable discount in exchange for lacking the versatility of a breath attack. 

In lieu of a breath attack, the Monarch has some other options, which if taken, can bring them up to 300-305 points and on par with these other heavy hitters. I do like the concept of these fluffy options to support Fanatic rabble or stately Knights, but these are very conditional and require you to build and run your list in a specific way. It could work and might be worth it, but I can't see getting enough use out of the auras unless you drop the wings and run your Monarch alongside those units. And then you're fighting stuff on a titanic 75mm base with 10 attacks. The Sword of Mercy for Slayer 3 seems like a decent option, since most things will show up with something that meets the target criteria, but this too is a rather conditional ability and should only translate to one additional wound against those units usually. So I think I'd run this with just wings to start. The Monarch is a bit expensive for my tastes, but could be worth trying out and I think is better than some have given it credit for. We'll see if it makes the cut for testing in any upcoming games!