Chasing the Dragon?

[Pugwash]

standard victory conditions are, of course, based on points and losing a Dragon Rider can make winning a battle extremely difficult!

Well, the clause that says "the withdrawing army cannot  score higher than its enemy", seems to mean that if you break enough enemy units the best an enemy can hope for is a draw, regardless of how many expensive units, like dragon riders, have been killed.  If you've triggered a withdrawl, then it's win or draw, which seems like a sweet option given my win-loss record! 

[BlackEd]

I've only used the DR with a unit of Eagles and a HE character on an Eagle.  This brigade can move anywhere on the battlefield.  However, in playing against my usual opponent (who generally uses Chaos), this seems not be an effective combination.  The brigade gets charged by Knights, and harpies are flown in as the backstop of doom.

I have used the DR and Eagles to good effect against Dwarves, and I like fielding the DR.  Maybe 2 together are much stronger.

Anyway, if I were on the receiving end, I would put out a very tempting target verfy far from the rest of the Elves army.  If he the HE player stomps on the bait, then the next turn you would need to charge and prevent the retreat of the said DRs.  Magic, cannon, handgunners might help.  The key here is to draw them away from the rest of the HE army so you can focus your entire army on the 2 DRs.

[Stomm]

As an aside, when trying to take out a unit of flyers, or something really big and nasty through the use of a brigade of something. If you can, then make sure that the first unit that goes in does not actually engage the unit being charged, but goes around it to block its retreat. Then pile in with your combat units, etc... to 'seal the deal'.

You can quite easily take out a joint brigade of a dragon and Eagles through the use of a brigade of three Empire knights by aligning the first unit to maximise the 'backstop' area, so that stand removal will be of no use. Then pile the other two units in and concentrate as many of your attacks on the Eagles as you can, and of course if possible put a griffon in there to negate the terror, and use weird enchantment as well if you can for added punch. Of course it's almost always going to be at least a three order manouvre, and if you don't pull it off you can most likely say goodbye to that brigade the next turn as it will be HE's primary target for said dragon rider, etc...

[Carrington]

Anyway, if I were on the receiving end, I would put out a very tempting target verfy far from the rest of the Elves army.  If he the HE player stomps on the bait, then the next turn you would need to charge and prevent the retreat of the said DRs.  Magic, cannon, handgunners might help.  The key here is to draw them away from the rest of the HE army so you can focus your entire army on the 2 DRs.

My reservation about this strategy is that far from the HE army is probably far from yours... and the problem is that it's fairly easy for the DR to chaw on the unit then home back and move out again.

I tend to think that flyers are best used on the flanks as a sort of ultra-lignt cavalry.  The dangerous temptation to the dragon is that it'll be thrown into the thick of things, where its main advantages are lost in the scrum -- e.g. as Undead, butting Sphinx and Bone Gient ==more likely than not near the center of the line == against DR seems like a winning proposition.