wow, interesting!
Sorry, JAK: over at the wiki we've been having a problem with tons and tons of unwanted spam and spammers generally taking the p, so any genuine new people and new entries tend to get lost in the swamp.
Thank you for tidying up the entry:
http://disc.osiris-web.com/mediawiki/in ... ht_Dragons
I will agree your version makes more logical sense, especially when you factor in Sybil Ramkin's assertion that swamp dragons do not get to be more than seven or eight hands at the shoulder (thirty inches max) so they'd be difficult even for dwarfs to ride. And who would argue with Sybil? The dragoon thing - mounted infantry using horses for mobility but fighting on foot - makes a lot of sense. You may well be on to something here! Especially given that Makepeace is the sole survivor.
The tendency of dragons to spontaneously explode if roughly handled - perhaps even when jiggled about on the back of a horse - would be germane here. You'd also have misfires in combat - I bet the one time a dragon will not flame is when you actually really want it to flame. Which gives your foe time to swing a sword of fire a crossbow. And a problem with training any sort of cavalry is getting the horse not to react if you have to fire a weapon from the saddle. That takes some doing - horses are highly strung and aren't keen on being near fire... and you also have the logistic considerations. How big a baggage train is needed for the fodder - hey for the horse, food and water for the troops, coal and charcoal for the dragons.. (Do Warhammer rules allow for logistics? Any Army unit that runs out of supplies and ammunition loses fighting capacity very quickly).
Stay with us o the Wiki - you have some good ideas and we need people!
(Of course, it still doesn't rule out dragons for riding - maybe an intermediate step between swamp and noble dragons. Which raises new questions of how biddable the mount will be... a horse that turns round and flames its rider is going to be very unreliable.)
