Dragon Review

By Monkus

The dragon is one of the most revolutionary units in the game. It’s the strongest mobile unit, it has the most HP, and it’s the only unblockable unit that can take a beating. It’s also the only unit that can give its power to another, and the only unit that counts for two.

Once again, this is an extremely visual guide, so use the pictures to help the learning process.

Let’s start with the 2-unit principle. Ignoring the dragon in particular, let’s just imagine two separate units compared to a single unit (that takes up two spots), which has enough strength to justify the two spots. Here’s a list of Pros for the two-spot unit, and pros for the two units (obviously the cons are simply the pros of the opposite)

Pros to the two-spot unit:

• You can stone it as if it were a single unit.
• It doesn’t lose its power after losing half its health (the equivalent of killing 1 of 2 units).
• Retreats twice as fast, requiring half as many turns.
• Dramatically increases the amount of damage you can deal in a single turn
• Doubles the effect of barrier ward, and halves the effect of enemy poison
• Half as hard to hide or conceal from LOS and other threats.

Pros to the two separate units:

• Harder to focus on
• Twice as many units to use to impede enemy movement
• Half as affected by frost golem, harder to maintain chanty lock on.
• Easier to multitask, and easier to sacrifice (sacrifice a half)
• More damage over the course of a few turns

With that said, there are times when either one is beneficial to use. But one important factor is damage. Specifically in the case of the dragon, the dragon deals more damage in a single turn, but over the course of a few turns, any other combination of two attacking units beats it.

The dragon outweighs the two units in the early and middle game. You almost always have something to do every turn, so conserving turns is vital. From a damage perspective, most rushes are only limited by turns, so the dragon is vital. It also means killing units faster, so they can’t attack as many times.

Effectively using the dragon:

There are three uses for the dragon, the three C’s: Cautious, Cocky, and Coordinated.

Cautious:

For defensive players, some turtlers, and people that don’t stone their dragons, cautious is the way to go with the dragon. Keep in mind, it isn’t amazingly difficult to kill, especially with its somewhat low blocking and long wait time. Keep it near the back, so it can always retreat a good distance to recover. Use its amazing power as often as possible; it’s unblockable and strong enough to warrant a use every 3 or 4 turns if able. It really helps to use him to block passages, as he can fly there easily, and has enough blocking for this task. Look at this picture:

Using the dragon cautiously doesn’t mean always holding back, however. Jumping a little forward to kill a witch or finish off a unit is justified; it just means not doing anything ridiculously aggressive and stupid.

Another advantage of using it cautiously is being able to use its blast over and over. Anyone that doesn’t outright rush you head on is going to think twice about any aggression with that beast in your arsenal.

Its unblockable attack is also wonderful to take advantage of. If a combination is going to take a series of hits, save dragon for last in case a block messes it up. Also, keep in mind you can kill a unit with the dragon alone, only taking a turn every 3 or so turns, if you trap it near the dragon. This is a nice way of dealing with units. Also, if you have a unit paralyzed, get it down to where the dragon can kill it. If he breaks paralysis, kill it without fear of blocking.

Finally, when using him cautiously, he can still participate in an attack. Either keep him near the outskirts to kill outliers and castaways (and to wait for cleanup crew time), or keep him in a threatening position. Without even doing anything, it makes your opponent’s life 5x harder.

In that picture, Black has green’s scout pinned to his cleric. The scout can’t move until green does something about that, lest he loses his cleric.

Cocky:

Stoning does what it does best with a dragon; it gives him balls. Whereas a dragon without stone armor has the equivalent of 81 hp, being healed 14 per healing, a stoned dragon has the equivalent of 126 hp, with a 22 heal rate. This allows for the second use of the dragon; using it with reckless abandon.

You can do this without a Stone Golem if you wish, but to be successful, the dragon must be backed up well. I would advise using witches, muddies, ambushers, and scouts when doing this, as they divert the attention well. Just keep the dragon alive enough for some nice hits, and try not to move him too far in too early, unless a really good shot comes up.

In this instance, yellow is savagely attacking blue. Blue’s scout is down to 24 hp, giving yellow’s dragon a wonderful opportunity to POUNCE.

In these instances, the dragon should be used EVERY SINGLE TIME IT CAN ATTACK, PRACTICALLY WITHOUT EXCEPTION. The only instances where I would say don’t use it is if you have a once-in-a-game kill chance, or you gotta heal. You never know when the dragon’s going to die, so make the most of it.

Stoning him makes it a lot easier to do things like this. You can charge in, kill a cleric or something, then run away. If you run in with an unstoned dragon, it takes 4 knight shots to kill it, and even if you heal, he’ll be running away with around 8 hp. Once you stone it, he can make one or even two attacks, all by himself, and still get away to recover. Furgon is wonderful with the recovery, and healing as often as possible is a must. Also, use the time that they’re spending targeting it to attack them. It’s a wonderful opportunity. Careful of frosties/chanties though!

Coordinated:

Individual combinations:

The dragon’s a team player, and he works really well with others. When a person has a muddy and a dragon within their units, with a ranged backup, they’re in a huge amount of trouble. This is the first great combination: the muddy and dragon. Both teleport, move far, and can cause a HUGE amount of chaos when not dealt with. Plus, they kill scouts easily (1 space away quake + blast).

Dragon and Lward are also an incredible combination, but not often considered. No unit can live very long if they both are in an area, forcing your opponent to go around or face heavy losses.

Dragon and Furgon work really well. Dragon is barely hindered by shrubs, while other units are incredibly weakened. This means taking advantage of the dragon’s front block AND his unblockable attack. Also, there’s always a retreat option.

Try using Dragon and Bward sometime. Preserving him until the next attack is wonderful, and means one more important attack.

Wisp + Dragon is a good defense against DSMs. You can stop them from attacking outright.

Many more exist, but try finding nice damage combinations (like scout + dragon = dead scout, or scout+muddy punch+dragon = dead knight) for defensive AND offensive application.

Overall coordination strategy:

Distractions are nice, and keeping the dragon alive longer means more ridiculous damage. If you put enough factors into your opponent’s equations, then they’ll get flustered, and have lots of problems stopping all of the problems they’re facing. The long recovery time is irrelevant if you have stuff to do in between those turns. The dragon is an extremely potent unit, and works well with others.

(The dragon and co., making a strong blockade that’s not easily stopped. The dragon just moved there from 4 spaces over, to stop the scout’s movement)

Dragons and DSMs:

When you’re using the Dragonspeaker Mage, obviously the dragon loses its effectiveness. Now, most people would advise keeping the dragon in the back during this time, but that’s not always the best move. My personal favorite is to keep the dragon pretty far up; if my opponent’s foolish enough to kill the DSM without care, then the dragon generally gets a free shot that isn’t considered. Also, he’s good at breaking focuses. If he ever comes under attack, simply move him back. Just be careful; when using DSMs and pyros, the dragon becomes a 2 piece dead weight, making your ability to act significantly hindered. 8 pieces on the field that can do something productive is bad, even if some are ridiculously strong. DSMs have their uses, but aren’t to be used recklessly.

Conclusion:

The dragon is one unit you don’t want dying quickly. The more he attacks, the much more he can do. He’s great for finishing off units, and does enough damage to make anybody think twice about a movement. Whether you use him cautiously, or throw caution to the wind, make sure you always back up this powerful piece, even if it’s just a muddy or a cleric, so he can inflict maximum pain.

Maximum pain makes for an easy game :).