Talk:Breath attack

Dragon Breath Exploit

If a stack of units strong enough to survive a Dragon's single attack stands at the red hex, and another, weaker stack of units (that can die to a single attack by the Dragon) stands at either of the orange hexes, the Dragon will attack from either of the sets of green hexes, but will not burn the unit on the red hex. AI believes this attack will trigger the Breath attack reaction, but it does not.

I don't believe this description of this exploit to be accurate and complete, but I left it because there are indeed some scenarios where the AI incorrectly assesses it's attack options, such as the example in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNfoXQLBLHw

The problems with the description here are:

- it's simply not correct that the AI will attack this troop configuration as described, usually it will attack from the top left or bottom left, not the green hexes, and it will hit the centre stack just fine. What the exact circumstances are to trigger the exploit, I don't know, but there is more to it than this.

- the description states that 'Fire breath does not work when attacking vertically on the creatures on the right side of the attacked unit.', which is false, or at least, not always true. See the updated in depth breath attack breakdown for details.

--Kattekanon (talk) 13:02, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

In-Depth Explanation

Is the diagram even correct? Look at the first case on the top left and the bottom 2nd from the left case. Is that correct? Needs more testing. - Csaros (talk)

• The diagram definitely "looks" wrong, but some very basic testing I did back when I ran into the Mechanic issue showed that it is actually accurate (implying that there is probably a bug even with how dragon breath attack works). Here are some factors that may contribute: --Legate (talk) 15:33, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
  • Whether the attacking creature is part of the attacking or defending army.
  • Whether the attacking creature is travelling left or right prior to the attack.
  • Whether the first target is 1 or 2 hexes.
  • Whether the attacking creature is touching multiple hexes of the target creature (I think this is part of the mechanic bug...it picks the wrong defending creature hex to attack to).
    • I feel like we may be able to create a scenario where a dragon exhibits the same behavior as the Mechanic bug.

Just to aid the discussion, I made a mark-up of the diagram. Based on the first 2 bullets you had, this is what I expect to work in game. The yellow lines are arrows I expected to be on this diagram and the blue lines are arrows I expected to NOT be on this diagram. I think the 3rd bullet you added covers some of these cases, but I am getting confused now too and just need to try it out in-game :) --Legate (talk) 17:12, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

• 
  Original Diagram
• 
  Marked-up diagram

---

I've replaced all that now anyway, with what I believe to be an accurate and complete description of the dragon breath mechanics.

--Kattekanon (talk) 13:02, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

Possible mod idea?

Just because I know you have been editing the game files...I wonder if it would be possible to show the attack shadow for breath attack during a battle, similar to what the HotA team did for the Juggernaut's Heat stroke attack. If that is possible, it may make this issue easier to figure out. --Legate (talk) 15:33, 24 October 2024 (UTC) I don't know if Id be able to do it... I'm still a beginner in assembly. I can try... - Csaros

Fake is Real

See this picture. On the left side is an AI player. On the right side is me.

Gold Dragons wanted to attack Archangel. So they would move to below the Archangel, closely following the left boundary. However, the breathing attack harmed Faerie Dragons too. I have two different explanations about the fact:

1. Gold Dragons thought they would turn their head and attack Archangel. In fact, they wouldn't turn their head because AI is always "lazy".

2. AI seems two-hexed creatures' "head" as an obstacle. ( I will use this theory to explain another interesting fact in the future.) The Gold Dragons wanted to attack Archangel's "back" ( because its "head" is counted as an obstacle ), and they thought their breath attack would also attack an "obstacle". In another word, the Gold Dragons didn't think they would harm their allies.

So the Gold Dragons attacked Archangel and wrongly attacked Faerie Dragons. ( I used a Ghost Dragon for Aging because I'm playing a map.) - Sanust (talk)

• But if you attacked archangel with the sword-arrow pointing towards Archangel's head, the dragon would turn and burn the hex on the left of the Faerie Dragons, right? - Csaros (talk)

• • NO. Gold Dragon won't turn around, but they would burn the hex on the right of the Faerie Dragons. Actually, AI controls Gold Dragons and AI itself move the Dragons, not me. See the picture below for more details. - Sanust (talk)

• • • So attack from yellow hexes (on the right) does not burn? That's crazy! - Csaros (talk)

• • • Oops, I found a little mistake that in the case on the right the Gold Dragons would turn around and burn. I have fixed it though. After all, I think it's interesting to see the silly dragons burn their allies under the control of AI. This may be very helpful in some extremely hard battles. - Sanust (talk)