Editing Talk:Red Dragon and Black Dragon (section)

== DISCUSSION ==

(Prepare for a long text :) )

I have just finished [[Dragon's Blood]], one of the toughest original campaigns which ''really'' requires some playing skills and unusual tactics. As you might know, third and fourth missions have external dwellings of Red Dragons, and for that reason, the gameplay is fully based on Dragons. You hire them in Portals and on the map, prior to having them  in towns where there may be 5 or 6 Dragons per week due to adventure map dwellings. Myself I used ''only'' dragons. I wanted to finish the campaign as soon as possible and therefore didn't spend gold on any other troops - very decent for their level, but significantly weaker and slower than Red Dragons.

However, neither I did use the units who became a symbol of Dungeon's force, might, and scariness, - the omnipotent Black Dragons, who are possibly the second strongest units in the game, just behind [[Angel and Archangel|Archangels]]. I didn't want to spend another great resource amount, however the main reason of course was Black Dragons' immunity to Resurrection. I love winning battles completely without losses, and it would be totally impossible with Black Dragons. Of course, Red Dragons are slower, weaker and have significantly lower HP, but their lack of immunity to enemy's 4-5 level spells isn't an obstacle at all in a campaign, and they are still very strong, being possibly the best unupgraded 7 level units. Moreover they are way cheaper, and possibly saving sulfur was even more important than spending lower amount of gold when you earn 20000+ daily. The decisive battle in Dragon's Blood is against dragons in a Pandora Box, and the tactics was to get rid of Rampart and Dungeon units as soon as possible, as you can blind the neutral ones, resurrecting your Red Dragons. All of that would have been impossible if I had upgraded my units. I had approximately 200 Red Dragons, which would be difficult to afford with Black Dragons.

Aftermath I think that in general, if your opponent is not overwhelming and doesn't have legions of Archangels or Titans, or strong damage spells, you might want ''to use Red and not Black Dragons playing for Dungeon''. It fully applies to Rampart, where you can simply bring Green Dragons to the battle not upgrading them to Gold ones. Even better would be using ''both'' types of dragons (Green and Gold/Red and Black), bringing basic ones to fierce battles and using the supreme ones for special tasks. I had some Black Dragons in the second mission, and chose them as starting bonus in the final, considering they should be immortal under any circumstances. If you siege a fortified town with Gold/Black Dragons, without Armageddon there's almost a guarantee that you will lose at least one.

I admit this tactics have lots of disadvantages. You lose an opportunity of [[Dragogeddon]], you have merely 11 or 12 top speed (12 with Silver Pegasi in Rampart; even Fortress will have first turn!), your troops are vulnerable to Chain Lightning, Meteor Shower, Armageddon, Implosion, as well as Berserk. Without Tactics, Red and Green Dragons sometimes cannot reach enemy troops in one turn. If you have [[Gem]], her First Aid skill, which is often considered almost a useless one, will help a lot as Gold Dragons will be healed every turn. On the other hand, Red and Green Dragons are not immune to beneficial 4 level spells, and it's not only Resurrection - [[Prayer]] is banned in Dungeon, but will be a strong buff for Green Dragons, and if you play for Dungeon and get [[Loynis]] in Tavern (my pipe dream in Mutare's campaign), Red Dragons will get stronger as well. Anyway, your gameplay largely depends on the spells you get - one gets Resurrection and Town Portal, the other gets Sorrow and Water Walk :)) --[[User:Dread Knight|Dread Knight]] ([[User talk:Dread Knight|talk]]) 05:54, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

:Sounds like a fun alternative play style. [[File:Hero Stormblessed small.gif|→ima|link=user:imahero]] 10:05, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

::Nope, that doesn't fully apply to Rampart. First, Rampart doesn't have Jeddite or Alamar to have the Resurrection for sure. Getting the Resurrection in the Mages Guild is a matter of chance, and a small one. Second, the Green Dragons are weaker and slower than the Red Dragons, they are just a bit inferior (yeap, that looks odd to me - the Green Dragons live a much healthier lives and thus should be stronger). Finally, in terms of raw firepower upgrading the Red dragons will give you 25 Attack instead of 19, while upgrading the Green Dragons will boost Attack from 18 to 27, which is really a lot - and that's another point to get the Greens upgraded.
:::Rampart is generally weaker than Dungeon, unfortunately.--[[User:Dread Knight|Dread Knight]] ([[User talk:Dread Knight|talk]]) 13:33, 4 November 2021 (UTC)