How to play Drakes

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JW
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How to play Drakes

Post by JW »

How to play Drakes:
:arrow: Back to The "How to play..." Series.

Quick links:
General Drake Strategies
Drakes v. Undead
Drakes v. Rebels
Drakes v. Drakes
Drakes v. Knalgans
Drakes v. Loyalists
Drakes v. Northerners
Last edited by JW on March 21st, 2007, 7:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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JW
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Post by JW »

General Drake Strategies:
On the first turn when you have a random opponent it is good to get a mixture of units. A Scout, Fighter, Burner, Clasher, and Skirmisher would be an example of such a recruit. When you discover what faction your opponent is, go to the appropriate section below for more advice.

Drakes generally win by dealing the most damage. your units are big and deadly, but they're also more expensive than most. Take advantage of having the best mobility in the game by placing your units in hard-to-access places such as behind mountains or across water from your opponent. You'll have the advantage by being able to decide when and where battles will happen. Your major disadvantage is how easily your units will take damage. Because of this you'll usually want to be the aggressor in battle to kill a unit or two, get damaged, and then flee to heal. Having a mobile healer helps with this if villages are sparse.

Since you trade your defense for other abilities, Fighting battles where your opponent has low defense will give you a greater advantage than it will any other faction. If your opponent refuses to leave 70% defensive terrain you'll probably want an Augr or 2 to attack at night.
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JW
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Post by JW »

Drakes v. Undead
Playing as Drakes in this matchup is some of the most fun for me. The deadliest matchup in Wesnoth, this game will result in lots of casualties, and quickly. Both factions are incredibly offensive and of opposite alignment. Skeletons are weak to Fire, Adepts to melee, and Drakes are weak to Pierce and Cold. Basically, whoever is left standing wins.

Drake Burner: You'll want a coulpe of these to burn any Skeletons, Ghosts, Bats, WCs, Ghouls, well, basically any unit it can burn other than Adepts. Even burning Archers at daytime isn't a bad idea as it's the most effective way to kill them. The most expensive unit you can recruit, you'll want to recruit them sparingly and keep them alive.

Drake Clasher: With Strong Clashers dealing an awesome 9-4 Pierce damage during the day, these are great Adept butchering units, as well as damage soakers. Due to their price you'll want to avoid recruiting too many. Level one of these into Gladiator and skeletons won't pose a threat anymore, even at night.

Drake Glider: Dealing Impat melee and Fire ranged, these guys won't be worthless at any point, but their damage is still very weak compared to what the rest of your army can do. If you get one to level 2 you'll be able to take advantage of a current glitch if the unit.cfg that removes the unit's weakness to Cold. Even with the presence of the glitch, recruiting more than 1 isn't smart.

Drake Fighter: A good Adept killer moreso for their mobility than damage, the presence of a Fire ranged gives them some slight flexibility in their usage.

Saurian Augr: Don't recruit this unit when fighting Undead.

Saurian Skirmisher: This little guy actually plays a very crucial role in your army against Undead. If the Undead didn't have Adepts you'd simply roll right over them. Well, since Adepts are such a necessary unit in their attack against you you'll need to take them out, and you'll need to be able to do that under any circumstances. The Skirmisher gives you a weapon that not only can hustle around enemy units to strike protected DAs, but he also gets better at night - the time when you'll want them to be dead the fastest. Having a couple of these guys around can really save your ass.

On the first turn you'll want a couple Burners, a Fighter or Clasher, a Skirmisher, and another useful unit. If your opponent gets mass Skeleton Archers, get Clashers and Burners. If he gets lots of Adepts get Skirmishers and Fighters. If he likes Ghouls & Ghosts, you'll want Burners.

Deal as much damage as you can at day, because you won't be dealing much at night. Keep Burners in front as they'll do great return damage to any Adepts that try to counter-attack you during your daytime assault: they'll do 12-2 while you do 7-4. Adepts have 28 base hp.

At night simply retreat out of Adept range and have Skirmishers ready to take out any that get too close. Even if you have to retreat from a village to avoid Adepts it's worth it. You may lose a few gold, but it shouldn't add up to the 16+ you'd lose for a lost Drake. If your opponent takes the village and moves closer he'll also be closer to your new recruits to counter-attack. As day turns chase them away and you should net some gold for the units your opponent will have to replace.
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Noyga
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Post by Noyga »

1 or 2 Augur might still be useful as healers granted they aren't exposed too much.
They might be recruited, but not in large number versus undead.
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JW
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Post by JW »

Drakes v. Rebels
Playing Drakes in this matchup can be difficult. Your units have low defense and are weak to Pierce where the Rebels have high defense and use Pierce. You'll want to recruit a mix of drakes and saurians so that their neutrality doesn't become an advantage at any time of day. Take cheap shots when you can, because they will alwyas be taking cheap shots at you.

Drake Burner: This unit is a great weapon to take out Elvish Fighters and they absolutely massacre Woses. Effective in both melee and ranged combat, this unit is always useful against Rebels on attack or defense. He costs 21g though, and there are other units you will need to recruit to be sucessful.

Drake Clasher: The only drake without a weakness to Pierce, this unit is great against Rebels. He will tear through Archers and he will beat EFs in a fight. He will overpower any Rebel and it's essential to have these guys in your force.

Drake Glider: Good for their movement, and can be useful to get to those hard to reach hexes to get extra shots at Archers or Shamans. Recruit according to map need for scouts.

Drake Fighter: Useful as a mobile fighter, the Fighter is what you'll want if there are 2 deperate battlefields within close flying range of each other. The ability to leave one battle to help the other is quite useful, which is true of Burners as well, though they move slower. For pure fighting power the Clasher is better, and he is hardier. If mobility is necessary on the map though, get 1 or 2 of these guys.

Saurian Augr: I find these guys essential to fighting Rebels. This guy is the only easy way yuo'll be taking elves out of forest. Augrs have incredibly low hp, so keep them behind the line to heal your power units, or stick him in forest hexes your opponent will want. Using these guys as your first attackers at night will allow you to get their damage in and then move other units in fron of them and consequently heal.

Saurian Skirmisher: Useful mainly against Scouts, Archers, and Mages at night, don't recruit too many of this unit even if you're tempted. They're fragile units

On the first turn you'll want to recruit a Clasher, a Burner, an Augr, and a mix of other units like a Scout, another Clasher, or a Skirmisher. During daytime you'll want to deal as much damage as possible, as that's when you'll have the advantage. Elves fighting you will suffer massive return damage during the day. To help you out, keep your units away from places where the Rebels can use forest to attack you from, and remember to have your Augr(s) heal.

At night you can still be aggresive with Augrs. You'll probably want to retreat your drakes slightly and put any Skirmishers (or even Clashers) you have up front on good terrain. Don't be afraid to keep a mobile unit up front either if it can survive 1 round of attacks; if it can do this and survive it will slow the progress of your enemy and you can easily fly the unit back behind your line to heal. Always make sure that the front line cannot be attacked from forest hexes if possible, though this won't be as big of a deal if you have several Augrs to cut through their defense. Don't be afraid to trade a Skirmisher for an Acher if you get a chance to kill one on poor terrain: you'll get a gold advantage as well as taking out the most dangerous unit the Rebels have against you.

Another strategy is to strike hard at day and then completely retreat at night. Keep your units just out of reach of your opponent and allow them to come closer to your recruits to make your counter-attack swifter and more deadly. This strategy is often quite effective as it prevents your drakes from fighting at unfavorable TOD and it allows you to decide how tohe first battle takes place.

Generaly your targets to kill will start with Archers, as they are the most deadly unit to your forces (especially to Clashers). Next you'll want to get rid of any low hp units your opponent has and any units on poor terrain making themselves targets. Try to keep your Clashers away from Shamen if possible (free Slow), and ignore Fighters if another unit presents itself as an equally appealing target. Elvish Fighters can't deal significant damage to your drakes without taking a good amount of return damage, so let them hurt themselves on you while you take out units that you won't receive much return damage from (Burners on Fighters at day though can be quite devastating).

Genreally, pick your spots where the advantage presents itself when you can deal the most damage with little return damage if possible. Keep Elves from Forest hexes if possible, and use your advantagrous mobility.
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Post by tadpol »

on deffence
I find drakes to be quite competent at deffence if you can set up a line. with their fast movement type you can generally choose where to fight the battle which with elves espeacially is critical, you want good terrain (anything but swamp grass or water) in a line next to bad terrain for them (swamp grass water sand) you set up so they have to attack from the bad terrain prefferable with only 2 units per drake (of course the ends of the line get hit harder, but that's what resilient strong is for). with your comfortable hp advantage, reasonably even damage (at night) and equal deffence it becomes very difficult to attack you for any gain and if you have reserves or newly bought units to replace the hurt ones it can be very costly to break your lines. And with the fast movement type of drakes and surians you should be able to exploit the flanks if it looks like a stalemate.

on drake glider
I don't see their usefulness. For all the standard maps a fighter or at worst a quick fighter handles all my scouting needs (75% chance of quick when buying two I think). While scouting/flanking-village stealling is an important part of the game it does you no good if thier scouts can thrash yours and in my opinion only the bat is a less of a combat scout.
SunTzu
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Post by SunTzu »

They arent too bad vs Undead.
They got Fire and Impact,most undead are weak vs those two.
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Post by kiet »

He meantioned that before,that skeletons will not be a threat if you have a Gladiator.
But to do that you must have leveled up a Clasher,which I sometime consider difficult since everytime I play as drakes vs undead.
They always atempted to kill him when he is close to advancing with some adepts.
Though not invincible against all the attacks,if you get him,they´re dead. :P
5dPZ
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Post by 5dPZ »

it would be interesting to see a guide how drake can beat Loyal, cuz i have never lost yet, against drakes using loyal :P

Edit: well, i have yet to see any drake player beat a pro player using any other races on a regular 1 on 1 map. Drakes are just way too weak (at least as in 1.0.2).
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Post by Noy »

5dPZ wrote:it would be interesting to see a guide how drake can beat Loyal, cuz i have never lost yet, against drakes using loyal :P

Edit: well, i have yet to see any drake player beat a pro player using any other races on a regular 1 on 1 map. Drakes are just way too weak (at least as in 1.0.2).
ughhh... where do I start?
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Sorrow
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Post by Sorrow »

If JW isn't going to finish someone else should...
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Post by Noy »

how many other top notch players are willing to put their time into writing this up?
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Sorrow
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Post by Sorrow »

Noy wrote:how many other top notch players are willing to put their time into writing this up?
Europe!

Probably can find at least one person to do some more of it.
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JW
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Post by JW »

Noy wrote:how many other top notch players are willing to put their time into writing this up?
Apparently -1. :(

But yeah, I'm too busy with EOM, all the devs are busy with 1.2, and I'm sure Noy is even busier with the Saracens.

I still hope to finish these sometime. My original plan was to wait until 1.2 (stable release, stable stats, stable strategy guide), but I'm caught up with the EOM, so it'll be at least until the Beta versions come out before I get on this again.
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Noyga
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Post by Noyga »

There is a balancing freeze in the 1.2 branch, and 1.1.8 is the first 1.2 beta, so this shouldn't be a problem.
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