How to play

[JohnSmitty]

How do you play this game without losing in 3 turns?

[Hello]

Capture as much territory as you can so you get more gold and research points. Start off with the neutral territories which reward you with free units without a fight.

[Raze_Larian]

You've probably figured it out by now, but:

Dragon Commander: The Complete Guide


What dragon type are you using? IMO mountain dragons are the best, starting off with the 'must have' skills Acid Blaze, Blood Leech and Rejuvenation (in act 1 I eventually learned Soar, but didn't bother with any of the other Basic dragon skills).

I research hunters right away, and their Revelation upgrade. Transports should be researched eventually, as well, but you start off with one in an adjacent country you can take over. Shamans are not a bad unit to research early, if you are going to be focusing on using your dragon, though (on casual) most of the time you probably shouldn't need the extra healing they can provide.

On the first turn I would build a couple hunters, send 1 trooper west (control that battle yourself and you should easily win on casual/easy, or use a mercenary card and auto resolve, though it would be best to save them until you have multiple battles in a turn) and 3 east.
On your second turn you can build another couple hunters. In the country east of your capital (possible gold mine location, when you can afford it) you now have a couple hunters; send at least 1 north to take over the war factory the AI just captured, and optionally 1 a couple countries west to help defend there. Stick a couple troopers in the transport, and send it to the south east island to capture and pick up the armours, and in subsequent turns take over the south west island (a decent location for a tavern) and the northern islands.
The hunters in your capital you can either move one country west to defend, or be a little aggressive and attack one of the next two countries (if you go after the country with the war factory in it, that would be a good place to use one or both of the mercenary cards you start off with). Depending on what the AI does, you may have a better chance with the eastern fight than the western one (so can choose which to handle yourself based on that), but the eastern country is more important to take over, so you are not defending on 2 fronts (take out Karthan's initial transport and you don't have to worry about too many attacks from sea, at least playing on casual).
The third turn, build in the Shaderidge war factory if you tool it over, and take over Qualine Alda, and move in reinforcements from the capital. That should put you on track to easily finish the act (make sure you research all the units and upgrades available, and possibly build a couple taverns to get mercenary cards, since you can only take 50 gold and 30 research points into act 2).