Sacrifice to the Volcano

[Horth]

Does this tactic work?

I started a new world at harder settings and I have mediocre troops and no heroes. There is a dungeon with 5 ancient black dragons beside my only city. When it gets angry, those dragons will end my game.

Can I send in sacrificial troops to appease the anger or how is it normally done?

[mrhyms]

Originally posted by Horth:

Does this tactic work?

Can I send in sacrificial troops to appease the anger or how is it normally done?

TBH I don't know if that will "appease" the anger, but it will definitely give them a juicy meal and probably level them up a bit.

Assuming you can't disband and move that city, here's some thoughts :

1: When they pop out, use your sacrificial units (supply wagons would probably be best) to lure the dragons away from your home.
If you can lure them onto a peninsula and time your casts right, you can even "lower land" into a water square and isolate them on an isolated hex (I trapped a level 70 materialised Dagreld this way once..)

2: Cheesy, and I honestly don't even know if it will work, but maybe you can surround the lair hex with units and they won't have anywhere to spawn...

3; You'll need to take it out eventually : even if it pops once and you survive, that won't stop it growing and popping again in future.

They are one of the nastiest units and it will not be easy. Ideally you either need blacks/ancient blacks of your own (which will take a while!), or ranged/mage units with lots of +range and +visibility to try and snipe them in the tunnels before they see you. They are also not immune to knockdown so this can help (or any other forms of immobilisation such a freeze)

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes - that's a pretty grim scenario!

[Jfp3]

I'm fairly new to the mix, but as a veteran Stellaris player (3k hours, dumped it), I would suggest a restart unless you are an "Ironman" player.

Oh and not to dismiss MrR at all...I'd just take that info and decide on a restart hah!

[Morgan]

Ancients are a bit easier to handle in a dungeon than an open field since they cannot fly or spam your army with their AOE acid spells. The main risk is them jumping your party on turn 1 before you've had a chance to space your units properly.

I think they will not pop out of their lair until around turn 400-500 (forgot the default formula), so you have plenty of time to prepare.


I would recommend fighting them with heroes or ancients of your own, but you could always custom build an army using your faction's troops.

Exact strategy would depend on what units you have and the dungeon's layout, but like mrhyms I recommend blocking them with an ancient black of your own and go from there.*

*If you are going down the poison line, might as well hose the battlefield down with an ancient green's poison aoe spell, block them with your ancient black and watch them wither and die.

mrhyms I love your overland strategies btw!

edit - pretty sure independent units don't heal between turns, so you can always devise multi-turn strategies around whittling their hp down

[Jfp3]

ok then ..to hell with a restart :-)

[mrhyms]

D'oh.

1. Make sure all land around the lair is cleared of trees.
2. "Lower land" until it is surrounded by water

A bit mana heavy, but 100% protection.

Sorry I forgot to mention that one earlier....

[Horth]

I may be playing with settings that are too hard. 1 City max and no heroes. I have no spell books that allow me to summon dragons. Is there a way to capture a baby dragon? Do baby dragons ever try to join you as a merc?

[Ignus]

If you use Mrhyms mods (wich I highly suggest to use) then baby dragons will join you as mercs. But researching them doesn't take long either. You can find spell books by just doing dungeons.

If nothing helps, build up an army of ranged units with armor pierce, they do not refill their mana between fights. So you can throw multiple squads at them in one turn. But honestly I have had only found 1 unit (beside some greater heroes) in the hole game that can deal well with ancient dragons. But it takes a very long time to bring them at a lvl to do so and offcause you should use the hero version of them. So if you play even without lesser heroes this will be difficulty.

Do you use any mods or what race are you playing with?

[Horth]

I am using MrHryms mod. I am playing wood elves. I have a squad of 8 WE sorceresses that are core and are level 4-7 range. I just got oversized companies researched. I'm on turn 175. I thought that I might use lower terrain around my city and make a moat. However, I dont know how I would cross that moat myself.

I found a cold spell book and I am researching baby white dragons. I'm low on mana and do not have good mana production (63 per turn atm). I have one +3 Mana well at level 1 that I am upgrading. I can build level 3 roads.

[mrhyms]

A moat is not a bad idea. Especially if you are doing 1 City Challenge :)

Make sure to leave at least one hex next to your city, and use a portal as a "bridge"...

[Horth]

I dont understand how the portal works. Can I build a boat of some sort that lets me cross?

[mrhyms]

Yeah a transport ship could do it but a portal would be easier and faster (no need to load and unload the boat)

There are 4 portal spells you start off with - they all work the same, but higher levels cost more mana and can go further.

Once cast they are permanent until you recast or dispell them.

All you really need to do is :

1: Cast Portal 1 (a snip at 50 mana)
2: When the spell has been cast, click on the two hexes you want to join together
3: Any of your troops standing on either of the portals can teleport to the other one instantly.
4: Only your troops can use them, so they are 100% safe

With a moat the ONLY thing that will be able to attack your city will be amphibious & units that can fly on the world map (a small list, which thankfully for you doesn't include dragons - I may have to tweak that in my next mod update :>)

[Morgan]

I'm loving the moat idea, though if you are doing only one city, I recommend making it outside of your city's radius so you can fully utilize all hexes.

+1 to flying dragons. I did a similar mod in the past (around season 8 of GoT lol) and it was a lot of fun using them as free roamers.

[Horth]

The moat has started. There is a small catch. Must remove the forest first.

[Horth]

Is there a water walking spell? The fly spell does not let units fly over water.

[mrhyms]

Originally posted by Horth:

Is there a water walking spell? The fly spell does not let units fly over water.

There isn't a spell for water walking I'm afraid.

you can enchant boots with water walking (with sufficient materials) - but this would be far too expensive for one or two units.

Don't fear the portal :)