How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

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DwarvenRogue
Posts: 14
Joined: September 25th, 2018, 10:29 pm

How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by DwarvenRogue »

:D Hello, all. I am new to the multiplayer side of Wesnoth, so I have been trying to figure out some strategies for playing each faction. Incase you did not realize from my username, my favorite faction is Knalga 8) . I am posting because I could not figure out any good strategies for Drakes. It seems like every other faction can easily counter drakes with some sort of 2-unit spam and the drakes have such poor defense that I cannot counter the spam with good terrain. Saurian spam works sometimes, but only when luck is on my side. I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on playing Drakes. :)
We will descend upon the foe, we will overwhelm them, we will leave none alive! Meanwhile our guardsmen will ensure the full defense of our headquarters. We are the Footpads! We are Thursagan's fury!!
otzenpunk
Posts: 104
Joined: February 11th, 2018, 5:32 pm
Location: Hamburg / Germany

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by otzenpunk »

This wiki page might be a good start, in case you haven't read it already. https://wiki.wesnoth.org/How_to_play_Drakes
DwarvenRogue
Posts: 14
Joined: September 25th, 2018, 10:29 pm

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by DwarvenRogue »

Thanks otzenpunk! I have not read the wiki and did not know the game had one.
We will descend upon the foe, we will overwhelm them, we will leave none alive! Meanwhile our guardsmen will ensure the full defense of our headquarters. We are the Footpads! We are Thursagan's fury!!
drakearbiter
Posts: 7
Joined: October 21st, 2018, 9:37 pm

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by drakearbiter »

Drakes are my favourite faction inspite of their vulnerabilities.
Playing against experimental AI, I aim to promote saurian augurs to saurian oracles and soothsayers. Once you level up a couple of them, they're like a group of raptors who can take down most enemies (except undead). Oracle's 10-3 with 70% chance during night is a killer. Soothsayers can heal other saurians in no time. I use drake clashers to escort them as they're quite fragile and bad luck can result in their demise. Against dwarves and undead, I use more drakes.

Gliders are great scouts (can fly over most obstacles).

Don't know if my strategy can hold up against human players.
enclave
Posts: 936
Joined: December 15th, 2007, 8:52 am

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by enclave »

Hi DwarvenRogue and welcome to wesnoth!

Speaking about multiplayer there are 2 types of maps, Ladder maps (games with highly competitive players with ranking system, 1v1) and other maps just for fun (like one of most popular - Isars cross map). These 2 different types of multiplayer games in terms of strategy.. on small maps you would use one recruit pattern and playstyle but on bigger maps it would be different (more scouts, less slow units.. so for example as a dwarf you potentially would need a huge reconsideration of your play style to be successful on ladder)

I am not a ladder player so I can only give you tips on smaller type of maps, but it will probably work in general too.. I was on ladder a bit, and wasnt the worst one, but this type of gaming is just not for me.

So some general thoughts first. I understand why you having difficulties with drakes, they are very opposite to dwarfs.. dwarfs happy in defense, they have resistances, terrain bonuses on hills etc.. you easily block enemy attacks with 50-60% defense + resistances.. if enemy attacks there is a big chance it wont be successful for your enemy.. and you can counter him hard if you wish..
While drakes have 30-40% defense, vulnerability to pierce... easy targets in other words.. couple of spearman smash them all easily..

So general advice number 1: don't let enemy have that 60% defense when he attacks you, put drake on sand or grass with bad terrain nearby and your enemy will have to think twice before attacking, because now you both at 30-40% defense, in this circumstances clasher very likely beats spearman as it has stronger damage and more health, even fighter may be a problem.
General advice number 2: don't let enemy attack you at all, your power is not in defense, it is in mobility and offensive power.. most drake units can reach enemy (they move fast and they fly), while enemy can not reach you (and drake strikes are very strong and give huge damage, you dont have to worry about losing your drakes hitpoints during attack because your aim is to deal a lot of damage and then cover that spot with other strong drakes).. So you can put much more units of drake to reach 1 enemy spot than your enemy can. You might be able to reach some enemy position with 5-6 drakes, while enemy can do only 2-4 units on your drake spot.. as in general your enemy will be slower and have only 1-2 superfast units (good if). So mostly you will have a lot more targets to attack than your enemy can block well enough.
More or less you dont need to defend village, you can leave it empty, enemy will not want to take it, he will be afraid of your damage if you have many drakes reaching that spot.. you may put there a cheap skirmisher lizard at day.. it will make it clear that if enemy attacks your skirmisher he will not be able to capture village anyway, not enough units for that.. but on your turn your whole army of drakes will fly there and retaliate to whoever tried to attack that lizard.. depends on map, on enemy units etc..

Advice drake vs loyalists... make clashers for defense.. they have better defense vs pierce.. good retaliation damage.. you may block something with couple of them.. if loyalists attack they will probably not be able to kill with only 2 spots for attack.. so make sure they dont get more than 2 attacks on 1 clasher and it should be ok, next turn u can run away that clasher and step in with something else..
General rule: avoid fight at day by all means, fight only at night.. skirmishers and augurs are a nightmare to fight at night for a loyalist.. loyalist has nothing to oppose it, lizards have pierce resistance, so your lizards will hurt loyalists a lot more than loyalist can do.. at night they will be just like harmless kittens if your army is consisting of skirmishers and augurs.. spearman and archers will be just totally harmless. just useless.
So at day if you have to fight, use clashers, try not to fight at all.. give up villages if needed.. at night, use augurs to retake villages, skirmishers to defend and for other nasty things..

drake vs undead.. all is quite simple..
at night you should not fight at all.. ideally.. just run away as far as you can. if adept can reach a hex, dont stand on that hex.. surrender all your territory if needed.. otherwise u will lose your whole army. If you know what you are doing u can mess with your undead enemy at night with skirmishers sometimes... a) to distract them from something that they could do to really harm you (like taking your villages with skeleton archers and ghouls, which u may have troubles to fight at day, wont be easy to retake villages from these units) b) to damage or kill adepts.. ideally dont attack adept if u or your ally can't kill it. your night is to prepare for the day.. if you lose some of your power at night, then at day you won't be able to harm enemy.
At day you should be as fast and as reckless as possible, use your king, you just go forward like crazy, think about night to come, kill adepts, kill what you would hate enemy to have at next night, take his villages.. do as much damage as you can. If you damage enemy at day then at night he will have nothing against you.. you just go recruit some skirmishers and he will fear you with only few units capable of fighting..
so.. at night use skirmishers if needed (augurs nearly useless, if only in melee they have impact), at day use fighters mostly (they faster than clashers and stronger than clashers, also have fire which may be more efficient vs skeletons sometimes), maybe burners.. if your enemy has more skeletons and ghouls, use burners... if your enemy has a lot of adepts to kill use fighters.
Use gliders as well.. they can easily surround retreating undeads, while others finish them off.. while gliders themselves do huge impact damage and have marksman fire to finish off units inside villages..
i hate drake/undead matchup... as a drake. for undead its more easy in my mind.. you do skeleton archers and ghouls to defend at day.. (only drake thrasher king can do impact damage and gliders are rarely used, which is wrong) and adepts to attack at night.. it will sometimes depend on your luck a lot... if adepts hit 2/2 its very bad.. if they dont hit its very good.. its a gamble if you let undead attack you at night.. better just dont let them do it.

drake vs dwarf... burners good to attack dwarfs at day, augurs good to attack them at night.. defend with whatever you like.. its all good if you dont let dwarfs stand on 60% mainly i guess you would want to rush dwarfs at day when you strong.. with king involved of course.. he will be your strongest firepower.

drake orc.. rush at day and a mix at night.. there it may be a bit more complicated.. as orc the only good way to defend against drakes at day is nagas :) they have 60% defense and they neutral, so give not bad retaliation... grunts at villages also hard to kill.. at night grunts are good firepower against drakes.. 2-3 grunts on 1 drake and he dies... skirmishers are not bad in defense vs grunts but it will depend on luck.. so probably clashers to defend... augurs to attack orcs at night.. more complicated than other matchups i think..

drake elf.. elfs not have much to oppose drakes in my opinion.. maybe they are the weakest against drakes.. just remember general rule of 40% defense for your enemy, rush them at day.. or at night with augurs.. depends... as elf i would defend with fighters at night (kill augurs well).. and at day probably same, trying to use shamans to slow king and/or other strong units. at day as good defense is also a fish.. 60% defense.. and it has pierce.. woses not good at all.. dont even build them... any drake unit kill it easily.. specially burner.

hope it helps :D
Huumy
Posts: 293
Joined: October 15th, 2009, 9:52 pm

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by Huumy »

In 1v1 competitive games drakes are the most mobile faction, they are also strong in the daytime.

I would try to be agressive at daytime versus orks, undead, elf, and knalgans. At nighttime be patient, don't fight the enemy head on BUT also make sure they have to commit if they want to take your villages.

The saurians are complicated, 1 healer is always good with bigger group of units. The spearlizards are even more fragile than drakes so I would not recruit more than one of these if you are beginner.

Focus on recruiting mostly drake fighters and attacking during the day and retreating during the night.

Versus other drakes and loyalist it's totally different. It's more about who can outlast the other and those matchups are more reliant on good saurian use.
"And the girl that you want is directly out in front, And she’s waving her caboose at you, You sneeze achoo, She calls you out and boom!"
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Stupidbro
Posts: 22
Joined: March 5th, 2019, 12:08 am

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by Stupidbro »

Personally, I've had the opposite problem; one time, I built a scenario and I ended up giving the Drake team no gold because otherwise, they'd last longer than my patience... also known as over 40 turns. They ended up simply outlasting me most of the time. :p
Maybe that works on other players, maybe it doesn't, but I'd bet using drakes for a solid defense is probably the best way to go. There's a saying, "The best offense is a good defense."
Thijssnl
Posts: 1
Joined: July 17th, 2019, 4:32 pm

Re: How do I successfuly play Drakes in multiplayer?

Post by Thijssnl »

This topic is quite interesting, thanks for all sharing your view on it!
Stupidbro wrote: March 12th, 2019, 2:55 pm Personally, I've had the opposite problem; one time, I built a scenario and I ended up giving the Drake team no gold because otherwise, they'd last longer than my patience... also known as over 40 turns. They ended up simply outlasting me most of the time. :p
Maybe that works on other players, maybe it doesn't, but I'd bet using drakes for a solid defense is probably the best way to go. There's a saying, "The best offense is a good defense."
Funnily the saying is exactly the opposite: "The best defense is a good offense" ;)
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