Red Dragon

The Red Dragon is a Melee tier 3 infantry unit in Symphony of War and are the most aggressive upgrade from dragons.

Stats

Stats		Base	Growth		Lvl 1	Lvl 54		From Tier 2
		Great	Great		~179	~593		-
		Low	Low		1	1		-
		Low	Med		10	54		-
		Med	Great		~52	~132		27
		Med	High		~52	~84		21
		Med	High		~22	~67		3
		Great	Great		~	~5844		~984

The low Weapon Power on Dragons is also a little deceptive: given they benefit from both Strength and Magic in equal measure; their Strength or Magic can be viewed as their Weapon stat when comparing them to other classes.

Related Technologies

Tech:
	Martial Traditions	Gain Class Points 15% faster.
	Dragon trainer	Gain Class Points 25% faster.
	Spirit Piercing	Magic attacks from now will ignore 25% of the enemy's magic resistance.
	Dragon Bond	Allows Blue, Red, and Silver Dragons to take to the skies.
	Mixed Unit Tactic	Gains +3 weapon power for each different archetype of unit added to the squad, starting from the second.

Battle Details

Battle Detials:
Round 1	Magical fire attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Round 2	Magical fire attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Extra Attack	Magical fire attack, Small Diamond AoE, Magical Volley (7th), performed at 1 range.
Other Detials:
Damage boosted by both Strength and Magic Occupies 2 tiles in the same Column. Requires 15 Capacity. Forces entire squad to be Heavy Infantry Suffers from Magic Fatigue during enemy phase

Strategy

Tactics

Red Dragons can fire up and down walls, with their solid HP making them good at besieging fortified enemy positions. They're also one of the best sources of magic damage in the game, with 2 very powerful AoE hits.

Red Dragons can loose steam as a magic unit; seeing as all magic units suffer Magic Fatigue effect the more battles they get into during the enemy's phase. Their overwhelming power does give them a long runway before this damage becomes negligible.

Squads

Most of a Red Dragon's bulk comes from HP, and not armor; meaning they take damage in large chunks. Double the survival from double health is nice, until it means double the healing necessary to maintain it: which is were most other front-line tanks gain an edge over Dragons. As such: most Red Dragons enjoy their own personal healer in a 1:1 ratio. Templar are the most potent option.

Alternatively: Dragons can be used to maximize Capacity in any squad that's otherwise stuck in an awkward middle-ground of total Leadership given their 15 capacity cost; assuming the squad doesn't mind the movement type.

As Opponents:

Aggressive Attack is one of the best go-to options for most physical squads, enabling meaty hits that can quickly chunk through dragon's large health pools. This can be somewhat high-risk; given the counter-attack damage taken.

Any sturdy unit with Warrior's Hubris is a good go-to answer to survive the powerful hits from Red Dragons.

Otherwise: Valkyries and Paladins are the best counterpicks; given their access to Magic Armor and overall impressive bulk in addition to that.

Builds

Traits

Healing Attuned and Unscathed are solid go-to options to allow dragons to quickly bounce back from loosing big chunks of their HP, or prevent a lot of big hits from happening in the first place.

Overpower Can make excellent use of their Strength stat and Colossal, enabling them to rapidly tank enemy Morale. This also seems to occur before the battle starts and makes a visible difference in the Combat Forecast window relative to other squads; enabling an Overpowering dragon squad to potentially drop an enemy squad from Fair Morale to Fearful Morale and automatically win with a Forced Surrender victory.

Arcane Might is also one of the strongest options to put their good Magic stat to maximum use, gaining even more damage output every time they boost their damage.

Artifacts

Aldor's Tower Shield and Obsidian Plate Armor are one of the best one-two combos for any front-line unit; and for Dragons especially the combo can go a long way towards lengthening their impressive HP pool and helping healers keep them alive.

Refuge and Giant's Thresher are also good options that more directly target how dragons function. Refuge boosts in-combat healing by 20%, something Dragons and their healers appreciate, and Giant's Thresher takes advantage of dragon's space and capacity requirements resulting in their squad sizes having smaller quantities of units than most opponents they'll be fighting against; granting +25% damage vs. larger squads.

Cloak of Cunning and Essence of Embor are noteworthy options as well; given their ability to negate critical strikes against dragons and focus on other traits than Unscathed.

Affinity

Dark is the strongest overall option for Dragons, were the high STR and MAG combined, on units that put both to use, is a satisfying way to spoil a rare and powerful unit type.

Otherwise: the most common affinity in Earth is one of their best fallback options, making the most of their HP (and without suffering any Str or Mag penalties).

Water is one of the most accessible option for getting Dragons to the Magic threshold necessary to become a Red Dragon, and are a good alternative to Dark.

Gallery