Drakes

Drakes

Era(s)	Default Era
Race(s)	Drakes, Saurians
Alignment(s)	Lawful, Chaotic
Recruitable Units	Drake Burner, Drake Clasher, Drake Glider, Drake Fighter, Saurian Skirmisher, Saurian Augur
Tactics	How to play Drakes
Unit Tree	1.14

The Drakes are a faction of dragon-like Drakes and their lizard Saurian allies. Drakes are descendants of dragons, but smaller in size. Saurians are considerably smaller than Drakes and from different ancestry. Together, the Drake faction has high mobility but low defense, leading to unusual tactics for a Default Era faction.

Races

Drakes

Main article: Drakes (race)

Drakes are large, winged and fire-breathing creatures, reminiscent of true dragons. On average, an adult drake stands around three meters tall and easily weighs more than a man and a horse combined. Their skin is made up of hard scales, resistant to most physical strikes except piercing and cold damage. Most drakes are capable of true flight and can travel long distances quickly. However, their sheer weight and bulk limits their flight ability somewhat, making them ungainly in the air. Where possible, they make use of terrain features such as hills, mountains and trees as launch points in order to gain greater height and speed. Fortunately for their enemies, they are still quite clumsy creatures and surprisingly slow in combat. This, combined with their large size, renders them easy targets for those who dare attack them.

Some drakes prefer their mobility over heavy armor and can quickly scout for dangers ahead. Another group is wearing powerful blades and armor, that make them dangerous on the ground, but it also unables them to fly.

Saurians

Main article: Saurians

Saurians are the smaller, more crafty allies of the Drakes. They often live in swamps or other damp places. Saurians are very small of frame, and though they are somewhat frail because of this, they are very, very agile. In combat, their size allows some of them to dart past defenses that would hold any grown man at bay, making them a tricky foe to deal with. Other saurians have some knowledge of what men call sorcery, but their practice of it reeks of augury and black magic. It is little understood, but rightly regarded with fear by those against whom it is used.

Tactics

Main article: How to play Drakes

Drakes generally win by dealing the most damage. Their units are big and deadly, but they're also more expensive than most. The best way to play Drakes is to take advantage of having the best mobility in the game by placing the units in hard-to-access places such as behind mountains or across water from their opponent. Drakes have the advantage by being able to decide when and where battles will happen. Their major disadvantage is how easily their units will take damage. Because of this they 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.