The Secrets of Dragons - Warhammer 2 Guide 

This is the only game ever made where after hundreds of hours, every video I watch I go "oooh... i didnt know that"

The reason sun dragon's have higher charge bonus Is, they are quicker tempered and a little faster to react then the older dragons. In the table top this was represented by them having higher iniative which determined when they got to attack in close combat.

"The Secrets of Dragons" That's a title cool enough to be a book series.

Watching a dragon run away from Skaven is really messing with my head

holy shit that's one solid pack of useful info, almost half an hour aswell. Zerkovich you are the best

On ranged units: you can actually juke most arrows, as they aren't fast enough to hit the dragon before it changes direction, so dragons can attack even from the front. The obvious cost is that you can't micro other units as you do this. Gunners will shred them though, as will anything with a fast projectile.

The best place to use breath attacks is on walls, the high angle makes it hit every model down the line, it can wipe multiple units in one breath.

Terrorgeist breath attacks works best if you use it against the enemy general, just position directly over him and spit on him. It's an one shot.

Love your work Zerk. Despite all of the great TWWH channels out there that I consume, no one does guides and deep dives like you. Keep it up mate.

that was a really good play there with the paladin and the hippogryphs. I like how you yeeted one of the hippogryph models as retaliation afterwards too. wp

The real secret of dragons? That after 8 seasons, they really have no influence on the plot or world development. Oh, they're going to say they're the key to everything, but they're just going to either die unceremoniously, or just bugger off with no explanation in the end. Don't get your hopes up.

Almost all of this is also good advice for DnD dungeon masters!

Good explanation video. They are shock units not front line units. Id really like to see a tier list of magic. What spells are worth there cost, worth overcasting. Best lores of magic. And what spells combo together like net of amintok and banishment

100,200,300,400,500,1000 hours,it's only getting better. This game is magical.

very nice to see the battle analysis from two perspectives (battle cam and then map view), looking forward to more vids like this one master Z!

What a great thumbnail Zerk. Good choice.

I love this game. The amount of variation in each units dynamics feel so natural, and almost a side effect from being in a game like this

Really grate video But I think you have missed one important trick about using Moon/Star Dragon's breath on LSE. The closer your Dragon is to the target, the more projectile, meaning damage it will hit. You did mention that range/calibrate mechanic but didn't show how to maximize the damage from that mechanic. And yes, the different between between 20 meters or 10 meters away or right on top of the target is not something to brush off Before using the breath attack you should lock down the LSE temporary (either by net or surrounding them) Then you position the Moon/Star Dragon Right Above that LSE, with this trick 90 to 100% of the Breath Attack projectile will hit that LSE, which will deal really big damage.

Mmm what a coincidence that I just started Imrik campaign. First time using elves and a dragon. Thank you good sir.

26:33. Watching that rat go "poof", delightful! Thank you for this exceptional tactical treatise.

One thing to point out about the frost Wyrm is that it has the most cost-effective breath attack of them all. Another youtuber did testing on this and the Frost Wyrm performed really well for the cost

Hydra breath attacks are really nice because of the low angle. You will often hit a unit behind the enemy you are targeting.

With single entity monsters, being just above the entity and using the breath attack can do devastating damage

That flying animation felt cursed, the dragon seems to rise while it is raising its wings. Are they supplementing their flying with magic? Edit: I wrote this after watching the prone flying animation of the yellow one, at the start

12:05 when there is a dreadfully deadly dragon in front of you, but your nose is itching :D

This is a really good video, I didn't know about prolonged combat killing dragons!

Me looking 30 min video before I start : It's a bit long maybe ? Me 10 sec before video end : Why it's ending now ??! Love your videos like that :D

And I was thinking. Why almost 30min to explain how to use a dragon… now I see, incredible explanation, full of details with numbers and technical gameplay. Just fascinate, because I love dragons and CA did a beautiful display of them. Keep the good work 🎉

I was thinking for a long time about lore : why dragons, who lived in a warhammer ice age world with lower gravity, could cool themselves in volcanic caves. Eventually I have read a few papers in the field of speleology. The secret is strange, but simple: when cave is located on mountain slope and have at least 2 entrances, there will be wind taking out the hot air from the bottom of the cave to the entrances. In real-world Crimea temperature can easily reach +40 Celsius degrees, but in upper parts of mountainous caves it is already +11, at the bottom of caves it is +8. That`s why dragons actually hide from heat amidst hot regions.

Couple of additions.. Imrik is my fav campaign. 1) You CAN hit moving targets with breaths.. you want to be behind the unit shooting with their movement.. the breath always seems to overshoot, so the units will keep walking into the breath. I find that being out at max range at about a 45deg angle behind the unit is really nice. 2) Use terrain to your advantage. Shooting across a hump like a gate from along a wall from max distance yields HUGE hits.. breathing long distance down along the length of walls in general is great. 3) Dragons fight amazing on walls, as they don't get surrounded, they get nice charges on landing, and they can take off at will. 4) Putting a couple frost phoenixes in for the melee debuff is nice.

Nice guide! Ty for this advices, especially about dragons' breath.

It's nice to see an in depth analysis of something we all probably had an instinctive understanding, but tend to misuse due to misinformation. Loved it! Can we get one for chariots and one for phoenixes as well? Especially with chariots, I never feel like I'm using them right, since I'm more used to Rome 1 and 2 style hehe.

Excellent resume, I learned a lot. Made recently a 9 terrorgheists 9 vampires on flying horses within Isabella army (12th army made on 14 total, turn 145 in VH/VH, so not really essential, just for fun), and she is also on flying mount ofc. Now I know how to use them well, specially surprised about breath attack of Terrorgheists, that changes the way I will use them, vs large or monsters, where I would use them instinctively on infantry at base. Same about calibration, with terrorgheists on monsters, closer is better... So very useful indeed. Thx for content 👍

It would be cool if lord on a dragon counted as seperate beings, like when u take out the dragon the lord continues on foot

Meticulous guide as usual and so many things we can pick up on! Besides what's in the video, I've found dragons are best when ganging up and flanking. That is because they can get stuck in a unit, so when one finish their (that's right, non-binary until proven otherwise) charge, another one can charge in and allow the 1st to take off, recycling their charge (or escape other pursuers) much quicker. If you cannot afford multiple dragons, other flying units or chariots accompanying them should help them as well. I really like bringing a frost phoenix with dragons anyway because of the aura which just preps the meat for dragon charges; Great eagle can be the meat shield or sacrifice if you're in a pinch; or the "cheapest" option is Life Mage on a chariot (because you need a Life Mage in armies with dragons anyway), but needs much more micro because you also need to keep her alive, and she cant move in sync with dragons as well as other flying units.

Another reason to go for a vertical angle on the breath against SEMs is splash damage. Even if a projectile doesn't quite hit, if you are breathing at a vertical angle and the projectiles hit the ground next to it your target will still at least suffer the explosion damage. If you do it from further away a miss is just that, a miss and it's not gonna do squat unless there just so happens to be another target behind the thing you actually wanted to hit.

Very good video, I realize I don't know much about dragons even after two years of playing this game. You are the best sensei in WH2 mister.

Great video!!

Nice primer on dragons. Good to see my own thoughts are proven out.

Wow I made so many mistakes with dragons in my High Elf campaign, I now realise! Really useful stuff, thank you.

Awesome indepth Video 👍 1 litte Detail i might add is, that the angle of the terrain can also influence the breath attack e.g. If a infantry unit is on a slope down away from the dragon the breath attack can be lined up with almost the entire unit and therefore deal even more damage. Kinda works the same as the distance from a unit. This also is nice when attacking units on walls as they ar roughly on the same height as the dragon and therefore also take a lot of damage. On walls, lining up the breath attack with the unit is a little bit more difficult bc you have to be at a corner/end of the walls so the dragon is in line with the wall but not over a wall.

This is what I wanna know since the beginning of playing this game. It's absolutely clear thank you so much😄😄

I'd absolutely love a redo of flying units for game 3. Removing hover for a lot of units would be great, forcing them to circle and keep moving. Allowing units to almost land, pick up a dude, and throw them would be awesome (probably as a finishing move if they one-hit someone). Make them truly mobile foes, which would definitely increase the deadliness of dragons (and probably their cost too). Make air fights truly dynamic and have them moving around, rather than just hovering in one spot in the air.

Holy crap, this guide helped me a ton!!!

Accuracy always drops off with distance, but drops off *significantly* after hitting the calibration distance value. If you want to maximize the value of your dragon's breath attack, you can have the dragon hover directly over the target you want it to breathe on, and you're almost guaranteed that most, if not all of the missiles will hit, even against smaller targets. Using a net ability is a particularly good way to set this up.

Thanks for explaining terror routing. I've never known for sure how it works!

18:10 try putting the dragon directly above first

With the breath attacks, I find that the star dragon works just as well against infantry (and even better against armoured infantry) than the sun or moon dragons. In MP people don't tend to bunch up their units into massive mobs (specifically to avoid AOE damage from things like spells, artillery or dragon breath) and when they engage, the spread into battle lines or take 1v1 engagements. This means you usually have one or two units to target that are in a rough line, and with decent positioning, the damage difference isn't that big between the dragons, as it's only really their width that is different. I would venture that the star dragon breath is a better choice than moon or sun in every situation, as they have the added benefits of being better (but still not great) against large single entity units, and they cut through armour much better, meaning they can go after valuable enemy infantry more effectively. Add into this their superior melee stats, and you can't argue they are all-round the best. If cost is a factor, go for moon though.

Thank you sooo much for this videos, learned a lot of Dragons, I think I can start use them properly

one thing i wished you did cover as well "great guide still" that you SORT OF glossed over is the star dragons breath in particular and why its so deadly when you mentioned how the closer you are to the target of the breath the more damage it does you were close to uncovering the secret of the star dragon and that is its ability to straight up delete characters on foot/horse and do absurds amounts of damage to large targets because of the already low spread and high damage fly a star dragon DIRECTLY above a single entity unit anything from a lowly empire captain on foot to a necrosphinx and then have the breat attack of the star dragon go directly downwards and you can pretty much nuke single entities

In addition: 1. Heal your dragons using mages, greatly increasing their stayong power. 2. Send them round the flank to destroy isolated enemy artillery or leaders in enemy rear..

Watching this I can't help but feel that the dragons are backwards, with the youngest dragons being able to cause damage to large groups and the most powerful star dragons being snipers. Intuitively I would have thought the most expensive one would be for burning whole cities.

best way to use dragon breath against a single entity is netting the target in place, flying directly on top, and spitting away...

Now we just need to learn how to train them!

What an amazing video. Thank you Zerkovich, it was very interesting.

No Empire soldiers were harmed in the making of this video. Skaven on the other hand...

Delightfully comprehensive.

This is a wonderful video. Thank you!

This is a brilliant guide, great work, thank you

Good video, I increased my knowledge about TTwarhammer once again

this was actually pretty informative, thank you

Another, great, super informative, vid. Enthusiasm appreciated, thanks Z 🐲

Great video mate, very enlightening.

Thanks for the vid man, that was helpful

Superb video! Thank you for making this and for sharing your wisdom and knowledge 🙂🙏🏻

The secret to dragons is that if you find a problem the dragons can't solve, you aren't using enough dragons.

Here after the Nuln patch - crimson laser OP af

That’s not something I ever expected to hear, sniper artillery lol what a time to be alive lol

I knew all these things already but it was a nice video to watch nonetheless

Loved the video, you are master od these tutorials, thank you!

half hour of zerk! oh my! :D

Man I am thirsting for some dragon action now

6:50 dragons should have -40 in the back or even -20 cuz they're known for tail swiping

What a great video! Now I understand why I'm still playing the Imrik Campaign and still getting my ass kicked....

Dragon: stronk 3 units of dogs: hehehehehehehehe

It look kinda janky when the fire materializes out of air instead of their open jaws. Come on CA. Anyway apparently Chaos Dragon and Frost Wyrm mounts don't have the animation where they leap forward into combat. Just an ood difference that affects their performance for better or worse depending on the patch. The recent mass affects this.

Great Video and thanks again for new insight in some of the mechanics in TW: WII.

This is my favorite video on youtube

I really wish the game told you this somewhere. Well, guess thats what we've got him for.

I was always curious how good are the dragons against other single large monsters on a duel. You see according to the lores they seem to be nearly unbeatable.

I am an expert with breath attacks. Every morning. High AP damage AND poisonous

Well im glad i saw this... ive been using a star dragon on my lord to blast infantry and i was getting confused why it was sucking so much lmao

the secret to dragons is that they are nerds and can't even fight a slayer without getting killed

1 Prince with dragon trait 2 knowledgable wizards ( 1 fire mage on dragon, 1 life mage on Ithilmar Chariot) 17 star dragons

I didn't know breath attacks used projectiles I thought it just did damage in an area so I thoguht more area = better. I don't mind sending my dragons in to prologued melee against mid tier non anti large melee infantry or missile infantry if it's on the flank and my own melee units are engaged, so the draogn isn't attacked from the back. So after I terror rout 3 units, I feel free to use the 4th charge to charge and stay.

Another important thing ,having two or multiple dragons close to each others cancel the breath attack !

Dragons can help you win a flank engagement by robbing an enemy cav unit of it's charge. Just need to have your own cav unit to mop up and help him disengage after.

Treat dragons as (shock) cavalry on steroids

"How to raise your dragon to be useful"

Wow its helpful! Always want to use a dragons in pvp

21:05 was shocking

That's some quality content.

"That's what the AI does" **apply water to burns**

Zerk, the melee defence is utterly unknown to me, and really a game-changer! Thank you. This should maybe be addressed in some sort of tutorial... Please ask if there is a possibility to do a semi-official tutorial with CA, because that's... Bad design, I'd say. But really intuitive now I know, so only needs to be obvious. Hundreds of hours in two games, and I've never realised. Tho I stay out of multiplayer, as that's not my jam

Great video

With the star dragon you want to be right on top of the single entity to get the max damage.

charge stat goes down relative to their speed. Sun dragon be faster, star be slower while having the same mass.

Here be dragons

Paused the video right before it starts to say that I will bet my life that the video starts with: "Dragons". Edit: I was right.

Do these principles apply to the Hydra too, or is it different since that's a ground based monster?