ZFR: What are good anti-dragon strategies by dwarves? Giants do some damage, but very little and my uber-leader who can annihilate who armies barely does a scratch.
I've got a red dragon in squatting in my caverns and can't get him out. He's surrounded by foot soldiers, dwarf-firstborns and a few giants, but that's far too little power to drive him out. Fortunately he doesn't leave that one city he captured, because if he did I'd be toast. I'm building giants hoping to spam him, but surely there must be a better way.
Dragons are a problem. :)
Three primary generic solutions:
1) If it isn't a problem, then ignore it. If you have a red dragon surrounded by First Born, then send the rest of your army to do other things. The first born might not be able to force an engagement, but the dragon can't spam fire breath on them either; it would have to engage in melee where the first born might be able to kill it. If it is content to just sit in the city forever, then let it have the city. Heck, if it doesn't feel like moving, then don't even bother to leave the first born there, send them with everyone else to go get your mission done (sometimes indies will take control of a site and just sit in it until removed).
2) Acquire immunity to its breath weapon and then attack. It will have to engage in melee instead of just strafing you to death. For the red dragon, send in some giants with the first born, then have the Giants retreat from the fight so only the first born are left. If the dragon is willing to fight them, your problem is solved as it suicides on your melee. If the dragon isn't willing, then you could send in any number of Giants and six first born. The first born surround it while the Giants stand out of reach of the fire breath; the first born move out of the way on your turn for the Giants to shoot, then the first born surround the thing again before you end your combat turn so it can't go after the Giants. Tedious, but doable if you have the units. Any ranged units will do for this, not just Giants.
3) Send in a large force of ranged units, especially an 8 stack of archers. Spread them out so the dragon can't hit more than one with fire breath, and try to whittle it down before it kills all the archers. You WILL take losses, but archers are expendable. You could use any ranged unit, like ballista, catapults, bombardiers, or Giants, but archers are cheap fodder and (unlike some of the others) don't really matter if the entire stack is wiped out. A red dragon has enough armor and hp that you might want a second 8 stack nearby to finish the job, or send in both 8 stacks at the same time to be completely sure of getting the job done.
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If the city is walled, then you can either bring a catapult/bombardier/giant for tactical (break down the walls at long range), or bring 2-3 rams for auto combat with your archers (a dragon is likely to kill one or maybe two before the wall goes down, and the archers will retreat if the wall is up and you have no way to bring it down). Make sure you still have the full 8 stack of archers; don't reduce the number of archers to make room for siege.