>And why are dragons so special? Dara Happa killed large numbers of them
>during Dismanthuyar's reign. Alakoring had an army at his back; it's
>possible his dragonkilling was as simple as flying large numbers of player
>characters (nobody else would be stupid or lucky enough) onto the dragon so
>they could stab its weak spot.
What we really need is a plausible strategy to take out Dragons on the Battlefield. It can't be archery IMO because Alakoring was killed because he refused to believe in the power of Bows.
About the only thing I can think of is that True Dragons require a lot of sleep. I'm assuming that the rules for Dragons in Dragon Pass are for Dragons who fight totally alert. After the battle, they're removed from the board because they've exhausted the energies that allow them a material existance.
The EWF certainly have some technique to allow sleeping dragons to perform bureacratic duties such as the underwater dragon at Bonn Kapach mentioned by Hrestol Arganitis in KoS. These could do all sorts of mental tricks like create a Dream Dragon or Two, or think enemies dead.
What I'm presuming is that the EWF also had some power to partially awaken True Dragons to allow them physical activity on the battle field so that they acted like Giant Flying Brontosaurs - still Bloody Tough but not Overly Invincible and Nowhere Near as Smart. The physically active dragons would also be prone to periods of inactivity but it could fight a battle without being disappearing afterwards.
Even then the Dragons were not a super rapid strike force but moved very slowly against the enemy. The EWF usually had an army to accompany it to protect the Dragon when it slept after strenous flights. Given this the True Dragon would usually flies at the same speed as the army. If the army was close to the EWF border, they would have had Dream Dragons provided by another sleeping True Dragon to provide scouting screening duties otherwise they relied on the cult of Orlanth Dragonfriend, Wyrms or Wyvern Riders.
The strategy of the Dragonkillers would be to adopt some delaying tactic when the Dragon is fighting (like not giving battle, hiding out in the Hills) until it begins to tire. Then they would launch their charge against the Dragon in an attempt to kill it. A large number will probably die in the attempt. Usually the Draconic Guard will take most of the damage _but_ the Dragon is now less protected when it sleeps. Another army in the vicinity could overwhelm the remants of the defences and dismember the Dragon putting it out of the EWF for good. So after a battle, the EWF army usually hightails it into friendly territory or lets the Dragon sleep in an easily defended position until reinforcements arrive.
The Dragonkillers could adopt certain tactics to hasten the Dragons exhaustion like trick it into flaming or luring it to chase a retreating army to detach it from its own forces. Or they could try night attacks. So the wars between the EWF and Dara Happa or Alakoring would have been costly battles of attrition on both sides.
What would have made Alakoring's fight with Drang the Diamond Storm Dragon unusual IMO was that the EWF pulled out all the stops to have a fully alert True Dragon to terminate him with extreme prejudice. Alakoring responded heroically and the rest is history.
Scotty:
> I was re-reading Elder Secrets (and the other stuff in
> the box) and noticed that Falagian Diamonds are mentioned
> several times, but I didn't see where they were
> described.
They're not. One of the Tales rumour columns said that one of the signs of the coming Hero Wars is that people are gradually forgetting what Falangian Diamonds are used for.
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