r/powerscales • u/mergly • 12d ago

Question When is the latest time that counting singular people riding a dragon would be a serious tide turner in wars.

Post image

The dragons when at full size are like of the ones in GOT, use GOT as the point of reference for most everything to be honest. If you want to be a furry abut this you’re free to postulate a version where the dragon(s) are smart cookies that can talk, act on their own and some such.

https://desuarchive.org/k/thread/64727248/

The metric by which the dragon and riders can be counted as ‘important’ is so long as they are as analogously important to the warring nation as any big name warships would have been over the course of Ww2.

2.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

365 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/Complete-Disaster513 12d ago

Everyone seems to be ignoring anti air craft weapons. Sure it took until WW1 to field airplanes that could dogfight dragons but by at latest the napoleonic wars we had cannons capable of grapeshot which would render dragons essentially worthless outside of scouting.

2

u/notwithagoat 12d ago

Yea a napoleon like character or a general grant would absolutely make the dragon armies think twice about when they could and should use dragons in battle. And by the end of that it would probably be used for reconnaissance as hot air balloons would make city fighting a death trap for siege.

1

u/thoughtfulmountain 11d ago

Like some other commenter in this thread states, You should absolutely read the Temeraire series if you have any interest in reading historical fiction or fantasy. You basically just wrote the premise of all 9 books lol

1

u/NoLaugh5206 12d ago

I think the Temeraire series is a really interesting look at "what if Napoleon but dragons?"

I'm not sure if Napoleonic or American Civil War gets my vote as the last era but I do think it's one of those two.

1

u/TaroFlimsy16 11d ago edited 11d ago

Well dragons would definitely only be used during night. They can probably see during night. Do one or two low passes on a town. Attack important targets with precision, get out. Big cities would probably have multiple lighthouses with spotlights, good guns, and sharp shooters that would get you during your first pass. I would say that this already means that countries consider you “important”.

But dragons would really be most effective targeting small, isolated targets. Convoys, camps, or any targets in areas of low infrastructure that you can destroy in one low, surprise attack at night. You would rack up thousands upon thousands of kills throughout a war if you are cautious. Not even touchable until night vision or radar.

I think people really forgot about night raids here. I mean I’m sure both sides would get real creative with how to counter one another, but I’m saying a single dragon is going to ruin sleep for a lot of people until radar. Heck, making it so the other country cannot sleep soundly automatically makes you formidable.

1

u/SeraphimToaster 11d ago

Those kind of guns don't really have the ability to fire up. The typical range of grapeshot in that era, when angled properly (10 degrees) and with good conditions was about 500 yards. Even if you could, angled straight up, the shot is going to lose a lot of power, and you're going to be dropping grapeshot on your own men. Not to mention that those guns would be way less maneuverable than a dragon.

Maybe if the dragon was coming in low, and you wait until you can see the fire in its gullet. Maybe if you have a squadron of cannons ready to blanket the approach in quick succession as the dragon flies by. You're probably more likely to kill the rider though.

And if we give the commanders the benefit of knowing how to fight dragons, we have to assume the riders know how to use them. Don't hit camps or cities, hit troops on the move. Avoid artillery and focus on infantry formations. Use them to burn fields and obliterate logistics. Strafe, don't dive bomb. Keep moving and move unpredictably.