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Anti-Dragon tactics


Waters Gate

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Catapults and trebuchets are siege weapons that are very slow to move, aim and reload. They would be useless against a dragon, like trying to hit a plane with a wrecking ball.

Absolutely true. A real-life full-sized trebuchet takes a looooong time to cock, load, and shoot, and it's not mobile at all. The counterweight alone weighs several tons and the framework has to be able to support more than that because of dynamic loading (for hobbyist machines a 10X factor is recommended). .

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Absolutely true. A real-life full-sized trebuchet takes a looooong time to cock, load, and shoot, and it's not mobile at all. The counterweight alone weighs several tons and the framework has to be able to support more than that because of dynamic loading (for hobbyist machines a 10X factor is recommended). .

The only way to have this work is to assemble all the siege weapons at a stronghold, cock and load them and somehow provoke a dragon attack. When it arrives just bombard it with everything you got and hope something hits.

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weirwood arrows, as Brandon Snow would do



waterspouts, as the rhoynar did



if we're allowed to guerilla, I'd try and poison their food



I really think it'd be too hard to hit them with a scorpion


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Aquirable at an economical price aswell, though it's a wonder that source hasn't run dry yet.

Surely one must be able to reason that a decade's collection of Walder Frey underwear must be of some formidablep potency against dragons. If not gluing hem to the ground, might aswell work to poisen them in some way.

I have read that dragons have iron rich bone's. I guess it will still take some time before Westeros can develop powerfull electromagnets.

Now dragons need oxygen to produce flame right? they even need some air density in order to be able to fly i guess. Are they still as effective against a castle placed at 30.000 feet?

Well okay unless ASOIAF has invented Oxygen tanks I don't think humans would survive in a castle at 30,000 feet either... but since we are talking hypothetically here; I say MAGIC FTW.. use a sleeping charm have him take nap. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to put Walder's underpants on anyone :)

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That was my point. Morality aside, you cannot kill everyone in the region because then there is no reason to be taking the region. Being civilized isn't counted on. I am counting on them wanting to conquer the region. That means the people as well as the land.

The Romans sometimes exterminated people who put too much of a resistance, and just repopulated the land sending roman colonists and slaves.

They also sometimes enslaved and sold whole populations because it was a quicker profit than taxing them.

And sometimes they exterminated a whole population, leaving only a few women and children so they could repopulate.

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Attach a bottle of poison to the neck of every goat in a herd, and keep that herd in an area the dragon is known to frequent.



Barbed spears or barbed arrows seem like good potential weapons. Something that goes in and cuts and cuts as the creature moves. Even if you just put a few through it's wing membrane, they might rip it.



I wonder if you might be able to make some sort of explosive trap for them using manure in an enclosed, but combustible, structure? Get them to to light it up and 'boom'.


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And wildlings shot arrows straight up a 700 foot tall wall. Sometimes even a great series like ASOIAF doesn't make logical sense.

Guerilla warfare in reality is something you resort to once you've tried and failed with every real plan, but surrender for some reason just isn't acceptable. Some people have a romanticized picture of it, however, probably because "reprisals against civilians" is something that never crosses their minds when they think about how the enemy would react.

If you melt away into the deserts/forests with all your troops and refuse to give battle, what's stopping the dragon-armed enemy from simply torching every town and castle in your country that doesn't immediately surrender and switch sides to theirs*? You won't protect them since you are hiding somewhere together with your men, so their only chance of survival is to yield.

*And maybe give the dragonriders some information about where the guerillas have their bases, too...

I think the lack of centralised large towns and castles helped teh Dornish there. Also their ancestors have infinite more experience fighting (considerably more) Dragons than teh other Kingdoms in Westeros, so they probably knew what they were doing

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I like the explosive trap idea two posts above me. I also like Jon of the Dead's idea about poisoning their food supply.

I would personally try to stay indoors, in a place with multiple exits or an underground tunnel, and have the place set up to collapse or explode when the dragon tears his way in. Or I would try and fight in a part of a city where the buildings are tightly packed, with many corners and narrow alleys that dragons can't get to. I would release a poisoned arrow or crossbow bolt if/when I could sneak up close enough, run away, lose the dragon, and repeat.

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Kill a sheep, stuff it with hellebore, belladonna, hemlock, sulphur and some more drugs, bless the offering in the sept and then throw it to the dragon.



Diarrhea guaranteed, death... not so much.


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Its a thread about anti-dragon tactics. Said so in the title. Think you can defeat a dragon or an army with a dragon with a clever trick?

Here is an idea of mine. Attack the dragonlords during a storm. How opperational are dragons during tornado's? How well does their dragonfire work trough pouring rain?

As mentioned, Argilac Durrandon the Arrogant tried that in Last Storm.

About arrows: it was not just Meraxes in Dorne whom the Rhoynar felled! Garin faced 3 dragons in one battle, and with arrows killed 2 of them, while the third fled, wounded. It helped that they were fighting on Rhoyne, and soldiers could wade into water for protection against dragonfire - and Rhoynar river wizards were able to raise waterspouts.

Another thing that helps is harpoons. The dragonseeds were said to have fought "valiantly" on the Gullet. How very valiant of them to rain down fire from the apparent invulnerability of dragonback, and then as soon as the smallest of the 5 was downed (after destroying 2/3 of the foe) abandon their homes to cruel sack and their leader to hail of arrows.

Repeat again: all 4 old dragons were older, bigger and less vulnerable than Vermax. And had hotter, longer range fire, so could fly higher and safer than Vermax and still burn enemies.

Even if they gave up fighting for victory for moment, and strafing the line of the ships, they could have concentrated to burn that Myrish galley near Jacaerys and see to it that he was safe on his wreckage. And then leave, say, 2 smaller dragons defending the immediate vicinity of Jacaerys on his wreckage and send the other 2 back exterminating the remaining third of foes.

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The Romans sometimes exterminated people who put too much of a resistance, and just repopulated the land sending roman colonists and slaves.



They also sometimes enslaved and sold whole populations because it was a quicker profit than taxing them.



And sometimes they exterminated a whole population, leaving only a few women and children so they could repopulate.





The romans had a huge-ass army and did not rely on magical flying lizards.


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The romans had a huge-ass army and did not rely on magical flying lizards.

The Valyrians had a huge-ass army too, in addition to their dragons. And the Targayren too (the Young Dragon conquered Dorne without dragon, usin a huge-ass army).

Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters were the only ones who didn't have a huge army to support their dragons.

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