Cost: 2500 Hit Points: 100 Damage: 8-16 Armor: 0 Sight: 6 Speed: 14 Range: 4

Gryphon Rider
From the ominous and foreboding peaks of Northeron come the Dwarven Gryphon Riders. Mounted upon their legendary beasts and wielding the mystic Stormhammers forged deep within the secret chambers of their Aviaries, these feral Dwarves fear no enemy and rely upon no friend. They have allied themselves only with the Elves of Quel'thalas, distrusting both their Dwarven cousins and the Humans alike. When the call to battle is sounded, however, they can be counted upon to fight alongside any who oppose the Horde.

Dragon
Dragons are native to the untamed northland s of Azeroth. Reclusive by nature, Dragons have had little contact with their earthbound neighbors over the centuries. Rend and Maim, the Chieftans of the Black Tooth Grin clan, masterminded the capture of the Dragon Queen Alexstraza by the Dragonmaw clan. With their Queen held captive, these majestic creatures have been forced into subservience by the Horde - her progeny being raised by the Dragonmaw clan to slaughter the enemies of the Horde.

By combining their incredible destructive powers with a keen intellect, the Dragons represent the single most powerful force within the Horde. The devastating flame that issues forth from the mouths of the older serpents can level any number of enemy troops, while their powerful wings allow them to tirelessly soar through the skies.

Jobs
Killing Battleships. Killing Knights. To attack the enemy when they have no defense against them.

Orc vs Human:
No difference.

Purpose
Dragons and Gryphons are expensive toys that must be used only in certain situations. Although some may claim they are not worth the money and never worth building, they can dominate in certain situations when used properly.

On land maps Dragons will not be very useful except in free for all games, games where you have a lot more resources, an obvious skill level advantage over the enemy and games where the enemy cannot easily reach you such as Jimland.

Dragons are best used on Water maps where large packs of them can hop from island to island attacking and defending taking advantage of the enemy's inability to attack air targets. If the enemy has built up a group of Battleships and obviously has no defenses against Dragons such as Destroyers use Dragons to finish off the Battleships in hit and run attacks.

Dragons Are Best On Water Maps
You may find Dragons to be most useful on water maps. You can often find a Battleship without Destroyer support then force it to retreat or pick it off without the enemy noticing. When people invade they often just send Ogres and Knights. A Dragon or two can hold off an entire invasion if the enemy does not bring Mages and Archers. If the enemy next sends Archers instead of Knights/Ogres, they will not have enough ground attack power to defeat your own Bloodlusted Ogres or Healing Paladins. This will force the enemy to Bring a Mage or two or to send in another entire Transport or two full of units to attack just to fight the Dragons. Dragons can easily hop from one island to another to stop enemy expansion and to protect your own expansions. The enemy cannot easily get Dragon defenses from one island to another. Dragons also help with invasions, often the enemy does not have enough anti-air defenses to fight off a significant Dragon attack. You can first send in a group of Ogres or Knights, take out the anti-air units and buildings then follow up with a Bloodlusted Dragon or Gryphon attack. An alternate plan is to send in Demolition Squads to blow up enemy Guard Towers and Lumber Mills. Bloodlusted Hasted Dragons can also take on enemy Destroyers if there are only a few of them.

They Are Expensive
Dragons and Gryphons are 2500 Gold a piece. You can build 3 Bloodlusted Ogres for that price, or two Battleships. Because of their high price tag, Dragons should only be used when you have a significant resource advantage on the enemy. In most cases the enemy can fight Dragons and stay ahead financially because each Dragon produced is so expensive and doesn't bring the amount of damage for the Gold spent on it.

Build Up Large Numbers and Surprise the Enemy
Dragons take a long time to train. If the enemy knows you are making Dragons they can often build up more than enough defenses before you can make an effective attack force attack. When you plan to build a group of Dragons, prevent the enemy from discovering them by driving their Flying Machines off with Guard Towers, Archers and Destroyers. You can also attempt to hide the Dragon Roosts at some location where you believe the enemy will not be looking.

One Dragon is not going to win you the game unless the enemy has no idea how to deal with it.. For an effective attack, large numbers of Dragons should be used such as more than five. Due to the long building time and expensive cost, multiple Dragon Roosts will most likely be required to build up a significant force.

What to Attack First
When attacking enemy towns destroy Mages and Death Knights first followed by Archers. Then move on to important buildings.

Destroy the Lumber Mill and Mage Towers
One of the most effective Dragon attacks is to prevent the enemy from being able to defend against them. To do this destroy the Lumber mill which will prevent the enemy from training Archers and Guard Towers. Next destroy any Mage Towers or Temple of the Damned. Without these buildings the enemy will not be able to train anything capable of destroying your Dragons without rebuilding their buildings, using existing units or teammates to save them. You can be sneaky about this by sending some Demolition Squads or Goblin Sappers to destroy the Lumber Mill then immediately follow up with a Dragon attack.

Avoid attacking Guard Towers and stay out of Guard Towers range until you severely out number the Guard Towers with Dragons and the enemy cannot easily repair them while they're being attacked. If the enemy does try to repair the Guard Towers destroy the Peasants repairing them first before targeting the Guard Tower.

Combination Attack
Another effective attack is to do a preemptive attack with Knights or Ogres taking out any Archers, Mages and Guard Towers immediately followed up by a Dragon attack after you have destroyed their ability to defend against Dragons.

Bloodlust and Haste
Bloodlust and Haste can quickly turn Dragons into the ultimate killing machines. Hastes doubles the number of Dragon attacks in a given amount of time and also increases their movement speed to about 21. Bloodlust triples the damage of a Dragon attack. 2 Dragons with Haste and Bloodlust can take out a tower in 2-4 hits. They can also easily escape attacks with their lightning speed. Building can also be quickly destroyed. However, be warned that the Dragons can still be Polymorphed. Do hit and run attacks retreating when the Bloodlust and Haste has worn off. On water maps send a Transport full of Death Knights and Ogre-Magi to cast spells on the Dragons closer to the enemy town.

Use Bloodlusted Hasted Dragons to destroy enemy Flying Machines as they can quickly finish them off in about 2 hits before they can escape. The enemy is blind without them.

Heal Gryphons
Since Gryphons are so expensive (2500 Gold), it is worth it to research Healing for your Paladins. Attack with a group of Gryphons then send severely damaged ones back home to be healed by a Paladin. Send Paladins with your Gryphons to Heal them on the battle field.

Hide the Dragon
When attacking enemy towns, place Dragons over buildings especially large buildings such as the Town hall so that it is more difficult for the enemy to select and target the Dragon. Sometimes the enemy will begin attacking their own buildings.

Dragons/Gryphons Will Damage Themselves and Friendly Units.
Dragons care not for friend or foe. Once they attack anything on land or in the air will be hit. When using large numbers of Dragons sometimes Dragons will hurt each other with their area attack. Spread out the Dragons and make sure no friendly units on the ground are in the path. When fighting enemy Dragons/Gryphons make sure your own Dragons are spread out so the enemy cannot use splash damage to hit them all at once. Keep in mind Dragons fire in a straight line.

Dragon/Gryphon Feint
When players see Dragons or even a Dragoon Roost, often they panic and begin going all out anti-air defenses such as building plenty of Archers and Guard Towers. Orc and even Human players can use this to their advantage by building a Dragoon Roost and using a few Dragons and use them a mock attack. This may trick their enemy into focusing more on Archers and Towers in an attempt to defend against Dragons. But, instead of using Dragons, send in lots of Bloodlusted Ogres which they will not be prepared to defend against with Archers and Towers.

Try Not to Engage Destroyers
Destroyers with their low cost compared to Dragons can effectively battle and kill Dragons. If you kill a Destroyer you won't be significantly hurting the enemy but if they destroy your Dragon you will be out 2500 Gold. If you have a lot of Dragons and they have just a few Destroyers, it might be worth taking them on but if you start to lose don't be afraid to retreat.

When Not to Build Dragons:
You are not significantly out mining the enemy.

The enemy has Bloodlust and Axe throwers

The enemy has Death Knights with Death and Decay, Mages with Blizzard and Polymorph and knows how to use them.

The enemy has a lot of Guard Towers compared to Dragons around their resources.

Change Your Plans
Take a look at the Dragon situation then alter your building and training to deal with it. If there are a few Dragons build Guard Towers and a few Archers. Start getting upgrades for the Archers in the Lumber Mill. You may also want to build a backup Lumber Mill just in case the enemy tries to destroy your ability to build Archers.

If you are dealing with a lot of Dragons, try as quickly as possible to get Mages, Blizzard and Polymorph in addition to doing anything you can with Archers and Guard Towers. If they enemy has a lot of Dragons, Guard Towers really aren't going to help you. Blizzard and large collections of Rangers are the only defense once the enemy has built up a lot of Dragons.

If you are playing a water map, build Destroyers to intercept the Dragons before the enemy attacks and to protect your Battleships and Transports. Get the first Cannon upgrade for the Destroyers.

Spread Out
When fighting against Dragons and Gryphons with Axe Throwers and Destroyers, spread them out. Put your guys in a circle around the Dragon. Do not put any units next to each other or they will both get hit at the same time..

Run Under Them
Because Dragons can damage other Dragons in their attacks, instruct all of your Archers or Mages to run underneath the Dragons before attacking. The Dragons will still fire on them but they will be hitting themselves as well as your units.

Get Berserker/Ranger Training
This adds 10 hit points to each Axe throwers/Archers instantly.

Blizzard and Death & Decay
Blizzards can cut through large collection of Dragons. The slow response time for the Dragons can often be long enough for the Blizzard to destroy them.

Don't be afraid to Blizzard/D&D your own town to kill some Gryphons/Dragons.

Human Defenses

Healing-Combos
Use Archers, Gryphons and Mages to attack the Dragons then use Paladins to keep Healing them during the battle.

Rangers
Elven Rangers with the +3 attack upgrade can cut through Dragons in significant numbers.

Slow
Slow cuts the Dragons attack and movement speed in half. The long pause before firing severely reduces the attack power of the Dragon.

Polymorph
Polymorph is one of the best counters to Dragons. Polymorph instantly destroys a Dragon. The only drawback of Polymorph is that it requires 200 mana, and a lot of Mages when dealing with a lot of Dragons. But at 2500 Gold a piece, it's often quite possible to have enough Mages since they are only 1200 Gold.