Eyrie/1.03.24

Level 1
The Dark Dwarves have access to some great fliers which can make their Eyrie worth building even at tier 2. Although not necessary to make the Dark Dwarves perform well, their basic and advanced fliers can be used effectively along side your main attack force to really displease your opponent through clever strategical actions. With Firebats able to target and burn down important enemy buildings, the Wyvern's ability to quickly aid the Dark Dwarven Siege Weapons, or generally cause panic with two solid Dragon choices, you can always find use for the units the Dark Dwarven Eyrie can produce.

Level 2
The Eyrie level 2 bring to the Dark Dwrven army a great advanced flier and a research to increase its speed. The Wyvern is arguably the best advanced flier in the game and can be used to circumvent the speed issues caused by the generally poor speed of nearly all the Dark Dwarven units. With the ability to dart between the enemy and your vulnerable siege weapons, or bundled together with Firebats and a Dragon for a devastating aerial siege, Wyverns can prove to be useful enough to be considered for regular production and thus you may want to obtain a couple of level 2 Eyries. If you also plan on using Firebats along side them for added destruction, then you could also opt for even more Eyries.

Level 3
The stone cost to reach a level 3 Eyrie for the Dark Dwarves can be somewhat challenging, clashing with the production of Stone Golems, some Siege Weapons and building their expensive towers. But once met, the Dark Dwarves can unleash two Dragons on the opposite spectrum to each other - the Fire Dragon and Frost Dragon. Both of which can be incredibly game changing in one way or the other. Although Dark Dwarves aren't short of answers for tackling bases, a Fire Dragon with a bunch of Firebats allows them to siege bases even from the skies. Frost Dragons on the other hand can make a mess of enemy infantry planning to rush your slow troops.

As the Dark Dwarves don't need to sacrifice much in order to produce a Dragon, they can field one somewhat easily. However, due to the sheer cost in gold and crystal, it may be difficult to have Wyverns produced along side them. As such, you may not want to build anymore Eyires than what you would normally have at this point, or at least no more than an additional one. Three to four Eyries for the production of all three flier classes is probably enough in most cases. And if you don't plan on using Firebats and Wyverns (much), then you could even just stick to a couple for the Dragons.

Level 1
With the first Eyrie level, the Dwarves gain Eagles. Although their building prowess is vastly outclassed by Dwarven Smiths, their fast movement speed and ability to fly makes them ideal for scaling the map and building a structure in a location far away from your base, a location that would normally take a Dwarven Smith forever to reach with their grounded and terribly slow movement speed. Eagles are also one of the better basic fliers for combat, so even if you have no intention of building beyond your base, they can still be used for aerial combat. But keep in mind the gold cost needed for Eagles and Eyries, which could hamper the rest of the Dwarven economy if you spend too much on them. As such, a single Eyrie would probably suffice in tier 2.

Level 2
The Eyrie level 2 opens up the Dwarves to another fast moving unit - the Griffon. But unlike the Eagle, the Griffon is far more effective in battle through its higher stats and ability to hit ground targets as well as aerial ones. With this new unit, the Dwarves can now pull off strategies that no other unit in the race could even remotely try, such as ambushes, hit and run etc... Although Griffons certainly prove they have a lot of uses for the Dwarves, they also cause conflicts with other useful things, too. With the requirement of gold and stone for both the Eyrie upgrades and the Griffons, they hit hard the already struggling Dwarven economy, especially since Runelords become present in the same tier. Because of this, Griffon production will likely end up being rather situational, and thus not needing to build many Eyries at all. You may even find that a single Eyrie level 2 for both Eagle and Griffon production is all you need.

Level 3
For Dwarves to get an Eyrie level 3 up, they require much use from their Trading Post, more specifically referring to the Trade skill. The Dwarves can use their newly obtained Dragons in a similar role to the Griffons, but while they loose the stone cost and gain a much less used crystal cost, they still require that huge gold cost. Although, once again the Trading Post can help out here, too. As the Dragons can be used to replace Griffons, you wont have any real need to build another Eyrie for them. Perhaps one more for Eagles if you have need for long distance construction, but other than that you should be set with just one in a typical game.

As for the choice of which Dragon to produce, a Storm Dragon would prove more useful to the Dwarves than a Fire Dragon in most cases. Simply because Dwarves are already great for knocking down buildings, with plenty of units dealing extra damage to them, as well as Runelords already possessing a fire type attack. Storm Dragons can be mostly used to protect Siege Weapon convoys and making their base defense even more formidable. As nearly every single Dwarven unit has high resistance and a special resistance to all elemental attacks, as well as having a hidden resistance to poison and being so slow that any further loss of speed wont really matter, they therefore aren't bothered much by enemy spellcasters. As such, their Storm Dragons will only really need to charge against enemy spellcasters that threaten their Siege Weapons.

Level 1
With the Empire's naturally poor Archers, Eagles can be produced from the Eyrie level 1 to help them combat tougher fliers that may appear early on, such as Archons from Temples, Harpies from lairs and most of the Daemon race. Eagles are still imited in effect and should be used along side Archers. Because of this, Eagles wont be mass produced to the same extents of Pikemen, for example, so a single Eyrie at this stage should be fine for most cases.

Level 2
The Eyrie level 2 brings Griffons to the Empire, which can be used as a more prominent aerial force than Eagles. Their raw power certainly helps the Empire tackle aerial threats, but when combined with Archers and especially Mages, the Empire finally have a respectable counter to aerial attacks. With healing support from White Mgaes, the Empire's Griffons will last longer than usual, which reduces the amount you need to produce in the long run. This means you don't need to build many Eyrie level 2s at all, as what ever you have produced is likely to still be around by the time you wish to produce more.

Level 3
With 3 different types of useful spellcasters that require a mix of gold and crystal, the Empire occasionally overlook their Dragon choices. However, the choices they do have a both great ones, but more specifically the Frost Dragon. With Red Mages and Siege Weapons, the Empire wont want to wait for the production of a Swamp Dragon before assailing an enemy base. But with frost being an attack type only used by the Black Mage and via a spell, the Frost Dragon essentially brings a new attack type to the army. With much gold and crystal being spent in tier 5, the Empire's priority for Dragons becomes quite low, and with the amount of Red Mages that can be produced for the same cost as a Swamp Dragon, that particular choice for a Dragon becomes even lower.

Nonetheless, a Frost Dragon makes for a decent support unit, slowing down important threats and metaphorically punching Daemons in the face, a race that would have been giving the Empire trouble throughout the game. But with such a competing cost, the Empire wont have many opportunities of producing them. Fortunately though, the White Mages shine once more be ensuring that any Dragon the Empire do get will last a long time. Because of all this, a single, lone Eyrie level 3 is more than acceptable.

Level 1
The Eyrie level 1 can only produce Eagles. Although limited, Eagles can be used along side Squires where the two can work together to offer passable aerial defense against the more powerful fliers that can crop up early game via spells and temples. Typically you wont be building many of them (unless your enemy has a way of spamming them) as such, there isn't much demand for Eyries and you wont need many of them (if any at all!) at this early stage of the game.

Level 2
Once upgraded, the Eyrie can produce Pegasi in addition to Eagles. Although Pegasi are decent units, the problem for them is that the Knight race also gain access to Archons at the same time - a unit that is largely Superior to the Pegasus and also shares the same resource types. Unless you are facing against fire resistant units, or enemies with a lot of electrical attacks, then producing Pegasi is unnecessary and aiming for an Eyrie level 2 is not needed, other than the preparation for Dragons in tier 5.

Level 3
The Knights are one of the few races that get access to Celestial Dragons and makes building up to an Eyrie level 3 worth while. Because of the Knights access to Trade and Income, getting to a Celestial Dragon isn't particularly difficult. And once you get one, it'll make getting following Dragons even easier. With Pegasi outclassed by Archons and Eagles being fairly useless at this stage of the game, all Eyries could be upgraded to level 3 and purely used for Dragon production. Most of the time you would want Celestial Dragons, as their abilities are just amazing. Fire Dragons aren't of much importance because of Archons, but can thrive where Archons would suffer due to their electrical weakness, such as facing an Undead / High Elven base or assailing spellcasters that know Call Lightning.

Level 1
Every race has a building that can produce fliers, and for the Minotaurs it's the Eyrie. The Minotaurs don't get any researches from them and none of their other researches affect their flying units, leaving them as raw as they come. Their choice of fliers is pretty poor, with the Frost Dragon being the only exception - Bats are downright terrible, the Griffon is only average with no special features, and the Storm Dragon is the least effective of all the Dragons. Fortunately, all is not lost as the Frost Dragon's ability to constantly freeze multiple enemy units makes them one of the best non-titan units in the entire game.

Level 2
Like all non-Dragon fliers, Griffons aren't anything special - possessing only above average stats and no special traits. This is all a level 2 Eyrie provides for the Minotaurs, which makes it some what unappealing. Although, Griffons can help with fast aerial combat that can make up for the Minotaurs' slow and short-ranged missile units, who would usually be confounded by fast aerial targets. As the cost for the Eyrie upgrade and Griffons are both gold and stone, you can effectively obtain them for free through Gnoll assassinations and Basilisk personifications. So it's no real waste if you get an Eyrie level 2 and don't use it much.

Level 3
The Minotaurs' Eyire can start to produce Frost Dragons once it reaches level 3. It can also produce Storm Dragons, but they're not nearly as useful as the almighty Dragons of sub-zero temperatures! Once you get an Eyrie level 3, you'll probably find yourself building Frost Dragons most of the time, with the occasional Storm Dragon and some Griffons here and there. Due to the rarity of those units, you wont have need for many Eyries and can usually manage with just a couple. Although, you would want to get them to level 3 so you can have two Dragons in production where necessary.

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