how do you dealing with black dragons as a mage ?

[Lestas]

there are lots of ways to OHKO dragons in most cases
* Skeleton archers (or elves) + Dragon Arrows
* Faeries (with the ring)

[bsctgod]

I casted Mass Dragon Slayer on my troops and threw in Knights into my standard troop layout after hitting Haas' Labyrinth.

If you're lucky to get some decent anti-dragon items, you can also wear the Shield of Rahha(+6 Defense, -50% attack of enemy dragons) and that sword that gave +5 attack and +50% attack against dragons; the green-hued one, can't remember the name of it.

[lanstro]

If you use a single-stack dryad army, armageddon will destroy blackies. I didn't run into any black dragon stacks large enough to survive 3 armageddons in impossible.

[Lathspell]

I managed it with the mass dragon slayer spell + elves and hunters. Faeries kinda suck against them, since they have magical damage. Also the ghost sword spell goes through their resistance, so that's an option as well. And of course, the Reaper's Black Hole is wonderful. Knights are another nice option, and their speed is not that big of an issue since the dragons will come to you. Couple that with the sword and the shield that give bonuses against them + dragon slayer spell, and you've got a killer stack. The nice part is that they're in infinite amounts at the castle by the time dragons pose a real problem.

[YENKO]

Since dragons have such a high initiative, investing in Readiness after hitting Demonia may prove useful.
Also, buffing high-initiative stacks (like lake fairies+Anga's ring) will allow you to have the first strike. Not spells on the dragon itself, but something else like spawning extra fodder units and place them on the dragon path, like Demon Portal, Phoenix, Phantom, Trap etc.

In KB there is no such thing as 'universal army composition'.

[Gatts]

Originally Posted by YENKO

Since dragons have such a high initiative, investing in Readiness after hitting Demonia may prove useful.
Also, buffing high-initiative stacks (like lake fairies+Anga's ring) will allow you to have the first strike. Not spells on the dragon itself, but something else like spawning extra fodder units and place them on the dragon path, like Demon Portal, Phoenix, Phantom, Trap etc.

In KB there is no such thing as 'universal army composition'.

Now I realized I never tried TRAP on black dragons... does it actually work?

[TemjinGold]

Originally Posted by Gatts

Now I realized I never tried TRAP on black dragons... does it actually work?

Yes but you need Green Dragons to drag them over it. Otherwise, they just fly past the trap.

[Stepsongrapes]

Originally Posted by Lestas

there are lots of ways to OHKO dragons in most cases
* Skeleton archers (or elves) + Dragon Arrows
* Faeries (with the ring)

Physical damage archers + Dragon Arrows is definitely my favorite way of taking out dragons, especially black dragons. A fair-sized stack of hunters can take down 10 or more blacks in one shot.

Take away their defense and what you have left is a lizard with generally poor hit points for its leadership value that goes down easy.

[Gatts]

Well, there are sure many ways of taking down dragons, and I use many of them... but my favorite is:

Plague (-30% to all stats) + Ancient Vampires (bats) (if enemy is too strong, I use phantom/ necro call to give my real units some time to "recover" using hit'n'run tactic) But what I like is not the effectiveness, but the REAL BLOOD hand-to-hand battle mode... FACE to FACE battle with dragons... AWESOME IMHO

[YENKO]

Originally Posted by Gatts

but the REAL BLOOD hand-to-hand battle mode... FACE to FACE battle with dragons... AWESOME IMHO

Amen to that.....and then some mana farming and resurrect everyone