Howdy troublesome samurai and welcome back to Mech Overview! This week we are looking at one of my favorite mechs, the Dragon. The Dragon is one of the iconic mechs of the Draconis Combine, and has an appearance that really screams “Do-everything dork mech”. The Dragon tends to be fast, capable at longer ranges, and, most importantly, cheap. We will also be covering the unfortunately named Grand Dragon, which is functionally the exact same mech and miniature with a different name.
Chassis
The Dragon is a 60 ton heavy mech and is generally considered to be much more of a fat medium mech than a light heavy mech. Most variants are comparatively fast and the Dragon usually costs medium mech BV instead of heavy mech BV. They are quite good when paired with Panthers, as the Dragons act as a durable and fast frontline that can draw fire away from the backline Panthers. Dragons also work fantastically in groups, and the new Force Manual: Kurita even has a lance type that is just 4 of the same mech, which seems tailor made for the Dragon. Overall it is mostly designed to fill a hole in a force or bulk out a battle line. Most Dragons are not going to do anything incredible on their own, but they can support other mechs or gang up on targets to annoy them to death.
Variants
These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).
DRG-1N
The base model and OG, the 1N comes in at 1125 BV. For that rate you get a 5/8/0 60 tonner with mediocre front armor, thick back armor for some reason, and a fairly anemic weapon load. It carries an AC/5, an LRM-10, and two medium lasers, one of which points backwards and sucks. It also carries a huge amount of ammo, a full 4 tons, 2 for each gun. There is no world where this mech gets to shoot all 40 rounds of AC/5 ammo. In addition, its right torso is an ammo bomb, only containing ammo, and the left torso might as well be ammo because it only has that rear laser in it.
Without exaggeration this is one of the worse 3025 heavy mechs. It will blow up and die at an insane rate and I have nothing good to say about it. Most of these problems will be addressed later, but we are off to a horrible start with this undergunned bomb of a mech.
Rating: F
DRG-1C
This is exactly the same as the 1N, it just costs more at 1215, carries more armor (though still poorly laid out and back heavy), and trades the AC/5 out for an AC/2. This is, somehow, worse than the 1N, an unremittingly terrible heavy mech.
Rating: F
DRG-1G
The first Dragon to carry the “Grand Dragon” upgrade designation, the 1G is a lot better. For 1300 BV you get the same armor and movement as the 1N, but you upgrade the weaponry to swap the AC/5 for a PPC and add an extra front facing medium laser. You still carry too much LRM ammo but you can fix that by dumping half of it on the first turn. The mech also gains a couple of heat sinks so it is heat neutral at a run with its PPC, and it is cheap. 1300 for a 5/8/0 PPC with decent medium mech grade armor, an LRM-10, and some medium lasers up close, is an ok deal for the time. It isn’t incredible and in later periods it is badly out-competed by other Dragons and most medium mechs of comparable price, but it is far better than the other two succ wars variants.
Rating: D+
DRG-5K
Another Grand Dragon, the 5K is a pretty substantial upgrade. At 1358 BV, only slightly more than the 1G, you upgrade to an XL engine and 6/9/0 movement speed, get double heat sinks, and upgrade to an ERPPC as a main gun. This is one of the better “New Toy” advanced tech mechs of the early 3050s, and is pretty good at bullying bug mechs and slow Clan lights like the Adder or Kit Fox. This is the first Dragon that I use a significant amount, and I am pretty fond of it. It isn’t incredible, but it works.
Rating: C
DRG-5K-DC
This is nearly the same mech for 1322 BV, it just trades one of the front firing medium lasers out for a Command Console. If you are playing with command console rules, this is one of the better command console mechs due to how cheap it is. 1322 for a reasonably rugged, reasonably fast chassis that gives an initiative bonus is a good deal. If you aren’t using the command console rules it is basically a bit worse than the 5K, but it is really good if you are using this ruleset.
Rating: C- normally, B+ with the Command Console rule in effect.
DRG-5N
Back to normal dragon world, we have a pretty horrible case of “New Toy Syndrome”. For 1223 BV, you get the same armor and movement as the 1N, and drop the AC/5 and rear firing laser for a UAC/5. It still has ammo bomb side torsos, worse because the rear laser is gone so both side torsos literally only have ammo crits. They are CASE’d on a standard engine, but you will quickly find yourself trying to kick people to death with the wandering center torso of a heavy mech. Mech Bad, unfortunately.
Rating: F
DRG-5Nr
God I hate it here. I really want to like the 5Nr, it has a lot of traits I like. At 1252 BV, it is fairly cheap, and it has a much better weapon load than most other Dragons. It carries a light AC/5 with 2 tons of ammo, so you can load precision and go nuts. It has 2 front facing medium lasers, a C3 slave, the rear laser, and an LRM-10. It even moves the LRM-10 to a side torso to make the ammo bomb less bad.
Less is the operative word there, because the right torso is still literally only ammo crits and even with CASE will still maul your pilot and take off a decent amount of your anemic firepower. Mech Bad, unfortunately. I had forgotten that all the early Dragon variants explode like fucking TIE fighters the second anything sneezes on them.
Rating: F
DRG-7K
Back to Grand Dragon world where things work but are possibly racist, the 7K is so good in comparison to every other Dragon and you feel that in the price tag. We shoot up to 1702 BV, a steep price tag without any durability improvements, but everything else gets massively better. Starting out, the 7K has a MASC system that lets it move 6/9(12)/0, and that 12 hex run can be a life saver for TMM and repositioning. It trades out the guns for an ER PPC, 3 ER medium lasers that all face forwards in the left arm, opposite the PPC. It also carries a C3 slave, and has exchanged the LRM-10 for an MRM-10, which is a downgrade but not a significant one. It also has enough heat sinks to shoot the PPC and all lasers while only building movement heat, which is awesome. There is a lot to like here, and the only thing holding it back is the price tag. I think you can do a lot better for 1702 BV, but you can also do way worse.
Rating: C
DRG-7KC
The 7KC comes in at 1673 and has a few changes from the 7K. Armor is thinner across the board, but not hugely so. It exchanges the C3 slave for a Boosted C3 slave, which helps you cut through ECM. The MRM has also been traded out for an MML-5, which is a strict upgrade in my opinion. Nothing else changes, and this is quite a good mech. Even with the thinner armor I would recommend this over the 7K. It has slightly better guns, is slightly cheaper, and generally seems like a slightly better deal.
Rating: C+
DRG-7N
Back in the regular Dragon zone, we have a fucking hilarious mech. For 1495 BV you get the same armor and 5/8/0 movement we are used to, but trade the guns out for an insane and hilarious mix. You get a gauss rifle, an AC/5, a medium laser pointing forwards, an MRM-10 which is whatever, and you no longer have an ammo bomb of instant death anywhere on the mech, just a regular CASE’d ammo bin. It also has single heat sinks, but is more or less heat neutral so who cares. This is hilarious, it can semi-consistently provoke a PSR on its own, and I really like it. I need to use this one more. It isn’t fantastic, but 1495 for a reasonably rugged, reasonably fast gauss rifle is a good rate.
Rating: C+
DRG-9KC
Another Grand Dragon, the 9KC is intended to serve as the C3 master Dragon in an all Dragon C3 lance. It costs a bargain bin 1147 BV, and carries a snub PPC, 2 medium lasers, one rear firing, an MML-5, and a C3 master. This is quite a good weapon setup for close range, so the 9KC is clearly designed to jump in to brawl with the enemy while spotting for its fellow Dragons that carry longer ranged weapons. It doesn’t have the MASC, so it just moves 6/9/0, unlike the 7K and 7KC. I have run this a few times as the leader of my Kuritan C3 forces, and it does good work. It is also a solid brawler even without being in a C3 network, Snub PPCs are good and 1147 is a very reasonable price for this statblock.
Rating: B-
DRG-10K
Oh god. The 10K comes in at 1603 BV and carries much thicker and better armor than the Dragon standard, actually being capable of taking an AC/20 to a side torso without exploding. For weapons, we have a Snub PPC, an MRM-20 with Apollo FCS to help with accuracy and debuff clusters, and a pair of front facing ER medium lasers. This is all basically fine, the weird part of this mech is the armor. It has Anti-Penetrative Ablation armor, which functionally just means it is resistant to through-armor criticals, either random or from armor piercing ammo/weapons. This is nice, but will come up fairly rarely against most players. This is honestly just an adequate mech. Not great, not terrible, just adequate. I feel nothing about it.
Rating: C
DRG-12K
The 12K is more fun. For a mind-boggling 2265 BV, you get a significant boost. Weaponry has been upgraded to Clan standards, with a Clan ER PPC, 2 Clan medium pulse lasers, one firing backwards, and a Clan LRM-10. It also has MASC to move 6/9(12)/0, and the armor is significantly thicker with no weird special rules. This is very expensive, but this is basically a Clan medium mech and it seems appropriately costed for a Clan medium mech. I would take the 9KC or 5K-DC in most games, but if you have points to burn or a very low unit limit this could be a lot of fun.
Rating: C
DRG-C
This is literally just a 5K that trades one of the front lasers for a C3 slave. Take it if you want to run a 5K in a C3 network.
Rating: C-, better than a 5K in a C3 network.
DRG-1G “Douglas”
This is a weird one. At a bargain bin price of 1076, you get standard 1N armor with an AC/5, LRM-5, SRM-6, and the rear firing laser. This isn’t good, it still has an ammo bomb and now has ammo in all 3 torso locations, but it is weird.
Rating: F
DRG-2Y “Yoriyoshi”
Another bizarre Dragon, this one costs 1257 BV. Fir guns we have a large laser, small laser, medium laser, flamer, and an SRM-4. It manages to not have a literal ammo bomb, but there is still a 50% chance of a left torso crit killing the mech instantly. To help with that it has the best armor out of any Dragon we have looked at. It is fine but far from great, more functional than a 1N but not by a mile.
Rating: D
DRG-5K “Emory”
A weird prototype mode, the Emory costs 1431 BV and carries a weird mix of stuff. It has a prototype ER large laser, an LRM-15, and a medium laser. It also carries some prototype double heat sinks, letting it sink 18 heat. I don’t super know how to feel about this, but my gut says it isn’t great. The prototype ERLL builds 15 heat, and if I am remembering correctly prototype double heat sinks are corrosive and explode.
Rating: F, probably?
DRG-7K “Mark”
Markiplier here costs 1817 BV and carries some fun stuff. We have a heavy PPC, LRM-15, ER medium laser, and a C3 slave. It has a cased ammo bin and MASC, moving it 5/8(10)/0, one of the single worse movement values in the entire game. You get charged like you can get that 10 hex move for +4 TMM every turn, but god help you if you actually want to get that much TMM. You will basically never get to run in a straight line for 10 hexes, so that is just wasted BV. I love heavy PPCs and wish there was a good Dragon variant with one.
Rating: F/D depending on how you feel about the price.
Conclusion
Wow the Dragon sure does exist. Locally we have been playing with the optional Command Console rules lately, so the 5K-DC is my most used variant and by a lot. The 9KC is a runner up just due to it being so efficient, but most Dragons cost a bit too much or are too fragile to justify the expense. This is a damn shame, the mech is very cool looking, but there really isn’t much to make it stand out from other, better heavy mechs.
Running a full C3 lance of them is hilarious though, and I recommend trying it at least once if you are also a Dragon enjoyer.
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