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Set in the 14th century middle ages, a king led an army of 16000 men on a perilous expedition to steal fertile eggs from the dragon nest rest atop Mt Godamnhigh(fictional).

The king's advisor suggested to raise up their own dragons and train them for combat, a full grown adult dragon can stand at least 16m tall fly at a top speed of 90mph (unladen weight) non-stop across pacific ocean and had razor sharp claws capable of penetrating through 2m thick solid concrete wall with ease.

Despite being an apex carnivorous predator they will also consume at least 100 gallon of palm fruit oil and store them in a special sag around all its vital organs acting as a shock absorber and to allow the dragon to breathe fire with it.

The palm fruit oil will be converted into military grade napalm which cannot be put out by the likes of human, this isn't an evolutionary trait since all dragon loath the smell. Actually I still don't understand how the dragon learn to ignite the oil and spit it at its enemies, anyway this skill could only be taught as in passed down from the parents to their young!

The dragon in the wild is a solitary territorial cunning predatory animal and prefers sneak attack and ambushing it's prey over direct confrontation, however the juvenile are usually docile and enjoy hunting as a pack.

There is a rite of passage every young dragons must undertake in order to be recognized as a full fledged adult, the process involves killing their parents in a bloody brawl. Some claims that this allows them to think like a perfect killing machine. Their screech can be heard miles away and would prove deadly to human at close proximity.

Alright this is the first time I had written so much now back to the question, would domesticated dragons prove deadlier against their wild counterparts in a battle?

Note that the battlefield can take place anywhere. You may include human rider(s), and I promise to turn a blind eye for any underhand tactic used.

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    $\begingroup$ @Molot: think dolphin level... to be precise think bottle nose species! $\endgroup$
    – user6760
    Jan 19, 2017 at 8:28
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    $\begingroup$ I'm amused by your palm-fruit oil diet to fuel fire. I just hope your dragons aren't prone to arterial clogging! $\endgroup$
    – Catalyst
    Jan 19, 2017 at 15:14
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    $\begingroup$ from an evolutionary stand point killing your parents in this way doesn't make sense. As pointed out taken literally this results in a decrease of the population by 50% each generation. Even ignoring that it involves the death of your closest genetic relative which lowers the means of your genes to be spread, evolution would not favor this!!! As a possible better justification perhaps the young challenge their parent for access to the parents territory at adult hood, but parents never kill young. Instead young that fail have to leave to gain their own and parents only loose when too old. $\endgroup$
    – dsollen
    Jan 19, 2017 at 15:53
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    $\begingroup$ @user6760 you talk about it as if it's part of dragon culture, which implies sapient dragons. If so you should update the question to clarify that, because the word 'tame' implies a non-sapient wild animal to me. If they aren't sapient then they would be behaving on instinct, and instinct would likely be to spread out to find places with more food rather then kill your closest relative unless that relative is very old, too old to have more mating successes. $\endgroup$
    – dsollen
    Jan 19, 2017 at 18:44
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    $\begingroup$ @user6760 For non sapient species if there is too little food to support parent and child, and has been for so long to develop an instinctual, not cultural, manner of dealing with it, the parent will intentionally die to avoid competing with the child. It frees up the food the parent would have consumed, but avoids risking maiming or harming the child, killing a child you invested so much to help raise during lean times just to have another that will also try to kill you isn't worth it to the parent. One fight doesn't really 'hon' skills much, and the risk of harming the child too great. $\endgroup$
    – dsollen
    Jan 19, 2017 at 18:46

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It depends on many things but mostly no.

  • How was the dragon raised?

A single dragon who never had other dragons to play with cannot learn the basic dragon / dragon combat, since they learn it, when they are little dragon toddlers, what we foolishly interpret as playing.

If he had some other toddler dragons he'll at least learn some basic combat and flight skills, which humans cannot teach him.

  • How is the dragon taught to fight?

Does the training involve the dragon / dragon combat? Against what kind of dragons, wild ones as hunter / prey or against other animals? And to what level, death, exhaustion?

  • How good is the bond between dragons and humans?

While in combat, if the dragon sees it cannot win, will it submit the wild dragons or fight to the end to save their humans? Does it stay with the humans of free will or has it to be kept locked up?

  • Can your dragons communicate with other dragons / humans?

They would stand a better chance if they had some way of coordinating themselves.

One big issue, you might want to overthink:

Your normal dragons and the wild dragons are the same species. The wild dragons hunt as a pack and seem to do pretty well otherwise there wouldn't be any dragons around anymore. What you're doing is, you're forcing the dragons to fight in a way that isn't designed for their kind. They're pack hunters, it means they were designed and trained over centuries or millennia to hunt like wolves. This hunting has gotten into their genes and is their natural way.

You can compare it to a dog. I have a Romanian herd protection dog, some Carpatin mix. She in her 2.5 years has never been trained to herd sheep or any other things, but she performs pretty well if you let her lose on a herd of goats, she brings them together and protects them against intruders.

For the same reason. The Carpatin has done so for hundreds of years and she cannot be turned into some German Wirehaired Pointer.

So the combat style of the domesticated dragons should be as close to the wild dragon's combat as possible.

EDIT: Better example: You cannot make the German Wirehaired pointer Dog to a Dachshund. They're both for hunting, but different pray, different methods.

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A detail that hasn't been discussed until know is the terrain in which the battle takes place.

I think that your younger dragons would have problems fighting in a region with things that are inflammable. They cannot spit fire themselves and they have never met another one of their kind (at least in their first battle). Therefore they would probably be shocked if they met an elderly dragon setting on fire everything around them and therefore disrupting communication with the other members of their "pack". So fighting near a forest / small village / ... might be a bad idea.

On the other hand you have to make sure to surprise the victim as much as that's possible with your Small-Dragon-Army. This means that open territory is a bad idea too.

If your elderly dragons like to live on high mountains you might have the best chances. Or somewhere with a lot of water. An old abandoned village or castle with a lot of walls out of brick / stone / ... is a good idea too. The elderly dragon will want to use his fire-breath, a weapon he is accustomed to, but it won't be as effective as in other regions.

All in all your dragons, that are probably trained similar to dogs to wear out the enemy in a pack, are highly likely to fare well against their wild brothers fighting lonely. Especially if the humans help: ranged weapons, making armor, treating wounds and as a general mental support from mommy and daddy.

I recommend ambushes so that the difference in experience is not so important.

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The humans should take several young domesticated dragons into battle. They will instinctively favour hunting in a pack. Each would need to be ridden by a human, because careful strategy would be needed to gain the upper hand.

If a wild dragon is mature then it will be alone and isolated. This will give the domesticated pack a numerical advantage. If the wild dragons are immature then they will be naturally docile, which would give the human-controlled pack an advantage again.

The strategy against a solitary mature dragon should be to wear it out. It is presumably stronger than the younger dragons, but with persistent attacks coordinated by the pack its strength should eventually fail. It will also begin to run out of palm oil/napalm. The humans should hound it so persistently that the wild dragon cannot retreat to a place from which it can do battle in its preferred manner, or to a place where it can get more palm oil.

The strategy against the immature wild dragons should be to divide and conquer. Attack suddenly as a group to startle the docile pack, and pick off a weaker member as they fall behind. Retreat before the wild pack turn and defend, because open battle with many dragons is too risky to the human riders, who can be killed simply by a close-range screech. Each hit-and-run attack will weaken the wild pack until victory is assured.

NOTE: The humans should not take dragons who are ready to come of age. They should kill the dragons before they even reach that point. Why? Because in order to come of age, a dragon will instinctively turn on its parents. In this case the "parents" would be the humans it first saw when it hatched, who have raised it and provided for it.

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  • $\begingroup$ "In this case the "parents" would be the humans it first saw when it hatched, who have raised it and provided for it." Only if that process works exclusively by imprinting, which is unlikely in an animal as intelligent as the OP postulates. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Jan 19, 2017 at 8:52
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Will a domesticated dragon follow the tactical directions from the human trainers?

  • It might be taught not to attack pack mates. Cooperating dragons will win over solitary ones.
  • It might be taught to carry a rider or riders. They can watch against rear attacks, perhaps shoot at eyes.

Side note -- if each young dragon has to kill the parents, plural, each generation is half as large as the previous one.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm assuming the young, PLURAL, must kill the parent. Traumatizing, and think which ones have the greatest chance of surviving - teaches them not to trust their own kind. Take care that it doesn't happen on the battlefield (unless it's at the enemy's side). But yeah, tactics is key here. Especially coordination with human soldiers - tanks need infantry around them. $\endgroup$
    – kaay
    Jan 19, 2017 at 7:07
  • $\begingroup$ @kaay "14th century middle ages", "tanks"? $\endgroup$
    – user
    Jan 19, 2017 at 8:48
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    $\begingroup$ @MichaelKjörling Analogy. Modern tanks need soldiers on foot to cover their vulnerabilities and make the unit more versatile. There are many ways a dragon well-coordinated with archers, siege, etc, would work much better than working separately. $\endgroup$
    – kaay
    Jan 19, 2017 at 9:31
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Quite possibly yes actually.

see, you could ride your domesticated dragons as is, if their scales are already hard as steel (but then, no human weapons can harm them anyway so good luck getting your eggs in the first place).

it's much more likely that their skin is just very tough (think elephant skin) and in that case you might want to consider putting armor on your dragons, maybe some steel spikes over their claws and tail. this extra weight would ofcourse slow them down, but the extra offensive and defensive capabilities should counteract this.

the main problem your domesticated dragons face is breathing fire: they won't learn it from a parent if you steal them as eggs. to solve this you might want to study dragons to see if you can find out HOW a dragon teaches it's young how to breath fire.

as a plus: a few domesticated dragons backed by an army which had portable ballista's would ofcourse be alot more powerfull than a few wild dragons.

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Assuming they have been fed and possibly equipped better as well as recieving care if injured, the only thing wild dragons might have on their side is experience and independence. They would probably have been in more scraps and wouldn't have been able to rely on human intelligence. Wild dragons would probably be more careful going into a fight and would go straight for the kill. If a domestic dragon has humans with them this would be an obvious advantage. Domestic dragons would probably be bigger and healthier but less prepared for the dangers of the wild and more reckless.

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