Indeed, the Black Dragon in Heroes of Might and Magic III is a very inconvenient unit – it’s expensive and takes a long time to build (by the time you build everything necessary in the Castle, the Barbarians will have been producing 3 monsters per week for a month).
Building order:
1. Stronghold
2. Castle
3. Wolves
4. Rukh
5. Black Dragon!
Plus 2 more days for stockpiling and building whatever else you like
(Orcs + Ogres, for example).
And if you already have Wolves in the Castle, you can even build Cyclops.
Of course, this is on a rich map with sufficient resources.
But for the Black Dragon, you need ALL the creatures before it, plus 2 levels of the Red Guild of Mages – even with abundant resources, it takes until the second week!
Furthermore, the Barbarians require wood + ore + crystals, while the Dungeon requires all resources!
Black Dragons move faster, attack two at a time (if the enemies are positioned favorably), and are immune to all magic! Unless, of course, there is an artifact that removes natural immunity to resistance. Manticores are much better than Rukh (they have more health), and even upgraded Minotaurs hit so hard that it’s amazing! The Barbarian Castle has little magic; at most, you can count on a Ring of Cold and Lightning! But in the Dungeon, everything is normal; all five levels are available, and with a bit of luck, you can get a Portal, and with it, Chain Lightning, Rain, or Armageddon (which is ideal for a mage, which is how I play), and for dessert, Explosion or Dimension Door. So, the Dungeon is powerful!
