War Dogs

[Hosakawa Tito]

These puppies are great in ambushing light infantry and peasants. I even used them to run down and kill a fleeing Gaulish Heavy Cav General in a Julii campaign. They are hard to control if they get too far from their handlers though, and can't be recalled. I'm still experimenting with a combo of light cav and these Hell Hounds for turning flanks of engaged infantry. They definitely work much better in the woods than cav, and are almost as fast. A nice specialty unit, and fun to watch up close. "Sick'em boy"

[LittleRaven]

I find that dogs work great on all manner of riff-raff, and will be largely slaughtered by professional soldiers who know what they doing. Which is exactly as it should be, I suppose. But they're so much fun that I can't help building them, even though I don't think I use them very well.

[Oaty]

They also can be used to cover a withdrawing army

[Beelzebub]

yeah I thought they would be stupid like elephants but theyre actually well done. You really have to think about when to unleash the hounds. If you let them go too early they'll be cut up easily by any organised unit (I told them to attack a full unit of slingers head on and the dogs were easily killed and only inflicted 1 or 2 casualties) but if you release them into a major scrum, they'll do well.

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

War dogs from the rear can start an instant panic, & they are at least as good as light cavalry at chasing down routers.

I did have a situation where I sent them against a fairly organized unit that I simply had to stop. They did the job I needed them to do, but I lost the whole unit.

[Blodrast]

didn't they regenerate though ? (or re-bred, or whatever)

[Kraxis]

yeah I thought they would be stupid like elephants

Elephants stupid? Explain please... I think they are nice, perhaps they are overpowered but I haven't got an oppinion on that yet (no game yet and the demo isn't good enough for that).

I can imagine the dogs are great for holding the enemy at bay while you deal with something else. Are they cheap?

[Blodrast]

nope, they're 680 and they take 2 turns (at least on normal size units). but my undersntanding was they regenerate. However, I'm not sure if totally from scratch, or at least some dog & bitch couple have to survive the battle...

[LittleRaven]

Can dogs be controlled at all once their handlers let them go?

I always considered them a 'fire and forget' weapon. I didn't think it mattered how close their handlers were; once they go, they're gone, come death or glory.

[LittleRaven]

They are definately not cheap. In fact, they're quite expensive. That's a good thing in my book, because they should be a specialty unit, not a army standard.

And they are fantastic at holding an enemy at bay, since they will cheerfully fight to the last pup. I haven't noticed them regenerating, though, so be aware that it's an expensive stopgap.

[Kraxis]

They are definately not cheap. In fact, they're quite expensive. That's a good thing in my book, because they should be a specialty unit, not a army standard.

And they are fantastic at holding an enemy at bay, since they will cheerfully fight to the last pup. I haven't noticed them regenerating, though, so be aware that it's an expensive stopgap.

GAH! Aha... GAH!

Quite expensive... I don't think I will use them for that then. So what happens when all the dogs have been killed? Is it then a unit of doghandlers?

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

The dogs regenerate, but the handlers do not. You don't lose handlers very often unless they are too close to enemy missle units, but if things get very confused or very close, you can lose the whole unit, handlers & dogs. That's only happened to me once.

It can be a bit confusing at first because the unit card will give the number of dogs, but the casualty report at the end gives the number of handlers. So you'll see your unit card number cut in half, but the report will say the unit had no casualties.

[Bob the Insane]

Do the dog units regenerate fully each turn??? (the dogs that is)...

oooh... And does number of handlers in the unit effect the number of dogs available???

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

Do the dog units regenerate fully each turn??? (the dogs that is)...

oooh... And does number of handlers in the unit effect the number of dogs available???

I can't recall the regeneration rate at the moment.

The number of handlers determines the number of dogs. I think each handler has 8 dogs, & a full unit has 12 handlers (96 dogs).

I haven't had sufficient experience with them yet to comment on how the experience works with them.

[TinCow]

Think of the unit as the group of dog handlers and the dogs as their ammunition. The ammo gets replenished after each battle, the dog handlers do not.

[Kraxis]

Ahhh... now it makes sense... I have the whole time thought the dogs must be rather fragile, and thus it seemed odd if the unit didn't replenish the dogs. I'm certain I will use a few.

But what about earning experience and adding equipment (swords and armour). It hopefully only goes to the handlers...