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)

[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.

[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...

[Nelson]

I never seem to have enough money to afford the dogs. One day when the empire is filthy rich I'll give them a try.

[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???

[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...

[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]

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.

That pretty much also answers my question with the experience and equipment. Only handlers.

[Haido]

A great tactic i use is what i call Fox Hunting. I have 2 Dog Companies and maybe 2-3 Horse Companies. What i do is use the dogs for tying up troops charging my horses or to cause chaos within enemy ranks. This even allows me to charge in the front of units that has spears. Since theyre all tied up with the dogs. When the unit route i let the dogs do the chasing of the "fox" and save fatigue for my horse that can turn their attention to the battlefield.

[andrewt]

I attacked Kydonia and assaulted them immediately since they have no walls. The fools have 2 slingers in the town square, 1 cilician pirates and 2 hoplites (I forgot which kind) where the walls would be if they had some.

Seeing my army outnumbering them a lot, they turned and went back to the town square, going right to the main road to march back. I unleased 3 units of war dogs on them and obliterated them. Even the handlers went in on the action. The dogs attacked the slingers and pirates too and I didn't have to use any other unit. I was down to less then one unit, though, as many of the handlers died as well.

[Spino]

I thought I was going to hate Wardogs but they're alot of fun to use. I don't like to have more than one per army stack because it just seems silly and unrealistic to have any more on hand. They're definitely overpowered but are fantastic for taking out light troops, cleaning up after routers/retreating units and causing a fair amount of havoc in the enemy's ranks. Is it possible to tweak their stats so that they suffer huge penalties against heavy infantry and/or spear wielding troops? I simply can't see them doing anything against a well ordered mass of troops, such a sight would be too imposing an obstacle to your average canine. Take a look at how wolves, hyenas and similar prey animals react to large herds. No matter how hungry or aggressive they are they never get in the thick of a herd, it's too intimidating and dangerous. They always keeping to the fringes and ruthlessly prey on the stragglers.

From personal experience as a veterinary assistant I can vouch that dogs, even the larger, more aggressive breeds, do NOT like pointed sticks being pointed and shoved in their faces, it completely throws them off. They begin to concentrate on the pointy thing and not the user.

[son of spam]

Did anyone try the tuetoburger wald battle? The wardogs of germany killed a quarter of a unit of legionaires with a frontal attack :(

EDIT: attack, not charge. Admittedly the legionaires were somewhat disordered from fighting, but still I expected them to spit those dogs.

[Kraxis]

The dogs should really have a penalty going up against any armoured unit. There is a reason why sharkdivers wear chainmail... it protects, and their bites are much worse than even the worst dog. A shield on the other hand isn't enough.

[Lemur]

Everybody keeps talking about how expensive the doggies are, but please remember, that's only for the initial build. Once you've got your kennels breeding a set of psycho dogs, they only cost 50 gold per turn to maintain. That makes them one of the cheapest garrison supplements there is.

I find that in the Imperial campaign, when I'm flush, I'm flush. But if I stick too many expensive maintenance troops all over the place, I go broke. So my minor cities have a nice retinue of city guards and war dogs, and the expense is negligible. Sure, they won't stand up to a hardened enemy, but they're plenty good for killing peasants. Mix in some light cav for backup (also cheap on salary) and you have a great peasent-killing force ready to go.

It's not just the initial expense, folks.