Dogs

**katar** · 10-24-2004, 21:26

wardogs... or four legged cluster bombs as i call them

are definately a nice unit to use.

i usually unleash a couple of them to disrupt advancing enemy units (be they Gallic warbands of Macedonian phalanxs).

when i first started using them i used to launch six units of them at the enemy, just to soften them up, but it just made the battles far too easy so nowadays i never have more than two in an army.

when using them against highly armoured units they just hold the enemy in place while i bring my veltes and archers in for the killing blow.

they have also come in handy as furry fire and forget missiles, when an enemy general comes too close to my lines, just unleash the dogs and have them pin him in one spot, thus leaving me plenty of time to concentrate fully on his units without him annoying me

.

**Sin Qua Non** · 10-24-2004, 22:00

Honesty, I use them like furry cruise missiles.

As for balancing their effectiveness, the only change I would suggest is to make them non regenerable and retrainable-only like other units. Dogs don't last long among armored units.

**Divico** · 10-25-2004, 12:04

after some 50 SP battles I really start liking them. I mostly use them for sieges on offense and defense. The first unit I let run through the crasehd gate.

**Magraev** · 10-25-2004, 12:22

There are some issues with them. The dogs steal XP that your equites should get chasing routers. Since they don't level up the xp is lost. This is especially a problem for julii, since they get no xp-temples.

In the later stages of the game the diff between a silver chevron equites and a rookie one could be the diff between life and death.

And the 5-sallies-pr-turn-strategy is incredibly cheezy...

**AngryGerbil** · 10-25-2004, 21:16

In response to OctavionAugustus:

Sending 4 units of wardogs against 4 foot units is not play testing. I hate to break it to you. Alot of the power of the wardogs comes with their regeneration rate and the way they can bog down units for free allowing your troops to flank

Another thing you may want to "playtest" is how you deploy your dogs. If I have 4 units of dogs and you have 4 warbands, would it be wiser for me to send 1 unit of dogs at each of your warbands or send them all at one warband? Or maybe send 2 dogs at 2 warbands and try to flank with the third while using the fourth as a decoy? Get creative, playtest before you comment.

Taking two units and smashing them into each other head on in a custom battle does not constitute playtesting. Having a full army of dogs is not going to net you a sprawling empire, of this I can agree with you. But there is no question that they are too powerful as they stand. CA needs to either tone them down signifigantly, require a retrain before they replenish, or make them more expensive.

**Red Harvest** · 10-25-2004, 21:42

They seem too powerful to me, but most of the "special" units have been beefed up relative to infantry. It is similar to elephants, the dogs weaken enemy morale while you are hitting them with infantry or cav. Part of the problem I have with the wardogs is that I'm not personally afraid of dogs. (Among my personal experiences was chasing down and beating a rottweiler into submission that was chasing a cat in my yard--it never came through the fence again and was a good "neighbor" after that.) Given the choice, I would gladly volunteer to move to the rear and fight the dogs while the other guys fight the men in front.