Wardogs- Too powerful or not?

[Didz]

I think it wrong to classify wardogs as a fanatsy unit. There is no doubt that dogs were used in ancient warfare in fact its where we get the phrase 'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war'.

true but if this is historicly sound then why did the greek plato say that and not a roman who had a wardog?

To be honest I have no idea if the Roman's used wardogs and was as surprised as many others to find them included in the Roman OOB. My understanding was that they were used by some of the more eastern armies e.g. Syrian's, Hittites etc. However, it is equallly possible that many armies opened a battle by releasing wardogs in order to disrupt the enemy formations.

As for flaming pigs, I must admit I've never come across those in any of my reading and I am curious how a pig would be controlled once you had set fire to it. A more plausible option would be to have an animal pull a flaming incendary behind it, but even then i suspect panic would lead to it heading off in any direction but the one you wanted it to.

Has anyone got any historical references for flaming pigs???

[Oaty]

Has anyone got any historical references for flaming pigs???

There was a force that was besieged, and the besieged army was much better in quality. The only problem was that the besiegers had elephants wich kept them besieged. The general of the fort/city tarred some pigs and let slip the hogs of war. The elephants were scared and ran off and the siege was lifted

[Khorak]

Would they be good against the unarmoured chariots? They're so simple they just attack relentlessly so there's no problem of them milling about getting run down and not attacking, and chariots have no armour.

Will dogs be a useful silver bullet for trashing an irritating chariot unit? (discount British Chariots, which are pants against anything)

[King_Etzel]

Has anyone thought about whether the stats in the unit details scroll is for the dogs or the handlers? I dont think dogs wear armour...

[Didz]

Well as already stated the dogs I read about were indeed decked out in armour which covered their entire back and head and was supplanted by a vertical blade.

It doesn't really make much sense for them not to be protected with at least padded armour.

[Red Harvest]

Has anyone thought about whether the stats in the unit details scroll is for the dogs or the handlers? I dont think dogs wear armour...

Their are two entries for all mount units. One is for the soldiers, the other the mount, for wardogs:
stat_pri_armour 7, 3, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour 2, 1, flesh

[The Ronin]

Some great ideas here that I haven't tried. I almost always add a dog unit or two (preferably) to my campaign armies or custom battles. They are a "one shot" deal to be sure but when used I find them pretty effective. I didn't know they would work well against phalanx formations or city entries. I like using them against lighter infantry flanking my lines or especially in launching them from the woods into the enemy flank or rear. I also like the fact that once "let loose" they will not stop attacking enemy troops. Of course there is no control once you let them go, but I'm not trying to use them as I would a "regular" army unit. I played a historical battle Tuetoborg Forrest and the germans launched dogs against me in which I actually killed them off pretty well. Don't know if the AI is using them differently or what is going on there, but when I use them they work pretty good. Once again, they are only a "part" a combined armed force strategy.

[Arrowhead]

I love Wardogs! I kinda like your way of thinking, Asimov!

I just get them to Chhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggge straight at the enemy to pin them While I shoot them down with my archers
then I advance my infantry and kill some more
then I advance the archers and cavalry, the archers fling themselves onto the flanks of the enemy and the cavalry deal with the other cav.
If needed the archers and some infantry help to kill the opposing cavalry.
In the end it is just a big,fat, victory
But of course all down to the archers. (MOSTLY).

[bedlam28]

I think that the 2 best uses for Wardogs is Siege, and to create morale issues in the enemy.

The good thing about sieges rather than open warfare is that if you send your dogs after a unit that routes in the fields and a part of that unit survives to run off the map, the dogs will disappear off the map too. Whereas a routing unit running to a city square is merely taking the dogs closer to the other units that are guarding the square. Result.

As for morale, your wardogs should sit just behind your Infantry. Whilst it has been noted that dogs aren't too good against Heavy Infantry, the way to resolve it is to wait until the enemy hit your lines, and then release the dogs.
Your enemy will be trying to stab your front line whilst rather annoyed Dobermanns are trying to nibble their important places.

A third but risky use is against the cowardly archers that are slowly whittling down your lines, but that can be dodgy as your handlers sometimes get too close to the enemy lines before releasing and whilst dogs are respawned after a battle, your handlers aren't !!!

good hunting.

[Corky_123]

I once came up against a whole Brutii AI army of wardogs!?! About six units of them rampaged through my principe (spelling?) line and almost won the battle.

[RickFGS]

I find Wardogs usefull against enemy light (without armor) archers, they cause confusion and all the archers set to skirmish will run, die and just get out of the fight scene which is the best afterall, beacause if they are running they arent firing.

In overall i like Wardogs on the enemy side, because my troops like the damm poodles with a little potato and salad on the side...its usally a pretty soft and tasty meal....

[killer123456789]

i still haven't trained wardogs the whole time I have been playing because I thought that they would really stink at fighting but from what i've been hearing I'm going to train 10 units