Dogs of War

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The Dogs of War are a minor faction in Warhammer Fantasy representing the various mercenary forces of the Warhammer world. The concept is quite ancient; the existence of mercenaries goes back to 1st edition in terms of lore, but the specifically named faction (which takes its name from the famous quote "cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war!") has a very short life in Warhammer history, having debuted in 5th edition before receiving its first and last update in 6th edition, after which it faded from the game.

1st Edition

Mercenaries appear only to a limited degree in the earliest edition of Warhammer Fantasy; in the corebook, it is mentioned that one of the activities an adventurer may undertake during the downtime is acting as a mercenary captain, whilst the first rules for mercenaries appear in Forces of Fantasy. In this edition, generic mercenaries can be dwarfs, gnomes, humans (Westerners - what would later be called "Old Worlders", Norse, Arabians and Nipponese), Slann, Ogres, Lizardmen and Giants.

This was, however, the debut of the Regiments of Renown; Bugman's Dwarf Rangers, the Knights of Origo, Grom's Goblin Guard, Mengil Manhide's Company of Dark Elves, Harboth and the Black Mountain Boys, Mad Mullah Aklan'd's Death Commandos, The Bowmen of Oreon, and Golgfag's Regiment of Mercenary Ogres. See if you can spot some future famous names there!

2nd Edition

Mercenaries continued into 2e much as they had in 1e. The nascent lore for the Warhammer World, which first truly took shape in this edition's version of the corebook, establishes that mercenaries are plentiful without talking too much about them overall. Ravening Hordes features full rules for hiring mercenaries, and breaks them into several races/origins/affinities.

Imperial Mercenaries are, well, the mercenary bands of the Empire! Aside from generic champions and heroes, which all mercenary groups can debut, specific mercenary troopers are Lancers, Mounted Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Halberdiers, Axemen, Crossbowmen, Arquebusiers, and Foresters.

Hobgoblin warriors and archers can be taken as mercenaries.

Kislev makes its debut as a part of the Warhammer World in this edition. They offer the general Mercenary Knights, Cavalry Archers, Halberdiers, Axemen and Crossbowmen.

Norscans, here called "The Norse", appear. Their available troopers are Huscarls, Bondi, Archers, Slingers and Berserkers.

Ogres made their debut as mercenary troopers in 1st edition, and they'll continue it from there. Only generic and character-tier ogres for hire in this edition.

Orcs are the last of the available mercenary forces in this edition, hiring out Warriors, Archers and Boar Riders.

3rd Edition

With the lore of the Warhammer World now fully formed, at least in its first draft before the revisions that were to come to make it less Dungeons & Dragons-flavored, mercenaries continue in their place of pride, building upon the rules established back in 2e. These mechanics appear in Warhammer Armies, which is where the specific fighting forces of this edition are listed.

Using the rules for mercenary contingents, a general can hire from an expanded list of races compared to the previous edition:

Dwarfs: Yes, Dwarfs are willing to hire out as mercenaries in this edition! You an hire a Dwarf Mercenary Commander, dwarf warriors, dwarf sappers, and dwarf bombadiers manning cannons.

Giants: What's to say? It's a big, big boy!

Ogres: Come in commander and regular ol' ogre variety here.

Half-Orcs: A reminder that Warhammer Fantasy began when Games Workshop decided to go their own way with the various Historical Wargaming and Dungeons & Dragons miniatures trhey had originally produced for other companies. Commanders, Shamans, Henchmen, Bushwackers adn Warriors are all for hire.

Hobgoblins: This is when the Hobgoblins were in their Mongol-expy lore set. Khans, Shamans, Standard Bearers, Mourngul Renegades, Hobyars and Hobhound Handlers are your options here.

Nipponese: One of the first and last times that Warhammer's Japan analogue will actually see a mechanical basis. Samurai Lord, Samurai, Ninjas, and Ashigaru.

Orcs: It's interesting to note that the minimalistic lore given for orc mercenaries is that most of them are outcasts or renegades from their own tribes, which serves as an odd little glimpse in hindsight of the orcs moving away from being capable of such socializing. Orc Commanders, Renegades and Renegade Arrer Boyz can be hired.

Norscans: Still called the Norse here, this continigent is unusual in that it's actually a mixture of Norsca-dwelling humans (Commander, Warriors, Standard Bearers, Berserkers, and Ulfwerenar) and dwarfs (Norse Dwarf Warriors, Berserkers, Troll Slayers).

Old Worlders: Here we see the seeds for the actual Dogs of War faction being laid, as this contingent covers human mercenaries from across Warhammer's version of Europe; aside from the obligatory Mercenary Leader, you've got Tilean Condottieri and Crossbowmen, Estalian Caballeros, Hombres Villanos and Bandolleros Gringos, Bretonnian Brigands, Nulner Landsknechtes, Kislevite Druzhina and Freiforstjaegers.

4th Edition

The star of the mercenaries waned here in 4th edition, when the first dedicated army books began to deploy. There were no rules for them in the corebook, they didn't get a dedicated army book of their own, the Empire book doesn't mention them (although it is able to field halfling, ogre and Kislev troops - this is actually the debut of the famous Ice Queen of Kislev, Tzarina Katarin!), and there's not even any mention of mercenaries in the Battle Bestiary.

5th Edition

Here is where things finally get interesting for Dogs of War players, because this is the edition where they debut!

Warhammer Armies: Dogs of War is the first every army book to represent the mercenary troopers of the Old World. With a cover art depicting a mixed force of humans, dwarfs, ogres and goblins, this book also doubles as the first ever major sourcebook on Tilea, the Italy analogue of the Warhammer world, which has since languished in obscurity. This edition also saw the debut of the finalized iteration of the Regiments of Renown, as well as the special characters of the Dogs of War army.

In fact, this iteration of the Dogs of War actually doesn't have rules for generic mercenaries at all! Instead, it consists of two halves; generic mercenary characters, in the form of a Mercenary General, Paymaster, Mercenary Hero, and Hireling Wizards, and then the Regiments of Renown. It promises the reader that future army books and articles in White Dwarf will expand the Regiments of Renown.

One other oddity of this iteration is that it is surprisingly humanocentric compared to the past array of mercenary forces, especially the 3rd edition one! Aside from Golgfag's ogres, Long Drong's Dwarf Slayer pirates, and Asarnil the Dragonlord, all your options are humans.

6th Edition

The Dogs of War received their last army book in 6th edition... well, "army book". In fact, it was part of an informal project on the part of Games Workshop called "Ravening Hordes" (in homage to the 2nd edition bestiary). This version of the Dogs of War started with the 5e version, and fleshed it out into a proper army by adding generic mercenary troops; specifically Pikemen, Crossbowmen, Duellists, Heavy Cavalry and Light Cavalry as Core, Ogres, Dwarfs, Norse Marauders and Halflings as Special, and Cannons and the Halfling Hotpot as Rare.

This article was compiled into a PDF by the fans and can usually be found on /tg/ if you know where to look.

Why'd They Die?

You're probably wondering what happened to the Dogs of War; why, after two editions in the sun, were they left to rot a full two editions before Warhammer Fantasy itself went kablooie and gave way to Warhammer: Age of Sigmar?

Well, we'll probably never know the answer, but we can speculate, and the most likely speculated answer is... "Money".

See, if you've paid attention to this article, you'll know that the Dogs of War as an army leaned heavily into the Low Fantasy angle of Warhammer and focused purely on human troops, essentially trying to market itself as the "Generic Human Army". This meant it was running into the same problem as the "Ethnic Human" factions like Araby, Nippon or Cathay - namely, how is the faction distinctive enough to stand out and attract fans who will buy all of its army books and models? Warhammer Fantasy fans usually aren't here for historical accuracy (not unless they're really fucking lost), and the Dogs of War run into a second problem: Warhammer already has as a Generic Human Army. It's called the Empire!

The Dogs of War, ignoring their Regiments of Renown portion, literally offer nothing that you couldn't already get with an Empire army. Fans were, as a consequence, never going to be particularly numerous, so there was never going to be much profit in the army.

Add to it that the ogres, the most consistently presented mercenary race of the Warhammer world, were spun off into their own faction - the Ogre Kingdoms - which was also largely made up of units you could hire as mercenaries, and that was pretty much the death knell of the Dogs of War.

Could it have been avoided? Well, probably! Total War showed that Ethnic Human Armies could be made interesting and profitable by turning Cathay from a one-note China ripoff into a crazy and unique High Fantasy faction in its own right, one that fits right in with the bizarre world of Warhammer Fantasy! Giving the Dogs of War a similarly High Fantasy makeover could have saved the faction.

Think about it; the Warhammer world has always been full of strange races and weird civilizations in a vast, largely undocumented map. A Dogs of War army would have been a perfect showcase for minor races and exotic mini-factions; groups too small to carry their own army book, but which could have fleshed out the world and made excellent spice for existing armies, or been brought together in the ultimate unifer in the grim darkness of the Old World: the pursuit of bloodshed for profit. Seriously; if you can't look at the motley array of humanoids and monstrous humanoids in Dungeons & Dragons and come up with a crazy fantastical mercenary army from that list, you aren't trying very hard. There is no reason Games Workshop couldn't have done the same for their own fantasy world.

But what can you do?

Warhammer Army Project

Naturally, the Warhammer Army Project has gotten fans of the Dogs of War together to try and bring them back, at least for 9th edition. THis version takes its cue from the 6e version, and doubles down on it, separating the Regiments of Renown off into their own army book and instead focusing on generic mercenary units/characters as well as Dogs of War-specific special characters. Like its 5e ancestor, though, it also pulls double duty as a Warhammers: Tilea book, whilst Estalia gets its own completely separate splatbook.

The biggest changeup from 6e is the increased focus on demihuman mercenaries; now you can take elf, ogre, orc and hobgoblin troops, and even take demihuman characters! Almost all your nonhuman mercs are Special or even Rare choices, but hey, at least it's not trying to compete for the Generic Human Army niche with the Empire anymore! ...Well, not as much, anyway. You can also take pegasus and griffon steeds, and your characters and even some of your units can take "Quirks of Character" that give them special buffs.

• Lords: 0-1 Merchant Prince (if you include Borgio, Lucrezzia, Lorenzo, or Marco, you can't have a generic Merchant Prince, or one of the other MP characters), Mercenary General, Hireling Wizard Lord.
• Heroes: Mercenary Captain (in Human, Dwarf, Elf, Hobgoblin, Orc, or Ogre varieties), 1 Paymaster (Mandatory; you have to take one), Assassin, Hireling Wizard.
• Core Units: Pikemen, Crossbowmen, Sellswords, Duellists, Freelancers, Stradiots.
• Special Units: 0-1 Paymaster's Bodyguard, Gladiators, Mercenary Dwarfs, Norse Marauders, Halflings, Mercenary Orcs (you don't have to worry about Animosity making them attack your own troops, at least), Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, Mercenary Ogres, Ballista, Scorpion, Mercenary Elves, Ogre Maneaters.
• Rare Units: Onager, Cannon, Ribault, Halfling Hot Pot, Giant.
• Special Characters: Borgio the Besieger, Lucrezzia Belladonna, Lorenzo Lupo, Marco Columbo, Ghazak Khan, Leitpold the Black, Leonardo da Miragliano, Mydas the Mean.

Total War

Total War: Warhammer players regularly speculate if they'll appear in that game in some capacity, though aside from when a Creative Assembly mistakenly namedropped them on stream (he was actually referring to the prize including a DLC for Total War: Rome II named Beasts of War), there hasn't been any true indication of it ever happening yet.

Models

Games Workshop still sells some of the regiment of renown models although the prices are worse than Forge World.

See Also

• Mercenary tactics for the glorious 6th edition.

Links

• Old GW rules for Dogs of War [1]
• Classic Regiments of Renown (basically older ones from past editions updated) [2]
• Models for sale [3]