Editing Dogs of War (section)

=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 [[ogre]]s, 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?