DOGS OF WAR And Stories of Other Beasts of Battle in the Civil War

Beast of Battle

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During the series proper, the King in the North Robb Stark's direwolf Grey Wind serves his master well on the battlefield. In Transitions there is Arthogate's mount Snort, the fire-breathing, charging Hellboar he got from Jarlaxle. He rides it into battle, when he is facing multiple foes especially undead ones , but also fights alongside it.

If a large beast of any kind is summoned, it will be this. The Dark Elves use a variety of monsters, including Hydras, Cold Ones essentially featherless raptors , half-snake Medusae, manticores, vicious black dragons and the monstrous, multi-headed Kharibdysses. The Ogres have Thundertusks massive beasts that can control ice and snow , enormous Stonehorns, catlike Sabretusks and Rhinoxen Scraplaunchers. For the Greenksins, the Night Goblins use Cave Squigs, vicious, hopping ball-shaped creatures with More Teeth than the Osmond Family , while the Orcs favor large, ill-tempered boars and wyverns.

Meanwhile regular Goblins like to use spiders, including the colossal Arachnarock Spider. The Lizardmen have a variety of dinosaurs , including Carnosaurs, blind cave-dwelling Troglodons, Razordons covered in spikes, fire-breathing Salamanders, tank-like Bastiladons, Cold Ones and Stegadons, in addition to swarms of poisonous jungle creatures. The Beastmen, unsurprisingly, use plenty of these in the form of mutated animals, including Tuskgors and the larger Razorgors vicious boars covered in spikes , horned Chaos Warhounds, and the Jabberslythes, toadlike and dragonlike beasts so horrible that even looking at them invites madness.

Arguably, all their army could be said to be Beasts of Battle, and the line between Beastmen warriors and war animals does get a tad blurred sometimes. When the High Elves go to war, they do so alongside phoenixes, giant eagles and dragons. While Bretonnians limit themselves to horses and pegasi, the Empire can use gryphons and demigryphs as well. Warhammer 40, keeps the tradition alive, with most of its armies having the option to field some or several monstrosities on the battlefield. The Orks get various varieties of Squigs, from the dog-sized Attack Squigs carried around by high-ranking greenskins to the Squiggoths, gigantic tusked monsters the size of Titans , fitted with howdahs and ridden into battle by the technology-shunning Snakebites clans and Feral Orks.

There are also the rare Orkeosauruses, basically Squiggoths but even bigger. The Kroot, a species of bird-like aliens that gain new abilities and forms based on what creatures they eat , use strains of their own species that have degenerated into beasts as war animals, including the huge, T. For the Imperium, some Imperial Guard regiments use Grox, ill-tempered giant lizards mostly used for food, as cavalry.

Space Wolves ride tank-sized cyberized wolves. All the Tyranid units are this. As their entire army relies on this, they cover a broad range of Beasts of Battle — swarms of tiny Rippers all fangs and bad attitude, disposable rank-and-file forms that overwhelm the enemy through raw numbers, massive tank-sized beasts with armor that can stop laser blasts, towering horrors the size of buildings, floating psychic powerhouses with dangling atrophied bodies In Swedish Dark Fantasy game Chronopia , almost all of the non-human races uses these.

Curious Mystery Monsters of the American Civil War

The Elves have the reptilian Dragonbane, Swamp Goblins have their mosquito-like Drones and Arachnid cavalry, and so forth etc. Only the Stygians lack these - having no cavalry or mounts though arguably their whole army might count , while humans are stuck with horses and in one case - a stag. In Splicers , the Human Resistance uses War Mounts, genetically-engineered creatures used to take the place of the tanks and other military vehicles they can no longer use. For instance, there's the Behemoth a rhino-like creature used for artillery support , the Draco a huge dragon used for troop transport , and the Leviathan a crab used for amphibious assault.

Although rarely seen in the game, BattleTech has rules for beast-mounted infantry, including horses, elephants, kangaroos, killer whales, the flying, venom-spitting Branth, and finally the semi-aquatic 30 ton Hipposaurus, which is powerful enough to mount heavy artillery on its back and damage Battlemech armor with its melee attacks.

Exalted subverts this trope with the siege lizards. People have tried to train them for war, hence the name, but the foul-tempered and stubbornly independent reptiles almost inevitably end up killing their handlers. The Allies also get in on the action by taking in a Triceratops cast off by the Nazis for a deformed leg. In Kingdom Under Fire The Crusaders , along with Heroes, the Dark Legion uses giant mammoths from swamps that fire larva out of their bellies and use giant scorpions and flying beasts in battle.

The Golden Axe series was famous for adding mounts to the action, from fire-breathing dragons to giant scorpions and those weird little parrot-beaked lizard things from Altered Beast that whipped with their tails. Taking a page from Golden Axe , fellow side-scroller beat'em up Dragon's Crown has your characters capable of riding on sabretooths and dracolisks.

II has the dragons enslaved by the Horde, while dwarves throw hammers from the back of trained gryphons. In Frozen Throne , the Naga use a variety of non-sapient creatures to swell their ranks including Mur'guls cannon fodder , Snap Dragons ranged fire support and Couatls air support. In the backstory the initial Orc invasion of Azeroth was quickly routed by Azeroth's mounted knights. The Orcs were unprepared to face the fearsome armored warriors riding what Garona described as "great beasts of muscle and sinew who did almost as much damage to our troops as their riders".

Hunters in World of Warcraft can tame nearly any beast and use it in battle. Turtles, lions, wolves, moths ; they can all be used as a pet in battle. Beast-Master specialized hunters can eve tame special pets such as T-Rexes they shrink to a fraction of their original size on being tamed. Dragon Force gave a number of its Ninja generals a frog-mounted cannon they could use to attack enemy generals. The Locust Horde in Gears of War are pros at adapting the underground fauna for battle purposes.

They also possess a mean bite themselves. Large, flying squid-like beasts. Usually affixed with mounted guns. Skorge has his own personal Reaver called the Hydra which is somewhat larger than average. Sort of like a mini-Reaver. Leaves a trail of ink as it flies through the air. Used effectively both as ammunition and to block out communications by covering the sky in ink.

Baby Nemacysts are used as ink grenades. Giant, spider-like digging creatures used to make Emergence Holes for Locust ground troops to funnel out of. There is only one, and the Locusts used it to sink entire cities. Then you kill it from the inside. Big honkin' dinosaur-like things with chainguns and rocket launchers strapped to them. Basically the Locust's tanks. Giant fish-like monsters that live underwater.

May not be tamed by the Locusts as they chuckle and retreat when you get close to their lairs. Anvil Gate confirms that there are more than one, and that they can go Lambent. Huge grasshopper-like creatures in Gears of War 3 strapped to a device that uses their powerful hind legs like a catapult. Giant blimp-like puffer fish with gondolas attached underneath. The Elder Scrolls In the series' background lore, the Khajiit have 17 different sub-species dictated by the phases of Nirn's two moons under which they were born.

The largest of these sub-species, the Senche and Senche-raht, can be as tall as two men and weigh updward of four tons.

See a Problem?

Built like apes and moving as quadrupeds, they allow their kin to ride them in battle. Imperial Legion troopers have nicknamed them "battle cats" as a result.

Various Goblin tribes have managed to tame some of Tamriel's vicious wildlife for use in this role. For example, the Shadowsilk tribe managed to tame giant spiders for this purpose. Likewise, the Rieklings a race of diminutive blue-skinned humanoids native to Solstheim tame Tusked Bristlebacks Solstheim's native wild boars to be this and as mounts. In the backstory of the Geneforge series, the Shapers used their ability to create and alter life to conquer the world. Creations commonly used in battle by the Shapers include kyshakks think of a stegosaurus that spits lightning , battle alphas humanoid, but big, strong, and very tough , and glaahks Armless Biped with a paralytic sting.

Origins , Fereldens use mabari hounds as war dogs. Originally bred by a mage, they are incredibly strong and intelligent. As one solider puts it, a well-trained "mabari hound" is as dangerous as any sword. You can recruit one of these massive dogs into your party. The dwarves utilize large rhino-like creatures called brontos as pack mules and living battering rams. The most popular of these are wolves, bereskarn corrupted bears , corrupted spiders and dragons. The rancors were still nothing compared with Marek , who usually curb stomped every one of them.

Not even the Bull rancor, the alpha male of Felucia's rancor community, could defeat him. Command and Conquer show-cased explosive cows so often that by the time the game was released it was an expected tactic. The Red Alert sub-series featured attack dogs one bite kill against infantry , giant squids, and dolphins armed with sonic weaponry. In the third game, the Soviets start fielding tamed bears instead of dogs. This comes into gameplay as well; in any map where Umagon is a playable character, having her approach a fiend will automatically recruit it as a playable unit.

As the main series is based on Real Life mostly , it features warhounds, incendiary pigs, and elephants, including elephants covered in armor and elephants with freaking cannons mounted on them. War beasts feature rather prominently in Total War: Warhammer , where most factions have the ability to field some type of animal or monster on the battlefield. The Empire can mount units on gryphons and demigryphs flightless gryphons , which are generally far more dangerous than the soldiers who ride them.

The Greenskins can tame the house-sized Arachnarok spiders and ride them into battle, mounting artillery on their backs for good measure, and squigs, essentially giant fanged mouths provided with taloned legs and nasty attitudes, which are then sent in herds in the general direction of the enemy. The Vampire Counts get two types of giant batlike beasts, the Vargheists and flightless, tank-sized Varghulfs, which are vampires that have been warped and mutated into insane monsters after succumbing to their bloodthirst.

The Vampire Counts can also raise Terrorgheists, undead bats the size of dragons. Some units also gain undead dragons as mounts, which like the gryphons above are often far deadlier than their riders. The Warriors of Chaos get Chaos War Hounds, mutated wolf-like beasts with scales and horns, which also come in a poisonous version. High level heroes and lords can ride two-headed chaos dragons as well.

They also have manticores, both as mounts and as individual units. A spell available to hero units from a number of factions who use the Lore of Beasts allows them to summon a manticore to fight on their side for the duration of the battle. The Beastmen bring in the Razorgors spiky mutated boars and their own warhounds, along with technically all units being beasts of battle. The Wood Elves can send giant eagles and forest dragons after their enemies.

Para World is built around this trope. From regular wagon-pulling reptiles to massive armored Titan-class T. The Norsemen , living in colder climates, tend to use mammals such as sabertooths and mammoths, although they do use a few dinosaurs such as their triceratops titan. They also have Steam Punk technology, allowing them to field steam tanks and ironclads.

The Dustriders Bedouin-like nomads are the faction that tends to use the dinos the most, given their low technological level. The Dragon Clan an East Asian isolationist culture has gunpowder and Bamboo Technology which they mostly use for traps. Due to the mechanics of the game, the different units from the three factions hardly differ aside from cosmetic differences. For example, a Norse steam tank is about as powerful as a dinosaur with a catapult on its back. Soul Reaver 2 has armored war dogs. Aztec Wars has one or two of these for every nation.

The Aztecs have big cats and spy eagles, the Russians have war bears , the Chinese use yetis and War Elephants. They are available after specifically building a nest, a cave or a stable in your base.

This is the premise for Foursaken Media's tablet game War Tortoise , you field a small force of heavily armed animals which are spearheaded, by an armoured giant tortoise. The tortoise initially only has a machine gunner on a howdah, but you can upgrade the tortoise to be equipped with a sniper cannon, a multi-gun carousel, multiple mortars and a howitzer. Another tablet game featuring a heavily armed turtle with riders is Slick Entertainment's Shellrazer , you lead a band of heroic orcs who are searching for their brethen.

Initially you only have a machine gunner on the giant turtle, but later on you can stack up to three different gunners who range from a guy with a cannon to mad wizard and a dragonrider. Another tablet game is Brisk Mobile's Roaming Fortress , set in a fantasy world where cannons exist and humanity has been overrun by goblin-kind.

To take back their territory, the humans mount a fortress on a giant, dinosaur-like creature. Centuries later the Roman Army would routinely deploy its own War Dogs, with whole companies composed entirely of dogs. The Romans first encountered these Molossians of Epirus during the Macedonian Wars and renamed them Pugnaces because of their willingness to fight. As was the Roman way, what they assimilated they improved upon. Aristotle mentions them in the history of animals and praises their bravery and physical superiority.

They would accompany their handler onto the battlefields where they would act as an unprecedented guardian. The tenaciousness of this dog was so extreme they were used in the arenas to fight against larger wild animals, just like the Molossus. The Cane Corso spiked collars around their neck and ankles, made more dangerous by the large curved knives protruding from its ring.

Sometimes they were starved before battle, then unleashed on the unsuspecting enemy. The Corso was also an Auxilia Warrior in battles for the Romans. The story of the Cane Corso, aka Italian Mastiff, overlaps extraordinarily with the history of the Italic peoples in both splendor and misery. Cane Corso has maintained, through natural selection over the centuries, the closest possible contact with the environment and the roles which man has asked this companion to play. The past of the Cane Corso is largely present and current, as if time just slipped away. From its ancestors, the Molossus and Canis Pugnax of Rome, the Corso had an aggressive and combative nature.

Cane Corso were also used to guard property, livestock, and families, and some continue to be used for this purpose today. The Cane Corso became excellent in interpreting human gestures through its extensive contact with humans. In small settlements in the south of Italy, the Corso has maintained an archaic system of agriculture and a multipurpose dog. Not recommended for novice dog owners, Cane Corso puppies require strong leadership and consistent training. This made it a perfect dog for the Exercitus Romanus. Because of its training, though, Cane Corso would fight if provoked or in a protective manner.

However, this was not the end for this type of dog.

An Ancient Empire In Today's World

Unlike the Molossus which became extinct, the Cane Corso seemingly melted into the Italic landscape. From scouting to sniffing out bombs to guard duty, War Dogs are simply a highly trained version of the dogs we have at home. Check back soon to see what we have on deck. On the Nature of Animals. Old World Cane Corso. The Mini-Atlas of Dog Breeds. History of the Cane Corso. A Complete History of Fighting Dogs. History of the Pit Bull. The Dogs of War! The American Kennel Club. Get to Know the Cane Corso. We are planning to expand our family by including a dog, but now I really need to do more homework.

It is funny how this article points to a modern day Cane Corso in the end but depicts a Neapolitan Mastiff in dress-up and they are not the same breed. It is also funny that you used information from modern day breeders whom for the most part are not historians and many of them spew the same nonsense that they think is from history because it makes their pups more attractive to buyers.

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