Marine War Dog team

[HellRaiser 7]

On the Marine War Dog team, it’s says it has tough fighter. Does the tough fighter give the team one tough fighter attack or does the marine and dog get a tougher attack each?

[Stuart Harrison]

Looking at the entry in Empire in Flames, the dog isn’t a distinct model in game terms, it’s just a handler who happens to have a dog as a piece of equipment (the dog actually appears in the weapons line) which gives the unit an ability.

The dog wouldn’t be considered at all when working out combat.

[L.T. Russell]

Howdy Stuart!  Just found this.  I don’t have EMPIRE IN FLAMES.  This sounds kinda bogus to me.  IIRC, USMC War Dogs are “attack dogs”, they primarily used Dobermans.  An “attack dog” IS a weapon, at least in close combat, IMHO.  If I’m the average WWII Japanese soldier, at 5′ 3 1/2″ and 120lbs, I don’t know that I wanna hand-to-hand a Doberman without my rifle and bayonet….

[Stuart Harrison]

They cost 5 points more than a normal veteran, one point of that is tough fighter (most likely on the basis of the dog), get a rifle or SMG as modelled (another 3 points if you go the SMGs), and they get the doubled detection radius against hidden units. If you go adding more to them they become badly under costed. The fluff talks about them being trained as scouts and messengers, no suggestion of them being trained or employed as attack dogs. Were they trained as attack dogs in WW2, or did that training come in significantly later?

There is also no discussion of how attacks/casualties suffered by the unit would be allocated amongst dogs and handlers, something you’d have to consider if you wanted to house rule the dogs as having an attack, being treated as a model etc.

[L.T. Russell]

Howdy Stuart!  I found this on WE ARE THE MIGHTY;

“Unlike the dog training programs of the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard, the Marine Corps dogs were trained exclusively for combat roles. Being a strictly combat organization, the Corps had no interest in training dogs unless they contributed directly to killing the enemy or saving Marines. This concept split the training program into scout dogs and messenger dogs. These specialized dogs would prove invaluable against the Japanese in the Pacific.”

Sounds like “attack dog” training musta been done later.  I’ve read where K9s were excellent at tunnel work during the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese were terrified of the big German Shepherds….but the military found the dogs too expensive, the tropical weather was tough on the Shepherds and there were issues with bringing the dogs back to the States.  All the military K9s I worked with at the border were “attack” trained, while our Customs K9s were all specialized “detection” dogs….

 

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