Pros
Typical fantasy Turn based tactics style game.
Doesnt try anything new but does some things different.
Its free.
Not pay2win.
Not very much depth.
Has potential.

Cons
Community is dying/near-death population wise.
Seems abandoned by the devs, as no relevant updates in a while.
Wording is sometimes unnecessarily confusing.
Engine doesnt feel intuitive.
Not very much depth.
Potentially dead.



TLDR; Play it if you like this type of game-Its Free

Too fresh to be released.

If you read the game discussion topics, you will notice that most players aren't staying in the game for more than 10 days, and because of that the game has gone through changes. Still, the game should have waited more for public release.

I've experienced sudden fps decrease with a good system, the matchmaking system takes TOO long to find a game, which has only one mode, the troops balancing still needs a lot of work. Wolfen units(one of the 3 factions available) are either too OP or too nerfed. They are "heavier" than other units which can have a similar, if not better potential, but are "lighter" when considering troop management.

The balancing is still not good, the game has going through a lot of transformations, so I can't really say what the real face of the game is. The game still has potential to be good, but you should wait a lot more time to try this game out. Or if you do decide to play the game now, don't feel disappointed. Specially if you play with the Wolfen.

Best summerized as a game that will only be played because we currently dont really have a good lineup of f2p turn based stat. games. its badly balanced, on a garbage engine so bad you wouldn't even believe the number of glitches it has, with a very weak stategy component, and i mean weak. though in theory you have a variety of ways to play, due to the balance, most of the units are straight up worthless, and are better left unused rather then getting essentially a cannon folder unit.

Beyond this, the game is also rediclously complicated beyond my understanding (or it may very well be possible i understand it perfectly, yet the game is so buggy that i just can't even begin to understand whats intended and whats not) have a very very silly system of fighting. there are such awesome components to this game such as:

Calculations that lie about you having a 100% chance to hit, and you scoring a miss
Better chance of hitting your real target, by targeting the guy next to him, because reason
tons of skills saying they do one thing, and doing another
calculations telling you the wrong damage amount
sometimes not being able to activate the special warcall things (like defensive stance) doing your turn after movement, but then the other 50% of the time, you can.



within the last 7 or 8 months, the game has shown no signs of improvement, and actually seems to be doing quite the opposite, and getting progressively worse with each major update. i can't really recommend this game in anyway shape or form, but i can instead tell you this:

Go play fire emblem, even if its the gba version on an emulator, its still far superior to the experience you'll have here

Bad balance, Horible tutorial, different units have same model, only one game mode, HORIBLE match maker (no fun being stomped by units you canot buy). Avoid like plague.

Was a Great game possibility they just needed more content: such as unit types and a PvE co-op vs AI. Too bad they are concentrating on another game that is really going no where. In a multiplayer community single player is the least selling idea. DEVs are no longer developing the game...need I say more?

This game is deader than disco, bad mechanics, no dev support it seems at this point, dead fourms on steam and game website. This game has no chance of making a comeback and is more over than disco I'd avoid trying to invest time/money

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ в сортире и то лучше)

The game was not bad but not good at the same time
Like dont get me wrong I like the Online game play of video games but I also enjoy the AI or pratice side to video games as well.
Some players might not like the competitive side to there game(s) and that is what this game is nothing but competitive.
Yes there is like 9 AI missions that you can do and all they are is Tutorial typical stuff
Once you get threw that its nothing but Online player vs player and yeah you can fight your friends in friendly games but you get nothing out of it so why bother yourself

Game needs a AI that you can fight to see if your Army is any good before walking into a 1vs1 and getting distoryed
Fun for a Day and then no more in my books.

I played one game. My opponent was a total 4ssh0l3 who called me an idiot because I was playing the game for the first time. Lost because 4ssh0l3 opponent could buy better units than I could. Did not enjoy.

Very strategy-rich game, has lots of potential. Units have their own skill/spell tree, different combat interactions like parrying counterattacks dodging riposte, many atrributes and active or passive effects you have to all take into account throughout battle. Lots more classes/units planned as far as I saw on their wiki. Recommend to turn-based/strategy fans. It is not pay-to-win, since you get matched based on your army level - have a stronger army, then you face stronger armies. Don't have many criticisms, its already pretty complex and its only in closed beta stage.

EDIT (02/06/14): Now that it is in open beta, they have changed a few things. Some positives, like more missions/training modes, balancing buffs/nerfs, unit customization such as color and naming.
However, there are a lot of negative changes they have made. Particularly in regards to making the grind for in-game currency much, much slower. They've made missions restore only after 24hrs, and reduced success rate. They allow higher-leveled units to be only purchasable by real money, other than having to level them up manually. Experience gain is slower, and they increased prices for units. All in all, it isn't pay to win, but its very much free-to-grind. Like they say, you pay real money to be able to advance easier without as much grind. But the grind is very slow in this game.

Will update review if they make any major changes to the gameplay/grind. Everything in-game is still unlockable through in-game currency, you can play entirely free. It is exactly how F2P models should be, but much slower grind. You have been warned, its still very fun :-) GL HF

Well lets look at the negatives:

#Firstly: WHY ISN'T THIS GAME ON EARLY ACCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
&:Something I feel you must be aware of when getting this game is that it is STILL in beta. For a long time however this game was only in closed beta, and despite being officially "released" on Steam it is still only in open beta. They really need to clarify this!

#This isn't the only game of it's type on the market.
&:Other games such as Kings Bounty and Blackguards perform similar functions and are arguably better.

#This is not an OMG DAT GRAPHICS kind of game
&: I only include this detail as I'm aware there are those who prefer all their textures to be uber high res and have some absurdly high polygon count.

#I used to have there being no PvE mode here, however they have added a more than adequate one since I started playing..

#I have yet to see 2v2, 3v3, etc. modes.
&:Arguably a matter of preference I feel being able to fight along side or against multiple players would make the game a lot more interesting.

#Unless you wanna drop some cash your going to have to spend a lot of time playing to get higher level units


And now for the positives:

#Nice, well implemented art style
&:Dogs of War uses a very dark and dirty fantasy style that may not be for everyone. I personally find it to be well executed.

#Interesting Lore
&:A crucial part of any game is context. Games of this type are always far more interesting when the player can connect to the characters they control, and Dogs of War does a good job of presenting an intriguing set up that will leave you curious and wanting to find out more about the characters and the world they're in.

#Solid well paced gameplay
&:The game is turn based so if you're a hard core RTS fan then this might not be for you.
&:The game has a time limit on turns so you don't have to worry about the other player stopping to eat, file their taxes, and maybe go on vacation before making the next move.
&:Also the gameplay itself allows for little in the way of a dull moment.

#The game is balanced
&:The game uses an "Army Points" system. Basically each unit is rated based on how much they can contribute in game. This helps in match making as a player with a bunch of uber powerful units wont get paired against a nube with a bunch of starters.

#Not a pay-to-win
&:Everything attributing to how effective you are in game thus far appears to be accessible to anyone playing the game without having to spend money. Not to say spending money wouldn't let you get some epic stuff, just that if you got said epic stuff you'll then be paired with other people who also have epic stuff, regardless of whether or not you are fully aware of how to use aforementioned epic stuff. So you're not paying to become more powerful then everyone else, just to skip the time it would have taken to build up the necessary in-game currency. (And perhaps get yourself nube stomped)

#Lots of interesting mechanics
&:Injury system, Leveling system, Charge attacks, Cover, Race mechanics, Stances, just to name a few.

#Plenty of potential
&:Looking at the wiki's and even some of the menus game mechanics is enough to tell you that Cyanide is no where near adding all the content they want to have in this game. Which is awesome considering how much they already have. Multiple game types, lots of different units, and even ways to customize them all look to be things players will have to look forward to in the near distant future.

#A dev team that's DEDICAITED to quality
&:Something I just felt deserved to be mentioned. This dev team didn't just rush their release. This game was set to go into open beta some time fall 2013, yet got pushed back because the devs didn't feel it was ready. And it's not like it's impossible to play right now, getting into the closed beta is rather simple, and they seam to still have a few keys left so I recommend you check out their facebook. These guys aren't rushing this, and seeing as they've now set a more solid release date (January if you didn't notice...) it's not because they're lazy. Otherwise they would have pushed it back like half a year or something... No it's because they're willing to take there time to make sure they get it right. And I for one appreciate that.

#I personally find it fun and have no problems with playing my game to get more stuff to have more fun playing the game

So yeah... Also it's free, so why the hell not? At least give it a shot, or if you're not into strategy then look up some gameplay vids when it comes out. If you are into strategy then what's stopping you?

That's all for now, please pardon my bad grammar, and thanks for reading. I really hope this helped.

P.S. Seeing as this has a good chance of being one of the few reviews people see before they decide to download this game I want to do my best to make it as informative as possible. So please feel free to leave comments on how I might make it better.

A FREE-TO-PLAY multi-player turn-based strategy game that is NOT PAY-TO-WIN while having an actually good quality gameplay. YES.

This game is essentially table top gaming without the table top. If you like warhammer you will like this. What looks like a Pay to win aspect is actually not at all. The game is worth persevering with, as you level up you can field larger armies (higher points value) like with warhammer, this is when the game comes into its own as you begin being able to personalise an army to adhere to a strategy. This is the best new game i've played in years.

This game is deep and complex, solo quests are very good and the PvP entertaining.
I would recomend this to anyone liking turn based games as it has much more content than any other turn based game on the market.

http://youtu.be/UiL73w87H5o

Dogs of war online is a free to play online tactical turn based strategy game developed by Cyanide studios. Cyanide studios themselves are a French developer based in Paris France and are some what of a hit or miss company in my opinion. While they have developed great games like blood bowl, confrontation and the highly underrated of Orcs and Men. They are also the ones responsible for the terrible game of thrones game. Please note a the time of making this review, the game although mostly complete is in open BETA and as such there are quite the few bugs and glitches to be had.

Dogs of war is heavily inspired by the confrontation boardgame by Rackham, as was their previous confrontation game. The game is set in the world of Aarklash which as you can imagine is in a state of war. Three factions vie for power, the forces of light, darkness and destiny. Seeing this as a grand opportunity mercenary companies have started to spring up and as you can imagine your going to set of these companies up.

Each of your units has a number of attributes such as attack, damage and parry as well as a AP value. AP stands for Army points, the way that battles work in Dogs of war is similar to popular table top games. Each battle has an AP limit value for example a death match battle with a limit of 200 AP. This means you can you'll only be able to deploy units that match or go under that score collectively. For example I can deploy my predator of blood, a Wolfen crossbowmen and a lone wolf-man unit which adds up to 167, however I cannot deploy my fang warrior as adding him to the selection goes over the 200 AP limit

So lets get down to the main focus of the game which is its combat. There are currently three types of player vs player game mode available. You have your straight up death match mode, Elimination VIP which is where you are given a unit to protect while trying to kill the enemies VIP and last is king of the hill, where you need to place units in a selected area and hold it until the timer runs out. When your not killing real peoples mercenaries, you have the option of training missions. These training missions have varying difficulties and place you against an AI.

The combat itself is your very traditional turn based strategy, the movement grid is a hexed grid and the game shows you your movement options clearly. The green area around a unit is where you can move and still do actions like attack, you also have the option to move further by going into the orange highlighted area at the expense of any form of attacking action.

Attacking works on a basic formula, your units accuracy versus the enemies parry. Should you succeed damage is then worked out by your units damage versus the enemies toughness rating. There are a variety of factors governing your units attributes in a battle, things like terrain, cover, injuries, and other status' can affect the rolls.

Speaking of terrain and cover, the maps are beautifully crafted. You can make use of walls, hedges and more to take cover from ranged enemies or shoot from hedges thus making your character covered while attacking. There are also blocks of terrain that have rubble on them, these areas are classed as heavy terrain and units standing on them incur defensive penalties.

Two really useful mechanics in combat are the charge and pursuit movement mechanics. Charge is exactly as it sounds, your unit can charge an enemy. A successful charge will not only engage the enemy in close combat but also inflict a stun state which incurs a -1 to all their attributes. Pursuit movement occurs when a unit defeats an enemy, your able to take another action be it movement or attack another close enemy.

You also have orders at your disposal in combat, orders are essentially consumable abilities that you can use on any of your units. Some orders are faction specific for example as you can see I play as the Wolfen, their faction specific order is natural selection which gives a +2 to damage to the unit for the rest of the turn. Orders are crucial to victory in Dogs of war and can be the difference between a win or a loss.

Any fan of turn based strategy will be straight at home with dogs of war, even newcomers to the genre will pick up the mechanics of the game quickly and without much pain. The games tutorial explains everything nicely by actually letting you play the mechanics rather than just show you.

Dogs of war is no where near perfect, Cyanide still have a lot of work to do to not only bug fix but to also ensure the correct balancing for the units as some currently do feel over powered. Combat is solid and it is a good framework for cyanide to build on as the game progresses, luckily it is a completely self published title and cyanide own the IP meaning they can tweak to their hearts content. If your a big turn based strategy fan, you'll find real enjoyment here as I did. It is also a good place for newcomers to the genre to find their bearings as the game is not too difficult and you can just play with friends until you feel ready for more challenging foes.

As free to play games go, Dogs of war is by no means pay to win, though progression solely through ducats is slow and sometimes tedious, its easily done. While its a definite work in progress, there is certainly potential to build upon and I'd have no qualms about recommending this to anyone looking to play a turn based strategy.

A typical round-based strategy game, running via Matchmaking system. It's quite a neat game with halfway good graphics and a certain rulesetting, similar to some D&D-Features (Roll a dice for succes, f.ex.). It is made smart but not smart enough. I can only agree with people saying 'Unbalanced game' or 'highs farming lows'

Several examples:
1.) Playing the unholy/undead faction has seriously no major benefit at all (Immunity to toxin. Yeah.). At that, they're the kind of trash-troops - Cheap but many. However 'Zerg'ing the enemys down, like undeads usually would, won't work due to the limitations of summons for necromancers. Njét. Whereas wolve-troops posses a double-attack feature. Or healing powers when playing with holy-factioned troops.
-> 2.) Troops themselves have pretty balanced stats. Which is the next problem: Wolves passively having 'twice' the dmg-output than any other troop? I could faceplant to this. Some nice Knight being healed throughout the match? No problem.
I believe that ye fine programmers hate the undead.
3.) Matchmaking is based on so called Armypoints: The stronger the unit - The more AP you have. Thus, anyone can meet anyone, depending on troops ofcourse. Which is certainly a grave mistake: Experienced players can and will easily outplay any newcomer.
4.) One either must buy troops via real money or grind to get them. Which takes alot of time. Fortunately there's a limit for each troop in every platoon. (No zergings yo undeads.)

I'd claim: Give the game more time to evolve. It's good, but not good enough - for now.

Meh . 6/10

Was fun at the start. Building your troop learning the different skills sets and factions was great fun add that with what was when I played a helpful fun community and it’s a no brainer.
But unfortunately the game quickly takes a turn for the worse were you will start to see people using the same units and strategy over and over on the same few maps and the battles tend to play out the same way every game.

At this point you will have to throw some money at the game to be able to contend with the more powerful costly units and troop meta. And I am ok with spending money on a good product but I just didn’t see the Varity of maps units and the ability to change up your troop composition I was looking for.

On the positive side the graphics, interface, unit movement and skills were all done well and its for sure a game I will keep my eye on and perhaps come back to if they add more content.

Dogs Of War is a game with extremely deep gameplay mechanics, very well balanced maps and good character design. Graphics are pretty bad, music and sound effects are nothing special, also there's no customization options.Occasional matchmaking issues, non-existing support, exorbitant prices in item shop compromise the final result as well. If you are a fan of turned based strategy and can't afford a decent game of this genre - Dogs of War Online might be worth checking out. Overall 6/10.

well balanced game, not pay to win, free to play, in-depth strategy required. must have for TBS fans (y)

BETA Review

The game has had many patches and since the first time I played it has shapeshifted into a very good strategy game with many RPG "scents" to add to the action.

A game every strategy player should try out without a second thought.
After all, what have you got to lose?

7/10

Regards,
SteFka