How to Play

Dogs of War

3-5 players 75-75 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players are mercenary commanders serving six warring noble Houses across three rounds of conflict. The core mechanic involves strategically deploying captains and soldiers to support different Houses in battles, constantly shifting allegiances for maximum profit. Victory goes to the player who accumulates the most influence with winning Houses and battlefield rewards.

Published 2014

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Adjust for player count

For a 3-player game, use only 2 battle tracks and return 2 houses to the box

Position house banners

Place plastic banners on the '-1' space of the victory track

Set year marker

Place yellow token on year 1

Assign first player

Randomly give the large black token to one player

Initialize battle trackers

Place red markers on the '0' space of each battle track

Prepare tactic deck

Shuffle tactic cards and place face-down on designated space

Arrange soldier cards

Sort soldier cards and place face-up near the board

Distribute player components

Each player receives:

Use player screens

Keep coins and cards secret throughout the game

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Advance round marker

Move marker forward (rounds 2/3/4 only)

Collect income

Players gain $3 (except in round 1)

Receive additional captains

Players gain 1 captain in rounds 2 and 4 only (resulting in 3/4/4/5 captains for rounds 1/2/3/4)

Populate battles

Randomly assign house cards, battle reward cards, and bonus reward tokens to each battle

Set final round tokens

All bonus reward tokens show 3VP in the final round

Transfer first player option

First player may give up the token to any other player

Purchase soldiers

Players take turns buying soldier cards

Play tactic card (optional)

Play a single tactic card if desired

Deploy soldier

Place a single soldier card on one side of a battle and advance the battle tracker accordingly

Place captain

Put a captain on one of the 6 reward slots and take the reward

Claim staff bonus

If a reward slot depicts a staff, take another captain for this round only

Pass and claim first player

The first player to pass receives the first-player token

Advance winning house

The winning house's banner moves 1 space on the victory track

Award victory points

All players supporting the victorious house receive 1VP per captain that supported the defeated house

Distribute bonus reward

Player(s) with the most captains on the winning side receive the bonus reward tile

Winning

How to claim victory.

Count point tokens

Tally all in-game point tokens collected

Score leftover cards

Earn 1 point for each remaining tactic and soldier card

Convert coins

Earn 1 point for every $2 remaining

Calculate house standings

Multiply each house's position on the victory track (including '-1') by the number of its banner tokens the player has (including the two from their house support card)

Determine winner

The player with the highest total points wins

Grey (Sir Blackmane)

After taking the bonus reward, receive the highest-value soldier card from the losing side's discard pile

Pink (Lady Ordalia Macbeth)

Count as having +1 captains when determining bonus reward winner

Yellow (Captain O'Malley)

Receive $1 for each battle where you have at least one captain on the winning side

Brown (The Nameless Conqueror)

Move the battle tracker 2 spaces in your favor at end-of-round (must have a captain in play; cannot use if opponents are at 15)

Green (Stormcrow)

Your captains don't grant victory points to other players if they supported the losing side