Here's my Barking Dog card:

The recoiless rifle was a low velocity gun made easily portable and useable by infantry and jeeps due to it's recoiless nature. It's low velocity would make it reletively innacurate and short ranged compared to other anti-tank guns. It used the same warheads used by bazooka's but the larger calibre made it more poweful. With that in mind, I thought the gun should be equivelent to a longer rangeg bazooka with a bit more punch, the 6 range and limited ammo I hope will balance out the destructive power of 1/4.

The model has 6 barrels, so I gave it 6 shots so like the Steel Rain made them one-shot only and not reloadable. Not reloadable due to game effect rather than just not being able to. With the 6 shots a player has to really decide how many to let rip in any single action knowing that its shots are limited. If they were able to be reloaded, then it would be a no-brainer and would destroy every target they fired at as all guns were fired.

So, I think the card is reletively accurate and not over-poweful, but in the one game it has played in it managed to destroy 2 Axis walkers but priority and luck have a lot to do with that so will need to get a few more test games in yet. It suffered 1 wound when closing to range from a Luther before destroying it, won priority and despatched a Lothar, 2 shots were fired at each. Maybe it wouldn't have got so close if it were facing a pair of 88's?

Do you think it cost effective and fair?

Since Steel Rain doesnt have the jump capability, I am surprised Barking Dog would. Otherwise looks good.

Dcal12 said:

Good point, not that I've actually seen a mech jump in any game I've played

I don't know, I think it could have Jump. The Steel Rain can't jump because it's carrying a large metal frame with delicate missiles hanging from it. This has 6 big bazookas, which I would think would be a hell of a lot lighter and more stable.

PS. I use Jump all the time to move diagonally through other units without having to go around them like other walkers.

I don't like the idea of the recoilless rifles being single shot weapons. I have my own idea with the Barking Dog, where the recoiless rifles are split into pairs of three and they're reload weapons, turning it into a fascinating hit and run mech. Which is more in line with the Ontos this guy is realistically based on.

I'm going to wait till I actually have the money to get the model though before I finalize my own stats for it. Unless you guys really want me to take a shot at it before then...

see I did mine different;y than yours due to the fact you could fire all of them at once like the steel rain. And Leutnant Manfred the reason recoiless rifles are single shot is bc look at the model they would have to get out and load each one each time.

arkangl said:

That's true, but the same applies to the Nebelwefer. And the Petard Mortar actually (it was a front-loaded spigot mortar meant for demolitions, not combat). They're all weapons where you needed to get out of the tank to reload them. Therefore I think, in that context, the Barking Dog should be reload as well. Because it's not a problem with the ammo being too big to carry into battle (Like Steel Rain Rockets), but instead being too complicated to reload without taking an action to do so.

Not to mention it otherwise it becomes really, really underpowered this way. Sure, you could use your rounds to get a horrendous amount of shots on one or two targets. Then it has nothing left but it's MG's. Even Fury of Ivan was more useful.

arkangl said:

You can fire as many as you like in my version as well, its just as I took them as larger bazooka shells and didn't write the stat line like yours, thinking about it I could go 1/4 - 2/4 etc. I didn't want the Dog to be the same as Steel rain and the weapons were used for completely different purposes, and shouldn't be classed as Artillery.

Will FFG ever release a Barking Dog model and stat card for use in DT?

I think that on the Dust Models website it states that the recoiless guns require a Reload action.

CombatRanger said:

Unfortunately the Dust Models site are not allowed to create stats for their own models or game thats down to FFGonly, figure that one out :/

Their blurb says they take a long time reload, understandable when the crewman has to drag himself and the ammo out of the turret and somehow balance himself on the rigging to load it. Because they say it takes a long time to load, you could view it that its not possible within the short time frame of the game. Reducing the guns effect and giving it reload and maybe also the All in One ability to represent firing off all its barrell is a possibility.

Major Mishap said:

It seems to me that it would be quicker to reload than the Nebelwerfers so I would make it a reload weapon and ditch the limited shots. I would leave the stat line as it is now or maybe reduce the effectiveness against infantry alittle (but keep the same stats for armor) and give it the All in One ability. This will make it effective against vehicles and good enough against infantry but still keep it a fairly short ranged weapon which is its biggest limitation. Once per game it would be a real monster but still has the problem of having to close to within 6.

When the new core set comes out it would be easy enough to bring it inline with the weapons on the new bots as they are both similar in nature.

DoomOnYou72 said:

It's current stat line does too much damage to be able to fire 6 shots all at once and then able to reload, it would be an almost certain kill every time it fired. We've tried it out twice so far, it has not yet run out of ammo before being destroyed with its user opting to fire in pairs (killed 2 mechs in consecutive turns). The range is a hinderence, but providing it does not get destroyed in the turn it reveals itself to get in range, it will kill its points value.

As to the Neb, I close my eyes to that as it would be impossible to reload. The real-life version would have an entire back up team to reload it away from the battlefield and this is equivelent to a whole battery of Nebs not just one.

You could certainly put in a reload option but I believe the 1/4 stat is correct for its type of ammo and calibre. An option I suppose would be to give it 1/4 for every pair or even every 3 tubes. My mate forgot to bring it to club yesterday, it'll get another try on Sunday at Rampage.

Sorry I meant to infer that I would give it one statline for all tubes...I was just tossing out ideas. So far on the models they havent broken down multi barrels into separate weapons and I dont see why this one should be different (gamewise...this has nothing to do with reality). Im pretty sure on the new Blackhawk model this is how the Piat Cannon is represented even though on the model its obviously just four rather humongous piat rounds. It looks like only the All in One ability is limited. Another option would be to make two different statlines for the weapon, 1 for anti-tank and one for antipersonnel with it costing an action or something to switch rounds or be decided when the model reloads.

I thought about the different ammo and swapping between them or stating how many of each it carried in the barrels, I.E. 6AT and 2 HE, but felt this was overcomplicating it considering the simple nature of the game, I guess it just matters how many extra rules you are happy with, in the end I opted for the simplest way. The Steel Rain has limited ammo, one for each rocket, as do Axis squads with their Panzerfausts, so having 1 shot per barrell is not unique. I also felt it needed to be different than counting as just a single gun, a pounder with a different gun stat.

Reload and all-in-one would be a good way to interprate its weapons looking at the new walkers stats and might be the better way to go. Not sure on what stat line to give it though.

I think the way InquisitorKris has done it on this card might be the way to go. Im not sure about the stats but I definantly like the slow reload rule and the options it opens up for different weapons.