African War Hounds

[Fanis]

Greetings all,
I did some basic research on the subject of war dogs used by African tribes as mentioned in the context of the Stanley expedition. I am posting it here in case anyone has any additional or contradictory info. I am very interested in conclusively determining the type of these dogs so I can paint some up. For now I have ordered some mastiffs but these are clearly ahistorical (though top minis).

 I found a reference to war hounds being used by an African tribe (Wazamboni) who attacked Stanley's expedition. I was enthused by the fact that the rules I will be using (In the heart of Africa) also included mention of these war hounds. However, I could not find info on how these dogs looked.

A brief google search yielded some results which I am sharing here for future reference.

From the journal of the medical officer who accompanied the Emin Pasha expedition; he is clearly not talking about war hounds here but I found the reference to the larger dogs in the plains, resembling greyhounds interesting:

"All the native dogs which I have seen in the forest have
ears pointed and erect. I have nowhere, as yet, seen one
with drooping ears. The natives of the forest are not fond of
domestic pets. The dogs are somewhat like fox-terriers, but
very thin and starved-looking, and mostly brown. They
evidently do not receive much attention from their native
owners. The dogs on the plain are taller, with fine limbs,
and somewhat of the greyhound type ; most of them have
pointed ears, but a few of them carry these organs droop-
ing."

From Stanley himself:

"It should be mentioned that when the warriors de-
scended the mountain slopes for the fight, every little
squad of men was accompanied by a large hound, of
somewhat slender build, Init courageous, and prompt to
attack."

Finally, searching for native african breeds which might have been around at the time of Stanley I found this page: http://africandogs.bulldoginformation.com/

The larger dog in the pic below is an Azawakh, a very old breed, native to Africa i.e. not brought over by Europeans AND as you can see it closely resembles a greyhound.


I tend to conclude that these are the dogs Stanley faced when attacked in Africa but as I said do please post if you have any more conclusive data on the subject.

[Belgian]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[Dr Mathias]

Wild. I'm sure I read those accounts by Stanley, and for some reason I never really considered using war dogs. Now that you bring it up it does indeed sound interesting!

[Dr. Kevin Moon III esq.]

Thanks for sharing. Any luck on finding any models?

[Fanis]

I am afraid I haven't found any greyhound models in 28mm mate. I did order some mastiffs now sold by Sgt Major (the old Vendel minis) which are superb as sculpts but of course very wrong for this use. Still I will paint and use the mastiffs until I can find proper substitutes. I only need 4 anyways as the rules I am using In the Heart of Africa, allow for this number, treating them as Warriors but without the need to take morale tests and some extra movement bonus if I recall correctly.

 

[Dr Mathias]

Mega Minis has quite a few dogs, you might be able to modify the ears if you can find the body type you're after.

http://freeboardgamesnow.com/animals.aspx?page=3

The size of the animals has been stated to be small, but I bought some of the peacocks and the gargantuan monstrosities looked out of place with 28mm figures. The sheep are about right. I don't think I have any of the dogs.