Dire Wolves

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## Dire Wolves

* Portrait
* In Game

## Recruitment

### Speed

100

"Aragorn I, it is said, was slain by wolves, which ever after remained a peril in Eriador..."
—Appendix A, The Lord of the Rings

Dire Wolves are trained by the minions of the Witch-King to serve Angmar. They can be trained either from the Kennel or from the Wolf Lair, which can be constructed on settlement build plots. They are the cheapest and most easily accessible unit for Angmar in the early game. Like all cheap units it is easy for them to be mass produced, but they are vulnerable to mass slayers and do very minimal damage to structures.

## Upgrades

The Dire Wolves have access to the following upgrades:

 **Banner Carrier -** This upgrade can only be given to a level 1 battalion and will promote it to level 2. At level 2 the battalion can regenerate units when out of combat. **Cost**: 200.

 **Heavy Spiked Collars -** This increases the damage of Dire Wolves by 50% and their movement speed by 25%. **Cost:** 200

 **Rabies -** Dire Wolves gain +60% damage but lose -50% armor. **Cost**: 0

## Strategy

Dire Wolf Packs can be very useful in the early game due to their low cost, speed, and accessibility. Depending on what build order you're going for you might use them very differently. In the early game they can be used as very effective scouts due to their speed and low recruitment times. They could also be used to harass your enemy early on and could be used to give you much more map control. In the mid to late game they become comparatively weak, even with their **Heavy Spiked Collars**. For this reason you should never rely solely on them, but instead phase them out for more powerful units, using them instead mostly for meatshields. Furthermore, combining Dire Wolves withWolf Riders and Werewolves can be a very effective strategy against more players as the Dire Wolves can soak up most damage. The last thing to note is that they are very maneuverable and can be used to easily surround multiple battalions at once if you have enough packs. You can use this to your advantage as it is a great way to quickly pick off stray battalions, but as mentioned before, they are extremely vulnerable to mass slayers and should not be your primary units. If the player will mainly focus on wolves in the early game (with werewolves in the late-game), then the Mill would be the optimal resource building as building multiple mills would reduce the cost of the units.

If you decide to use Dire Wolves, it is advisable to recruit Drauglin, as his abilities cater specifically to hunting for enemies with the Wolves of Angmar.

## Trivia

* Interestingly, dire wolf packs combine voice clips from wargs and orcs. Hence, while they're fighting or celebrating, dire wolves may have voice clips more befitting to humanoid races. Dire wolf packs also do not howl.
* When a dire wolf pack receives the banner carrier, it spawns an especially large "alpha wolf" to lead the pack. When it receives the rabies upgrade, the wolves have a red glow at their mouths that constantly drip blood, as opposed to foamy saliva that's more characteristic of actual rabies.