War Wolves
Composition
Manpower
War wolves operate in tandem with their Wolf Riders, who generally are trained alongside one wolf in particular. As a group, they often work together in groups of 5 to 25, depending on circumstance.
Equipment
War wolves are the pack's riding wolves adorned with heavy leather and fur armor, primarily on the front half of their body such as the neck, chest, face, and back. Often and where available, the armor is lined with extremely strong fabrics such as kevlar. Chest plates for the wolves occasionally are lined with materials found in the equipment of soldiers to prevent heavy damage from gunshots or arrows.
Weaponry
Most often, war wolves are not equip with weaponry of their own, instead carrying arms and munitions for their riders. In the rare cases war wolves are given armaments themselves, these are most often in the form of bladed shoulder pads, chest plates, and spiked helms to make it much more painful when a wolf rams into a target. As these are often very limiting to the wolf's movement and the high risk of the wolf injuring themselves or a fallen rider, they are very rarely used in real combat and instead used for intimidation prior to combat.
Training
War wolves begin training very young, generally as soon as they are readily eating solid food. They do not begin training explicitly for combat until two years of age, but undergo regular training for obedience, cooperation, and their own quick thinking until that point. Combat training generally starts with seeing the wolf's affinity for being ridden in high stress situations, such as hunting and races with a lot of noise and complex stimulus. Most wolves do not go further with their training, either being too skittish or dependent on their rider for instruction, or simply being too stubborn. Those that fail often become general riding wolves for the pack.
Only wolves that demonstrate excellent cooperation, drive, and the ability to think on their feet in combat are chosen to begin training in combat. They must be able to multitask in protecting their rider without being so aggressive they begin to maul anyone before them in the heat of the moment. All training is done through positive reinforcement with any wolves punished for not attacking being removed from the pool of potential war wolves, due to the negative behavior learned through it.
Overall training Level
Elite
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