Tooth and Tail has four main characters that serve as commanders of their respective armies. Although each character has a distinct theme and background music, each one plays identically, and can recruit any animal to their cause when doing multiplayer games. In the campaign however, they have distinct armies and hubs, and as such have more personality to go off of.
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Commanders
Arroyo Bellafide
"Who decides the fate of animals?"
"Nothing stops determined capital!"
The aristocratic leader of the Longcoats, his blue-clad forces seek to overthrow the Harvest system and replace it with a capitalist meritocracy.- Arch-Enemy: Despises Archimedes due to being the face of the Civilized. The Longcoats are willing to ally with the Commonfolk and later with the KSR, but never with the Civilized.Bellafide: You will read the word 'vengeance' from the heel of my boot!
- Badass Longcoat: And you better believe it!
- Bad Guy Bar: Depending on your perspective of course (playing as the Longcoats would make it a Good-Guy Bar), but the Longcoats' base of operations is the "Old South Distillery", where Uncle Butters serves as the head chef, and Squirrels are free to get drunk off of Acorn brew.
- Blue Is Heroic: Rallies his forces under a blue banner, though how truly "heroic" his actions are is definitely up in the air.
- Book Ends: Bellafide starts the war and could potentially be the last faction standing before being overwhelmed by the Boris uprising.
- Expy: The creators based his looks on Theodore Roosevelt
. In role, however, he seems to fit closer to Alexander Kerensky. - Fantastic Racism: Bellafide is committed, honorable, and believes in the inner potential of anyone regardless of class... but that's only for other animals, as he looks down on the Fat Borises with utter disdain and contempt.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Starts the war in a heroic attempt to avenge his son and create a new society based on social merit rather than a corrupt oligarchy. Ends up fighting a desperate dragging war that leaves swathes of animals dead, and his vision abandoned in favor of merely survival.
- Hypocrite: He had no problems with meat-eating or the Harvest, only the fact that his son ended up a victim of it. While the Harvest lottery was rigged in the favor of its organizers, Bellafide doesn't seem to have been aware.
- Interclass Friendship: He initially befriends the commoner Hopper in hopes of an alliance to overthrow the Civilized. Their friendship lasts until it's clear that there isn't enough food for both their armies to share.
- It's Personal: Started the civil war after his son was harvested. He does end up avenging his son, just not in the way he imagined.
- Kick the Dog: Several of his taunts toward his enemies are this. While Archimedes probably deserves it, his insults towards Hopper (calling her a huzzy) and the Quartermaster (accusing her of ignobility and treason) are a little uncalled for, especially since Hopper provided the Longcoats with a lot of help.
- Might Makes Right: A variant, where he intends for those who don't end up contributing to society are the ones who end up being slaughtered for dinner.
- Non-Idle Rich: He is quite active for an aristocratic leader.
- Only in It for the Money: Most of Bellafide's forces are not loyal to him due to their belief in his mission to remake their society. Instead, most are just mercenary Hired Guns who have been rallied to his cause by potential upswings in business and the prospect of being reliably paid and fed. As a result, a lot of his forces don't hesitate to sell their faction out if it serves their immediate individual interests. Like Uncle Butter, for instance.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: After his son was harvested by the Civilized (all done legally due to the laws of the society), Bellafide uses his own money to hire a private army to try overthrowing the laws that have been established for years before the events in the story.
- Self-Made Man: He was a formerly an impoverished boxer who rose up to the wealthy section of society.
- Social Darwinist: In spite of his noble goals against the Civilized and their Harvest system, he seems to believe that those who pull their weight could achieve anything and the poor in general are those too lazy to rise up, rather than people kept at their level by societal constraints. This likely springs from his own past, as he was a lowborn boxer who pulled himself up by his own efforts into wealth and respectability.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Bellafide is a noble person at heart, but his methods and intent are twisted by revenge and the cruel reality of war. He is trying to change society for the better but uses violence rather than diplomacy in doing so, and things just snowball from there.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: By the end, the Longcoats were dragged down by food shortages and constant fighting against three larger and more organized factions, before the Borises come to finish them all off. Bellafide's ultimate fate is unknown, and it's unknown if he was killed by the system he intended to overthrow.
Hopper
"The Commonfolk is gonna run dis place."
"Revolution gotta start somewhere!"
The one armed Hopper leads the numerous red-clad Commonfolk to a new future.- Abandoned Mine: The Commonfolk utilize an old mining tunnel as their base of operations, featuring a market that cooperates with the Longcoats for supplies and also conveniently has old trains that act as prisons for captured prisoners of war. A private section contains the Matriarch and her horde of zombified Mice, though that part is blocked off for obvious reasons.
- Action Girl: A female rat who leads an army.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Without holding her flag, the single-player safe zones give the impression that she's missing both arms.
- Chummy Commies: After Bellafide has to ally with them.
- Country Mouse: Puns aside, she's from the country farms along with the majority of the commonfolk peasants, who have been rallied towards the more urban centers of Vyeshal due to the war.
- Democracy Is Bad: Ambiguous, but Hopper is leading the fight for a mass scale voting system for who gets to be eaten... which would seem pretty heroic if not for the fact that the Commonfolk are both the largest group in terms of numbers and detest the other factions out of malice for being higher on the social tier. If they had their way, the Commonfolk would dominate a democratic voting system just by the amount of votes they could cast, and anyone they collectively target would be eaten. In fact, their win quote (in Vyeshal) outright has them state, "We are Tyranny".
- Fantastic Racism: She is also racist against the pigs, as Hopper does not consider pigs to be part of the working class and views them as little but walking meat.
- Full-Circle Revolution: Hopper fights against the injustice of the rigged lottery system for who gets eaten, and wants to replace it with a democratic vote. She ignores that this would only rig the system in favor of the Commonfolk, who are the most numerous faction by far, and who would naturally vote for their social superiors to be eaten first.
- Funetik Aksent: Her dialogue is frequently spelled with missing vowels, which give her a speech pattern that is less refined than the others.
- Handicapped Badass: She cut off her own arm to feed her followers. Or possibly herself depending on how you interpret her conversation with a captured Wing Demon.
- Hypocrite: Despite the poor and working classes being hit the worst by both war and famine, and the ones who could most easily abandon the Harvest system and work the soil for sustainable food, Hopper refuses to eat vegetables or to encourage it in her faction, becoming just another faction trying to hoard meat.
- In-Series Nickname: "Friends call me Nubs!"
- Interclass Friendship: Allies herself with Bellafide, who unlike her is wealthy, educated, and dressed in a formal wear. Doesn't change her positive commitment to their agreement (the Commonfolk even help defend the Longcoats' private markets when they are attacked by Civilized forces), that is until the meat shortages happen.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: A young peasant girl who fights against injustice and wields nothing but a flag.
- Meaningful Name: A hopper can be any of several machine parts involved in grain production, including a trough to feed livestock. The Commonfolk will reluctantly eat grain when necessary, and are definitely unwashed livestock-like masses. Hopper is also the term for young rat pups, specifically those whose fur has just grown and eyes have opened.
- Nice Girl: Saves the Longcoats when they hit a crisis, is friendly to everyone regardless of how they insult her, and is so heroic that even the Matriarch supports her cause.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: While she and what remains of her forces participate in the final battle, there is no explanation as to whether she and the Commonfolk were killed or eaten, or if they escaped into obscurity, especially given how large the faction is.
- Working-Class Hero: At least the impression of one, if one ignores their tendency to eat the other factions.
- Young and in Charge: Hopper is the youngest commander by far, but she also skillfully leads the most chaotic faction to marginal success compared to the others.
The Quartermaster
"Rule #1: Conflict is inevitable."
"Battles are not won by chance."
The iron-fisted leader of the KSR who in the power-vacuum left by the death of the Czarina opted to continue fighting for order.- Action Girl: Leads the elite KSR special forces from the front, and conducts intelligence surveys personally.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Wears an eyepatch, but always on the eye visible to the players.
- Anti-Villain: Given the morality of the game, it's questionable if she even counts as a villain. While perhaps the downright morally blackest of the four playable characters, her ultimate goal is to end the war and stop the anarchy, bringing civilization back to the order it had previously.
- Black Site: The Kitchen is the KSR's home base, an underground bunker that is staffed with military barracks, a prison for dissenters and interrogation, an intelligence bureau, a field hospital, and a vault full of meat.
- Consummate Professional: She speaks formally, remarks on the battle in straightforward manner, and criticizes the bad strategies of her rivals. Displays of emotion are present, but rare.
- Death from Above: As the primary faction to make use of Wing Demons, this is a running theme in any campaign mission involving KSR forces.
- In one particular mission against the KSR as Hopper, air sirens will ring every five minutes, signaling a wave of Wing Demons diving in for a flank.
- In another where you're playing as the Quartermaster, you make use of "militarized sugar" which speeds you up and has you mark a trail for artillery shells to rain down on your path, decimating all other forces caught in it.
- Her Drumfire Artillery structures in the Campaign are also very capable of doing this, so make sure you scout well before advancing in!
- Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": Just "the Quartermaster", with no other name given.
- Eyepatch of Power: Eyepatch + Faction Leader = Instant Awesome.
- Green and Mean: Her faction color represents the militant order of the former regime, and she's probably the most ruthless of the four main commanders, being motivated by individual purpose rather than hunger or revenge.
- Horrible Judge of Character: While normally competent, she really didn't expect the very obviously evil Archimedes to betray her until he made it obvious by busting out insane criminals from the Kitchen to fight for him.
- Hypocrite: The only commander who can't be considered one, as she is thorough with her mission through and through, though her actions can make her seem extremist at times.
- Just the First Citizen: 'Quartermaster' isn't even a formal military rank, but a role commonly given to a commissioned officer.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: The KSR want nothing more than an end to the war, no matter which system comes on top.
- Noble Demon: Though she uses the war to increase the power of the KSR, and authorized assassination and torture, she explicitly thinks that ending the war quickly will help the people, which is something she wants—no matter who wins.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She is simply 'The Quartermaster'.
- Samus Is a Girl: Unlike Hopper, who is clearly feminine in dressware and behavior, the Quartermaster can throw some people at a loop from the beginning due to her stoicism, military uniform, and eyepatch.
- Sparse List of Rules: She frequently quotes from a list of military maxims, sounding a bit like an in-universe The Art of War. She even refers to it as "the book" in one quote.
- State Sec: When the state fell apart, she continued to feel it's her duty to maintain order, by force if necessary.
- Totalitarian Utilitarian: She seized control of the former army not to prolong the civil war but to end it, believing there needs to be a quick transition back to peace in response to all the anarchy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her use of explosive artillery, chemical gasses, and highly lethal combatants are all a result of her wanting to end the war as soon as possible, and high casualties are just a necessary part of that intent.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Even though the war does in fact end, the Quartermaster isn't shown again to be administrating any peace affairs, so it's up in the air whether she actually managed to escape or if she was eaten along with the rest.
Archimedes
"What delicacies await?"
"We will be in ascendance again..."
Charismatic preacher of the Civilized, who ran the lottery systems for the Harvest before the War.- Badass Preacher: He's the oldest of the four commanders and also the only one with no explicit combat training (Bellafide was a boxer, Hopper did scrap fights, and the Quartermaster is part of the State Security), but that doesn't slow him down at all.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Harvest has happened so many times under his administration that Archimedes doesn't even realize that it was his order to harvest Bellafide's son that kickstarted the entire war to begin with.
- Corrupt Church: The Civilized ran the lottery, and also rigged it to make sure their core members couldn't be picked for it.
- Church Militant: Justified as while most of their forces are either converted fighters or insane martyrs, Archimede's favorite enforcers are the Tooth Collectors, who are very combat-oriented snakes with lethality that far overshadows their intimidation factor.
- Deadly Euphemism: When greeting the Quartermaster and her forces, he asks if the KSR will be joining the Civilized for the feast tonight, with the subtle implication that they won't be sharing the table.
- The Dragon: He's called the "left hand" of the Civilized and is subservient to Sage Marro, the high priest (a giant moose).
- Eating the Enemy: Is much more candid about it. The other leaders cover it up in platitudes and "for the people" sentiments, but Archimedes makes no bones about why he's fighting the others.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Marro orders him to destroy the fledgling civilization made by the other three factions in the final mission, Archimedes is hesitant to do it.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He has absolutely no clue for why the other three commanders are fighting: he openly questions why Bellafide is angry since he's in the priveleged upper class, why Hopper fights for others at all, and why the Quartermaster is trying to end the war even if it isn't on her terms.
- Evil Tastes Good: The most sinister of the four playable characters and the one who uses the most food- and taste-related combat lines.
- Garden of Evil: The Civilized's primary hub is their Temple Garden, a serene and beautiful environment that also subtly contains rooms for the chosen to commit suicide by poisonous berries, a kitchen to cook the newly deceased, and catacombs filled with bones following the meals.
- History Repeats: A core tenet of the Civilized.
- Hypocrite: Rigged the Harvest lottery to make sure he and his close allies could only benefit with no risk to themselves, while at the same time preaching the virtues of meat-eating to his fellow animals and making the lotteries necessary in the first place.
- Protection Mission: Towards the end of the campaign, the Civilized are the only ones with Boris's left, which earns the ire of all the other factions. Archimedes quickly rallies his forces to protect their Boris's, if only because they want to eat them themselves.
- Silver Tongue: Convinces numerous creatures to his cause with his charismatic sermons.
- Sinister Minister: His doctrine requires his adherents to accept being sacrificed for meat.
- Status Quo Is God: His goal is to end the war on the Civilized's terms and re-institute the lottery, as Archimedes and his faction were perfectly happy being in control of the Harvest. When the Commonfolk, Longcoats, and KSR create a new peaceful government at Snikaree, Archimedes destroys it because the Civilized were not a part of it.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Starts out the war allied to the KSR, but the two sides rapidly have a falling out as the KSR run out of supplies and Archimedes frees their prisoners to fight for him.
- Unknown Rival: Despite Bellafide's open hatred of him, Archimedes does not take Bellafide any more seriously than he does the other two opposing faction leaders. He also makes no references to Bellafide's son who was eaten during the last Harvest, making it likely that he's not even aware of that either.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Even though he was the one who started the final battle and mission that would decide the fate of all animals, the resulting quagmire of violence leaves it ambiguous if Archimedes managed to wit his way out of the battle or if he became another victim of the Harvest system that he implemented (though it certainly would be for the last time).
Units
Fat Boris (Pigs)
The worker unit that tends the farms, and then becomes the food that feeds the army.
- Action Survivor: Pigs can only do half the damage output of a squirrel, but their high health (20, 6 more than a mole) and grouped up numbers can pressure off attackers early on, making them this.
- Dying Race: The continuing shortage of swine led to the creation of the Harvest. Turns out they're not dying after all, and they're more than ready to take their revenge when the other factions are at their weakest.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Engineered many of the betrayals and alliances to prevent one faction from winning the war.
- Mook Depletion: After around 5 minutes of farming, the tile will go fallow, and the Pig will be sent to a Gristmill to be harvested. This inevitably results in resource scarcity later on as all the Pigs are killed (by virtue of timing out), leaving players scrambling for open gristmills and campfires. Amusingly, it's this problem in-universe that results in the entire civil war; the entire Pig race is dying out due to being the meal of choice of all other animals.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Requests checkers and other simple forms of entertainment for their limited recreation before they're sent to the butchers. Only to reveal that they have been the masterminds for the entire civil war in the first place.
- Slave Race: Utterly subservient to all four factions.
- Victory by Endurance: After the four factions utterly exhausted themselves in the final mission, the pigs rose up and defeated the exhausted survivors.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: If the Gristmill is destroyed, all the surrounding Boris's will instantly perish in the explosion.
- Worker Unit: Necessary to harvest food for all other constructions, and packs a pistol for emergency self-defense.
Tier 1 units
The Distillery Brothers (Squirrels)
Tier 1 ranged unit, wields revolvers.
- Boring, but Practical: Squirrels can engage any target at a relatively long range, keeping them valuable throughout the entire game. If you aren't using Squirrels in a multiplayer skirmish, then the only substitute is Lizards.
- Cannon Fodder: They are said to be conscripted and untrained. It's probably why they drink so much.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: When off duty, the Distillery brothers are drunk, whiny, and prone to switching sides when given the smallest incentive. But in game, a well-microed group of squirrels can tear apart even high tier units with good terrain and kiting.
- Hired Guns: Bellafide used his wealth to hire large numbers of these Squirrels to enlist, and provides them plenty of Acorn brew in order to convince them to stay.
- Liquid Courage: Drinks to steel themselves against the war.
- Revolvers Are for Amateurs: They're only tier 1, and their revolvers only do 2 damage per second, just above Pigs in damage output.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Their few moments of soberness results in this.
- Weaksauce Weakness: For their all their versatility, their dependency on range and numbers makes them especially vulnerable to splash damage and close engagements. A sudden drop in your army count from a good aoe engagement can quickly make your squirrel army to rout.
- Zerg Rush: Easily mass-produced, cheap, and possessing good range, Squirrels can easily overwhelm unprepared enemies by just sheer gunfire.
Nomads of the North (Lizards)
- Boring, but Practical: Lizards can engage any target, have good damage output, and their doubled speed allows them to chase or escape most other units at will. If you aren't using Lizards in a multiplayer skirmish, then the only other substitute is Squirrels.
- Cannon Fodder: As barbaric outsiders, nobody puts much value on their lives... and the Lizards aren't smart enough to know it.
- Crutch Character: Early on, their speed makes it so Lizards can harass and outmaneuver enemies without peer. But as players begin making more fortifications, and as higher tier units come in, the Lizard's lack of range really start to hurt.
- Fragile Speedster: They have around the same hit point of a Squirrel, but their low range means that they have to brave enemy fire a lot of more in order to actually engage them. If there's any actual fighting, chances are most of the Lizards won't make it out.
- Jack of All Stats: The most well-rounded Tier 1 unit, able to engage any target and decently tank shots for the more specialized and vulnerable Tier 2's and 3's.
- Javelin Thrower: Able to attack air and ground units at a short distance.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: They wear furs to keep their cold blood running hot.
- You No Take Candle: Even their Conlang makes them sound a bit like scatterbrained puppies.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Similar to squirrels, Lizards run faster which enable them to be better at melee engagements, but their lower range causes them to get hard countered by Toads and Mines, which will blow entire holes in your swarm before you can get a good volley off.
- Zerg Rush: Being aligned most closely with the Commonfolk, having little sense of strategy, and being primitively aggressive makes most of the Nomads this. In game, their spot at Tier 1, natural swiftness, and high damage output makes them great for rushing people.
Morning Light Croakers (Toads)
- Action Bomb: Goes without saying, though Toads won't detonate if they're killed before they can light their fuse.
- Deadly Euphemism: The "Light" is martyrdom by explosion.
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: The stick of lit dynamite strapped to their back.
- Not Afraid to Die: They're religiously fanatical to the teachings of the Civilized, meaning that they believe their sacrifice is less of a desperate last resort and more of a way to tranquility... until they light the fuse that is.
- Pun: Toads croak, but "croak" is also a euphemism for "die". Considering their method of attack, croaking is all they can do.
- Splash Damage: Makes them a great counter to other tier 1 units, especially Lizards.
- Suicide Attack: If they do manage to explode, the Croaker is gone and needs to be replaced, making them a huge food sink.
- This Is Gonna Suck: They are said to regret their life choices (specifically the choice of lighting the fuse) in the moment before they explode.
The Volunteers (Pigeons)
- Actual Pacifist: They cannot attack. They also have the lowest health in the game, half that of a squirrel.
- Even the Rats Won't Touch It: Their medical packets were hardly consumed by everyone early on, and yet as the war drags on, injured participants began to take whatever they could get out of desperation.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: The aid packages are eaten by friendlies.
- The Medic: Outside of gameplay, they can be seen treating injured combatants in the KSR medical facilities.
- Plucky Girl: Cheerful and helpful, also stated to be a voluntary force meant for saving lives.
- Shoot the Medic First: Their relative squishiness makes them a ripe target for any unit that can hit aerial targets.
- Simple, yet Awesome: Despite not being able to attack, Volunteers can help prolong injured allies which would otherwise have to retreat into friendly territory to heal, mitigate incoming damage, act as spotters to see what lies on hills, and can help heal allied units that are controlled by other players on the same team.
Engineers for Hire (Moles)
- Consummate Professional: When talked to in the campaign, Moles give the various commanders little regard, are incredibly focused on their tasks, and constantly talk about how their reputation is important for future business.
- Critical Hit: Does double damage against buildings, complete with a "Crit!" pop-out.
- Crippling Overspecialization: With their high health and bonus damage, Moles are excellent at taking down Feather Wire fields, clearing tremor mines, and breaking down Gristmills. However, their low speed and melee weaponry means that they'll be cut down by anything that has a little more firepower than Bullet Hives.
- Demolitions Expert: Despite their titles, Moles specialize more in bringing down structures gameplay wise.
- The Engineer: Stated to be the masterminds for most of the fortifications and they're responsible for base maintenance. Also useful for dispatching barbed wire and triggering mines.
- Tunnel King: Before a later patch, Moles could just tunnel to any spot on demand in a game (making them good on-demand reinforcements, though they still had a build time and food cost in order to do so). In the campaign, KSR Mole engineers managed to create deployment tunnels so that this could be done for all units, though this tech was later stolen by the other factions.
- The Turret Master: The brains of the Bullet Hive, of which they designed the schematics for by the request of Bellafide.
Tier 2 units
The Freight Union (Ferrets)
- Arbitrary Weapon Range: They can't fire at anything within about 2 or 3 tiles.
- Arms Dealer: They're the supply shippers for most of the weaponry that is used by the various factions. This is represented by how they're one of the few generic units to show up at all the faction starting hubs in different colors, as they're doing business with all of them.
- Backpack Cannon: Ferrets carry mortar cannons on their backs to be launched at an angle, and have the longest range out of all the offensive units, to the point they need a spotter in order to fire beyond the fog of war.
- Cross Hair Aware: See a few circles of light red on top of your guys? Get them out of the way!
- Death from Above: Expect to see a shower of shells being rained down on a target once you get a good pack of Ferrets in position. Unlike most examples, the target has about two seconds to get out of the way before the mortars land.
- Delivery Guy: Their specialty before the war.
- Glass Cannon: Non-moving targets will be obliterated within seconds by a few bombardment rounds. Ferrets will likewise be obliterated if they're caught out in the open.
- Hired Guns: Similarly to the Distillery Brothers, Bellafide hired the Freight Union in order to kickstart his revolution. Unlike their drunken comrades, some Ferrets threaten to defect if Bellafide can't pay or feed them.
- Stealth Pun: Ferrets are sometimes called 'tube rats'. They're weasels with mortars.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Few ground units can safely approach a large group of Freight Union mortars on the ground, but their powerful cannons can't hit any air units at all.
The Trench Gang (Chameleons)
- Achilles' Heel: Nothing can target them when they're camouflaged. Except for barbed wires and mines, since you can't fool those by sneaking. Oh and the fact that their completely visible Commander (who they have to follow) is running around in the open; in this game, a Commander running alone is incredibly suspicious.
- Badass Boast: Their description:Nobody crosses the Trench Gang. Nobody. Well, some have crossed the Trench Gang. But only once. Don't cross the Trench Gang.
- Carry a Big Stick: They carry big spiked clubs to beat down their enemies. And their reputation is feared by all the factions alike.
- Close-Range Combatant: One of the two true melee units besides Moles, and unlike them, Chameleons have the stealth and power to be truly effective at it.
- Defiant to the End: A few Chameleons are loyal to a fault to the Commonfolk, not changing sides even when bribed or threatened. One specific red Chameleon stated it would never change its color to yellow even as Archimedes was threatening to have it be eaten alive.
- Gangbangers: They're treated as such, with their gruff speech patterns and notoriety for suddenly clubbing the living daylights out of anything that approaches their turf.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Cloaking when out of combat renders them immune from retaliation by the oncoming defenders. This makes Chameleons really good at getting away with murder.
- Hollywood Chameleons: The only unit that can turn invisible. What's even more impressive is turning their clubs and clothes invisible too.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Seeing a lone commander walking around and thinking that they're an easy target? Think again when a dozen Trench Gang uncloak and begin to cudgel your surprised army.
- Visible Invisibility: While cloaked, the enemy can still see a Predator-like distortion.
Wing Demons (Falcons)
- Airborne Mook: In the campaign, Falcons serve as this when under the AI's control. They're very annoying especially if the specific level does not provide you with much anti-air to deal with them.
- Boring, but Practical: The only direct fighting air unit, meaning that it has unmatched mobility and flanking potential. Really, the only other units able to contest with them are large numbers of Squirrels or Lizards, Snakes, Foxes, Bullet Hives, and more Wing Demons.
- Cock Fight: Falcons compete to be the best flying aces under the idea that it would net them more ladies.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: They're exclusively male, described as "cocky", fight to impress females, and have huge machine guns hanging from their... stomachs.
- Glass Cannon: Has only twice the HP of a Squirrel, but does nearly seven times the Distillery Brothers' damage when a Falcon can pull off its full attack cycle. But it takes only a few hits to bring them down for good.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: Wing Demons attack by rapid firing their machine guns until they run out of ammo and begin reloading another clip, making their damage very bursty. As a result, the best way to abuse this is by having Falcons unload their bullets into a target and then to call them back during the reload cycle before continuing again.
- Jack of All Stats: High damage, moderate health, good mobility, and mid tier costs make Wind Demons the most versatile unit of the game.
- More Dakka: Wing Demons utilize machine guns that are similar to that of Bullet Hives.
- Nose Art: They wear masks that evoke the art seen on fighter aircraft.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Despite being flying units, they're still not very fast. A fox can slowly cut down a flock of Wing Demons one at a time while they're unable to retaliate at all.
The Glorious AFB (Skunks)
- Black Comedy: The Skunk's "mustard" gas is less meant for killing enemies in horrific ways, and more as a means of providing flavor for the ensuing meal.
- Chemistry Can Do Anything: Skunks act as researchers in the KSR labs, and they developed a speed steroid called Militarized Sugar, which essentially lets the Commander who ingested it run around at Mach 20 to mark targets for flying bombers to blow up.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Skunks are probably the best unit in the game for zoning out masses of tier one units or killing them if they get too close, better then Toads for their sustainability, and stronger than the Boar due to their costs and numbers. Unlike the other two, however, Skunks are completely helpless against structures (you can't poison a building with gas, even though the Snakes' venom somehow does), and their damage over time means that they're helpless against beefier targets like Badgers and Chameleons, who can just kill the Skunks before they die of the gas.
- Deadly Gas: The AFB's entire modus operandi.
- Fartillery: They create the gas after eating rancid meat.
- Goggles Do Nothing: The gas masks are just for looks. There is no friendly fire, and the masks don't protect against enemy skunks.
- Smelly Skunk: They are "awkward national heroes". Poor guys.
- Stone Wall: They have the most health out of any tier 2 unit, and their damage tends to be over a long duration of time since their gas does not stack.
- The Unintelligible: Their dialogue tends to be muffled by their gas masks. Turns out if they take it off, they can be understood just fine.
Tooth Collectors (Snakes)
- Improbable Weapon User: Snakes having no arms or clothing of any kind, are the only animal to not use some sort of a weapon against their enemies (even Lizards and Chameleons use primitive spears and clubs). No, the Tooth Collectors fire teeth instead of bullets!
- Loan Shark: They collect teeth from debtors if they cannot repay. And if there are no teeth left to take, Tooth Collectors give their clients a dose of venom instead.
- Mighty Glacier: Snakes are tier 2, have only a little less health than Skunks, and can hit all units including buildings. They also do a ridiculous amount of damage if they manage to apply a few stacks of venom, and are really only limited by their sluggish speed and vulnerability to masses of units.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Snakes fire fangs at targets, which deals damage, applies damage over time, and have the same range as a Squirrel's revolver.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Snakes are among the most dangerous units in the game due to their high damage, and they are not nice to deal with in-universe either. The majority act as Archimede's loyal enforcers.
- Snake Talk: Naturally. Whenever they speak, the text includes at least four extra s's for emphasis.
- Taking You with Me: Often times the outcome of any large engagement against the Tooth Collectors. Surviving members who managed to kill all the offending Snakes will probably perish from the venom stacks unless they're able to heal right away, and even then it's sometimes not enough.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Venom stacks can be stacked up indefinitely, and by the time it hits 10, not even bulky buildings can survive. It is entirely possible for a single Squirrel to get hit by a dozen Snakes at once and immediately explode before the 12 stacks even do their work.
- Universal Poison: Their venom damages enemy commanders, units, and buildings. How it melts down gristmills, wooden cabins, and steel bunkers is anyones guess.
Tier 3 units
Inmate # 43 B (Badger)
- Action Girl: The most powerful unit in the game in terms of damage potential, to the point of being a one girl army if left alone for too long.
- Ax-Crazy: Due to her imprisonment, the Badger is completely off her rocker, switching between manic rage and hysterical sadness as she weeps for her family. She also wields a very dangerous machine gun.
- Badass Bandolier: Wears one to provide ammunition since her minigun presumbly uses so much of it.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The Badger acts as the muscle for the Civilized forces in the campaign because Archmimedes was the only leader who gave her emotional support and sympathy for her family's loss. That and he busted her from the KSR's prisons.
- Chained by Fashion: Despite being free and in full military service, the Badger still wears her prison uniform and chains.
- Gatling Good: While described as minigun, she actually carries a Maxim machine gun that goes from the DPS of slightly higher than a Wing Demon to a whole flock of them when at full auto. The Badger is also one of the only two units able to fire on the move.
- Gone Mad From The Isolation: Her description is "Her entire family was locked up under the pretense of criminal insanity. While in prison, said affliction became a reality."
- Laughing Mad: Once her gun is firing at max speed.
- Mighty Glacier: Tankier than every unit besides the Boar, capable of firing on the move, and having unrivaled damage per second makes the Badger this. As other examples, she is not exceptionally mobile, especially since she's such a big target.
- More Dakka: Once fully revved up, the Badger will mow through Gristmills, defenses, and armies unless taken down.
- Samus Is a Girl: Thanks to her large stature and psychotic personality, new players may be surprised to learn that the mighty Badger is, in fact, a woman.
- You Are Number 6: Never given a name, is only referred to by her prisoner number.
Uncle Butter (Boar)
- Affectionate Nickname: Bellafide and Hopper call him "Unk".
- Chef of Iron: Runs a tavern for the Longcoats, and cooks meat dishes for the Commonfolk and Civilized when fortune turns their way. No wonder he's good with fire.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The best option for clearing armies of tier one units, but has no way of hitting targets that are flying, and takes an eternity to do any damage to structures.
- Dirty Coward: Is quick to sell Bellafide out as soon as he's captured by the KSR and denied meat in his cell. Even the Quartermaster is appalled by this.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of goggles to presumably not go blind from the glare of his own inferno. Other units who do not have the same protection are hardly affected.
- Irony: As far as taxonomy goes, boars and pigs are the same species (S. Scrofa). Perhaps there's some kind of message there, that the only professional chef shown in the game has cooked and served countless numbers of his own kind.
- Kill It with Fire: Uncle Butter's flamethrower can incinerate mobs of tier one units with little effort, and can inflict some nasty damage even to tier two units. Unfortunately, the fire racks up little damage to buildings.
- Lightning Bruiser: Boasts the most health, with average speed and good Area of Effect damage output.
- Only in It for the Money: Uncle Butter acts as Bellafide's head chef and muscle, but only when he's getting paid. Case in point, he's perfectly content with switching sides as long as the other factions offer him more.
- Taking You with Me: Uncle Butter will explode when he is killed, and the explosion is not just a visual. Players who managed to surround him with units will be in for a nasty surprise when his "death" ends up leaving a crater in their armies.
Kasha, Farmhand (Fox)
- Crippling Overspecialization: Can only shoot enemy units, not structures. Also has the lowest DPS out of all tier 3 characters, but her ability to land singular kill shots means fewer enemies are getting away to heal.
- Decapitated Army: Can often create this for the enemy. Kasha's high damage and range can be used for the enemy commander who, when killed, leaves their army inactive at their last point of rally, perfect for letting Kasha get more picks without fear of retribution.
- Double Agent: Acts as a spy for the KSR, but also as a humble hero for the Commonfolk. Later on, she seemingly joins the Civilized out of desperation, but even then she was only trying to figure out where the last of the Boris's were.
- Foxy Vixen: A vixen and the most feminine-looking unit of the game, boasting some noticeable Hartman Hips to boot as seen in official art.
- Fragile Speedster: The only other unit besides Lizards who has the "swift" attribute, making her run at 1.75 the speed of the average unit. This makes Kasha nearly impossible to catch unless you manage to cut her off with well-positioned flanks, or she corners herself on poor terrain.
- Friendly Sniper: Polite and personable in the campaign zones. Hopper remarks that Kasha works overtime just to help the Commonfolk.
- Glass Cannon: Does enough damage to one shot anything that has less than 24 health, meaning all tier one units, Falcons, and Wretches. It also leaves others Foxes and Ferrets so close on the edge of death that a Fat Boris can finish them off in one shot.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Eventually Kasha defects from all the factions, including the Commonfolk, because of just how brutal the war has gotten, and will willingly join any side that is capable of providing for her in the final battle.
- Nice Girl: Acts a heroic scout and spy for the Commonfolk peasants, and joins the fight initially in the hopes of making the world a more fair place.
The Matriark (Owl)
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Wretches, once locked onto a target, will mob it to death or die trying.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: What her burrow looks like. Bones litter every corner.
- The Don: Outright stated to lead a cabal with Mafia-esque tones.
- Defector from Decadence: Eventually defects from the Commonfolk when it's clear that the war made everyone worse off, that meat shortages are now rampant, and that the Civilized were the only faction with Boris's left.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: It is never really specified what Wretches are. Some are gathered around her lair just fine in the Commonfolk's factional hub, but the ones in game perish in thirty seconds unless killed otherwise.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Wretches have a higher aggro range than any other unit in the game. This is good because it means you can siege enemies while keeping your Owl far and away. It's also bad because it means that the Wretches, the only offensive aspect of the Owl, can be easily lured away into a one sided battle or attack the wrong enemy. And once they run out, they cannot be recalled.
- The Man Behind the Man: As a major influential force for the Commonfolk, the Matriarch serves as the voice of support and confidant of Hopper, who is otherwise seen as the poster girl for the red-clad mob.
- Mook Maker: Creates a new mouse every 5 seconds. The process is quite disgusting.
- Non-Action Guy: Is completely dependent on her Wretches for combat by herself. This means she is completely defenseless against Wing Demons and Thermal Air-Snipers.
- Point Defenseless: Has no defense of her own.
- Pun: A wretch is an unfortunate person, to retch is to vomit, quite fitting for the vomited zombie mice.
- Thanatos Gambit: Spawns 6 mice upon death. Not the best way to use such an expensive unit, but possibly useful in a pinch.
- You Have Failed Me: Why the mice get eaten in the first place.
- Zerg Rush: Her swarm of Wretches will do this to any enemy in range, and often get killed en masse while doing so.
Drill Sargeant Volkov (Wolf)
- Cap: Can only buff six of his fellow units at once. It is entirely possible to buff other wolves so that they in turn buff faster.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Acts like this when exhorting other units, but is actually pretty mellow when off duty.
- Hour of Power: The Wolf's stim buff only lasts a couple seconds on units. This is troublesome for flyers and faster units such as the Lizard and Fox since they will quickly outpace the Wolf and lose their appropriate buff once they get outside of his range.
- The Neidermeyer: Implied. Under his howl, all units will move and work faster, which includes getting units out into the field faster from their barracks, to having Volunteers heal faster. This also means getting Toads to blow themselves up quicker and for Boris's to expire quicker in the Gristmill. His voice lines aren't exactly described to be "soothing".
- Non-Action Guy: While depicted as carrying a handgun in official art, Volkov is unable to attack by himself, and relies on his nearby teammates to the fighting for him.
- Number Two: Acts as the stand-in for the Quartermaster when she is not present and holds the entire regiment at attention for her while awaiting for their next mission.
- Reflexive Response: Despite now being an army officer, he quickly switches sides to the Civilized when the Boris shortage becomes apparent. When Archimedes asks why, Volkov replies that Bureaucrats always choose to be on the winning side.
- Straight for the Commander: The appropriate counter for Wolves is to pick them off as soon as possible so that they don't shift the battle.
- Status Buff: Buffs the overall speed of anything nearby, including burrows and pigs.
- Took a Level in Badass: Was a bureaucrat before the war.
