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[Raging Mouse]

My usual modus operandi involves chaining a couple war dogs at the entrance to my fort to spot kobolds and ranged ambushers before they get to my dwarves.

It just hit me, though, that with the new pasture mechanics, I don't even have to chain them anymore, right? Just set up a small pasture at the same place and assign the guard animal! Which means, they are free to give chase or flee!

[Sarda]

Yeah, no. Set up separate pastures or the dogs'll fight/kill each other. Otherwise, that should work.

[Raging Mouse]

Separate pastures are a given, since they shouldn't move around much from the position I want them in.

[Sarda]

Okay then, that should work.

[Funburns]

It just hit me, though, that with the new pasture mechanics, I don't even have to chain them anymore, right? Just set up a small pasture at the same place and assign the guard animal! Which means, they are free to give chase or flee!

If the dog spots an ambush, it will run into your fort barking wildly. It will also immediately queue up an "Assign Animal to Pasture" job. A dwarf will stop the dog, say, "What's that, Lassie? Goblins in the hallway? Good doggie! Now let's get you back to your pasture!"

The dwarf, struggling to pull the dog back to the entrance, will then die to the crossbow bolts of the 4-5 invisible extra ambushes that were tailing the first one in.

Not saying it's an entirely bad idea. You just need to make sure you save the dog AND your dwarves, instead of accidentally trading the death of a random civilian dwarf for a dead dog.

[Sarda]

Can't you turn off that labor? Animal Handling or what?

Edit: Couldn't you also just tell all non-military to stay the fuck in their rooms and tell the military not to bother with the dog?

[Raging Mouse]

Yes, alerts and sensibly crafted burrows linked to them will take care of any dwarf with herding ambitions (I basically make a burrow and alert combo that tell the dwarves to stay indoors or underground). The military shouldn't bother with the guard animals anyways, as they, too, will get alert states.

[Jake]

Yes, alerts and sensibly crafted burrows linked to them will take care of any dwarf with herding ambitions (I basically make a burrow and alert combo that tell the dwarves to stay indoors or underground). The military shouldn't bother with the guard animals anyways, as they, too, will get alert states.

That raises another question, actually. How do we prevent raiders from wiping out the livestock?

[Sarda]

Locked doors? Walls? Killing them?

[bobhayes]

That raises another question, actually. How do we prevent raiders from wiping out the livestock?

Wall the pasture with glass windows. To avoid building destroyers, put the pasture up a z-level on a pillar.

Don't know if you can designate a pasture on constructed tiles, though. I use Girlinhat's watchtower boxes rather than pastures.