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[daveralph1234]

I keep dogs stationed outside where they detect ambushes/theives.

[thiosk]

War dogs are best given to no military units.  Assign them to your legendary workers or outdoorsmen, when trouble hits, the dog gives the enemy a target that charges while the high value guy gets away.

Sure, he gets sad, but a good meal in the dining hall and a few slugs of sunshine and he'll be over it.

I'm currently trying to get a breeding pair of anything else.  I want gorillas.  Or lions.  I'm inundated with dude lions and mangorillas.  I have oodles of rhinoceri, but the giant pasture requirement sort of makes taming them impossible.

Grizzly bears man. Change your life. War0trainable, non-grazer, and are alot stronger then Dogs. Seriously. I just got breeding pair, civilians are not even bothered by sieges anymore.

Only one measly black bear.  I had a grizz but he died of old age before I got a lady.

[dwarfhoplite]

I usually let war dogs wander around my city as they are useful for slowing insane dwarves before military guys can take those down.

[melphel]

War dogs, or any war trained animal for that matter, aren't very useful offensively.  They are good for slowing down and restraining enemies, not so much for killing them.  Also, do not assign them to anyone.  The "loss of a pet" thought isn't worth whatever safety you think is being afforded by war animals.  Pasture them in an entrance, that gives them more freedom of movement than chains and it more or less ensures that they will stay where you want them.  That way they will detect, attack, and scare off thieves.

Dogs are roughly half the size of a dwarf/goblin.  Large numbers are really required for them to hold up in a fight, and even then they will take more casualties than they cause (if they cause any at all).  Try using larger animals if you want more serious injuries, like wolves, bears, or tigers....or crocodiles! now that's an animal designed for war!

[krisslanza]

War dogs, or any war trained animal for that matter, aren't very useful offensively.  They are good for slowing down and restraining enemies, not so much for killing them.  Also, do not assign them to anyone.  The "loss of a pet" thought isn't worth whatever safety you think is being afforded by war animals.  Pasture them in an entrance, that gives them more freedom of movement than chains and it more or less ensures that they will stay where you want them.  That way they will detect, attack, and scare off thieves.

Dogs are roughly half the size of a dwarf/goblin.  Large numbers are really required for them to hold up in a fight, and even then they will take more casualties than they cause (if they cause any at all).  Try using larger animals if you want more serious injuries, like wolves, bears, or tigers....or crocodiles! now that's an animal designed for war!

Heck, cave crocodiles make great military. Plus they lay like, what, 40 eggs? They're crazy good for EVERYTHING! Expensive to take at embark though. I forget how long they take to grow up as well.

[melphel]

Heck, cave crocodiles make great military. Plus they lay like, what, 40 eggs? They're crazy good for EVERYTHING! Expensive to take at embark though. I forget how long they take to grow up as well.

According to the raws, they take 3 years to mature, and lay from 20 to 60 eggs per clutch.  3 years is a bit long, and 751 embark points per croc is a steep cost, but worth it.  It's kinda cheaty editing the raw to make them available on embark and trainable anyway, so changing their value and/or child time wouldn't be too different...

[krisslanza]

Heck, cave crocodiles make great military. Plus they lay like, what, 40 eggs? They're crazy good for EVERYTHING! Expensive to take at embark though. I forget how long they take to grow up as well.

According to the raws, they take 3 years to mature, and lay from 20 to 60 eggs per clutch.  3 years is a bit long, and 751 embark points per croc is a steep cost, but worth it.  It's kinda cheaty editing the raw to make them available on embark and trainable anyway, so changing their value and/or child time wouldn't be too different...

Was it cheaty? I swear I've had civs have them at embark before and I don't recall changing much. Also they only cost around 356 or something - the petvalue is halved for embark cost. 3 years is a bit long, but still you can start with 2 and end up with anywhere from 22-62 in 3 years... and then those... well. You see where this is going. Bit long term though.

[melphel]

The eggs hatch in about a year's time, and they lay clutches about as often (I think).  So if you took none of the eggs in 3 years, you'd have 22-62 adults, and 40-120 more hatchlings, and then all the eggs that are about to be laid.

So yeah, it's fairly cheaty.

[krisslanza]

The eggs hatch in about a year's time, and they lay clutches about as often (I think).  So if you took none of the eggs in 3 years, you'd have 22-62 adults, and 40-120 more hatchlings, and then all the eggs that are about to be laid.

So yeah, it's fairly cheaty.

Is it cheaty if the game allows it?

[hiroshi42]

War dogs and other smaller animals have only three purposes as far as I can tell: distraction, diversion and warding off wild animals.  I assign them to the military to create more targets for invaders to deal with.  My medics usually get one or two so that if someone decides they look tasty the dog can divert their attention long enough for the medic to get back inside.  and finally it seems that most wild critters are deathly afraid of wardogs, they seem to have about the same 'avoid me' radius as dwarves.  So I station a few around the entrance or outdoor stockpiles if they are not enclosed. 

Also instead of actually assigning the dogs via the animals menu, try having your target dwarf be the trainer.  The waranimals will still follow them fairly regularly unless pastures or caged and you will still be able to cage them if you desire.  Also I don't care how happy your Chief Medical Dwarf is, the death of five pets in a single afternoon is going to turn any dwarf into a suicidal homicidal sociopath.

[StubbornAlcoholic]

Dogs are roughly half the size of a dwarf/goblin.  Large numbers are really required for them to hold up in a fight, and even then they will take more casualties than they cause (if they cause any at all).  Try using larger animals if you want more serious injuries, like wolves, bears, or tigers....or crocodiles! now that's an animal designed for war!

I adore the idea of ravenous war bears

Unfortunately even when I pick a big, wilderness-infested map with "High" numbers of beasts, I only ever seem to get freaking Ravens everywhere. I've seen one Grizzly but the damn thing went off-map near instantly. I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed and keep laying down cages.

(Matters aren't helped by the butchers refusing to slaughter the bloody ravens, the things are filling up my animal stockpiles and goodness knows how many cages )

[knutor]

Same here.  I just can't seem to avoid Ravens.  I either get Ravens, Raven men, or Giant Ravens.  All of which I cannot seem to Hunt.  This new training and taming feature could be a lot of fun, if the biomes had more exotics to trap.  Or the ability of a tracker-hunter-fisherman to FIND something on that list, from a popup menu.

I still laugh at those bayou fisherman, blowing away crocs with a rifle, from some small leisure craft.  Ever watch show?  Then they go back to the bar, and chew it up, about 'fishing'!  Fishing with a rifle...  LOL!  Cracks me up everytime I watch that show on TV.  Good show, IMO.  Lotsa risk taking, just the thing a Dwarf do.

[Loud Whispers]

Same here.  I just can't seem to avoid Ravens.  I either get Ravens, Raven men, or Giant Ravens.

Aye. In this case, dogs are invaluable. The ravens won't be like to creep up on war dogs, saving you from job cancel spam.

I've only had limited experience breeding dogs/war dogs, but have to admit I've been less than impressed so far. Are they in need of some love or is this grudge of mine born of noobishness?

You can breed them to be tougher, stronger and bigger. Even then, they do not replace the military. No time in human history have dogs successfully replaced a functioning military. The dogs are there to stave off wild animals, detect ambushers and take hits for the Dwarves. That is to say they're not without worth - bites and shakes ignore armour completely, and dogs are more than capable of mobbing enemies (15 dogs on their own took down 3 ogres).
And with controlled killing/assigning, you can make Dwarves not care about anything anymore.

[krisslanza]

I've only had limited experience breeding dogs/war dogs, but have to admit I've been less than impressed so far. Are they in need of some love or is this grudge of mine born of noobishness?

You can breed them to be tougher, stronger and bigger. Even then, they do not replace the military. No time in human history have dogs successfully replaced a functioning military. The dogs are there to stave off wild animals, detect ambushers and take hits for the Dwarves. That is to say they're not without worth - bites and shakes ignore armour completely, and dogs are more than capable of mobbing enemies (15 dogs on their own took down 3 ogres).
And with controlled killing/assigning, you can make Dwarves not care about anything anymore.
[/quote]

You forgot that War Dogs, in Rome Total War, also look really awesome. Even if horribly inefficient, and the subject of a bunch of fan outrage that the simple option exists to make an army entirely out of War Dogs (and their handlers).

[Scow2]

I've only had limited experience breeding dogs/war dogs, but have to admit I've been less than impressed so far. Are they in need of some love or is this grudge of mine born of noobishness?

You can breed them to be tougher, stronger and bigger. Even then, they do not replace the military. No time in human history have dogs successfully replaced a functioning military. The dogs are there to stave off wild animals, detect ambushers and take hits for the Dwarves. That is to say they're not without worth - bites and shakes ignore armour completely, and dogs are more than capable of mobbing enemies (15 dogs on their own took down 3 ogres).
And with controlled killing/assigning, you can make Dwarves not care about anything anymore.

You forgot that War Dogs, in Rome Total War, also look really awesome. Even if horribly inefficient, and the subject of a bunch of fan outrage that the simple option exists to make an army entirely out of War Dogs (and their handlers).
[/quote]Not as bad as the anti-infantry horror known as War Dogs from Command&Conquer:Red Alert!
But they cost twice as much as an infantry unit (And died in one or two hits) for a reason.