The strongpoints of robots as a whole are the following:
- They are expendable, quick and easily replacable.
- They are resilient to damage (ie NOT FLESHY).
- They act as a force multiplier to your milita and can be tasked with protecting your fort on their own (DOGS DON'T SHOOT LASERS AND BULLETS), which puts your fleshy emotional ponies out of harms way, which in turn helps in preventing unhappiness and unnecessary deaths.
- They are easily controlled and manageable overall.
Robots are
not cheap. A spritebot on embark costs ~125 points, a turret ~250, and a protectapony
1,000 points. Two female dogs and one male one cost ~45 points, and with those spare points I can get three full sets of iron security barding. The only way to replenish your stock is through trade, which means you have to have control of the surface
and that you can only get about four of whatever robots you're using at once; dogs breed fairly quickly, with the first litter coming in somewhere around summer to autumn and more on the way. Dogs can
also aid your military, and while they tend to be squishy they are otherwise superior to robots in terms of lethality (at least unupgraded ones). Lasers and bullets are pathetic damage-wise. You can
also control dogs just as well; a 10x10 pit somewhere off to the side filled with dogs and all their spawn will keep them out of your hair until you need them.
There's also the nice lack of broken laser bolts everywhere ;P
And... well, you just can't be a good wastelander without a loyal hound at your side.
*cyberdogscoughcough*