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[TheFreshPrince]

As in the current version and the last version?

[Roach]

I can't speak about .40, but in .34 they're kind of dependent: if you just put one on its own, there's not much that can't beat it. They're pretty much just pushovers that make a good early warning system. If you have a whole pack of them however (and I mean a big pack, like 30-50+) they can cause some serious damage on smaller goblin squads, or even larger ones sometimes. Kinda like bugbats.

[Agent_Irons]

With the morale changes of .40, bugbats are literally breakfast for marksdwarves. One tends to get shot and the others freak out, and run away. Then they get hunted down individually and made into biscuits.

[Swonnrr]

I can confirm that in .34, and even more in .40, a pack of war dogs wreak havoc in the enemy lines, whatever its size.
Worst case scenario, they will keep them busy for a while.
Best case scenarion, they overwhelm them before too much of them die.
Most of the times the time you find out why your axe dwarf moan "equipment mismatched", they will be injured, in pain, and beginning to panick.

[neblime]

my two cents is they're pretty useful but don't get too attached to them because survivability is low.  If you have a good breeding population you can throw a pack at every siege (at lest with 0.34 siege frequencies) but if you don't reserve some you can deplete your population pretty easily

[StumpytheOzzie]

I very much concur with the swarming pack of dogs being quite impressive.

You just have to make sure you keep a good breeding program because (like the zerg) the pack usually wins, but many individuals will die.

I use dog packs for about the first 2 or maybe 3 years. By then, the military has been trained and equipped and the dogs are only useful for being tied up at chokepoints to detect any sneaky types. Once proper sieges come the dogs usually end up as good cannon fodder to absorb enemy marks-things and to cover the approach of the melee dwarves.

Hopefully by then I'll have bears. Or jabberers. Or some replacement.

[Swonnrr]

Hopefully by then I'll have bears. Or jabberers. Or some replacement.

...

We need War Honey Badgers.

[Panando]

Dogs seem pretty effective in .40, even if they aren't war trained. I wouldn't want to use them against a siege, but they're great in savage biomes for warding off megafauna and stuff.

[Vgray]

I'd think a pack of dogs that are actually fully grown would be more effective than ones the size of puppies.

[Splint]

I haven't had much good use from them in the newer versions (.40.01-.04) as they would all run away instead of attacking and tying up intruders like a fighting dog should which made them pointless to train, so I haven't used them in .40.05. It is possible they'll attack instead of fleeing now though. But I do fear the olden times of fearless mutts who would follow thier dwarven masters into battle is now gone.

In .34x I got some measure of usefulness as meatshields that would generally swarm around snatchers and thieves and cause silly goblins to give away thier position too soon by firing on them (and causing the dogs to go bounding out to try and bite out goblin necks.) Usually only one or two would die outright, but the wounded dogs would be too injured to fight anymore and be sent to the shops to make it quick.

[Libash]

I used to find them useful in .34, I would assign them to particularly important dwarves and it often gave those dwarves a chance to escape.
In .40, I have not found them useful. My soldiers go into battle and the war dogs run away. I haven't checked to see if discipline can be trained in war animals. I noticed that cats are all legendary climbers, and thought that was pretty funny.

[quarague]

I had a single war dog chained to the entrance of my 0.40 fort. A cyclops child attacked and on his own he damaged it enough to make it pass out from pain. Then the cyclops child woke up, got a lucky punch in the chest that smashed a lung and another one that turned the dogs head into pulp :-( Still seem pretty useful to me. They never complain about long patrol duty and nobody gets sad when one gets killed. Although feels a lot less gamey than a row of traps.

[Nikow]

Dogs are pretty awesome, just most of dwarf overseers are using them wrong. I am packing them in two cages connected to pressure plates reacting on enemy step. I have 10 war dogs in each cage, 2 cages are relased on every line (from both sides). For now, they are killing every goblin ambusers. One time siege passed by 3th line... but they was spiked by waiting marksdwarfs, who had time to come from offduty to shooting positions... 60 dogs died geting with themselfs 50 gobos. I think it's good deal.

[nanomage]

How about the growth bug that caused 90% of your fortress-bred dogs to forever remain puppy-sized? Has it been fixed in 40.05, or does the patch from the older version still work?

[Solon64]

I can't find the post right this second but I do believe I recall Toady saying that he fixed that bug for .40.  I think.

I could be completely off base here