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[Byakugan01]

Technically, dwarves only live in the foothills of mountains and inside them. Although that *is* pretty rocky terrain, they do have tunnels between forts where wagons could safely travel, and roads could be built to settlements between different mountain ranges. And they already do use wheeled vehicles, come to think of it-the wagons in caravans have wheels. And later on, when the underground revamp is complete, there could easily be large open caverns where the use of wheeled vehicles makes tactical sense.
A)They have a wheeled vehicle.
B) They have siege/heavy weapons.
C)They have (or *will* have) environments in which it makes tactical sense to use cavalry or ear vehicles.

 A+ B +C = D

D) They would repurpose their existing vehicle for war purposes to gain an edge.

Alternately, bears, as you point out, are dwarfy. For that matter though, if we're talking about purely cavalry, rams make the most sense, being surefooted in rocky terrain and already capable of attacking an opponent by ramming them with their horns. Which would be interesting if done to an enemy on  a narrow mountain path...next to a 20-zlevel drop. Alternately...think a version of an old croc named adamantinosuchus (land croc, not aquatic) might make a dwarfy mount if only for the name. And the fact it would have some natural armor on it.
C)

[RedWarrior0]

Perhaps goats/rams for mountain combat, and goat-drawn chariots for non-mountain combat, such as attacking the elves. Wagons do nicely with transporting goods across the relatively flat terrain of the non-mountainous world, so why should chariots not do well in transporting death to hippies and forests?
Of course, to rephrase what Pilsu said, using chariots in mountains makes as much sense as treating elves nicely.

[Pilsu]

Wagon access should really require a large road project. Not necessarily an actual road but a way would need to be cleared for the world map wagons to reach the destination. Logging the local woods shouldn't be enough to get through

Reading a little about chariots, they seem fairly useless in actual war. A plain mount is far more maneuverable. Unless you add machine guns, I don't see this idea going anywhere


Really, it's not like dwarves have to face their enemies on the plains. I don't think that's dwarfy to begin with

[Byakugan01]

Actually, they do have to face their enemies on the plains-and in the deserts, the swamps, the forests, the taigas, etc. Dwarves do engage in offensive wars against elves, goblins and humans, so they WILL end up fighting in places other than the mountains. And even they don't really fight high up in the mountains (unembarkable for a reason), but in the foothills. Technically, cavalry aren't suited to forests either, but the elves have unicorns as mounts. And for that matter...swamps are HORRIBLE places to have cavalry (beak dog goblins, I'm looking at YOU!) for obvious reasons. Dwarven cavalry would make more sense from a practical standpoint, since they could start out by using that cavalry to transverse the mountains before they have their tunnels dog, and to scout out new sites.

BTW, chariots were widely used by the Egyptians, and were the first wheeled war vehicle to be widely used. They do provide an advantage over plain foot soldiers in that they are faster, which makes it far easier to flank or strike at the enemy's rear. They would be better to give to humans, though.

Edit: the American black bear is only 3ft high at the shoulder, just thought I should contribute that. And male bighorn sheep are about the same. And it's worth mentioning that the horns on a male's HEAD can weigh as much as the bones in the rest of their body.

[Neonivek]

Problem with Bears is that they are still too large and bulky for a Dwarven Lifestyle.

Goats are interesting but I think they are actually still too small and incapable of holding Dwarven weight for long periods of time.

A Proper mount for Dwarves needs to be able to fit in tight spaces even with a Dwarf Riding it.

Byakugan is at least on the right track by making up animals.

[Pilsu]

Edit: the American black bear is only 3ft high at the shoulder, just thought I should contribute that.

And how tall are dwarves?

[Byakugan01]

Well, all I have to go on from there is the size data from the game. For a comparison, dwarves are size 6 while black bears are size 8. Keeping in mind that for dwarves much of their size is in the vertical plane while more of a black bear's size is in the horiztonal plane, I would say dwarves are about 4-5 feet maybe? We really do need word of Toady on this though. Horses, by the way, are size 9 and humans are size 7, so the ratio for mount/rider size ratio is about the same in this case. I think this puts black bears on the viable list for dwarven mounts-they're alot smaller than you would think they were, but even so they are still quite powerful.

BTW, neonivek, where did I make up an animal?

[chinkeeyong]

I personally find this idea to be more useful for adventurer mode and other races.