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[Pasakoye]

I'm thinking of making a new fortress where no one is in the military, and all I have for defense is War Dogs, no traps/archers/lava/pits.
I'm wondering though, would this really be much of a challenge?

[Jetsquirrel]

yes, but try to make ONLY war animals

[Dorf3000]

It sounds like Fun as soon as you get a marksgob ambush squad.  Wardog kebab anyone?

The main problem is they'll follow their trainer or owner rather than staying outside where they might be useful.  Anything tougher than a goblin wrestler can take out a lone dog, especially one chained up.  They also cause bad thoughts if they die while assigned to someone, so even if your dorfs escape they'll be upset.

If you allow walls/chokepoints in your defences then maybe you'll have better luck, if you can keep the dogs outside but within the walls somehow.

[betamax]

An entrance corridor could have every floor tile with a rope/chain, and a dog attached to each one.

[Satarus]

Have strategic rooms with caged war dogs.  When the goblins are in the room with the dogs, pull the lever and release them all on top of them.  Still, lashers should be pretty brutal against your dogs.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Assign trainers to man catapults or ballista at all times, without firing mind you, as to not harm the dogs.

[snaggles]

Instead of leaving the dogs in a hallway as archer bait, drop them into a pit above your entrance/places you'd like to defend. Also, make you seal the trainer/assigned recruit into a room when the battle starts using a siege weapon assigned only the trainer and to "ready to fire", a lever assigned to the trainer and set on repeat pulling, or using stationing him in the room. If too many dogs die, he'll probably go berserk. (Unless you make his panic chamber full of mist with a mist generator )

Side View:

XXX. ........XXX
XXX__________XXX
................
X = wall
_ = retractable bridge (with MANY dogs on top)
. = floor

[Satarus]

Now is it only War Dogs or any War Animal (modding required)?

[Martin]

You'll run up against the species popcap on the dogs unless you mod them. 50-60 wardogs won't hold up against a gobbo siege. If you get an elite marksgobbo leading the charge, even a higher pop may not save you.

I'd instead mod other regular species to be trainable and breedable as necessary. Let the elves help you on this challenge. My guess is you'd need the equivalent of 500 war animals to fight off a full siege led by 5 elite units with trolls in tow. (Do gobbos still bring trolls? Been ages since I've seen that. Certainly pre-40d)

Design your approaches with ranged units in mind. Don't give them line of sight. Use elevation changes as well since a dragon is possible to show up at some point. So yes, it would be a major challenge.

[bluea]

Along the lines of several other commenters - you're going to want to release the dogs at point-blank.

Either by dropping the dogs from above or movable obstructions.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

War Imps would work great as ranged troops.

[Martin]

War Imps would work great as ranged troops.

Problem is that they'll set all other war animals on fire and imps are useless at close range and are difficult to impossible to trigger over obstacles such as a channel. See the imp thread for details.

[snaggles]

Try designing your battlefield corridor like this in order to minimize the danger from marksgobbo fire.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

█████████████████████████████
██████░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░██████
█████░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█████
░░░░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░░░░
░░░░░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░░░░░
░░░░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░░░░
█████░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█████
██████░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░█░██████□
█████████████████████████████

█ = Wall
░ = Floor

You could either put a rope in each blank space, or individually pit each dog onto a hatch above from above, then throw the lever to release all of them at once. Chaining them up will decrease mobility of the dogs and the set up time after each siege. Dropping the dogs in from above momentarily stuns them for a few moments after drop, takes quite a while to prepare, but lets each dog move unhindered.

[Martin]

Chaining them up will decrease mobility of the dogs and the set up time after each siege. Dropping the dogs in from above momentarily stuns them for a few moments after drop, takes quite a while to prepare, but lets each dog move unhindered.

As noted above it's a lot faster to just cage them and put the cage on a lever. No stunning, they get free movement, and it's much easier to stage.

[Korbac]

Forgot that there was a popcap on species - thanks Martin.

If you removed this popcap and breed huge swathes of dogs, they can kill almost anything. Even an Elite Archer is going to run out of ammo, and then he is eventually going to get tired when he wades in to melee and eaten.

Using Pressure Plates and putting cages around blind corners (for best effect, put PP on the corner and cages before and after), even squads of Archers can be quickly destroyed.