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[ISGC]

The above picture is what I found on investigating the mysterious death of my hunter.  His lifeless corpse left to rot in a damp cave (the water had been mostly channeled under my fortress) and a unicorn is caught fleeing the scene of the horrendous crime.  These horrible, malicious creatures have sparked my curiosity and I wonder if (by means of modding) their malevolent power could be harnessed and tamed.  My dwarves would be reluctant to deal with the vile monstrosities at first, but as their grandeur grows, I hope to see my warriors ride into their next battle astride a war unicorn.
I'm, woefully, a greenhorn modder, so simple steps and tips would be greatly appreciated.

[lemon10]

I believe with the [trAINABLE] tag, you can mod them to be trainable for war like dogs are, however I don't think that it is possible to mod them so your dwarfs can ride them into battle.

[ISGC]

that was a bit more theatrics, I would be perfectly fine with them trotting along beside them
now, when I said "greenhorn" I meant I have no idea what I'm doing
is this a change that I must do in the .ini or is there a separate file for the creature
and will I need to start a new fort?

[lemon10]

Im a bit of a noob with it too . But what you have to do is go to your dwarf fort folder, go to raw, go to objects and open the .txt file creature_standard. search for unicorn and add anywhere in the space for it the tags [trAINABLE] (EDIT:Its supposed to be in all caps but for some reason the tr keeps uncapitalizing when i post) and [PET] or [PET_EXOTIC] (in all caps) (although you need a dungeon master for pet exotic). after that, save the file and restart DF (don't need to start a new world). I believe that you will then be able to tame them and train them into war animals.

[ISGC]

I have completed the change
hopefully I will have my unicorns slaying enemies left and right in no time!
thank you.

[NW_Kohaku]

I'll confirm everything that lemon10 said.  [pet] and [trainable] are all you really need.  Keep in mind that there isn't much way to segregate War Unicorns from War Dogs, however, and unless you keep one group or the other caged up when you start assigning war animals, you will have little control over which is assigned.

Also, if you really want war animals, keep in mind that size is pretty much the only real factor in animal strength as of 40d (excepting special attacks, like the GCS).

Dogs are only size 5, while Unicorns are 10, making them more powerful than even bears.  Horses and cows, however, are size 9, and you probably have almost as many of them as you have dogs or cats after a year or two.  This ironically makes war cows ideal suppliments to your military, if you are inclined to mod in more war animals.  They are common, not difficult to buy in your first year's caravan, breed quickly, and are large and powerful.

[lemon10]

but they are war COWS. Kinda silly to watch cows stampede a dozen goblins

[MagicGuigz]

but they are war COWS. Kinda silly to watch cows stampede a dozen goblins

Whereas unicorns are creatures made to kill

[ISGC]

Whereas unicorns are creatures made to kill

I no longer have any hunters, the unicorns are so made to kill
three dead at the bottom of a lake and the one in my picture above, had to drain the lake to get their bodies and items out.
my only hope is to capture all the unicorns and train them to go hunting and go to war

[ISGC]

great!  I've got 6 or so unicorns that I will tame, but how do I turn them into war/hunting unicorns?
so far they are just sitting in their crates (as well as a goat which I don't know what to do with)

[NW_Kohaku]

but they are war COWS. Kinda silly to watch cows stampede a dozen goblins

Not as silly as war groundhogs, hoary marmots, cats, and foxes!  FEAR THE FURRY SCOURGE!

Anyway, if it makes you feel better, half of them will be Bulls that are trained to kill.  Think of it as the Running Of The Bulls, but with much more interesting results...

Also, for what it's worth, if you read the original descriptions of the unicorn, it wasn't describing "a horse with a horn", but a "creature with the body of a horse, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a mule, and a single large horn," and they were described as being so agressive that "only a pure maiden" could approach one without being attacked.  Because of this, some theorize that unicorns were actually Rhinoceri (which are agressive to the point of untamability).

Anyway, call me when you get war elephants, 'k?

[kilakan]

build the cages with (b)>(j for cage...) then go to the cages menu, and unselect the tame animal within, make sure you tame it first though.  The go back to the kennels and select make war animal, and hit repete, the dwarf will then turn all free unicorns into unstoppable killing machines.

[ISGC]

awesome!
first I've caught a few goblins in my many cage traps so i'll have a bit of fun with that
EDIT: question, the kennel only says "train war dog"
will they still end up training the unicorn?

[Vayre]

yes

[ISGC]

Glorious.