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[Encased in burning magma]

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[Shoku]

Small units just cannot overcome the disadvantage of the auto-floor syndrome larger unit inflict upon them. A lot of slightly larger-than-a-dog enemies are just going to be bad news. With few very large opponents they fare a little better because they can stand back up before the enemies can knock them down again.

Dwarves are approximately as worthless against opponents that charge and knock them down, namely horses. Unless you seriously outnumber them auto-knockdown is about as dangerous as fire- really only less so because there's a limit to the number of dwarves it can affect at one time.

[mrbobbyg]

War dogs are a terrible idea with soldiers.  I think they're not bad for your fishers/woodcutters/etc., because those guys run while the dogs fight.

Soldiers can go homicidal after 10 of their pets decay because their dogs got slaughtered.  No fun.

[Xenos]

War dogs are a terrible idea with soldiers.  I think they're not bad for your fishers/woodcutters/etc., because those guys run while the dogs fight.

Soldiers can go homicidal after 10 of their pets decay because their dogs got slaughtered.  No fun.

Dig a massive embark spanning multiple z level catacomb with thousands of marble coffins to bury dwarfs in and allow all to be used for burying pets and dwarves.  This will allow for all war casualties and all tantrum spiral casualties for any amount of death you will be dealing in a fortress.  Bonus points for fractal designs.  MEGADORF POINTS for 3d fractal designs. 

[Greiger]

I agree with the majority of this thread.   War dogs alone suck.  1 War Dog assigned to a soldier is useful.

War dogs do seem to do one nice thing though.  Troll invaders don't seem all that interested in standing and fighting when they hit your melee dorfs.  They just seem to want to run right by.  And melee dorfs don't really seem all that interested in stopping them.

War dogs however will take a chomp out of them immediately and since trolls typically don't wear anything better than cloth the dogs can inflict a good amount of harm.(just beware the troll hunters, they come armed and armored  ...Mon)

I'll also agree that there's better stuff than dogs.  Smouldercrater has 1 War Giant Lion, 1 War Giant Tiger, 1 War Giant Jaguar, and a tigerman.  They tear stuff apart wholesale.  Now if only the elves would bring a breeding second of anything so I could replace my dogs completely.

[Musashi]

Sure, they suck... that's why I was immensely happy to see that 3 war dogs and a pet dog spontaneously went to devour a goblin thief. Only casualty: said goblin. One war dog earned her name. No external help. A little earlier, two war dogs helped kill the giant bat of a goblin axe lord. :,)
So now I'm setting up a war dog bomb-cage near the entrance so that if the invaders get past the mortal traps, I have time to send my squads to finish them. So many dogs here who breed like bunnies cats.

[Aspgren]

War dogs are awesome. They won't take down an axegoblin on their own but they help out their masters sooo much .. when they latch on to them, they are vulnerable as f*ck and shot/stabbed/cut dead immediately.

 I assign war dogs to marksdwarves, regular dwarves, mothers with babies, woodcutters or anyone else who usually works outdoors ... they are support units pure and simple. Saved the lives of many dwarves in my fort and will save many more. I breed them, buy them, raise them and train them all the time. I just can't get enough of them!

edit: also, they are great against other animals. I saw three war dogs take down a crocodile earlier, saving the lives of two dwarves. They regularily spot and kill kobolds as well.

[Alastar]

War dogs are a terrible idea with soldiers.  I think they're not bad for your fishers/woodcutters/etc., because those guys run while the dogs fight.

Soldiers can go homicidal after 10 of their pets decay because their dogs got slaughtered.  No fun.

There is no reason to assign them as pets, just have a soldier train them.

[SalmonGod]

Armor for war animals would be fantastic.  Has anybody given much thought to making that happen?  Has it been suggested to Toady?

[Maklak]

Armor for war animals would be fantastic.  Has anybody given much thought to making that happen?  Has it been suggested to Toady?

There were a few earlier threads on "animal barding". If you think armored bears are cool, read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". Barding would enchance the usefullness of war animals, even if it requires multiple parts, and leaves some parts (paws, underbelly, eyes, teeth, etc) of the animal exposed.

Oh, and puppy bomb sounds fun.

[MonkeyHead]

my milita commander has a flail, and several dozen meatshi... i mean wardogs. !!FUN!! ahoy...

[Shrugging Khan]

Always have some dogs to catch sneakies...and behind the dogs, anything that can't be milked. Gorillas, right now.

[Vehudur]

I built the aforementioned dog bomb and used it on my first goblin siege...

And it was a spectacular, bloody orgy of teeth, claws, maces and swords for a long enough time for my army to deploy and clean up the leftovers.

Also, the entire entrance area of my fortress is literally covered in a sea of blood, some tiles have as much as 20 units of blood from separate, unique enemies on them.  And lots of goblinite.

[Don Blake]

Two of my dogs, non-war trained, killed a skeletal giant eagle, though one died in the process...  Maybe you just had a whimpy dog?

[Jacob/Lee]

edit: also, they are great against other animals. I saw three war dogs take down a crocodile earlier, saving the lives of two dwarves. They regularily spot and kill kobolds as well.

...Really? The first kobold that came to my fort stabbed a war dog in the heart and killed it the first turn.