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[Darkren]

We all know that the main purpose of the Elven civilization is to periodically send us target dummies for archery and military practice. But, should my worldgen decide to give me friendly enough elves, I try to first get a breeding pair of every available animal they have before (re)purposing the elves for their intended use. In my current fort (a two-person succession, playing .18), we've so far snagged a successfully breeding pair of foxes and grizzly bears.

The entire ordeal has gotten me rather interested in breeding, though. As I was going through the save's raws, changing [PET_EXOTIC] to [PET] (as the typical Dungeon Master workaround), I noticed just how many animals were tamable. I was already inspired by Sphalerite's Sea Serpent breeding, but when I saw that Gremlins were tamable, I seriously hoped that my fort was on multiple biomes (as the gremlins are limited to one per biome). Dragons are also tamable, though obviously only viably so if your fort lasts a long time. (And with a population of 200+, on a 4x4 embark screen, with all caverns, and someone who doesn't have it in their heart to cage innocent-looking kittens, that doesn't seem likely.)

What's the most interesting thing you've managed to breed in your forts?

[Halnoth]

Giant desert scorpians. You need to mod them to produce young though as by default they do not breed.

[Urist McGyver]

Rock birds.

And a pair or Cave Crocs that gave birth to about 26 baby crocs. (That's twenty-fucking-eight War Cave Crocodiles, and/or a LOOOT of meat/bones/fat/crocodile leather)

[Eoganachta]

Giant desert scorpians. You need to mod them to produce young though as by default they do not breed.

I do the same with GCS. The meat's not bad but I'd rather have the male untamed and in a silk farm (as the agressiveness changed when you tame them) and the female chained in my dining room pumping out little spiders for my Dwarves of War

[thegoatgod_pan]

Jabberers. this was before eggs, but man did they have a lot of babies, and war jabberers are absolute nightmares--arms come off, torsos are severed. Really nice food and bone resources too, and make a delightful execution device if kept in a large breeding pit.

[Necro910]

Helmet snaks, cave crocs, and GCS's. There was fluids EVERYWHERE.

Jabberers. this was before eggs, but man did they have a lot of babies, and war jabberers are absolute nightmares--arms come off, torsos are severed. Really nice food and bone resources too, and make a delightful execution device if kept in a large breeding pit.

I know what I'm doing next!

[evileeyore]

We all know that the main purpose of the Elven civilization is to periodically send us target dummies...

 

[worldspawn]

We all know that the main purpose of the Elven civilization is to periodically send us target dummies for archery and military practice.

By target dummies you meant the actual elves right?

[Cyroth]

We all know that the main purpose of the Elven civilization is to periodically send us target dummies for archery and military practice.

By target dummies you meant the actual elves right?

What else do you think he was talking about?
Unlike elves, animals have much better uses then being wasted for target practice.



On topic:
Nothing especially dangerous, but:
I once made warthogs tame, trainable and common domestic. War warthogs on embark, anyone?

[celem]

I always like breeding the elves' giant eagles.  Unfortunatly they aint that much better in melee than a dog would be, not the tank that most cavern critters make when trained anyway.

[jaxy15]

Black bears.
They're not exotic, but I have a crapton of them.

[Jelle]

So far the only non conventional animal I've bred are elk birds.
I guess they're interesting since they are grazers and egg layers at the same time, so a lot of future bird mothers die on the nest.
Also an endless supply of fairly valuable horns, not a single bit of furniture will not be decorated with horns.

[Ieb]

Cave Swallowmen.

The first fort in 2010 had one kill a Forgotten Beast and as it became friendly, the first thing it did was migrate into the middle of my fort. With the rest of the tribe following. Most of them were not Friendly AND armed.

The only thing they really did was stand there and breed. And we could do nothing but watch. But in the end, a fierce goblin siege broke through my defenses, a FB with rotting dust had almost wiped out my military(only 2 survivors, neither of them were hit by the dust) and out of nowhere the CSM tribe takes flight and attacks the goblins. Unarmed.

Many tears were shed that day for the suicidal bravery of these underground dwellers. I even lost the troll which had wrestled a fungitree spear(and MAYBE a shield) from a hostile CSM so no more troll stabber for me. : (

And pretty much no more fort since the siege left most of the new military dead and then waltzed in two pretty bad-ass FB's and yeah. Good times. War crundles are always amusing to train however. They may not do much but they serve pretty damn good distraction.

[Oliolli]

I have bred mainly elephants and grizzlies.

Then the grazer thing came, and I had to remove the grazer tag.

Then I continued.

[Yoink]

I had a black bear wandering around my fort, and when a siege came, he and a lone dwarf who ingored my orders to stay inside, drove off the lot! Granted, they were mostly crossbowgoblins and out of ammo, but I was inspired to mod black bears to be trainable.