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[Angel-of-Dusk]

I use the noexotics in my current version; I end up with interesting things for embark. Cheating? maybe so. But regardless.

Giant Tigers, Giant Lions, gaint jaguar, and grizzly bears. Aiming to breed war animals, rather then rely on buying them; therefore, I want a mix of preformance and maturity rate. What is your suggestion, fellow dorfs?

Edit: ITT now: War Animals general. Whats your favorite? Whats your typical aproach? Do you use them?

[Number4]

All of them. There's no such thing as overkill, there's only "Open fire!" and "I need to reload."

[Necro910]

All of them. There's no such thing as overkill, there's only "Open fire!" and "I need to reload."

That plus "Melee weapons don't need bullets" equals dorf power.

[Angel-of-Dusk]

I can't afford them all ._.

Put your favorite in a lil list of order, and I'll get what I can.

[Cheveux]

Grizzly
Tiger
Jaguar
Lion


I'd take the bears over the others anyday, I don't know if they perform better and I don't care if they do. Grizzly Bears are awesome.

[Corneria]

Grizzlies. I have a breeding pair in my 2 person fort, and they are badass.

[DrKillPatient]

I had a war grizzly bear in a fort before, it worked well at fending off thieves but it did get injured a fair bit-- lost a motor nerve in one paw, I think.
I've rarely used war animals in full combat, though. Two giraffes were pastured outside at one point on the same fort, and I'd trained them as war animals so they could at least put up some degree of defense if they were attacked. When I was eventually ambushed, they kicked in the heads of half a hammergoblin squad before going down under multiple spear strikes from the squad's leader. It seems that size matters more with animals, since they use mainly blunt attacks (kicking, goring etc).
I hear cave crocodiles breed in the hundreds, those might work well as war animals; although they can't be trained for war unless you add the TRAINABLE tag to them, I think dropping a squad of goblins into a pit full of hundreds of untrained crocodiles is enough, eh?

[veok]

War Walruses.

My job here is done. Away!

[mrtspence]

Take horses or camels if you can. They have a thirst for blood that no other animal can match. Mark my words! I've lose more dwarves to horses and (skeletal) camels than to any number of bears, tigers, and wolves combined!

Hooves combined with high movespeed (and ergo high attack speed) is a recipe for murder.

[MarcAFK]

Take horses or camels if you can. They have a thirst for blood that no other animal can match. Mark my words! I've lose more dwarves to horses and (skeletal) camels than to any number of bears, tigers, and wolves combined!

Hooves combined with high movespeed (and ergo high attack speed) is a recipe for murder.

Seconded, i had a fort brought screaming to it's knees because of a very pissed off horse kicking in the heads of all my pastured animals, all my children, half my dwarves including my starting 7 and my only armoured soldier (was untrained. but his steel helm didn't protect a hoof from hitting him in the face, and driving the skull through the brain.)
Eventually it lost enough blood and was finished off by a kitten.. wtf?

[nanomage]

giant felines are much bigger than bears in recent versions. (2tons vs 200kgs) However, size doesn't help much: once you are larger than a goblin, further increase is not of much use.
The general thing is that armored soldier is more than a match for any war animal, so it's numbers what you need, not quality.
Bears are great because they are plentyful, you can have them in swarms. If you can have the same amount of giant felines, go for them definitely.
Also, try some giant arachnid, those are [nopain] [nofear], this may be helpful.

[AWdeV]

Giant war tigers seem te perform admirably and they're also incredibly awesome to have stalking through your fort. If it's any kind of proper giant anything it's face would be the size of a dwarf. And therefore badass.

[sambojin]

There's really only four choices that stand out for me. In order of preference.

#1. Wardogs. The first, the easiest, the cheapest and the best. Not even exotic. Being able to bring 5-10 doggies that will end up as 10-25 doggies in just over a year is great. Combat works on multiple attacks and tiring the opponent out as much as it does actual combat prowess. Ablative armour for your dwarves. Just keep a mob of 50 with your main combat squad (trained by the squad leader), but keep them outside or you'll get infighting, They don't eat, need pastures or any stuff like that. Plus they're like little, portable bags of leather, bones and meat. So cute.... So useful.... So tasty.

#2. (cave/giant) Crocs. They're big, they tackle stuff, they lay bazillions of eggs. Too pricy for two, but that will become quite a few more within a few years. Suprisingly tough as well. Good, but doggies are better.

#3. Horses. Just because you often get a free one (making them sort of cheap for a breeding pair+1). Skull kicks, stomps and general size make them a lot more dangerous then you'd think. It's just the pasturing and slow breeding rate that holds them back.

#4. Giant War Eagles. They're kind of killy but rather fragile. Elves seem to bring them pretty reguarly, so buy them at every opportunity. They breed slow, maature slow. But they fly and move quickly. Nice for the flying more than anything else.

If ever the whole hunting "foo" thing gets fixed, I've got my suspicions that hunting dogs might come out even better than wardogs when attached to military squads.

[AWdeV]

Oh, if we're using other animals than from the given list then I'd like to endorse

a) war badgers. Like a dog but more prone to berserker rages, breed like mad and are generally captured en masse as well.

b) War elephants. Needs some editing in the raws but the beasts are tough and huge. They grab with their trunks, stab with their tusks and kick and stomp with their legs and nearly all of their attacks have an immense bulk behind it. They tend to procreate at a nice rate as well, it's not unusual to get twin calves and they never show up alone on the map so it's entirely possible to capture a herd in one go.

[FrisianDude]

Somewhat related to topic; is a wolf stronger or weaker than a war dog? And a war wolf, is that stronger than a war dog?