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Edit: Oh, and armored war mastiffs may help you fight off early invaders. They're certainly extremely effective against thieves (except for warlocks which tend to suffocate them with magic) and once you have the animal armory up and running they cost nothing to produce.
Just in case you're not sure, the work flow for producing an armored war mastiff is "stray Mastiff" -> "stray Armored Mastiff" -> "stray war Armored Mastiff". I say that because it's important to note that war mastiffs can't be equipped with armor, you have to equip then train them.
I haven't found out yet how to armor my Mastiffs yet, but I have found that even unarmored they are quite the opponent! Three of my trained war mastiffs destroyed an ambush of twelve goblins the other day, in a manner as refined as three fully trained axedwarves would. Of course afterwards they got to chew on the bones that were left as a reward.
If you take into account a female Mastiff gives birth to around four puppies each year, taking a couple with you on embark is insane! After a few got killed when a giant forest fire because of a hellfire turret I forgot to correctly place, I still have a full squad of eight left. And I am only two years in!
(The upper blabber signifies how much fun I am having playing with the mod. The point of my writing, however, is for you, Meph, to nerf Mastiffs in some way, as they can defend your forest perfectly until sieges arrive. I would like to see them cost more on embark and have less puppies every cycle of offspring.)
Edit: And if you need help with anything, from bug tracking to !!Science!! to RAW-editing, let me know (Although I am very much an inexperienced overseer).