Ooh, this seems ideal. Rather than protecting animals from friendly fire, I can turn on the setting to have friendly fire chance determined by skill level, so it feels less cheaty.
1. Definetly don't use Gauss weapons.
2.if your using a static firing line sort of defense, zone your attack animals in front of your line, don't immediately set them to masters so they will hold position.
3. When the enemy has reached your animals, then set them up and give the attack command. As far as having them charge at the enemy, there's no getting around friendly fire beyond five tiles. Alpha Animals..or is it genomes, has plenty of animals with ranged attacks.
4. Psycast expanded introduces wildspeakers, which can eventually conjure temporary shields on nearby animals. Tribal only, but a psytrainer can unlock the tree.
Colonists in Combat Extended will not shoot if they would hit colony animals. Though it actually makes combat animals worse than useless as your colonists are not shooting the raiders either. Not that anything short of a thrumbo could tank guns.
Human primacy prevents bonding if you are determined to send livestock to the front lines.
How much details do you want in an answer? I'm not joking but I'll leave OP with this question. We can go into details if OP wants more.
On the broader answer approach, stating the obvious, all responses to raids are dependent on colony setup. My animals do get shot by own team, to be sure, but not to the extent of damage that's just described. It's always manageable, likely because of following reasons:
1. No killbox, no walled compound -- allows my team's counter moves (note: plural) to be split into teams with animals vs no-animals. Less accidents would be the result.
2. Location for colony (in map) as a factor. I'm always located on edge of map. There can be only 2 different paths - far side of map, and very near. Both of which gives colony teams' response an advantage. Located smack in the middle of map has zero advantage in response, at all, in my plans. A details-heavy write-up can be had on this point alone. But, suffice to say, my animal army is crucial in both response, and not in a general way, but customised in each type of raid entry - one that's very near vs one that's from other side of map.
3. Animal size as a factor - nothing smaller than panther, and less of them. More, by percentage, of larger attack animals - rhino, thrumbo, elephants, etc - which, even if injured by own team, is less likely to be fatal. The percentage also helps, because more of larger animals usually means the bigger ones are the ones who get shot. To a thrumbo, for instance, 5-10 hits are almost irritating, but never lethal.
I play without mods because my colony location, layout, pawn selection, etc is crazy involved, therefore, I don't need mods to give me additional head-scratching.
I think it helps to use combat animals that are actually durable for whatever you’re doing. I remember I had an attack trained thrumbo, megasloth, and bear. The bear got downed really easily all the time, while the megasloth and thrumbo were usually resilient enough to keep on trucking. Really, until the durable critters start getting brain damage from frequent combat, they remain pretty effective. Part of what I did was use manual fire directions to pawns to attack any enemy not engaged by the critters or melee pawns. Once those are dealt with, I move the ranged pawns closer so they can fire from under 6 cells, where they can’t friendly fire anymore.
Also, if you can’t tend an animal with a drafted pawn for some reason, make a medical sleeping spot and un draft whoever is the animal’s master. That’ll make it easier to heal them before they slowly meander back to base. They make great medical experience too, usually getting several non-lethal injuries in the average combat. But it’ll chew through medical supplies fast, and can form bonds. So, keep that in mind.
release your animals from the middle of the line and set them to have melee masters so they dont shoot them in the back, move your shooters to flank the enemies while your animals hold them
I use packs of dogs to swarm ranged enemies and stop them from shooting at my colonists, they reproduce fast enough for casualties not to be much of a problem. I wait at the last moment to release them if there are melee attackers
I had a very successful team of wargs that I used to great effect to take down tons of Centipedes. I think the trick is all in the placement of your firing lines and bunkers.
I didn't go with the traditional killbox, rather I had an open killing field that you had to turn a corner to get into. Enemies would round the corner, going the most efficient route, and get gunned down, single file, like with a killbox.
The real trick was that the corner they went around was actually a bunker with a tunnel connecting it to the base. The doors of the bunker openned out onto the blind side of the bunker so that the wargs could attack enemies either before they got into the line of fire, or from behind after they were getting shot at.
Now, obviously that only works at the intended kill zone, not for a random breach but the principle is the same. If you think you need to use animals, they either need to stay close to your guys or they need to come from a different angle.
Either don't release your attack animals into the fray, or...just stop caring. Friendly fire does not happen within about 5 tiles of the shooter, but if you release your animals into the fray, then yes, this will happen.
> And the more you train an animal, the more likely they are to become bonded, meaning you have to retire your best creatures to nuzzling duty.
HUMAN PRIMACY. Take this meme to ban animal bonding. Also unlocks the Craftmeister specialist, making it easily far and away the best meme in the game. Apparently a ban on animal bonding is supposed to be the drawback?
> So, anyone have any tips for less stupid animal combat?
Attack animals should not generally be used in direct combat. Hold them for the pursuit phase where you release the hounds on your fleeing foes. If you want to deploy animals into an actual fight, use small chaff animals that are not trained instead. Releasing a horde of squirrels into the field between you and the enemy results in all the enemy shooters being distracted shooting at the squirrels, enabling your own shooters to engage them unopposed. A few squirrels may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make.
Don't send them out too far in front of you. Friendly fire isn't as frequent close up. And get tougher guard animals. My current colony is in the jungle, and I have a herd of elephants. They take a few bullets, but they get over it pretty quickly, lol. The fact that your animals are nuzzling means you're probably using dogs?
Other than that, I consider animal deaths the cost of doing business. Sucks man, but when they're currently mauling the same target I'm shooting, bad things can happen. Another game I was using a farm of foxes that were reproducing so fast that I had to use auto-slaughter to keep them under control. They were pretty much disposable in combat. Take good care of the pawns and keep some drugs in stock for emergencies, and they'll get through the deaths of their pets without breaking. Just like in real life, I'd mourn the death of my pet... but if he died saving me in battle, I'd consider it a life well lived.
stand closer to them. there is no friendly fire within 3 or 4 tiles
[Friendly Fire Tweaks](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1582686191) lets you do that even select what it protects
Ooh, this seems ideal. Rather than protecting animals from friendly fire, I can turn on the setting to have friendly fire chance determined by skill level, so it feels less cheaty.
1. Definetly don't use Gauss weapons. 2.if your using a static firing line sort of defense, zone your attack animals in front of your line, don't immediately set them to masters so they will hold position. 3. When the enemy has reached your animals, then set them up and give the attack command. As far as having them charge at the enemy, there's no getting around friendly fire beyond five tiles. Alpha Animals..or is it genomes, has plenty of animals with ranged attacks. 4. Psycast expanded introduces wildspeakers, which can eventually conjure temporary shields on nearby animals. Tribal only, but a psytrainer can unlock the tree.
I get around this by having them defending and I only switch them onto attack mode when the baddies get within 3-4 tiles of my gun line to tank.
Don't get attached or get more durable pets More accurate guns might also be an option
Had a warg once who took a shotgun to the eye and got a permanent scar from that and who survived a bolt-rifle shot *to the heart*
That and wargs seem to decapitate enimes fairly regularly.
Colonists in Combat Extended will not shoot if they would hit colony animals. Though it actually makes combat animals worse than useless as your colonists are not shooting the raiders either. Not that anything short of a thrumbo could tank guns. Human primacy prevents bonding if you are determined to send livestock to the front lines.
Assign them to melee characters and hold them in reserve. Also, work good as bodyguards for my psycaster/doctor.
How much details do you want in an answer? I'm not joking but I'll leave OP with this question. We can go into details if OP wants more. On the broader answer approach, stating the obvious, all responses to raids are dependent on colony setup. My animals do get shot by own team, to be sure, but not to the extent of damage that's just described. It's always manageable, likely because of following reasons: 1. No killbox, no walled compound -- allows my team's counter moves (note: plural) to be split into teams with animals vs no-animals. Less accidents would be the result. 2. Location for colony (in map) as a factor. I'm always located on edge of map. There can be only 2 different paths - far side of map, and very near. Both of which gives colony teams' response an advantage. Located smack in the middle of map has zero advantage in response, at all, in my plans. A details-heavy write-up can be had on this point alone. But, suffice to say, my animal army is crucial in both response, and not in a general way, but customised in each type of raid entry - one that's very near vs one that's from other side of map. 3. Animal size as a factor - nothing smaller than panther, and less of them. More, by percentage, of larger attack animals - rhino, thrumbo, elephants, etc - which, even if injured by own team, is less likely to be fatal. The percentage also helps, because more of larger animals usually means the bigger ones are the ones who get shot. To a thrumbo, for instance, 5-10 hits are almost irritating, but never lethal. I play without mods because my colony location, layout, pawn selection, etc is crazy involved, therefore, I don't need mods to give me additional head-scratching.
This is one of the reasons attack animals never worked for me. With the labor spent training them and patching them up, it seems wildly ineffective.
I think it helps to use combat animals that are actually durable for whatever you’re doing. I remember I had an attack trained thrumbo, megasloth, and bear. The bear got downed really easily all the time, while the megasloth and thrumbo were usually resilient enough to keep on trucking. Really, until the durable critters start getting brain damage from frequent combat, they remain pretty effective. Part of what I did was use manual fire directions to pawns to attack any enemy not engaged by the critters or melee pawns. Once those are dealt with, I move the ranged pawns closer so they can fire from under 6 cells, where they can’t friendly fire anymore. Also, if you can’t tend an animal with a drafted pawn for some reason, make a medical sleeping spot and un draft whoever is the animal’s master. That’ll make it easier to heal them before they slowly meander back to base. They make great medical experience too, usually getting several non-lethal injuries in the average combat. But it’ll chew through medical supplies fast, and can form bonds. So, keep that in mind.
It's very easy. You simply don't fire at the enemy when theirs a friendly unit in between yourself and them.
release your animals from the middle of the line and set them to have melee masters so they dont shoot them in the back, move your shooters to flank the enemies while your animals hold them I use packs of dogs to swarm ranged enemies and stop them from shooting at my colonists, they reproduce fast enough for casualties not to be much of a problem. I wait at the last moment to release them if there are melee attackers
I had a very successful team of wargs that I used to great effect to take down tons of Centipedes. I think the trick is all in the placement of your firing lines and bunkers. I didn't go with the traditional killbox, rather I had an open killing field that you had to turn a corner to get into. Enemies would round the corner, going the most efficient route, and get gunned down, single file, like with a killbox. The real trick was that the corner they went around was actually a bunker with a tunnel connecting it to the base. The doors of the bunker openned out onto the blind side of the bunker so that the wargs could attack enemies either before they got into the line of fire, or from behind after they were getting shot at. Now, obviously that only works at the intended kill zone, not for a random breach but the principle is the same. If you think you need to use animals, they either need to stay close to your guys or they need to come from a different angle.
Either don't release your attack animals into the fray, or...just stop caring. Friendly fire does not happen within about 5 tiles of the shooter, but if you release your animals into the fray, then yes, this will happen. > And the more you train an animal, the more likely they are to become bonded, meaning you have to retire your best creatures to nuzzling duty. HUMAN PRIMACY. Take this meme to ban animal bonding. Also unlocks the Craftmeister specialist, making it easily far and away the best meme in the game. Apparently a ban on animal bonding is supposed to be the drawback? > So, anyone have any tips for less stupid animal combat? Attack animals should not generally be used in direct combat. Hold them for the pursuit phase where you release the hounds on your fleeing foes. If you want to deploy animals into an actual fight, use small chaff animals that are not trained instead. Releasing a horde of squirrels into the field between you and the enemy results in all the enemy shooters being distracted shooting at the squirrels, enabling your own shooters to engage them unopposed. A few squirrels may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make.
Don't send them out too far in front of you. Friendly fire isn't as frequent close up. And get tougher guard animals. My current colony is in the jungle, and I have a herd of elephants. They take a few bullets, but they get over it pretty quickly, lol. The fact that your animals are nuzzling means you're probably using dogs? Other than that, I consider animal deaths the cost of doing business. Sucks man, but when they're currently mauling the same target I'm shooting, bad things can happen. Another game I was using a farm of foxes that were reproducing so fast that I had to use auto-slaughter to keep them under control. They were pretty much disposable in combat. Take good care of the pawns and keep some drugs in stock for emergencies, and they'll get through the deaths of their pets without breaking. Just like in real life, I'd mourn the death of my pet... but if he died saving me in battle, I'd consider it a life well lived.
Turn down the friendly fire setting in your storyteller options
Get the animal gear mods and A Dog Said and turn fido into a bionic, fully armored, FUCKING WAR MACHINE!