1. Animals are very useful is melee combat but not so much in ranged combat. If i am using doing a tribal playthrough (and have a decent handler who can tame them) i use them as a meat shield and to supplement damage output. In late game where you have high end ranged weapons or are using a killbox with a lot of turrets they are almost completely useless due to the friendly fire. Generally you do more damage to your animals than you do to your enemies.
2. There are a lot of annoying quirks to animal combat imo.
A. Bonded animals become more of hindrance because they often get killed causing serious mood debuffs.
B. When you have a lot of animals and utilize release function they often get clumped and make it difficult use your pawns to attack.
C. When they are set to follow a colonist when drafted they often clog up areas and stand in doorways (This results in doors opening that you don't want open and makes it hard to position your pawns properly because you can't place them where animals are standing.)
D. Animals are often far to susceptible to friendly fire, which makes sense but severely reduces their usefulness when you use any ranged weapon.
E. Most animals are not fast enough to keep up with (or catch up with) fleeing enemies.
F. Your pawns and enemies are always getting better gear/skills/weapons but there is no way to improve your animals for combat (such as armor.) The only way to improve their effectiveness is to get more of them.
3. The most common uses of animals for me is a "meat shield" or a bodyguard when hunting/taming incase other animals turn manhunter they sometimes give you a chance to run away as they attack.
2. There are a lot of annoying quirks to animal combat imo.
A. Bonded animals become more of hindrance because they often get killed causing serious mood debuffs.
B. When you have a lot of animals and utilize release function they often get clumped and make it difficult use your pawns to attack.
C. When they are set to follow a colonist when drafted they often clog up areas and stand in doorways (This results in doors opening that you don't want open and makes it hard to position your pawns properly because you can't place them where animals are standing.)
D. Animals are often far to susceptible to friendly fire, which makes sense but severely reduces their usefulness when you use any ranged weapon.
E. Most animals are not fast enough to keep up with (or catch up with) fleeing enemies.
F. Your pawns and enemies are always getting better gear/skills/weapons but there is no way to improve your animals for combat (such as armor.) The only way to improve their effectiveness is to get more of them.
3. The most common uses of animals for me is a "meat shield" or a bodyguard when hunting/taming incase other animals turn manhunter they sometimes give you a chance to run away as they attack.