Quote from: Tynan on January 21, 2018, 07:23:49 AM
1. Are animals useful in combat? Do you use them? If so, why? If not, why not?
2. Are there annoying/weird points about animals in combat?
3. How are you using animals in combat?
1. Yes, animals are useful at specific use-cases (see #3). Yes, I use them successfully.
At some point of the game, you have enough food, so animals are basically "free", while increasing number of colonist increases the power of raids. The same goes for caravans, as they can eat caravan's food.
Animals are also very useful for hauling, especially those things that are far away from your base.
2. The most annoying is the amount of friendly fire they take during massive combats. While for small battles, e.g. caravan engagements it is possible to manage that.
I don't find "Bonding" as a problem. You just don't take those animals to the battle and they give a passive bonus to one of your colonists.
3. I use animals in three ways:
a) Large hauling animals like Elephants are amazing in caravans engagement. You let them "tank", while do actual killing with your colonists.
b) I use wolves for hauling. As a large battle comes, I put them on a flank and let them take damage. I also use them to run down retreating enemies, to get their loot. They are reproducing very fast, so friendly-fire casualties are not a problem.
Note: I do not use kill-boxes, as I believe it is a kind of an exploit of AI system.
c) My pack of hauling wolves is amazing when defending from infestation. They "stun" skill is very useful to block insects and gives me some time to assemble colonists. Again, casualties are not a problem as I have not issues with food.