Spetulhu wrote:
Or it's just not efficient (according to the Munitorium) to ship out dogs with the IG tithe?

I'm sure many worlds in the IoM have canines and even use them for something besides cuddly pets. A dog has incredible sense of smell so it could be trained to sniff out alien infiltrators, mutants and all kinds of funky items people like trying to bring through customs.

The main reason we don't get dogs in a Codex or fluff is probably bolter porn. Why write about the heroic Sniffy III who foils a genestealer uprising when you can instead write about the heroic Manly Marines who turn up and stop the vile xenos with their bolters, flamers and general manliness?

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:
Or it's just not efficient (according to the Munitorium) to ship out dogs with the IG tithe?

I'm sure many worlds in the IoM have canines and even use them for something besides cuddly pets. A dog has incredible sense of smell so it could be trained to sniff out alien infiltrators, mutants and all kinds of funky items people like trying to bring through customs.

The main reason we don't get dogs in a Codex or fluff is probably bolter porn. Why write about the heroic Sniffy III who foils a genestealer uprising when you can instead write about the heroic Manly Marines who turn up and stop the vile xenos with their bolters, flamers and general manliness?

I don't know, it seems that if they're going to a world to take up massive amounts of guardsmen, taking dogs to flood with chems as attack dogs, or hell just to strap bombs to them to take out tanks, would be effective.

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
taking dogs to flood with chems as attack dogs, or hell just to strap bombs to them to take out tanks, would be effective.

Spetulhu wrote:

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
taking dogs to flood with chems as attack dogs, or hell just to strap bombs to them to take out tanks, would be effective.

Ehh... Why use dogs for that when you have plenty of guardsmen?

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
taking dogs to flood with chems as attack dogs, or hell just to strap bombs to them to take out tanks, would be effective.

Ehh... Why use dogs for that when you have plenty of guardsmen?

Dogs are stupid and can run fast. On foot, they get the job done quicker.

deathmagiks wrote:
Honestly, and this is strictly my opinion, I would think that there's no dogs for the same reason that there's typically very little mention of children; The Grim Darkness (TM) of the 41st Millennium is totally ok as long as it happens to the faceless or the interchangeable masses. Even characters of Space Marine, with few exceptions, are basically a meat-based Bolt-Delivery-System.

The second you start bringing in dogs or children, typically viewed as inherently good, inherently innocent things in most Western Culture, you're either trying to drum up the drama for literary purposes, in which case the focus doesn't stay on that for long because you cannot sustain that level of suspense without veering into audacity, or you're going to lose your audience.

I mean let's be honest, most if not all of us wouldn't flinch at most horrible things being done to people in a war setting. Those same people would probably have trouble seeing those same thing inflicted on dogs.

 chromedog wrote:
You can eat the horse.

Not so much the dog, they're a bit ... ruff

 Baldeagle91 wrote:

 chromedog wrote:
You can eat the horse.

Not so much the dog, they're a bit ... ruff

cats in all honesty would make quite common sense even on battleships.... vermin control? Hell in the modern world they still use ferrets to help lay cables and telephone wires, not in some downtrodden third world countries either, we still do it right here in the UK!

 Engine of War wrote:
Dogs, Cats, Space Hamsters (I'm dead serious), fish-like creatures, even Big Cats (or things like it) are mentioned in all sorts of places.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:

 Engine of War wrote:
Dogs, Cats, Space Hamsters (I'm dead serious), fish-like creatures, even Big Cats (or things like it) are mentioned in all sorts of places.

Space Hamsters. Space. Hamsters.

Source? I don't distrust you but that just seems too weird...

 Spinner wrote:

 Baldeagle91 wrote:

 chromedog wrote:
You can eat the horse.

Not so much the dog, they're a bit ... ruff

cats in all honesty would make quite common sense even on battleships.... vermin control? Hell in the modern world they still use ferrets to help lay cables and telephone wires, not in some downtrodden third world countries either, we still do it right here in the UK!

Yeah, but that's what hullghasts are for Best not to keep the rat population too low...they might get hungry...

Sniffer or attack dogs for the Guard would be a pretty cool unit, actually. I don't think I can remember seeing the good guys use them in the background, but there's two examples I can think of where Chaos troops used them on occupied worlds in Gaunt's Ghosts. Both times, they were used to police enslaved civilian populations and hunt down Guard insurgents. They were not cuddly Man's Best Friends...