I have never captured an animal. I have tried to reseach the process, but cannot find what I am looking for. What am I doing wrong, how do I capture one?

Thankls for your help!

Animal husbandry lets your Recon units promote with the promotion "Subdue Animal" (must have Combat 1 first tho)
if a unit with subdue animal defeats an animal, the animal joins you

Rangers start with subdue animal for free

Thanks Sureshot!

When you say "joins you," do you mean they become a useable combat unit? What if I use the animal for a pen. Can I ever use them again as a combat unit? (not sure I would ever want to, but just in case!)

BTW, love that Woody Harrelson video!

ya its cool

um, if they join you, they become one of your units. if you bring them to a city you can join them to the city, which destroys the unit and creates a building in your city

theres no way to unjoin them from the city, but sometimes they escape by themselves.

spider pens require a specific tech, animal handling i believe (the ranger tech)

Thanks Sureshot!

When you say "joins you," do you mean they become a useable combat unit? What if I use the animal for a pen. Can I ever use them again as a combat unit? (not sure I would ever want to, but just in case!)

BTW, love that Woody Harrelson video!

yeap, you can use them as a combat unit(they still get certain penalties, like the no defensive bonus of "mounted" units)

spiders are wicked though

if the animal escapes in the future, you can probably capture it and use it for a combat unit, though by that time-it will probably be obsolete

ya its cool

um, if they join you, they become one of your units. if you bring them to a city you can join them to the city, which destroys the unit and creates a building in your cityspider pens require a specific tech, animal handling i believe (the ranger tech)

You can build one pen for each of a lion, wolf, panther, or tiger in a city with a carnival. Also one for a bear or spider which don't require a carnival.

i always thought that it would be interesting to have the ability to bring a animal to your city and sacrifice it for +:food:

Also, something nice I found out, you can use summoned tigers to make tiger pens =) Not sure about other animals, haven't tried yet but I'd think so.

A good early game strategy (I play marathon setting) is to capture as many Giant Spiders as you can and spread them out around your cities. They will rack up a huge XP killing goblins and orc spearmen easily. However, the Lizardmen, who can see 'em, become problematic unless they are heavily promoted and stay in forests. I managed to get some with bonuses for attacking cities as was easily able to send them out to kill city defenders opening the door for the barbs - they couldn't capture the cities themselves as they were still HN.

One point though on the Spiders and silk resource they give...

I found that that first Spider Pen in your city gives all the cities silk. You get a smiley face for that. However, if you put more spiders in other cities for pens, you do not get anything else. I thought you got an additional smiley face for each pen, but it doesn't look that way. Also, if you already have the silk luxury resource, you really don't get anything for the Spider Pen in your city.

Does it help to park an animal in a forest or on a hill? I thought that they did not get any defensive bonuses? What about the stooges?

I believe that's correct. IIRC they can get terrain bonuses from promotions, though, so there is still some benefit. Pretty sure the Hill Giants start with the first hills one, actually.

@Sarisin: Yup, that's the same as how everything which provides resources works. Why would you expect anything else?

Also, something nice I found out, you can use summoned tigers to make tiger pens =) Not sure about other animals, haven't tried yet but I'd think so.

Yes it works with other animals, (lions, wolves & tigers) spiders are slightly different. I'm pretty sure the first lot need carnival to make the animal pens and spiders require a tech mentioned above but no building

a thought for adding happiness from giant spiders
create more unique/powerful animals and then have a "zoo" building that only boosts happiness if one of these captured animals is put into the city with the "zoo". If it doesnt have the zoo then you only get the silk bonus but if you do then it could help smooth things out.
If you dont wanna make the zoo a building for each settlement, have it be a "royal zoo" and only allowed in the capital. Atleast you'll pull out 1 happiness bonus there

I believe that's correct. IIRC they can get terrain bonuses from promotions, though, so there is still some benefit. Pretty sure the Hill Giants start with the first hills one, actually.

@Sarisin: Yup, that's the same as how everything which provides resources works. Why would you expect anything else?

The Giant Spider is the only animal that provides a resource that I know of. The benefit is spread to all the cities in your civ while the pens, cages, etc. only provide a benefit to the city they are located in.

My point was really directed to someone a while back who wrote that in addition to providing Silk to your civ, the Spider Pen gives happiness to the city it is in as well.

This is not true, I think, and it doesn't make sense to build more than one Spider Pen per civ, and none if you already have the Silk resource.

Agree?

Haven't played for ages, but it may well be the case that the pen itself generates 1 :), and the silk is an extra bonus. If the pen's tooltip/pedia entry/wherever lists both, you get an extra :) from the pen on top of the one (max, in every city) from (untraded) silk.

The Giant Spider is the only animal that provides a resource that I know of. The benefit is spread to all the cities in your civ while the pens, cages, etc. only provide a benefit to the city they are located in.

My point was really directed to someone a while back who wrote that in addition to providing Silk to your civ, the Spider Pen gives happiness to the city it is in as well.

This is not true, I think, and it doesn't make sense to build more than one Spider Pen per civ, and none if you already have the Silk resource.

Agree?

It would be interesting to see spider silk give a small defense bonus to unit armor.

Haven't played for ages, but it may well be the case that the pen itself generates 1 :), and the silk is an extra bonus. If the pen's tooltip/pedia entry/wherever lists both, you get an extra :) from the pen on top of the one (max, in every city) from (untraded) silk.

Just checked my current game and there is no yellow happy face next to the Spider Pen in the city I built it in. I had 3 other spiders I just let wander around and get killed when the big barb units came out because I knew they wouldn't be of any benefit to me since I already had one Spider Pen and the silk it gives.

When captured spiders become militarily worthless, or unnecessary, I tend to put them in citys for the silk to trade it away. Even if i can't get another luxury resource, I can usually get a food item I don't have yet.

When captured spiders become militarily worthless, or unnecessary, I tend to put them in citys for the silk to trade it away. Even if i can't get another luxury resource, I can usually get a food item I don't have yet.

Good point! You're right in that you can get additional silk resources for trade. I wonder if there is a maintenance cost for Spider Pen's (and all the other cages, etc.). Someone has to clean up all that animal poop, right?:cool:

Someone has to clean up all that animal poop, right?

Lol, maybe it should give a +1 unhealthy

Anyways, it would be nice for some more powerful animal units to appear, maybe some lesser dragons? Something that the tier 3 units can fear!

Dragon
?6 Strength?
2 Movement
Starts with Breathe Fire
?Possible to get fear after Combat 5?

Just checked my current game and there is no yellow happy face next to the Spider Pen in the city I built it in. I had 3 other spiders I just let wander around and get killed when the big barb units came out because I knew they wouldn't be of any benefit to me since I already had one Spider Pen and the silk it gives.

You're making a little confusion. First off, there is only one animal pen, which is the spider pen. Other buildings you are referring to are cages. Think of zoo ? They are 2 totally different things and therefore work in a different way. Second, the spider pen does not give a happy face as you thought, but it provides one silk resource, which is treated like resources are normally treated. Also it's not true that if you already have silk, a spider pen would be useless, since the added silk resource can be traded away.
Lastly, I feel like suggesting that I never found Giant Spiders becoming obsolete. Since you can get them very early in the game, it's not uncommon for you to get Combat V, Mobility I, City Raider III. They are invisible to most units and with Nature's Revolt they can get a base strength of 5. This means that in the open they will be always useful, not to mention the harassment you can put up with them. For example in the early-mid game you can use them to weaken your neighbour's minor city defenses and help barbarians conquer them.