Animal terrors

Did you use Reckless Animals or Dangerous Animal game set up option? Sounds like you have.
 
Mind Flower said:
Solitary Guanico keeps hunting and killing my trackers.
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Ok. Train some spearmen. Trackers are great if they are able to get the jump on animals, up to a point - some animals are still stronger otherwise you wouldn't need to advance to hunters and beyond. Spearmen are not great at hunting per-se because they are slow and have terrible pursuit values. But when they get the opportunity to really fight an animal that thinks itself strong, only the MOST powerful animals can overcome them. (And even those animals will likely be greatly weakened after fighting spears that if you can follow up after the battle with a hunting or canine unit, you should be able to finish off nearly anything.) Only some of the strongest tigers can take down fully merged spears, and usually even then only if they can hit you when you can't see them coming. Some of this is simpler with less combat mod options, the simpler it is, the more advantages the spears have.

If you've gotta wait for those spears a bit, lie low until then and construct buildings that will always be useful every round. Hunting is always a gamble, not just an act of collection. Buildings are more sure sources of benefit (unless some event takes one out.) So if hunting is too hard for a while, just shift strategies and stop beating your head against a wall - that hurts.
 
I might have dangerous animals on but i made a point to turn off reckless animals so i wont have to worry about being killed by barn owls. these animals shouldnt be preditory and so strong right?
 
Reckless Animals increase animal strength too I guess.
Dangerous Animals just lets all animals spawn within borders and on improved tiles too.
 
Thunderbrd said:
If you've gotta wait for those spears a bit, lie low until then and construct buildings that will always be useful every round. Hunting is always a gamble, not just an act of collection. Buildings are more sure sources of benefit (unless some event takes one out.) So if hunting is too hard for a while, just shift strategies and stop beating your head against a wall - that hurts.
Click to expand...

I started playing with the new (-ish? I've returned after maybe a year) "Upscaled Tech Costs" option, without upscaled building costs. 1st game I really enjoyed, but the 2nd game I found myself near a barbarian city to the north (Barbarian World option) and Bengal Tigers to my south. Otherwise a nice start though. I chose to neglect hunting and regretted it later. The barbarians were outpacing me in tech. By the time I got stone spears, trackers, and atlatlists the barbs had ambushers, log rams, and 30% city defense, not to mention plenty of obsidian troops reinforcing the city form the desert. I couldn't produce enough cash to support an army large enough to take the city, so I decided to quit that one. If I could do it again, I would've tried evading the tigers.

I'm curious what strategies people use to take out dangerous predators.

In my current game I just took out a sabertooth tiger that had been stalking my people for centuries. (Subdued it too — so satisfying!) I waited for tracking to get a Master tracker, stacked it with a stone spearman (goody hut gift), neanderthal tracker (upgraded captured neanderthal), a green tracker and three scouts, and moved it into the area of the recent attack. The sabertooth decided to attack my stack, killing one scout, but then I knew what tile it was on. I sent a scout onto the tile, losing another scout, but then I could see it. Then I could use my Master tracker to kill it. If not for the master tracker, I could have sacrificed a novice tracker to hopefully deal some initial damage.

This strategy, while safe, can get tedious. I got lucky, because a separate scout/tracker pair got ambushed only three tiles away from where my main stack could quickly form up, but normally it could take a long time to find the beast. You don't want all your units occupied while searching for it, moving one tile at a time, one scout first, guessing where it hides...

For the Bengal tigers, I tried using four stone spearmen to form an enclosing ring, trying to trap it against the coast of a peninsula. However, I can't report back on the success... the tiger was gone by the time I got spears. It might be a more sure-fire way to find it, but I don't know whether the spearmen could effectively kill it once found. You would need to reinforce your stacks so that each tile in this net can deliver at least three units to fight. The first to be attacked, the second to reveal the animal, and the third to finish it off. What if the first and second get completely overtaken? Will the best be damaged enough for the third to kill it alone?

Any other strategies? The one thing I know for sure is that scouts make a great, cheap unit to sacrifice for visibility.
 
cammcken said:
I started playing with the new (-ish? I've returned after maybe a year) "Upscaled Tech Costs" option, without upscaled building costs. 1st game I really enjoyed, but the 2nd game I found myself near a barbarian city to the north (Barbarian World option) and Bengal Tigers to my south. Otherwise a nice start though. I chose to neglect hunting and regretted it later. The barbarians were outpacing me in tech. By the time I got stone spears, trackers, and atlatlists the barbs had ambushers, log rams, and 30% city defense, not to mention plenty of obsidian troops reinforcing the city form the desert. I couldn't produce enough cash to support an army large enough to take the city, so I decided to quit that one. If I could do it again, I would've tried evading the tigers.
Click to expand...
I love games where I get beat and I have to wonder if I could've played it differently to have won despite the unique challenge it represented.
cammcken said:
For the Bengal tigers, I tried using four stone spearmen to form an enclosing ring, trying to trap it against the coast of a peninsula. However, I can't report back on the success... the tiger was gone by the time I got spears. It might be a more sure-fire way to find it, but I don't know whether the spearmen could effectively kill it once found. You would need to reinforce your stacks so that each tile in this net can deliver at least three units to fight. The first to be attacked, the second to reveal the animal, and the third to finish it off. What if the first and second get completely overtaken? Will the best be damaged enough for the third to kill it alone?
Click to expand...
I've done similar, yes.
cammcken said:
In my current game I just took out a sabertooth tiger that had been stalking my people for centuries. (Subdued it too — so satisfying!)
Click to expand...
There's nothing quite like that feeling of achievement when you overcome a real challenging situation. THAT is why some of these animals are so powerful as they are by design.
 
Its camel, and its placed in Prey group....
That is it should defend itself, but not attack without Reckless Animals.

Upload save.
 
cammcken said:
I started playing with the new (-ish? I've returned after maybe a year) "Upscaled Tech Costs" option, without upscaled building costs. 1st game I really enjoyed, but the 2nd game I found myself near a barbarian city to the north (Barbarian World option) and Bengal Tigers to my south. Otherwise a nice start though. I chose to neglect hunting and regretted it later. The barbarians were outpacing me in tech. By the time I got stone spears, trackers, and atlatlists the barbs had ambushers, log rams, and 30% city defense, not to mention plenty of obsidian troops reinforcing the city form the desert. I couldn't produce enough cash to support an army large enough to take the city, so I decided to quit that one.
Click to expand...
This is like the game I've been describing in the Too much Gold thread. You beat the Barbs by culture and perseverance. You build cities that will eventually surround the barb city(s) by your culture. While maintaining strong city defenses to absorb their stack attacks. Once you start to encroach on their Culture ring they will slowly lose their base for building soooo many mil units. It may take you all of Ancient Era (depending upon game speed used) to do this. Once you get their territory reduced then you can catch up in military numbers to begin an effective counter attack. But you Will spend Lots of gold for the forces needed to do so. My research slider at times was down to 5% and working to get it up to 50% was a real effort. If you can get mounted units and a source of either Obsidian or copper then their edge becomes lessened.

Yeah that game was one you should've continued. You would learn a lot about the barbs and how to defeat them. But you won't steam roll them like in the past. You have to work at it. :)
 
raxo2222 said:
Reckless Animals increase animal strength too I guess.
Dangerous Animals just lets all animals spawn within borders and on improved tiles too.
Click to expand...

Can you prove that? I don't thnk it does.
 
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