Random Raiders:
Introduce rattlesnakes and bull snakes.
You introduce a small number of snakes to the enclosure. It takes them a few days to settle down, but they do go for the prairie dogs when they settle in, mostly because they are the overwhelming majority species in the area, rather than any particular desire for prairie dogs. A few dogs are killed by snakes, but the long consumption time each snake has for prairie dogs limits their effect on the population. Conflict continues between the surviving rats and bunnies, but they have been mostly marginalized, so little conflict continues.
By the end of the period, you see that two of the six snakes you introduces have been killed by the dogs. One was killed by being buried inside the dog hole it had taken for itself, and the other was killed by ambush when it was sluggish after eating another prairie dog.
10 prairie dogs have died this period. One from conflict with the rabbits, six were eaten by the snakes, and three from old age. An above-average 13 dogs were born, for a net gain of three prairie dogs.
Your 303 prairie dogs live in a semi-arid grassland, dominated by several different kinds of tall and short grass, as well as the occasional woody shrub and small tree. It is mostly dry, but an artificial spring is present and provides water and trace nutrients to the habitat. There is room for perhaps 450 prairie dogs altogether.
Currently, dog society is split into three roughly equal villages, composed of family units, which are mostly one male dog, a few female dogs, and some children, although some family units have more than one male dog or only one female dog. In addition, bachelor groups are present composed of the excess male dogs. Young males often, but not always, migrate to the other villages when they mature.
They have a fairly rudimentary technology, and use simple tools such as sticks and rocks to clear soil of unwanted plants and encourage growth of desired edibles. They have relatively recently discovered basic agriculture, and have taken to planting their desired grass species, and overturning earth.
The dogs have a complex language, consisting of sounds and gestures, and they have a definate social organization, with perhaps one or two families in charge of each village. Families live in underground burrows, and the villages are large groups of burrows that occasionally interconnect below ground. Tools are also used to help dig homes, although most digging is done with their hands.
Physically, the dogs are about 12 inches long, and weigh one kilogram. They have mostly flat teeth for eating plants, and have only rudimentary claws on their forelimbs, which are slightly longer than basic prairie dog forelimbs, with the paws modified to be more suitable for tool use and grasping.
Most prairie dogs do not fight, and fighting inside villages is strongly discouraged by others. Conflict does occur between villages, as newcomers make displays trying to be accepted and in order to establish position for mates. These battles are only occasionally physical, and when they are, the dogs rarely injure each other. They could use sticks or rocks to hurt each other, as well as their small claws.
The steady improvement in fighting capabilities continues, although no great progress is made this turn. You expect they'll kill the other snakes in the next period, and may or may not decide to wipe out the small number of surviving competing herbivores.
Boring! The snakes don't even kill many dogs, they just eat one and then settle down for a nap. It's gruesome, but there are no fountains of blood!
Stats:
Softness, 100%
Soft Attack, 0.25 (claws, grappling)
Hard Attack, 0.1 (rocks)
Toughness, 1.0 (difficulty to kill an individual dog)
Morale, 10.9% (+0.4%) (overall effectiveness in combat)
Organization, 5.8 (+0.4) (capacity for teamwork and discipline. Effect of casulties upon effectiveness.)
Introduce Rats and Rabbits.
Introduce rattlesnakes and bull snakes.
loffles:
Introduce rutting bulls to the environment.
A few bulls are introduced to the environment. There really isn't enough food for them, and they quickly fight with each other, killing three of them and leaving the last survivor heavily wounded and somewhat maddened from the poisoned water. The dogs, living underground, are mostly able to hide from the invaders. More serious for them is the continued pain-filled existance, as two of the three wells have been collapsed in the fighting.
As such, dog society has mostly broken down, as a wave of other dogs start crowding the one remaining well, and conflict swiftly breaks out. The village controlling the water mostly holds together, and the two other villages are generally incapable of conquering the other dogs, and as such, are mostly forced outside the village and suffer far worse from the poison.
56 prairie dogs in total have died. Some were trampled by the bulls. Most were poisoned. Some were killed by their fellow dogs in attacks on the remaining well. The one mostly intact village has had one successful birth, with their limited supply of clean water available.
Your 217 prairie dogs live in a semi-arid grassland, dominated by several different kinds of tall and short grass, as well as the occasional woody shrub and small tree. It is mostly dry, but an artificial spring is present and provides water and trace nutrients to the habitat. The spring has been poisoned, making it painful to drink and unsuitable for growing crops. The collapse of the other two wells has further limited the population, and you now think there's enough water for about 100 prairie dogs, when the last bull finally dies. They may dig more wells when things get more peaceful.
Currently, dog society is in flux, with one mostly intact village and a large number of scattered groups or families of dogs surviving on the fringes, either slowly starving or slowly being poisoned by the tainted waters. You suspect some of them may settle into a new village after digging a new well, but for now they aren't well organized.
They have a fairly rudimentary technology, and use simple tools such as sticks and rocks to clear soil of unwanted plants and encourage growth of desired edibles. Their agriculture technology has recently improved, as they now irrigate their desired grasses and have discovered how to dig for water sources.
The dogs have a complex language, consisting of sounds and gestures, and they have a definate social organization, with perhaps one or two families in charge of each village. Families live in underground burrows, and villages are large groups of burrows that occasionally interconnect below ground. Tools are also used to help dig homes, although most digging is done with their hands.
Physically, the dogs are about 12 inches long, and weigh one kilogram. They have mostly flat teeth for eating plants, and have only rudimentary claws on their forelimbs, which are slightly longer than basic prairie dog forelimbs, with the paws modified to be more suitable for tool use and grasping.
Although society has been broken down, the one intact village is the one that developed the leader you identified earlier. You see that the other dog has been busy trying to succor the surviving families, and has organized less lethal ways of driving off the other dogs, including adopting a few of the more desperate enemy dogs into the village. You expect he'll try to re-establish dog society and end the crisis next turn.
Well, this is interesting. Apparently the Random Raiders have a leader. Now will it be Ghandi or Ghengis Khan?
Stats:
Softness, 100%
Soft Attack, 0.25 (claws, grappling)
Hard Attack, 0.1 (rocks)
Toughness, 0.95 (-0.2) (difficulty to kill an individual dog)
Morale, 11.2% +(1.2%) (overall effectiveness in combat)
Organization, 5.0 (capacity for teamwork and discipline. Effect of casulties upon effectiveness.)
Environment: Poison the waters with a less-lethal poison that is uptaken into plants.
Introduction: Rutting Bulls.
Rodent Awesome: Introduce cat-sized titanium-clawed and flamethrower armed killbots into the environment.
You.. think you might have gone overboard. Sure, it's incredibly lethal, but in a drive to get them to create new weapons to fight hard enemies, you decide to well-armour said killbot. And make it a bit bigger.. more lynx sized than housecat sized. It doesn't end well.
When introduced to the environment, and programmed to kill any dog it sees, and to continually seek out and hunt new dogs, it proceeds to systematically murder every dog it can find. Inside the environment of limited size, that means all the dogs. It's able to dig down and kill them inside their homes, and the flamethrowers are quite potent at killing dogs at close range. The dogs do fight back, sometimes to actual effect, scoring a number of hits from group attacks from many angles, and managing to damage the robot several times. In the end, however, when the cat lies victorious and covered in the soot from the ashes of prairie dog blood, it is only heavily damaged and not yet incapacitated.
fluffy wabbits: Give them fire.
You decide to bequeath on your prairie dogs the gift of fire. You do this by introducing an underground coal seam to the environment, built to slowly smoulder for an indefinate period of time, and lighting it on fire to wend smoke up through small fissures in the rock above. The dogs do notice this and are quite curious, and at your urging, collect some of it on grass torches for further examination. They are very careful with such, and except for one sizeable grass fire, manage to avoid killing themselves with it, in exploring the curious properties of this new item. They do discover that other animals are afraid of it, and bunnies will not bother a dog with a torch.
The grass fire kills five dogs, and two more die of old age. 11 new ones are born, leading to a net gain of four dogs.
Your 307 prairie dogs live in a semi-arid grassland, dominated by several different kinds of tall and short grass, as well as the occasional woody shrub and small tree. It is mostly dry, but an artificial spring is present and provides water and trace nutrients to the habitat. There is room for perhaps 400 prairie dogs altogether.
Currently, dog society is split into three roughly equal villages, composed of family units, which are mostly one male dog, a few female dogs, and some children, although some family units have more than one male dog or only one female dog. In addition, bachelor groups are present composed of the excess male dogs. Young males often, but not always, migrate to the other villages when they mature.
They have a fairly rudimentary technology, and use simple tools such as sticks and rocks to clear soil of unwanted plants and encourage growth of desired edibles. Their most recent discovery is that of fire, which is useful to pen up the competing animals, and would be useful if they faced actual combat.
The dogs have a complex language, consisting of sounds and gestures, and they have a definate social organization, with perhaps one or two families in charge of each village. Families live in underground burrows, and the villages are large groups of burrows that occasionally interconnect below ground. Tools are also used to help dig homes, although most digging is done with their hands.
Physically, the dogs are about 12 inches long, and weigh one kilogram. They have mostly flat teeth for eating plants, and have only rudimentary claws on their forelimbs, which are slightly longer than basic prairie dog forelimbs, with the paws modified to be more suitable for tool use and grasping.
Most prairie dogs do not fight, and fighting inside villages is strongly discouraged by others. Conflict does occur between villages, as newcomers make displays trying to be accepted and in order to establish position for mates. These battles are only occasionally physical, and when they are, the dogs rarely injure each other. They could use torches in addition to rocks and claws to hurt other dogs.
The torches allow for easy control of the rabbits, and you see the dogs expanding their territory more easily with it. If they had to fight, the torches would be an effective weapon against other animals.
The fluffy wabbits prove effective and capable, as they managed to harness fire in a semi-arid grassland without setting everything on fire! Well done.
Stats:
Softness, 100%
Soft Attack, 0.35 (claws, grappling, torches)
Hard Attack, 0.1 (rocks)
Toughness, 1.0 (difficulty to kill an individual dog)
Morale, 10% (overall effectiveness in combat)
Organization, 5.4 (+0.4) (capacity for teamwork and discipline. Effect of casulties upon effectiveness.)
Introduce: Rabbits
Introduce: Fire
Fighting Death Hamsters: Associate killing with status and position.
This time you communicate with the dogs, and try to get them to link killing with earning status and position. This is an easier prospect than killing with food, as they do struggle for position with each other, but is nevertheless less than totally successful. The little rodents just don't seem to want to kill each other. You do get them to begin engaging in more physical contests rather than psychological contests for fighting, and get some of the leading members inside villages to compete through struggles for established positions, instead of merely newcomers, but the effect is still unfortunately limited.
13 new prairie dogs were born this turn, and two have died, of old age. There was a net increase of eleven dogs, which is unusually many.
Your 315 prairie dogs live in a semi-arid grassland, dominated by several different kinds of tall and short grass, as well as the occasional woody shrub and small tree. It is mostly dry, but an artificial spring is present and provides water and trace nutrients to the habitat. There is room for perhaps 500 prairie dogs altogether.
Currently, dog society is split into three roughly equal villages, composed of family units, which are mostly one male dog, a few female dogs, and some children, although some family units have more than one male dog or only one female dog. In addition, bachelor groups are present composed of the excess male dogs. Young males often, but not always, migrate to the other villages when they mature.
They have a fairly rudimentary technology, and use simple tools such as sticks and rocks to clear soil of unwanted plants and encourage growth of desired edibles. They have relatively recently discovered basic agriculture, and have taken to planting their desired grass species, and overturning earth.
The dogs have a complex language, consisting of sounds and gestures, and they have a definate social organization, with perhaps one or two families in charge of each village. Families live in underground burrows, and the villages are large groups of burrows that occasionally interconnect below ground. Tools are also used to help dig homes, although most digging is done with their hands.
Physically, the dogs are about 12 inches long, and weigh one kilogram. They have mostly flat teeth for eating plants, and have only rudimentary claws on their forelimbs, which are slightly longer than basic prairie dog forelimbs, with the paws modified to be more suitable for tool use and grasping.
Most prairie dogs do not fight, and fighting inside villages is discouraged by others. Conflict does occur between villages, as newcomers make displays trying to be accepted and in order to establish position for mates. These battles are sometimes physical, and when they are, the dogs rarely injure each other. In addition, there is some conflict between leading dogs, and they push against each other for the positions of prominance.
The stick of dominance isn't adopted, as they already know who is top dog from their interior social structure. Still, the slightly increased conflict has some positive effects on their capabilities.
Aww, this team's boring! They're merely pushing each other around. They are breeding well, however, and if Fighting Death Hamsters can live up to their name, they may have enough reinforcements to help them in the later rounds.
Stats:
Softness, 100%
Soft Attack, 0.25 (claws, grappling)
Hard Attack, 0.1 (rocks)
Toughness, 1.0 (difficulty to kill an individual dog)
Morale, 10.3% (+0.3%) (overall effectiveness in combat)
Organization, 5.3 (+.3) (capacity for teamwork and discipline. Effect of casulties upon effectiveness.)
Society: Associate killing with food. (failure)
Society: Associate killing with status and position.
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Topic: Battlemobs, Turn 2 Complete! Killbots gonna Kill. (Read 9008 times)