Those Stymphalian things are exactly the kind of thing we could be requesting from the Menagerie. So the question is do we make a negotiator or something to care and feed animals this turn at the risk of losing progress on the battlefront? Or do we ignore making that kind of infrastructure design, ignore future long run benefits to hit them harder now? I feel there's a good chance they'll make something to support animals this turn. Otherwise what's the point of making that shift?
Yes but here's the thing: this world is currently not made to support the existence of long-term life like the Menagerie would want. We can feed them and give water, sure, but the lack of sunlight is going to be a big problem for most creatures. And the Stymphalian's in particular are the kind of creature where their main function is inherently sacrificial, they basically use themselves as living arrows and that means anything they're exposing themselves to anything they don't kill. If we design a creature we can at least be sure we'll have unrestricted use of it and that it can have metacrystal eyes for sunless sight.
We do still have two designs this turn IIRC, so we can make a negotiator
and a combat unit anyway, but getting something from the Menagerie on this particular turn will be hard unless we do legitimately have a fairly good set-up.
Anyway this is all to say: we should prioritize getting creatures that don't care for sunlight from the Menagerie this turn(if any) until someone bothers to Shift in a Sun. Not ones who are repelled by Sunlight, but things like cave dwelling monsters that have no need for sunlight to navigate and hunt.
Honestly, making a sun(or facsimile of one) so as to improve the viability of living creatures without the need for metacrystal feels like it'll be an important Shift to make for almost ANY Mercenary group we might want to hire.