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[Shima]

Those crafty monkeys are on our side!  I just noticed something very weird.

A report that *Maple Barbed Quarrels [40]* (Yes, modded game, but I haven't touched the Macaques) was stolen.  Being that I have zero weaponry industry on this fort yet, and knowing I'm under attack, I checked.

Sure enough, the Macaque squad was running around in the enemy's formation, grabbing ammo from the Marksmen!  Each one took a stack of bolts, and none of them were even attacked by the enemy.

I don't know if it is really usable as a tactic, buuuut... it might have potential.  Capture a whole army of wild Macaques, stuff some into a cage and unleash during sieges to weaken the enemy?  ESPECIALLY if they go for ammo every time...

Anyone else ever notice behavior like this, or am I just warping the time/space continuum again?

[Vengo]

Hmm, finally a use for those damn, dirty apes?

[ItchyBeard]

I don't know if it is really usable as a tactic, buuuut... it might have potential.  Capture a whole army of wild Macaques, stuff some into a cage and unleash during sieges to weaken the enemy?  ESPECIALLY if they go for ammo every time...

Anyone else ever notice behavior like this, or am I just warping the time/space continuum again?

I can't say I've seen this before, but one potential problem with your plan is that if you trap animals for a while (after they would have usually wandered off the map), they tend to try to leave the map as soon as you release them again.

[Shima]

True.  I've seen that behavior before (Yep, I've tried selling wild animals, who hasn't?    )

Still, it's an interesting quirk.  The same siegers are clearly hostile: they kill their own horses' foals when they give birth.

[Ironhand]

That's so awesome.

I think macaques go for the highest-value item, and stacks of bolts tend to be very high in value because they are in large stacks. Still, as long as the monkeys are going for the high-value stuff, they're definitely helping you.

Just make sure to close your gates before dropping them outside, or they might path to your stuff.

[Jimmy]

Have raccoons been seen to do anything similar?

[Shima]

I'd imagine raccoons might do the same thing, but I'm usually in Macaqueland.

I observed the monkeys doing it a second time, two years after the first, effectively making them the best allies ever.  This time, though, I'm entirely ready for a battle.  Not only do they have no bolts now, but I've got 4 crosstrained Champions with masterwork Steel and Obsidian.  I did have 5, but, well, I kinda forgot to put them back to the non-deadly weapons after a small raid.  I've also got a nice long air-locking kill tunnel.

[Untelligent]

Creatures with any variation of the item theft tags choose a target as soon as they enter the map, so trapping them to release later probably wouldn't work anyway.