Tired of your livestock running all over the map? Do you wish that you didn't have to chase deer and rabbits around? This tutorial shows you how to make compounds that not o­nly keep your animals in but also help to keep attackers out.  Best of all, your workers can still get in an out as they please...

Submitted by SimRPGplayer with a little extra bit from Aubergine

Animal compounds rely o­n o­ne simple fact - animals don't like to go o­n walls!  They'll quite happily walk through gatehouses and adjoining stairs so you have to use a little trick...

Stone Compounds

First, build walls around the area in which you want to entrap the animals - this will trap them in the compound but now your workers won't be able to get in or out.

To allow workers to access the compound, build two staircases to give access to the walls.  o­ne of the staircases should have it's entrance o­n the inside and the other should have it's entrance o­n the outside as shown in the picture below:

Because animals may venture in to doorways, you have to ensure that your stairs are not touching each other - if they were, the animals could get out. The solution to this problem is to make sure that there are some walls between the stairs - workers will happily walk across the walls whilst the animals will not.

Wooden Compounds

You can also have a wooden containment center, which uses the fact that animals, oddly enough, won't climb ladders!

The picture is pretty self-explanatory - remember that with wooden ladders you can have them touching each other because the animals will not attempt to climb them.  As such, wooden compounds are generally better because your workers don't have as far to walk to get in or out.

Caution

Be sure to build the walls first, then place the farms inside them othwewise you could get animals trapped outside!

Protection of Farms

It should be pretty obvious now that putting walls around your farms will help protect them from bandits and other attackers, including wolves.  Simply place some troops at the external entrance to your compound to fend off any human attackers that turn up looking for a free dinner.

Useless Fact

Spiral staircases were invented by firemen because they got fed up with their horses climbing normal staircases.  It was found that horses could not climb spiral staircases.

While we're o­n the subject of useless facts about animals, did you know that elephants are the o­nly 4-legged mammal who's kneecaps all point in the same direction?

Happy farming!