Easiest way to trap njerps?

[LoLotov]

I'm about to start running a character that will live in Njerp territory fulltime as a guerilla, so what would be the best way to setup a series of traps for them? I'm also unsure which trap is best on people, I assume spike pit, but they take too long to setup for the strategic reactiveness I want on this character.

I'm most interested in:

• Defending a small base area against aggressors and passersby
• Passive attrition against town populations, whittling down multiple locations over time without risking assaults
• Luring in characters seen on the overworld map, rather than going to them

[caius]

Several characters ago, I had a bruiser that lived in Njerpez territory.  A few pointers based on your questions:

• Take over a village and clear out the natives.  This becomes your base for raiding and a place to store your loot.  My character took over a fortified village that bordered the southern sea.  There was a well in the village (a water tile), so I rebuilt the houses into a compact settlement with a few animal pens.  I surrounded the base with a pit trapped fence.  No one ever came to visit or assault my base.  But I felt safer.  (Note: After so much loot piles up, being near the coast allows an easy multi-day punt trip to the southern cultures to trade.)
  
  
• This is a risky strategy.  It is very hard to control how many villagers you "pull" and you might have a challenge hiding or losing those villagers who pursue you.
       A. If you want to attempt these assault, I recommend you do it during the winter at night.  Creep near Njerpez villages and alert a Njerpez villager to draw them away.  Try to pick them off, but the villagers might not follow you as you get further and further away.
       B. An alternative strategy to clear a Njerpez Village is to sneak near the village and find a building that has a 1x2 interior dimension.  Then, run into that building and hold off the villagers as they assault you one at a time.  If you back yourself into that building, you should be able to limit your opponents to one assaulting at a time.  You'll need to rest by dodging or not attacking (but do counter) to prevent you from getting too tired.  Additionally, if you knock one opponent unconscious, a second opponent will step into the same square as the downed villager.  If that unconscious villager recovers, then you have 2 villagers stacked on top of each other, both attacking you, but you can't pick which opponent you attack.  After a while, the villagers get tired and then exhausted and it is easier to mop up at the end. 
  
  
• I know of no way to attract an NPC from the map screen.

On a related note, has everyone ever successfully (and intentionally) trapped multiple Njerpez?  Do you think a series of pit traps would work like this (X=fence and O=trap):
XX
  XX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
       O  O  O  O  O  O
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  XX
XX

[LoLotov]

That was the exact kind of funneling mechanism I was thinking of, but it didn't occur to me to set the traps in a line. They can just jump fences, a wall of fire works better for controlling movement, just not permanently. The few times I've been to Njerpland, I used trees and big fires to block my flanks.

Does anyone know if you can burn down buildings?

[PALU]

Traps are virtually useless against Njerps.

I've conducted an experiment where I set up a number of pit traps (with spikes), a bear trap, and, I think, a wolf trap and lured Njerps into them. The results were quite disappointing, as they just crawled out of the traps with minor injuries (although the bear trap managed to knock the victim unconscious briefly). It also required quite a bit of manovering to the the buggers to get into the traps in the first place.

Trap lines are detected by humans, so they won't walk into those. If you're going to waste your time using traps you should make a mine field instead.

Trap lines are useless against Njerps. I had one come to my homestead and disable about a dozen pit traps before I finally killed him. At the same homestead I earlier had a vagabond visitor, and that bugger cut down a fair number of trees, including ones forming part of the border trap line. Once the trees were gone the trap line was no longer visible to him, and he stepped into one of the traps, broke his leg, and kept lying there for about two months, all the while insisting everything was fine.

Yes, you can burn down buildings (I tried once, but the Njerps woke up before I'd finished placing the branches I indended to light the fire with. I have, however, accidentally set fire to my own homestead more than once by hitting the wrong key).

I had a character I ended by raiding Njerp territory. He died after having depopulated up towards a dozen villages. The main strategy was to fire arrows at enemies coming rushing while backing off, and this usually succeeded in killing most of them off one at a time before they reached him (he moved fairly quickly). Occasionally he made a mistake and enemies caught up, but they tended to be injured and exhausted at that point, and not really able to do much against the thick layers of armor he wore.
It ended in one of these cases where a couple of lucky enemy hits injured him severely, and eventually he couldn't move, and was slowly beaten to death.

[LoLotov]

Thanks PALU, that bit about traps ceasing to be visible when they aren't part of a line is perfect, as is minefield idea. I'm going to sneak out into their fields at night and place random spike pits and bear traps. Break everyone in towns legs, so I can bash them with rocks.

My Life With the Njerpez: A Story of Loss and Redemption All skills garbage except trapping, sneak, and clubs. Going to hide during the day, bleed them dry one at a time all night. Or just die first attempt at making a trap near a town, OR get bored with the character before I even get there...

[PALU]

There are some problems with you intended approach:
- My experience with traps vs warriors indicates they're rather useless for that purpose. It might work better to harass civilians, though.
- Killing them one at a time works only if your character is faster. Otherwise the first one will magically summon other villagers, and eventually the whole village is following you. If you're fast enough I guess you can run and lose them that way, but running with armor is a lethally bad idea (the running speed equals normal walking speed within 50 meters, and keeps dropping until it reaches zero).
- Engaging warriors equipped with bows without a bow and using trickery is very dangerous. The buggers are deadly shots. Doing it without heavy armor is probably lethal rather quickly, since it only takes one unlucky arrow to knock your character unconscious.