How to protect against ninja wolves?

[Shrimp]

This happened to me once i accepted a quest to find a sheep in the woods. I had some animals on me(like 2 bulls and 3 reindeers and a dog all leashed) because i was carrying some stuff to sell at the Driik. Then one night when i was at my camp sleeping a lone wolf ambushed me and my animals. In the single tile that took me to walk on to the tile one of my animals was to try and attack the wolf, it mangled my animal so bad that if it wasn't insta-dead it was dying already. i tried attacking it but in a single hit that missed it ran away. While i was recovering the items dropped it simply returned and the whole process repeated until i scared it away with a miss hit. In the end it repeated again until every animal i had except the dog were dead. I tried hunting it but i couldn't ever reach it, not even my dog could run it down. It felt like nature was bullshitting me so much that i honestly ragequit.

I thought that the only way to keep animals safe was to keep them with you at all times since keeping them in pens will result in them dying at the hands of a pen-skipping animal, but that doesn't seem the case anymore. Are animals fated to just die helplessly even if they are with you? Wolves are kinda OP.

[Tom H]

That's a nasty disaster, frustrating, too.

But here's what I've seen that might explain why it happened that way. On a wounded hunter search I found wolf tracks, followed them and ran into a WOUNDED wolf. I went forward at him and he disappeared into some woods. The next thing I see is battle sounds behind me where my dogs were tethered. The wolf had gone behind me! One dead dog later I finally finished him off.

Another time, I encountered a Njerp. I went stealth and followed his tracks in thick woods. The next thing I hear is a death rattle behind me. He'd circled a woody area and was coming behind me for an ambush. Luckily, my Companion was a bit slow and lagged behind. HE encountered and killed the Njerp before he could do me in. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool that the AI would do this.

I guess your best chance in your situation would be a broadhead arrow at his legs, hoping for a cripple damage result. Sorry about your stunning result.

[Shrimp]

Yeah, i know flanking can be pretty OP in this game. I once managed to knock-out a Njerpez in a single hit in the head while he wasn't looking, though that probably was a very lucky sneak if anything.

I'm more worried about the animals though. it seems pointless to buy them if they are just going to become a liability for you when a predator decides it just wants to kill them. Pens are useless and it seems you are not a deterrent when you have them leashed with you. There was this other thread where they propose this elaborated design with pens and traps to catch the predators but that one doesn't look viable if you travel a lot and have many non-permanent camps.

I will start a game again soon so i will keep in mind these lessons. I probably won't buy animals except for dogs from now on.

[Tom H]

You might query the pros here about whether the number of animals you are keeping increases the likelihood of attracting predators. I've been keeping 2 dogs and 1 small bull for a while now and have yet to run across anything like what you did. It may be that the sheer number you're using is a contributing factor.

[PALU]

I haven't had my leashed animals attacked (not counting dogs, as they aggro, and thus are active enemies) at the few occasions I've run into hostiles when hauling them. I avoid potentially hostile encounters when hauling animals (again, the dog is the exception), though.

I keep my cow and sheep inside a building tied to two trees. I've had several lynx running themselves into the ground outside, presumably trying to attack but failing to find a path. Bears can open doors, though, but I don't think wolves can.

[Mati256]

I have had 6 or 7 Reindeer in a pen for a couple of ingame years now and never once was attacked. Now, what might have happened to you is that there was more than one wolf, they usually travel in packs, that's why they are so dangerous.

[Shrimp]

I know for a fact it was the same wolf. Not sure if it was one of my attacks or my animals managed to defend somewhat, but it had a bruise in its leg. That's how i identified it. Didn't make any difference when i tried to chase it anyways.

I also used to just leave them at pens. Then stopped when i started finding them dead with lynx tracks all over the place. Lost many a sheep that way.

It would be cool if you could scare them away with fire or something like that. A way to warn predators it's not worth it to approach your group.