Does it really matter that both players can do the same?
If the balance of a decision is who off, it is wrong too me…
Same is done with civ balance / units balance. If a civ/unit is overpowered, it will be nerfed. If a civ/unit is underpowered, it will receive a buff. It is just the same principle.
Both for stealing boars and killing sheep, you will lose HP on your scout. This puts you at quite a big disadvantage in terms of scouting since your scout will die in the dark age scout fight or is weaker for fighting in the feudal age. Also, this isn’t any old scout, it’s your only auto-scout.
I’d say that’s high enough risk.
Based on the fact that most big tournaments has to make rules to ban laming or otherwise laming is a big deciding factor i conclude the risk is to low for the reward.
How do you loose HP on a scout by killing a sheep?!
Such as?
Well since the enemy scout has to be next to his sheep in order for you to be able to kill them, not steal them, he can get a few hits in with his scout while you’re hitting the sheep. Obviously not as much HP lost as with a boar but then it’s a difference of 200 food vs 680 food so seems fair enough.
Agreed with everything you said and what you are proposing. I hate laming, and most of the times I will just resign (for me it’s just bad sportmanship). I want to play with player with some manners.
Did you follow most pro tournaments in the past? Most tournaments have a rule that bans laming, or otherwise laming is a huge part. Viper even said so after winning Hidden Cup. He felt the power of laming in the final. It made the games much more easier to him.
A bit of micro and you can do this pretty much without real damage. So still worthwhile and a no brainer to just kill the sheep. Thus the balance is off.
I’ve been following them for a bit over a year now. I can’t remember what the settings were for all of them, HC2 laming was allowed and didn’t make a big impact, NAC3 laming was banned (although 1 hit lame was possible), HC3 it was allowed and made a difference. Perhaps because DE with less lag made it easier, idk.
“A bit of micro” can’t stop you getting hitting a couple times while you’re killing the sheep. The initial scout fight can be a deciding factor so imo this could be pretty big. I’d be interested to see how this situation would play out in a pro game though since I can’t remember seeing it before.
Someone’s just salty. 
Either give the sheep to the opponent or risk them getting sniped.
I personally find it funny when my friend runs by the TC, gets my sheep, dances around TC fire and I end up killing my own sheep. 11
Scouts should be able to kill sheep, dear, etc - the mechanic I would change is that they start decompositioning and you may still gather from them instead of dissappearing alltogether.
No, it would be way too easy to kill deer early on. Even if you could gather from them it wouldn’t be worth the idle time for 4 half-rotten deer. Same for sheep, not worth the idle time.
I don’t think it’s that much of a problem, it’s only 200 food lost and I can understand the original poster’s frustration but stealing sheep has double the impact and happens much more often.
I think you have a lot longer to react to stolen sheep vs killed sheep. If sheep have to walk all the back across the map (possibly not just through the middle/shortest route to avoid enemy finding their sheep again) you have plenty of chances to intercept and/or engage the enemy scout (if they plan to keep the sheep).
If they’re killed it’s just food lost for you, and if anything if you image the impact you get vs the time you put in to achieve it, killing the sheep is probably better. You could also click enemy sheep into the corner of the map either, but there is a chance they might find them again.
Agreed. That would cause extra villager travel time but would not be as dramatic as losing so much food entirely. Good suggestion.
Good point.
However in a lot of pro games I’ve watched, they don’t notice their sheep are missing at first and assume they have just not scouted them yet. By the time they realise it’s usually too late.
That’s not true. Stolen sheep can be retrieved and reclaimed, scout-killed sheep can not. You could argue that the enemy will not benefit from the extra food, sure, but it is still a different matter.
Good idea! And more realistic too. I agree.
Scout killing sheep has only happened to me once. I will admit that it enraged me, but is one of my favorite games to remember because I went on to keep constant infantry pressure until he resigned. Angering BM tactics can be okay.
I would be ok if boars did double or triple damage to scouts or any military unit other than siege.
Let’s not have an argument about boars in this thread, OP specified he was only talking about scout-killing sheep.
Point taken about OP but several have mentioned boars, including you. Also, I see comments and suggestions, not an argument.
If killing animals with the Scout became a common strategy at the beginning of the game i would find that takes away from the fun. Bottom line is that if it’s equally available to all players regardless of civ, and most players are ok with it, then I’d accept that.
I made comparisons of killing sheep to laming boars, I didn’t suggest any nerfs to boar laming.
I think what a lot of people don’t seem to get is that it’s very unlikely you’ll actually find an enemy scout next to sheep far from their TC, meaning you’d be able to kill their sheep. It’s far more likely you’d find a boar or steal sheep so I don’t think killing sheep is an issue at all.