Livestock space requirements, stampedes, nuisance

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

If I were the garrison commander, i would slaughter any animals i can't keep under contorl and penned. You'll have food for the siege, and you don't have to worry about the hinderance of loose hooves during an assault.

In that case, though, you have just handed the enemy a partial victory.

250 oxen means 125 ox-carts that can be used for the summer campaign due to start in the month. The ovicaprids and the cows are meant to feed some of the thousands of men that will travel this road then.

The enemy isn't defending this fort because the earthworks themselves have any innate value. The entire point of this fort and the neighbouring one (now lost) was to provide a provide the forward supply dump for the army that built it and to defend supply dumps behind it. The monetary value of the livestock might be 'only' $1,400,000; but with the severing of the naval supply line behind them, the actual value of oxen at the front-line is much higher.

Also, how would anyone manage to slaughter all the animals in 15 minutes? Even if you use all 200 men who have experience as herdsmen as ad hoc butchers, it would be very tight in terms of time and I'm not sure if the animals wouldn't start panicking rather early if you were cutting them down like... well, sheep.