On some maps usually both players start with some cattle or quickly take control over some of such units. The common tendency is to send them straight to your base to secure them nicely and easily. However, you can, and actually should, use them for important early-game scouting. There's no denying that treasures can turn out to be significant, if not even game-changing — you don't want to miss out on them by scouting around your starting location — especially when you're in charge of a European civilisation, usually with only one explorer. Therefore, livestock animals are of perfect use in such circumstances, as you can task them to walk around your spawn, mainly on both sides and at the back, to get the knowledge of your nearby terrain, hunts availability, potentially more treasures and yaks, cows, sheep and so on.
The biggest concern I see and have encountered after chatting with some of the players are the attention required and possible risk of losing your meat. The former can be easily dealt with, as you can just task your animals using the shift-click in the area you want to have scouted (bearing in mind their small line of sight). That way, they will slowly but surely discover the places in the fog and can safely return underneath your Town Center afterwards. The latter, on the other hand, is solved by carefulness and awareness. You usually shouldn't do that against civilisations with highly effective scouts early on, like the Sioux with their fast War Chief, the French with their Native Scout and so on. When a map has obvious precious treasures spots, it is clear your opponent will likely send their explorer down there, leaving the rest of the map impregnable for you livestock.
The importance as well as potential usage can be best illustrated on 3 example maps: RE California, ESOC Tibet and ESOC Florida, but also Mongolia or ESOC Hudson Bay (or Saguenay).
Teal arrows and lines illustrate the places recommended for scouting, while the red one shows the path your opponent's explorer is most likely to follow. In spoilers there are screenshots attached showing the difference in exploration advancement in the same moment of the game, using one explorer-unit — with the first picture presenting the suggested method and the second — the common and inappropriate way.
RE California: usually one if not two players start with a lot of sheep in their base. With most of the best treasures being spawned in the east and north-east area and a wide territory behind your spawn, it's highly recommended to scout basically everywhere else on the map with your animals, especially versus civs with only one explorer-unit (unless it's Sioux
).
[spoiler=difference]5 sheep
[/spoiler]ESOC Tibet: always starting with up to 3 yaks, you can cover a large space behind your Town Center to even expand further to north-west or south-east, where you will be safe behind the cliffs.
[spoiler=difference]3 yaks
[/spoiler]ESOC Florida: with at least one starting sheep, it's perfectly possible to discover the shore and area nearby (especially behind) your base.
[spoiler=difference]2 sheep
[/spoiler]Mongolia: remember that after capturing the yaks out in the field but still close to your base, you can send them on a curved road to help you scout a bit more, too. Beware of enemy Mongol Scouts, though
ESOC Hudson Bay/Saguenay: although you may not have any free sheep at the beginning, you may pick some up whilst discovering the map, and with both players rushing to the middle, underneath or around the trading route for those big and juicy treasures, you can scout behind your TC in the north, above the native settlement.
That's basically it — a bit trivial, but very useful, saves a lot of time and effort and gives you a very precious resource early on — scouting information. Definitely make sure to try it out in your next games, let me know how it went!
I hope it will help — if you find the tip useful, please leave a like so that I know or comment below to say what I can potentially improve.
