I think this game is solid, and strictly superior to Circle the Wagons (sorry to fans of the latter!).
That said, I think the food costs are a little counter to getting people to play the game, so long as people's food is set at a base of 20. If you lose one game against a human, you can't play a rematch!
I would suggest either making the game cost 10 food (allowing 2 normal games) and training mode 6 food (allowing 3 training games) or, more ambitiously, raising the general food total to 22 (so still allowing 2 normal games or 3 training games).