Dinosaur Hunt

I was out a a local botanic garden the other day and in the gift-shop I found a couple of plastic dinosaurs that not only looked nice but were, based on measurements and a quick Google on my phone, in scale with 15mm figures. So I bought them.

Now I fully intend to give them a repaint (or at least touch up the original job) but this afternoon I gave one an outing in a game of Palaeo Diet. Here's the lovely Stegosaurus I got.

I don't have any pulp adventurers/hunters yet for that proper Lost World hunting experience, so I simply went for a good old One Million years BC cavemen vs dinosaurs game. I reckoned six hunters would be needed for such a mighty beast - it has 6 Bulk and is very difficult to wound, so would be a tough prospect. I did add a small pack of raptors to the table though (four MY Miniatures walking vultures).

I went with one bow-armed hunter, three with spears and two with clubs/axes. With hindsight this was a mistake; the spears only have the same chance of wounding the Stegosaur as a bow, but require the hunters to get in a lot closer. A mix of bows and clubs would be the optimum way of hunting this beastie.

(In case you're wondering, dinosaurs are covered in the pulp supplement, and are classed as Raptors, Great Herbivores or King Carnivores. They have a couple of reactions not in the base game - a Rush is a long-move attack, with a penalty, whilst a Lunge is a short-move attack with a bonus. The Stegosaur can pt to use the Flail attack instead of a Lunge; this has a penalty on the attack but allows the beast to attack all opponents within short range.)

The hunters stalk the Stegosaur.

Unfortunately a series of bad activation rolls saw the raptors rush in ...

... and attack the hunters. Fortunately the hunters were still in a mostly in a tight group 

The hunters fought back, with spears. The axe-armed hunters were elsewhere.

The bow-armed hunter shot one raptor down, and the spear-armed hunters accounted for the rest. One hunter was injured.

The Stegosaur had simply watched the fight. The axe-armed hunters crept up on it and attacked.

Between them they inflicted a couple of wounds on the dinosaur, which roared, causing the hunters to back off.

The hunters moved in again and inflicted another wound.

At this point I brought up the spear-armed hunters and realised that they weren't going to be that effective. One of them was wounded by the Stegosaur's thagomizer.

The stegosaur did a flail attack, but missed all of the hunters within range.

I pulled the spear-armed hunters out of the action, deciding that they would be better employed throwing stones and shouting to try and keep the creature from escaping off a board-edge. The axe hunters and the single bow-armed hunter would the the ones to bring the creature down.

The Stegosaur backed off towards a board edge and the hunters had to carefully draw it back into the centre of the hunting ground.

One of the axe-hunters (wounded, I can't remember when), made another attack, scoring a critical and leaving the Stegosaur on its last hit.

The Stegosaur retaliated, eliminating the hunter.

A lucky '6' saw the bow-armed hunter finish the dinosaur off,.

The victor and the vanquished.

The dinosaur was a tough opponent; hard to kill and with dangerous attacks, especially the flail. It'll be fun working out strategies to take them on. It's also an excuse to do some pulp adventurers/hunters.

Frocktober 2023 - Part 3

Here's the last two frocks from this year's Frocktober. They're actually similar; bad planning on my part as I normally put a bit of effort into mixing up colours and styles through the month.

Anyway, here's Frock Nine. 

And finally - Frock Ten. Once again I didn't let my being on holiday prevent me from finishing the challenge, even if it meant getting myself ready in a tent. 

For those that care about these things it's a vintage Laura Ashley and one of the favourites of my vast collection.

I wore it for a trip to Eden and the Beowa National park, which included this visit to Eden's whaling museum and this compete killer whale skeleton.

 So that's Frocktober 2023 done and dusted. You can still donate at the usual link: IT HAS POCKETS.

Holiday HOTT

I've been away on a short camping holiday and, as regulars here know, I always manage to take a few games  away with me when I do. What with one thing and another we didn't do any pub-gaming this time around (our one evening out we did trivia instead, finishing 5th out of 8 teams), but I did manage a couple of games of HOTT during some of our quiet and wind-free afternoons.

The first game I played early in our holiday, pitting my Renaissance Alexander army against The Mother of Dragons. Alexander defended and both armies stacked their right flanks with mounted looking to get round the enemy's left. 

This they proceeded to do. But Daenerys had a harder job, with the enemy able to anchor their flank on some woods. 

Alexander, meanwhile, was attacking an open flank covered by hordes.

That said, Daenerys managed to get within a move of the enemy stronghold. But Alexander had troops ready to cover such an attack.

Meanwhile Alexander's Companions swept through the slave hordes, wiping them out. Ser Jorah Mormont and Ser Barristan Selmy ruched from the other flank.

The Companions smashed into the flank of the Unsullied, but were stopped. Alexander moved up to support his knights.

Meanwhile Daenerys was stymied in her attempt to reach the enemy stronghold.

The Companions fell back again ...

... as Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan attacked the Alexandrian cavalry ...

... and destroyed them. However the Companions attacked again and ...

... the first cohort of Unsullied broke and fled.

The heroes turned on the flank of the Companions, and that was them destroyed. However Alexander had anticipated this and was bringing up his phalanx. Daenerys's spearmen were now massively outnumbered.

That said, they drove back the first attack.

The Dothraki got embroiled in a fight with the Hypaspists in the woods, but managed to rout them.

The Unsullied drove off another attack by the phalanx. Dothraki appeared in the distance, ready to ride to their aid.

Alexander rode against the enemy heroes as his phalanx closed for another attack.

And that was it. the last of teh Unsullied collapsed, along with the two heroes and Daenerys's army collapsed. The dragons never arrived and she was left with just her Dothraki.

Alexander won this one 14-6. His flanking plan was sound - Daenerys was on a hiding to nowhere with hers, unable to drive off the enemy facing her and also unable to effectively command her army on the main part of the field.

I fielded Daenerys again in a second game a few days later. This time she left the two heroes in command, and stayed with her dragons. She faced the Knights of Simba. The Knights of Simba were defending, but Daenerys got some defensible hills and, with a dragon to wait for, was happy to adopt a defensive posture. This left the Knights to attack before the dragons arrived.

Here's a clearer photo of the setup. It's about the one clear photo of the game I got, partially because of the shadows and partially because I hadn't realised how much the lens on my phone needed cleaning until after I looked at the photos.

Anyway, the Knights advanced whilst Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan reorganised their line to meet them.

A view of the advancing Knights of Simba.

The advance halted close to the enemy line in order to allow some Piltdown men to infiltrate the woods.

Dothraki reserves were moved to bolster the flank.

The Knights charged on their right where the enemy was weakest ...

... but were repulsed by the hordes there.

Daenerys Targaryen arrived with her dragons!

It was now or never - the Knights of Simba charged.

They made a few inroads, but were mostly thrown back.

The dragons swooped into the attack, as Daenerys's army counter-attacked off the hills.

Simba's general was forced back into the dragons and roasted.

The defeated Simba army. They had won against some of the enemy attack, but the loss of their general was fatal.

Daenerys Targaryen won the battle 8g-3, losing a horde and an element of Unsullied.

As a holiday extra, here's a photo from Bega Pioneer Museum where the main caption just keeps on giving.