More Palaeo Diet

I ran a couple more games of Palaeo Diet this morning. I know I'm still doing a few things incorrectly - mostly missing reaction conditions for the different types of creature - but it's still fun. I'm still having problems remembering the reaction effects though; some are based on nearest hunter, and some on the hunter causing the reaction, and I don't always recall which are which and have to look them up. I think I'll make a QRS.

Anyway, I set up the basic mammoth hunt again. This time I put a hunter with fire into the group, so I could try that, and gave the hunters a pit into which they could try to drive the mammoth. Once again I added a terror-bird, but once again it was hidden behind a rock outcrop.

Anyway, I assumed this would be relatively simple - fan the hunters out, light a fire in the middle of the board and drive the mammoth straight into the pit. No problem.

The fires were lit.

Hmm. The mammoth shuffled over to the outcrop, seemingly unperturbed by the activity around it. In order to get the more extreme reactions I needed, it had to be wounded.

Enter the axeman! He scored the necessary hit, and the mammoth ran off.

Unfortunately it didn't run off quite as expected, and was now angling away from the pit!

The hunters rushed around the outcrop to try and get the mammoth back on track. Meanwhile the fire-user set another fire to keep the now interested terror-bird away from the hunt.

The mammoth continued to steer clear of the pit.

And the terror-bird edged in for a look.

The hunters were now on the very edge of the board, trying to steer the mammoth to where they needed it to be.

They howled and shouted, and eventually it took fright, even though that had it moving back towards the advancing fire-front.

And that was all that was needed. The fire-wielder was supposed to howl and frighten the mammoth into the pit, but fluffed his activation roll. However that achieved the same result; the mammoth reacted to the fire anyway ...

... panicked and fled into the pit. A successful hunt!

The terror-bird fled from the fire too.

So I got fairly lucky in that game, but a successful hunt is a successful hunt, and only one hunter was injured.

I then set up the Clan Of The Cave Bear scenario from the book, which has opposing forces. One one side are three members of the Bear Clan. On the other are five Strangers. In the centre is the Sacred bear. The Strangers must kill the Bear. The Bear Clan must kill all the Strangers (or have the Bear do it).

The Strangers have the initiative, so I went all wargamery and adopted a plan. Two hunters would approach the bear and attack with clubs and axes, whilst two would engage the Bear Clan and stop them intervening. A fire-user lurked on the flanks. I had a vague idea of lighting a fire to drive the Bear away from its worshippers.

Of course I forgot the effect of animal reactions in the game. The Strangers had a slinger, who used two accurate shots to kill one of the Bear Clan. Scenting blood, the Bear left her hill, and wandered over for a look, leaving the hunters assigned to kill her looking a bit lost.

Ignoring the fight, the Bear feasted on tasty dead human.

Not wanting to waste an opportunity, one of the Strangers attacked with a spear and scored a critical hit, inflicting two of the three wounds needed to kill the Bear.

Unsurprisingly the Bear responded by wounding the hunter, but backed off when the fire-user came up close with his burning branch.

A hapless member of the Bear Clan now found himself being attacked by his sacred animal. He was wounded, but escaped.

Meanwhile the Strangers attacked the Bear Clan.

The Bear ambled out, looking threatening. All of the hunters were wounded by this stage.

She attacked an axeman, who failed to wound her in return.

A Stranger killed another member of the Bear Clan.

The Bear moved over for a look.

The Strangers went for a bold attack. Their slinger pelted the Bear. There was a small chance of a kill, but a greater chance she would get cross and attack. She charged, but when the slinger tried a second shot simply reared up and roared.

The slinger wisely retreated, but the Stranger with the spear held his ground and was now in range to attack.

A kill!

And the last Bear Clan member was easily dispacted as well.

So a win for the Strangers. The Bear Clan are outnumbered in this one, and I guess have to work at doing actions which will direct the bear where they need it. I did try that at one stage; one of their hunters howled, forcing the bear to react and move away from an approaching Stranger, spoiling the attack. I enjoyed this intereting asymmetrical scenario.

I still haven't tried hunter traits yet; they look fun. And maybe I need to label and name my hunters.