The Power Of One

The Power Of One is a scenario in the basic 'Palaeo Diet' rules in which a single hunter, plus his faithful hound, must achieve a fairly ambitious hunting target within a tight time-limit in order to regain the good will of his tribe. I thought it would be a fun way to while away a chilly Sunday afternoon.

The targets - a couple of mammoths and some wild cattle.

And the hunter. I went with the basic spear-armed hunter for this game. he's accompanied by his hound.

I decided to bypass the cattle initially and take down a mammoth, as this would provide the majority of the bulk I needed to win. The aim was to send the hound round one side to stop the animals moving away, and then take one down as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately one of the mammoths seemed particularly stroppy. As he dog worked around the pair the mammoth turned and attacked it.

The hound tried to move away, but the mammoth attacked again, and killed it.

So really it was now down to the hunter to try and spear a mammoth without assistance. His attacks were pathetic. and the mammoth attacked and injured him.

With time running out I took the desperate decision to switch to the cattle.

I injured one, but the herd scattered.

Then stampeded away from the hunter.

I chased after them ...

... but they kept running and fled off the table.

Night fell and the hunter had nothing to show for his efforts. A failure.

I tried it again, this time switching to a hunter with an axe.

The hound moved round the side of the cattle, my target for this game. 

It got overenthusiastic, however, and moved in to attack one of the beasts, injuring it.

However this had the effect of driving the herd towards the hunter ...

... who killed one of them before they scattered towards some woods.

The herd was totally panicked by this stage, and disappeared into the trees. But I had plenty of time left, and decided to try and kill a mammoth instead. The hunter's first attack injured one.

The mammoth attacked, but this hunter dodged it.

The mammoth bellowed, and the hunter retreated, not wanting to incite another attack.

The hunter crept in for another attack, wounded the mammoth again but was wounded in return.

The mammoth ambled away, pursued by the hound.

The hunter kept up attacks, trying to direct the hound such that the mammoth didn't retreat too far away.

But the mammoth's bellowing kept the hound and the hunter nervous, forcing them to back off, and then begin the process of stalking all over again.

Another attack saw the mammoth on its last legs ...

... but neither the hound nor the hunter could finish the job before night fell.

So the second game was closer to victory than the first - one more hit would have finished the mammoth, achieving the necessary bulk for a victory - but it wasn't to be.

One thing I did try was having terrain affect the movement of beasts. In the game as written only impassable terrain and sheer drops have an effect on their movement, but I like the idea of slowing prey by forcing them through rough or tricky terrain. So for thickets I assumed that, like hunters, beasts would move one stick slower (except S, which would stay as S), and that any L move through tricky ground would be reduced to M. I might try some more with line of sight as well, as this seems to have very little effect in the game.