Dances With Wolves

I had a quiet day yesterday, so gave my new wolves a few outings in some games of Palaeo Diet.

I started with a simple hunt. Three hunters are stalking a couple of mammoths, with a couple of wolves waiting in the wings to mess things up.

The hunters split up. The one on the right was tasked with trying to scare the wolves away from the action. They were unimpressed by his efforts, but remained content to watch at this stage.

The others tried to split up the mammoth pair, trying to drive one further away from the wolves so that when the stabbing started the predators would be less inclined to close in for a look.

The mammoths were skittish, though, and even got unsettled enough to attack one of the hunters.

They steadfastly refused to be split up.

A hunter was attacked and injured. The wolves moved a little closer, scenting blood.

One of the hunters managed to wound a mammoth, but was wounded in return. This made the wolves very interested indeed, and they closed rapidly on the action, attacking the third hunter. He wounded the wolf.

Abandoning the mammoth another hunter came to the support of the one being attacked by the wolf, and finished the beast off. The second wolf now came into the attack, and was also wounded.

The two hunters managed to finish off the injured wolf. This gave them enough bulk for a win. With two injured hunters going after a mammoth wasn't really on the cards. The wolves would have to do.

I then had a go at one of the scenarios from the book, in which a group of hunters raid a wolf-den looking to steal puppies (either to train as hunting dogs or as a tasty snack). The den is in the centre of the board, and four wolves are hanging around it. Each of the four hunters enters from one of the corners, and at least two of them have to grab puppies and make it off the edge of the board.

It started badly when the wolves decided that they weren't taking any nonsense today and one of them attacked and approaching hunter.

The hunter got in a hit, but the wolf was faster and it killed him.

Another hunter was attacked. 

With the attention of most of the wolves fixed on the potential feat to the south, the other two hunters were able to reach the den undetected.

The second hunter was also killed, and the wolves all closed in for a feed.

The two hunters to the north grabbed some puppies and headed off home unmolested.

So technically a win for the hunters, even if they did lose two of their number. The wolves dined well.

I played it again, with different terrain.

Again, one of the hunters attracted the attention of a wolf. He wounded the animal, which backed off, and the other wolves came over for a look.

Thoroughly agitated they attacked a second hunter, and killed him (yes, the first one to die in the previous run-through).

And, much as before, this kept the wolves' attention away from their den, allowing the two other hunters a go at grabbing puppies.

Or maybe not. One of the wolves came running back to defend the den.

One hunter evaded the attack and was already well on the way home. The other got away as well. The third hunter was now also closing in on the den, but the wolves were all on their way back.

He got a puppy, and managed to wound one of the wolves attacking him. But he was now injured, and the whole pack were after him.

The end was inevitable.

So the same result as before - two hunters got away with a prize, whilst two became wolf food.