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Monday, 9 January 2023

Clan Of The Cave Lion

 Yet another Palaeo Diet game!

This one was to make use of the lion I painted. I played the Clan Of The Cave Bear scenario from the book. This is a competitive one with two competing tribes. The five Strangers are looking to kill a mighty predator in the centre of the board. Meanwhile the three members of the Clan in play revere the predator and are looking to kill all five Strangers. Obviously their being outnumbered means that they will be looking to use the predator to do some of their work for them.

Here's the setup, with the Strangers on the left and the Clan on the right. In the centre is the mighty lion.


The Strangers advancing towards the lion.


They spread out as the lion comes off its hill to investigate them. A bowman heads off around the side to dissuade the Clan from coming too close.


The Clan also sent a bowman forward, and there was an exchange of archery.


The Strangers' bowman was injured and this attracted the lion who finished off the hunter.


The Strangers got lucky though and managed to get in close with clubs and axes and seriously wound the lion. One of them was injured in the fight, though.


Another flurry of action saw two more strangers injured (one by the Clan bowman), but a killing blow struck on the lion, meaning that the Strangers had won.


To the bottom of the final picture you can see that the third Clan member had started a fire. The aim of this was to frighten the lion off one of the board edges, depriving the Strangers of their target, although this would then leave the Clan facing long odds on their own objective. To be honest I hadn't really thought it through.

I played this game again this morning, with the same setup, and the Strangers were wiped out with no loss to the Clan (their bowman was wounded). The Clan accounted for a couple of the Strangers, but it was mostly the lion, encouraged by the Clan into a series of attack reactions after the Strangers got in close and personal, who accounted for the kills. The fire use was more tactical this time, being used to make the lion flee into the Strangers, which can cause injuries if they don't jump out of the way in time.

I have got two more beasts on my painting table, which may mean some more games in the near future. 

3 comments:

  1. Interesting. The game sounds quite tactical, having to think through the implications of your actions. I look forward to reading further adventures.
    Cheers,
    Geoff

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    Replies
    1. Yes, there's a bit of thought involved. Each type of animal reacts in different ways to things. And there's also the issue that what causes them to react - being attacked, movement in their vicinity or noise - isn't necessarily the same thing that influences how they respond to that stimulus. Paying attention to how far you are away from beasts, and which hunters are the nearest can be very important.

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    2. An Example: When a beast flees it moves directly away from the *nearest* hunter. This may not be the hunter that triggered the reaction. So positioning is important if you're trying to get beasts to flee in a particular direction (like towards a pit or a cliff).

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