Tuesday 27 June 2017

Disappointment with Flytrap Factory

To my great disappointment, I discovered this morning that I have been kicked out of a Facebook group. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn’t annoy me, but in this instance, it has rather touched a nerve. The group in question was The Caveman vs Wild Secret Tribal Council, a closed group for backers of the Flytrap Factory Kickstarter from November 2016, Caveman vs Wild: The Big Chill.

As readers of this blog will know, I have championed Flytrap Factory since mid-last year when I started my descent into prehistoric hunting games with TUSK. The sculpting of their 20mm cavemen is, in my opinion, superb. Despite having already started developing Palaeo Diet, I did my best to promote Flytrap’s Kickstarter, my blog post on the project received over 1300 views and I also posted about it on various forums (Lead Adventure Forum, The Wargames Website and TMP).

I have never hidden the fact that I was working on a prehistoric hunting game for Ganesha Games. Indeed, I have posted on it frequently since December last year. However, while I have shared photos of my painted Flytrap miniatures to their group and on their own forum, I have always been conscious not to discuss Palaeo Diet in those places.

Never the less, back in May I discovered that I had mysteriously been ejected from the group. When I queried this with the owner of Flytrap, he claimed to not know how it had happened and suggested that it was the result of malign interference from a soured previous relationship with another wargaming company… As unlikely as that excuse sounded, I let it pass as I was keen to watch how the project developed.

It was also in May that same time that I found that my name had been omitted from the list of Kickstarter backers in the playtesting draft of the Flytrap rules – something which the owner claims to have fixed but which I can’t comment on as I have not been privy to any updated version. All I can say is that I hope he does include it as he is contractually obliged to do so given my Kickstarter pledge level.

Likewise, I let it pass without much fuss that my Kickstarter pledge was only partially completed on time (March), with the remainder only arriving this month – and then only five of the six models advertised, and those arriving not fully conforming with the advertised sculpts for the pack. I noted my disappointment, but let it go because for my purposes, I only needed three.

Now, as Palaeo Diet nears completion – it is scheduled for release next month – we were thinking about listing companies that make appropriate miniatures in the back, the same as we did with Faustus Furius. I contacted Flytrap to ask permission to list them and, as a courtesy, to allow the owner to have a look at the almost finalised rules. He was happy to receive the rules, but then asked not to be listed as a recommended company given what he saw as the inherent confusion that it might cause.

Then, I was kicked out of the Facebook group again. It was only when I questioned this (although now also ‘unfriended’), that I was provided with an explanation citing a conflict of interests and his need to protect his property as best he could. I suggested this might be something of an overreaction, expressed my disappointment, but accepted his decision. So far all correspondence had been private.

Then, a third party copied me into an open message posted by Flytrap on their group – a message to which I was given no opportunity to reply given my ejection. I repeat it in full below; the emphasis is my own, indicating aspects that I would like the opportunity to respond to after the post.

Gents
Just a small heads up, I have removed IW Nic from this group unfortunately. The reason for this was explained to him via social media message today. In a nutshell, IW Nic recently disclosed to me that he is/has penned a ruleset for Ganesha Games entitled 'Paleo Diet', a prehistoric hunting and survival game.
He explained to me in his words that there was no conflict of interest to be had. I was privy to reviewing these rules today and was a little disappointed to see more than a good number of uncannily similar concepts and processes being utilised in his system to those used in CvW.
This has put me a little on the defensive considering I want to take the time with you (my council) to really iron out everything properly and do not wish to be shunted into having to go retail release before I am good and ready just because a competitor is jumping the gun on releasing a set... I owe CvW more than the 'Johnny-come-lately' labeling it would suffer having been trumped by the competition.
The decision to let Nic go is not personal, it is however business and not only Flytrap, but all of you in the council have invested a great deal into the development of Caveman vs Wild thus far, and with so much more to come a decision had to be made.
Ganesha games is a clear and present competitor with wide scope, deep pockets and great influence. I need to make moves to protect our investment moving forward.
I do wish Nic and Ganesha all the best for the future, I just need to be a little tighter on our own developments ahead. Especially with part two in development and part three to come.
I just wanted to explain to the group personally.

1) recently disclosed to me
I might be reading into this, but to me this suggests that I had been keeping Palaeo Diet a secret. If the owner has been keeping an eye on the forums, or my own blog, he cannot have been unaware of my project. Indeed, when I offered to show him my draft last week he said that he was already aware of the rules.

2) 'Paleo Diet'
PalAeo Diet. I have nothing against Americans, but I am not one, and therefore use conventional English spelling. Pedantry? Perhaps.

3) disappointed to see more than a good number of uncannily similar concepts and processes being utilised in his system to those used in CvW.
Having seen both my rules from inception, and the playtest draft of Caveman vs Wild I can confirm that both are prehistoric hunting games where players take on the role of hunters in a prehistoric world. Both also employ an AI mechanic to regulate the actions of animals. There the similarities cease and I cannot imagine a prehistoric hunting game without these similarities.

The implication here is that I might have borrowed some of his ideas. I very much hope that is just a possible implication and not his intention. I pride myself on honesty and decency, and that sort of thing is beyond the pale.

Palaeo Diet embraces an AI mechanism that evolved from the one used in TUSK by Wessex Games. This is integrated into a simplified version of the Ganesha Games core mechanic that I developed for Faustus Furius. The approach has been to keep the actions of hunters quite simple to allow for constant interactions with/from beasts without leaving the player bewildered with numerous charts. There have been a number of small changes to the Palaeo Diet mechanics as a result of playtesting, but nothing substantive since it was first sent out to testers in January. January. Five months before Flytrap’s playtest draft was made available.

4) and do not wish to be shunted into having to go retail release before I am good and ready just because a competitor
I do not see how my participation in the group could have impacted on that? We are a month away from release and Flytrap are just starting to playtest. Regardless, I have to say that feedback from other game developers – even those with potentially competing projects – has always benefitted my own rule writing.

5) and not only Flytrap, but all of you in the council have invested a great deal into the development of Caveman vs Wild thus far,
Yes. Including myself. I don’t see in what way my contribution promoting and funding Flytrap has been lessened because of my own projects.

6) Ganesha games is a clear and present competitor with wide scope, deep pockets and great influence
I believe this is something of a misrepresentation. It would be nice for Ganesha to be an apex predator in the world of gaming, and maybe someday it will be. For now, it remains a product of Andrea Sfiligoi’s passion and innovation, supported by one other person with responsibility for the small range of miniatures, and a couple of rule authors like myself who do get royalties, but primarily write because we love it.

So here we are. I still love the Flytrap sculpts. They have such great character and are a joy to paint. The customer service has been… middling. However, as I vent my spleen, I have to state, once again, how very disappointed I am with the attitude and approach taken by the company’s owner. 




*August 2017 EDIT*
As far as I am concerned, this matter is closed. I have said my piece. Palaeo Diet is out, but I still look forward to seeing the completed version of Caveman vs Wild and, presuming I have enough stuff, to play and enjoy the game.

For the sake of transparency, I will note that there have been quite a number of comments left on this post - more than I would have imagined actually. Most have been supportive of me, a couple have been supportive of Flytrap Factory. That is completely fine. A number of them have included language that was not all together helpful. I deleted the first few, and then (after Blogger started asking me to moderate) decided not to post later ones. This has now resulted in someone who has never been in contact with me before demanding to know why comments have been deleted.

I was contacted by the owner of Flytrap yesterday who stressed that his intention was never to offend me. In the process of chatting I explained about various comments and why I had decided to suppress all of them - a move which he seemed to agree was a fair call. This is a fairly niche area, but there is enough scope for multiple rule sets. Hunt and let hunt (as they might have said).

Friday 23 June 2017

More Flytrap Factory cavies

 I'm delighted to say that three more brave (if not bright) hunters are almost ready to join my tribe.  All three are from the second pack to the original 20mm hunters produced by Flytrap Factory in New Zealand (now re-branded as pygmy hunters alongside their 28mm range).

With the exception of the centre gentleman, all of  the FF cavies come armed with spears, but Palaeo Diet: Eat of be Eaten allows for four different equipment types: spears, clubs, bows and fire. Among my existing hunters, Fergg had already been modified as a fire carrier (green stuff flame courtesy of my mate Jim), and Bow had received a quick nip and tuck weapon swap, switching his spear for a plastic bow (again donated by Jim).

To flesh out my tribe a bit I wanted more variation. The big boy already carried a club, so that was great. However, seeing a hulking brute with a club made me think immediately of Herakles/Hercules. Herakles is usually shown wearing the impenetrable skin of the Nemean Lion so I wanted to do something similar here. Decapitating a Flytrap Factory squirrel-rat, and a spot of Milliput later (my first ever Milliputing!), and my prehistoric Herc has an animal skin headdress!

To the right of Herc is Tark, another archer. He has suffered the same quick knife-work as Bow and received another of the plastic bows donated by Jim. On the left is Rarr. Rarr had the base of the spear shaft and the very tip of his spear removed. Then, part of the spearhead taken away from Tark was added to make an axehead. Finally, my second ever attempt as Milliputting was perpetrated when I added some leather binding around the axehead. This not only makes the axehead look more convincingly attached to the shaft, but also obscures my shoddy joining work. Everyone is a winner!





Thursday 15 June 2017

4th Cú Chulainn Cup

Once more, the time is nearly upon us for Northern Ireland's favourite, annual, Song of Blades and Heroes event - the Cú Chulainn Cup. 2017 marks our fourth outing of the competition, and we will again be hosted by the delightful Wee Gamers at their bunker in Whitehead, Co. Antrim.

When? Sunday 3rd September 2017, 10.00 for a 10.30am kickoff.
Where? Whitehead Primary School, 3 Islandmagee Road, Whitehead, Co. Antrim BT38 9NE.
The competition, consisting of five rounds, will be run over a single day. 
Entry will cost £7.00. 
Prizes will be provided by Ganesha Games and will be awarded to the Cú Chulainn Cup Champion and, by popular acclaim, to the ‘best’ warband.

Our previous days have been loads of fun, and with 14 entrants in last year's competition, there has also been loads of variety in warbands. From classic fantasy forces such as ratmen and orcs, to Vikings, pirates, zombie pirates, voodoo zombie pirates, Liliputians, Komodo dragons and much much more.

The lads (sadly so far it has been a male dominated affair) always face the day with good humour and sportsmanship. For several of our previous entrants, the competition was their introduction to the game, and new players are always welcome - and usually win!

As in previous years, the following rules will apply:

  • Players must use the same painted 25-28mm scale warbands in each round.
  • Warbands may be no larger than 300 points and must be legal – i.e. no more than 100 points may be spent on models with special rules which define them as ‘personalities’. 
  • Profiles for warband members may be taken the rosters within the Song of Blades and Heroes core rule book or any or its official supplements, or may be customised using the online warband builder software found on the Ganesha Games website.
  • Special rules from any of the following Ganesha Games rules are permitted: Song of Blades and Heroes (the revised rules, not Advanced SBH), Song of Wind and Water, Song of Gold and Darkness, Song of Deeds and Glory, Song of Arthur and Merlin, Song of Splintered Lands
  • Note that only the following forms of the Lethal special rule will be permitted: Lethal against Animals, Lethal against Artificial, Lethal against Magic Users (all varieties), Lethal against Undead or Lethal against a specified race (other than humans). Characters with the Assassin special rule may only be used if their combat factor is 3 or less.
  • Warbands must be submitted to the organisers at least one week prior to the competition (i.e. 27th August), at irregularwars@gmail.com.
Reports of the previous days can be found below:

Sunday 11 June 2017

Kalydonian boar hunting with Palaeo Diet

This week I decided to play around with the Palaeo Diet rules a little bit and take them to a different setting. From the distant mists of time to the mythical past, I dug around in my box of Greek myth stuff for Of Gods and Mortals and came out with a big pig and three heroes. Welcome to the closing scene of the Kalydonian Boar hunt!

Oineus, king of Kalydon in Aitolia, west-central Greece, has offended the goddess Artemis. Forgetting to honour her at the annual harvest festival, she has sent a giant boar to ravage the kingdom, destroying its crops and vineyards. Desperate to kill the beast, Oineus has sent out to all the neighbouring kingdoms, seeking heroic hunters to bring the beast down. Prominent among the hunters who respond are Meleager, the king's own son; Atalanta, the Arkadian huntress with whom Meleager is besotted, and Peleus, exiled prince of Aigina, soon to be king of Phthia, and future father of Achilles.

Here we see the three heroes having cornered the great boar by the overgrown ruins of a temple. Meleager is in the top right corner, Atalanta among the ruins to the left, and Peleus on the hillock at the bottom left.

Meleager, son of king Oineus of Kalydon. Heir to the ravaged lands and said to be invincible until such time as a sacred log is fully burnt. Luckily for him, his mother knows of the story and keeps the log under lock and key. It'd take some truly terrible transgression (like, killing his uncles for instance) to cause his mother to put the log back into the flames. In game terms, Meleager is a hunter with a club.


Atalanta, huntress of the Arkadian wilds. Abandoned as a baby by a father who wanted a son, she was suckled by a she-bear before being found and raised by rough highland hunters. In game terms, Atalanta is equipped with a bow and has the special Hunter trait which allows her to re-roll one missed shot each turn.


Peleus, exiled prince of the island-kingdom of Aigina. He is still little more than a brooding teenager. In the game, he - like Meleager - is a hunter carrying  a club.


The boar. He's big and mean and cranky. In game terms I decided to use the Apex Predator attributes and reaction table. This meant that while he would not be hyper-aggressive, the hunters would know when they annoyed him. With a tough hide and savage, savage, tusks, the Kalydonian Boar will take some real skill to bring down.


In the opening phase of the hunt, all hunters moved cautiously. The boar's sensitive hearing picked up their approach, but, being a true apex predator, he held his ground before their advances.


As Atalanta came to the foot of the temple escarpment, the boar stirred into action, shuffling forward into the thicket to investigate the huntress. Knowing full well the threat posed by the boar, Atalanta crouched down in the tall grass, ready to ambush the beast should it emerge from the trees.


Meleager, fearing for his beloved's perfect skin, loped forward. The bear heard him, but still did nothing. 


Seeing the beast distracted, Atalanta darted forward, firing her bow at close range, but the arrows bounced off the boar's hide and landed with a 'thunk' among the thick foliage.


Now the creature burst into rage-fueled action, savagely swinging it's tusks and goring into Atalanta's shapely calf. Even out of sight beyond the thicket, Meleager died a little bit on the inside. His love's shapely calves were a true marvel to be hold and he was sure he just heard one of them being gored! 


Dashing in to save the rest of her, Meleager entered the thicket and struck the first telling blow against the beast. It's blood pulsed out onto the undergrowth and the rage in its beady eyes intensified.


Hearing the squeals, first from the girl, and then from the beast, Peleus stalked forward in his own attempt to bring the boar down. The giant beast heard his approach and charged, meeting the young prince on the edge of the thicket and ripping a great gash into his princely side. Meleager heard the commotion, but felt nothing...


The boar bellowed in rage and its rank spittle covered Peleus' face, moments before he strategically backed away. Atalanta was not to be put off though and sprung forward, jamming one of her arrows into the side of the predator's thick neck.   


As it squeeled in pain, Meleager advanced once more, swinging his sword to attack but getting it lodged in a tree trunk. As he struggled to get it free, the boar lunged once more, lodging his own tusk, for the moment, in Meleager's thigh.


At this juncture, Peleus moodily stepped forward once again. Every being in that thicket was one bleeding. One more well timed blow from any one of the hunters could bring the beast down, but one more swing of the boar's tusks could likewise leave the hunters' limp bodies for the crows. Threatened by the approach of Peleus, the boar lashed out blindly, catching Atalanta in the small of the back and bringing her to the ground in a crumpled heap. Meleager still though she looked beautiful in a crumpled heap, but the hunt was certainly not going the way he had expected. Peleus looked dismissively at the poor huntress, took one more casual step and plunged his blade deep into the boar's massive body, puncturing its heart and killing it in an instant. 

The hunt was done. The quietly triumphant Peleus went off looking for some palace slaves to collect the boar for tonight's victory feast, while the dissolute looking Meleager knelt, silently weeping for the romance that would never be.

The game mechanics worked really well for a direct transplant into this sort of game. If I did it again, I think I would use the pack predator reaction table for the boar to make him more aggressive and much more mobile, but I'd definitely keep the apex predator attributes. The boar was certainly a tough critter to crack and it could, quite easily, have brought all three of our heroes down. There is certainly potential here to use the Palaeo Diet game engine for all sorts of different scenarios. I think it would work really well in a Song of Shadows and Dust setting, pitching a small gang of thieves or assassins against a city militia or night watch!

Friday 9 June 2017

'Warhead' beasts from Scotia Grendel

This week I managed to get a bit of paint on my new purchases from Scotia Grendel, all from the Warheads range. The first is this giant deer/stag. I have decided I am not overly fussed on the sculpting with this gent to be honest - it is too shire horse-like really - and it really required someone with a better painting hand to do it justice. Size wise, he is certainly imposing when placed next to poor old Urgg.

Giant deer were rather massive and would have been quite a fearsome prospect - especially during rutting season. Here is a comparative shot of giant deer antlers and a red deer from the Ulster Museum. They became extinct in Ireland just before people first arrived, but there certainly would have been encounters between giant deer and hominids elsewhere.

And here we find Urgg with the two boar figures available from Scotia Grendel. These wee piggies have stolen my heart (much to my wife's bemusement). I just think they are tops! The tribe are going to be extra careful when exploring thickets from now on, because those tusks are nasty.


And finally, a comparative shot showing one of the boars, the giant deer and a bunny, all from Scotia's Warheads range. Love the boar, love the bunny, not so sure about the elk.

The Grey Wolf Clan continue their journey

Mark's journey through prehistory using playtest drafts of Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten continues with two more hunts:

The Grey Wolf Clan has endured a miserable long winter. The last hunt of autumn was only a partial success and hunger has claimed the lives of the weaker Clan members. Now as Spring approaches some small hunting parties have gone out to scout for game. This report follows the adventures of one such scouting expedition, based on Nic's "Hunger Games" scenario. They have stumbled across a hidden valley, surrounding by high cliffs, never explored before and populated with strange but doubtless edible creatures. Amazingly it is free of ice and snow!

The first photo shows the general table layout. The two hunters (1 x Spear, 1 x Bow) survey their discovery from a cliff top in the foreground. On the valley floor some giant armadillos (Giant Grazers) and some caribou (Herd Grazers) go about their lawful occasions.

Because this is a hidden valley the only entrances or exits from the table are the narrow pass to the R of the hunters, and the far table edge. The two side edges and the rest of the near edge are deemed impassable due to cliffs. The Hungry (character trait) hunters need to kill any one of the beasts on the menu for their hunt to be a success. That will give them enough to eat and enough to carry back to the clan's Winter quarters.

For the first couple of Turns the hunters worked their way towards a flank of the herds, so that any reaction moves by the beasts will be away from the main escape route as far as possible.

The archer tried a shot at the nearest armadillo, but the arrow bounced off its armoured hide and it moved away, scarcely aware of the attack. The hunters are very hungry, and tempted to try a more direct assault. But so far their hunting skills have overcome their pangs.

On Turn 5 the hunters pulled off a neat little ambush. The archer worked wide and ahead of the target beast (armadillo at L) and dropped into ambush mode. The other hunter then skulked into position behind the beast and threw a spear, causing a wound. The armadillo fled in reaction, directly away from the attack, and right into the ambush, where the archer caused another wound. The yellow marker shows the archer in ambush, the red markers show the armadillo's two wounds. 

I differed from the PDEE draft rules here. As written an archer shooting always receives a -1 attack modification, and an ambusher receives a -1 as well. And the minimum score (on 1D6) required to wound a Giant Grazer is 5. So it's v hard for an archer to wound such a beast and impossible to do so from ambush. Nic rationalises the ambush modification as the tension arising from this sneaky course of action. 

Anyway ... after a bit more hopeful but fruitless stalking of the Armadillo the hunters turned their attention to the caribou. An initial archery attack achieved only a Flee reaction from the prey ...
 

... but perseverance was rewarded! A spear attack on the caribou buck wounded it and caused an attack reaction. The hunter was not hurt in the caribou attack and it gave an opportunity for the archer to get in a shooting attack which caused a second wound and killed the beast. In the photo above the archer is out of frame at the bottom R corner.

I had lost track of the Turn number by this stage, partly due to some interruptions, but I'm fairly sure this was Turn 8 which the scenario decrees is the end of the game (failing light). So the scouting party has been a success. Surely a good omen for the Grey Wolf Clan as Spring draws near. 

The final game in this short series is my own scenario, not from Nic's rules ...

Now it is Autumn again. The earlier omen was a true harbinger. Summer has been good to the Grey Wolf Clan. Now, the Clan's inferior hunters, and gatherers, are busy chasing the inglorious snail and the frankly sessile nut [Penguin Atlas of Ancient History (1st Ed 1967) p18] to lay up stores for the coming winter. But the Clan Elders have another task for the crack hunters.

The Grey Wolf Clan's hunting range overlaps the territory of a family of lions (Pack Predators) who are a standing threat. The lions disrupt Clan hunting by chasing the same prey, and mean all resource-gathering expeditions need armed escorts. With the Clan in good fettle after a bumper season, it's time to chase these feline neighbours out of the area.

If the Clan can wound all the lions, or kill 3, they will force the lions off their territory. The Clan can also win by spending 8 uninterrupted actions (hunter and/or hound) searching the lions' home tor to find and kill the cubs. On the other hand if the beasts can cause 4 wounds to the hunters, they will force the Clan to abandon the project and retreat. Wounds to hounds don't count.

And one important rules change: at the end of a Turn any lion who has not made a reaction move must make a free move using the Pack Predators' reaction table but with "predate" treated as "attack" to ensure more furious action!

As usual the first photo shows the table layout, and positions at the end of Turn 1. The four hunters and two hounds of the Grey Wolf Clan started on the near table edge and moved into the hilltop on their first Turn. The lions' den is a cave in the central tor. Two female lions are guarding the new cubs. The two males are on patrol and may appear on any table edge, except the hunters' edge, at the start of any move after the second. The entry time and point are dice controlled. 

The hunters know there are more lions in the offing, the Clan and the Pride are well acquainted. So for Turn 2 the hunters hold their position on the hilltop to see how events unfold. And surely enough on Turn 3 the two male lions enter, behind the hill on the far baseline.

The hunters now move down off their hill to begin their attack. Their plan is to stay together and try to win by ganging up on each lion in turn. The female lions on den guard duty decide on a forward policy to protect the cubs, and move to meet them. The hunters initially display the usual abysmal standard of weapon handling we have come to expect from the Grey Wolf Clan, and score only a single wound, while the lions make short work of one of the hunters. The red markers show the sorry tale. The hounds don't add much. One attacks unsuccessfully, the other refuses to attack and starts howling (green marker). Presciently, as it's master is the hunter killed and now both master and hound are out of play. On the other hand the male lions have to cover a lot of ground to come to the support of their mates, so maybe the Clan can still pull this off.

Turn 4 saw a remarkable turnaround. Because the surviving hunters all started their activations close to the female lions, they were could use multiple activations to attack (throwing or thrusting spears). Both beasts were killed and the hunters were also able to start forming a spear line to meet the now quickly approaching male lions. The bodies have been tidied away for the childrens' version.

In Turn 5 the front male lion was attacked by the nearer hunter (brown hair) who had rolled two successful activations. For the first activation the hunter threw a spear at the lion causing a wound. The beast reacted by attacking the hunter, in turn wounding him. The wounded hunter then used his second activation to stab the lion with a backup spear, causing another wound and killing it. Advice to young hunters: always take >1 spear.

With three of the four lions now killed the Grey Wolf hunters have won a notable victory. The remaining lion will slink off, and the hunters and hound can scour the tor to complete the job by finding and killing the lion cubs. The result was close though - one more wound caused to the hunters and the moccasin would be on the other foot. The hunters were lucky the male lions arrived so far away. If they had appeared (for example) on the L table edge on the hunters' flank it might have been very different.

Monday 5 June 2017

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Redux

It gives me great pleasure to be able to post another of Mark's game reports below. This time, his attempt at the "Picnic at Hanging Rock" scenario from the Palaeo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten draft rules. The aim of the game is to drive a heard of large grazers into an ambush in order to set the tribe up for the coming winter. If you missed it, our first test run of the scenario was posted back in April

The first photo shows the overall table layout and figure placement after Turn 1. A herd of eight Aurochs (Giant Grazers) including two calves, is grazing placidly in the mouth of the valley, getting ready for their migration south. The hunting party of the Grey Wolf Clan is six strong, all spear armed except for Smoky who is carrying fire (a burning branch).

The hunters started at various points along the L table edge. Three of them are already in position to tumble the boulders down onto the herd as it passes the valley choke point. Two more are in the defile between the scarps, ready to attack at a suitable opportunity. And Smoky is working around the back of the herd to drive them into the valley using the threat of fire.

Moving the fire-carrying hunter Smoky was an important factor in the hunt. By making him veer to one side or another it was possible to "steer" the beasts down the valley and prevent them from breaking loose and heading over the low hill forming the R side of the choke point.


It all seems to be going to plan after Turn 2 as the second photo shows. Smoky has successfully triggered a stampede by the Aurochs herd, although they have split into two groups as they rush for the pass. There were various activation failures among the other hunters lying in wait, but these had no effect on the beasts.

In Turn 3 the killing began. The photo above shows the carnage. Another stampede prompted by Smoky brought one group of beasts within the zone of a boulder, which was rolled off the scarp and squashed two Aurochs including a calf. The other two members of the group escaped, one joining the other group and one becoming separated from the other survivors and headed for the table edge in the background.

The other group of beasts also stampeded and the other two boulders were duly released, rolling towards them. All three boulders rolled only S distance, so this further-away group has not been hit - yet!


Turn 4: will the rolling boulders fill the Clan's winter store? Nooooo! Aarrgghh! Both the boulders that were in line to make a killing stopped rolling. What angry God has the Clan offended? It's chaos now, as the hunters scramble to recover the initiative. Two hunters make attacks, both fail miserably and only drive the quarry further away. The other hunters have to go around the long way, they can't jump down the scarps. The surviving Aurochs mostly are breaking out over the hill (and far away) as feared.

In Turn 5 the hunters took some chances - no photo of this one though. Smoky rolled three activations, the only time in the game I rolled all three dice for a hunter, and raced wide around the herd to try and head them off. Other hunters were able to kill the other calf, which had become separated from the adults, but no other attacks succeeded.


And in Turn 6 it was all over. The last surviving Aurochs is heading off to fresh woods and pastures new following the others, who have stampeded over the table edge to safety. One of the escapees was carrying two wounds, inflicted at the last minute, so the hunters may decide to track it for a couple of days and in all likelihood take possession. But it'd be a major hassle to have to operate and defend two butchery sites ...

The Grey Wolf hunters have killed one adult and two calves from the Aurochs herd, for a total of 8 Bulk out of a possible 28 Bulk on offer. Not enough. The scenario victory conditions specify at least 2 Bulk per starting hunter so 12 Bulk was required. It seems the "Hunger Games" scenario might have to be next. The clan has all the long winter to decide how best to appease the god who stopped the boulders from delivering a sure thing.

Friday 2 June 2017

Fuch's reinforcements


Although these particular lads have yet to see any (tabletop) action, they have already bee reinforced with more 15mm AB Prussians! The force now stands as follows.

Kapitän Johan Fuchs (Status III Leader), 9 points
Unteroffizier Shultz (Status I Leader), 3 points
Hornist Schwartz, 2 points
Sharpshooter Schnaps, 2 points
3x Jäger groups, 30 points
Total 46 points

Sgt. Schultz is always going to be a bit hard to spot on the table because AB do not produce any unique NCO sculpts for their Prussians. However, as it seems the only rank insignia for Jäger NCOs was gold trim on their collar and cuffs, I suppose there is no real call for separate sculpts. Schultz has the gold trim, but it's not really obvious at a distance.

Expanding the menu

After I got my bunnies from Scotia Grendel, I decided that the best this to do would be to order more of their animals...

 

I've just received my second order, this time a great hart - to be used as an elk - and two inquisitive piggies - to be used as wild boar. The pictures above are from the Scotia website. They came much faster than the bunnies, presumably because they had them in stock but had to cast the rabbits up fresh? Either way, I'm very pleased with the sculpting and look forward to painting them up and hunting them down.