Onesie Wearing Wasteland Weirdos - Beware of the Dogs?

Bedtime's Children - also known as "those onesie-wearing wastland weirdos" - finally have some pets! I have been looking for suitable warbeasts for my growing This is Not a Test tribal warband for a while. After a couple of false starts, I settled on these crazy 3D printed mutant bunnies from Yedharo - sold as 'Crazy Rabbit Troops'.

Given the Onesies are led by a young teenage psychic, and most of the tribe wear onesies in a variety of unflatering pastels, I figured that some sort of bunny-squigg-soft toy hybrid creatures would work as pets. It is unclear whether the tribe has specially bred them or if Poppet has imagined them into existence? Perhaps they are merely a natural reaction to the end of the world...?

This is Not a Test - A Long Kiss Goodbye

Sarge looked over the shanty town from his rooftop vantage point. After a gruelling campaign, his veteran squad had never been physically stronger. But mentally they were tired - worn down by the endless waves of mutants trying to break their thin blue line. Now they had the mutants on the back foot, but a beast is always most dangerous when cornered. One way or another, the ongoing grudge match would end today.

Four their tenth mission, and the last in the FMRC campaign, the stout stunted rangers from Flores Minor faced off against Andrew's Mutants for the final time with the cold vengeance scenario. The FMRC were buoyed from their previous victories and were able to field 10 rangers, a dog, a depend-o-bot, and their two remaining tame hill folk. There were less mutants, only 11 in total, but they had caught the FMRC flat footed. Demo III, Snake Eyes III, and Pup were away on a side mission and would arrive late to the skirmish. Andrew also took a whole lot of luck, and bum rush as additional balancing aids to even out the discrepancy in warband values.

Sarge, Doc, and the rookie officer, Bull's Eye, deployed on a rooftop along the FMRC base line, while Hotshot, Point II and the rookie outrider, Tracker, deployed on a rooftop forward and left of the main position. Buckshot, Heavy, Ogg, Frygga and BT29.2 took up a position on the ground where they could cover approaches to the left and right, depending on where the mutants advanced from.

In what should have been wholly predictable, the mutants first move was to rush the forward position manned by Hotshot, Point II and Tracker. Under sustained fire from Blue Man, Mr Horny, the acid -spitting dogbomination and RPG-toting Trench, the forward position lost Hotshot immediately, followed soon after by his companions. Clearly Sarge's previous traumas had clouded his judgement when deploying, because I'm sure that has happened every time rangers have been posted out front throughout the campaign.

Under covering fire from the rooftop above, Heavy and Doc went to hold the right approach against the mutants. The killing zone created by the alleyway would keep them both busy throughout the engagement. Behind them, Bull's Eye was killed under mutant mini-gun fire, but Heavy managed to gun down the psychic ex-slave girl leader, and Ogg would eventually take down Handy, one of the last remnants of the original mutant crew. 

At the left approach, Frygga, BT29.2 and Buckshot had advanced in a fool's errand to rescue the forward post. Instead they were confronted by Grom, the hammer-bearer. The three rangers were unable to take him down despite their collective efforts. 

While Grom held his own, Demo, Pup and Snake-Eyes arrived and ran forward to support their allies at the left approach. 

The spitting dogbomination killed Buckshot, and Mr Horny, the mutant with a blunderbuss took out Frygga and BT29. It was Pup, with his blitzer skill who was finally able to take down Grom. Across the shanty town, rangers and mutants were dropping like flies and morale rolls caused further characters to flee. I am legally obliged to say that for only the second time in ten scenarios, Doc's accidentally acquired medic skill came in handy when he revived Sarge and thus saved the FMRC from an additional morale check - well, for a turn at least. 

By turn eight, Demo III and Snake Eyes III were the only rangers left standing, and only two mutants were left as well. Counting the scenario victory points, the FMRC came out on top with 10 VPs to the mutant's 9. A victory - but only just. Rolling for wounds, only one mutant was truely dead while both Point II and the rookie, Bull's Eye, were sadly KIA. While the mutants will need to seek out some hole to lick their wounds in, the FMRC can happily retire to barracks for some well deserved R&R.

Burrows & Badgers: The Dirty Paws (part 1)

On wee side quest which has been both enjoyable and adorable in equal measure, I have recently picked up Michael Lovejoy's skirmish game of anthropomorphic animals - Burrows & Badgers. The Dirty Paws are my starter warband of rogues, chosen purely because I liked the models - all from Oathsworn Miniatures and, as I understand, sculpted by Michael himself. I'm looking forward to trying out the system which reads very well. In the meantime, here are the first members of the Dirty Paws (the rest of the warband can be seen HERE). 

Their families dispossessed and slaughtered by corrupt lords acting in the name of the king, the outlaws known derisively as the Dirty Paws have embraced their new life of roguery in the dappled sanctuary of Chestnut Glen. Hunted for blood money, they have taken up arms to seek justice and take back what is rightfully theirs.

Osgood Broadwater, the otter

Sgian Dhubh, the polecat

Old Broc, the badger

Tibbot Thornberry, the mouse

Gypsy Thornberry, the mouse

Pearl Diving in the Western Interior Seaway: another PDEE Underwater adventure

Another of Mark's Utterley-Barkinge mad adventures using his underwater variant of Palaeo Diet: Pulp!

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The Utterley-Barkinge Time-Travel & Landscape Gardening Corporation led another safari back to the marine environment of the Cretaceous era. Rather than the usual big game hunting theme, this year the aim was to search for the giant pearls known from rare fossil examples. These would be the largest, highest quality pearls ever found, with the added lustre of being snatched from ancient seas in the face of terrors innumerable. Sells itself, what.

As usual the limited places available were greatly oversubscribed despite the astronomical price. The Final Cut of 6 intrepid adventurers comprised entirely Hollywood movie stars. Three are armed with glaives (counting as clubs) and three with spearguns (counting as guns)  The expedition guide was Boris Utterley-Barking (speargun).

Here are a couple of views of  the area the expedition will explore. It’s a 900x900mm cloth. The UB submersible is just about to drop off the adventurers in the centre. There is some fauna swimming about (jellyfish, squid). More will appear / disappear depending on events such as anomalies in character activation rolls. 

The possible locations for pearls (clusters of giant Barnacle Oysters) are marked with yellow dice numbered 1-4 for your convenience. But the molluscs (if that is what they are) aren’t going to give up their pearls easily.

Turn 1. The paying customers, as always, forget everything they heard at the briefing session and demand to “get what they paid for”. In practice this means splitting up and heading off in different directions towards the Barnacle Oyster clumps they can see.  What could possibly go wrong ?

Clark Gable & Louise Brooks decide to head for clump #2.  Gary Cooper & Mae West pick clump #3. Carole Lombard & Charlie Chaplin go for clump #4. Clump #1 is not in LOS at this point. All activate successfully on 2 dice except Mae West fails 1, which causes the squid to all head off the table. Boris joins the Lombard / Chaplin group.

Turn 2. All three groups arrive at their Barnacle Oyster clumps, and start figuring out how to find the pearls. Gary Cooper & Mae West inadvertently attracted a shark (pack predator) which as came to take a look. And Boris Utterley-Barking totally failed to activate, so a small mosasaur (apex predator) has sidled onto the table up in the NW corner near Clark Gable & Louise Brooks.

Expedition members are all identified by blue nametags.

Turn 3. How to open a Barnacle Oyster? It turns out you have to use 3 activations, and success scores 1 Pearl each time. But a clump will yield no more than 5 Pearls in all. Our movie stars eagerly get to work. Clark Gable and Louise Brooks both fail one activation. The nearby mosasaur doesn’t react. Gary Cooper similarly fails 1, the shark doesn’t react. Mae West his companion activates successfully and scores the first Pearl of the expedition. Charlie Chaplin & Carole Lombard both wrest pearls from their Barnacle Oyster clump. This time Boris U-B activated successfully and completes his move to join the Chaplin & Lombard group.

The photo shows (L-R): one of the giant lobsters that just arrived (see below); the mosasaur*; Miss Brooks*; Miss West (and her white Pearl marker); and the shark. [* in the distance ]

Turn 4. Annoyed by the noise, 2 giant lobsters emerged from their lairs. The movie stars, intent on their work, continue trying to coax more pearls. Clark Gable finally got hold of a Pearl. Louise Brooks failed again, but the mosasaur continued to ignore them. Gary Cooper failed 2 dice. The shark, and the nearer Giant Lobster, both displayed no interest. Mae West is onto something good, and scored her 2nd Pearl. 

Charlie Chaplin failed, and the nearest beast (the other Giant Lobster) waved its claws menacingly but otherwise did nothing. But then Carole Lombard also failed and the Giant Lobster attacked. It was too far away to make contact, but it moved M towards the adventurers. Then Boris U-B failed too, and the beast attacked again. This time it contacted the closest group member, Chaplin himself, and wounded him.

Turn 5. Charlie Chaplin fought back against the Giant Lobster. He failed an activation but luckily the GL failed to wound him again, then fluffed his own attack on the beast. Carole Lombard came to Chaplin’s help, taking a wound as she fought, but also dishing out a wound to the beast.  Boris U-B then stepped up, wounding the Giant Lobster a second time to kill it. 

Elsewhere … Clark Gable didn’t get another Pearl. His companion Louise Brooks double failed, and another fearsome beast, a Giant Octupus (apex predator) arrived near the as-yet-unvisited Clump #1 of Barnacle Oysters. Mae West scored her 3rd Pearl. Gary Cooper did not, and attracted (finally) the interest of that loitering shark which is now uncomfortably close.

Clockwise from top L: the Mosasaur remains unaggressive,  Clark Gable (1 Pearl) & Louise Brooks (0) at Barnacle Oyster clump 2; the now-aggressive shark is checking out Gary Cooper (0) and Mae West (3) at clump 3; Charles Chaplin (1), Carole Lombard (1) & Boris Utterley-Barkinge at clump 4 after killing the Giant Lobster; the Giant Octopus near clump 1. And lastly the other Giant Lobster at top centre of the table.

Turn 6. The Pearl hunt continues. Sort of. Clark Gable double-fails his latest activation , and the mosasaur after initially moving away cones back to attack. Can’t make contact now, but it’s close. Louise Brooks must decide whether to attack the beast, or keep mining pearls. She rolls two successes and one fail. The Mosasaur again hesitates (Rests) so she shoots and wounds the beast. Which turns and flees off the table. A narrow escape.

Gary Cooper meanwhile, annoyed that he is down 3-0 to Mae West in pearls, decides to keep mining despite the approaching shark. He fails a dice, and the shark ... moves away. There’s something wrong with our bloody predators today. Mae West also fails 1, this time the shark turns and attacks but fails to wound her.

Charlie Chaplin, Carole Lombard, and Boris U-B all fail 1 activation each. The net result is the second Giant Lobster, which has been biding it’s time in the table centre, attacks Miss Lombard in a Predate move (she is already wounded) but it fails to kill her.

Turn 7.  Because no-one has been killed so far (an event that has never happened in any previous expedition) more beasts will arrive. A school of 3 x Ichthyosaurs (pack predators) appears in the  entre of the table. And a big Tylosaur (a type of mosasaur) appears - random entry placed this right next to the Chaplin / Lombard / Utterkey-Barkinge group at clump 4.

Gary Cooper failed an activation. The nearest beast was one if the ichthyosaurs, which did nothing. Cooper started to move back (skulk) towards the table centre (the rendezvous & evac point). Louise Brooks likewise abandoned the Pearl hunt and stayed with him.

Mae West activated on 2/2 dice, to try and drive off the shark. Her attacks both failed, but the shark wounded her.  Gary Cooper then activated similarly. He was able to kill the shark (2 wounds with his glaive) without being wounded himself. 

Boris Utterley-Barkinge activated first in the Chaplin group, and shot at the Tylosaur. Both his attacks failed and the beast wounded him . Chaplin then activated, wounding the beast. Lastly, Carole Lombard failed 1/2 activations. The Tylosaur finished off Chaplin before Lombard gave it 2 more wounds from a “well placed” hit. The now badly wounded Tylosaur attacked Lombard, killing her.

Turn 8. Boris Utterley-Barkinge manages to contact the other surviving adventurers on their helmet radios. He tells them the grim news about Chaplin and Lombard, and in turn hears that West is wounded. Everyone agrees it’s time to get back to the rendezvous point. Everyone starts skulking toward the table,e centre. All goes well, except that Gary Cooper triggers an attack by an ichthyosaur which wounds him, and is in turn wounded by a shot from Louise Brooks.

Turn 9. Boris Utterley-Barking, Mae West, and Gary Cooper have reached the rendezvous point. Clark Gable and Louise Brooks aren’t there yet, but they have fought off the ichthyosaur.

Turn 10. The adventures are trying to move as little as possible, and activate on only 1 dice each, so the beasts don’t attack them. Gable and Brooks continued skulking towards the others.

Turn 11.  Same again, and as none of the adventurers fails their activation, and none moves more than a skulk, there’s nothing for the beasts to react to.

Turn 12. The distinctive sound of the submersible approaching can be heard.  Louise Brooks fails her activation and the nearest ichthyosaur attacks, but fails to wound her. Boris U-B also fails, and the same ichthyosaur moves to attack him, causing a wound.

And as the submersible arrives the beasts all flee. The Tylosaur is carrying 3 wounds (a 4th will be fatal) so its survival chances are not high. In fact the 2 surviving ichthyosaurs might well shadow  it for a while to see what happens.

The expedition survivors reembark. Louise Brooks (0 pearls) and Gary Cooper (0) are OK. Clark Gable (1) and Mae West (3) are wounded. Boris Utterley-Barkinge (0), the expedition guide, is also wounded. Charlie Chaplin and Carole Lombard are Mosasaur food. Any pearls they may have had are lost. Mae West has obviously won the Pearl competition. We can only hope her injuries aren’t too serious.

Another successful (?) adventure brought to you by the intrepid folks at Utterley Barkinge.

Cheers from Pattaya

Mark

Hard Times: another PDEE season

It's February and, for Mark, February is prehistory month. He's found time to dust off the Palaeo Diet rules and see how the Grey Wolfs and Trouts are doing in the aftermath of the plague that struck both clans last season. The survival of both remains uncertain. The mammoths have failed to return to their summer grazing lands, again. Other sorts of animals, never seen before, are making their presence felt.

The Grey Wolf clan has weathered the great sickness / attack of the evil spirits better, and has remained on its traditional hunting grounds. The Trouts, almost wiped out, have retreated up into the hill country.

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In the first game, a small Grey Wolf hunting party is sent out, with instructions to bring back at least “8 bulk” of meat to the main camp.  Here is the traditional pre-hunt charcoal and ochre painting of the hunters. They are imaginatively named Red, Yellow, Brown, and Grey. Grey has a hound, named of course Greyhound. The humans are all armed with spears. The Grey Wolf clan isn’t much into clubs as weapons. They generally leave that sort of thing to the Trout clan.

And here is a view of the river flats where they will be trying their luck. From their vantage point at the south end they can see 2 groups of antelopes (ibexes), and 1 group of mountain goats. But the main interest is the big male Elk and his three bases of females and young. All these are Herd Grazers, so worth “2 Bulk” except the goats who are only 1 Bulk.

The hunters may or may not have spotted the Ground Sloth (Giant Grazer, 4 bulk) who is peaceably minding its own business in the scrub thicket. For added interest: the male Elk, and Ground Sloth, will morph into Apex Predators if they roll ‘6’ at any time as their beast reaction.

On turn 1 most of the hunters headed left, except for Yellow who went right, towards the river. The beasts are not showing any concern yet, except for a single Move Away reaction by one of the closer ibexes.

Turn 2, and Grey fluffed a sneak attack on the mountain goats. I mean, how hard could it be. He had only to skulk up and throw a spear. But no. The beasts spotted him and stampeded. Being mountain goats they went straight up the nearby cliff face and are now safe on top of the precipice. Then the hound started to howl. Luckily too far away from other beasts to provoke any reactions.

The other hunters all continued their stealthy progress around the flanks of the grazing animals.

Turn 3, the first kill!  At first things didn’t go well, as Red and Brown (on the L) snuck up on the Elks but caused Move Away reactions. But Yellow over by the river successfully attacked and wounded an ibex, provoking them to stampede towards Grey, who finished off the wounded beast. The other ibexes seemed unperturbed by the death of their friend. So that’s 2/8 bulk taken care of.

Turn 4. The action hots up. Grey wounded one of the other ibexes, which turned and fled (with the other survivor of its group) back towards to river, where Yellow was waiting. The hound chased it, causing some Move Away reactions among the Elks. The wounded ibex attacked Yellow and wounded him. But he not only killed the beast, but put in a second spear throw to wound the third ibex.

Meanwhile, Red and Brown (top left)  finally attacked the elks, wounding one that fled, without much disturbing any of the others. Phlegmatic creatures these elks. The hunting party now have 4/8 bulk in hand, and a wounded ibex loitering helpfully.

Turn 5, and the male Elk reveals its true colours. Attacked by Grey, it turns into an Apex Predator, exchanges wounds with Grey, then moves away. The other nearby hunters, Red and Brown wound an ibex from the remaining group (which stampede away) and carefully avoid the threat while edging closer to the female and baby elks.

Over by the river Yellow finished off another ibex despite his wound. His spear throwing has been phenomenal today. The hunters progress to 6/8 bulk in hand. I have started marking the kills with yellow tokens.

Turn 6. Red brought down the wounded elk mother and child. The other elks stampeded on seeing this, and I decided this should include the male, despite his recent show of aggression. 

Nothing much else happened. The Ground Sloth continues attacking the vegetation in the scrub thicket. The hunters have met their mission objective of bringing down at least 8 bulk of meat (one yellow kill marker is just out of frame at lower right). It would have been good to exceed the quota, but 2/4 hunters are carrying wounds and the remaining beasts are out of position for easy stalking. So we’ll call it a day.

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We now cross tp drop in on the Trout clan (H pattayaviensus), sadly depleted by the plague, and making the best of their new home in the hill country. A foraging party has come from the main cave to find at least 4 Bulk of resources, which must include both meat and seasonal berries.

Here is the foraging party, comprising 3 adult male hunters and 3 women and subadults.

Here is the area selected for the hunt. It contains residual areas of melting snow, 6 of which are sources of the frost berries the women and children are here to collect. Each patch (the patches on small scenic bases) contains 0.5 Bulk.



There is also a Woolly Rhino (Giant Grazer) and 3 x Warthogs (Herd Grazers) who do not wish to be disturbed. Lastly, on the hilltop across the steam are 2 x Cave Lions. They will stay on their own side of the stream unless a Human activates on snake eyes, or the Warthogs cumulatively roll 3 ones during their reaction rolls. They’re not interested in tackling the rhino. Not stupid.

Turn 1. The Trouts all activate successfully and start their mission. The woman & children (Gatherers) head for the two berry patches right next to the starting hill. The Hunters start stalking the warthogs.

Turn 2. The Gatherers have picked all the berries in the two patches and start  towards the north end of the area, skirting along the table edge behind the oblivious rhino. The Hunters decide to split up to better catch some warthogs. One starts to go around the small hill to get behind the beasts, the others stay put for now. There is an activation fail, but the beasts remain unmoved. No photo this time.

Turn 3. The Hunters are closing in on the Warthogs, although one beast has becone Alarmed and moved off 1M. The Gatherers (out of view) continue toward their next berry patch.

Turn 4. The Warthogs react too quickly for the Hunters, (centre right) who manage only 1 wound before all the beasts flee or stampede in different directions. The Gatherers reach the next berry patch (top left) after loping across the whole table. Harvesting begins.

Turn 5. One hunter manages to sneak up on the wounded warthog and finish it off. The nearby beast attacks, but fails to wound the hunter, and a second hunter skulks up in support. The third hunter starts to take a shortcut across the table to join the Gatherers (those Lions are starting to sound serious), but must tread carefully (amble and skulk only) to avoid provoking the third Warthog on one side and the Rhino on the other.

The Gatherers clean out the berry patch and prepare to move on to the next. But the next closest patches are near the Cave Lions lair. 

Turn 6. The first Hunter activates (fails) on snake eyes, so the Cave Lions can move out. The two remaining Warthogs make themselves scarce. The one fighting the Hunter turns and stampedes off table. The one up near the Lions Moves Away. The second Hunter also fails one activation dice, and a Lion attacks the nearby Warthog, which was just close enough, but somehow fluffed the attack and the Warthog wasn’t wounded.

The photo above shows the end of turn 6. At top left the Gatherers are retreating back along the far table edge, away from the Lions,  arraying their berries. The two Lions are now both across the stream. One is attacking the Warthog, the other is sizing up the two hunters who have rushed across to cover the retreat of the Gatherers. At lower right the third hunter (now known as “snake eyes”) stands guard over the Warthog kill

The Trouts have 3.5 Bulk so far, and havn’t suffered any wounds or deaths. They need another 0.5 Bulk to reach their target. So close.

Turn 7. The first hunter (a different one) to activate rolls snake eyes. The nearest beasts are the Warthog and Lion. The Warthog attacks the Lion, fails, the Lion attacks back and wounds the Warthog. Then the club-armed hunter moves up the the other Lion (skulk, skulk) and clubs it to death with a well placed double hit. The first Lion immediately switched from attacking the Warthog to the Hunter, but failed to wound him. No photo this time.

Turn 8. The Trouts clean up. The spear-armed hunter finished off the last Warthog (already wounded by the Lion). The club armed hunter in combat with the Lion dealt with it the same way as before, clubbing it down with a well placed special hit. That’s both Lions killed by the same hunter in the same way. A Hercules to be sure!

So here’s the end of game position. Over on the far side, the Gatherers are making their way back to the exit point (upper right corner) laden with 1.5 Bulk of berries. On the rest of the table the only beast remaining is the Woolly Rhino, which was undisturbed by any of the goings-on and has been chewing its favourite shrubs throughout. The four yellow body markers show where the redoubtable Trout hunters brought down 2 x Warthogs & 2 x Cave Lions adding a further 8 Bulk of meat to today’s bag (not to mention the hides, bones etc). All without any wounds or loss of life.

A memorable day out for the Trout foragers, with great stories to share around the fire.

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The final chapter of this season’s visit to the Grey Wolf & Trout clans sees them encounter each other in the debatable lands where their territories overlap.  A hunting party from each clan is pursuing a Gomphotherium giganticus …

Here’s the tabletop, a swampy area with scattered patches of vegetation, quite unlike the clans’ usual ranges.

Each clan has three hunters in the field this time. The Grey Wolf hunters (Brown, Red, Yellow) are all spear-armed, while the Trouts (Club, Axe, Pointy Stick) have 1 spear and 2 clubs. Here they are posed with their would-be prey.

The Gomphotherium is the biggest animal ever seen, with these stats (and the stats for a standard Giant Grazer for comparison).

Savagery: 3+ (4+); Resilience: 5+ (5+); Bulk: 6+ (4+)

I’m going to be using an appropriately Palaeolithic system of dice rolls, weighted by contingent factors (such as “the need to bring home the bacon outweighs the desire to kill the Outfolk”) to run the Conflict or Cooperation aspect.

Turn 1. The hunting parties come on from diagonally opposite table corners. The Grey Wolfs make use of an ancient walkway built by long-forgotten ancestors. The Gomphotherium placidity munches its way through a thicket.

Turn 2. The hunting parties catch sight of each other and both pause to figure out what to do. They can both also see the Gomphotherium moving about in the nearby vegetation. By the Spirits, it’s BIG. None of these hunters has ever seen one before, they have only a few old half-believed stories to go by.

The Trout clan are feeling pretty confident (score 12/18 for aggression), and are inclined to see off the Grey Wolfs before bagging the Gomphotherium. The Grey Wolfs OTOH score only 5/18 and are willing to extend the hand of friendship and cooperation. They’ll wait and see what the Trouts do next.

Turn 3. The Trout hunters move up to within L of the Grey Wolfs with much howling and waving of weapons. There are a couple of activation fails but too faraway for the Gomphotherium to notice. The Grey Wolfs retire slightly to show their peaceful intentions. How will the Trouts interpret this?

Turn 4. The Trouts seem to calm down a bit (lower modified aggression score) but follow up to stay at about L from the Grey Wolfs. Who in turn also advance cautiously. But then an unexpected development, as the Grey Wolf hunter “Brown” (on the left of the GW line) activates on 2D6=12, and throws a spear at “Axe” the nearest Trout. He misses, but what will happen now ?

Turn 5. The Trouts response is low key, laughing off the failed throw as a joke with appropriate hoots and gestures. But the Grey Wolfs don’t take it that way, thinking the Trouts are insulting their prowess as hunters. So the skirmish begins.

Brown shoots a spear, misses, Axe moves up and attacks and wounds him. Brown has a second activation point up his sleeve (?) and fights back wounding Axe.

Yellow shoots a spear at Pointy Stick, hitting and wounding him. Pointy Stick flees. Yellow shoots a second spear at Club, but misses, causing Club to move back a little bit.

Red moves across to join the fight against Axe, but cannot actually land a blow this time. Club doesn’t react to the move.

Here’s the position at the end of the turn. The Gomphotherium remains in the thicket, looking on uncomprehendingly.

Turn 6. The skirmish continues. At the end of the turn Brown is dead, there are no further Hunter wounds or losses in either party. But one of the Trouts rolled activation snake eyes, which triggered the Gomphotherium to “do something crazy” (a game contingency plot point, not a PDEE beast reaction). So it duly moved out of the thicket to see what all the fuss is about.

Turn 7. The appearance of the giant beast caused the Hunters to pause their fracas. The Trouts got to move this time (The GW react as if beasts. If they start cooperating they move as if all one hunting party) and they moved off towards the Gomphotherium after rolling only a pacific 8/18 for aggression. The two remaining Grey Wolfs also rolled low aggression (7/18 but they only have two dice now), so seem prepared to let bygones be bygones and get on with the hunt. The demise of that hothead Brown has no doubt helped.

Turn 8. The Hunters are now working together as a single party. Can they take down the biggest animal they have ever seen?

The three Trouts all activated well and skulked towards the beast though the tricky ground. Pointy Stick threw a spear, which bounced off, and the Gomphotherium attacked the nearest hunter, Club, but failed to cause a wound.

The two Grey Wolfs aso skulked forwards, to within spear-throwing range.

Turn 9. The Hunters attacked. The Grey Wolfs went first, throwing spears and causing the beast a first wound. But the cost was high: fails led to the beast attacking and killing Club and twice attacking (but not wounding) Pointy Stick. Axe went next, provoking the beast to Roar, and all Hunters backed off. After this Axe & PS skulked forward again, and PS threw another spear, causing another wound. So the Gomphotherium is now carrying 2/6 wounds,, but another Hunter has been lost.

Turn 10. The Hunters continued to harass the Gomphotherium. Again the Grey Wolfs moved up first, skulking into soear range ready to throw next turn. Then Axe activated, getting into contact and wielding his club. But he missed, and the angry beast attacked him, but no wound. Lucky, as Axe is already wounded from the Hunter v Hunter skirmish. Last, Pointy Stick took a shot, and also missed, causing the beast to Roar again, driving some of the hunters back. 

Turn 11. The attack was a great success - for the Gomphotherium. Red failed an activation dice, and the beast Moved Away a bit. Red followed up and threw a spear, missing, and the beast attacked Axe (still the closest Hunter) this time killing him.  Yellow went next, likewise failing on one dice, and the beast reacted by attacking Red, wounding him. Yellow closed in and shot a spear, missing again, and the beast got its revenge by killing Red with a second wound. Pointy Stick, the only other surviving Hunter, wisely activated on only 1 dice and used it to run away.

So at the end of the game we see the Gomphotherium, carrying 2 wounds, standing its ground with two squashed and/or gored Hunters nearby, Axe and Red. There are only two surviving Hunters (Pointy Stick and Yellow) left to somehow get back to their clans with the dire news.

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That’s where we leave the Grey Wolf and Trout clans for this season. Perhaps by the time we drop in again they will be regaining their strength.

Cheers from Pattaya,

Mark