Tales from the Holocene

 First Hunt of the Season 

This was my first attempt at playing Paleo Hunt - Eat or be Eaten. Starting off with the starter scenario - Vanilla Sky. Where four hunters take on a large herbivore. In this case an old bull Auroch.  I was using an electronic version of the rules and will need to print off the reaction tables to stop hoping backwards and forward  all the time. However. the rules were easy to follow and provided a fun and quick game.

My biggest challenge was to get the hunters in range as the Auroch which had a habit of running away!

The game started with the hunters splitting into two groups to try and flank the auroch. Grog the leader (the guy with big hunting horn) finally lost patience  and charged the auroch which trotted away. Only the timely sprint by the archer and a couple of lucky arrows managed to turn the auroch around (and away from the table edge). 

The hunters close in for the kill and one hunter is wounded and decides to flee. After a couple of ineffectual arrows  and spears. The leader Grog steps up and hurls his spear and causes two wounds (with a double six)  killing the auroch. 

The hunters were actually pretty lucky with only one wound between them. In fact I had some quite good rolls for the hunters and auroch tended to run away rather than fight. 

The four plucky hunters. 

Sneaking on the right

And on the left.

In frustration Grog charges but the old bull flees north. 

A couple of arrows from another hunter
steers the auroch back to the hunters

The hunters finally get in range of the auroch

Too close

One hunter has had enough after being wounded.

Grog makes up for his earlier impatience and kills the
 auroch with a splendid hit (double 6) with his spear.

The Auroch

Not a real one!

The auroch is an extinct cattle species, which is considered to be the ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a height of up to 180 cm at the shoulder in an adult male. It had large horns  that could reach up to 80 cm in length.

The auroch was part of the Pleistocene megafauna which included other beasts such as mammoths and giant sloths.  As indicated by fossil remains in Northern Europe, it reached Denmark and southern Sweden during the Holocene (the last 10,000 years).  Aurochs declined during the late Holocene due to habitat loss and hunting and became extinct in 1627Jaktorów forest in Poland  (Puts a different spin a medieval hunt!).

The aurochs are depicted in Palaeolithic cave paintings, Neolithic petroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian reliefs, and Bronze Age figurines. 

Rob