Not all Paleo-Hunts are Great Victories

Chasing Deer in the Wild Winter

Hunters and the game. 

The next scenario for Paleo-Hunt was 'The Hunger Games', in which our four hunters set out to bring down deer and wild pigs while battling their own hunger. All at the tail end of a long winter. Still learning the rules at the moment. So, missed a few points which might of turned the game. But that is all part of the experience. 

Things began badly when Agg, the first hunter to move, startled the nearby deer. Fortune turned when Grog landed a spear strike on the stag, and Agg quickly redeemed himself by bringing it down with a second spear. However, hunger soon overcame the hunters, and they rushed to gorge themselves on the freshly slain animal.

Once Ugg had satisfied his hunger, he drew his bow and struck one of the wild pigs. Igg, sensing his chance, charged in with his axe but missed, allowing the pig to break away. He gave chase at once, but fortunately Ugg had already loosed a second shot, bringing the fleeing pig down.

The commotion sent the remaining pigs stampeding away from the hunters and off the table. Although the hunters managed to kill two of the prey, only one counted, as the first kill had been ravaged rather than carried back to the tribe. In the end, the hunt was unsuccessful and Igg was roundly mocked by the others for scaring the pigs away.

After the hunt, no new hunters were promoted from the tribe and Igg gained the Timid trait for the next hunt.

‘Grog looked across the campfire at Igg and smiled. How things had changed since the last hunt; once again, his leadership stood uncontested. They had not brought back enough food to fill every belly, but at least everyone would eat something. And in the cold air, they could all smell winter turning. There would be no hunters celebration by the Blood stones today, but better days were ahead.’

Ugg marks the trophy stones for his kill and leaves 

some antler horns as a tribute. 

Rob 

Rhino Clan Hunt

Back in the Holocene

It feels like the right time to play a few games on the wargames  table. After some reading, I have decided to return to Paleo-Hunt (again), with the possibility of adding a little Hide, Bone & Stone if needed.

As my last game was a couple of years ago, I thought it best to start again with the basic rules.

‘Despite the wintery chill, Grog smiled as he looked out across the frozen landscape. The little gods of stream and stone had guided him to the bloodstones on the first day of the new hunt. Surely this was a great omen, and it had led him in turn to the lone woolly rhinoceros.’

This marks a change of pace, as I begin a new mini project and return to Paleo-Hunt: Eat or Be Eaten. Over the last couple of years, I have quietly added a few miniatures to this collection, and I have not quite given up on the idea of getting a few games played. The plan is to use existing figures where possible, draw on the pile of opportunity where needed, and keep new purchases to a minimum.

Since it has been a while, I returned to the starter scenario, Vanilla Skies, in which four hunters take on a lone woolly rhinoceros.

I split the hunters into two teams: one moved south, while the other circled north around the rhinoceros.

When Agg finally drew close enough to charge, he badly mistimed his spear thrust and was battered aside for his trouble. His brother Igg followed up with a successful blow, but he too was punished by the now enraged rhinoceros.

With two hunters wounded, Grog could delay no longer and charged in to support them. Proving his worth as leader of the band, he struck true, and the rhinoceros fled north with the hunters in pursuit.

Igg proved the swiftest of the hunters, catching the rhinoceros before it could escape and landing the killing blow.

After the hunt, both Agg and Igg recovered from their wounds and were ready for the next hunt. The hunt trophy went to Igg, who gained the Alert trait.

‘Grog sat silently, staring across the campfire. The little gods had deserted him today, and Igg would now be the first to place a hunters victory mark upon the bloodstones, place his tribute to the gods and wear the rhino-hide cloak. Yet Grog could not go against the gods, even if he suspected the old crone had favoured her grandson.’

To the victor the spoils - Igg with his new cloak. 

Some future prey, a predator and the trophy stones - 'The Bloodstones'

Once I have painted up the trophy stones, I plan to add to it as the campaign develops. 

Rob 

First 'Proper' Game of Space Gits

Why 'Proper' I Hear You Say? 

'Holy Tumbling Towers of Dice, Batman. 

That Thing is about to fall!'

Well, because beer was actually involved 😉. So, we (No.1 Son & I) got a game in on a Saturday night and started with a couple of beers* Again three orks a side and a simple board layout. This time the loot tokens fell closer to my side which led to a quick loot grab by my orks early on. 

*Well actually cider and it was in a can for the boy. But close enough! But did follow the rule of take a swig after each activation. 

Definitely need to finish this dread and build a Klankbot for my gang. 

So, both sides raced to capture the centre and the stash of loot tokens. With my orks taking an early lead. 

This time, I had a made a number of small measuring sticks which made things a lot easier. 

Despite grabbing most of the loot counters, the dice were starting to mount up on my guys. And Nath's guys were ready to put the boot in. 

With two guys down, my last ork 'Mosh' decided to hang at the back and wait for the clock*. 

*With less than two minutes remaining. I had to watch Nath's gits steal a few loot counters in the last couple of turns of the game. 

Whoop, Whoop - Its the Sound of the Police

Whoop, Whoop - Its the Sound of the Police Every time someone says the Fuzz have arrived, this is the what I hear. 

So, the police arrived and the game finished. It was a close run thing in the end with a final score four (me) to three (Nath). With the after game bureaucracy still to sort out. But another fun game of Space Gits. 

My original purchase of orks didn't arrive from eBay, so I am now trying to sort out a new lot so we build some proper gangs. 

Rob 

Space Gits Are Coming

First Battle for Space Gits

So, I got fed of waiting for my delivery of new space orks and played a game with classic RT orks. Nath & I played a simple game with 3 orks per side with only blasters, pistols and crude hand weapons. Given the game is only played for about 30 minutes, it had plenty of drama and action. In truth, I had to finish a new (smooth) board first, because moving dice over my textured boards would have been just too difficult (without even adding any alcohol). 

Nath's orks managed to grab an early (and sneaky git) lead by managing drop most of the caps on his side of the board. And then we lost two caps to an over enthusiastic drop. 

Gits at the ready to loot

Move which way first?

Yep definitely a hit, no question 😳

After a bit of debate, we sorted out the movement and rushed in to grab caps and bash the other orks. And very quickly we ended up with a number of tottering stacks of dice. Nath proved to be a steady hand as he manoeuvred an ork out of trouble while keeping his stack intact. 

Note - I think we are going to need some short and skinny range markers to leave both hands free for git and dice moving.

No I disagree about your ideas on the correct use of a teapot 😒

But it could last and eventually the dice towers were falling. 

All those years of playing Operation  have paid off!

But obviously didn't last

A bit of dice pay back

What all the sneaky gits are still standing...

At the end of 30 minutes, the game ends when a player rolls a triple on an accumulating number of D6s. And after 8D6, Nath managed bag the victory with four bottle caps to my pathetic one. Somehow all of the gits were standing at the end of the game, but this was more by luck than judgement. 

A great little game and we are ready for the gits to get back into action. 

And if none of this makes any sense, then you have probably got the point. And I suggest you go back and read my first Space Gits post 😁. 

Rob 

First Battle of Midgard

Hold the Hill 

As is tradition, I managed to meet up with a couple of long-term friends for a wargame between Christmas and new year. This year it was Midgard, as friend Jas had just got a copy and was keen to play. None of us had played Midgard before but Jas was familiar with the rules and had organised the forces. 

Not Jason's copy obviously

The Game

In terms of the game, the elves and fae were holding the high ground against an undead & orc horde. A third of the elves & fae were held in reserve until turn four and on turn four each side gained an extra victory (reputation) point for control of each of the three standing stones at the top of the hill. 

The undead and orcs opted to place their low value undead and orcs at the front of the horde to soak up the inevitable elf bowfire. However, the elven archers were clearly having a bit of an off day and most of the orcs and undead survived to contact the enemy. 

This then created a bit of problem in that the best orc and undead units were now all still behind the rabble. Whilst the elven spears and tree men* happily chewed up the front units. And reputation (victory) points of the elves and fae were beginning to rack up. 

*The tree men (large and small) had the brutal trait which meant they wounded on 4+ instead of the standard 5+ which did indeed make them brutal!

The giant treeman taking down the first undead unit

And the second

Before finally meeting his doom against the trolls

It wasn’t all going the elves’ way as the giant treeman had taken down several units of undead but was now surrounded by trolls and the ghouls in the centre were proving surprisingly tough even when faced with an elven spear unit supported by three heroes. 

But the tide had clearly turned and as both the black orc and second troll unit failed to make their charge rolls in the last turn. The elves and fae were then able to break the enemy force before these elite units could make the difference. 

Two heroes face off

And victory went to the elven and fae alliance. 

After the Battle

It was the first game of Midgard for all of us, but we quickly got into the swing of the game. And Jas did a grand job as rules master. Fortunately, he had a large number of movement trays otherwise it would have been a massive pain to move the units. 

And I have already put an order in with Warbases to rectify this situation for future games. And I am now looking to rebase some of the earlier minis fit in with these units. 

Oh and happy new year for tomorrow 😁.

Rob