Paleo Diet: Clever Use of Fire!

An idyllic day in Cave Man world...about to be shattered by man and his newest tool - fire!

So, we decided to try Paleo Diet again, now that we understood (or think we understand) the helpful benefits of fire when fending off the attacks of nasty beasts we are hunting. Each of the five players had two hunters and one dog. All of chose to have one of our guys armed with fire, while the some chose bows or spears for the other hunter. I decided to give a club a test, considering it was a +1 to hit creatures (the problem being you have to move into contact, unlike the spear which you can shoot at Short range and the bow at Long).

Objective Number One - a rocky outcrop with a pack of four sabertooth tigers

Keith set up a board with a rocky outcrop on one end -- the lair of a family of four sabertooth tigers. He said the predators had been snatching the tribe's infants and young, and the womenfolk had demanded we come back with their skins or no fun around the campfire tonight -- or any other night in the near future! Mike W and Allen were dispatch to tackle the sabertooths, while Joel, Mike S, and myself were to bring down some bison from a herd that had entered our hunting lands. The herd, we noticed, was being stealthily stalked by a shortnose bear and a pack of wolves. So, we would possibly have competition for the meat!

Objective Number Two - a herd of bison that had wandered into our hunting grounds (note the bear stalking them)

We're not 100% sure we're doing the reaction tests correctly, but the way we decided to play it was this:  (1) Hunter rolls his choice of 1, 2 or 3 dice to activate. (2) Any failures are immediately checked for reaction by the closest animals (two failures, two animals; one failure, one animal, etc.). (3) Hunter takes his successful actions, which the possibly triggers possible reactions. We had noticed in our first game that predators will not attack a hunter who is within 1 Medium with fire. So, as long as we don't get split up, our pair of hunters should be fairly invulnerable to attacks...right?

My two hunters, Og and Ugg (with fire) and their trusty hound approach the animals

Hard-luck Allen found out one flaw in our plan immediately. He failed on his first two attempts at activation, prompting the charge by two hyenas who were outside of Medium, but inside of a Long distance. Allen dispatched one and chased off the other, which set the tone for the evening. We were wildly more successful than our first attempt at hunting prehistoric big game. My group ended up being the most successful of them all. Keith had handed me two fairly troglodyte looking figures, which I named Og and Ugg. We snuck through an area of brush (flaming brand in hand), which scattered some woodland creatures and a startled the bison when we emerged from the patch of woods. However, Joel and Mike were in position and we began a game of ping pong, spooking the bison in a circle between our three bands which had surrounded them.

Dashing forward, Og and Ugg strike down a bison with their clubs -- meat on the menu for this evening!

On my next turn, I charged into contact with the first bison and ka-THUNK! Two clubs came down on it and bison burgers were on the menu for the evening! Og, Ugg, and their pooch proceeded to take down three bison. After the hound dispatched the third one, he began howling in celebration, which lasted for three turns (three straight turns of 3 failures on my dice -- ha, ha!). Meanwhile, Og and Ugg decided to go help Allen and Mike W with the sabertooths. We spooked a pachyderm off with our fire, then closed within a good "lope" distance (Long). On my next turn, I rolled two successes for activation, again. We charged in and thwacked the big cat (they're not really felines, are they...?) on its noggin. Both Og and Ugg hooted in celebration. Not only would they enjoy lots of good bison for dinner, but their women would be happy and they would be able to partake in dessert, too!

My hunters pummel a second bison into dreamland, while the hound drags down another

All in all, we were very successful as hunters this time around. No dead humans, though one hound was savaged and killed by a sabertooth. Perusing the rules afterwards, we began to wonder if we were doing it wrong. We were uncertain if the animals are supposed to test reaction after every activation our hunters take. So, if Og gets 3 successes, does he do one activation, then check for reactions before doing his next one? Keith said he would check the FAQ and find out. Otherwise, we are getting a good idea why man was able to become the dominant species!

Elated with our success, we track down and kill a sabertooth tiger, too -- Og and Ugg are unstoppable!

Going on a Paleo Diet

The highlight of the evening was Allen's spirited, but ultimately unsuccessful, battle with a sabretooth tiger

Keith has always has a penchant for the prehistoric, staging dinosaur hunt games for us over the years. With the release of Ganesha Games Paleo Diet: Eat or Be Eaten rules, he set up a game where we take on the role of cavemen from the same tribe on a hunt, trying to bring home the bacon. Each of us had 3 hunters and a hound, and we were dispersed around the table. Various giant and herd grazers were scattered across the table, along with 3 predators -- a pack of wolves, a giant weasel, and a sabretooth tiger.

My hunters -- two with spear and one with bow -- set out with our trusty hound to hunt some really big game

As it turned out, only the sabretooth got into the game. Keith's hunters fled from the wolves, and the weasel took one look at the firebrand that Joel's hunters were carrying and ducked off the table. Allen, who loves to see how things work in a game and will do things that are unwise on the face of it -- just to see what happens, moved his band to attack the sabretooth. I decided to go for easier kills, and climbed a steep hill to stalk a family of Macrauchenias -- which looked to me like a cross between a giraffe and a tapir. There were six of us players, and we all set out after the animals once the game began.

My hunters close in on a family of Macrauchenias, targeting the young one in the center

Paleo Diet has a clever game mechanism in which the animals activate either when players do certain triggers (such as moving within a certain distance, pelting them with arrows or spears, bringing fire within a Long distance, etc.). They also react on activation failures by the players figures. I proved my dominance at bad die rolling, once again. Deep into the game, I had managed to roll more "1's" than the other five numbers on the dice combined!

First kill! Our hound brings down the young one (don't be sad -- no actual animals were harmed in the staging of this game)

This led to a somewhat frustrating part of the game of closing with animals only to have them amble away. Luckily, we had surrounded the board, and pushing a herd away from you meant that they were coming closer to another one of us. I managed to close in on the Macrawhatevers and my dog brought down a baby one. Meat for the campfire tonight! This panicked the parents who fled further up the forested slope. With my horrible movement rolls, I knew I'd never catch them. So, I turned around to go for a herd of giant tapirs who had fled from other hunters to a position within range of my hunters.

Stampeding animals create a traffic jam as our hunters spooked them, making herds run back and forth across the board

Meanwhile, Allen bravely closed in on the sabretooth and engaged it in melee. He caused one wound on it, but had a hunter wounded, too, in the exchange. The sabretooth roared (causing morale checks) which caused most of his hunters -- except for the wounded one, oops -- back off. That unfortunate act of bravery doomed him and there was one less mouth to feed in our tribe. At this point, Allen decided the herbivores tasted better, anyway, and switched targets.

Six hunter bands meant for a slower-moving game than would probably be normal

It was a fun game, and could EASILY be played solo. The animals react entirely by rolling a table and triggers by the players. The game did move a little slow with six players (and each of us having 3 hunters and a hound). However, smaller groups or fewer players would solve that. Of course, a little less poor rolling (fewer activation failures) might make it go faster, too! Still, we killed a tapir, a couple macarenas, and one other beastie that I forget about. A fun evening, channeling our distant ancestors and their attempts to hunt enough to keep from starving, all the while eluding those that would eat us!

Another herd of animals flees towards us, providing my band with fresh targets