Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: NickNascati on December 10, 2019, 11:39:48 PM
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All,
I just watched a fascinating documentary on the demise of the Neanderthal and their interaction with more modern humans. What rules are out there that handle skirmishes between tribes of 6 - 12 figures? Hunting could be a side thing, but tribal action should be the main focus. I want simple rules.
Nick
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Tribal: Primeval would be my first choice. Uses the standard Tribal rules, then adds a nice selection of Prehistoric elements/options to give it the right flavor. Great stuff, and very versatile.
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What can you tell me about it, complexity, etc.? I'm looking for simple rules.
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IIRC, 5 man squads for troops broken up by weapon, long, short, or ranged, with multi-wound heroes/leaders as their own units. All actions, combat and movement, are made with a standard deck of playing cards. No dice at all.
Games are fought over honour. a point system that is used to do morale, 'army' building, and victory conditions all in one.
Super simple, but lots of flavor based on period. I've played prehistorics, Norse, Maya, and Trojan War battles all pretty effectively.
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http://northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=255&cat=140&sub=524&page=1
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I second Tribal and its Primeval supplement. Simple yet versatile.
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Nick, I admit that I bought a copy of Tribal and haven't played it. My impression is that it would be best to have more than 6-12 figures per side for an interesting game. Again, I haven't actually played the rules. The pdf is inexpensive enough to buy on speculation.
For simple rules with 6-12 per side, take a look at Ganesha Games Song of Drums and Tomahawks. The rules are written for North American frontier skirmishing in the 18th century, but could easily be adapted to paleolithic skirmishes. Eliminate muskets and bows, and pencil in thrown rocks and spears and/or spear throwers for short range missile weapons, it should work.
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You have Fistful of Lead, don't you? Surely that's ideal?
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Elk101,
Yep, that was my first thought.
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Irv,
Hmmn, I hadn’t thought of Drums and Tomahawks. I guess that would work. I think I still have it.
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Nick, I admit that I bought a copy of Tribal and haven't played it. My impression is that it would be best to have more than 6-12 figures per side for an interesting game. Again, I haven't actually played the rules. The pdf is inexpensive enough to buy on speculation.
Correct, 12 miniatures is the minimum recommended for Tribal (1 Chief, 1 Hero and 2 units of five Warriors each). That said, the games are still pretty interesting once you add Skills and scenarios into the mix. Recommended upper limit is adding another 1-2 Heroes and 1-2 units of five Warriors each.
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I have the pdfs of both, gifted by a friend. 12 figures seems like a lot to me for the type of warfare the rules portray.
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12 figures seems like a lot to me for the type of warfare the rules portray.
I think that Tribal was originally oriented toward warfare among neolithic farmers, where war parties might range from a dozen men or more from a village up to a couple of hundred men for a major effort by a complex chiefdom. Whereas paleolithic hunter-gatherer bands would be much smaller; 6 to 12 fighting men from a band of 30 to 50 souls seems reasonable to me. I recently read an estimate that the entire population of ice age Europe from the Urals to the Atlantic may have been no more than a few thousand people. Tundra doesn't support many apex predators per hundreds of square miles.
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Yeah, I think Tribal is designed more for historical periods, it has examples for Maoris, Aztecs and Vikings. So a bit beyond small village groups.
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Couple of vids on it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ35jXdP_nk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ35jXdP_nk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41c2UWQwsNs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41c2UWQwsNs)
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I still think Primeval would do the trick. The Honor mechanic will give the battles a mechanic to determine when a side will break/lose, and why each combat is important. Otherwise, line em up, throw a few rocks, wait for hand to hand to resolve itself, and end.
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Tribal plays fine with small warbands. A bonus is the hunting and creature rules in Primeaval.
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We use Tribal Primeval.
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=102684.msg1274801#msg1274801 (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=102684.msg1274801#msg1274801)
We are also creating some custom cards, which Mana Press and Eureka say they might publish.
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We have played the Primeval campaign right through, here are a few shots.
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Looks great. I placed an order today for two tribes of Lucid Eye minis (birthday gift to myself). Still need to source out animals.
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Another vote for Tribal/Primeval. Since my Neanderthals and Cro Magnon aren't completed yet, we've played it with both North European Bronze Age groups and even Minoans. Both worked perfectly.
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https://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/shop/bear-hunt-deezee-rearing-bear-and-cavemen-set-28mm/
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Leadasbestos,
That is a nice set and nice figures. Funny though, the Lucid Eye figures are all bundled up, while those are just the opposite. I guess one could not use them together.
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I just watched a fascinating documentary on the demise of the Neanderthal and their interaction with more modern humans. What rules are out there that handle skirmishes between tribes of 6 - 12 figures? Hunting could be a side thing, but tribal action should be the main focus. I want simple rules.
While I have a number of paleo hunting games on my shelf, for a low-figure count low-tech skirmish game, my recommendation is Steve Jackson Game's The Fantasy Trip Melee. A new edition of this is back in print, and it has always been superb for small action combat. Melee is just the combat system from The Fantasy Trip RPG; stick with stone-age tech weapon choices and you're good to go. Add Wizard if you want to bring fantasy shamans to your tribes.
Melee is designed as a boardgame to be played on a hex grid, but converts easily enough to open miniatures play if you put the figures on hex shaped bases. Or with a little pencil waving, any other preferred basing. Basic critters like bears, wolves, and snakes are covered; adding others to taste is simple.
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/the-fantasy-trip-melee