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Author Topic: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt  (Read 1291 times)

Offline agentbalzac

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Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« on: February 14, 2019, 03:46:31 AM »
c.23000 BCE

Sun, at last.  For the last week the Pebble Claw tribe have been basking in consistent sunshine - the first for months - and the tribe have stirred from the caves wherein they shivered through winter.  Berries and fruit have been coming in abundance from the daily foraging, and most of the hunters have gathered the strength and will to pick up spear and heft club, lovingly honed and repaired in the months of firelit gloom.

Yesterday Thagg the Stalker returned from a short excursion with two rabbits and much more encouraging news: a she-mammoth and her two-summers-old calf were moving north from the winter feeding grounds, following the burgeoning grasses as they emerged from beneath melting snow along the eastern shore of Lake-Where-Summer-Goes-to-Sleep. 

At a hasty fireside gathering there was excited talk and much exaggerated signing:  this was the first hunt of the year.  The tribe did not yet have the strength to drive the adult into a trap, but the calf could probably be taken down with spear and club, and would offer fresh and tender sustenance to build up strength before warm weather brought bigger herds.

***

…and so here they were, gathered in pairs in the spring sun, having formed a wide circle round the beasts as they grazed in a large clearing.  Like wolves, the hunters’ aim would be to gently ease the mother from her young, creating a gap which could be exploited.  Thagg, would sneak in and howl, trying to drive the mother off, while Urgg, Gurgg closed on the calf from the shadows of a nearby thicket.

The sunny woodland where the mammoth graze: patches of snow remain from the winter gone.  The hunters can been seen flitting through the shadows...


Chief Pointystick and the expert climber Yog would lie in ambush should the animals flee.  As a talented climber, Yog carefully clambered up a tree.  His skill with the bow meant that if required he could fire down into the backbone of the calf. 

Thagg closed in, and at a pre-arranged signal, opened his mouth to howl.  The mammoth-cow was unmoved by the hoarse cry.  Three times Thagg tried this, each time the howl dying in his mouth, clearly still swollen with some winter gripe.  Meanwhile Urgg, Gurrg and Tsganistyn advanced on the unsuspecting calf.

The hunters close on their meaty prey...


Acutely aware that soon the calf would smell trouble and return to its mother, Thagg uttered one last cry.  The She-mammoth shuffled a few metres forward, directly toward the tree in which Yog had climbed.  From his vantage point, Yog was eye to eye with the magnificent creature. The gap between the beasts momentarily opened, and Thagg ran into it.

Tsganistyn saw the moment and hurled his spear at the calf, unable to resist a cry of joy as the sharpened flint struck home a crippling wound in a precise spot near the hind-leg, fountaining life-blood.  The calf turned and cried as sudden pain seared through it, lashing out with a heavy foot and dealing Tsganistyn a dizzying blow.  From the other side,  Urg and Gurgg fell upon the beast with club and spear, breaking bone and spilling yet more blood.

The mother-mammoth turned toward her young calf, which already shuddered towards oblivion.  She ambled forward, confused, but Chief Pointystick erupted from the scrub an hurled his spear.  It glanced harmlessly off the thick matted shag but distracted the giant beast.  As one, the tribe emerged, hurling spears and rock, whooping and crying in a mix of triumph and fear.  It would not do to have an angry mother standing over her fallen calf while all manner of scavengers sought to snatch at the prized kill.

The confused she-mammoth and her dying calf:


While Urgg remained over the carcass, lest wolves and hyenas descend on the tangy scent of fresh blood, the rest of the tribe surged forward in a semi-circle, dividing the she-mammoth from her dead calf and driving her away.  Panicked and fearful, she crashed through pine-scrub and across the last patches of snow, fleeing into a long, lonely summer….

Later, the hunters gathered to thank the Great Spirit for their deliverance, and recall from dim memories the taste of fresh meat.  This was surely an omen for a good year with spear, bow and club.

After a long, lean winter, the tribe will dine well tonight.  The hunters give thanks to the Great Spirit:


*******

Great game of Palaeo Diet with two of my sons down at Perth Miniatures Gamers Group last night.  We haven’t played for a while so it was a basic hunt.  We tried the new Juveniles rules from Fireside Tales, and they worked well.  The key is to separate the animals by edging the parent away and not alerting the young calf.  This was achieved at the cost of one wound to the tribe.  Will be tricker with a bigger herd (perhaps of Aurochs, with the young protectively encircled).

Bon appetite!

agentbalzac
« Last Edit: February 14, 2019, 07:24:44 AM by agentbalzac »

Offline Irregular Wars Nic

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2019, 07:20:50 AM »
Gripping narrative! Had me on the edge of my seat.  :-*

Offline racm32

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2019, 01:44:32 PM »
Great write up and good looking table. About the the table, how have you done the patches of snow? They look like fake fur maybe?

Offline Arundel

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2019, 03:05:47 PM »
Heavens, those are some mammoth mammoths!  :o Thagg and company are brave indeed. Loved your AAR, and must agree that the whole thing looks just great! Well done, sir.

Offline agentbalzac

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2019, 01:22:51 AM »
Great write up and good looking table. About the the table, how have you done the patches of snow? They look like fake fur maybe?

Yep, they're patches of thick furry cloth (not quite fake fur - some plush fabric I picked up at a fabric store).  Normally they work as thick snowdrifts when placed over my white winter cloth, but this time they were pressed into action as late melting snow.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2019, 01:28:37 AM by agentbalzac »

Offline agentbalzac

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2019, 01:25:48 AM »
Heavens, those are some mammoth mammoths!  :o Thagg and company are brave indeed. Loved your AAR, and must agree that the whole thing looks just great! Well done, sir.

Thanks for the comments. 

Yes the mammoths are (way) over scale for 28mm - I bought them as part of a deal from ebay, scale was hard to judge.  Nonetheless they do the job in the 'cinematic' version of the stone age we prefer to play!   :D

Offline Arundel

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2019, 02:38:13 PM »
And I heartily support your doing so. They look great! Also, I forgot to compliment you on the names of the hunters - perfect. Hoping we'll see more reports in the future!   :)

Offline nervisfr

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Re: Palaeo Diet AAR - A Spring Mammoth Hunt
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2019, 12:32:44 PM »
Greate table and report  ;)

Frenchy Eric, aka Ch'ti Eric or Re-Animator
"J'ai bon caractere mais j'ai le glaive vengeur et le bras seculier"

http://chti-reanimator59.blogspot.fr[