Friday, November 26, 2010

Adventures in the Lost Lands


Today I played 2 quick games using Two Hour Wargames "Adventures In The Lost Lands" (known hereafter as ALL).  A few years ago, I had written a set of rules now available at freewargames.com called "Neolithic", which attempted to give a somewhat realistic view of warfare in the California area around 10,000BC.  I thought I'd dig out my cavemen and give the rules a try.

FIRST GAME
I decided to use the Lost Worlds encounter list, figuring it would give me more adventure.  Boy, was I right!
The premise was that members of the Red Ochre tribe would explore some new territory, gathering food as they went.

The dramitis personnae:
Leader: Rep 5, club, Fierce, Born Leader
Able Bodied Villager No. 1, Rep 4, Brute, Spear
Able Bodied Villager No. 2 Rep 4, Brute, Spear
Hunter No. 1, Rep 4, Fierce, Throwing Spear
Hunter No. 2, Rep 4, Fierce, Throwing Spear
Villager No. 1, Docile, unarmed, female
Villager No. 2, Docile, unarmed, female
Villager No. 3, Docile, unarmed, female
Villager No. 4, Docile, unarmed male.

Since armed figures cannot carry food, it was necessairy to bring along unarmed figures to carry the goodies.

The terrain generated all 9 portions of the table to be clear, with 3 sections, numbers 3,4, and 7 having trails.
Section 3's trail just dead-ended in its own section.  However, section 4 and 7's trails joined at right angles.
The ER (Encounter Rating) was 2, and the 2 PEF's (Possible Enemy Force) ended up in sections 2 and 3.

Here follows the game:  Note that all double dice rolls for Activation were ignored, so turns only contain those dice that allowed Activition.

Turn 1: Cavemen (C hereafter) 4, PEF (P hereafter) 6
The leader chose to follow the trail and moved in 8" with Able Bodied Villager No. 1 taking the point.  Hunter No.4 was shadowing the group off to the left and always out of the picture.


Turn 2: C2 P1
The caveman group move forward 6" along the trail.  Both PEF's pass 0d6, and so don't move at all.

Turn 3: C2 P3
The section is empty.  And the gatherers pass 2d6 on the gathering table, and so collect 2 food points each, for a total of 8.

Turn 4:  C6 P2.  Once again the PEF's fail to Activate with 0d6 passed.

Turn 5:  C5 P2.  Everyone follows the leader around the angle in the trail.
This is an unfortunate move, as the nearest PEF activates and moves 12" towards the group, putting them at the end of the trail.  The other PEF fails to activate.  The PEF is revealed to be 2 smilodons, who separate.
The Leader takes his insight test, passes 2d6, and being Fierce, charges1/2 move, hoping to cause the smilodons to flee, and save his party.  Of course, the rest of the fighters follow him.  The smilodons counter-charge, and the hunters split up, two on each smilodon.
 The fifth hunter is unable to reach them. The gatherers, being Docile, halt.  To make a bit of die-rolling shorter, only the leader matches successes with a smilodon, even though they must split their dice between 2 attackers each.  So 3 of the hunters go down OOF.  The leader is pushed back 2".

Turn 6:  Cavemen 1, Smilodons 6, PEF 3
In the best "Monty Python's Quest OF The Holy Grail" tradition, the Leader yells "Run away!", and the remining hunter, and 3 of the gatherers follow, though only 2 pass their fast move, and 2 move only 6".
Turn 7:  Cavemen 5, Smilodons 4, PEF 6
The Leader makes it off the table, as do all but the lagging unarmed male villager, who again fails his fast move, and turns to face his fate.  The closer smilodon, having only half the meal of his buddy, fast moves after the party, sees the remaining gatherer and charges him, with fatal results for the poor guy.

After the battle, only the hunter who did not close with a smilodon, loses a Rep point, going down to 3.  The leader makes a great speech, and blames it all on him.

Lesson learned: RUN!!!!! when you meet smilodons.

Game Two:
I decided to see if the Caveman Encounter table would be better for the cavemen.
I stuck with the surviving crew, adding a Rep 4 Able Bodied Villager with club.
It was pretty uneventful.  The gatherers were able to gather all they could carry in Food Points.  The only PEF that moved into view turned out to be nothing.  However, the Leader had had enough excitement for the day, and decided to move off the opposite end of the table when the gatherers could carry no more.  So there was no chance for anyone to advance.  I'll just show a few pictures, and not go to a turn-by-turn description of the game.

The party enters the table.
The gatheres fall back, uh, gathering.
With the gatherers loaded down,
the Leader decides that discretion is the better part of valor,
and begins to lead them off the table.
The party leaves the table laden down with food.

The figures are converted from Strategem "Los Indios" in the Sugar Wars Range.  I have about double this amount of figures or more in the Red Ochre tribe, and the same number in the Ash tribe.  I have no idea how to obtain more, though I still have about a dozen I haven't converted.

Flashcove's cay

Here is the beginning of my blog, which will cover whatever I feel like in wargaming and 501st activities.  I'm one of the "godfathers" of Two Hour Wargames, so most wargames will involve Ed's rules.  I belong to the Bast Alpha Garrison of the 501st Legion, so most Star Wars material will revolve around it.  And I may comment on other things.  One thing I can promise: new entries will be spasmodic at best.