Monday 17 April 2017

Picnic at Hanging Rock

The summer had been kind and the tribe had flourished with the birth of many new members. But the very young just cry and make waste. They cannot hunt the steppe herds, nor yet provide any useful service. With winter approaching, the tribe needs more meat and skins to survive through the lean times. But the herds are on the move, away from the tribes hunting ground to distant lands with lush grasses. The tribe has set a potentially devastating trap in the valley and must do everything it can to butcher the herds before they escape. 


In this scenario, we find our hunters closing in on a small mammoth herd in the bottom of a valley - there is also a herd of ibex-like sheep/goat creatures. Along the bluff of the hill in the distance, there are three precariously placed boulders ready to be rolled into the valley below. 

The hunters start in contact with any base edge. Snog, Urrg and Bow started up on the hill with the boulders, Ferg started behind the mammoth herd - intending to drive them on into the trap, while Dick and Muttly the hound were positioned at the far end of the valley. Their mission is to slaughter at least two bulk worth of grazers for each hunter, thereby providing the tribe with meat and skins for the winter.

In the opening turn, Ferg loped right up to the mammoth herd, waving his flaming brand wildly and driving them on into the valley. Up on the bluff, Urrg pushed the first of the boulders down the slope, successfully taking out two of the sheep/goats. The remainder of the herd stampeded back down the valley past Bow who snapped off a shot, wounding one of them, and causing them to keep stampeding across the valley.

The first boulder came to a stop shortly after reaching the valley floor. Urrg and Snog pushed the remaining boulders over the bluff. Ferg continued to spook the mammoths, while Bow and Dick pursued the sheep/goat around the valley, taking another one down. Muttley skulked up to the wounded sheep/goat (originally shot by Bow) and, in a bout of feral savagery... ripped its head clean off.


At this point we were still planning on taking down a mammoth as well. We calculated that we needed 12 bulk of prey and there was only 10 bulk in the entire herd of sheep/goats. Then the prehistoric penny dropped - we only had five hunters. We only needed 10 bulk to count it as a tribal win. 

The mammoths had really scattered at this point of the game and we could have cornered one and hoped for the best, but it was far easier for Urrg to track the final sheep goat and, even though he took a horn to the tender bits in the process, he still managed to make the kill.

The tribe had skins and meat enough to make a good start of winter and the mammoths, well, the mammoths would live to breed more mammoths as part of a responsible programme of sustainable hunting. The same cannot be said for the now extinct breed of ibex-like sheep/goats.

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