Palaeo Diet – The Hunt

We interrupt our normal scheduled Nuts WW2 games to go back to the Neolithic period for a bit of Dino hunting. I have found fast Internet in a Bar - Whoopee.

The Shell Clan a small Neolithic band of Hunter/Gatherers need sustenance. The sea shore was providing slim pickins, shell fish are not very filling, they are too primitive to make nets to fish and so slabs of meat were called for.

I've written about the Clan that are now known as the Rock Ugly Clan earlier on the Blog but these were the first games I played using the Palaeo Diet rules and using the fair haired Shell Clan and I posted them on LAF back in Dec 17, so sorry if you've already read them, but if your memory's like mine you might have forgotten by now.
Just a thought but if anyone is offended by semi naked 28mm figures you need to see a professional Doctor about it, but look away now ;-)

The Clans are based on the film 1,000,000 years BC, the fair haired Sea Shore Clan and the Dark haired Inshore Clan, it saved wearing white and black hats I suppose. I think I may have got confused naming the characters in my Clans who were all supposed to have been in the film but it's not important.

This was my 1st game using the rules. having read some of Nic’s game reports (Nic is the rules writer) it seemed to me that the rules and concept of the game should provide the sort of fun and slightly chaotic games that I like.

The Shell Clan is watching the Food move slowly westwards, they have been driving them for three new suns across a desolate landscape and the Food is slowly getting weaker. On this new day the sun will rise and the Clan will make their kill.

Their only hope of survival in this savage land is to use their one big advantage over the wild and generally very big things roaming the plains and that is their brains, and so they had a plan.

The females of the clan were adept with a sling and had a good supply of rounded river stones. They would push the Food into the arms of the men, who were clumsy and stupid but strong and brave.

Tohana and Kee’Ak the males would move around the beasts and hide, then the smart ones Ayah and Luana would drive the Food on to them and into the trap. I know it’s not a very clever plan but it could work.

Tohana and Kee’Ak are seen here circling around the Food.

Close ups of our bronzed and magnificently muscled Cavemen

The Brains of the operation.

Ayah and Luana are driving the Food into the trap.

Kee’Ak has worked his way round in front of the Food and Ayah pelts the Beast with stones from her sling and it starts to lumber forward towards Kee’Ak. I love it when a plan comes together.

The Food comes within range and Kee’Ak throws his spear – and MISSES. Oh bugger that thing has big horns.

In the background you can see the Beast that Kee’Ak missed didn’t gore him but is lumbering away from him and towards Ayha.

In the foreground Luana has pelted her rump steak with stones and wounded it, causing it to run from her.

The Beast is getting close to Ayah, she slung stones at it and so it turns round and moves back to Kee’Ak. It must be getting dizzy right about now.

1st Rule of Hunting “Make your prey dizzy”

It doesn’t look as if anything has happened here but Kee’Ak has charged forward, but failed an activation, the Beast has attacked him, it’s horns missing vital organs by a fingers thickness. The beast backs away and Kee’Ak attacks again, the beast roars at him and Kee’Ak retreats away from the ferocious sound and they both end up where they started.

2nd Rule of Hunting “Stick your prey with the sharp pointy thing before it sticks you”

Luana drives her beast towards Tohana, well this was the plan.

3rd rule of hunting “Always follow the plan”

It charges forwards and attacks him but causes no damage, he responds with a wicked blow from his trusty stone axe and gives it a wound. The Beast moves back and Tohana has run out of activations and lets it go.

Luana tries to attack the Beast but she fails an activation and it attacks her first, the fighting is fierce, first one strikes, then the other, back and forth. The beast finally sticks her with one of it’s horns and that nasty looking mould line causes a jagged wound.

In the other hunt Ayah has pelted the Beast with sling shot but this only makes it angry and it charges at her, fortunately it fails to move far enough to make contact.

4th Rule of Hunting “Always stay calm”

Rather than run away she pelts it, yet again missing and it attacks her but she dodges nimbly aside.

5th Rule of Hunting “Practice more with your slingshot”

Kee’Ak lopes towards the fight to help Ayah and the beast reacts by moving away.

Tohana rushes to aid Luana but fails an activation and the beast attacks Luana before he can get there. This is getting serious, the Beast is no longer behaving like Food as it gives her another wound and she drops to the floor.

6th Rule of Hunting “Don’t fight creatures bigger than yourself with a knife”

Tohana wounds the beast and in return the beast wounds him before backing away, narrowly missing Ayah in the process.

I keep the wound counters for the figures on their Stat Cards but I haven’t made any for the Dino’s so they are on the table, it takes 4 wounds to kill a Giant Grazer and so one more and he is down and the clan can feast.

Ayah fails an activation and the beast attacks her but doesn’t do any damage. She however sticks it with that little sharp pointy knife and causes the final wound that kills it.

7th Rule of Hunting “If you must use a knife use a sharp one”

In the background Kee’Ak moves in and attacks the other beast behind Ayah and wounds it. The fight continues until the beast moves away.

Tohana fails an activation over on the left side of the board and so the beast attacks Kee’Ak wounding him, then Ayah charges into the fight but the beast backs away, she pelts it and it changes it’s tiny mind again and attacks her causing a wound. Kee’Ak is back in the fight and fails his attack but the beast backs up and they decide to let it go. They both have a wound and another could prove fatal.

8th Rule of Hunting “Don’t play with your food”

The game scenario calls for the clan to gather 4 food units and one of these Giant Grazers is worth 4 units so a win but at a cost, all the clan are wounded and Luana has 2 wounds which could prove fatal.

Final Rule of Hunting “Only kill what you can eat”

Or should that be “You only eat what you can kill”.



So to round up, I did not have a Clan leader and had not given anyone a trait before the game, my usual half ars*d approach, but the campaign rules provide a recovery chart and an advancement system.

Luana had 2 wounds but a good roll on the after game chart means she survived and is able to take part in the next hunt although is lame from the leg wound and can't move fast.

Tohana only has a little scratch and recovers quickly with no ill effects.

Kee’Ak’s wound was more serious and if he had had any traits he would have lost them, but he is OK for the next hunt.

Ayah’s wound was also a little more serious than was first thought and she also is going to be lame and slow in the next hunt.

Tohana was the only one to recover without a penalty and so he gets the man of the match award and gains a trait and becomes Alert. A useful trait for a hunter intent on survival on the edge of the world.


Just some thoughts on the game and rules.

The game lasted about 2 hours, I had spent some time creating a reference sheet and pretty much have everything on 2 sides of A4.

I found the rules worked well, they are not too long and I had 2 reads through before the game and obviously referred to them but apart from a few things they are clear and easy to understand.

I did struggled a bit with the concept of the activations.

A hunter may activate and carry out between 1 and 3 actions depending on die results, this means he could move into contact but not be able to do a fight action, whereas a Beast making an attack action automatically fights.

When a hunter moves close, to attack a beast, the beast reacts and takes its action before the hunter, so I was finding that the beasts usually got the 1st strike.

When I had a beast between 2 hunters it behaved a bit like a yoyo, going back and forth between them, they move directly away from the cause of the action.

I had 3 games in 1 day and didn’t feel at the end that I wanted to change anything yet and I am a great rules tinkerer, so that is in their favour.

Final note - you may have been a bit surprised to see waggon tracks across the board, I believe this is evidence that the wheel was discovered much earlier than previously thought. I am sending my findings to National Geographic.


Well if you are still here - thanks for reading and your thoughts and comments make it all worth while.