Army Showcase: Zombies!

I've not written much about ATZ or Zombies recently.  This isn't because I have forgotten or given up, but rather because I'm trying to use the momentum I've gained from all your earlier encouragement to prepare something new.  I'm working on producing models for a sheltered housing complex (as mentioned in my ATZ campaign games, parts 2, and 3), so I have the option of playing the next game there.  Of course, this is taking a long time; longer than I predicted...

In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to show photographs of my zombie collection.  This is partly for my own benefit, as I then have a permanent record of which models I have.  But, hey - you might like to take a look too!

These zombies are from the idiosyncratic Golgo Island range.  I've added the walking stick to the old man, but otherwise they are unmodified.

Zombies from Tengu Miniatures.  Because I host games with a lot of teenage boys, I don't like to have too many naked female miniatures (it distracts them too much!), so some of the nudes have been "dressed" with green stuff.

Cold War Miniatures.  Lots of character!

More Zombies from Cold War Miniatures

Wargames Factory multi-part plastic zombies.  Yes, the one in the middle does have a portion of chips (on the ground, in the brown paper), to go with the foot he is carrying!

More figures from Wargames Factory.  I'm quite proud of the surf shorts that the centre guy is wearing.

Another small group of Wargames Factory zombies

Victory Force zombies.  Some of their huge range.

More zeds from Victory Force

Another group from Victory Force.  Mostly Star Trek crew (or re-enactors)

Full Thrust: Destroy the Planetary Stabiliser!

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away...

Federation spies have learned that the Empire has nearly finished construction of a gigantic battlestation, capable of destroying an entire planet!  If this is completed then it will be a massive setback to the Federation's plans.  So, a makeshift force of starships has been gathered together; they hope to catch the Empire napping and destroy the unfinished Planetary Stabiliser!

Special Rules

1. Fully Operational!  The Stabiliser is much more complete than the Federation imagines; apart from undergoing last-minute systems checks it is complete.  At the end of each turn, the Empire player rolls 2 dice to attempt  powering up the battlestation; these can be assigned to any of 4 different areas.  For example, he/she might decide to roll 1d6 on WEAPONS and 1d6 on SHIELDS.  If desired then both dice could be rolled for the same area.  The number of pips rolled is scored off the track for that area; when the total passed one of the given thresholds then the benefits listed for that area are gained.
2. It's a trap!  The Empire isn't quite so foolish as to leave their newest project defenseless.  There are Empire ships (to the value of 50% of the attacking forces) lying in wait.  These are "running silent" and cannot be detected over 12".  The Empire player places 10 numbered "blips" anywhere he/she desires around the board and secretly writes on each ship record with which blip it is associated.  When revealed (either by a Federation ship within 12" or at the Empire's wish at the start of any turn), the ship is placed on the board at the blip's location, initially at speed 0 and with any desired heading.

The Game

 The Planetary Stabiliser is in orbit around the class-M planet Paxis.  There are some localised asteroid/debris fields nearby and a number of (triangular) sensor blips can be seen in the middle distance.

The Federation fleet came hurtling in between the asteroid fields, trying to close the distance as quickly as possible.  The light cruiser Los Angeles and the destroyer Antelope broke right, hoping to turn back later and end up directly behind the Stabiliser.  The rest of the fleet headed straight for the target, inflicting very minor damage at long range as they came.

At this point, the Federation were dismayed by a couple of things happening.  Firstly, the Planetary Stabiliser showed energy readings and its shields came partly up.  Obviously it wasn't quite as unready as they had been led to believe!  Secondly, a trio of Imperial ships (the cruiser Goliath and the destroyers Despot and Monarch) fired up their active sensors, right in the path of the Federation flanking move.

The Imperial ships barely moved as the Federation fleet charged forward.  Goliath launched a squadron of TIE fighters; these attacked Antelope but were almost completely ineffective and lost 3 of their number to lucky PDS fire!  Federation ships concentrated their weapons on the small destroyer Despot which blew up before it could fire a shot.  However, this did save the bigger Imperial ships from much damage.

The fast-moving Federation ships scattered in all directions as they (mostly) overshot their target.  The depleted TIE squadron switched its attack to the Ibex, but was still no more than a minor nuisance.  Ibex reduced the Imperial destroyer Monarch to a drifting hulk with a lucky first strike at point blank range.  Both heavy cruisers exchanged fire as the Danube swept past at high speed, though with both ships' heavy weapons unable to fire at those arcs, damage was limited.  By this time, the Planetary Stabiliser had all shields up and was starting to bring weapons and engines online.

The Toronto and the Sable headed off into the distance, having turned away from the planet (but not slowed down much).  On the other hand, the Los Angeles and the Antelope turned towards it; at the speed they were traveling it would be touch and go whether they could make it!  Ibex was the only Federation ship that was in a good position to target the Planetary Stabiliser, having been neatly positioned right behind her.  Unfortunately for the Ibex, the Empire had the heavy cruiser Goliath right behind her!

The Beast Roars!

Up till now, the Federation ships had been only lightly damaged.  But now the main batteries of the Planetary Stabiliser came on line.  Even with her fire split between the Sable (at long range) and the Los Angeles, this came to a terrifying number of dice in each salvo.  Although neither ship was destroyed immediately, both started to take some significant hits.

The Los Angeles scraped the top of the planet's atmosphere as she barely managed to turn in time.  However, this put her at point blank range for the Planetary Stabiliser's broadside; with massive damage taken she was unable to make any effective reply.  The Planetary Stabiliser's frontal armament was now targeting the Toronto; again significant damage was done even though the firing was at a considerable range.

Now things really started to go downhill for the Federation.  The Antelope failed to make her high-speed turn.  Her captain ordered "abandon ship!" just before she smacked into the planet's Southern Ocean (no doubt causing a considerable tsunami).  A few escape pods managed to pull free.

Even as the Danube came round to try to rescue the stranded Ibex, the Goliath hit the crippled Federation destroyer with a massive salvo (20 points of damage!).

The already-battered Los Angeles took further critical hits from the Planetary Stabiliser as she overshot.  Out of spite, the Federation cruiser used her last remaining weapon to destroy the ravaged Imperial destroyer Monarch, which had been creeping away slowly for some time.  At the same time, the Planetary Stabilier's other batteries continued to rack up serious damage to the Toronto and the Sable as they tried to turn at high speed.

A vengeful Danube got a lucky warp core hit on the Goliath; she blew up almost immediately.  Unsurprisingly, Los Angeles couldn't take the close-range pummeling from the Planetary Stabiliser; she was also destroyed.

Aftermath

Unluckily for the Federation, the 2 ships that had flown across the front of the Planetary Stabiliser had both taken warp core hits (as well as much other damage); neither of them survived.  Which left just the Federation heavy cruiser Danube on one side, versus the fully operational Planetary Stabiliser on the other.  Even though neither ship was heavily damaged, the odds would have been heavily in the Empire's favour, so the Danube beat a hasty retreat while the ponderous battlestation tried to turn round.
The Empire may have lost a few smaller ships, but they didn't matter.  The Planetary Stabiliser had all but obliterated a surprise Federation attack on its own.  This was obviously a massive Imperial victory and and immense propaganda coup!

Lost Lands: Klingon Holiday (part 2)

(continued from part 1)

Prehistorica: Day 2

After a night's rest, the bridge crew returned to the same spot of the planet for another day's hunting.  "I want those targ" exclaimed captain Mor'tah.  "Nobody is to scare them off this time!"

Once again, the captain heard noises on the far side of "Dead Tree Hill".  However, when he and Sira climbed to the top to investigate, there was nothing there.  Mor'tah shook his head in bewilderment, but said nothing.  Although his crew were very loyal, it wouldn't do to show any weakness in front of them by admitting that he was getting jumpy.

"Hah, I thought so!" he shouted as a huge creature lurched slowly from the trees just ahead of him.  Sira just gaped, stunned at the size of the animal, but Mor'tah was quick to react.  He took careful aim and fired once, hitting the creature directly in the brain.  With a tremendous crash of breaking branches, it collapsed to the ground and expired.

The crew clustered round and gazed at the corpse.  "Captain, congratulations."  "That's...very impressive!"  "Look at the size of that beast!"  "Good shot!"
Only Sira, the medical officer was muted in her praise.  She had her suspicions that despite its fearsome appearance, the anatomy of the creature suggested it to be a slow-moving and dim-witted herbivore.  It would only be dangerous if you got close enough for it to stand on you accidentally.  However, she kept her thoughts to herself - now wasn't the right time.
Mor'tah thumbed his communicator.  "Transporter chief, I have a job for you!"  He turned to the rest of the hunters.  "I think we'll get a big enough pelt from this to cover the entire command deck with fur rugs!"

Once the first kill of the day had been dealt with, the party advanced in a loose line towards the river.  Since there had been animals there yesterday, perhaps they would have the same luck today?

As they advanced, Ensign Leyra wandered off on the flank.  The other Klingons hadn't noticed how far she had gone from the rest of them, but they weren't the only ones who were watching.

Peering out of the bushes at the river's edge, a huge bird waited for the moment when Leyra's back was turned.

Without making a sound, it sprinted from its hiding place and caught the young officer by surprise.  She was felled before even being aware of its presence.

Her comrades saw all that happened, but were too far away to intervene during the initial attack.  However when the bird paused to adjust the grip of its enormous foot, the other Klingons opened fire with everything they had.  Bolt after bolt hit the bird, leaving it as a smoking ruin of a corpse. [Incredibly, 9 out of 10 shots fired were hits.  Even given the size difference (Leyra: size 1, bird: size 4) I would have expected some incoming fire to hit the unfortunate ensign - but no, she was unscathed and the bird took a pounding!]

Amazingly as the hunters ran up to the corpse, Leyra was clearly conscious.  Indeed, she was trying to struggle out from beneath the bird's body, more embarrassed and angry than hurt [that 'resilient' attribute was handy!].  She had barely a scratch; just a small trickle of blood flowed from her shoulder.
"Right, back to the ship, everyone!" ordered Mor'tah.  "Leyra, you will report directly to sickbay".
"But captain!  It's just a scratch - I'm OK really."
"No arguments!  I want a proper checkup done.  And let's all think about what just happened.  P'rang - beam us up!"

Prehistorica: Day 3

 On the 3rd day of their holiday, the captain ordered Leyra to stay on board the P'Rang and catch up on some paperwork.  The rest of the hunters left the sullen ensign and returned to Prehistorica for some more trophies.

This time, they decided to start a bit closer to the river and work their way back.  Perhaps this would reduce the risk of ambushes from that direction?

 Caprain Mor'tah, Vagh and N'Kara were a little way ahead of the other two when they turned a corner in the river and came across a strange sight.  A huge beast with a domed shell was being pursued by 2 dog-like animals.  These in turn appeared to be associated with a small group of people who had almost bumped into the Klingons [it's not often that 3 PEFs are so close together and none are resolved as "nothing there"].

The three Klingons approached the strangers.  "Tell them to leave.  This is our hunting ground" hissed N'Kara to her captain.
Mor'tah called out "Who are you?  What are you doing here?"
"Kion vi faras?" responded the strangers' leader.  "Ĉu vi komprenas?"
 "I don't think our automatic translators are working on this dialect" muttered Mor'tah.  He paused and thought for a moment.  "Klingons.  We are Klingon" he said, as slowly and clearly as he could.

The strangers' leader had obviously lost patience.  He reached for his gun...

 ...but this was a language that the Klingon captain understood.  As quick as a flash, Mor'tah brought up his disruptor and shot the stranger dead.  Immediately, 2 members of the now-hostile party raised their own guns and shot back.  The other 2 charged forward as they drew their swords.  Mor'tah fell to the ground, temporarily stunned [the 'resilient' attribute proves its worth again.  These Klingons are tough!], while his companions drew their own weapons and shot down the swordsmen.

 One of the two remaining gang members turned and fled, but the other was made of sterner stuff.  He continued to fire wildly at Vagh and N'Kara; they both took shelter behind nearby bushes.  Although the stranger forced Vagh to keep hidden with a number of bullets that nearly hit him, the captain was able to recover enough to shoot the gunman dead. [Wow!  The THW reaction system means that when things kick off, they happen fast].
N'Kara approached the wounded man.  "What was that about?  Answer!" she shouted, as she shook him roughly.  The wounded man made a bubbling sound and expired.  "Weakling!" she muttered as she dropped the corpse.

Mor'tah got back on his feet groggily.  "Treacherous vermin!" he called out.  Then he set off at a run after the survivor who had fled.  He caught up with the the man after a short distance and shot him down.

Meanwhile, the strangers' 2 "dogs" were attacking the giant armadillo, although they weren't making any impression on its armoured flanks.

Vagh unsheathed his bat'leth and charged into the melee.  The nearer dog was taken completely by surprise and received a deep gash on one flank from the Klingon's attack.  It immediately whimpered and fled.  The other dog rounded on Vagh, but after being fended off once it also fled.

The armadillo was trying to make its escape whilst the dogs and the security chief squared off.  It didn't managed to get very far on its short legs before some of the other trigger-happy Klingons started to shoot at it.  Almost all of their disruptor bolts just bounced off its thick hide; only one grazed a leg.
When captain Mor'tah returned and saw this, he called out "Leave it be!  This animal is not dangerous and I see no honour in shooting it at point-blank range.  We are Klingons!"

With that, the hunting holiday ended; any other game in the area must have been scared off by the noises of the fight.  Most of the crew were very satisfied with the 3 days of sport, though Leyra was mortified to have missed out on the big fight at the end.  Both Maal and Mor'tah had impressive trophies and all had plenty of tall tales to tell!

Conclusion

I was hoping that these games would be a good test run for my "Attributes for Animals" amendments to the basic Lost Lands rules.  However, these games weren't really a very fair test.  Here are some observations about how they worked:

• The hunters were so heavily armed (and comparatively numerous) that the first reaction test for many of the animals was "Received Wound".  This isn't a test that was altered by my amendments; wounded animals will typically flee in the base rules.
• Even when the animals reacted ahead of the Klingons, most contact occurred at fairly short range.  This meant that they had only a small range of reactions (typically "charge" or "flee"); some of the more interesting middle-distance possibilities of a predator stalking its prey or a herbivore backing off slowly didn't come into play.
• The glyptodon ("armadillo") had the ARMOURED attribute; this was surprisingly effective against gunfire, though by no means did it make the creature invulnerable.

Lost Lands: Klingon Holiday

Introduction

One of the nice things about Two Hour Wargames is that the same basic mechanisms are used throughout their range of rule sets.  This means that I can mix together a bunch of my more obscure miniatures and make a game from them - provided I can come up with a plausible story.  Here is the report of a game that uses the Lost Lands rules with my attributes for animals extensions.  We introduced some characters from 5150 (the older sci-fi rules from THW, no longer available).  Actually, it's really 3 short games, using the same board...

Klingon R&R

The Klingon warship P'Rang has some spare time at the end of a mission.  Since she is in a remote part of the sector, the captain has decided to land on a nearby planet and take some of the bridge crew on a hunting trip.  The planet Prehistorica is reported to be covered in primitive trees and populated by various mammalian megafauna; the latter should be good tests of the skills of a warrior!

To add to the atmosphere, I handed a sheet of useful Klingon phrases to each player.  I then informed them that they weren't to speak in English for the duration of the game.  This drew reactions ranging from bewilderment to horror, before they realised that I was kidding.  Still, a few words did get used at semi-appropriate moments.
Sadly, no-one found occasion to try "Happy Birthday", "Open the door" or "Where is the bathroom?" in Klingon.

So, who's in the hunting party?

 As you can see if you examine the cards closely, these are a really tough bunch.  They are heavily armed and each has a load of attributes to beef them up; truly we're looking at the pick of the Empire here!  I'd be surprised if the local wildlife even got close to them...

Prehistorica: Day 1

The Klingons entered the table from the far end.  Almost immediately, Captain Mor'tah motioned to the rest to be quiet.  "I think I hear something, just on the other side of this hill" he whispered.

 Maal, Vagh and N'Kara climbed the hill to see, whilst the others crept round the side.  "There's nothing here, Captain!" they called back.  "I don't know what you heard, but it's not here!"
Mor'tah grunted in annoyance.

However, whilst the party contemplated their next move, a pair of strange-looking beasts came walking into sight around the corner of the next hill.  "Ah, I was right!  Are those targ?" muttered Mor'tah.
"Not quite accurate, captain" called N'Kara as she scanned them with her tricorder.  "These are related to targ, perhaps, but they seem to have bumps instead of proper spikes on their heads."
"Close enough for me.  Heart of targ for dinner tonight!" he responded.  "Fire at will!"

In the ensuing hail of disruptor bolts, both animals were hit, but neither was crippled.  One was bowled over, but quickly regained its feet.  The creatures then turned and fled, squealing loudly with pain and shock.  Some of the hunters ran after them briefly, but soon gave up when it became obvious that they had no hope of getting close enough to shoot again.

"That was poor!" exclaimed Mor'tah.  "I think some of you might need some extra time on the practice range."  He paused for a moment in thought, then continued "Right, here's what we'll do.  You all climb that hillock and I'll carry on and see if I can flush something out."

 There was indeed something close by.  In the vegetation at the edge of the river lurked a monster!

Perhaps the captain's movements had disturbed it, or maybe it had scented blood.  Either way, the creature suddenly charged out of cover, straight towards the hunters.  "Where is it?" called Leyra, urgently.  "I can't see it".
"That way, somewhere!" Sira replied.  "Coming up the other side, I think".
Only Maal, the junior lieutenant, could see the beast.  As it slowed slightly on the steep hillside, he leveled his disruptor carbine and put 2 shots into it.  It dropped immediately, obviously dead.

"majQa'!" ["well done!"] exclaimed Vagh, the security chief.  He turned to N'Kara and asked "Science, what is it?"
"I have no idea!" she answered.  "A predator, obviously, but not like anything in my records.  I doubt the meat would be good to eat, though."
"Sir, I'd like to have the head preserved and sent to decorate my family's dwelling" requested the successful hunter.
"Certainly.  Your family must learn of this exploit and be proud of you!" his commander answered.  He activated his communicator.  "Transporter room!  Beam us directly to cargo hold 2!  Now!"
As the party started to phase out, the captain added "...and the drinks are on you tonight, Maal!"


...to be continued (Day 2 and Day 3)


 

ATZ Event Cards: updated style

A Quick Design Experiment

I've been inspired by some recent discussion of my earlier post [here] both on this blog and on the Two Hour Wargames Yahoo group [here].  Almost simultaneously, there has also been another thread on the THW group, on tools to produce cards [here].

As a result of these I've been inspired to spend a few minutes playing with godeckyourself.  It looks as if this site may have been abandoned (I couldn't see any update beyond mid-2009), but it still seems to work correctly.  Here's the result for one of my ATZ event cards, redesigned:

It's exactly the same data on the card, but it looks much better to me.  Mind you, I'm not too happy about the very small font for the body text - I couldn't figure out any way to alter this.  Perhaps I should use this site only for inspiration (it has many different card style templates) and generate my own document?

Maybe a PowerPoint template document would be best; the background and borders could be fixed for each card and there would be "Click Here..." placeholders for the text and image fields.  So many decisions, so much work to do!

Update: the finished deck of ATZ event cards is described here.

    Hugh

ATZ: Event Cards

Introduction

Any reader of my earlier articles should have realised that I'm a great fan of game aids for the various systems that I play.  This is mostly because I host games for a large and varied group of youngsters at the Helensburgh games club; it's much easier to have pre-prepared collections of the information needed for each type of situation.  You've already seen my designs for ATZ character cards.  At some point in the future I may describe my Encounter cards (though that's still a work-in-progress).  For now, here's another of my ATZ game aids: event cards.

Random Events in ATZ

The basic rules for All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed (ATZ) has a section on random events (p.52).  This is great, but I find that in the middle of a hectic game it's not easy to find the right table, even if I can remember in which rulebook the table is located.  In any case, I feel the need to tinker by adding new events of my own and also removing or adjusting ones that don't work so well for me.

So here's what I've done: a card has been created for each event.  Each card has a full description of the event it represents as well as a picture to give it some flavour.  All we need to do when a random event is indicated is draw a card and read the result.  Simple!

Production Method

So far, I've produced the cards as PowerPoint files with 9 cards to each A4 sheet.  These are printed onto thin card which is then laminated and cut.  Warning: it's remarkably difficult to align the front and backs of cards on a cheap home printer!  To counter against errors in registration, it's best to produce designs where it won't matter if the front and the back of the sheet are printed several millimeters differently from each other.

My goal is to collect enough events to make it worthwhile making a custom deck through Artscow or a similar service.  They will print a deck of playing cards with your own images for both the back and for each front for a fairly reasonable price.  Also, they often have promotions with deep discounts, if you can wait for the right deal to come around!  However, since a standard deck has 54 cards (52 suits plus 2 jokers), I still have many more events to collect.  If anyone cares to share their ideas for new entries then I'd be more than happy to hear them!

The Cards

So, with no more ado, here are the designs for the cards.  Most of these are for the standard random events from ATZ:BDTZ, but I've added some of my own.  If you're sharp then it is possible to spot several of these events occurring in my ATZ campaign games so far:

Here are some extra events for which I haven't yet designed any cards.  In some cases, I haven't even thought through the effects properly and the event is just a title (for now):

1. Nearest zombie to a random character is recognised as a loved one.  The character must take the "zed or no zed" test immediately (even if they've taken and passed it before).
2. The street lights go out (or come on).  [what effect would this have?].
3. A door, window, fence or barricade fails and presents no further obstacle to zombies.  Either it was poorly made or the weight of zombies collapsed it.  Or maybe the zeds just found a way around/over/under it...
4. All quiet: from now on all rolls to attract more zombies have a -1 modifier to the dice roll.
5. Thousands of them!  From now on all rolls to attract more zombies have a +1 modifier to the dice roll.

Lost Lands: attributes for the animals

Background

I've always wanted to play wargames set in the Lost World, where intrepid explorers discover an unknown part of the earth that is still inhabited by prehistoric creatures.  In my case, I prefer prehistoric mammals, terror birds and the like over dinosaurs, but the principles are much the same.  Either way, a good game must involve some plausible animal behaviour and at least some threat to the humans.  This isn't easy when we're dealing with such asymmetric sides as gun-armed Victorian hunters versus unsuspecting wildlife.

Rulesets for Prehistoric Safaris

Over the years, I've collected a number of sets of rules which cover this type of game.  It's not my intention to provide a full review of each of these here, but a summary will be useful.  Each set has its own merits, but I find something lacking in every case:

• Tusk: simple "beer and pretzels" game.  Very popular at conventions, I believe, but a bit too simple and too little variety for frequent play.
• The Lion Sleeps Tonight: another "cheap and cheerful" game.  This one is technically for big game hunting in 19th century Africa, but could be adapted to a lost world.  I haven't tried it yet and so it wouldn't be fair to offer any opinion on how well it plays.
• Tooth and Claw: has the most detailed rules for animal behaviours of any rules I've seen.  It's light on scenarios and has no rules at all for encountering other humanoids.  Games I've run tend to become a shooting gallery rather than a hunt and consequently lack any real sense of tension.
• Saurian Safari: this is like Tooth and Claw in many ways, with similar advantages and disadvantages (hardly surprising, since both rulesets are written by Chris Peers).  Despite its name, it doesn't only handle dinosaurs: it also has an appendix with stats for prehistoric mammals. 
• Adventures in the Lost Lands: part of the Two Hour Wargames stable of rules.  I'm a big fan of these in general, partly because of the reaction system and partly because of the similar mechanisms between the various THW games (so if you want your T-Rex to fight against a Panzer Mk VI Tiger tank or against a horde of zombies, it could be done relatively easily).  Lost Lands has rules for encounters between different groups of humans or hominids, extensive scenario and campaign rules and you can even play as a predator rather than a human!  However, the animal reactions are too coarse-grained for my liking.  Roughly speaking, feeders ignore you and ferocious charge you. 

Adapting "Lost Lands"

Lost Lands comes closes to providing the type of game I desire.  The main issue that I have with it is the behaviour of the different classes of animals.  So, what can we do to alter this?

In Lost Lands, a creature's reactions are determined mainly by its class, though this will be modified by its REP (roughly speaking, the lower the REP, the less aggressive the creature is within its class behaviour).  There are only 2 classes: ferocious and feeder.  With a few possible exceptions, the former covers all carnivores and the latter is for herbivores.

My house rules make 2 sets of adaptations:

• New attributes and subclasses for animals.  To a large extent, attributes and subclasses are the same concept, though an animal must have exactly one subclass.  Attributes are optional and an animal may have as many as are appropriate.
• Modified reaction tables for In Sight (humanoid) and Received Fire.  These new tables make use of some of the new subclasses and attributes to provide variations in behaviour; all other reaction tables stay as in the base rules.

Animal Attributes

These could be used separately from the behavioural changes, if desired.  None of them really interact with the modified reaction tables below.

• HERD RESPONSE: roll just once for any reaction test that affects the herd (as opposed to rolling individual reactions for each creature).  What one animal does, they all do!
• BLUFF CHARGE: when a humanoid is charged by this creature, roll the reactions as normal.  If the humanoid stands his ground then the animal tests 1d6 against REP.  Pass 1d6: the charge hits home.  Pass 0d6: the animal decides to retreat instead (i.e. it turns and moves away at normal speed until it leaves the table).
• IMPLACABLE: Once the animal has decided to charge, it will not be distracted.  It won't change this behaviour until either it or its target is dead.
• POISONOUS: This doesn't have any in-game effect, but does affect the chance of survival of anything that was wounded by such a creature.  After the game has finished, the injured humanoid or animal rolls d6+REP.  On a 9 or greater, he/she/it survives.  Otherwise they die from the poison.
• ARMOURED: Attacks directed at this animal suffer a penalty of -1 to the impact of the weapon.  Note: if this reduces the weapon's impact to 0 then the attack can do no damage, though it may still cause a reaction test.
• CLUB-TAIL: if the creature has rearward defenses then it doesn't suffer any penalty when attacked from behind; it can use its full melee dice against an attack from any direction.
• POOR SIGHT: if it decides to charge then this animal will always attack the nearest character to its front, regardless of the direction from which any injury or threat might have come.  If there are no targets to its front then the animal will turn around instead (and will then charge anything it can see there in a future turn).  Note that such creatures often have good senses of hearing and smell; they are fully aware that there is a threat, but they're not too good at locating the precise cause.

Classes for Animals

Technically, these are subclasses, since the existing ferocious and feeder categories remain.  Each type of animal must have 1 (and only 1) of these subclasses:

Ferocious Subclasses

• AMBUSHER: A carnivore that prefers to lie in wait for its prey, probably making a short charge to attack when the target wanders too close.
• STALKER: A predator that will actively hunt its prey, attempting to close on it unseen before charging the last few yards.
• SCAVENGER: These are meat-eaters that prefer to eat carrion or to steal the kills of other carnivores.  They are quite capable of fighting to defend themselves or to drive off other creatures.  Scavengers will also attack and kill small or weak animals if they come across them.
  

 Feeder Subclasses

• JUMBO:  A herbivore that uses its size and/or aggressiveness as a defence against predators.  This type of creature may preempt a threat by attacking in its own right.
• GRAZER: An animal that relies on flight to escape from danger.  Grazers are often (but not always) found in large herds.

New Reaction Tables

I suggest that the "In Sight" test is also used to determine what an animal does if it has just killed or incapacitated all its melee opponents.  This will determine whether to make further attacks or to revert to feeding or to run away.

Reason	Pass 2d6	Pass 1d6	Pass 0d6
In Sight - Humanoid	Ferocious If within fast move distance of the target then charge, else: Stalker will hide in nearest cover. Ambusher will move towards target, using cover if possible. Scavenger will move towards nearest carcass (or nearest cover if there is no carcass). Feeder  Jumbo will charge (if poor sight then only charge a target to the front, else turn to face). Grazer will carry on.	Ferocious Same as Pass 2d6 Feeder Jumbo will carry on. Grazer will retreat from humanoid within 24” (i.e. make normal moves directly away from the threat until leaving the table), else carry on.	Ferocious Stalker will halt in place. Ambusher or scavenger will hide in nearest cover. Feeder Jumbo will retreat from humanoid within 24” (i.e. make normal moves directly away from the threat until leaving the table), else carry on.  Grazer will flee (i.e. move directly away from threat at fastest possible rate).
Received Fire	Ferocious Charge! Feeder  Jumbo will charge (if poor sight then only charge a target to the front, else turn to face). Grazer will carry on.	Ferocious Carry on. Feeder Jumbo will carry on. Grazer will retreat from humanoid within 24” (i.e. make normal moves directly away from the threat until leaving the table), else carry on.	Ferocious Carry on. Feeder Jumbo will retreat from humanoid within 24” (i.e. make normal moves directly away from the threat until leaving the table), else carry on.  Grazer will flee (i.e. move directly away from threat at fastest possible rate).

Animal Stats

As well as the regular statistics given in the Lost Lands rulebook, here are some examples of the attributes that I give to various animals:

• Cave Lion: STALKER
• Smilodon: AMBUSHER
• Andrewsarchus: SCAVENGER
• Dire Wolf: STALKER
• Cave Bear: SCAVENGER
• Archaeotherium, Daedon and similar giant pigs: SCAVENGER, HERD RESPONSE
• Mammoth: JUMBO, BLUFF CHARGE
• Elasmotherium: JUMBO, BLUFF CHARGE, POOR SIGHT
• Aurochs: JUMBO, IMPLACABLE
• Megatherium: JUMBO, POOR SIGHT
• Diatryma: AMBUSHER
• Phorusrhacos: STALKER
• Megalania: SCAVENGER, POISONOUS, IMPLACABLE
• Megaloceros: GRAZER, HERD RESPONSE
• Glyptodon: GRAZER, ARMOURED, CLUB TAIL

Final Thoughts

These house rules haven't been tested to any great extent.  It's possible that there will be issues with my approach, though I believe that the intent is clear enough.  I'd appreciate hearing any suggestions for refinements, discussion about my classifications or any other relevant ideas.