SUCHOMIMUS HUNT ON THE LAVA FIELD

Our chosen map for this special playtest. 

Small note from Arthur: Charles wrote out this next battle report, one of the things I wanted Charles on board for was his creative writing chops. Charles is less familiar with the bulk of the rules for Cretacea and Dinosaurs in general, but this makes him valuable to the team and the game. It is this learning approach that allows us to create a rounded and fair game as he questions things and helps make valuable changes. Enjoy the read! 

​Following last week’s playtest, Arthur and I have gone through the rulebook and clarified things, like sorting combat into phases, and added cool, new stuff, like the entrapment rule, both of which we'll see in the battle report below, detailing our latest playtest.
 
We added more dinosaurs for this game, with me fielding the three hungry suchomimus dinosaurs on the left and Arthur with the tank-like ankylosaurus on the right (who he called Uncle Anky), and two tiny kosmoceratops (Which are new to me and are like a smaller edition of the triceratops) hiding behind the rocks (and who he called Kosmopolitan and Kosmometro, from top to bottom).

We named our dinosaurs as we thought it was fun. 

Evelyn and Leila, from top to bottom, left), and ready to charge forward at Uncle Anky.
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I didn’t know the defence values of Uncle Anky, but it’s clearly a heavily armoured creature, and so I deployed the girls together, ready to overwhelm Uncle Anky by number.

Either our jump system is to easy or i rolled to well but all of the girls managed the rivers of lava without hesistation...maybe they where just hungry?

Above, the girl-gang rush forward, but are the jump rolls too easy?
What games have you played with cool jump mechanics? Let us know in the comments! At the moment we’re looking at linking a jump-skill to a dinosaur’s leg-hide.

We used the built in pen tool to breifly determine which lava spots where active and dangerous. 

The first two turns saw no combat but were not without peril. Viola and Leila passed their smell-checks on turn one and therefore got a free move on top of their regular move, while Evelyn passed hers on the next. All three of them passed their jump rolls over the rivers of lava, leaving them unscathed for combat.
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Uncle anky as he was rammed against the board edge. 

Here we see the end of turn three and an example of two important mechanics: grazing for victory and entrapment in combat. Let’s break it down:

Grazing
Kosmometro and Kosmopolitan on the left have failed all their spot-checks so far and have peacefully grazed along the board, not even seeing Uncle Anky being charged behind them. This means they can’t react to the combat but also that they’ve managed four of the eight grazes necessary for victory!

A picture from turn two demonstrating the grazing. 

Entrapment
Uncle Anky grazed once, and then spotted Viola approaching on the right. Fleeing in reaction, he found himself in safer spot and chose to graze again. However, Evelyn, in the middle, then charged his side and trapped him against the board edge! Note that Uncle Anky doesn’t have space to turn (his base can’t move off the board-edge, to be precise), and therefore he can’t use his frontal attacks: ram and bite; nor can he swing his great tail! He does however manage to stomp her head as she snaps at his legs!

The new entrapment rule ensures that herbivores are more weary of that "safe" zone near the board edge. 

Most dinosaurs have a preferred area of attack and this will be noted on profiles in the new edition, in this photo Uncle anky get's ready to use his tail whip. 

​How will Uncle Anky possibly survive!? What do those arrows mean? And what’s with the “+6”?
Well, dear reader and fellow dinosaur enthusiast, let me first show you how brutal dinosaur fights can be and second how tough the Sherman-tank-armoured ankylosaurus is.
Arthur decided here to have Uncle Anky disengage from Evelyn’s attack, move forward, showing his rear, and then swing his enormous club of a tail at her. At this point we discussed whether dinosaurs (Anky in this case) could charge or sneak while backing up into combat, but promptly found that silly, so no charge-bonus for Anky here!
Viola roared to bolster Evelyn’s attack and Leila roared to intimidate Uncle Anky. Here’s how the attack went down:
I rolled a 1D6 for Evelyn’s bite at Uncle Anky’s legs and needed a 5 to deal one damage or a 10 for double damage. I didn’t know the ankylosaurus’ defence stats, but guessed (accurately, I later found!) that even with a defence of 5 the ankylosaurus’ legs are still its weakest hide area!
 
I rolled a 3 and got:

• + 2 for the suchomimus’ powerful bite attack (It’s actually +3 but Uncle Anky stomped her head, remember? So it’s damaged now.)
• + 1 because Uncle Anky is fleeing
• + 1 for charging
• + 2 for Evelyn’s bolstering roar

Leila roared at Uncle Anky, which decreases the power of his attack, but doesn’t bolster Evelyn’s. So for Evelyn’s attack, I rolled 3 + 6 (the above modifiers) = 9. A strong roll, but still only one damage to Uncle Anky’s legs!

The Kosmoceratopses, who had up until this point both been meandering and grazing along the board edge (in a passive state) now become alert due to the fleeing Uncle Anky moving into their peripheral field of vision. This made them alert, giving them more agency over their actions, and Arthur sent them into combat to support their Uncle Anky. (That’s right, they’re a cute, little family)
Above, Kosmopolitan turns and supports Uncle Anky with a bolstering roar, while Kosmometro moves around the terrain and charges Leila from behind.
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Uncle Anky pivots to block the passage against Evelyn and prepares to swing his massive tail. He then walks into combat, stealing away from Evelyn her ability to charge and get an attack bonus.
 

Now I originally planned on sending at least two of the girls at Uncle Anky, but as it stood, both of them would have to face down his dangerous tail, but now Kosmometro showed himself, so I thought Viola and Leila, two badass suchomimuses in a larger size class could easily take him down, right?
Here’s the thing, alert dinosaurs that are charged are allowed a reactionary attack, and a Kosmoceratops is like a cute, little version of the triceratops, but with no less deadly head attacks, as I soon found out:
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Leila charged and Kosmometro dealt double damage to her legs as she went in. This was one of the best moments in the game; narratively speaking, it was badass to see a tiny Kosmoceratops hold his own against to, giant suchomimuses.
 

This playtest gave us a lot of new ideas to work with, mainly the introduction of the “Opportunity Phase”, where a player makes attacks of opportunity, such as reacting to charges and attacking a fleeing enemy. This means that the movement phase is kept just for movement and the combat phase just for combat.
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It’s fun and satisfying to see improvements with every play-test, and especially so when we know people already enjoy the Cretacea 1st edition and are excited for the second.

Do you want to see any dinosaurs play-tested? Are you just excited for the game? Please tell us! When it’s just two blokes working on a game for the world it’s motivating to see people as hyped as we are!

​CHARLES 
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