Baron Otto Von Klaus set off into the jungles of east central Africa in search of a rumored male lion and a rhino that have been seen. He is accompanied by his gun bearer Kumnambe and two porters, Narungo and Butamkay.
The Baron has a bush craft of 4 and carries a finely crafted .416 Rigby rifle, his hunting knife and a side arm, Kummambe has a military rifle, hunting knife and carries all the ammunition for both weapons and is a Bush Craft of 3. Both Narungo and Butamkay have a Bush Craft of 2, are unarmed and carry the Baron's laundry and hat box. Bush Craft in The Lion Eats Tonight is the score that determines quite a lot in the game from how many activation cards a player has (whether a hunter of animal) and if you can successfully accomplish emergency actions or avoid losing your boot.
In the solo game mode I randomly place chits on the game table marked either rhino or lion on the top with all being dummy markers with the exception of one for each animal. Lions have a Bush Craft of 5 so 5 chits are placed about the game space and rhinos only have a Bush Craft of 2, therefore there are only 2 chits one being the actual rhino. The Lion is named Simba (of course) and the Rhino is known as Derick.
I now add two cards for Derick in the action desk, five for Simba, four for the Baron and his party, as well a card for Herds Wandering as there are a group of gemsbok deer on the table, and a single Wind Changes card. If the Wind Changes card is drawn the turn ends regardless of how often you have gone. Time to shuffle the deck and bring on the Baron and his party.
The Baron and his party venture into the verdant wilds.
The first turn not much happens except the gemsbok catch a whiff of the Baron's aftershave and start heading in the opposite direction. The Baron, Simba and Derick take in their turns to move about seeking the best spot to act. A nearby area of tall grass appears to shows signs that a lion may be nearby so the Baron investigates. As it turns out nothing is there and one of the lion markers is removed. (Being that it was a dummy chit.)
Second turn and Simba gets more than a few cards early to move about and set up multiple areas to perhaps spring upon the white monkey with the funny hat. "What is a hat?" Simba wonders. Since I am playing the Baron I am taking it cautious with my movement. In TLET you can either sneak, move/walk normally or run. For humans this is 1 die, 2 dice, and 3 dice respectively. If you roll any sixes you have to check against your Bush Craft to avoid something bad happening. This can range from stepping into a pit of spikes to losing your boot. Animal players do not have to worry about this sort of thing as…well they have better sense.
During the second turn the Baron rolls a 4 and a 6 for movement but avoids any mishap by rolling a 3, therefore under his Bush Craft of 4. Simba attempts to get closer with each of his counters while Derick is content to meander in the verge. The gemsbok decide to keep moving out of sight.
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The Baron again finds a false trail and another Lion chit is removed as not being…well a lion. The wind changes early and so end turn two.
Turn three and now both the Baron and Simba are stalking one another. Who will be the hunter and who the hunted? Derick really does not seem to care and munches on some yummy jungle ferns. Before the turn ends the Baron finds another false lead and now Simba is down to just two chits.
Turn four goes to the Baron early and I take a risk to investigate another possible clue as to Simba's whereabouts. This is risky as the tall grass will provide cover for Simba if it proved to be him and he will be within easy charging distance of the Baron. However, this too proves a false lead but now we know where the lion really is.
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Simba is now revealed and with his card coming up decided to make a run attack at the Baron. Simba rolls 5, count them, FIVE dice for running! His score adds up to 14 inches well within reach of the Baron and his party. With a roar Simba charges out of the jungle eager to rend some hairless monkeys.
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The Baron seeing the charging lion makes ready to bring the beast down with a well-placed shot. Human players being charged by an animal bent on doing some real serious harm have to make a morale test by rolling under their Bush Craft. If successful the humans can attempt to then roll to take a set of up to 3 emergency actions. The Baron rolls a 1 he is cool as cucumber. Kumnambe also rolls under his Bush Craft of 3 and makes ready to help his employer if need arises. Narungo rolls a 6, drops the Baron's laundry and bolts like a bunny. Butamkay keeps his cool (he rolled a one as well) but wonders what good a hat box will be against an angry lion. The gods are crazy he thinks.
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Having kept his cool and carrying on like a gentleman the Baron raises his Rigby to fire. I declare the three actions, I will shoot, reload, and shoot again if needed. However, I fail the first roll which means it does not matter if I would have succeeded at the others. So the Baron does not fire at all which is good for his reputation as having shot and missed would have cost him reputation points. I should mention at this time the way you win at TLET is by gaining reputation. You will not lose reputation for not having shot but will for shooting and missing. I know that is kind of different from all those other games.
Well this is a solo game and while Simba could chose to divide his attacks among all three hairless monkeys I figure he wants to go full on with the one wearing the funny hat. The Baron has a total of 4 hit points. Based upon that Bush Craft rating you see. Simba on the other hand being a lion has quite a few more. Ten to be exact. Things do not look good for the Baron as Simba pounces on him!
In hand to hand combat, which is a bad idea for humans against the wild life roll a number of dice equal to their Bush Craft. Which means the Baron rolls 4. Simba on the other hand being a lion rolls 6 dice as Bush Craft is not as important for the animals you see except to determine their action cards and chits for hidden movement. Whether shooting or going mano a lion and regardless of the number of dice rolled you are looking for sixes. In hand to hand the first six rolled will cancel out one six of your opponent but only one. All the others count. Any six rolled is then rolled again and the number generated is the number of wounds taken. Both Simba and the Baron roll their respective dice and both only roll one six. For the moment the Baron is not a meal and Simba is confused as to why the monkey is still alive.
The next card drawn is the Baron's. Seeing that his rifle is usless at this point he drops it and draws his hunting knife. If he is going to die he going to die fighting. Both the Baron and Simba roll their respective number of dice again and both fail to score a single hit! Meanwhile Nurango is a half way to Mombasa by now, Butamkay is searching the hat box for anything that might be useful, and Kumnambe decided that joining in fisticuffs with a lion is a bad idea, but another not so good idea is trying to shoot the lion while it is trying to eat his employer. Regardless it's the best option at hand other than leaving the Baron to his fate and Kumnambe is too loyal to do that. In TLET you get a number of dice to roll for shooting depending on a number of factors. Leave it to say if you have a clear shot, at short range, with a quality weapon, and a high Bush Craft you are going to roll a lot of dice. As many as 14 or more! However, looking at this situation I decide that Kumnambe will get two and if one of more of those dice comes up a one he has shot the Baron instead. Kumnambe takes aim and fires. He scores a two and SIX! He hits Simba and rolls five wounds. Half of Simba's hit points!
"OUCH!" roars Simba. Derick looks up from snacking ferns, and the gemsbok make haste.
The next card is Simba's and once again he and the Baron flail away at one another causing no wounds other than the Baron's fine hat is getting scuffed and chewed and his boots are going to need a good polishing if he lives through this. Kumnambe reloads. Butamkay is looking for good sized rocks to use as an improvised weapon. Nurango is long gone.
The Baron's card comes up next (where is that wind change card?) he and Simba exchange blows and the Barons lands two SIXES! He rolls a two and three for a total of five! That was all the hit points that Simba had left and plunging his hunting knife deep into the lion's breast the Baron is victorious!
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Slowing standing up and shaky the Baron dusts himself off, replaces his mauled hat and inspects his fallen foe. The rhino can wait another day a gentleman cannot continue to go a safari looking so disheveled and dirty.
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
