Battles Before Time

Battles Before Time is a prehistoric fantasy miniatures skirmish game for 28mm figures (as well as plastic dinosaurs & giant mammals that more or less fit with 28mm cavemen). The game is set in an alternate prehistory where our Human ancestors – the Early Modern Humans, or Emohs for short – rub elbows with Neanderthals, Dino sapiens (dinosaur men), Florz (small Emohs), & other species. Dinosaurs, huge mammals, & monsters also roam the Earth, & shamans can use powerful magic. The game consists of two parts. Part One is 24 pages long; it contains the rules (the core rules are only seven pages long) as well as a guide to the cavemen & creatures that will make up your warband. Warbands include cavemen or dinosaur men who can purchase special abilities, weapons, armor, cavepunk items, & spells. Warbands can also include heroes, dinosaurs, mammals, prehistoric “birds”, aquatic beasts, & prehistoric monsters. Part Two contains detailed instructions on how to create your warband. Players can use one of the pre-made warbands provided, or can create their own balanced warbands using a simple point build system. Part Two is 63 pages long & includes templates, more than 100 unit cards, all the tokens you’ll need (though it is strongly recommended that you purchase cheap glass beads for the simple “stone draw” system that’s used to resolve actions), a terrain placement guide, & measuring sticks. You supply the cavemen, dinosaurs, & other prehistoric figures, & we'll give you a fun excuse to play with them on a tabletop! So, stop shaving! Stop bathing! Grab a club, and let’s rock & roll! Publisher's description: Actions are based on a unique drawing of stones (the glass counter or “mana” stones available at game and dollar stores) from a cup (or coconut half!!!!) that determine what can be done in that player’s phase, so you have to be adaptable to modifying your plans e very turn. Once you get in the spirit, it becomes much more enjoyable; the rules encourage grunting, pointing, diminished speech capacity, plastic clubs, etc. Combat is fairly straightforward. When allowed, the unit’s base attack value, plus modifiers, minus any disadvantages (such as a target in cover), and drawing stones to hit. If successful, a draw of shiny stones, based on the weapon are made, and the opponent’s defense is subtracting, revealing the number of “ouchies” received. Once a unit’s “ouchies” are at 0, they go “bye-bye”.