Mythic Americas - Fact to FantasyThe Inuit Dogsled
Brian Heineman.
Game Designer. Mythicos Minis
The dog was one of the first animals that was domesticated, and it has served as a worthy partner to humanity in many ways. The relationship between the Inuit and their dogs was special, relying on each other for survival in a climate that allowed only a narrow window for success. Inuit dogs served as guardians against Polar Bear and other dangers, could find seal holes a hunter might miss, but most notably, the Inuit used their dogs to help them quickly traverse the icy expanse of the Arctic. Inuit sleds were built for great utility, were light, and could be pulled easily due to the limited friction between the sled and the ice. Dog teams could range from just a pair of dogs to many dogs depending on the load and the journey.
In translating the Inuit Dogsled to the Mythic Americas tabletop, we thought it was important to get the right feel for this very unique unit. It was not historically used for combat like some early vehicles, such as chariots, but it was obvious that its speed and ability to carry supplies could translate well and merge from historical truth to a fantasy infused war game.
First we started with the historical and modern realities of a dogsled. The dogsled itself can move quickly over the ice and tire less rapidly due to the dog's endurance, so we gave the unit Fast 6 to represent this. We modeled the unit with five dogs and a rider who provide spear and bite “hand to hand” attacks, but very little strike value (SV) to bypass armor, so the dogsled is best used against lightly armored warriors. To take into account the fact that the dogsled needs to function as a team, not a series of individual warriors, the unit uses the Monstrosity ruleset and has a high resistance value to represent the speed of the dogsled and difficulty in landing a solid strike on a vital part of the unit.
After this, we wanted to add some fantastical elements to the unit. The first was a single magic spell that represented the dogsled carrying supplies around the battlefield for other units. We titled this ability, “Healing Salve” and allowed it to remove pins for units or wounds from units with multiple wounds, like the Tuvaak Master or Angakkuq. Next, we experimented with a new weapon type, a grenade weapon. We imagined the whale oil lamps of the Inuit being turned into weapons. Certainly history has many examples of weapons of this type like Greek Fire and Molotov Cocktails. The Mythic Americas version follows this pattern and the dogsled driver hurls the flaming whale fat bomb at its enemies for 2 to 4 flaming hits!
This design has created a fast-moving unit that can heal or harm as needed across the Mythic Americas Battlefield! Mythic Americas is a tabletop miniatures game created by Mythicos Minis, you can find more details and engage with the Mythic America's story at www.mythicamericas.com. This is The Way!
Oosten, J., Laugrand, F. (2014). Hunters, Predators and Prey: Inuit Perceptions of Animals. United Kingdom: Berghahn Books.
