Animals of the period
The beasts of Messalith's world: birds, bees and three-toed horses on the battlefield now, and mastodons, sabre cats, giant tortoises and more modelled.
The animals of the dry-sea world are scenery. They never touch the rules: no cover, no blocking, no line of sight, and nobody can target them. Like the plants, they are drawn from Europe's fossil record, and the world keeps its own rules where the record runs out.
On the battlefield now
Crows, doves, swifts and quail feed and wheel at the board's edge and scatter when the squad comes near. Only an owl flies at night. Wild bees work the flowers by water in the daytime. A small herd of three-toed horses grazes open country in the south.
| Animal | Size |
|---|---|
| Crow (Corvidae) | 0.95 m across the wings |
| Swift | 0.42 m across the wings |
| Dove | 0.5 m across the wings |
| Owl | 0.95 m across the wings |
| Quail (Coturnix, generic) | - |
| Mousebird (Coliidae, generic), on a twig | 0.36 m tall |
| Wild honeybee (Apis, genus only) | 0.02 m across the wings |
Modelled, still to be let loose
A second wave of beasts is modelled and rigged, and they don't roam the battlefields yet. Putting them there is the next job for the animals.
| Animal | Size | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Mastodon (Mammut borsoni) | 4 m tall | Forest, Marsh, Parkland |
| Anancus (Anancus arvernensis) | 2.7 m tall | Forest, Parkland |
| Scimitar-toothed cat (Homotherium) | 1.2 m tall | Parkland, Scrub, Steppe |
| Giant cheetah (Acinonyx pardinensis) | 1.15 m tall | Desert rim, Scrub, Steppe |
| Running hyaena (Chasmaporthetes lunensis) | 1 m tall | Desert rim, Scrub, Steppe |
| Two-horned rhino (Stephanorhinus) | 1.75 m tall | Forest, Parkland |
| Early wild cattle (Leptobos) | 1.6 m tall | Parkland, Steppe |
| Tapir (Tapirus arvernensis) | 0.9 m tall | Forest, Marsh |
| Dama-like deer (Pseudodama) | 1.5 m tall | Forest, Parkland |
| Small wild pig (Sus arvernensis) | 0.7 m tall | Forest, Marsh |
| Colobine monkey (Mesopithecus) | 0.65 m tall | Forest, Parkland |
| Giant tortoise (Titanochelon) | 0.85 m tall | Desert rim, Scrub, Steppe |
| Island goat-antelope (Myotragus) | 0.75 m tall | - |
| Giant rabbit (Nuralagus rex) | 0.5 m tall | - |
The goat-antelope and the giant rabbit are island animals, made small and large by island life.
See also plants and Ramapithecus.