I e-mailed the Ice Age designer; but I have gotten no reply, so I am going to open it up the the list: We have found it nearly impossible to win as the Mastodon in Ice Age. It is almost trivial to array the 10 Hunters so that every square is but one move from having three adjacent. See http://home.att.net/%7ekerry_and_ryan/IceAge.html To try to solve this problem, we proposed the following rule, which seems to help: "The Caveman that is moved to make a capture MUST NOT start its move adjacent to the Mastadon that is being captured. " In effect, the last Caveman needed to make three (or four) adjacent Hunters must have had some 'running room" and may not merely step around the Mastodon to set its spear. This prevents the 'hop around" pattern of play that makes the Hunters unbeatable. Thus, to make a Mastodon capture, the Caveman must be moved from nonadjaceny to adjacency *and* it must be the one to bring the number of adjacent Cavemen to at least 3 (or 4, if a herd). Thoughts? David