Mirroring Reality – Implementation in the NomadSed game (continued)
Game board as a ‘Mosaic of pastures’
To do justice to this significance, the NomadSed game board consists of a mosaic of pastures with varying quality. In the course of a game, the players can take decisions – where to move with their livestock, for instance, or where to place their tent, which has consequences for the security of this pasture. Furthermore, pasture segments can be removed to scale down the playing field, thus simulating rangeland shortages or restrictions in access to certain pastures, both of which are frequently observed phenomena.
Vegetation Grows According to Grazing Pressure
The decisive constraint for livestock breeding and herd growth is the amount of biomass available as forage on a given pasture. In NomadSed, the vegetation cover of a pasture is represented by a number of green cubes representing feed units. They ‘grow’ at the beginning of each round according to pasture type, rainfall (with/without drought) and grazing pressure (with/without livestock). Later in the round, the number of cubes is reduced, according to the number of sheep grazing on the pasture. The specific rules are indicated on the sequence cards.
