Designed by: Bernd Brunnhofer
In Stone Age each player leads a tribe of people who are trying to develop their civilisation – which might sound like a heavy theme, but Stone Age is a fun, push-your-luck game that can be played as a race to the finish with younger children or a fun game with a good deal of strategy with older players.
Every player starts with five followers and during the game they send them out to different areas of the board to try and collect resources – the catch being that each follower represents a roll of a die, so players can send a lot of followers to be certain of getting a resource, or push their luck and only send one. There are limited spots for gathering resources, so this is a more tactical decision than it first appears. Gathered resouces can then be used to build huts (which score you points) or improve your civilisation in the form of civilization cards – which give both short term bonuses and scoring bonuses at the end of the game.
It’s also possible to get axes (which help you improve your die rolls) and fields (which mean you worry less about feeding your followers after each round) and increase your followers – be warned, they all need feeding! Food is the easiest resource to gather, but it can’t be used to improve your tribe, only maintain it.
At the end of each round the followers are returned to the players and a new round begins. The game ends when either the civilisation cards or one pile of huts (there are up to four piles, depending on how many players there are) run out.
Apart from the disappointment of somebody going where you wanted to - possibly to block you! - there is no direct conflict in the game.
If you play with children it's a fairly fast-moving and fun game. With older players it can slow down if someone's first choice is shut off and they have to come up with a plan B.
Not much brain-burning. On the whole the best moves are fairly obvious to you. Children may need help with the maths, which does feature heavily during play and scoring.
There is a good deal of chance in Stone Age and player order (which changes between rounds) plays a big factor in keeping the game fresh and the players ducking and weaving.
2-4
Players
8+
Years
90-120
Mins
Sam says
Stone Age is a great family game, but also a great game for adult players who don't want complex mechanics or a multitude of options to weigh them down. For all it's explorative veneer, it can also be quite feisty at times. You can deliberately block people out of certain areas on the board and go for civilisation cards you know somebody else wants. And despite the limited options there's definitely room for strategy too; I've always found the civilization cards the most likely path to victory, but I have seen opponents win by building multiple huts as well.