How to Play

Stone Age

2-4 players 60-90 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players control prehistoric tribes, placing members on board locations like hunting grounds, quarries, and trading centers to gather resources. Through strategic placement and dice-rolling for resources, tribes expand villages and advance civilization. Victory comes from accumulating points while balancing resource collection with feeding your growing population across multiple rounds.

Published 2008

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Combine with base game

This miniexpansion can be combined with the basic Stone Age game as well as with all other expansions

Shuffle Event Cards

Shuffle all 64 Event Cards and place them face down next to the game board

Include ROUTINE cards

If you choose not to use all events, it is recommended that at least one "ROUTINE" event is included

Remove incompatible cards

If you are not playing with the "Style is the Goal" expansion, remove all events relating to the merchant's track: "APPRENTICE" and "OVERPRODUCTION"

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Draw Event Card

At the beginning of each round, the Chief draws an Event Card and places it face up next to the game board

Apply event duration

The drawn Event is in effect until the start of the next round

Resolve immediate effects

Some Event Cards have immediate effects on all players (e.g., "BANISHED" and "FRIENDLY STRANGER") - resolve these effects before placing workers

Observe placing restrictions

Some Event Cards affect where workers may be placed or how many workers may be used (e.g., "FOREST FIRE" prohibits entering the Forest)

Apply gathering effects

Some Event Cards affect resource gathering (e.g., "MOTHER LODE" gives all Gold gathering parties one extra Gold regardless of die roll)

Follow building modifications

Some Event Cards affect building Huts (e.g., "RENOVATION" allows surplus resources of one type to substitute for other required resources)

Use end-of-round effects

Some Event Cards allow placing workers on the card itself - these workers are collected at the same time as other workers, before feeding, with their effect taking place when collected

Handle Tribal Warfare

When forced to flee from a gathering place due to "TRIBAL WARFARE", workers return to the tribe and may be placed again following regular rules

Winning

How to claim victory.

Standard victory conditions

The game follows the same victory conditions as the base Stone Age game, with Event Cards modifying gameplay but not the win condition

Account for point modifications

Some events affect scoring during the game (e.g., "INFLATION" makes resources give one point less when building huts; "DEFLATION" makes resources give one point more)