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Stone Age |
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Availability:
In stock
List Price:
$44.95
Our Price:
$33.95
You Save:
$11.00 (24%)
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 | | Stone Age Images: | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | Our Rating:
Our Review:
Stone Age is one of those games that is so much fun to play once you get into the swing of things that you won’t mind the time you invested learning the rules, or that this game can take a little longer than many others to wrap up. The artwork is very nicely rendered, the pieces are fun to play with, and the theme is delightful. Stone Age successfully meshes a strong theme with interesting game mechanics, giving the sense that neither has undue emphasis.
And Stone Age is simply a lot of fun to play! There are interesting little pieces to collect and numerous decisions to make each turn, but the flow of the game keeps things moving at a good pace. The first time I played I found myself an hour and a half into the game, just enjoying the process and not really caring that it was so late or even who was winning.
The strategy has a light feeling to it, but actually runs deep. There are many paths to victory and enough chance (provided by dice) that there isn’t really any deep strategic analysis to slow things down. Yet, the player who can recognize and seize opportunities effectively can utilize skill to overcome luck quite easily. You certainly don’t get the feeling that the winner was chosen randomly; this is definitely a strategy game, just one that forces you to constantly reevaluate your approach.
In Stone Age, players simply try to advance their civilizations (or “families”) by gathering raw materials, constructing buildings, gathering cards of specific worker types, and hunting and growing food. This process involves managing scarce resources and limited move possibilities, and reacting to other players’ moves. Two “family” members can bring a baby into the fold, and feeding all the hungry mouths becomes more and more challenging—unless you focus your efforts on farming, which can become self-sustaining.
Another great aspect of this game is that all players are active nearly all the time. Rather than long single-player turns, the game proceeds in rounds with each player taking turns being the first to choose among many options, but each player getting a choice during every round. This keeps all players engaged and thinking, yet the pace of the game seems to move steadily onward.
Supporting two to four players, ages 10 and up, this is a great game for couples or families. The theme is sure to delight young and old and there is enough variety in strategic options to keep this game interesting for a long time. We love Stone Age and give it our highest recommendation, as our winner of the Best Strategy Game award for 2008.
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User Reviews:
| Exellent Multi-player
I played this for the first time last week. I think that this would be a great game to play several times to try the different strategies available. Highly recommended. I've only played with 4 people, so I'm not sure how game play is with fewer people (I'd imagine a it may be a little easier), but the 4 player is great.
by Danny (Sep 18 2011)
|  Fun and light
It's a fun, light game with a nice balance of fiddly bits and simple rules. We found it lacked a certain depth, but maybe I'm biased towards more complicated games...
by Garth (May 19 2011)
| Mesmerizing
Uau!
This STONE AGE surprised me in a way I had forgot. The game has it all: it is good and fun for casual gamers and for gamers that love a PUERTO RICO, for example.
The mechanics are fairly simple, but you have a whole awful lot of possible decisions and investments to be made in a turn, going from hunting, increasing your population, collecting wood, clay or gold, and choosing buildings and civilizations cards (this last two is where you´ll score points).
There's almost no way to know who is gonna win. When getting a building, the player scores immediately and this can be seen by everyone, of course. But the big final scoring happens only once when the game ends. STONE AGE uses the fairly good mechanism of possible "triggers" that determine the game end, avoiding the game to last more than 90 minutes.
The components, the game box, the game board, are outrageously gorgeous, including the nice touch of a leather cup to roll the dice. Rules book is concise, precise and clear as a crystal. You certainly won't need to check rules clarifications in websites like Board Game Geek, whatever.
A pleasant surprise, a top product. I'm becoming a huge fan of Rio Grande Games releases of Eurogames.
by Mauricio from Brazil (Mar 17 2011)
| Great Game
I played this at the guys' night on Tuesday (when we usually meet to play "nerd games") and we had a blast playing with 4! I played it again on Wednesday night with my wife (who likes games, but less "nerd" games) and we had a blast playing with 2 (not all games are equally fun with 4 and with 2). Obviously the strategy changes, but it's a great and flexible game!
by Rob (Jan 21 2011)
| We had a blast
It took us about 90 minutes reading through the rules together to "learn" the game, but once we invested that time it was a snap to play. Even the reluctant game player in the family was enthusiastic about playing Stone Age. We are tempted to buy additionalresource and people figures (will need to color the people figures) to try a 6 player version.
by DENO (Jan 02 2010)
|  Good fun
I found stone age a really fun game to play, particularly for those who are new to board gaming. There is definitely a considerable element of strategy and although the game uses dice, the luck element is reduced due to the many times the dice gets thrown by each player. I enjoy the fact that play is fast and continuous, with many different opportunities and decisions presenting themselves. You don't sit and wait too long while everyone else plays.
A criticism from me would be that in order to get a high score and win, one must focus on collecting the civilisation cards. To me this limits the game and the strategy somewhat - it's all about who collects the most and best combination of civilisation cards. However, it is fun competing with each person to get them!
The art work on the board and cards is brilliant and really adds to the enjoyment.
I would highly recommend this as a light and easy to learn strategy game.
by Michael (Jun 29 2009)
| Great game once you learn it
Okay - first and foremost, it is a bit hard to learn this game from the instructions. There is a multi-page explanation and even then, we were all somewhat confused since there are many actions which each lead to different outcomes. So read carefully.
The game is actually quite subtle though at first you do not see it. We have played it about 10x in two weeks, and after the initial period of confusion, we have found a number of ways to win of relatively equal value. The one thing not to underestimate is the "civ cards". Those are quite powerful.
Chance is a factor, but not so much so that it is like Settlers where one person is stuck in the dark ages with 2 settlements and the rest of the folks are building multiple cities. Because the "king" rotates, you always get a descent chance at something good.
The three player version works well, though it is more fun with four.
by DL (Jan 05 2009)
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