Rio Grande Games Stone Age
This is the English language edition of Hans im Gl?ck
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Money well-spent!
I was a little skeptical over this game when I first started thinking about buying it. A friend of mine stated that he did not enjoy it. However, I read other reviews and looked at photos of the components and made the decision to buy it. I am glad I did.
When you first open the box, you notice lots of high quality pieces, and it looks very complex. When you read the rules (about 4-5 pages) everything blends together. After you play a few turns, it all becomes intuitive. What I really like about this game is that there are many strategies to earn points, and what you focus your actions on is dictated by the strategy you want to use. You have endless options and choices, and that’s what makes this game a gem for me. I also enjoy attempting to deduce which strategy opponents might be going for, so you can take the cards and pieces that they need.
I would say that this game is appropriate for age 10 to adult, and even though kids can play it, it is complex enough to keep adults engaged. The competition is in the resource race and accumulation and there isn’t any direct war/conflict, which I usually enjoy. But I really like this game. It plays in about an hour with 2-4 players.
5 Stars Stone Age
This game is great!!!!!!!! Super fun!!!!
Its semi tough to learn a good way to play.
I’ve won 8 outta 8 times. So the game really has to be played with an idea in mind. So this game is not for those who go on luck alone because odds our your luck will run out long before the game is done and lose.
But this game is great!!!!
5 Stars A challenging fun game
I bought this game as a birthday gift for my husband after playing it twice with our friends. We played it the day he got it and it finally made sense…so it took us 3 times to actually fully understand the game, but we love it! The game is challenging and there are so many different strategies to winning…that is what we love about it! It takes about 1.5-2 hours to play but it is a fun game. The product is extremely well made.
5 Stars EXCELLENT 2 HOUR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT GAME
CONCEPT: a village of cavemen/cavewomen break off into smaller groups to create the best community. Best being determined by stone age advanced, most buildings, most people, most food production, etc.
OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus (but only if you enjoy resource management games which are competitive but less so than wargames and the standard Axis & Allies board games)
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-4
AGES: 10 and up, though, I think it’s more like 12 and up. Seems complicated for 10 years olds.
OVERALL SPREAD: every player starts with 5 pieces that represent a group of their people. Every phase of your turn you get to place some of those pieces into a certain category on the board.
Those categories are typically:
1. VILLAGE CENTER: put two pieces to create a baby at the end of the piece. You can also increase your food production or build tools that offset bad rolls.
2. RESOURCES: you can go for more food by hunting or seek out quarries for wood, clay, stone or gold. Gold is the hardest to get per turn. You need a six on a regular die to get this so most players use multiple workers to have a shot at getting just one gold resource.
3. BUILDING: there are four stacks of possible huts to build. What is required are a variation of resources. The better resources means more victory points. One thing about this stacks is that when one runs out the game is over.
4. CARDS: there are four cards laid down. You have to put a worker down and also pay resources. These cards typically give you something or give you a chance of getting something. One of the big victory point conditions on these cards are artifacts which can really add up your total. In addition, there are special types of people, like shamans (who add bonuses to your total people at the end of the game), builders (for number of huts at the end of the game), farmers (adding totals to your food production at the end of the game) and workers (adding bonus totals to your total tool use point total). Like building cards, the game ends when there are no more cards to draw from the pile and there are less than four cards remaining.
TACTICS: this is a game where blocking your opponents can really pay off. For instance, if someone is close to ending the game the other players can block a card he/she needs to play or they can sit on a resource that he/she cannot take. In fact, the rules actually suggest you do such things
Heh.
HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO AGRICOLA? For those who have played this game the answer is that STONE AGE is about half the time and a third to a quarter of the many resource pieces.
Enjoy!!!!
5 Stars Great all around game
First, I have a question for the more seasoned eurogamers out there: how does this compare to Puerto Rico and Agricola? This is my 3rd eurogame and I am looking to acquire more, but want to branch out and although PR and AG are highly rated, I don’t want to get a game that similar to this one that i already own. (I have not played PR or AG, but from reading descriptions, they seem similar to stone age)
Now for my review: I really like this game. I can’t stand games that rely solely or mostly on luck, but if there is too much strategy my wife doesn’t like it as much. This game appeases me with ample strategy, but is also simple enough to play that my wife enjoys it as well. The art and pieces really do make the game stand out. There are multiple strategies for trying to win, which I like. You could try to acquire tons of cards to win that way, or you could try to build lots of buildings, etc…many decisions to make which makes it fun for me.
Also, like others have said, it does a good job of being constantly engaging, turns are quick and rotate through so there is little downtime. Conflict is low so that is good for couples, but there are still opportunities to block someone else’s play, or to feel that pit in your gut when you can’t decide to go here or there not sure if you will successfully block your opponent or if they will in turn block you.
It took a good few hours to initially get through the instructions and set up the board/pieces, but once someone knows it well, it can be taught to others fairly easily.
Currently, I own Stone Age, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. This one is my 2nd favorite and Carcassonne is my 1st favorite overall, but for 2 player games specifically, I slightly prefer Stone Age. For my next purchases I’m leaning toward Puerto Rico and Thurn & Taxis but am hungry for other suggestions as well.
Filed under: Classic Board Game Reviews