Getting Stoned

Stone Age that is! HA! Yeah, I know, that was a stretch. Forgive me please.

I've described Stone Age to friends as a good jumping off point from Settlers of Catan to the "next level" of gaming. One thing I love to do is teach new games to people, but if a person is a complete gaming newbie, I'm not going to try to overwhelm them with something like Power Grid right away. I think Settlers is a good starting point, and that from there, Stone Age is an easy transition.

We had only four show up for our gaming night last night, which opened up some underplayed options for games to rehash. I pulled the old Stone Age out of my trunk, and after a minor refresher course for the gang, we dove in. Here's my mini-review of a game that we don't play enough.

Stone Age: A Mini-Review of a Game That We Don't Play Enough

Game Summary

Stone Age is a 2-4 player game where players start with a tribe of five meeples, and take turns placing their meeples in different locations on the Stone Age map. Each location gives a different benefit, and some locations have limited space and can only be done by one player each round. The starting player for each round rotates.

The locations are: Farm (Increase food track by 1, making it easier to feed your meeples), Tool (Gain a tool making resource rolls easier), Hut (Increase population by 1), Hunt (Roll/2 for Food), Wood (Roll/3 for Wood), Brick (Roll/4 for Brick), Stone (Roll/5 for Stone), Gold (Roll/6 for Gold), Cards (1-4 Resources, immediate benefit and end game score benefit), and Buildings (Costs resources, immediate score benefit).

All locations can only be claimed by one player, save the resources. Up to seven meeples can be played on the Wood, Brick, Stone, and Gold locations, and any number of meeples can hunt.

As in most games, most points at the end of the game wins. The game ends when one stack of buildings is exhausted, or the deck of cards is exhausted.


Strategies

With a number of different ways to gain points comes a number of different ways to win. Primarily, players can either focus on end game bonuses via collecting cards (n^2 points for relic/picure cards, other multiplier bonuses for buildings, population, food track and tools), or on collecting resources and purchasing buildings for points.

The trick is to find a balance that works for your tribe, between taking the food track space, increasing population, and gathering resources. All while not needing to commit too many meeples over the course of the game to hunting to keep your population fed (An unfed population results in the loss of 10 victory points each turn).

The other trick is to get a little lucky on your rolls and buildings/cards flipped when it becomes your turn to play first. A well-timed flip of a 1-7 building or a x2/x3 end game multiplier card can be game swinging.

What's Worked for Me

The last couple of games I've played, I have not increased my population at all over the course of the game. I've noticed that players that do boost their tribe numbers have to worry far too much about farming and increasing the food track to benefit from other things that ultimately score better for them in the end.

Tools are extremely important, as they eliminate rolling waste, and allow a player to attempt taking multiple types of goods with little meeple placement commitment.

Also important early are the Dice Roll cards, which give the potential of getting a food track +1 or an additional tool. Good rolling for these cards can give a huge boost to a player, with the advantage going to whoever buys the card.

My first placement early game is generally food track, then tool or the 1-resource card depending on what it is. I would food track until I am only spending 1-2 food per turn to feed the population, which is only boosting it up by 3 - something very easily attainable.

When going for late game points, I try focus on one particular bonus that seems to be not as sought-after by the other players. Also, it is always important to stake a claim in buildings when you can, especially the 1-7 building, if only to prevent others from taking them.

Why I Don't Mind the Luck

Stone Age is a refreshing mixture of luck and decision making. Yes, you will get the occasional terrible roll and not get the stone you needed to buy your building. But, you could have likely ensured getting that stone by committing more meeples to it. Or by investing in tools earlier, or by choosing it instead of a gold on a card roll.

I enjoy what I call "weighted luck" in this game, because you can make your own luck based on the decisions you make. Sometimes, it's beneficial to play against the odds in hopes of a huge payoff. But if you do this, you know it's less likely to succeed.

The most important thing in Stone Age is to be flexible in your strategy early on, then once you've committed, focus on it hard. The end game tends to be a free-for-all building and card point grab, so be prepared for it. Diversify resources and grab some tools.

We should play this more often.

-Andrew