Designer: Bernd Brunnhofer

Final Score:  (2.9 out 5 Stars)

When I first heard about this game I was not terribly thrilled, it appeared to be yet another of the “farming” line of Euro games that lean on the worker placement mechanic to create yet another way to move wooden cubes around for victory points. Suffice to say we already have the Agricola, Terra Mystica and Caverna’s of the world and I really didn’t the see the point in another one. Still through word of mouth I’m constantly asked about this game and it just seemed silly not to review it given that the game already has a variety of implementations online not to mention has remained in heavy print since release.

Now sometimes these worker placement games do pleasantly surprise me, Pillars of the Earth for example remains one of my favorite with some sturdy gameplay, as well as Lords of Waterdeep which packs a surprisingly large amount of theme in a cube pusher and take that mechanic. How does Stone Age hold up? Let’s find out.

Overview

Stone Age is kind of your standard worker placement fair with a few twists that separate it to make it its own thing. Each player starts the game out with 5 workers which can be used in a variety of worker placement spots to earn resources most of which you use to score points and others like food you need for survival of your little Stone Age village. The trick is that the resources aren’t guaranteed, you roll 1d6 die for each worker placed on a resource spot and depending on the type of resource (some are harder to get then others) the amount you get is based on a 6d roll. You can supplement rolls with tools which is another type of resource you can gather through the worker placement mechanic. For the most part however the game boils down to trying to figure out how to get the resources you need to score points, nothing particularly revolutionary or inspired.

What resources you need varies from round to round as two separate types of cards are available for purchase. One type requires different combinations of resources to score points directly and the other type has you collecting the card for the end game scoring, on these cards you score for collecting certain elements in the game like there might be a card for your village size, your agriculture level etc. They get multiplied the more of these cards you collect so there is strategy to what you kind of go for long term.

All and all the game is simple to understand and not terribly difficult to master as are most of these worker placement games. There is a luck element to the dice rolling but it isn’t terribly overwhelming, usually the player who manages his village the best will ultimately come out on top.

I think defining Stone Age as an entry level worker placement game is a pretty accurate description, because that is exactly what it is.

Component Quality

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Colorful and bright play area make it aesthetically pleasing, sturdy components made to last.

Cons: Iconography takes a bit of time to learn, hidden point scoring at the end of the game based on that Iconography make it difficult to know how well you’re doing during the course of the game.

The component quality is quite solid and the design of the components is very intuitive and colorful. There is a sort of stylistic cartoony nature to the bright colored game that is pleasing to the eye. The game Is streamlined from a component perspective with no fiddliness at all giving it a really strong fluid core. I did find that towards the end game there is a fair amount on the table so while this is certainly an entry level game it might not exactly look like one if you see it in late stages.  It looks great on the table however and honestly this is what I wish all Euro games would look like.  When you consider most cube pushers favor mechanics and gameplay over theme and components, adding nice art, good quality components that last and clean organization with lots of thought put into the handling of the game is not too much to ask for.  Stone Age does a fantastic job of presentation in this regard.

I think the biggest complaint about the components casual gamers might have is the iconography, it takes a few games to come to grips with it all and while there is a fixed standard where you eventually can figure out what something does based on the understanding what other similar symbols do, there is a bit of a learning curve here, but it’s quite reasonable. It’s not nearly as complicated as one might initially feel it is but it’s going to take some explaining to get it all straight. Since the iconography is vital to understanding scoring in the game though it will be difficult for players to understand whether they are winning or losing until they have a good grip on it. Even then, because players gather so many cards, often it’s difficult to know how your actually doing until the final scoring, more on that later as this falls under mechanics but the fact that it’s all translated in the art I think it’s kind of a combination issue with components and mechanics.

A passing grade to be sure, the leather dice rolling cup is a nice thematic touch.

Theme

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Nice feeling of growth during the course of the game.

Cons: Theme is interchangeable and largely irrelevant to the game.

I don’t expect much in the way of theme in most Euro worker placement games so I was pleasantly surprised that there are some nice touches here. You genuinely have a feeling of growth and building in terms of improvements to your little stone age village. Though as far as theme goes this game could have easily been re-themed to represent just about anything, so there isn’t exactly a feeling of time and place here. It’s a game about Stone Age farming, but really its theme is its art, mechanically you are effectively collecting cubes to use them to score points and there isn’t much on the table or in the course of play that elevates the theme beyond that.

This is a strategy game, one designed around mechanics and resource management so the fact that it has a theme that’s recognizable is more than sufficient for the expectations.

I think for what it is and what it attempts to be, its fine. I don’t expect to get excited about farming in the Stone Age so the fact that the theme is lite really doesn’t deter from the game.

Gameplay

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: Great streamlined mechanics keeps everyone engaged, easy to grasp with plenty of tough decisions for everyone to make. Plays well with any amount of players.

Cons: There is a puzzle to solve here, once you solve it, playing against people who haven’t results in wildly diverging end games.

I think this is really where the game shines and I have to admit while my expectations for this game where that it would be a sort of “more of the same”, it actually had some surprising amount of strategy and mechanical elements to keep the game interesting. There is some real mastery here and good players will pounce newbies without mercy. It takes many games to gain this mastery and when you pit room full of experienced players the competition gets very cut throat and the game becomes very thinky. There are no automatic or obvious decisions, strategies vary and change in the course of the game depending on what becomes available. Turn order in particular will affect many of your options and as it rotates the game becomes as much about when you do things as what you do.

There is this “limited” feeling of wanting to do lots of things but only being able to do a small amount of things, so it’s all about stretching your resources and efforts and really building a long term strategy of slowly chipping ahead on points. While there is pretty limited interaction between players the turns are fast and there is a lot of interest in what others do, in fact more often than not your strategy will be a reactive one based on the actions of other players. This effectively nullifies the fact that there is little interaction between the players directly, very nicely done in my opinion.

I especially liked how you can have a long term strategy but opportunities present themselves occasionally that you just can’t pass up that might actually shift your strategy in later parts of the game. There are times for example when you really want to take a particular point scoring card but you have an opportunity to increase your population or take a card that will prevent a player from scoring points, or sometimes even just something that coincidently will score you a lot of points. There are lots of tough decisions and often one or two mistakes in the course of the game can ultimately result in a victory or a loss, in particular when playing at a table with experienced players. Every action, every moment in the game is important. There is a constant re-assement, you’re always reviewing the board and trying to push what you have to become more valuable.

Unfortunately towards late game it becomes really difficult to know whether you’re winning or not as most of the points are scored during the end game calculation which is too complex to do in your head. You might for example be up 50 points at the end of the game on the scoreboard but your opponent ends up winning by 100 points thanks to a combination of development cards he purchased in the course of the game. This gets a little easier to see with experience but ultimately slows the game down and makes it very mathy when you’re constantly trying to figure out where you and your opponents are at and what moves that you can make that will either hurt your opponent and/or help you. As you develop more advanced strategies the game unlike most actually gets slower as everyone at the table is constantly doing this math in their head as its key to the game. It’s not an uncommon problem in Euro games to have end game scoring and I don’t fault it too much but it does often result in rather un-climatic end game where someone might have been way ahead all along but you just didn’t realize it until the final scoring phase.

That said though the mechanics are simple to understand, difficult to master, fun to execute and relatively easy to teach. It’s also a pretty fast game with a fixed ending so there is very little “stretching” the end game. Stone Age has all the elements of a great Euro and while many games of its ilk functions in a pretty similar manner, Stone Age is very intuitive which might explain its popularity. It’s a great alternative to the boring Catan or played out Ticket To Ride to act as an introduction to board gaming type game.

Replay ability and Longevity

Verdict:
Tilt: 

Pros: The game can be revitalized in a group of experienced players as the complexity and dynamics come out with experience.

Cons: Once you solve the puzzle, the game becomes repetitive and not terribly entertaining. As an introduction game, mastery of the mechanics has too much influence on results.

Replay-ability is huge for Euro games and unfortunately Stone Age isn’t exactly what I would call an infinitely re-playable game. It does have the speed to act as a light albeit slightly longer filler which helps, in particular since the game plays very well with any amount of players, but its not enough to give this one high marks. It has a pretty short shelf life among experienced players in particular looking for a challenge or pulling out a game for casual gamers as an introduction. There is a puzzle to solve here and once you figure it out it’s not difficult to outscore less experienced opponents by 100+ points which isn’t a particularly great introduction to board gaming for new players.  Its hailed as a great introductory game, but I beg to differ, their is some mastery here and new players are going to get smoked.

Mastery of a game however is not a fault of a game per say, get a group of experienced players together and they will likely discover new challenges in a game that really is geared more for casual gamers. As such it can sort of come around and I can see that while I wouldn’t want to play it all the time, dusting it off now and again might allow it to live in someone’s collection for a long time.

I think the trouble with Stone Age and this is definitely a personal view is that I already have other, much better worker placement games that most definitely scratch the same itch and have far more dynamics. Stone Age has nothing on Pillars of the Earth for example and even if you want something with a bit of dice chucking, Kingsburg I think is a better choice. For more mathy and complex versions of Stone Age you have games like Russian Railroads or Terra Mystica that take that same sort of worker placement cube pushing point scorer but take it to that next level. I suppose what I’m saying is that when I reach for a game off my shelf that fits the bill that Stone Age would, I’m likely to pick something else and it’s probably related to the fantastic re-playability of those mentioned games. Stone Age doesn’t have that addictive nature where you’re eager to try out different strategies because while there are several routes, there are a few that are definitively better and you are likely to find yourself in a rut during multiple replays.

Conclusion

Stone Age is a fine addition to a Euro Gamers collection and I think it has a colorful and easy to learn presentation that casual gamers will appreciate. For more advanced gamers looking for a challenge Stone Age will start interesting until you unravel the puzzle, at which point it becomes a bit repetitive. You will find yourself making the same standard strategies that work. There is a bit of a rhythm here, after several replays the games start to merge together and nothing terribly memorable happens from then on.

I think Stone Age has some clever versions of existing mechanics, it certainly is worthy of a few play throughs but it’s not one that will find a permanent home in my personal collection. I found Stone Age to be a bit too dependent on mechanics many games that came before it have done a much better job off. I like those mechanics, so seeing them in a new variant in Stone Age was interesting, but ultimately not sufficient to make the plunge.