Stone Age

To set up the game, place the main game board in the center of the table. Sort the food tokens by type (e.g., fish, mushrooms) and place them on their designated hunting grounds. Place all resource cubes (wood, clay, stone, gold) on their corresponding areas on the board. Separate the tool tiles by value and place them in the toolmaker's hut. Shuffle the civilization cards and place them face down next to the board, then draw the top four and place them face up. Shuffle the building tiles, sort them into piles of seven, and place one pile per player on its corresponding space, turning only the top tile face up. Each player takes a player board, 12 food tokens, and five figures in their chosen color, placing one figure on the zero space of the scoring track and one on the zero space of the agriculture track. All remaining figures, dice, and the dice cup should be placed near the game board.

The main objective of Stone Age is to help your civilization flourish by increasing the number of people in your tribe, efficiently collecting various resources, and constructing homes. The player who accumulates the most victory points by the end of the game will be declared the winner, demonstrating superior strategic planning and resource management in the Stone Age.

Each round of Stone Age consists of three phases: Selection, Action, and Nutrition. In the Selection phase, starting with the youngest player and proceeding clockwise, players take turns placing one or more figures on a single location on the main board. The circles on the board indicate the limit of figures that can be placed on most locations, except for hunting grounds, which have no limit. Once figures are placed on a location, no more can be added to that specific location in the current round. After all players have placed their figures, the game moves to the Action phase. In this phase, players take actions based on where they placed their figures and then retrieve their figures in clockwise order, starting with the first player. Finally, in the Nutrition phase, players must feed their tribe.

Points are primarily earned through several avenues. When you acquire a civilization card by paying its resource cost, you immediately gain the reward shown on the card. Additionally, the lower section of civilization cards provides end-game points based on various factors like your buildings, tools, or the number of people in your tribe. Buildings also contribute to your score; when you purchase a building by securing it with a figure and paying its cost, the points earned from that building are immediately added to your score on the scoring track. Resources themselves are also valuable, with each resource cube typically equaling one point at the end of the game.

The game concludes immediately when one of two conditions is met: either the deck of civilization cards runs out, or one entire stack of building tiles is emptied. Once the game-ending condition is triggered, players proceed to final scoring. They check the bottom of their acquired civilization cards, as these provide extra points based on specific criteria (e.g., number of tools, buildings, or people). All remaining resources in a player's possession also contribute to their final score, with each resource typically counting as one point. The player who has accumulated the highest total number of points from all sources is declared the winner.