Prehistories: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Plyomino, Tile Placement, Bidding
Player Age: 8+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Alexandre Emerit, Benoit Turpin
Player Age: 8+
Game Designer: Alexandre Emerit, Benoit Turpin
Objective:
Players each control one prehistoric nomadic tribe that goes hunting then paint their achievements within their cave. This is a tile-placement polyomino game with a unique bidding turn order system.
Card Anatomy:
Hunter Cards:
These cards will be used to determine turn order, as well as which animal tiles you can gain each turn. There is a deck of 12 cards that range in strength 1-6.
Player Aid Card:
This card will explain how many cards a player will draw at the end of a round and easily depicts the wound system at a quick glance.
Objective Cards:
There are nine objective cards with a different objective on each side. Each game will only use four or five objectives per game. Every objective will have several totem tokens on the left-hand side; this is how many totems the first player gets rid of by completing the objective. The totem on the right-hand side is what players get rid of when they complete the objective after someone else.
Totem Tokens:
To win the game players are trying to remove their eight totem tokens first. This is done by completing the objective cards or by completing any of the objectives on the game board (mentioned later).
Animal Tiles:
There are five different animal types in four different shapes. Each different shape will have a certain number of animals depicted. This ranges from 1-4 animals.
Legendary Animal Tile:
This square tile is great for closing in large gaps on your cave board. It is the hardest tile to gain as it cost the most strength to hunt but it will also allow the player to remove one totem token instantly when playing the tile.
Cave Boards:
These are great boards indented to keep the tiles from falling off the table and has permanent stick on tiles added by the players. These boards are where the tiles will be placed throughout the game to meet the various objectives. There are two locations on the board depicted by one or two hand-prints; covering this will allow players to draw cards equal to the hand-print amount.
Game Board:
The game board has two sides; the use of which will depend on player count. 1-3 players will use one side and 4-5 players will use the other. This board will show goals that players can aim for to remove totems. These goals can be completed multiple times. The board has numerous hunting zones that will be filled with different sized animal tiles. Next to those will be a value for a successful hunt and an unsuccessful hunt. A successful hunt will mean that the player can draw cards without gaining a wound. One wound means the player may only draw one card at the end of turn and two wounds will draw no cards.
Set up:
- Place the game board on the side that matches the player count.
- Give each player a cave board, player aid, eight totems and 12 hunter cards of the matching colour.
- Each player shuffles their hunter cards and draws a starting hand of three.
- Stack the animal tiles by size in the corresponding hunter area then place one matching tile in each location.
- Randomly pick four objectives for a 1-3 player game or five objectives for 4-5 players.
How to Play:
At the beginning of each round players will replenish the animal tile locations that are empty from the last round. In the initiative phase, each player will simultaneously play one or more cards. The turn order will be decided from the lowest value to the higher value. Starting with the first player, players will use these cards to hunt on the game board. Multiple areas can be hunted at the same time by spreading out the cards used for the initiative. Any cards that are not used from the initiative will go back to the players hand. Each player will place the tiles they have gained on their cave board and try to complete the objectives to remove their totems. Players will draw new cards based on how many wounds received during hunting. The game will continue like this until one player has removed all of their totems. That player is then the winner.
Final Thoughts:
Pros:
- Unique bidding/card placement system.
- Great family game.
- Great components (especially the cave board).
Prehistories is a great family game that combines a unique bidding system with polyomino placement. The bidding system has players trying to show low numbers to gain the initiative but to also hunt effectively. There is a large risk vs reward when choosing which cards to show. During play, the players can aim for any objectives they believe will help them remove their totems the fastest. This gives the game plenty of replayability with the use of different objectives creating multiple pathways to achieve totem removal. This is a great game and has earned a Silver Seal of Approval.
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