Cavemen: The Quest for Fire (download rules) from Rio Grande Games (BGG) is a card-drafting game where players take the role of tribal leaders. The tribes compete for opportunities to hunt dinosaurs, recruit tribesmen, and discover new technologies, vying to be the first with enough knowledge and prestige to invent Fire. It’s easy to learn, supports 2-5 players and has a playing time of about 45 minutes.
The game features 21 different inventions that allow for players to evolve diverse strategies, capitalizing on their tribe’s individual strengths. There are challenging decisions every turn as players must evaluate what resources are available, guess what their opponents will do, and weigh the amount of risk they’re willing to take. Its theme and mechanics are tightly interwoven, delivering a taut and coherent game experience that’s highly competitive without direct antagonism.
In the box, you’ll get:
- 1 game deck with 86 cards, including four different kinds of Cavemen, 27 unique Dinosaurs, Caves and 21 Inventions, including Stone Axe, Huts, Tribal Council, Human Sacrifice, and Fire.
- 20 starting cards: 1 Leader, 1 Hunter, 1 Home Cave and 1 Rules Summary card for each of the 5 different tribes.
- 40 die-cut food tokens in denominations of 1 and 5.
- 31 die-cut tooth tokens in denominations of 1 and 5.
- 1 die-cut conch token.
You have two resources to manage: Food and Teeth. You must spend Food each turn in order to keep your Tribe from starving. Teeth indicate prestige among the tribes. Use Teeth to bid for the conch and to acquire Cavemen and Caves.
Each turn, cards are drawn from the deck to fill a common Card Pool. Players take actions based on what is available in the pool. For example, if a Beast is drawn into the Card Pool, you can hunt it for Food and claim its Teeth as a sign of your bravery.
If you hold the conch during the Action Phase, you benefit by taking your Action first and taking a second Action after everyone else has gone once. Players can bid Teeth to take control of the Conch from another player. This can be important to get the first pick of the cards in the Card Pool.
The game features 21 different inventions that allow players to evolve diverse strategies, capitalizing on their tribe’s individual strengths. There are challenging decisions every turn as players must evaluate what resources are available, guess what their opponents will do, and weigh the amount of risk they’re willing to take.
- Draw Phase: Draw cards into the common Card Pool.
- Conch Phase: Bid Teeth for the Conch.
- Feed Phase: Pay 1 Food per Caveman if you have the Conch; other players pay 1 Food.
- Action Phase: Recruit, Hunt, Forage, Invent or Explore. The Conch-Holder goes both first and last.
- Discard Phase: Discard down to 3 cards.