Valley of the mammoths
3 to 6 players
Ages 12 & up
Playing Time: 2 hours
Aurthor: Bruno Faidutti
Publisher: Eurogames / Descartes Editeur

While fleeing from starving wolves and wild sabretooth tigers, will your tribe of cavemen manage to survive in, let alone conquer, the merciless Valley of the Mammoths? Will it escape the stampeding woolly rhinoceroses and the massive mammoths, only to be reduced to pate under the heavy clubs of their rival tribes? In these chaotic times, man must fight for everything, his adversaries are without pity, and nature herself is in a state of violent upheaval.

Game System In the Valley of the Mammoths, you must contend not only with rival tribes (the other players) but also with wild, untamed, unpredictable nature. To feed themselves, your tribe will have to devote themselves to hunting, gathering and fishing. They may even attempt to innovate, by developing agriculture... But all is not so peaceful in the Valley, opposing tribes will attempt to hunt Your mammoths and bison, to gather Your fruits and roots, to fish your rivers and lakes... and even to steal YOUR Women! You will have to fight them off, and protect your food supply... all the while keeping a watchful eye on the smoldering volcanoes - after all, one never knows!

Game Characteristics Valley of the Mammoths appeals to a broad audience. Its theme is enjoyable, its mechanics are original and dynamic, its rules are simple, and the artwork and cards are utterly hilarious! - who could ask for more? Plunge into prehistory! You'll have fun. So will the mammoths.

Contents: 1 game board made of two interchangeable halves, 4 fate cards (green), 15 summer event cards (yellow), 15 winter event cards (blue), 2 dice, 1 cloth sack for the animal tokens, 54 animal tokens, 8 wolf tokens, 6 sets of tribe tokens (10 warriors and 6 females per player), 1 neutral female token, 1 neutral warrior token, 1 wooden season marker, 9 crop markers, 9 wildfire / flood markers, 2 fence markers, 5 camp markers per player, 6 fire markers, 42 food markers in various denominations, all in a box approximately 30 x 30 x 7cm

Game Guide

Theme
A strong theme that captures the difficulties and hardship of the prehistoric life of the caveman.

Components
The box, tiles and board are all made of sturdy card. The cards feature humourous well illustrated cartoons.

Attitude
The setting of this game is some 10,00 years ago... before the concept of political correctness. So if you don't mind the conflict, women not being able to fight (their role is to have babies) or events like cannibalism (yes you can eat your enemies), this is a really funny game.

Tension
The game has a lot of tension during battles with other tribes and animals, especially when you are dependant on victory to replenish your food supply.

Complexity
Once you have learnt the actions that are carried out by each player in a round, the game isn't to difficult to manage. The age of 12 and up is probably about right, considering the difficulty in just surviving each round (especially in winter) and the nature of some of the content.

Strategy
Buried in the chaos of everything that is thrown at your struggling tribe, there is some strategy. You are constantly making decisions; Your warriors need to protect their women, but also have to hunt for food. Where to build camps and grow your crops, do you attack or defend. From floods and draught to stampeding animals trampling your crops, this game is more about survival than strategic planning.

Education
What was life like as a caveman or an introduction to sex education, I'm sure some creative teachers could make use of Valley of the mammoths.

Number of Players
3 - 4 players is probably the optimum. With 5 or 6 players the board gets crowded and starvation is more common as food becomes much harder to get.

Conflict
There's a lot of conflict. If you aren't being attacked by other players or wild animals, you'll be hunting game for food.

Comments
Games can be long, especially with more players. Just set a time limit or reduce the victory conditions from establishing 4 camps to 3 if you are pressed for time.

The birth phase occurs at the end of winter not every round, this is in the rules but is easy to miss.