Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age (2022) Board Game

Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age is a board game designed by Marc Steinmann, released in in 2022. Set in the prehistoric era, players must navigate the challenges of the Ice Age to ensure their tribe’s survival. With a mix of dice rolling, worker placement, and map addition mechanics, Tusk! offers a unique gaming experience in the civilization genre.

Game Components of Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age

Game board

Hex tiles with various resources (stones, grass, meat)

Player meeples and tribe member tokens

Mammoth meeple

Season cards

Resource tokens (food, pointy sticks, lumpy stones)

Dice

Player boards with unique end-game scoring conditions

Hunt sheet

How To Setup Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age

To set up the game, players place their starting meeples on the board without a defined order or starting hexes, which can lead to early game imbalances. Each player receives a card outlining their unique end-game scoring conditions and starts with a single tribe member. The initial tiles are placed on the board, potentially containing resources such as stones or grass.

Gameplay Mechanics and Game Objective

Tribe Phase:
– Grow the tribe by spending food tokens to add workers.
– Send out hunters to commit tribe members to the hunt.

Hunt Phase:
– Players work together to take down a mammoth, rolling dice to inflict damage.
– The hunt leader distributes additional food after a successful hunt.

Season Phase:
– Draw a season card affecting the next turn (e.g., adding or removing resources, changing tile traversal).
– The mammoth moves randomly, potentially wounding tribe members in its path.

Objective:
– Collect resources and meat to grow your tribe and meet your unique end-game scoring conditions.
– Manage resources to survive the impending ice age, which spreads across the board over time.

Player Experience

Playing **Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age** can be a mixed bag. The early game is often sluggish, with players focusing on gathering basic resources. However, the game comes alive during the hunt phase, where cooperation and negotiation are crucial. Players must balance working together to hunt the mammoth with competing for resources and strategic advantages. The game’s thematic gameplay and high variability in season and victory cards add to the experience, but the decision space narrows significantly as the ice age approaches.

Pros

High variability with game length, season, and victory cards

Thematic gameplay centered around hunting and gathering

Lots of choices mid-game before the world freezes

Engaging cooperative and competitive elements during the hunt phase

Cons

Fighting or cheating other players may not be appealing to everyone

Decision space shrinks as the ice age approaches

Runaway leaders are possible, leading to significant score disparities

Personal Thoughts on Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age

**Tusk!: Surviving the Ice Age** is best suited for players who enjoy semi-cooperative games with a mix of resource management and strategic player interaction. While it offers some delightful moments of negotiation and cooperation, it may not appeal to those who prefer more structured or competitive gameplay. The game’s mechanic of balancing cooperation with individual goals can be engaging, but the uneven early game and potential for runaway leaders may deter some players. Overall, it’s a game that will resonate with fans of variable gameplay and thematic experiences, but may not be a hit for everyone.

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