Miami Dice, Episode 135 - Stone Age

[@platinump90]

Great videos! Love the new place, background, shelves,... The 3 of you together make the best videos on the dice tower imo. keep them up.

[@winterplum]

Great idea of bringing some of the top 'less aged' games to the front and re-introducing them! Reviews in general have catered more to the current hobbyist, sometimes overlooking the perpetual new-comers. I am right with Tom on this one. Stone Age is not the best worker-placement game, but for me it is an ideal game to introduce 'new' gamers to this genre. It offers enough decisions without overwhelming with intricate by-rules that may make a game more interesting, but less accessible to newbies. Luck is part of the game, but not run by it I think. THANK YOU for keeping the camera still. :) Excellent to see so much from you guys lately.

[@12thLevelSithLord]

I find it amusing how Zee's been in several episodes and is even in the opening title cards, but still doesn't get mentioned in the intro voice over. :P

[@wetwillyccma]

I bought this game for my ipad. Really like it. I must get a copy for my board game collection. I think it will be a good intro to my friends for work replacement games. Good review guys.

[@Punko1969]

I picked up this game based on this review years ago and I'm glad I didn't listen to Zee. In the dozens of times I've played it, I never once felt like the winner won because of luckier dice rolls. I still haven't found a better game to introduce a new gamer to worker placement. It's funny how they all agreed a problem with the game is that the first decision is always the same, then find out they aren't all making the same first decision. My group goes for the wheat, but I'm going to try Zee's love hut strategy next time and see how it goes.

[@williammcguinness795]

One thing I think that makes the dice rolling ok with me is that the element of randomness is there to reflect the randomness of stone age life. Its that element of the game that mmakes it VERY different from Pillars of the Earth for me.

[@gqdaddy8544]

William Mcguinness The elements of randomness in Stone Age add to the theme of the game I think. In the stone age survival itself was very random and based on the luck of simply staying alive day to day. Now to convince my wife we should add this to our games library. :)

[@Jighm]

Diamond makes pretty nice Multi-purpose cups that I use in many games and they are similar to what was used in this vid to hold the resources, though they were difficult to see on the vid. I buy mine at Meijer in the plasticware and paper cups aisle. They have snap-on lids. Very cool gamer-gear.

[@Ryanc696]

Just got this game to introduce others, including my kids, to worker placement.

[@DaidoujiSempai]

The changing first player mode is a perfect way to BALANCE the game. In that way everybody has the oportunity to choose FIRST where to place their people! Not just ONE player in the entire game.

[@88Renji88]

Love, watching Zee. :)

[@brettpetersen1671]

The Dice Tower Could you have Sam do a review of the Stone Age expansion? I would like to know his feelings about it.

[@gheilers]

At 6:15 - note the two dice showing fours. Why does one die look to be larger than the other? Did you lose an original die, in the component drop? :-)

[@tactical_cardboard]

Agree with previous posters. Dice rolls can be mitigated. Just need tools.

[@JL-ku7wo]

A worker placement classic. Great way to teach kids math.

[@Monkeyb00y]

FINALLY FINALLY! Reprinted! MSRP $49.99 better get them fast, they're just over $40 right now.

[@Fighterfan69]

Revisiting some reviews of good worker placement games since your recent top 10 worker placement games. I'm not sure how this will be received by my fiancée. She likes Worker placement games. Recently we have been playing Architects of the west kingdom. Though not necessarily strictly a worker placement game (more worker investment), it has enough to be in the same genre. That said she and I really didn't like the 'feed your people at the end of your the round' Mechanic that has been so drawn out in this genre. She like Le Havre but the feeding really hampered her experience. Not saying it's end all aspect, As long as it can be mitigated, then perhaps she may like this as it's on it's way to be delivered. Surely there are better games in the genre. I'm trying to get my son involved and play with us too so this may be a good starting point.

[@icemage27]

I think it's an OK game. I like the dice mechanics together with the tools, it's very thematic. The few times I played it, I tried to get as much gold as possible and snatched "?"-buildings, to maximize points per building. I also grabbed some of the yellow cards to get some multipliers. In my group I was always second place with that strategy. The winner tried to get the green backed cards while also maximizing the grain track with cards. He also built some buildings, but that was maybe only half of his point total. What I dislike in any game is, when there are options that are either so good you *have* to use them when possible, or so horrible, that no one in their right mind would ever do it. This game has both of them: The love shack is highly ineficient. It uses two villagers to get another one next turn. And I think the child has to be fed in that same round. So you are wasting 2 workers, who could do something more productive, like getting those 3 food. Sure you get another villager, but he's just too expensive to get. The grain track is something *everyone*, who understands the game, tries to maximize, so the first player always goes to the fields. That guy placed there feeds himself for the rest of the entire game! Sure there is also the opposite strategy, where you don't care about food at all and just get as many people as possible, hoping to get them productive enough to overcome the point penalties for starvation. however that is hard to follow and ultimately more risky than maximizing the grain track and getting those "?"-buildings and green cards. Not my game and basically too easy to figure an optimal strategy (which shouldn't even exist in games)

[@PredicadorLC]

I Like Stone Age a lot and there's no so much random, you can use the tools, however they are not necessary to win, I've won lots of time without picking any tool.

[@danomcardle7634]

Do you have any thoughts on the "starvation" strategy in this game?

[@poodleguts]

Early copies of the game stated that you were to go negative in points (not stopping at 0) if you didn't feed your people. This is a pretty good fix for starvation, and makes it viable, but not overpowering. You can also force players to feed their goods to the people, with similar results. But yes, if you don't play some sort of fix, starvation is massively overpowered.

[@marcoschaub8978]

I wouldn't reccomend it because if the other players pay attention, they can rip you apart by blocking the buildings and cards. But I haven't played this with highly competitive people, so it was never a problem

[@JcGareau]

I agree with Zee...!

[@jmlitwiller]

I think this old a solid worker placement game, and would sometimes even prefer to play it over Lords of Waterdeep. Zee is totally wrong about the luck factor: it has just just the right amount to make it a great gateway game.

[@TeChNoWC7]

Wow Lords of Waterdeep kills this imo

[@javiertalay]

has no one ever talked about the ghost sitting next to zee?

[@pad92011]

They did not discuss the stinking leather cup... hmmm... Is it been done to death?

[@errolwilde1656]

Tom why are staring at me?!

[@zrissl]

@Zee this game includes so much less luck as you think!! When you play against a guy who knows exactly what he does, I bet you cannot win against him. As Tom says: the dice rolling evens out. try it out on the ipad. theres so much in the game, believe me

[@Kajotex]

THANK YOU Zee. I agree wholeheartetly with you. When I put 4 workers to get gold and get NO GOLD? Nope... those dice are going through the room. I started as 4. player, everyone got a worker before me, everyone had the advantage over me. And as I said before the dice hate me with a passion. This game isn't for me. Back to Iron Throne.

[@freddieyu]

Tools, sir, grab them tools...

[@johnr8095]

THat's why you get tools. And you start as the 4th player on the first turn. If you have four players that means that on the next turn you go first.

[@CrankyDay]

John Reiners I think turn order marker rotates the other way actually.

[@marcoschaub8978]

The chance of not getting at least one Gold with 4 workers is 0.6%... It's not likely it will happen often. Also, with 4 workers you normally get 2 Gold, so it's not a huge deviation. And I agree with grabbing the tools. Even if you only have one tool, the chance of not getting at least one Gold with 4 workers drops to 0.08%

[@Kajotex]

Marco Schaub In that game I moved for gold twice with 4 workers andi got 1 gold out of both encounters in total. And even if I had the tools I would've just gotten 1 more gold out of it. But all the while my opponents were raking in stuff like there is no tomorrow. By the time I got my first building/scorecard they had two and were on their way to the third one. It seemed like some of the dice they were chucking only had faces with 6 on them. And telling me how likely or how unlikely anything would be still doesn't stray from the fact that it could still happen. But oh well, appearently the game is genius and I just suck at it. Fine by me.

[@superchrisman642]

tomorrow's tabletop #stoked

[@macmacox]

in this weight I like Last Will or Kingsburg much better if I want resources and building I'll play t'zolkin my strategy is to feed my people with wood. after the scripted get workers then grain track I'll agree with Zee on the reasons I don't like the game.

[@mrfaldor]

I used to own this game. I played it a couple times but I couldn't get into it. I guess I was bored with it. I guess worker placement games aren't really my favorite type of game.

[@TheSpruta]

I want to like Stone Age, but it just doesn't quite click with me. The board is beautiful and some of the mechanics are very thematic. I have two big issues that kinda screw it up for me. 1. The buying of huts simply to convert resource into points is boring. Give me buildings that create an engine. 2. It's too easy to completely solve the math of who's where it score. It makes it feel like you have to solve the problem and make the best choice instead of using intuition. I do see why people like the game though. I do like the randomness in resource gathering.

[@Malmsteen734]

It's a good game to introduce worker placement...once you've got that, move on. It turns out to be very bland and at the end of the day since the hidden points just make the end result seem too random!

[@wroot_lt]

Played only once online, but couldn't wait for it to end. Was just boring. I love the theme, but in this game it doesn't draw me in much.

[@elayeth]

This is the only widely popular game that didnt click with me, my friends and my family... thus I do not understand why it is so high ranked... There are lots of more interesting choices among all the euros. This one is mostly all around changing mats for cards... Its just dry....

[@KinnArchimedes]

I liked it initially, but after about the 5th to 8th play, it's just boring, nothing new happens and it feels like you're going through pre-determined motions, rather than having any real choice of what you're doing. So initially the game rated fairly highly, but now, I feel it's just a 5/10 game. Also, Stone Age gets way too much credit as a good game than it's worth. It has to be one of the top ten overrated games.

[@justinrrizzo]

Dice rolling as primary mechanic in a worker placement game. Instant turn off. I agree with Zee here. If I lose to someone else who rolled better, I would be frustrated, especially in a long game.

[@amandico25]

Justin Rizzo poor baby dont know how to lose. Its q freaking game to spend time with friends. You are not suppose to win every time

[@przemek7229]

@@amandico25 There are two different styles you can lose the game. Losing after doing well just because someone did even better - this one usually gives ton of fun and makes you isntantly start over. And there is losing because of bad luck, which is simply frustrating and works ONLY for very light party games played just for fun. This game is definitely not the latter one.