Neanderthals have made their way into board games before, but what if we take a look at making them workers who maybe don’t quite know how to work as well as they should? Worker placement games with confused workers-we might have something interesting here! Come check out this new game that does just that from Wizkids.
Today we are looking at Age of Dirt, published by Wizkids. It is designed by Johannes Krenner with illustrations from Klemems Franz. It plays 2-5 players in around 45 minutes.
Overview
In Age of Dirt you are the chief of a clan of fellow Neanderthals trying to be the best Clan in all the land. Your Clan Members go out and collect resources to help you build your inventions. You are trying to collect “Rock Stars” (Aka Victory Points). The tough thing is your Clan Members are so forgetful that they don’t go where they are supposed to and you sometimes forget where you send them.
Gameplay
Each player begins with a small cave, 4 clan members, 1 drum, 1 spear and 2 Clan cards. The game is played over consecutive turns per player. On your turn you will choose to do only one of these actions:
1-Send out Clan Members
2-Call back Clan Members
3-Spend Resources
To Send out Clan Members a player will place one or two of their Clan member meeples into a any of the different Area boxes. They can go to the same or different locations. Placement is based on where you want them to try and bring back certain resources as each Area has different resources that they may be able to collect.
Another option is to Call back Clan Members which allows you to lift one Area box and attempt to have those workers gather resources from that Area. Depending on the area you lift there is reward that you will collect for that round in the Forest, Mountain and Love tent. The Plains do not give a bonus reward. Once all of the player pieces and Predators from the area are collected from that area they are sent into the giant tower called “The Passage”. Some will come out, some may stay stuck! If players have a working Drum they can use it to bang on the flaps on the Passage trying to knock down more workers or possible Predators as well.
As the Clan Members and possible predators come out, a player may want to use his working Spear to fight off any predator that came out so their clan members aren’t eaten! Now any Clan members that survived are bringing resources from that area that was chosen this round, even if they had gone in the Passage in previous rounds. These include different resources that you will place on one of your open resource boards. The Love tent is different-this is where you will make new Clan members to add to your Clan.
There is a Reserve board where you will take new Clan members and place ones lost to predators as well. If you clear your pieces off it is worth 1 Star point.
Finally you may also as a turn Spend Resources that you have gathered up to this point. You can use the, to build invention cards from your hand or the Wall. You can also use the resources to expand your cave size to hold more resources or to build a tool which is setting your spear and drum back to their useable side. You can also spend herbs to give you more options and draw another Invention card. Some of these Invention cards are Event cards that will change the game around a bit as well, so watch out for those!
End game is triggered when someone reaches 10 Rock Stars (VPs) and the game ends immediately with them as the winner!
Impressions
Age of Dirt takes a family mechanic-worker placement-and adds some chaos to it. Sometimes the Clan members will get the resources you want, sometimes you are instead waiting multiple turns for them to come back on turns and for resources you weren’t planning on. This creates quite a bit of luck and randomness to it, which isn’t a normal combination with worker placement. If you like consistency with your workers doing what you tell them to do and being able to plan multiple steps ahead, this may not be the game for you. But if you are looking for a game that like random, swingy things-this may be up your alley.
I think the gameplay and the mechanics lend themselves to a younger crowd or gamers who like things to be a little bit on the lighter side of strategy. As I played this I felt like I kind of went along with it as it unfolded, which isn’t a bad thing.
Storage for this game and the components themselves are nice quality. The box organization is on par with some of the more detailed ones you see out in the gaming space right now. It all stacks in very well. The tower, even though cardboard is made of good quality and holds up well to beating on it with the drum handles.
Overall Age of Dirt is a unique worker placement game where your workers may or may not do the work you ask them to, creating some interesting and sometimes hilarious results. I would recommend checking this out for players who enjoy a more casual approach to their gaming or are playing with newer or young gamers. For a light and fun approach at the worker placement and resource mechanics, Age of Dirt doesn’t take itself too seriously and can lead to some fun competition around the table as you and your fellow Cave dwellers all compete to see who can be the Chief of all Chiefs!
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