My First Stone Age 

This game is by ZMAN games and is a refined/diluted worker placement game from the original Stone Age.  This game occasionally is called Stone Age Junior.  The game is basic in that you are children who are settling in the stone age, but the principle of the game is to give young children a better idea of how to play a worker placement type of game. (For those who don't know a worker placement game is where you have a number of workers and you place them on resources/tiles/slots on a board and have them get you those items, you then use those items to build/collect things that usually give you points or help you win the game - examples of this type of game are Lords of Waterdeep, Stone Age, and Caverna)  My First Stone Age also adds a memory element that I find really lovely as a way of diluting the game so it isn't ask complex as the original Stone Age.

The box says you can play this from 5 years old, which is why this is in my top 5 for over 7s, however my 4 year old plays it with some parental help. My son doesn't win every game (although he won today as I went to take some photos of this game!) as he doesn't understand the choices that he has to make strategically to win, hence why I have kept this in the older age bracket.  I do think that children will enjoy playing this game until about 11-13 when they will find the memory component too easy or they will have moved onto the original Stone Age.

Game Play

Set up takes a few minutes as you put resources into each space as indicated in the rules. Then each players takes a colour and a person who represents that colour (their worker).  Then all the memory tiles that represent resources, and images of dice with different numbers, go face down around the board and the first player starts.

Each turn is very simple and fast as all you do it turn over one of the green tiles and move to either the location indicated on the tile or the number of spaces indicated on the dice images. The purpose of the game is to build three huts.  Each hut requires two to three resources to build it.  My son loves that some only need two resources as the two required are usually two of the same resources (for example two fish or two jugs) so he always goes for these when he sees them.  When you have gathered the resources required to build the hut you have to find the "home" tile, or a number tile that moves you to the home tile.  This tile is the only one where you can build a hut.  After turning in your resources all the memory tiles get turned over and two tiles swap location (this swap is up to the person who just built the hut).  This pushes the memory element a little as to be able to build a hut again after the home tile has been moved you have to remember to where it was moved.

Winning the game is as simple as the first person who builds three huts.  I personally finish the round so occasionally there are ties as two people can finish building in one turn, however this rarely happens.


Review

I love this game and it is hard for my 4 year old to win every time, so we will be able to play it a while still. I also have friend's kids who have played it and one of them was 9 years old and also enjoys playing it with their sibling. It is simple enough for kids to play on their own as they get older.  This game won't last you forever though as it is so simple you or your kids will grow out of it eventually.

This one ranges in price between £21-30 depending on if you buy it in a real shop or online discounter.  Here is another Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) if you want to buy it from a brick and mortar shop.  It is relatively new so if you have a FLGS near you - you should be able to find it there or order it from them.