Guide your tribe in its struggles to survive and prosper! Tribes: Early Civilization is a game for 2-4 players (The game does include rules for solo play as well) experiencing the Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze ages in 40 minutes. Players start with a small tribe and the very basics of civilization. During the game, they invent new technologies, explore new land, fend off invaders, and survive catastrophes. The tribe that first emerges as a true civilization wins!

Tribes: Early Civilization is a thematic prequel to Nations, designed by one of the Nations designers. It is a fast 3X game with a twist as each player has their own separate area to explore, expand, and exploit. The other two areas of the game are highly interactive:

• The variable three-tiered technology tree in which the first inventor gets a bonus.
• The actions column in which you take an action every turn and unwanted actions accumulate shells in a closed system.

There are three basic actions tied to your civilization levels: explore, move and grow. The actions column is also where historical events come into play and where the fourth civilization level — strength — is used to gain you bonuses and make bad things happen to your opponents.

Several interlocking systems ensure high replayability without adding overhead or upkeep. For example: in one game shells can feel very scarce and the next abundant despite the exact same amounts being in play.

Box, standard Ystari size 316 x 226 x 72 mm, ~1.5 kg (12,4 x 8,9 x 2,8 in, 3,3 lbs)

Double-sided folded game board, back side creates very different situations and choices.

50 Hex tiles

3 start action tiles

3 extra action tiles

10 Paleolithic technology tiles

10 Neolithic technology tiles

10 Bronze age technology tiles

12 Prehistorical event tiles

20 shell tiles

Starting player tile

Wood: 60 Tribes (huts), 60 Technology cubes, 16 Civilization level discs, 4 Victory Point discs

Drawstring bag

Your Tribe starts out small, with a single hut in one of your 3 starting hexes. You also start out inefficient, at the lowest level in each of the four civilization categories. Each time you Explore, Move or Grow your level in that category determines how efficient you are.

The fourth civilization category, Strength, is important when resolving Prehistoric Events. Shells give you flexibility in choosing a tile from the Time Path when it is your turn. The Time Path represents the development path that your Tribe takes as time progresses, their choices and prioritizations.

You will invent simple technologies, then use them to invent more advanced technologies. This lets you advance your Tribe in the four civilization categories. Inventing will sometimes add new tiles to the Time Path. When you do not have the resources you need for inventing an important new technology you will exhaust hexes to make them count as any resource, before losing them permanently. Victory Points are collected by inventing Technologies, advancing in the civilization categories and from some Prehistoric Events. The game ends when a Tribes has 25, 30 or 35 Victory Points depending on the number of players. The solo game is described on the last page of the rules.

Rulebook

Theme Song