• Create three columns each consisting of one Advanced Scout covered by a Shaman.
• Place 2 Wilderness cards face-up below the Wilderness stack.
• Each player starts with 2 tribe members; another one is placed on the Game Board.
• Each player receives the five cards Hunter, Scout, Chief, Collector, and Offspring.
• Each player receives 2 item cards.
• Each player starts with 10 points and 2 Hunger Tiles.

• Before your first game, carefully detach the Game Board and the Hunger Tiles from their frame, and place the Game Board on the table, between the 2 players.
• The 6 Sacred Places cards are not used in the Introductory Game and are placed back in the box.
• Of the 12 Special Characters cards (those with an orange bar on the left), only the 3 Advanced Scouts and 1 Shaman are needed in the Introductory Game. The 8 remaining Special Characters are placed back in the box.
• The 3 Advanced Scouts are placed in 3 columns next to each other. 3 Shamans are placed on top of each Advanced Scout card, somewhat offset, in order to keep the card names visible. These 6 cards form the display.
• Each player takes the 5 tribe members in 1 color, 1 of the Tribal Village cards, and places the Tribal Village card with the “Sunset / Introductory Game” side face up in front of him. He then places 2 of his tribe members on the card, and 1 other on the Game Board. The last 2 tribe members are placed next to the Game Board to create a supply area.
• From the stack of “Normal” Character cards, each player takes the following 5 cards: 1 Hunter, 1 Scout, 1 Chief, 1 Collector, and 1 Offspring.
• Place the 2 Victory Point Markers on the Victory Point track of the Game Board, on the “10” space.
• Shuffle the Item cards and deal 2 items to each player. Each player looks at them and places them face down in front of him. These are items he can create during the game. The rest of the Item cards are placed as a draw stack next to the Game Board.
• Each player receives 2 Hunger Tiles, which are placed next to his Tribal Village card. The rest of the Hunger Tiles, as well as the Consumption Stones, are placed next to the Game Board in the supply area.
• The 2 sets of Location cards (Wilderness and Hunting Grounds) are shuffled separately and placed face down as 2 draw stacks near the Game Board. The top 2 Wilderness cards are drawn and placed face up below the Wilderness stack.
• The player with the most hair is the starting player. Each player will then take turns back and forth.

On a player’s turn he may take one of the 3 following actions:

The Item cards

• To create an item you have to collect all required resources at once.

• By retrieving his tribe members, a player can create one or more items. To do this, he selects one of his Item cards and places it face up in front of him. The bottom left corner of the Item card shows the resources needed to create the item. For each resource shown on the card, the player must retrieve one of his tribe members from a Location card supplying the proper resource, and then cover the icon of that resource with a Consumption Stone. Important: It is not possible to create an item by collecting any “missing” resources at a later time. If a player cannot collect all of the necessary resources at the same time, he can not play that Item card.
• When creating an item, most of the Item cards will earn the player 1, 2 or 3 Victory Points, and the player immediately moves his Victory Point Marker forward on the Victory Point track by the appropriate amount. Note: The Item cards “Hand Axe” and “Vegetable Patch” do not earn the player any Victory Points.
• Many items have 1 or 2 additional effects, shown as the following icons in the bottom right corner of the Item card:

  Place 1 of your tribe members on any Location card	Draw 1 Item card from the stack
  Take 1 Hunger Tile	Discard 1 Hunger Tile to the supply

• Clarification: Effects of items are processed in the order from left to right.

The Victory Point Track

• When reaching or passing bonus fields, the player can get an additional Victory Point by discarding two of his created items.
• The final space on the Victory Point track can only be reached with at most 3 Hunger Tiles.

• The Victory Point track on the Game Board keeps track of the progress of the two tribes. The players can earn Victory Points during a “Sunset” scoring, and through the creation of items by playing Item cards.
• Each player starts the game with 10 Victory Points.
• 

  The Victory Point track spaces containing cave paintings (#9, 14 and 18) are bonus spaces. Whenever a player reaches or passes one of these bonus spaces, he may choose to discard 2 already built Item cards in order to gain 1 bonus Victory Point. If the player does not have 2 built Item cards at the time he reaches or passes one of the bonus spaces, he cannot receive the bonus Victory Point.
• In order to be able to reach the final space on the Victory Point track (space #24, containing a hand icon), the player may hold no more than 3 Hunger Tiles. If he has more than 3, he must end his movement on space #23, and cannot advance further until he holds 3 or less Hunger Tiles.

• If a player reaches 24 or more victory points, the game ends after both players have taken the same number of turns.
• The player with more victory points wins, in case of a tie the second player wins.

• Once a player reaches the final space on the Victory Point track (#24, with hand icon), the game ends. If he earns more than 24 VP, he continues movement to (or past) the #1 space.
• If the starting player reaches the final space first, the second player may take one last turn, so that both players get an equal number of turns. If the second player cannot reach the final space on his last turn, the starting player wins the game. If the second player does reach (or surpass) the final space, then the winner is the player who has progressed the furthest on the Victory Point track. In case of a tie, the second player wins.
• If the second player reaches the final space first, the game ends immediately, and the second player wins the game.

Once you have played the Introductory Game at least once, you may wish to try the Normal Game on your next play. All rules of the Introductory Game also apply to the Normal Game, with the following changes and additions:

Game Setup

• Each player places his Tribal Village card with the “Sunset / Normal Game” side face up in front of him.
• Each player receives, in addition to the 5 “Normal” Character cards as in the Introductory Game, 1 Shaman (also from the “Normal” Character cards stack).
• All 12 of the Special Characters are shuffled. 6 are drawn randomly and placed in 3 columns of 2 (as in the Introductory Game) to form the display. The 6 unused cards are returned to the box.
• 3 of the 6 Sacred Places cards are drawn randomly and placed face up next to the Game Board. Each of the Sacred Places cards has a different function on both sides. The 3 unused cards are returned to the box. Note: When using the Sacred Places cards for the first time, it is recommended to use these 3 cards: Mammoth Graveyard, Ice Cavern and Mud Springs. In later games, players can select the Sacred Places cards randomly, or decide together which 3 cards to use.
• Place the 2 Victory Point Markers on the Victory Point track of the Game Board, on the “3” space.
• The older of the 2 players plays first, and only receives 1 Item card. His opponent receives 2 Item cards.

Performing a “Sunset” scoring

• After receiving his victory points for a “Sunset” scoring, a player must discard all but 1 of his face-down Item cards. This does not apply to the already created items in the display.
• At the end of his “Sunset” scoring, a player may take 5, 6, or 7 Character cards from the display into his hand.

Note: These additional rules are also listed on the “Sunset / Normal Game” side of the Tribal Village card, for reference.

The Sacred Places

• The Sacred Places cards are additional Location cards, and just as the Wilderness and Hunting Grounds players may place a tribe member on them.
• Any number of tribe members may stand on a Sacred Place, but they must all be tribe members of the same player.
• In order for a player to place tribe members on a Sacred Place containing tribe members of the other player, he must place a greater number of them than the other player currently has there. The other player then returns his tribe members to his Tribal Village card.
  Example: Player 1 (Black) has 1 tribe member on the Mammoth Graveyard. Player 2 (White) plays a Collector, and thus may place up to 4 tribe members at any Location. He decides to place 2 of them on the Mammoth Graveyard, which replace Player 1’s tribe member there. Player 1 returns his tribe member to his Tribal Village card. Player 2 could instead have chosen to place 3 or 4 tribe members there, making it more difficult for Player 1 to reclaim the Mammoth Graveyard later in the game.
• Each Sacred Place has a different function, which is only in effect if the “Trigger” condition is met.
• In order for a player to use the function of a Sacred Place, a player must have at least one of his tribe members there on his turn. Clarification: The function of a Sacred Place is handled in an extra phase at the end of a turn. At the beginning of this extra phase, there must be a tribe member at the Sacred Place in order to use its function.

Once you have played the Normal Game a few times, you may wish to try your hand with this variant, in which players truly learn the struggles of Stone Age life. All rules of the Normal Game apply here, with the following additions:

• On most Hunting Ground cards (except the Sabertooth Tiger), some of the resource icons show a small Skull in the corner. If such a card is drawn, those resources are immediately covered with a Consumption Stone. This means that there will be less meat and skins available for the players.
• Whenever a player reaches or passes one of the bonus cave painting spaces and does not have 2 already built Item cards to discard, in addition to not receiving the 1 bonus Victory Point he must now also take 1 Hunger Tile.