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Description
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Set up:
The game contains twelve map tiles. Each map tile is made of one hexagon surrounded by six hexagons. Each tile will have a mixture of any or all of five types of terrain: grasslands, farmlands, mountains, woods, and hills. Each player gets a Player Aid card, selects a color of people tokens and places the era cube of the matching color on The Era Starting Box on the Progress Column part of the game board. A starting player is selected. Some tiles are placed contiguously on the game board (the number of tiles depends on the number of players) one at a time in turn order. Each player, in turn, places three of their people tokens on the game board contiguously. The game is now ready to begin.
Game play:
Players should note which terrain will be worth Progress Points at the end of the era. Progress Points are the number of hexes occupied of the scoring terrain by one’s token plus the number of city tiles plus the value of all eligible Idea Cards. The player or players with the most Progress Points will advance to the new era and get an advantage over the other players.
In turn, a player may:
- Move people
- Have babies (increase the number of people tokens on the game board)
- Have a fight (initiate the diceless combat system against another player)
- Have an idea (draw chance cards)
- Build a city (replace people tokens with a city tile)
After all the players have used all of their turns the era has ended. If this not the first round then all the players’ Era Cubes are advanced to the level of the leader(s). Progress Points are then compared and the leader(s) advance to take advantage of one’s newest ability.
The game is over after ten eras. Victory Points are the total of number of non-mountain hexagons occupied by one’s tokens plus the values of one’s cities plus three points for advancing to the final era. The player with most Victory Points is the winner.
Year Published
2006
Featured Videos
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 3
This page: 3
Sentiment:
pos 3 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–3 of 3
Video emRysP2Xem0
Tantrum House game_review at 0:04 sentiment: positive
video_pk 62728 · mention_pk 155427
Click to watch at 0:04 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Immersive theme and cute elephant artwork
- Tight cooperative puzzle with meaningful decisions
- Interesting spatial footprint mechanic
- Multiple difficulty modes and solo/campaign options
Cons
- Steep learning curve for new players
- Lions can end game abruptly on bad draws
- Pace can feel slow early if not set up quickly
Thematic elements
- Survival, teamwork, resource management
- Savannah, guiding a herd of elephants across a dangerous landscape
- Dynamic, living herd system with matriarch-led journey
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card economy and end conditions — Deck is finite; players must manage cards to illuminate landmarks or risk running out.
- Card placement to build savannah — Players expand the map by placing terrain cards to unlock resources and progress toward landmarks.
- Elephant placement pattern — You must match footprint patterns and card orientation when placing elephants, creating a spatial puzzle.
- Hidden information and communication — Players can't see others' hands; communicate without full visibility, fostering table talk and teamwork.
- limited communication — Players can't see others' hands; communicate without full visibility, fostering table talk and teamwork.
- Lions threat mechanic — Lion cards move toward the nearest elephants; they eat elephants and can end the game if not managed.
- Matriarch movement and reset — Revealing the matriarch moves the herd and resets certain resources, driving strategic placement.
- Resource management — Balance limited energy, elephants, and landscape resources; trees and waters affect actions.
- Terrain and tree interactions — Trees provide energy; eating trees is limited to one type per matriarch cycle; terrain differences affect movement.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Not just about getting from point A to point B. It's all about survival and efficiency and teamwork.
- There is a really interesting spatial puzzle here.
- This is not an easy game.
- The game is enjoyable. It does feel very immersive.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video -C43FDPgjDM
IA and Tyler's Board Games Channel playthrough at 0:18 sentiment: positive
video_pk 35046 · mention_pk 104569
Click to watch at 0:18 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Accessible entry point for new players with a clear cooperative objective
- Strong thematic cohesion: matriarch-led elephants navigating a dangerous savannah
- Tight synergy between card actions, elephant placement, and landmark collection
- Multiple scenarios and a campaign-like pathway via introductory mode and optional variants
- Visually appealing components and a satisfying sense of progression when landmarks are visited
Cons
- Rule complexity can spike during advanced maneuvers (double matriarchs, terrain interactions)
- Late-game pressure from the lion deck can lead to dramatic, high-stakes losses
- Potential for suboptimal early decisions to cascade through the rest of the game
- Component count and orientation rules may create a steeper learning curve for casual players
Thematic elements
- Animal herding and survival under cooperative constraint, where a matriarch leads a herd through an increasingly perilous landscape, balancing energy, resting elephants, and landmark objectives against predators and deck-driven events.
- Savannah biome depicted as a stylized game map, with elephants and lions moving between purple-labeled landmarks across a tiled grid. The setting emphasizes a journey across open grasslands, water sources, rocky terrain, and forested pockets, all guiding a matriarch-led elephant herd through a sequence of safe havens and contested zones.
- Narrative-driven co-op with modular map layouts, where the elephant herd advances toward two final goals while tourying through a sequence of landmarks; the elephants’ fortunes are tightly coupled to the matriarch’s movement and the deck’s random encounters with lions.
Comparison games
- Aqua
- Hutan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card-driven action placement — On a player's turn, a card from hand is chosen and placed on an available space to trigger its action. Cards can be rotated and placed adjacent to the matriarch or existing elephants; some cards also interact with terrain and landmarks and may be rotated to optimize the action.
- Elephant placement and orientation rules — Placement requires following an exact orientation relative to the seated players. Diagonal connections count for placement, and there are constraints about where elephants can be placed in relation to the matriarch and existing elephants.
- Energy and rest economy — Elephants can be rested to regain energy, and the matriarch’s actions often involve paying energy to reposition and reset certain board elements. Energy management sits at the heart of planning moves, as exhaustion or depletion leads to losses.
- Landmarks and victory conditions — Progress is measured by visiting six landmarks and then reaching the two final destination spaces. Visiting landmarks typically requires covering specific spaces on the board, and some landmarks are only accessible after certain conditions are met.
- limited communication — Players can discuss their hands and intentions but cannot reveal exact cards. This creates tension and strategic dialogue while preserving fog of decision-making.
- Lions as deck-driven antagonists — Lions appear from the deck as encounters that gradually push toward elephants. When lions engage with elephants, elephants may be discarded or sent back to exhaustion; lions’ movement is toward the closest elephants, with tie-breaking rules.
- Matriarch movement and multi-matriarch penalties — The matriarch card(s) move the matriarch figure and trigger a sequence of effects, including returning elephants to exhaustion, paying energy, and potentially resetting the board. Holding two matriarchs introduces a heavy energy penalty and altered sequence.
- Shared information and communication — Players can discuss their hands and intentions but cannot reveal exact cards. This creates tension and strategic dialogue while preserving fog of decision-making.
- Terrain effects and two-step placements — Certain terrain cards force players to place two elephants, or to ignore rough terrain only if a matriarch is involved. Terrain shapes influence possible pathways and the efficiency of landmark visitation.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- we'll be taking the roles of elephants.
- The matriarch slowly make its way throughout the savannah, avoiding the lions, hoping to visit all the landmarks
- Lions will slowly be coming out through the deck and then moving towards the elephants.
- The elephants have traversed the savannah.
- This is the introductory mode. There's many different scenarios of different map layouts you can play.
- We are also using all five resource markers that'll make it a little bit easier for us and five of these cards as well.
- The first cooperative game.
- The matrix elephant will slowly progress through the map, and we'll wander our way over all the way to the very end in hopes of winning.
- Energy sneaks up on you; it's actually quite handy to have it around.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video eceY4_PD_Nc
Adam Porter top_100_list at 4:17 sentiment: positive
video_pk 11320 · mention_pk 115237
Click to watch at 4:17 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Beautiful mini-game packaging
- Simple, tense decision-making with escalating risk
Cons
- Can be perceived as light or lightweight by some players
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Push Your Luck — Players draw and place cards with the goal of building a set; risk increases as more cards are played.
- push-your-luck — Players draw and place cards with the goal of building a set; risk increases as more cards are played.
- set building and risk management — Players match on-table cards; accumulating points while avoiding negative draws.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Lovely production nice artwork it's been around for years now
- it's a push your luck game and it's quite simple but tense
- it's a game of chicken and the dungeon gets bigger and scarier
- it's a neat little decision
- it's a classic trick taking game
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
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