The best board, card & dice games set in the prehistoric period 2025

Draftosaurus is a charming and quick drafting game where players aim to build the most attractive dinosaur park. The game stands out for its use of dino meeples and unique placement restrictions, making it an engaging experience for all ages.

Stone Age catapults players into the challenging era of our ancestors, a time when survival hinged on the relentless pursuit of progress. In roles as hunters, collectors, farmers, and toolmakers, players will experience the hardships and triumphs of this prehistoric age. Here's an overview of the game:

Travel back to the prehistoric era of Kingdomino. Players will experience familiar gameplay with new components that introduce additional actions and scoring opportunities. Regions in your territory earn points when they contain fire, which can be gained either through terrain or by adding dominoes with volcanoes. The game features three play modes that incorporate fire, wood resources, and cave people tiles, allowing for varied strategies and rewards.

React, anticipate, and work together as a team to save the four dinosaurs in SOS Dino! Draw a tile, place it on the board, and then move one of the dinosaurs closer to safety in the mountains. Beware of lava flows and meteor showers!

The Stone Age was indeed tough. Players gather wood, break stones, and wash gold from rivers while trading, expanding their villages, and striving to reach new levels of civilization. They deploy tribal members across the board in three phases, activating regions for resources while ensuring they have enough food to sustain their growing population.

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers is a standalone game in the Carcassonne series, transporting players to the Stone Age. This version maintains the essence of the original Carcassonne game but introduces new thematic elements and rules suitable for this prehistoric setting.

Join Jonon and Jada, two children from the Stone Age, on a journey to rediscover how the first humans settled the world around them. In this children's version of the classic family game, players collect resources and build their own settlement.

In Inuit culture, "tukilik" refers to objects that carry messages, commonly found in northern landscapes. Players construct an Inukshuk using their limited stones and snow blocks based on the rolled dice face, requiring creativity to build effectively with the three-dimensional pieces. The game offers two difficulty levels to balance play between novices and experts, encouraging both speed and precision.

Players take on the role of clan leaders and secretly play cards that represent members of their tribe to conquer territories. Strategy and timing are crucial for scoring points. Throughout the game, players explore uncharted areas and establish settled villages using the diverse talents of their tribes, ultimately seeking dominance by the end of nine rounds.

Paleo is a cooperative adventure game set in the Stone Age, where players work together to ensure the survival of their human characters while completing various missions. The ultimate goal? To paint a woolly mammoth on a wall, leaving a mark of your existence (or just because it looks cool).

Ancient ancestors created images on cave walls to narrate stories about their surroundings and the animals they shared them with. In Great Plains, two players compete for dominance over the plains. Using the help of spiritual animals, they navigate hills, cross lowlands, and invade each other's territory to become the tribe that survives.

Atlantis Rising (Second Edition) is a beautifully reimagined version of the beloved cooperative worker placement game where players unite to save the mythical island of Atlantis from inevitable doom. As leaders of Atlantis, players collaborate to gather resources, manage the workforce, and construct a cosmic gate capable of saving the Atlantean populace from the rising tides. The game challenges players with a blend of strategic planning, resource management, and a pressing urgency to complete the gate before the island succumbs to the ocean.

Players score points by getting their teammates to guess words and phrases, but can only use one-syllable words. Enjoy guessing cheeky phrases, but beware: using multi-syllable words allows the opposing team to spank you with a playful inflatable stick.

"Looking good, darling. One chunk or two?" This is the most coveted invitation of the year: High Tea at Dinoton Abbey. Dressed to impress and ready for tea and chatter, players must identify each other’s dinosaur guest names to avoid social blunders.

In Ugg-Tect, players collaborate in teams to construct impressive, albeit "functional," structures using nearby materials. As cavemen, communication relies on primitive gestures and sounds, with each team having an architect who guides them using simple commands. The fastest and most precise building team will win the game.

Smash Up: Science Fiction Double Feature expands the universe of Smash Up with four new, out-of-this-world factions, each bringing unique gameplay mechanics to the table. This expansion allows for a fresh mix-and-match experience with the original game or stands alone as a two-player showdown.

Players assemble their prehistoric tribe by gathering essential elements for its development, while facing challenges from opposing chiefs and dilemmas during campfire decisions. Each turn, a player selects a card from the campfire area and adds it to their tribe, also taking a resource based on the card’s value. Players use these resources to build cards from their hand, which can provide immediate effects, store resources, or contribute to end-game scoring. When the central resource pile is empty, players tally their points.

Players aim to repair their houses using three different resources hidden in the grass. With the help of Martin, the mammoth, they search for these resources. The first player to build three houses wins the game.

Evolution: Climate is a compelling standalone game that expands on the well-regarded Evolution game system by integrating the aspect of climate into its dynamic ecosystem. This addition brings new layers of strategy and thematic depth, making for a unique gaming experience.

An Archaeopteryx leaps through thick ferns, unaware that a Velociraptor has spotted it. The agile hunter is also wary of the looming presence of the mighty T-Rex, feared by all dinosaurs. Players aim carefully and play their cards strategically to slide dinosaur cards from the box, capturing the most prey in this thrilling prehistoric chase.

Two clans of prehistoric men face off on an icy lake in a game called Kairn, also known as Caveman Curling, a precursor to modern curling. Players compete individually or in clans, aiming to get their stones as close to the target as possible. They perform two actions on their turn: launching a stone across the ice and using either a hammer or a totem to influence its placement. Points are scored by having stones closer to the target than the opposing clan, and the first to reach six points wins.

Evolution is a dynamic board game that simulates an ecosystem where players adapt their species to survive in a changing environment. The game emphasizes strategic adaptation, where players must develop their species with various traits to secure food and protect themselves from predators.

Rise of Tribes takes players back to a prehistoric era where leading a tribal faction to prosperity is the ultimate goal. Through a modular hex board representing various terrains, players strive to grow their tribe, move across lands, gather resources, and lead their people to victory. The game stands out with its dice-driven mechanism that influences the strength of each action, coupled with strategic decisions on where to place tribe members to either promote growth or avoid conflict.

Return to a time when cave dwellers communicated with grunts and gestures while dreaming of ruling their clans. In Ugga Buuga, players mimic various guttural sounds and add to a growing sequence based on hidden cards that depict words and images, like "Miti" for woolly mammoth. Rounds conclude when a player is accused of a mistake or successfully repeats all sounds, earning cards as rewards, and the game ends when there aren't enough cards left, with the winner being the player with the fewest cards.

Two players engage in an epic face-off in a dinosaur battle. Each player selects a dinosaur or a pack of the same type from their hand and reveals them simultaneously to compare attributes. The player with the highest total wins the round and adds their opponent's dinosaurs to their score pile while keeping in mind the varying victory point values of different dinosaur types. Each dinosaur also has unique special effects, allowing for strategic play, including the potential to bluff and secure valuable eggs for future generations.

An ancient map revealing a lost valley has been discovered. It indicates that the valley was once home to a wild tribe that amassed great wealth and used fierce dinosaurs for protection. Now, with no humans in the valley and the hidden treasure still there amid dormant threats, multiple expeditions are racing to uncover its secrets before a slumbering volcano erupts.

Players take on the role of dinosaurs trying to avoid the falling meteorite and various life disasters. The aim is to be the first to reach 50 points or the last dinosaur standing. During each round, a catastrophe card is revealed, and players play point cards to collect points and dodge disasters, while also enjoying the misfortunes of their friends. Collecting three catastrophe cards of the same type or three different types leads to elimination. Each player's board tracks their dinosaur's traits, escape route, and catastrophe cards, determining their chances of survival.

Oceans is a stand-alone game in the acclaimed Evolution game series, developed over three years and representing the most ambitious project by North Star Games. This game delves into the rich and mysterious world of the ocean's ecosystem, combining scientific accuracy with imaginative gameplay. With its stunning artwork, a multitude of scenarios, and a vast array of unique trait cards, Oceans offers a deep and engaging experience in underwater evolution and survival.

The Age of Dice has arrived! Players and their hunters will spend day and night hunting to provide for their tribe across six distinct hunting grounds. Each tribe sends hunters into these areas, competing to become the most worthy and gain exclusive hunting rights there.

Players set up their armies of dinosaurs, consisting of 15 dinosaurs each, in designated areas. Dinosaurs can be positioned in any arrangement within these areas, ensuring only one dinosaur per field.