Cro-Magnon: First Steps of Civilization Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Definitions
• Goal of the Game
• Sequence of Play
• Available Actions During a Player's Turn
  • 1. Explore Terrain (cost 1 AP)
  • Composition of the Terrain Decks
  • Resources
  • Animals
    • Herbivores
    • Predators
  • 2. Natural Exchange (cost 0 AP)
  • 3. Mastering a Technology (cost 0 AP)
    • Refilling the Technology Rows with Resources
    • Special Rule: "Valuable Spoils"
    • Special Rule: "Technology Progress"
• End of the Game and Scoring
  • Final Scoring
• Solo Mode: "The Approach of Winter"
  • Preparing the Solo Game
  • Playing the Solo Game
  • Special Rules for the Solo Game
  • Ending the Solo Game
• Notes on the Translation

Components

• 1 game board
• 21 Forest terrain cards
• 19 Mountains terrain cards
• 19 Plains terrain cards
• 19 River terrain cards
• 15 Spoils cards
• 12 Weapons technology cards
• 12 Daily Life technology cards
• 12 Dwelling technology cards
• 9 First Technologies cards
• 6 Settlement cards
• 4 reminder cards
• 4 Predator figures
• 4 coloured victory point markers
• 9 Event cards for the solo game

Setup

1. Place the game board in the centre of the table.
2. Place the Spoils deck face down next to the game board.
3. Shuffle well and place the four terrain decks face down on the game board: Forest, Mountains, River, Plains. Place a Predator figure next to the corresponding deck.
   • Forest: wolf.
   • Mountains: cave bear.
   • River: crocodile.
   • Plains: sabre-toothed tiger.
4. Set aside a space for a discard pile for each terrain deck next to the board.
5. Take the 9 First Technologies cards and divide them into 3 groups by type: Weapons (red), Daily Life (yellow), Dwelling (green). Then place these cards face up on the game board in 3 rows of 3 cards each, forming the technology rows in this order:
   • Top technology row: axe, chopper, stone knife.
   • Middle technology row: campfire, fibre, needle.
   • Bottom technology row: syrets, shelter, cave.
6. Shuffle the Weapons, Daily Life and Dwelling technology decks separately. Then place each of these decks face up on the leftmost square of its corresponding technology row, under the First Technologies card.
7. Take 3 random cards from the Settlements deck and place one card face up on the rightmost square of each technology row. Return the remaining 3 cards to the box.
8. Each player takes a reminder card, chooses a colour and places a marker of the chosen colour on the "-0-" space of the victory point track.

The youngest player starts the game.

Definitions

• Discard pile: a stack of discarded cards placed next to the corresponding terrain deck. Cards in discard piles are placed face up.
• Resources: the type of cards used to master technologies.
• Spoils: a valuable resource obtained mainly through hunting.
• Technology rows: the lower part of the game board, divided by a grid, in which the technology cards available for mastering lie.
• Technologies: cards located in the technology rows.
• Mastered technologies: technology cards laid out in front of a player using the action "Mastering a Technology".
• Player's hand: the cards held in a player's hand.

Goal of the Game

In Cro-Magnon the players perform actions with which they obtain resource cards. Resource cards are needed to master new technologies. Mastered technologies bring their owner victory points, allow more efficient actions, and make it possible to found a settlement of their own.

The player who has the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner. Your community has adapted best to the harsh primitive world!

Sequence of Play

The players take turns, passing the turn clockwise, starting with the youngest player.

Each turn, a player has 2 action points (AP).

Most actions have a set cost of 1 or 2 AP. Some actions are free and cost no AP, and some actions take up the player's whole turn.

During their turn a player may, in any order:

• perform actions, spending AP on them; the same action may be repeated as long as the player has AP;
• perform an unlimited number of free actions;
• under certain conditions, perform a special action without spending AP.

Once the player has performed all the desired actions, they end their turn and pass the turn clockwise to the next player.

During their turn a player may gain victory points. When they gain them, the player moves their marker on the victory point track up by as many spaces as the points they gained.

The game continues until one of the participants reaches a set number of victory points.

The player with more victory points wins the game.

Available Actions During a Player's Turn

1. Explore Terrain (cost 1 AP)

Valuable resources needed to master new technologies can be found in every terrain deck, and so can herbivore and predator animal cards. On their turn, a player may spend 1 action point to choose a terrain deck and take 1 card from it. Two outcomes are possible:

• The card shows a resource: the player takes the card into their hand (see "Resources" below).
• The card shows an animal: the player decides whether to hunt the animal or to decline the hunt (see "Animals" below).

Caution: at the start of the game a player may hold no more than 5 resource cards in hand by the end of their turn. If, by the end of the turn, the player has more cards in hand than the limit of 5, they discard the excess cards that they cannot keep. The player chooses which cards to discard. These cards are moved to the discard piles of the corresponding terrain decks.

It is possible for a player to have more cards in hand than the limit outside their own turn (for example, after a joint hunt). In that case the player waits for their turn and only at the end of their own turn discards cards down to the limit of 5 cards.

If the cards in any terrain deck run out during the game, shuffle that deck's discard pile and form a new terrain deck from it.

Composition of the Terrain Decks

• Forest terrain: 14 Wood cards, 6 Deer/Bird cards, 1 Wolf card.
• Mountains terrain: 12 Stone cards, 6 Markhor/Bird cards, 1 Cave Bear card.
• River terrain: 12 Flint cards, 6 Spring cards, 1 Crocodile card.
• Plains terrain: 12 Grass cards, 6 Clay cards, 1 Sabre-toothed Tiger card.

Resources

If the terrain card taken shows the resource Wood, Stone, Spring, Flint, Grass or Clay, that resource card stays in the player's hand face down. The player does not need to show it to the other players.

Caution: any trade or transfer of resource cards between players is forbidden!

Animals

If the terrain card taken shows a herbivore or predator animal, the player lays it on the table and decides whether to hunt it or to decline the hunt. Note that the procedures for hunting and declining the hunt differ for herbivores and predators. Hunting a deer and facing a fierce bear are completely different things!

Herbivores

Meeting a herbivore is not dangerous, but one must be ready and have weapons in order to obtain the necessary spoils.

Hunting a herbivore

When meeting a herbivore, the player may receive up to 2 Spoils cards from the corresponding stack of resources.

To find out the size of the spoils, count the player's Weapons technology cards. For each Weapons technology the player has mastered, they receive 1 Spoils card, but no more than 2 Spoils cards from a single herbivore card.

Caution: any player may always ask other players for help by declaring a joint hunt. In that case all players taking part in the joint hunt add together their mastered Weapons technologies.

Before the joint hunt on a herbivore begins, the players may agree how to divide the Spoils cards they receive. Agreements made between players must be honoured.

After the Spoils cards are received, the herbivore card is moved to the discard pile of the corresponding terrain deck.

Declining the hunt on a herbivore

A player may always voluntarily decline to hunt a herbivore. If they decline, they move the herbivore card to the discard pile of the corresponding terrain deck; the animal runs away.

By declining to hunt a herbivore, the player gains 1 AP!

Types of herbivores and their habitats:

• Forest terrain: Deer/Bird. 6 cards. Trophies: 2 Spoils cards.
• Mountains terrain: Markhor/Bird. 6 cards. Trophies: 2 Spoils cards.

Predators

At the start of the game, next to each terrain deck stands a predator figure. This is a warning that a predatory beast lives in that terrain. Meeting a predator is very dangerous, but if one is prepared and makes an effort, valuable trophies can be obtained.

The predator card shows its strength, the number of victory points and the spoils it yields. The predator figure is also especially valuable: after a successful hunt the player takes it as a sign of victory over the mighty predator. At the end of the game it gives additional victory points.

Hunting a predator

During a hunt for a predator, the player counts their mastered Weapons technology cards and compares the number with the predator's strength. If the number of mastered Weapons technologies is equal to or greater than the predator's strength, the player defeats the predator.

The player gains the victory points and the spoils shown on that animal's card, and takes the predator figure standing next to the corresponding terrain deck.

The predator card's icons are labelled in the original as: predator symbol; victory points and spoils gained; predator figure; predator's strength.

Caution: any player may always ask other players for help by declaring a joint hunt. In that case all players taking part in the joint hunt add together their mastered Weapons technologies.

Before the joint hunt on a predator begins, the players may agree how to divide the victory points and Spoils cards they receive. Agreements made between players must be honoured.

After the victory points and Spoils are received, remove this predator's card from the game.

Caution: if the number of Weapons technologies mastered by the player is less than the predator's strength, the player must decline the hunt.

Declining the hunt on a predator

Each player may always voluntarily decline to hunt a predator. If they decline, they move the predator card to the discard pile of the corresponding terrain deck; the player escapes by running away.

To distract the predator, the player discards from their hand as many resource cards as the victory points shown on that predator's card. The player chooses which resource cards to discard. The discarded cards are moved to the discard piles of the corresponding terrain decks. If there are fewer resource cards in hand than must be discarded, the player discards all of their cards. If there are no resource cards in hand, the player discards nothing.

By declining to hunt a predator, the player gains 1 AP!

Types of predators and their habitats:

• Forest terrain: Wolf. 1 card. Strength 3. Trophies: 1 VP, 1 Spoils card, +1 VP at the end of the game.
• Mountains terrain: Cave Bear. 1 card. Strength 4. Trophies: 1 VP, 2 Spoils cards, +2 VP at the end of the game.
• River terrain: Crocodile. 1 card. Strength 4. Trophies: 2 VP, 1 Spoils card, +3 VP at the end of the game.
• Plains terrain: Sabre-toothed Tiger. 1 card. Strength 5. Trophies: 2 VP, 2 Spoils cards, +4 VP at the end of the game.

2. Natural Exchange (cost 0 AP)

On their turn, without spending action points, a player may exchange several of their resource cards from hand for 1 or more Spoils cards. The exchange rates for Wood, Stone, Spring, Grass and Clay are printed on those resource cards.

To exchange, the player discards the required resource cards from hand to the corresponding terrain discard piles, and takes 1 or more Spoils cards from the Spoils deck into hand.

Exception: the Flint resource card. During a Hunt, a player may, without spending an action point, discard 2 or more Flint cards from hand to add 1 to the number of their mastered Weapons technologies for every 2 Flint cards discarded.

3. Mastering a Technology (cost 0 AP)

On their turn, without spending action points, a player may master technologies. The mastered technology card is taken from its technology row and laid out in front of the player face up. Technology cards are arranged in three rows: Weapons, Daily Life, Dwelling. Each technology card shows the conditions for mastering it: the number and kinds of resources required, the already-mastered technologies required, and the number of victory points the player gains for mastering it.

To master a technology, two conditions must be met:

1. The player has in hand the number of resources shown on the technology card.
2. The technologies shown at the bottom of the technology card that is being mastered must already be mastered on the game table.

Caution: before mastering a new technology, one must always check that the technologies shown at the bottom of the card are already mastered on the table. If no player has such technologies, mastering that technology is impossible for now!

(The original diagrams for this section show the resources required for mastering a technology, and the technologies that must already be mastered before it. They are not reproduced here.)

Refilling the Technology Rows with Resources

When a player masters a technology, they take its card from the row and lay it in front of themselves face up. The resource card shown last in the mastering conditions of that technology is then placed in its place in the row, and the other resource cards used to master the technology go to the discard pile.

In this way, during mastering, the technology rows are refilled with resources, which the players may later take for themselves.

If a player masters a technology from the deck, the resource in this case is not placed in the row; it is moved to the discard pile.

Special Rule: "Valuable Spoils"

When mastering a technology, the Spoils resource may be used as a kind of "joker". A player may discard 3 Spoils resources instead of one of any resource required by the technology being mastered. If one player in this way covers the requirement for the resource shown last in the conditions of that technology, they place 1 Spoils card in the technology row, and send the others to the discard pile.

Special Rule: "Technology Progress"

If a player masters a new technology and its mastering conditions include technologies already mastered by this player, they receive one additional victory point for each such mastered technology.

(Diagram labels for this rule in the original read: the technology; the resources required for mastering it; the victory points the player gains immediately after mastering the technology; the last resource in the chain is placed in the technology row if a space becomes free; two required mastered technologies are shown in the mastering conditions; the player holds one mastered technology listed in the conditions, so they gain an additional VP when mastering this technology; the player on the right has a mastered technology.)

The number of mastered technologies laid out in front of a player is not limited.

4. Using Technologies (cost 1 AP)

Mastered technologies have properties that act constantly, and properties that require spending action points. During their turn a player may use the properties of their technologies.

Technologies are divided into three kinds: Weapons (red), Daily Life (yellow), Dwelling (green).

Participants may use only their own mastered technologies. Properties of technologies in the technology rows, or of technologies mastered by other players, may NOT be used!

Weapons

Each Weapons technology has the property of allowing the action Attack.

Attack (cost 1 AP): spending 1 action point, the player may take 1 card from the hand of any other player into their own hand. The face of the card must not be looked at, but the card may be chosen by its back.

After performing the Attack action, the player must turn one of their Weapons technology cards 180 degrees. Until the end of the game this card no longer counts for hunting and cannot be used for the Attack action, but it still counts as a mastered technology of the player.

Daily Life

Each Daily Life technology has the property of allowing the action New Technology.

New Technology (cost 1 AP): spending 1 action point, the player may take into their hand 1 top resource card from any discard pile OR 1 resource card from any technology row, and place in its place the top card of the technology deck of that row.

After performing the New Technology action, the player must turn one of their Daily Life technology cards 90 degrees. This card may not be used again for the New Technology action in this turn. At the start of their next turn, the player restores all of their Daily Life technology cards to the upright position, and may again use the New Technology action with these cards.

Dwelling

Each Dwelling technology has the property of increasing the limit of cards held.

The total of all such icons shown on the Dwelling technology cards is added together and determines the number of additional cards the player may hold. At the start of the game the hand limit is 5.

Each Dwelling technology also has the property of allowing the action Improve Dwelling.

Improve Dwelling (cost 1 AP): different Dwelling technologies allow discarding from 1 to 3 Spoils cards to gain the same number of victory points in a single Improve Dwelling action. The player gains the victory points and moves their victory point marker up by as many spaces as the number of Spoils cards discarded during the Improve Dwelling action. At will, the player may discard fewer Spoils cards than the number shown on the Improve Dwelling icon.

After performing the Improve Dwelling action, the player must turn one of their Dwelling technology cards 180 degrees. Until the end of the game this card may no longer be used for the Improve Dwelling action, but it still counts as a mastered technology of the player.

5. Developing a Technology (cost 2 AP)

On their turn, spending 2 action points, a player may take into hand 1 top resource card from any discard pile OR 1 resource card from any technology row, and place in its place the top card of the technology deck of that row.

6. Founding a Settlement (cost: the whole turn)

Once certain conditions are met, and by spending their whole turn, a player may found a settlement.

To found a settlement, the player needs a set of mastered technologies. The types of the required technologies are shown by colours on the settlement card.

All the required technologies must be in the player's possession, since a settlement cannot be founded using the technologies of other players or technologies that are not mastered!

To perform the action "Founding a Settlement" the player must spend their entire turn.

No other actions may be performed in that turn!

After founding a settlement, the player takes that settlement's card from the row and lays it in front of themselves face up. A new card from the technology deck of that row is added in its place. In this way a 4th place appears in the technology row, which follows the general rules of the game.

The player immediately gains 6 victory points and moves their victory point marker up 6 spaces. Each participant may found no more than one settlement per game!

(The original shows an illustrated example of technologies mastered by a player and a settlement being founded; it is not reproduced here.)

7. Additional Terrain Exploration

On their turn (once per turn and under certain conditions), a player may take cards from any terrain deck without spending action points.

The number of cards depends on the player's position on the victory point track.

The victory point track has dividing lines.

If a player's victory point marker is below a dividing line, and the marker of any opponent is above it, that player may take 1 card from any terrain deck for each dividing line lying between their marker and the marker of the chosen opponent.

In the example on the original illustration, the "copper" player may take 2 cards, the "green" and "yellow" players 1 card each, and the "red" player leads and cannot take cards with this action.

If a player draws a resource card, they keep it in hand. If an animal card is drawn, the player acts under the general rules, with one exception: the player does NOT receive an additional action when declining the hunt.

End of the Game and Scoring

The game ends when one of the players reaches a set number of victory points, which depends on the number of players:

Number of players	Victory points needed
2 players	30 points
3 players	24 points
4 players	22 points

When one of the players reaches the set number of victory points, they immediately end their turn.

Then, in turn order, all remaining players each take one last turn under the general rules of the game.

Finally, the player who first reached the set number of victory points takes their last turn, and the game ends.

Final Scoring

At the end of the game all players receive 1 victory point for every 2 resource cards of any kind remaining in their hand.

Predator figures give their owners victory points:

• Wolf: 1 VP
• Crocodile: 3 VP
• Cave Bear: 2 VP
• Sabre-toothed Tiger: 4 VP

The player with more points wins the game.

Solo Mode: "The Approach of Winter"

In the solo mode the player competes not with other players but with the most merciless opponent of all: time. Winter is approaching, and the player must manage to found their own settlement before the cold arrives.

All the main rules of the game remain in force, but some aspects of the rules differ, as listed below.

Preparing the Solo Game

1. Prepare for the game using the standard rules.
2. Find the "Winter" card among the solo-mode Event cards and set it aside.
3. Create the Event deck: shuffle the 8 solo-mode Event cards and place them as a face-down stack in any convenient place on the table or on the victory point track. In the solo game the victory point track is not used.
4. Place the "Winter" card face down under the Event deck.
5. Place the 4 coloured markers on the top card of the Event deck.

Playing the Solo Game

• A solo game lasts nine turns (game months), and continues until the player performs the action "Founding a Settlement" or the Event card "Winter" is drawn.
• During a turn, the player may perform the actions available to them in any order, and may repeat the same action.
• During each turn the player has 4 action points (AP), which they may spend on actions that cost AP.
• Each time the player spends one action point (AP), they remove one coloured marker from the Event deck.
• Once the player has performed all the desired actions, they take the top card of the Event deck and resolve it, following the instructions printed on it. After that the player removes this card from the game and places the 4 coloured markers on the next top card of the Event deck.
• A new turn begins.

Special Rules for the Solo Game

• The action "Founding a Settlement" costs 4 action points (AP).
• The player may not perform the actions "Attack" and "Improve Dwelling".
• In the solo game no victory points are awarded, and the victory point track is not used.

Ending the Solo Game

• The player loses if they draw the Event card "Winter".
• The player wins if they perform the action "Founding a Settlement".

Notes on the Translation

• This is a translation into English of the Russian-language rulebook. Terms were rendered by the transcriber; where the original name is a proper name of a card or a technology with no English equivalent, it is transliterated (for example, "Syrets" for the technology transliterated from Russian "syrets").
• Abbreviations: the Russian "OD" (ochki deystviya, action points) is rendered "AP"; the Russian "PO" (pobednye ochki, victory points) is rendered "VP".
• The Cave Bear entry in the original carries a stray character before its end-of-game bonus (printed as a Cyrillic "F" followed by "+2" and "PO"); it is transcribed as "+2 VP at the end of the game", matching the final scoring table.
• The original's illustrated examples, diagrams and card faces are not reproduced; where the text describes them, the description is kept.