When comparing Stone Age vs Lords of Waterdeep, the Slant community recommends Stone Age for most people. In the question“What are the best worker placement boardgames?” Stone Age is ranked 1st while Lords of Waterdeep is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Stone Age is:
Each game of Stone Age will turn out differently. Obviously, your dice rolls are going to lead to different results, and the buildings and civilization cards you draw are going to be in a new order. There are many paths to victory, you can always try a different strategy. Best part is, no strategy is superior, you get points from many things, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Highly replayable
Each game of Stone Age will turn out differently. Obviously, your dice rolls are going to lead to different results, and the buildings and civilization cards you draw are going to be in a new order.
There are many paths to victory, you can always try a different strategy. Best part is, no strategy is superior, you get points from many things, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Pro Easy and accessible
Stone Age is a game suited for people of all ages and gaming backgrounds because it’s easy to learn and it provides quite a bit of strategic depth. The basic gist of Stone Age is easy – there are three phases in a round: placing workers, resolving actions, and feeding the tribe.
Players take turns placing their workers on empty spaces on the gameboard, signified by circles. There are resource areas, special areas, civilization cards, and hut tiles. There can’t be more workers than circles in an area.
After all the workers are distributed, players resolve actions in any order they choose. Depending on where you placed your workers, you either roll dice for resources or receive other bonuses in from special areas – tools, civilization cards, buildings, food generation, etc.
When all actions are complete, players must feed their tribes. This is done by returning the food resource to the pile. You pay one food per worker. If you generate food from the agriculture area, then you subtract that amount from the total.
Pro Beautiful aesthetics and theme
The visual design of Stone Age is very detailed and thematic. Both the artwork and the components look great and highly compliment the gameplay.
The gameboard and the player sheets feature stunning artwork of prehistoric scenery, the first player token is a silly drawing of a sitting chieftain, and the cards have some thematic nuances – stone tablets, figurines, prehistoric boats, etc. The resource tokens resemble what they’re supposed to be – food, wood, gold, bricks, and stone. The player tokens are colorful and patterned meeples.
Since dice rolling is a big part of the game, the components surrounding this have been made to look amazing – the dice are wood, and the pips are engraved. There’s a leather dice cup, which is a really nice thematic touch.
Pro Gameplay grows more complex over time
Limited options are available at the beginning of the game. There's only a few pieces in play along with quest cards that give simple, concrete goals. However, gameplay grows more complex as buildings are added and new quests become available. For example, where to move your agents, which opponent to interrupt by playing intrigue cards, and which kind of quests you focus on are goals that will shift and evolve as the game progresses.
Pro Quick gaming sessions
Each game is only eight rounds and can be played in an hour or two.
Pro Dungeons and Dragons in reverse
Based on DnD lore, but you're the one setting quests instead of going on them. It's fun to feel like a powerful Lord ordering your agents around and making them complete quests for your own benefit.
Pro Easy to teach new players how to play
Within a few turns, even new players should be able to understand the basic mechanics. You move your agents around the board, complete quests with them, and get points based on the difficulty of the quest. Whoever is able to gain the most points by the end of the 8th round wins. Thanks to the simple rules and the game's easy-to-understand nature, this makes it very approachable for all skill levels.
Pro Intrigue cards add a huge element of player interaction
The player interaction aspects of Lords of Waterdeep stem from the aptly named Intrigue cards. By moving your agents to a special area of the game board, you are able to bring one of these cards into play. They let you do such things as steal money or resources from other players, force your opponents onto a mandatory quest, sabotage their current quest in progress, or even temporarily bend the rules of the game. Choosing which opponent you're going to sabotage and how you're going to do it can result in plenty of in-game interactions with your fellow players.
Pro Fun to mess with your friends
While completing your own quests, you have the opportunity to sabotage your opponents' quests with disruption cards. This makes it harder for them to complete their quests and even steal their money/resources. There are also mandatory quests that can be forced onto your opponents, which means they must complete that quest before they can take on any new ones. These can lead to many humorous and interesting moments with your friends as you attempt to prevent each other from progressing in devious and devastating ways.
Pro Great presentation
The game board is sturdy and the pieces are colorful. Even the currency comes in the form of cardboard Waterdeep coins which really help sell the D&D theme. The rule book is loaded with pictures and illustrations. Overall, everything is presented very nicely. There's even a handy plastic mold to neatly put everything away when you're finished playing and keep everything in good shape.
Cons
Con Luck dependant
At its core Stone Age is a dice rolling game. You choose what you’re rolling for and how many dice you’re going to use when sending workers to a resource gathering space, and your roll will impact what you get. Some civilization cards also include dice rolling to decide which players get what resource.
The number is always rounded down, for example, if you sent two workers to gather wood, you’d roll two dice. One piece of wood costs 3. If you rolled 8 in total, then you’d get only two pieces of wood and you’d be missing one more pip.
Con Can be quite long
Depending on the number of players, the game can take 1 to 2 hours to play through, which is alright for more experienced board gamers, but it can be a big turn-off for new players or children who might lose their enthusiasm as the game progresses.
Con Pricey
The game has been out of stock for a few years. Wherever the copies of the game are available, they cost quite a lot. The price varies from $40 to $70, depending on the seller.
Con Not enough winning strategies
The main objective is to gain as many points as possible by having your agents/workers complete quests. There's not much in the way of strategy due to this one win condition. In almost all cases, the game will simply be won by the player who can tackle quests the most efficiently while dealing with anything their opponents throw at them.
Con Might not appeal to veteran gamers
The game systems are rather plain and basic, and it doesn't bring much new to the genre. It may not be appealing to veteran gamers as the gameplay is not very deep when compared to other similar games.
Con Can cause arguments
Having to plead with your friends not to interrupt your quest flow can result in many arguments. Having an opponent play an intrigue card on you, especially the mandatory quest card, can completely ruin your chance at winning. It's easy to get frustrated with other players, especially if you feel like you're being unfairly targeted or teamed up against repeatedly.