The events of "Endless Winter" unfold in North America during the early days of human expansion, around 10,000 BCE. You’ll guide your tribe across generations, evolving it from simple hunter-gatherer bands into thriving tribal communities. Tribes can explore and settle new lands, grow in numbers, master hunting megafauna, and erect enduring megalithic structures.

Overview of the Board Game "Endless Winter: Paleoamericans"

This is an innovative Eurogame where players compete for victory points. The game boasts a wealth of engaging mechanics, including worker placement, deck-building, area control, set collection, tile placement, and progression along various tracks. Inside the box, you’ll find a plethora of high-quality components and a handy organizer for both the game and each player’s personal items.

Gameplay

As mentioned earlier, the game is packed with mechanics and diverse tracks. The rules aren’t complex, but they’re rich with intriguing nuances. Thus, we’ll outline the gameplay broadly and recommend reviewing the rules via video or PDF.

The game spans 4 rounds. Each round consists of 3 phases:

Action Phase

In this phase, you’ll deploy your two meeples and a chief—who has unique abilities—to perform various actions. Depending on where you place them on the board and which cards you play, your tribe can:

• Conduct an initiation rite to add one of five tribesman cards to your hand and “bury” a card from your deck—discarding it to refine your deck by removing unwanted cards.
• Develop your tribe by adding a culture card to your deck and placing an ancient stone on your board. Ancient stones grant bonus victory points at game’s end based on personal objectives.
• Place or move a camp on the modular board. If you have 3 camps on adjacent tiles, you can remove them to establish a village, controlling all 3 tiles and collecting resources from them at round’s end.
• Hunt an animal. Animals can be used in two ways: “eat” the card for a one-time bonus or tame it for end-game set-collection bonuses.
• Rest by placing a meeple or chief on your board, allowing you to draw a card from your deck, eat an animal, and gain 1.5 labor points.

Eclipse Phase

Here, you take the cards left in your hand and start “bidding.” After choosing cards, everyone places them face-down, and turn order is determined (the player with the most labor points on their cards goes first). During the eclipse phase, only cards with a special symbol trigger their effects.

Preparation Phase

Players claim bonuses from the turn-order track, personal boards, and resources from the modular board based on camps and villages. You also draw five cards from your deck to your hand and return meeples to your personal board.

Megaliths

When you gain an advantage featuring a megalith (stone), you simply place it on the dedicated board. Covering a bonus on the board grants it immediately. If four megaliths are already adjacent, you can stack yours atop them to earn victory points.

Idol Field

Throughout the game, you’ll move idols along this track in various ways. It has two scales:

• The Offering Track (left) determines end-game victory points from resources—the higher you climb, the more points you score.
• The Honor Track (right) awards victory points for “burying” cards—unlike the other track, the player furthest along scores the most.

One Last Note

Gallu the Rooster loves this game for its layered depth. It’s all about smart resource and card management and combining victory point strategies. At first, the board feels overwhelming—actions, tracks, fields, cards, symbols galore. But after one session, trying each mechanic, you realize how deep and captivating "Endless Winter: Paleoamericans" truly is.

We also suggest checking out a 4X-strategy game with simple rules and engaging gameplay that blends deck-building and area control—"Northgard: Uncharted Lands". Here, you lead asymmetrical clans from the universe of the popular video game *Northgard*. Using your custom deck, you’ll strive to improve your people’s fate. Your decisions determine whether you’ll triumph in this fierce struggle for new lands, glory, and riches.