Stone Age - Starvation

The Starvation Strategy

By Daggerheart

One of the most famous, and often unpopular (for the opponents), strategies in Stone Age is 'The Starvation Strategy'. It's mostly considered as an option for the player at the left hand side of the starting player. Why? Since the first player often picks fields, or some other option than 'The Love Hut', as his first choice. The 2nd player is then 100% sure of getting two more tribe members the first two turns of the match = a tribe of at least 8 in turn 5 (3-player game), or turn 6 (4p). If the first two players skips the love hut, the third player can also consider to go for a 'starvation game'. The key elements of the strategy:

• Aquire as many meeples as 'possible', and as fast as possible. A player using the starvation strategy will usually get between 8-10 meeples during the match, more often 9 than 8 or 10 (10 is the limit). Sometimes stopping at 9 can be smart

• Remember that every player receives 12 food before the match starts. Thus, in the first two turns your tribe will not starve, even if you get two more meeples and don't hunt

• A 4p match in Stone Age usually lasts between 7-11 turns (7 minimum). A match lasting the minimum 7 turns (rare) will give a total starvation penalty of -50 points, and a match ending in turn 11, -90 points. Thus, a player that uses the strategy will benefit from short matches. The end game score of the starver will usually be lower than 'normal', but this goes for the other players too

• There are two main benefits of getting a big tribe: 1) The player gets more meeples available = more resources = more cards and huts 2) The player reduces the other players possibilities, especially in the first part of the match, to get resources, cards and huts

• Lumberjack the first turns: It's quite common for the starvation player to put a lot of meeples in the forest for wood gathering the first 1-4 turns. Wood is always useful for getting early cards and huts, and partly blocking this resource early will cause a 'slow' start for several of the opponents

• Usually the starvation player tries to empty one stack of huts fast to get a short match. The VP for huts are of course also needed to make up for the negative VP balance

• The Starvation player tries to get a lot of resources to buy huts. He/she will also prioritize to get the cards that give multipliers for meeples and huts. Cheap '1 cost' resource cards are of course also nice to pick up, the same goes for 'good trade' cards (2 wood for 2 stone'ish cards). The rest of the cards should usually be skipped, but sometimes you need to stop your closest competitor from getting an important x2/x3 bonus

• Always try to evaluate which of the other players are your greatest treat, and try to body block resources and similar for a double benefit. 'Only' 7 meeples are needed to 'shut down' a resource

• If the other players stops 'the starver' from getting the love hut and VP huts, yes even consider body blocking a hut (yes, even if you lack the resources) to delay the ending of the match + stop the player from getting the cards that give him the meeple multipliers, he/she will get into serious problems. A player using 'The Starvation Strategy' is of course also influenced by bad dice rolls, just like everyone else!

• The main reasons that many players (opponents) dislike others using the strategy are: They get a slow start due to 'no' extra meeples the first 2-3 turns and some resources, especially wood, are more limited during key turns of a match. If the opponents are not careful, a short match of 7-9 turns will further damage their win chances