Neanderthal

Neanderthal is a digital version of the board game in which you guide one of three human species through a critical period of human development. Set in Europe during the last glacial maximum, from 45,000 to 35,000 years ago, it follows the Archaic Man, Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon species as they fight to survive. You can play solo against AI, locally with others or online against other players. An introductory tutorial teaches the game and can also help you learn the physical board game.

Species and development

After millions of years of modest nomadic life, humans began developing complex language, forming tribes and building villages. The game lets you follow your tribe’s evolution alongside changes in its environment. At the start, your people are vocal, with words but not ideas, and have one of three sexualities: promiscuous, harem or pair bonding.

Turns and actions

Each turn has six phases. An event and culture auction begins when a daughter card is revealed; it determines the first player and the event icons applied to all players, from top to bottom. Players then assign unassigned tribesmen to hunting biomes, elder roles or courtship, before resolving negotiations, attacks and gathering.

If at least one negotiator has a Chief, players can offer bribes to persuade others to withdraw Hunters peacefully from contested biomes, including by marrying them to their daughters. Hunters on the same card must attack one another. Species occupying gathering biomes gain one Baby for each such biome, and players then roll one die for each assigned Hunter to hunt. Each mature domestic animal in your tableau provides the specified Babies and frees the specified disks.

You can then perform one species action. A vocal species can take a Portal Action to move one portal disk from its vocabulary to its brain map, or a Neolexia Action to free one dedicated disk to its vocabulary. A tribal species can take an Elder Action if it has an Elder of the required rank.