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Dune board game studio’s next release is Stone Age survival semi-co-op Tusk

A mammoth challenge.

Gale Force Nine, the publisher of the Dune board game, as well as tabletop adaptations of Aliens, Firefly, Spartacus, Doctor Who and more, has announced its next original release.

Tusk follows gangster game Wise Guys as the second board game from Gale Force Nine to not be based on an existing licence, as well as being the first release from the publisher to include meeple tokens.

The upcoming board game is set during the Stone Age, with two to four players each controlling a tribe of early humans. The players must prepare for the impending Ice Age by gathering vital resources, including grass, sticks and stones they can use as rudimentary tools to hunt for food and fend off rival tribes.

Cover image for YouTube video

Players must search for food required to sustain and grow their tribe, collecting tokens from locations on the randomly-arranged hex-grid board - such as berry bushes - as well as deciding whether to hunt a dangerous but potentially food-rich mammoth. Mammoths can see players form temporary alliances to bring the powerful creatures down, making Tusk a semi-cooperative experience.

Tokens are spent to acquire new tribespeople, recover from wounds and bolster dice rolls used to resolve battles. The central board - made up of individual hex tiles - grows each turn, with new season cards bringing additional effects, before the Ice Age sets in after the third round, gradually covering the land in snow.

Once the board is completely enveloped by the spreading snow - each playthrough is estimated to last between 30 minutes and an hour - players score based on their remaining food tokens and victory cards that offer unique objectives.

Tusk is planned for release in May. The game will cost £30 in the UK.

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Matt Jarvis avatar

Matt Jarvis

Editor-in-chief

After starting his career writing about music, films and video games for various places, Matt spent many years as a technology, PC and video game journalist before writing about tabletop games as the editor of Tabletop Gaming magazine. He joined Dicebreaker as editor-in-chief in 2019, and has been trying to convince the rest of the team to play Diplomacy since.

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