Caveman Curling just arrived and has been stickered and played twice already. We cleared off the coffee table and rolled it out. My wife, daughter, and I each took 6-12 practice shots to get a feel for how the pieces slide over the material and then went at it. We played two games that were supposed to be Best of Three Rounds.
The first game was my wife and daughter teaming up to face me. My daughter had to use a flick assisted by her thumb rather than a PitchCar flick, since she wasn't strong enough to get a piece passed the Mammoth Line, so her shots went wild most of the time. I scored a point in the first round of play on an early turn, the girls scored a point on the second round of play to tie it up, and then I scored a point in the third to win it.
The second round was just my wife facing me. She was quite a bit better without our daughter holding her back. On the first round she scored three whole points. The second round saw her scoring two points, to take her total up to five. I knew things were dire at this point and that I would need to tie it up or land all six stones in scoring position to win. That third round had me score the five I needed to tie my wife. Halfway through it she started to choke (performance-wise) and that led to her being really frustrated in the "tie-breaker" fourth round, since her sure-fire win was now not as certain. I landed a stone in the fire with some good blockers early on in the fourth round while she overshot or knocked her pieces out of good positions. On the last stone of the game, one of my rethrows from a totem special power, I barely nudged it passed the line so as to avoid taking a risk with a stronger shot and ruining it all. The game was over with me victorious, 6-5.
I found the game to be a lot of fun and plan to take it to the board game store for game night in ten minutes or so, along with Santorini and some random other game. It would be a great beer and pretzels kind of game and makes me wish I had a lot of friends who came over for beers and dexterity games. This, combined with PitchCar and Flick Em Up, would make for a loud and rowdy night. The game captures the essence of curling pretty well (IMO anyway, I've never curled, but I watch it on TV from time to time and have read a lot about the sport, its origins, and the rules. I would love to play it IRL one day). I'm very glad that I picked this up, and at $15 too (from the Eagle-Gryphon Games holiday sale). I would recommend the game to anyone who like Crokinole or other dex games that require flicking.
EDIT: A couple pics of the final round of Game 2 where I snapped up the one point I needed to break the 5pt tie and win.
Some more quick opinions/impressions:
The game has decent components. The wooden stones are a bit light but do not feel cheap because of it. The stickers and discs are of a good size too; I didn't get them on perfectly but there isn't a ton of space left over on any one part of an edge and the sticker color and wood color match up decently, so they don't look horrible (I get so anxious over stickering components that I refuse to buy a new copy of C&C Ancients; I'll only buy a used copy that has been stickered by someone with less shaky hands and better eyesight). The mat is made of paper but some special paper that feels stronger than a loose leaf sheet of notebook paper. The wooden discs slide really well across it. The mat also has humorous artwork that is reminiscent of Where's Waldo.
I like it a lot.
it's simple to play, pretty clever, and strategic enough to have some decent replay value; I'm pretty sure I haven't quite figured out how to play it optimally. I see myself playing this with my regular groups and family as well. The art is great and the build quality of the cards and the box is great - I like how they kinda use the box as a game component even if it's not necessary at all, because it's a nice thing to look at, haha.
