Doggerland – Can You Lead Your Tribe to Survival in the Ice Age?

Imagine it’s 15,000 BCE, and a vast stretch of land lies between Great Britain and mainland Europe, soon to be swallowed by the North Sea. Wild animals roam the fertile lands, and humans fight for survival. In Doggerland, you become the leader of a tribal community, guiding them through the changing seasons. Your mission? Gather enough resources during the summer to make it through the brutal winter.

👥 1-4 players, ages 14+
⌛ Playing time: 30 minutes/player
📝 Designers: Laurent Guilbert & Jérôme Daniel Snowrchoff
🎨 Artwork: Emmanuel Roudier & Yvan “Gawain” Villeneuve

🏢 Publisher: Geronimo Games (Dutch version, review copy provided) Originally published by Super Meeple.

Gameplay Overview

Doggerland unfolds over eight rounds, where warm and cold seasons alternate, just as they would in real life. The seasons play a crucial role in determining which animals appear and how much your actions will cost. As the year progresses, you’ll have to plan carefully to maximize your tribe’s chances of survival.

Each round kicks off with the planning phase. Players assign one of their tribe members to action spots on the board, but not all actions come easy. Some will cost more, depending on the season. In winter, for instance, outdoor actions like hunting or building require fur tokens to keep your tribe warm.

Your tribe has two special members: the Chief and the Shaman. The Chief excels at performing actions, either by mastering them more effectively or by reducing their cost. The Shaman, however, is a unique figure—unable to hunt, as they are too precious to risk—but able to perform special actions that no other tribe member can, such as going on extended journeys, painting perfect frescos, trading with distant tribes, erecting megaliths, or even invoking twin births.

Once all players have assigned their tribe members, the land expands. New terrain tiles are added next to each player’s pieces—be it their camp, a tent, or a megalith. This growing map becomes the arena for your next actions.

Now it’s time to carry out the planned actions. You can retrieve your tribe members in any order and start resolving their actions. Some tasks may demand an additional cost beyond what was paid during planning. You’ll be able to construct new habitats, grow your population, craft objects, paint frescos, or activate the Shaman’s unique abilities. Of course, resources are essential to all these actions. Gathering and hunting will fill your stockpile, but the amount of resources you can bring home depends on your tribe’s skills, such as movement range, transport capacity, and toolmaking. These skills can be improved over the course of the game to make your tribe more efficient.

After everyone has performed their actions, the animals left on the map will move, guided by arrows on the terrain tiles. You’ll wrap up the round by feeding your tribe, relocating your camp, and populating the map with new animals based on the season.

After eight rounds, final scoring takes place. You’ll earn points for each tribe member, accommodation, and megalith you’ve built, as well as for any frescos or crafted objects. In the end, the player who best leads their tribe through the trials of Doggerland will emerge victorious.

Game Info

Doggerland is the brainchild of first-time designers Laurent Guilbert and Jérôme Daniel Snowrchoff, and it’s a solid debut for both. The game was originally published in English and French by Super Meeple, while Geronimo Games has brought the Dutch version to the table—and they were kind enough to send us a review copy. If you’re a fan of complex eurogames, you’ll be pleased to know this one has it all: worker placement, resource management, tile placement, and planned movement. It plays 1 to 4 players and is best suited for ages 14 and up. On average, it takes about 30 minutes per player, but you’ll want to factor in at least an extra half-hour for teaching the game mechanics, so your first game with four players can easily stretch to three hours.

Components, Production, and Artwork

When it comes to components, Doggerland is packed—literally. You’re greeted by a box brimming with quality pieces. The production value is top-notch, featuring a large game board that’s clearly divided into various zones, custom-shaped meeples for each player, and beautifully detailed resource tokens. The player boards are double-layered, making them intuitive and functional, especially with the well-designed iconography—a necessity in a game with this level of complexity.

To make setup easier, the game comes with two storage trays that help keep all the components organized. Whether you store the box horizontally or vertically, everything stays in place, which saves you time when you’re eager to dive into your next session. Emmanuel Roudier and Yvan Villeneuve’s artwork does a wonderful job of capturing the prehistoric theme, helping you feel like you’ve been transported back to the time of mammoths and cave paintings. The whole production feels sturdy and well thought out, ensuring that nothing gets in the way of smooth gameplay—except, of course, your opponents!

Gameplay and Mechanics

Doggerland shines in its ability to create an immersive and challenging experience through its mechanics. With alternating summer and winter phases, players must plan their actions carefully, as the changing seasons dictate how many resources are needed to carry out those actions. Harsher winters increase the cost, demanding more from your tribe just to stay warm and survive. This need to weather the cold makes the theme come to life and helps the game feel authentic—this isn’t just a stroll through history; it’s a fight for survival in a prehistoric world.

The gameplay is all about balancing your tribe’s needs. Actions like hunting, gathering, and managing resources are at the core, and they’re actions you’ll revisit time and again. It’s a demanding experience, particularly for newcomers, but for those who love intricate strategies, it’s a rewarding puzzle. Fans of deep, strategic gameplay will find the constant juggling of resource management and action programming to be right up their alley, while more casual players will find the complexity a bit overwhelming.

What really sets this game apart is how the board constantly evolves as you play. Each round, the game world expands, adding new terrain tiles, and the order in which they appear can completely change the course of play. For example, if larger animals like mammoths show up early, you’ll have an abundance of fur and bones to work with. But if you’re stuck hunting small game, the game will move at a slower pace as your tribe struggles to gather enough resources. This bit of randomness keeps things exciting, making sure each game feels different from the last.

Strategic Depth and Planning

In Doggerland, everything hinges on careful planning and timing. The alternating summer and winter cycles introduce a natural scarcity of resources, forcing you to think ahead and stockpile enough to make it through the harshest conditions. You’ll constantly be adjusting your strategy to the changing terrain and the movement of animals on the board. The game never lets you settle into a predictable rhythm—just when you think you’ve got everything under control, the seasons change, or your tribe’s food supply starts running low.

Resource scarcity is a key challenge here. Players need to strike a delicate balance between growing their tribe, expanding their territory, and keeping everyone fed. And with only limited space for tribe members on most action spots, there’s always a bit of a scramble during the planning phase as players try to beat each other to the most valuable spaces on the board. It’s not cutthroat, but it’s certainly competitive—particularly when everyone’s eyeing the same large animals for an easy resource boost.

Player Interaction

Although Doggerland features a shared map, direct conflict between players is relatively rare. The game board expands at a steady pace, giving each tribe room to explore without constantly butting heads. That said, there’s still plenty of indirect interaction—like when someone takes the action spot you were hoping for or hunts the animal you had your eye on. These moments of passive competition keep the tension alive, but they never make the game feel overly aggressive or punishing.

Final Thoughts

Doggerland offers a strategic challenge that will keep your brain working overtime. There’s a lot to think about—sometimes too much! With so many different options and paths to victory, you’ll often find yourself going back and forth between potential actions, wishing you could do just a little more each turn. It’s definitely a game where the variety of options adds replayability, but it can also slow things down a bit, especially at higher player counts. Expect some downtime between turns, particularly when playing with four players.

The game is a balancing act of survival, resource management, and careful planning. You’ll need to optimize your actions if you want to feed your tribe and score points by crafting, building, and hunting. It’s a brainy puzzle that rewards careful thought and patience. However, for some, the sheer number of decisions will feel overwhelming or lead to longer play sessions than expected.

Still, for those who love a deep, immersive eurogame, Doggerland delivers. With a rich prehistoric theme, thoughtful mechanics, and a brain-busting level of strategy, it’s a game that will keep you coming back for more. Just don’t forget to grab a snack, because once you start, you’ll be in for a long, wild ride!

📝 We received a copy of the game from the publisher, Geronimo Games.