First Giants is a strategic prehistoric-themed board game where you take on the role of a paleontologist building the most prestigious fossil exhibition.

Collect dinosaurs, flying reptiles and giant mammals, study your discoveries and build powerful combinations to develop your museum. But there's a catch: the fossils that help you build your engine are also the fossils you need to exhibit to score points.

That creates the central dilemma of First Giants:

Do you keep your best specimens in your study to benefit from their abilities, or exhibit them to score points?

Every fossil you display becomes part of your museum—but once it's exhibited, you lose its useful effect.

Wait too long and you may miss valuable opportunities. Exhibit too soon and you could sacrifice a powerful engine before you've made the most of it.

You'll collect sets, combine card effects, compete for limited resources and carefully time your exhibitions as you race to create the most prestigious prehistoric collection.

With simple rules, meaningful decisions and a playing time of around 30 minutes, First Giants is an accessible strategy game that works particularly well for players who enjoy set collection, card drafting, engine building and dinosaur-themed games.

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Why You'll Love It

• Build your own prehistoric museum exhibition.
• Collect dinosaurs, flying reptiles and giant mammals.
• Discover fossils with unique abilities.
• Build powerful card combinations.
• Collect sets to score points.
• Balance engine building against scoring.
• Decide when to sacrifice useful card effects for victory points.
• The unusual engine-unbuilding mechanic creates a constant strategic dilemma.
• Easy-to-understand rules with meaningful strategic choices.
• Great for fans of dinosaur board games.
• Excellent for players who enjoy set-collection games.
• Around 30 minutes to play.
• Supports 2–5 players.
• Recommended for ages 10+.
• Beautiful prehistoric artwork.
• Plenty of replayability thanks to different card combinations.
• Great for family game nights.
• Suitable for experienced gamers and players moving into modern strategy games.
• Designed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert and published by Space Cowboys.

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How to Play First Giants

The central challenge is surprisingly simple:

Study fossils to build your engine, then decide when you're ready to put them on display.

1. Explore the Dig Sites

Your paleontologists can visit different Dig Sites to discover prehistoric specimens.

Choose carefully because the available cards offer different abilities and opportunities.

You'll need to consider which fossil is most useful to your collection and how it fits into your developing strategy.

2. Study Your Discoveries

When you acquire a card, it becomes part of your study.

This is where the engine-building side of First Giants comes into play.

Your specimens can provide useful effects and help you generate resources or create combinations that make future turns more powerful.

Some cards work particularly well together, so spotting useful combinations is an important part of the game.

3. Build Sets

Your fossils can be combined into different sets.

As your collections grow, you can earn points and compete for valuable Set and News tokens.

This creates another important decision:

Do you focus on completing a particular set?

Or take cards because their individual abilities are more useful to your engine?

4. Build Your Engine

The cards in your study can provide ongoing benefits.

As you collect more fossils, you can create combinations that make your museum operation increasingly efficient.

This is where First Giants starts to become more strategic than its friendly dinosaur theme might initially suggest.

5. Exhibit Your Fossils

Eventually, you'll need to put your discoveries on display.

Exhibiting fossils earns points—but there's a price.

Once a fossil is displayed, you lose its beneficial effect.

That's the game's central twist.

Every exhibition is effectively a trade:

Lose an ability → gain points.

6. Time Your Exhibitions

This is where good players can separate themselves from the herd.

Exhibit too early and you may destroy a powerful combination.

Wait too long and another player may beat you to the opportunities you're looking for.

The game rewards players who can judge exactly when their engine has done enough work.

7. Race to the End

The game ends when the supply of Set tokens runs out or the deck is exhausted under the game's end-game conditions. Players then complete the final scoring, with the player who has built the most prestigious exhibition winning.

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The Clever Twist: Engine Unbuilding

This is the feature I'd really emphasise on your product page.

Most engine-building games reward you for making your engine bigger and more powerful.

First Giants asks you to eventually dismantle it.

Your fossil cards can give you valuable effects while they're being studied.

But when you exhibit those fossils, you score points while losing those effects.

That creates a fascinating tension:

"Is this card worth more to me as an ability or as points?"

And that decision changes throughout the game.

A card that is incredibly valuable early on might be worth exhibiting later.

A card you thought you'd display immediately might become the key component of a powerful combination.

That's why timing is so important.

The publisher describes First Giants as an "Engine Unbuilding" game, which is a particularly useful differentiator for experienced board gamers looking for something a little different.

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Set Collection Meets Engine Building

First Giants combines several familiar board-game mechanisms in an interesting way.

Set Collection

Collect matching specimens and build sets to earn points.

Open Card Drafting

Choose from available fossils at the Dig Sites and decide which discoveries are most useful to your strategy.

Engine Building

Keep cards in your study to take advantage of their abilities and create combinations.

Engine Unbuilding

Eventually sacrifice those useful abilities by exhibiting the cards for points.

That final element is what makes First Giants stand out.

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Dinosaurs Are Only Part of the Story

If you're shopping for a dinosaur board game, First Giants certainly fits the bill.

But the prehistoric world is broader than dinosaurs.

The game features:

• Dinosaurs
• Flying reptiles
• Giant mammals
• Different specimen sizes
• Different fossil families
• Special card abilities

That makes the game feel more like you're actually curating a prehistoric natural-history museum rather than simply collecting dinosaurs.

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Who Is First Giants For?

First Giants is a great choice for:

• Dinosaur fans.
• Fans of prehistoric animals.
• Families looking for a strategic board game.
• Players who enjoy set collection.
• Fans of engine-building games.
• Players who enjoy card drafting.
• Strategy gamers looking for something different.
• Players who enjoy games with interesting timing decisions.
• Museum and natural-history enthusiasts.
• Paleontology fans.
• Players looking for a 30-minute strategy game.
• Families with older children.
• Players who enjoy games such as Elysium.
• Gamers who like accessible but clever strategy games.

It's particularly good for players who like the idea of engine-building but want something more interactive and unusual.

Rather than simply making your engine bigger and bigger, you're constantly deciding when to cash it in.

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First Giants for Families

With a recommended age of 10+, 2–5 players and a playing time of around 30 minutes, First Giants occupies a useful middle ground between a lightweight family game and a more involved strategy game.

The dinosaur theme makes it immediately approachable.

But underneath that theme are genuine strategic decisions:

Which fossils should I take?

Which abilities work together?

When should I exhibit?

Can I afford to lose this card's ability?

That makes it a strong choice for families who want to move beyond very simple board games.

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Why Buy First Giants From Roll The Dice?

At Roll The Dice, we love games that look approachable but reveal interesting decisions once you start playing.

First Giants is a great example.

The prehistoric theme makes it easy to get excited about, but the real appeal is the constant tension between building your engine and scoring points.

It's also an excellent choice if you're looking for a dinosaur board game that adults will genuinely enjoy, rather than a children's game with a dinosaur theme.

Every order is packed with care by fellow board gamers, with fast UK dispatch and friendly customer service.

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Game Information

These specifications are supported by the current Space Cowboys/Asmodee listing and BGG-linked sources.

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What's Included?

The current English edition includes:

• 65 cards
• 4 Dig Site boards
• 20 wooden markers
• 5 Museum boards
• 8 News tokens
• 33 Set tokens
• 80 Amber tokens
• 84 Point tokens
• 1 First Player token

Component quantities can vary between editions, so I'd use the manufacturer's specification for the exact version you're stocking in Shopify.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is First Giants?

First Giants is a prehistoric-themed strategy board game where players take on the role of paleontologists collecting fossils and building the most prestigious museum exhibition.

Is First Giants a dinosaur board game?

Yes. Dinosaurs are among the prehistoric animals represented in the game, alongside flying reptiles and giant mammals.

What makes First Giants different from other dinosaur games?

The game's distinctive feature is its engine-unbuilding system. Your fossil cards provide useful abilities while they're in your study, but you lose those benefits when you exhibit them for points.

Is First Giants an engine-building game?

Yes—but with a twist. You build an engine using fossil cards, then eventually dismantle parts of that engine by exhibiting your specimens for points.

What is engine unbuilding?

Engine unbuilding is the central mechanic of First Giants. Instead of simply making your collection increasingly powerful throughout the game, you must decide when to sacrifice useful card effects in exchange for victory points.

Is First Giants a set-collection game?

Yes. Collecting and combining sets of prehistoric specimens is an important part of scoring.

Is First Giants easy to learn?

Yes. The game has relatively streamlined rules while offering meaningful strategic choices. BGG-linked data places its complexity around the lighter end of modern strategy games.

How many players can play First Giants?

2–5 players can play First Giants.

How long does First Giants take?

A game takes approximately 30 minutes, although the exact playing time can vary by group.

What age is First Giants for?

First Giants is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Is First Giants good for two players?

Yes. First Giants supports two players as well as larger groups of up to five.

Is First Giants suitable for families?

Yes. Its accessible rules, 30-minute playing time and prehistoric theme make it a strong choice for family game nights, particularly with children aged 10+.

What games are similar to First Giants?

If you enjoy First Giants, look for games featuring set collection, engine building, card drafting and tableau building. Players who enjoyed Elysium may also find First Giants particularly interesting—the game's development evolved from a reworking of Elysium before becoming its own game.

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You May Also Enjoy

If you enjoy First Giants, you may also like:

• Elysium – A strategic card game with set collection and powerful card combinations.
• Wingspan – Build an engine around birds while developing your wildlife preserve.
• Dinosaur Island – Build and manage your own dinosaur theme park.
• Dinosaur World – Expand your dinosaur park while managing attractions and resources.
• Evolution – Develop species and adapt them to survive in a changing ecosystem.

For more games like this, explore our Dinosaur Games, Strategy Games, Family Strategy Games, Set Collection Games, Engine-Building Games, Card Games and Games for 2–5 Players collections.