Who didn’t grow up being fascinated with Dinosaurs? Who wasn’t gripped by the release of the first Jurassic park? Many are grabbed by our old world real life monsters that once ruled the Earth and now you can build your very own prestigious prehistoric animal exhibit. If First Giants every want-to-be palaeontologists prize exhibit or is it doomed to be prey?
Digging in the dirt…
This… is a box of boxes! Inside you will find a box for the cards, a box for point tokens, set tokens and newspaper tokens and a box containing amber tokens and wooden player markers. You will also get some museum boards, dig site boards and a first player marker.
No fossils here… All the components feel good quality for the price point of the game. The wooden player markers (coloured sets complete with unique player images engraved onto them) and amber tokens feel like deluxe upgrade components with out being deluxe price. The cards are of nice quality card and printing… and the artwork… well more on that shortly.
All the other tokens are just card tokens but nothing feels flimsy here, something arguably you come to expect from Space Cowboy.
Back to the art…
All the cards are double sided. The front side presents you with gorgeous pencil art styled drawings of prehistoric animals. Complete in coloured sets, representing herbivores, carnivores, marine, mammals and flying, these illustrations almost give you the feel of a scientists journal sketching’s . They also host simple iconography that informs players of effects, whether instant or timed, they benefit from whilst the cards remain on this side.
Once flipped, you are now presented with fossils of the same animal, presented in the style of a museum gallery. This provides an on theme but stark contrast to the first side throughout the game. It is on this side you will later place set tokens for scoring.
Time to ‘dig’ in.
Set up is quick.
You layout the 4 dig site boards and deal 2 face up card (animal sketch drawing side) on each board.
Place the remaining cards (same side up) to the side of those boards. Place all the tokens within reach of all players, who then will take a museum board each and their player markers.
On a turn, you can do one of two actions. Place 1 of your player markers on a dig site board and take one card (immediately replacing it). The catch you cannot go to the same board you already have a marker. Once a card is selected, you place it down in front of you, in what they call the study, and activate any powers triggered by that or other cards in your study. Some powers are
instant, some rely on other cards or actions taking place before they trigger. Powers might let you display cards, take amber, take point tokens or either provide bonuses to your opponents.
Your other option is to retrieve all of your markers. Upon doing so, you can gain an amber per marker, or display a fossil per marker.
Playing a fossil is easy. You pay a number of amber equal to the number value on the card, then flip the card to the fossil side. You then place this card into your display, either starting a new set or expanding an existing set by colour (animal type, ensuring a card with a value of 1, 2 and 3 are present), or by value (all 1’s, all 2’ or all 3’s).
When expanding a set, you can then place set markers which provide end game scoring. Lucky enough to complete the set, and the tokens flip to the other side resulting in more end game points.
If you are the play with the most fossils on display in a type of set, you will get the relevant newspaper token which again provides more points at the end.
Play continues until the either the deck of cards is emptied, or the last set token is taken from the initial store. Play then continues until all players have had an equal number of turns. Players then count up point tokens and the value of set tokens or newspaper tokens in their position. Highest score wins.
Final thoughts
So, First Giants is said to be a reimplementation of Elysium (2015). With no point of reference we can’t speak to whether this new version is an improvement or not. But judging it by its own merit, this is no fossil destined to be lost in time. It’s a very simple and easy to play set collection game, with a theme that speaks to the child growing up enthralled by these fantastic beasts.
It plays quick. It would be easy to teach anyone, and set up and strike down takes little to no effort.
We played this first at UKGE 2026, and if it weren’t for the fact they had sold out of preview copies, we would have purchased it there and then. Instead we went home preordered it, looking forward to the next chance to get this game to the table.
It is not a ground breaking game, but that’s not what it wants to be, and to be fair that is to its credit. It will feel familiar enough for hobby gamers to pick up quickly and have a good time, but those new to the hobby, or just punt buying a game based on dinosaurs they just happened across, it will be an easy and great introduction to what our fab hobby is about.
Dinosaur fan? Set collection fan? Or just looking for something quick to play, First Giants is definitely one worth checking out.
About the author:
We are Peaches and Meeples, busy professionals who love to chill out to fun table top games. We love board games, card games, miniatures games, competitive or co-operative. Put some dice in our hands and we are in our happy place.
We are also proud guinea pig parents to two lovely fluffballs of joy.
