Cave Men

*Unga bunga! Cave Men like build and smash.*

Play actions on bases and destroy them for extra minions and power bursts.

### Breakdown

This faction has the standard 10 minions and 10 actions. The minions have the standard 30 total power, with an average power of 3 per minion. Among their actions, they have:

* Two play-on-minions cards: Club
* Seven play-on-base actions: Big Roast, Cave Fire, Neanderthal, Prisoner Pole, Rex Roadster, Sticks and Stones
* One standard action: Unga Bunga!
* Four actions that directly increase a minion's power: Big Roast, Cave Fire, Club

### Minions (10)

* **1× Rockstone (5):** Talent: Move this character to another base to move one of your actions on this base to there. Ongoing: After you destroy a card here, each of your minions here gains +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **1× Moe (4):** Play an extra minion with power 3 or less OR move a minion with power 3 or less from another base to here.
* **1× Jac (4):** Play an extra action on this base or a minion here OR transfer an action from another minion or base to this minion or base.
* **3× Cave Men (3):** Talent: Destroy one of your actions here to give this minion +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **4× Cave Girl (2):** If you haven't yet stored a minion this turn, you may store this minion under an action here to play an extra minion. Special: After a card storing this minion is destroyed, play this minion as an extra minion on the same base.

### Actions (10)

* **2× Club:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: This minion has +2 power. Talent: Destroy another one of your actions here to give this minion +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **2× Prisoner Pole:** Play on a base. You may store a minion with power 3 or less from here or your hand under this card. Ongoing: After this card is destroyed, the player who destroyed it may play the stored minion as an extra minion here.
* **1× Big Roast:** Play on a base. Talent: Move one of your minions from another base to here. Ongoing: After this card is destroyed, each of your minions here gains +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **1× Cave Fire:** Play on a base. Destroy an action on this base. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, you may destroy one of your actions here. After you destroy an action here, each of your minions here gains +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **1× Neanderthal:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Each other player's minion here has -1 power. Ongoing: After this card is destroyed, you may play an extra minion.
* **1× Rex Roadster:** Play on a base. Talent: Transfer this action to another base to move one of your minions from here to there. If a minion is moved, you may destroy an action on the new base to give that minion +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **1× Sticks and Stones:** Play on a base. Ongoing: This base's breakpoint is increased by 3. After this action is destroyed, you may search your hand. deck, and/or discard pile for an action that can be played on a minion or base and play it here as an extra action.
* **1× Unga Bunga!:** Destroy a minion with power 3 or less, or an action on a minion or base. Special: You may play this card as an extra action before a base scores.

### Bases

* **18 Man Cave (3 2 1):** Once during your turn, you may move one of your minions to here. If you do, you may transfer one of your actions from the same base to here.
* **23 Rockbed Quarry (5 3 2):** After you play a minion or action on this base, you may bury a card from your hand here.

## Strategy

### General

Cave Men are a power faction. They have plenty of extra minion plays to help swarm bases, as well as a good number of power increases, usually +2, to burst.

Rockstone lets you move himself and one of your pobs to another base, and rewards you for destroying cards by giving your minions on his base +1 power until the end of the turn. Moe and Jac provide either extra plays or movement/transfer to their base, makng them good at either swarming/setting up bursts, or at antagonistic movement/transferral. Cave Men can smash pobs to give themselves +2 power until the end of the turn, on top of any other power boosts for smashing the pob, making them great at triggering bursts. Cave Girls are great combo enablers due to the extra minion plays they provide.

Big Roast is the heavyweight action of this faction, giving each of your minions on a base +2 power until the end of the turn after you destroy it. (Note: Cave Girl's special says "When", not "after", meaning it triggers before Big Roast, allowing her to benefit from the +2 burst as well.) Big Roast can also move your minions to it, helping set up pivot bursts. Cave Fire offers a smaller +1 burst after you destroy a pob, making it a brutal followup to Big Roast, though you might wish to save it for a separate burst. The Clubs offer +2 power and a talent similar to the Cave Men.

Neanderthal can help stall with the -1 power it gives to other players' minions on its base, and offers an extra minion play after you destroy it. The Prisoner Poles store a minion with power 3 or less from base or hand, making them decent removal if you need it, especially since you can play the stored minion if you destroy the pob. Rex Roadster offers movement and optional pob destruction for a +2 bonus, making it great for pivots onto a base. Unga Bunga can destroy a minion or pob, giving it some versatility, and can be played during phase 3 to boot, making it good for a surprise swing.

Cave Men reward a player who is good at setting up bursts, but are susceptible to disruption due to having few methods of protecting themselves. They're also in danger of being outraced by factions with steady turn-by-turn momentum, such as +1 power counter factions.

### Partner Suggestions

On the most obvious level, other pob-focused factions will provide more pobs for Cave Men to smash. Swarm factions can benefit greatly from Big Roast and Cave Fire. Factions that offer a lot of card draw can help Cave Men overcome their own relative lack of card draw.

### Published

* Dinosaurs: Dinosaurs offer more minion power, the ability to destroy opposing minions, and even some protection for your Cave Men through Wildlife Preserve.
* Killer Plants: Venus Man Trap can fetch Cave Girls, who in turn can be stored under actions for extra minion plays. Water Lily provides turn-by-turn card draw. Sprouts can help fetch Cave Men for pob smashing. Sleep Spores are handy for stalling. Other pobs can be handy fuel, especially since some of them will destroy themselves anyway.
* Steampunks: The original pob faction offers Mechanic for recycling your spent pobs, Steam Man for a little bit of extra power, Captain Ahab for consolidation on a base just before a burst, Aggromotive and Rotary Slug Thrower for power bursts, and Zeppelin for movement.
* Dragons: Another faction that makes heavy use of pobs, enough that it even has an action that fetches pobs, Flank Attack, which for obvious reasons is very useful for Cave Men. Dragons offer more stalling through Hatchling, Intimidating Presence, and Dangerous Grounds, complimenting Neanderthal.
* Truckers: "El Bandido" can steal an opponent's pob, letting you use it as fuel for Cave Men. He can also play extra pobs or transfer a pob from one base to another. "Skinny Minnie" can also help transfer your pobs around. Good Buddy offers some card draw, which is always nice. Armored Truck provides some much-needed protection for Cave Men. Cab-over Pete provides some flexible card movement, Dekotora can move a large number of minions at once, and High-Speed Chase not only moves a minion but can pump it by +3 power to boot, making it great for setting up bursts with Cave Men. Fixin' to Fix It reuses spent pobs. Hotwire can also steal a pob, and transfer it to boot. Unfortunately, "Rubber Chicken", Convoy, and Rally don't work quite as well with Cave Men, as they like to have a high pob presence on a base, which is difficult when your partner routinely destroys pobs for power bursts.
* Ancient Incas: The most pob-friendly faction since Steampunks. Sapa Inca can fetch the pob you need, and rewards you for playing pobs on his base. Child of the Sun lets you play extra actions, including pobs. Incan Engineer helps draw pobs. Lama can return one of your pobs to your hand, then let you play it again on its base. Fortress Walls will reward you for playing additional pobs with +1 power counters. Golden Condor can be useful for resetting your pobs' locations. Quipu Strings lets you play a spent pob immediately. Royal Highway can be useful for minion movement. Temple of the Sun lets you draw additional cards. Armory does not work as well in this combination due to wanting you to build up pobs on its base. Ashlar Masonry can save a pob in the event of a premature base break, but generally will not play as well with Cave Men's strategy either.
* Wreck-It Ralph: Good at moving minions to bases with pobs on them, and thus at helping set up bursts. Wreck-It Ralph's talent lets you either play a pob as an extra action on his base or destroy a pob on his base. Fix-It Felix Jr. can get a pob back. Sergeant Calhoun is great for adding to bursts, as you can use her talent before destroying Big Roast or after playing Cave Fire.
* Wraithrustlers: An upcoming faction also focused on destroying your own pobs. Funkman helps with bursts using his ongoing. Ellen can destroy pobs to reduce the base's breakpoint and lets you play an extra action for every Wraith you destroy. Roy can move pobs around to more favorable bases. Watson can destroy one of your pobs. Ancient Sumerian God can help reload your pobs. Demon Dogs work similar to Prisoner Pole, with the main difference being that they can store minions from your discard pile and raise the base's breakpoint by 3. Ectoplasm One can move minions and destroy pobs, similar to Rex Roadster. Librarian Haunt provides some much-appreciated card draw. Resurgence can destroy a pob. Slimy pumps your minions on its base by +2 each, similar to Big Roast. Unlicensed Nuclear Accelerator can destroy your pobs to place +1 power counters on your minions.

## Author Notes

At the outset, I had a less-defined direction for Cave Men, though I knew I wanted them to be about smashing stuff from early on. Those clubs aren't for playing baseball, after all! Eventually, I was inspired to pull inspiration from a very well-known animated sitcom and a lesser-known video game series, and after that the majority of the card concepts just fell into place. Cave Girl originally could also store herself under actions after going to the discard from play, but I figured most recruits have either extra play conditions or recursion, not both, so I opted for the extra play.

Moe and Jac had talents that let you destroy pobs repeatedly for extra minions and actions, but after some rejigging I settled on their current modal on-plays. Rockstone went through a few incarnations, but I felt a fetch was appropriate for the leader of a pob-destroying faction.

Originally I used placeholder art for the Cave Man minions, but after I made the art for Unga Bunga!, I grew to like the scruffy little guy enough to use his design for the minions proper. Tiny Cave Man, big club!

The font for Cave Men is Prehistoric Caveman.

Yes, I am aware the art is exceptionally simplistic, and in many cases not completely polished. These images are placeholders. Once I have the time and energy to give these some proper digital painting art, I will endeavor to do so.

Jungle background is by Shreya Das. Vector image for Big Roast is by Marauder. Vector image for Cave Fire is from Pixabay. Vector image for Club is from 4vector.