Review: First Giants
Introduction & Overview
Dinosaurs, flying reptiles, and giant mammals. Create the most prestigious exhibition! You will become paleontologists and collect the most beautiful fossils to display them in your museum. Choose which specimens you will study and use their exclusive abilities before adding them to your exhibition. Decide carefully when you will exhibit your fossils, because once they are in the exhibition, you will no longer be able to benefit from their effects. But don’t wait too long either: if you do, you might lose the opportunity to score points.
Cover Art[/caption>
This is how we are presented with First Giants, a design by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert, the minds behind Elysium, of which this game is a reimplementation. First published in 2026 by Space Cowboys in an English and French edition. The illustrations are done by Maud Chalmel (Take Time, Shamans) and Jessica Cognard (her debut work in the board game world).
It is published in Spain by Asmodee (the game is completely language-independent, except for the rulebook). It allows for games of 2 to 5 players, with a suggested minimum age of 10, and an approximate duration of 30 minutes. The suggested retail price is €29.95. For this review, we have used a copy of the Spanish edition by Asmodee, which the publisher has kindly provided us as a review copy.
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Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 16.5×21.4×6 cm (a box size similar to Tenby), we find the following components:
- 65 Cards (65×100 mm)
- 20 Selection Markers (4 of each color) (wooden)
- 8 Newspaper Tiles (cardboard)
- 80 Amber Fragments (glass beads)
- 4 Archaeological Site Boards (cardboard)
- 5 Museum Boards (cardboard)
- 29 Collection Tokens (cardboard)
- 52 Victory Point Tokens (cardboard)
- Rulebook
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First Giants is a game in which we become paleontologists competing to collect the best fossils to exhibit in our personal museums. Throughout the game, players alternate turns in clockwise order, performing one of two possible actions: placing a marker on an archaeological site where they do not already have one of their markers to take one of its cards and bring it to their laboratory (applying its immediate or permanent effects), or retrieving all their markers from the central board to obtain amber fragments and/or exhibit fossils in their exhibition. To exhibit a creature, players must pay an amount of amber equal to its size and place it under their board, creating rows; these collections are divided into families (same creature type and different size, up to a maximum of three cards) or sizes (same size and different family, up to a maximum of five cards). Each time a collection is expanded, players obtain collection tokens and can compete to secure valuable, exclusive newspaper tiles for each category. The game ends in the round in which the draw deck is depleted or the last collection token is taken from the pool; after completing the final round, the end-game scoring takes place by summing up the value of the newspaper tiles and collection tokens obtained, with the player with the highest score declared the winner.
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Let’s start with the fundamental element, the Cards, which represent the different specimens and fossils of prehistoric creatures that players research and display. They feature a front side detailing the specimen’s characteristics (such as its size, the family it belongs to, and an executable special effect or ability) and a back side showing a black-background illustration of the fossil displayed in the museum, along with its corresponding size and family. These cards are drafted from the common areas to be activated in the player’s study area and, later, paid for and placed face down to form collections that grant the victory points needed to win the game.
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Cards[/caption>These cards will be arranged on the Archaeological Site Boards. Each of these individual boards serves as a market space or local supply area, holding two face-up fossil cards associated with it at all times.
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Archaeological Site Boards[/caption>On these sites, players will place their Selection Markers to choose one of the available cards. As long as a site contains one of the player’s markers, they cannot draft a card from that site. To do so, they must retrieve them, which will also grant various bonuses.
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Selection Markers[/caption>Once claimed by a player, the cards will be placed in their laboratory, and when they are displayed in the museum, they will move to the exhibition. These two zones are divided by the Museum Boards. These boards also serve as a reserve for markers and amber beads.
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Museum Boards[/caption>The Amber Fragments represent precious pieces of fossil resin and serve as the game’s resource, being essential to pay for the transition of fossils from the study phase to the gallery, where the price in amber is numerically equal to the size printed on the card to be exhibited.
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Amber Fragments[/caption>When moving a card to the museum, players will build collections. There are two types of collections: by size (same size) or by family (color). In each collection, there can only be one card of each type (of each color for the same value, or of each value for the same color). When adding a card to a collection, a Collection Token is placed. These serve as connection and scoring markers within the museum gallery, being placed overlapping two consecutive cards every time a player expands an exhibition row. Initially, they are placed showing their incomplete collection side and are flipped to their complete collection side once that group reaches its maximum size. On their incomplete side, they provide two points, while on their complete side, they provide three.
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Collection Token[/caption>The first player to expand a collection can claim a Newspaper Tile. These show a value of three or five victory points depending on their type. Their purpose in the game is to reward speed in developing the exhibition, as they are immediately awarded to the first participant to expand or branch out a specific type of fossil collection, with the twist that they can be stolen by other players who manage to expand the collection to a higher number of cards.
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Newspaper Tile[/caption>Finally, in addition to points from newspapers and collection tokens, players can also earn victory points through card effects. These are represented by Victory Point Tokens, which come in two denominations (1 and 5).
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Victory Point Tokens[/caption>That is enough to get started.
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- Place the 4 archaeological sites in the center of the table.
- Shuffle the cards and place the deck face up to one side.
- Display 8 cards face up, in pairs, at each of the archaeological sites.
- Form a general supply next to the sites with the newspaper tiles, amber, and point tokens.
- Add as many face-up collection tokens to the supply as corresponds to the number of participants: 14 tokens for 2 players, 20 tokens for 3 players, or 24 tokens for 4 or 5 players. Return the remaining collection tokens to the box.
- Each player chooses a color and receives a museum board, their corresponding markers, and 2 amber fragments (place the markers and amber fragments on the indicated spaces of the museum boards).
- Randomly choose the starting player, who receives the starting player marker.
We are ready to begin!
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Game Setup
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A game of First Giants is played over an indefinite number of rounds. In each round, each player takes a turn, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise.
On their turn, the active player must perform one of the two available main actions:
- Place 1 Marker. To perform this action, the player must have at least one marker on their personal board. The player places it on a site board and chooses one of the two available cards, putting it in their laboratory and applying its effects (as well as those of any card with a passive effect already in the laboratory). Finally, the empty space at the archaeological site is refilled by drawing the top card of the deck.
- Retrieve Markers. To perform this action, the player must have at least one marker placed on the archaeological sites. If their personal board has run out of markers, they will be forced to choose this option. The player retrieves all their markers distributed across the archaeological sites and returns them to their personal board. For each retrieved marker, the player chooses one of the following two benefits (they can combine them or repeat the same effect in the order of their preference):
- Take 1 amber fragment from the supply.
- Exhibit 1 fossil from their laboratory to move it to the exhibition. To do this, the player returns an amount of amber to the supply equal to the size of the specimen (1 if it is small, 2 if it is medium, or 3 if it is large). In the case of eggs (which act as size wildcards), the flat cost is 2 amber fragments. The player moves the card from their laboratory—at which point it loses all its effects—and places it face down in the exhibition (the lower area of their board). When placing the card, the player can:
- Start a collection. Place the card in a new row below the board. This does not grant points immediately.
- Expand an existing collection. Add the card to an already started row, defining the type of collection with the second card added (Family Collection, of the same family and different sizes; or Size Collection, of the same size and different families). Every time a collection is expanded, the player places an overlapping collection token between the cards. If they are also the first to expand that specific type of collection, they take the corresponding Newspaper tile. This tile can be stolen by another player if they achieve a collection of the same type with more cards, unless the first player completes it (reaching the limit of 3 cards in Family or 5 in Size), protecting it permanently. Upon completing a collection, all its collection tokens are flipped.
- Exhibit 1 fossil from their laboratory to move it to the exhibition. To do this, the player returns an amount of amber to the supply equal to the size of the specimen (1 if it is small, 2 if it is medium, or 3 if it is large). In the case of eggs (which act as size wildcards), the flat cost is 2 amber fragments. The player moves the card from their laboratory—at which point it loses all its effects—and places it face down in the exhibition (the lower area of their board). When placing the card, the player can:
- Retrieve Markers. To perform this action, the player must have at least one marker placed on the archaeological sites. If their personal board has run out of markers, they will be forced to choose this option. The player retrieves all their markers distributed across the archaeological sites and returns them to their personal board. For each retrieved marker, the player chooses one of the following two benefits (they can combine them or repeat the same effect in the order of their preference):
After this, the turn passes to the next player.
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The end of the game is triggered either when a player takes the last collection token from the general supply, or when the draw deck is completely depleted while refilling an archaeological site. In either case, any remaining collection tokens in the box are added to the supply, and the round continues as usual so that all players have the same number of turns. After this, the final scoring takes place, where each player scores:
- The points accumulated and obtained directly during the course of the game.
- 2 points for each collection token belonging to an incomplete collection.
- 3 points for each collection token belonging to a completed collection.
- 3/5 points for each Newspaper tile kept, according to the value indicated on the tile itself.
The player with the most victory points is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the victory is shared.
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David Thompson, Matthew Dunstan, Trevor Benjamin, and Brett J. Gilbert are designers who frequently collaborate, though always in pairs, which makes it hard to remember which duo was responsible for designing games like Chocolate Factory (check the review here), War Chest (check the review here), or Mandala (check the review here). Give it a try.
You can tell when it’s David Thompson bringing a distinctive touch to the designs, leaning towards a more historical side with wargame elements. But the other three are virtually indistinguishable. Today we are analyzing a new game from one of these possible pairings, specifically the one formed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert, whose most recognized joint design is perhaps Elysium (check the review here).
This mention is highly relevant because First Giants, the design we are looking at today, is a reimplementation of that Greek-pantheon-themed card drafting and set collection game. Let’s find out if it has received significant changes or if it is simply a re-theme. But first, we must thank Asmodee for providing the review copy that makes this write-up possible.
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Site Detail
In First Giants, we become paleontologists tasked with expanding and organizing the exhibits of the museum we work for. We must secure fossils of various specimens to form collections that will attract the public, though we must first study these fossils in the laboratory to properly catalog them.
Mechanically, we are looking at an open draft paired with set collection. On each turn, the active player must choose between two options. One is adding a new fossil card to their laboratory by choosing one of four sites where two cards are available, placing a marker of their color on that site. The only requirement to choose a site is that the player does not already have a marker on it.
The other option is retrieving markers to free up the sites, which allows the player—for each retrieved marker—to obtain an amber fragment (the main resource of the game) or exhibit a fossil card, moving it from the laboratory to the exhibition by returning as many amber fragments as the fossil’s size to the supply.
Each fossil card features two characteristics. On one hand, the family it belongs to (identified by a color and a symbol) and, on the other, the size (which can be one, two, or three). When transferring them to the exhibition, the player must decide what to do with each card: start a new collection or expand an existing one. A collection is a set of cards that share one of those two characteristics.
Thus, we will have family collections of up to three cards (each of a different value but the same color) or size collections of up to five cards (all of the same value but different families). Upon expanding a collection, the player receives an exhibition token that provides a specific number of points while the collection is incomplete, increasing in value if the collection is completed.
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Collection Tiles Detail
Additionally, players compete in a racing dynamic to claim a series of collection tiles. These are awarded to the player who has expanded the largest collection of each specific category until, eventually, a player completes the corresponding collection, making the associated tile impossible to lose because a larger collection of that type cannot be built.
It is worth noting that all cards have an effect. For many of them, the effect is immediate and activates only once, while others feature a passive effect that triggers whenever the indicated requirement is met. In this way, players can generate small synergies to accumulate more victory points, amber fragments, or even send cards to the exhibition without needing to spend a turn retrieving markers.
In this fashion, players will alternate turns drafting cards or retrieving their markers to send cards to the exhibition until the deck or the supply of exhibition tokens runs out (the latter being more likely). At that point, the game proceeds to the final scoring, where each player scores points for exhibition tokens, collection tiles, and points obtained during the game.
It is very likely that many of you haven’t played Elysium, but it made quite a splash back in its day. It was nominated for numerous awards, including the Kennerspiel des Jahres, which was ultimately won by Broom Service (check the review here). It was the third game published by Space Cowboys, following Splendor (check the review here) and Black Fleet.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this section, First Giants is a reimplementation whose main characteristic is its conceptual streamlining. In Elysium, each player had four columns of different colors. To acquire a card from the supply, you needed to possess the colors required by its acquisition condition.
Just like here, when drafting the card, you had to block a column of your choice. The catch? Because of the dependency on colors, if you made a mistake when choosing which color to block, you could lock yourself out of drafting other cards in subsequent turns.
Now, the markers are simply a mechanism to prevent players from repeatedly visiting the same site, though honestly, it doesn’t feel that restrictive since the replenishment deck is shared among all sites. The only interesting detail is that players know which card is coming next, and they can use this information—for example, by visiting a site where an opponent already has a marker so that the card on top of the deck goes to that site, ensuring that rival cannot claim it on their next turn (though the active player won’t be able to either).
The game flow has also been streamlined. Elysium was structured over exactly five rounds, each with four turns in which players had to draft three cards and a quest tile. Here, we move to a structure of alternating turns where players decide when to draft cards and when to retrieve markers. This is much more fluid and allows for clever timing strategies, especially considering the race for the collection tiles mentioned earlier.
Another significant change is how players transfer cards from their “active” zone (where effects are triggered) to their “scoring” zone. In Elysium, the quest tile limited the number of cards you could move from your Domain to Elysium, paying as much gold as the card’s level for each. Here, the number of cards you can transfer in a turn depends entirely on the number of markers you have placed on the sites.
Board Detail[/caption>
But the most significant change is undoubtedly the simplification of the card effects. In Elysium, each of the eight families of gods introduced unique text-based powers, creating a steep learning curve when trying to chain combinations together, in exchange for offering high variability (each game used a subset of the god families).
In First Giants, the card designs have been stripped down. The effects are now purely symbolic, intuitive, and very straightforward (gain 1 point, gain 1 amber, exhibit for free). While this speeds up the downtime in an interesting way, it reduces the spectacular nature of combos and turns the gameplay into a much flatter experience.
The optimal strategy for a game is now very clear: since size-1 cards are the ones with passive powers, players will focus on accumulating several of these cards in their laboratory to build up momentum, and once that engine is running, they will start laying down cards. This makes the game feel highly predictable and monotonous, losing the very magic that characterized Elysium—which, while not a mind-blowing title on its own, succeeded in doing exactly what it set out to do.
As a card drafting and set collection game, it works best at two players, as there is greater control when choosing cards. At four players, it becomes more tactical and the impact of luck increases, although the game flow remains very brisk, meaning downtime doesn’t drag even with four participants.
Replayability is on the shorter side. As mentioned, Elysium relied on having various sets of gods, some of which were left out of each game. Now we have a single deck with very basic effects, so the feeling of repetition will kick in almost during your first play. And the interaction via the race for collection tiles isn’t quite enough to keep the tension high.
Collection Detail[/caption>
Let’s move on to the production quality. We find good quality components, especially the glass beads used for amber. The cardboard elements are of acceptable thickness and sturdiness, and the cards boast a decent weight, a smooth finish, and good elasticity. The rulebook is well-structured and leaves no room for doubt.
Visually, the game blends the elegance of Art Nouveau with the nostalgic charm of 19th-century naturalist field journals. The cover and the live-fauna cards opt for cream-toned backgrounds mimicking aged paper, featuring delicate illustrations that combine pencil work with subtle watercolor washes, achieving an organic, scientific, and highly artistic look. In a clever contrast, the fossil cards introduce dark backgrounds simulating classic museum showcases, making the skeletons stand out with an almost ghostly play of light beneath sophisticated, sinuous golden frames. This duality between the warmth of prehistoric life and the solemnity of its displayed remains gives the game a clean, distinguished, and highly evocative visual identity.
And let’s wrap this up. First Giants offers a reimplementation of Elysium through an open draft combined with set collection where we manage the timing of our fossils’ activation through markers and our amber reserve. The turn structure is snappy, allowing for direct decisions when transferring cards to the exhibition and competing for the race tiles. On the positive side, we have an exceptionally dynamic downtime and very clean, symbolic effects that streamline the experience and make it highly accessible. On the negative side, this excessive simplification compared to the original game strips the design of its soul; the extreme simplicity of its mechanical effects yields overly obvious play patterns and an incredibly flat flow. Turns become highly predictable, as the optimal scoring algorithm is easily identified and there isn’t enough tension on the board to disrupt it. Because of all this, I give it a…
