Tips & Strategy

How to teach Bone Wars, first-game advice, strategy for loyalty, papers, base camps and money, player counts and solo — advice, not rules.

Advice only: where anything here differs from the rules pages, the rulebook wins.

How to teach

• Scoring first. Loyalty × credibility, on both patrons, twice a game. Without it, switching patrons looks pointless.
• Then the turn: one card into your leftmost slot, pay, act — team cards in the field, paleontologist cards at the four action spaces, species cards for either.
• Then passing: profession, university (patron and grant), loyalty bonus.
• Teach the setup career choice last; players understand it once they know what professions and universities give.
• Getting Games and slickerdrips both teach in this order: card types and team actions, then paleontologist actions, then passing and scoring.

Host game

Keep two sample piles of bones beside the board until everyone can distinguish their uses.

Rehearse publishing and debunking

Lay out three different Bone tokens matching one Species card. Those can publish a 3-value paper: play the Species card, spend the matching bones, archive the card and add the paper to your current patron’s side.

Now replace them with three identical Bone tokens. Those can debunk an opposing 3-value paper: spend the bones and flip that paper to your patron’s side. Debunking uses no Species card, and the number of identical bones must equal the paper’s value exactly. The first set builds a skeleton; the second attacks a paper. Keep these piles separate during the teach.

Before a first Team action, count the action points aloud: digging one bone costs 1 AP, but discovering a Species card costs 2 AP.

First game

• Discovering costs 2 action points. Garrett’s Games played it at 1 for two games before a grant tile showed them the real cost.
• Build base camps early. Free moves, bigger envelopes and remote dig site actions all come from them (slickerdrips, solo playthrough).
• Watch your money. The slots get dearer to the right and an empty purse forces you to pass.
• Your crates fill fast — 4 to start. Removing cover tiles is cheap storage plus $2 or 1 RP.
• Read the award tiles at setup and aim your discoveries at them; amphibians count as any category for type B.

Loyalty and switching patrons

• Score both sides. If everyone backs the same patron, nobody gains on anyone. Switching to the other side while your loyalty to the first stays high is how you pull ahead (Gnarly Carley Gaming, Meeple University).
• Late switches cash in on shelves your rivals filled for the other patron.
• Turn order matters: the first to pass grabs the university — and the patron — they want.
• A new patron’s track also pays its low loyalty bonuses when you pass.

Publish or debunk

• 2- and 3-bone papers are quick loyalty but easy targets. 4-bone papers give 2 loyalty, the prize and the round bonus, and are hard to debunk.
• Debunking is the best loyalty for its cost: 4 identical bones give 4 loyalty and move a paper to your side. Two 4-value debunks in one action give 8 loyalty (BGG thread).
• Collecting identical bones takes planning: rare bones and exchanges help.
• Credibility counts shelves, not papers: one paper starting a new shelf is worth more than a third paper on a shelf already counted.

Archive and upgrades

• Envelope bonuses multiply by the cards already there — stacking one envelope (after base camps raise its limit) becomes an engine.
• Advanced team cards and specialists make each slot do more; extra action slots mean extra turns.
• Grants change how you play a round: read them before choosing a university.

Player counts

• 2 players: a virtual opponent blocks awards, base camps and a university space, and neutral papers shorten the bookshelf. Longer plans pay off.
• 4 players: a full board; two players per patron at each university, so the race to pass is tight and the board changes between your turns.
• At 3 and 4 players the “meeting money” grant pays far more than at 2.

Solo

• Theodore follows his cards; read the solo rules before the first game and keep them open — several gaps in the printed solo rules are settled in the FAQ.

Videos vs the rulebook

• Garrett’s Games played Discover at 1 action point; the rulebook says 2.
• Videos may show older grant tiles; the tile in your box wins.

Sources

• Bone Wars - Learn While Playing — Getting Games
• Bone Wars | Overview — slickerdrips
• Bone Wars | Solo Playthrough — slickerdrips
• Garrett’s Games Reviews Bone Wars from Game Brewer and Cranio Creations — Garrett’s Games
• Theft, Bribery, Destruction, and Dinosaurs: The Bone Wars by Game Brewer — Gnarly Carley Gaming
• Bone Wars - Shared incentives and competition makes it intense — Meeple University
• Scoring — BoardGameGeek Rules forum thread