Dominant Species

I want to preface this by saying that I have quite a large collection of board games when compared to the general population, and that I host a board game night every week at my house. That weekly gathering happens to be where I first brought out this game, and personally loved it, but the general consensus was very mixed. (Just for reference, games my game group LOVE and play often are: Cosmic Encounter, King of Tokyo, Eclipse, and Sentinels of the Multiverse. Games that totally flopped were: Mission: Red Planet, and The Resistance. There are many more games that fall somewhere in between. This, unfortunately, was one of them.) Well, I explained it to them in 10-15 minutes, and then the six of us played it. After our 4 hour game, I had one guy very loudly proclaim that it was one of the most boring of games, apparently the theme/mechanics didn't do it for him. However, and much more concerning to me, I had another friend approach me that night after everyone else had left and ask that I inform him privately ahead of time if I ever decided to bring Dominant Species out again. He explained that he felt overwhelmed by all the available choices and couldn't wrap his mind around how to outmaneuver his competitors. So by the end of the game he just placed Action Pawns (APs) semi-randomly hoping for the best (and, honestly, his final score reflected this fact). The other three in our group loved it with almost the same intensity I did and have asked for me to bring it out again many times (several times, I have). I guess I relay this story to warn you to be careful when deciding whether or not to buy this game. It may sound exciting (it is), you may have a seasoned and willing group to try it with you (I did), but this is not a game everyone is going to enjoy. It's fairly quick to teach if your buddies are familiar with this type of game (place an AP in an open action spot, get stuff or stuff happens), but the sheer number of choices and stats to keep track of/manipulate to your advantage can be a real deterrent to some. The rules are easy to medium to learn. The depth is very, very deep. For instance, here are a few things you need to keep track of in an average turn to play this game decently well: land values, land placement, abundance of certain elements, lack of certain elements, available adaptable elements and their significance, other players adaptations, locations of other players, glaciers, what elements and lands are bordering glaciers, number of opponents species on various lands, dominance cones on various lands, where opponents placed their AP, where they want to place an AP, where you want to place an AP, what spaces are still open to be placed in, AP order, the current available dominance cards, which dominance cards are still left to be played, how far until the Ice Age dominance card, where opponents are on the Victory Point (VP) track, how many APs both you and they have left to place each round, how many species you have left, what special abilities each player has, when and where to make a grab for the Bonus VPs, how to set yourself in a good position for the end game (which is worth a LOT of points), etc. etc. etc. Any one of these things could help you, hinder you, or be completely unnecessary for you to know at any given point in time. Lest some of you are wrongly deterred, I want to end this with a rain of praises for this game: This is the deepest and most mentally satisfying game I own. I love the tension, the struggle, the feeling that in any turn you could be wiped out or soar ahead. I love the well laid plans and their (usual) crumbling into dust, but sometimes, sometimes they work and you smile at your cleverness (or give the nod to your opponents cleverness). The theme is (in my opinion) brilliant. The game well designed. I'm in love with it. Yes, there are a lot of balls in the air at any given point in time, but when you can catch them just right (or drop less than everyone else), this game can be magical. If you are a person who loves thick, deep, rewarding board games, look no further.

One word - AWESOME This game is not necessarily for a casual gamer who just wants to kill a half-hour on a board game. This is definitely a much more involved game that involves a LOT of worker placement and strategy. My wife and I like to play a board games and this, Terra Mystica, and Tzolk'in, are three of our current favorites. Even in a two player game, you will need at minimum 2 hours to play a full game. For us, it's definitely worth it, but if you're just not into it, I can see how the game might drag out for some people. This is definitely one of those games that you're either going to love or hate, and unfortunately it's not cheap, so if it's not love, that would be a disappointment. My suggestion to anybody on the fence is to watch a demo of it online first, before buying it. We took a chance and bought it sight unseen and frankly lucked out that we love it. There is a lot of strategy to consider and also your competitor(s) strategy as well. The game is competitive in the sense that there will inevitably be times when you or your opponent are forced to take actions that hinder the other players progress. Would I call it cut-throat? Absolutely not, if given a choice to wipe out all of my species on a tile or wipe out my opponents, what choice (really) do I have if you want to win the game? If you're not competitive when playing a game, then stick to cooperative games or competitive games with a lot of luck, you'll probably be happier. But you can definitely work your strategy to try and minimize what your competitors can do to you (like taking the initiative to move up the food chain to grab the first domination card - it it's something you really don't want played against you, etc.) Overall, great theme, great game play, and just a fun way to spend the better part of an afternoon.

Dominant Species is probably one of my favorite board games, if not number one. Its a blast to play with two to six players. When playing with two or three players, each player can play with two animal families, such as mammals, amphibians, birds, insects, arachnids, and reptiles (as if the game was playing with six total) after you get the hang of the game. It seems very complex at first, but is as simple as place an action token on the action you want, then the next person does the same and so on until everyone has placed all their action tokens (or action pawns, action markers, etc.) and then the actions chosen are carried out from top to bottom, left to right. Of course, the strategy is complex, trying to figure out what is the best move to counter your opponents all the while expanding your species gaining points to win the game. There are also dominance cards that can be accessed by using the dominance action and scoring a tile in which you are dominant. The cards can drastically change the game and are usually fun for the person playing them. The game is long usually 2 to 3 hours, occasionally longer with more players. Well worth it though. I would highly recommend to those who like an intense strategy game or war game as Dominat species can be broken down to building armies, in vading, and controlling area, with worker placement.

Very deep gameplay, super fun for 3 to 6 nerds but not as accessible to new gamers as something like Catan. Games run long so start early.