Once feeding is complete, food tokens are swept from the species cards and stored in a bag. Carnivores by their very nature do not feed from the pool but on other species around the table, and those species must defend using their available traits and body size. Each species must feed up to its population size or risk a die off of that species. After every round of playing cards, all species are fed in turn from available food in the central primordial watering hole. With multiple species growing in size, population and traits, Evolution plays out as nature’s arms race for supremacy and food. Special Kickstarter first player miniature Carnivores might add aggressive traits such as Good Eyesight, Climbing or Pack Hunting to counteract the defenses of other species. Defensive traits such as Hard Shell, Horns and Burrowing aid in providing defense against being attacked by a species with Carnivorous trait. Some traits provide benefits every turn with things like Long Neck allowing the species to eat first and the Fertile trait which grows species population every round. Up to three cards may be played above a species to create evolutionary traits for that creature. Cards may be discarded to increase a species body size, grow population, spawn an additional new species or, most importantly, evolve the species by playing trait cards.
The player then decides to play some or all their other cards in a variety of ways.
A player’s turn begins by throwing a required card into the watering hole at the center of the table, contributing to a food pool with the value at the lower right corner of the card. The 129 beautifully painted cards are the core mechanic of the game. The game has been hitting the table at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY over the past week or two, and this past weekend I had a chance to get in on a six person game of Evolution.Įvolution begins with each player in possession of one species and a hand of four “trait” cards. Evolution was a big jump into strategy game design, and the result is box a gorgeous components and a very playable game for a whole range of ages and experience. Many gamers were familiar with the game’s producer, North Star Games, and their previous casual party game favorites such as Say Anything. This past summer, Evolution garnered a fair amount of attention during its successful Kickstarter campaign which netted over $120,000 on a $10,000 goal.