Test Run: Dominant Species

Animals: Junyet (Mammal), Jacelyn (Arachnid), Jo (Reptile), Hans (Insect)

Got my copy of the game last week when I went back to KL. Really appreciate BGC ppl for always accomodating to my last-minute buys hehehe.

JC: Actually Jun Yet should be the one holding the box =P! Anyway, the box is really awesome!

It's very smooth yet shiny and I can see it withstanding the forces of nature already!

No wonder it can contain all those 6 animals with all the elements inside =)

Theme:

Animals trying to survive the ice age.  



No, not this one. It'd be cool to play as those animals though.



The Game:

 ...is basically area control game with worker placement element. As usual, winner is determined by victory points.  The rules can be confusing at first (dominance vs domination) but Hiew's concise reference sheet helped clear the terms up pretty well. 

What I like:

• What I really like (and forgot to take picture of) is the different animals, each with different characteristics and play style.
• Easy to learn and teach.
• The board is very nice to touch hehehe.
• Difficult choices from time to time (which leads to AP)

Nyeh:

• It's very hard NOT to AP most the time.
• Takes forever to finish a turn when game end is near.
• Your girlfriend will strike back with vengeance when you kill her animals.

 JC: I agree =P! Loads of AP and since I was an arachnid, I brought out my extra limbs to take revenge on Jun Yet for killing so many of my Arachnids!

Yeap, I killed 17 of her species on board in one go.



 

Their puzzled look at the start of the game.

 Jacelyn's black spiders and Jo's blue(?) reptiles were EVERYWHERE. My white mammals and Hans' green insects were forced to take shelter in a corner :P

 That look means that she's gonna slaughter us all. Really.

 Mammals decided to stay in the tundra with the penguins, to avoid conflict. On hindsight I should have done this earlier, it gave me a lots of points in the last 2 turns.



Most of us went one round around the score track.

Jacelyn went 2 rounds. 200 points! :O

I like this game :)

JC: At first, it was really sad to see my animals die the second time we played DS and that was hard for me but after another game, I think I've overcome my attachment to my creatures =).