This was our first chance to try this new game from new desiger Ralf Lehmkuhl. It is set in the time of the dinosaurs when the continents were breaking up, lands disappearing beneath the oceans and new ones rising up. In this way, islands form and the object is to have more of your dinosaurs on the valuable islands than your opponents. Each round, you sink a landscape tile and raise the same tile elsewhere on a connected landmass. If this creates a distinct new island, VPs are scored by the controlling dinosaur herds on that island. Then you get to do things like migrate dinosaurs, breed or rescue dinosaurs that have had the land moved from under them (swimmers). The game ends when a meteor tile is drawn and each island is then scored for controlling dinosaur herds.
Our game was quite interesting in that Mark G played an isolationist strategy, establishing all his herds on just two islands and aiming to stop others from being able to populate them. Nige and I were competing for control of the major landmasses, while Mark K just kept on getting shafted by the rest of us. His game was epitomised by one turn where, with all but one of his dinosaur herds already swimming or drowned, he was forced to sink the tile on which his last remaining herd sat. We (not Mark) didn’t laugh for much more than ten minutes before we had recovered ourselves enough to carry on playing. Nige and I were so close score-wise at the end that it boiled down to which of the two of us drew the meteor from the last two remaining tiles. Nige was unsuccessful with the first, leaving me to have the final turn and ensure my dinosaurs were in the right place to secure victory.
An interesting game, which took us a few turns to work out how the shifting landscape could be properly manipulated. Not a great game, but plenty to think about and one that it will be good to try again now we all know the rules and gameplay better.
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