Prehistory of "Evolution. Natural selection" is very unusual. The game was originally invented by Dmitry Knorre, an employee of the Research Institute of Physics and Chemistry. Publishing house "Right Games" released it. The idea of the game was very much liked by foreign publishers and in 2014 they reissue it, having previously corrected the mechanics and completely redesigned the artwork. And now we are facing the localization of the game released in the West, created on the basis of the Russian - isn't that right, it's already interesting!
In a box
Watering hole field, 24 animal tablets, 180 double-sided food chips, 48 wooden markers, 129 property cards, 6 food bags, 1 figure of the First Player.
Localization quality
The Russian version is published at a good level. The print is bright, beautiful, but not poisonous. Players' tablets and tokens made of very dense cardboard.
The only drawback is the lack of card thickness, but the quality of the games is much worse (hi "Master of Orion"). Protectors are desirable.
What the game is about
The name of the game is not taken from the ceiling, it is not conditioned by the mere presence of animals and their properties, it really shows the mechanism of natural selection. At the beginning of the game, the players do not know what creatures they will create and what properties they will give them. But here are the cards in their hands - and they need to start from them.
Herbivores immediately begin to grow "Long neck", to develop a "voracity", or "Fertility". But it is necessary to appear in the habitat of a predator - herbivores immediately invent means of protection from him - someone grows shells, someone crawls on trees, someone begins to graze herds. That's exactly what I like most about the game - for each external factor, after a short time, there's a countermeasure to ensure the specie's survival.
Rules (how to play)
All players are distributed on the tablet of the animal, on which the size of the body of this species and its population (number of individuals) are marked. Next, there are three cards plus one card for each species of animal (on the first move, all 4, and then - who will develop as it is). One card is played on a watering hole. Next, starting with the first player, you can play cards with your hand (and you can not play) in several ways:
- 1. Take a new type of tablet for the discarded card
- 2. Give the property on the map of the properties of the animal by placing this map in front of it (but no more than 3 properties)
- 3. Drop the map and raise the animal population to level 1.
- 4. Throw down the map and raise the animal's body size to level 1.
After playing the cards, the food cards are opened - the number on the played card is indicated, so much food will appear at the watering hole. Next, starting with the first player, the owners feed their animals, placing food chips on the tablets of species. Food should be enough for the size of the population of this species. If the animals are short of food, the size of the population is reduced to the size of the fed population or the species dies. All food chips are removed in the personal bags of players - they become the main base of victory points. The right of the first move is passed to the next player, and the game continues until the stack of cards ends. The game chips are counted from the bags, they are added to the size of the animal population and the properties of these animals - the result is determined by the winner.
Who is the game for?
It should be noted that the game "Evolution" can not be recommended to absolutely all game cells. Due to the presence of several characteristics.
- 1. Conflict - although I would not have attributed this game to a very conflicting, but it is worth recognizing that not everyone will like it when his animal eats a predator. Therefore, if you have a priority cooperative adventure and indirect effects on other players, this game is not suitable.
- 2. Insufficient number of animal properties - on the one hand, this is a disadvantage: you want to have more and more diverse properties, so that you can create a very, very many viable species. On the other hand, a large number of properties will not allow you to create an animal that you have conceived, as the necessary cards will be caught less often and this will be due to a large proportion of randomness.
A few tips for beginners
Important: If you want to get to know the effective combinations, you can skip this point yourself.
Pumping the predator
In my opinion, there are two main options for predator development:
- 1. Give the predator "intelligence" and "flockiness" to cancel the properties of herbivores that prevent the saturation of our animal, and add to the size of the body population. However, this option is not final - it may well turn out that the herbivore will go into a deaf protection and grow apart from the "herd" and "shells", and climb the trees - there is no way to cancel all the properties.
- 2. Giving predators the properties of "scavengers" and "eagerness" is also a very effective bundle, but such predators will receive food at the expense of feeding another predator. If there is no other predator, and other players have all herbivores protected, you can grow a herbivore victim by yourself.
Pump the herbivore
There are more options to grow a herbivore that will bring victory:
- 1. If no one develops predators, the number of herbivores will be large and, most likely, food for watering place will not be enough for everyone, so effective will be the bundles of "intelligence" and "voracity" - then the player, dropping the cards, will be able to feed his animal is not from the watering place, and from the total food base. Here you can also add "long" or "cooperation" to strengthen the feeding of the first or give food to the second, third, etc. species.
- 2. If there are predators, it becomes important to collect both the properties that allow feeding and protection:
collect "Stadstvo", "Voracious", "Long Neck" and grow a bigger body, so that the predator, cancelling the herd and attacking, could be saturated immediately and did not attack again.
To collect "Intelligence", "Eagerness" and "Nornost". Combining: "Intelligence" + "Eagerness" to be saturated, and using "Nornost" not to allow the predator to attack if fed.
To assemble the "Shell", "Stadstvo", "Climbing". Such herbivores will not be able to eat to the predator's teeth, but the problem with their own food will be harder to solve.
Collect "Horns", "Fertility", something to feed - the population will grow, and the horns will scare away the predator.
To raise several interdependent animals, using the properties - "Cooperation", "Symbiosis", "Cooperation".
Raise a special animal without properties to feed predators, so that other species can be attacked.
Not all interesting combinations of animal properties are given and you will surely find many more interesting ones on your own!
A few general recommendations
- 1. At the beginning of the game is a very profitable property of "Fertility" - it will raise the population and save a lot of maps.
- 2. it is very dangerous to leave the animal with a minimal population - if attacked by a predator you can lose the view forever.
- 3. When playing for a herbivore, it is profitable to lift the body - the sooner the predator is saturated, the less animals he will eat.
- 4. The points are directly dependent on the population - it is very profitable to raise the population of your animals as quickly as possible.
Opinion
"Evolution. Natural Selection" is a simple, beautiful game that perfectly shows the mechanism of natural selection. Along with the beautiful design and interesting mechanics there are some features - the conflict and lack of variety of properties of animals. Nevertheless, I and children liked "Evolution", my wife was indifferent to it, perhaps, this theme is just not hers. If possible, try - the game deserves attention and is able to interest both beginners and experienced players of all ages.
