Dominant Species

Dominant Species is a 2010 competitive, area control board game published by GMT Games, designed by Chad Jensen. The game is an evolution-themed game in which players take on the role of broad categories of life: mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids, and insects in a world heading for the Ice Age. Game Play The map is formed from hexagonal tiles in 7 terrain varieties (mountain, desert, forest, jungle, savannah, wetland or sea). Over the course of the game new tiles are added but also some are overlain with smaller tundra tiles. Each player has a player board and a number of species cubes, which the players aim to spread across the map. A key component in the game is the 6 Elements (grass, grub, meat, seed, sun, water), which can be both on the corners of tiles (representing supply) and on the players' boards (representing requirements) and also in the draw bag or action display. The better a species matches its requirements with the supply offered by the Elements on the tiles they occupy, the better it is doing. Also each player has action pawns which are used in a worker placement style in the action display section of the board. Each turn consists of three phases: Planning, Execution and Reset.