Bone Wars

Get ready to dive into the 'Bone Wars'! In this game, you travel back to the late 19th century to experience one of the most toxic rivalries in science: the clash between Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope. These two paleontologists were obsessed with discovering new species, and their competition was so fierce it involved bribes, theft, and even the destruction of fossils just to keep the other from getting the glory. You'll play as a paleontologist working for one of these legends or perhaps as a rogue agent trying to outshine everyone on your own.

The core of the game lies in the clever use of your action cards. You place them into slots on your player board to activate two main fronts: your field team, who digs up fossils and discovers new species, and your paleontologist, who handles the academic side—publishing papers, debunking rivals' theories, and winning awards. Published species cards provide bonuses that scale based on how many cards are already in that specific slot, creating a satisfying engine-building feel.

Here is the twist: when you publish a paper, it's added to either Marsh's or Cope's side, depending on your patron. At the end of the game, your final score is calculated by multiplying your loyalty points with these patrons by the total number of published papers. The genius part? Published papers count for all players! This means you might inadvertently help your opponents by increasing the total pool of papers, so the real strategy is ensuring that your loyalty multipliers make those papers count the most for you. It's a game of hand management and worker placement where scientific betrayal is just as important as the excavation itself.