Game Objective

Prepare for an epic battle for survival! In *Dominant Species*, you and your friends will take on the role of one of six great animal classes – mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids, and insects – on a rapidly freezing Earth. Your objective is simple yet challenging: adapt, proliferate your species, and become the dominant species on the greatest number of terrains possible to claim the powerful effects of Dominance Cards. Throughout the game, you will earn Victory Points (VP) through actions such as speciation, migration, and adaptation, as well as by scoring terrain tiles. The game culminates with the arrival of the ice age, and the player who has accumulated the most VPs will have their animal crowned as the Dominant Species! But don't delay, the cold is coming...

Setup

Let's set up the table and prepare the battlefield for supremacy!

1. The Board: Place the main game board face up in the center of the table.
2. The Animals: Each player chooses an animal to represent (or distribute randomly). Each animal comes with its own animal display. Unchosen animals and their initiative markers return to the box. In reverse order of the Food Chain (insects first, then arachnids, etc.), players place their square initiative marker in the boxes below the "Initiative" label on the board.
3. The Earth Tiles:
   • Place one large tile of each of the seven terrain types (except tundra) in their designated positions in the center of the board.
   • Place a tundra tile on top of the central sea tile.
   • The remaining eleven tundra tiles are placed face up in the "Glaciation Tiles" section of the board.
   • Shuffle the remaining 24 large tiles face down and create three stacks of 8 tiles each. Place them in the three "Wanderlust Tiles" sections. Flip the top tile of each stack face up.
4. The Cards:
   • Separate the Survival Card.
   • Remove the "Ice Age" card from the deck of Dominance Cards. Shuffle the remaining 25 Dominance cards.
   • Place the "Ice Age" card face down near the board. Place the shuffled Dominance cards face down on top of it to form the draw pile.
   • Draw the top five cards from the pile and place them face up in the "Available Dominance Cards" section of the board.
5. The Elements:
   • Take two of each of the six types of elements (grass, grub, meat, seed, sun, and water) and place them on the Earth tiles as indicated on the board, so that they slightly overlap the tiles at the intersections.
   • Place the remaining elements in the cloth bag to form the draw reserve.
   • Randomly draw 4 elements from the bag and place them on the squares with the leaf symbol near the "Adaptation" label. Repeat for the "Abundance" and "Wanderlust" sections.
6. The Species and Action Pawns:
   • Each player chooses a color for their animal. Take 10 cones (dominance markers) and the number of cylinders (action pawns) and cubes (species in the gene pool) according to the number of players:
     • 6 players: 3 cylinders and 35 cubes
     • 5 players: 4 cylinders and 40 cubes
     • 4 players: 5 cylinders and 45 cubes
     • 3 players: 6 cylinders and 50 cubes
     • 2 players: 7 cylinders and 55 cubes
   • The remaining cylinders and cubes return to the box.
   • Each player takes a cube of their color to use as a VP marker and places it on the "0" space of the Victory Point Track.
   • Place the starting species on the designated tiles:
     • Insects: 2 on savanna, 1 on swamp, 1 on desert.
     • Arachnids: 2 on jungle, 1 on forest, 1 on swamp.
     • Amphibians: 2 on swamp, 1 on jungle, 1 on savanna.
     • Birds: 2 on forest, 1 on mountain, 1 on jungle.
     • Reptiles: 2 on desert, 1 on savanna, 1 on mountain.
     • Mammals: 2 on mountain, 1 on desert, 1 on forest.
   • If there are fewer than six players, ignore the placement instructions for unused animals.
7. Start Playing: The game begins with the Planning Phase of the first turn. The player with the leftmost initiative marker on the Initiative track makes the first Action Pawn (AP) placement.

The Game Turn

A turn in *Dominant Species* is divided into three exciting phases: Planning Phase, Execution Phase, and Maintenance Phase.

Planning Phase

In this phase, players take turns, one at a time, from left to right in Initiative order, placing one of their available APs in any empty "eyeball" space on the action display. Each space can only have one AP, so it's "first come, first served"! Rounds continue until all players have used all their available APs.

Execution Phase

Here the magic happens! APs are removed from the action display from top to bottom and left to right, and the corresponding action is performed by the player who placed the AP. The actions are:

1. Initiative: Swap your initiative marker with the animal to your left on the track, advancing in turn order. You can also place the removed AP in any vacant eyeball space for the next turn.
2. Adaptation: Choose one of the available elements in this section and add it to your animal display. You cannot have more than six elements in total.
3. Regression: For each type of element present in the Regression Box, each animal removes one element disc of the same type from its display. An AP in this section or the reptile's "free" AP prevents the removal of an element. Standard elements (printed on the display) are never removed.
4. Abundance: Choose one of the available elements in this section and place it on a vacant border of any Earth tile.
5. Wasteland: If you placed an AP here, remove any element from the Wasteland Box back to the bag. Automatically, all elements on tundra tiles that match the element types still present in the Wasteland Box are removed to the bag.
6. Depletion: If you placed an AP here, choose an element on Earth that matches an element type in the Depletion Box and remove it to the bag.
7. Glaciation: The player with the leftmost AP in this section chooses a non-tundra tile adjacent to at least one tundra. Temporarily removes all species from it, places a new tundra tile on top, removes elements from Earth surrounded by three tundras, gains bonus VPs based on tundras adjacent to the new one, places one species of each animal back on the tile, and returns the rest to the gene pools.
8. Speciation: Choose an element on Earth that matches the element type of your AP space. Place new species from your gene pool on tiles adjacent to that element (up to 4 on sea/swamp, 3 on savanna/jungle/forest, 2 on desert/mountain, 1 on tundra). After all Speciation actions, the insect player can place an extra species on any tile.
9. Wanderlust: Choose one of the available large tiles face up. Place it on a vacant hexagon adjacent to an existing tile. Optionally, place an element from the Wanderlust section on a free border of the new tile. Gain bonus VPs based on existing adjacent tiles. Finally, in food chain order, each player can move their adjacent species to the new tile.
10. Migration: Choose up to X species of your animal from anywhere on Earth (X is the number of your AP space) and move them to an adjacent tile. Birds can migrate up to two tiles away.
11. Competition: Check the three terrain types associated with your AP space. Choose up to one tile of each type that contains your species and those of an opponent. Eliminate one opponent's species on each chosen tile. Arachnids have a "free" AP and compete first on any terrain type, but on a single tile.
12. Domination: Choose a tile on Earth that has not yet been scored this turn.
    1. The animal with the most species on the tile gains VPs (first number on the Scoring Tile).
    2. The second animal with the most species (if not tundra) gains VPs (second number).
    3. The third animal with the most species (if sea, swamp, savanna, jungle, or forest) gains VPs (third number).
    4. The fourth animal with the most species (if sea or swamp) gains VPs (2 for sea, 1 for swamp).
    5. Ties are resolved by the food chain (mammals first).
    6. If there is a dominant animal on the tile, that player chooses and executes an available face-up Dominance Card. The card is removed from the game. If the "Ice Age" card is chosen, the game ends at the end of the current turn.

Maintenance Phase

This phase prepares the game for the next turn:

• Extinction: Eliminate all species that are "in peril" (do not match any element on the tile). Eliminated species return to the game box. Exception: The mammal player can save one of their in-peril species per turn.
• Survival: The player with the most species on tundra tiles takes the Survival Card (if tied, no one controls it). The player who possesses it gains bonus VPs based on the total number of tundra tiles occupied by their species.
• Reseed:
  • Fill empty Available Dominance Cards spaces with new cards from the draw pile.
  • Slide any APs in spaces 2, 3, and 4 of the Glaciation section one space to the left.
  • Remove all elements from the Regression section.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends at the end of the turn in which the "Ice Age" card is chosen during a Domination action. After the Execution Phase (including the Domination action that triggered the Ice Age), Extinction and the scoring of the Survival Card are performed normally. The Reseed phase is skipped. Final scoring is simple: the player who has accumulated the most Victory Points on the Victory Point Track is declared the winner and their animal is crowned the Dominant Species! Optional Rules for 2 or 3 players: If playing with fewer than 4 players, each player will control multiple animals (3 players = 2 animals each; 2 players = 3 animals each). Each animal has its own VPs. At the end of the game, a player's final score will be the lowest score among their animals. This encourages balance and not sacrificing one animal for another.

Tips for Winning

Dominant Species is a game of deep strategy, but here are some tips to get you started on the right foot:

1. Dominance is Key, but Elements are the Foundation: Remember that dominance of a tile is not about having more species, but about matching more elements than any other animal present. Understanding how your elements on the display interact with the elements on Earth is fundamental. Use the Adaptation and Abundance actions to manipulate elements in your favor and ensure your species are not "in peril" of extinction!
2. Initiative and the Action Display: Turn order in the Planning Phase (determined by Initiative) is crucial for grabbing the actions you want. The Initiative action allows you to improve your position for the next turn, which can be a huge advantage. Additionally, plan your APs in advance, thinking not only about the action you want to perform, but also the order in which it will be executed in the Execution Phase. Sometimes, being the first to Glaciate or Migrate can completely change the board!
3. Glaciation is a Double-Edged Sword: The Glaciation action is powerful, transforming terrains and granting bonus VPs. However, it can also remove elements from Earth and force species back into the gene pool. Use it strategically to harm your opponents, isolate their species, or create new tundras where you can dominate and claim the Survival Card. Think about the APs that might get "stuck" in Glaciation and if the benefit outweighs the wait.