User:Slimy asparagus/Evolution (game)

Evolution is a 2014 board game where 2-6 players build a highly competitive ecosystem of herbivores, carnivores and scavengers. Players adapt their existing species and evolve new ones in response both to the abundance or scarcity of food, but also the behaviour of other species in the ecosystem. The scoring system rewards players whose species have high populations, consume the most food and are the most diverse.

Game play
Over the course of the game, each player will create, feed, adapt and sometimes lose a number of species. Each species consists of body size and population stats and upto 3 (or 2 in a two player game) trait cards. A species can also hold food tokens. Players also have a food bag for storing any food their species ate over the course of the game. At the end of the game players get 1 point for each food token consumed, 1 point for each population point and 1 point for each trait card that is in use. The player with the most points wins.

The shared components include the deck of trait cards, the watering hole (which is a shared board that holds food tokens), the supply of food tokens and the species components. Finally there is a first player marker which passes in a clockwise direction each round.

Each round consists of a number of phases:


 * 1) Cards are dealt according to how many species each player has.
 * 2) Each player must secretly and simultaneously select one card to act as a food supply in that round. These cards are placed in the Watering Hole. Some cards have a zero or even negative food value.
 * 3) Starting with the first player, each player plays as many of their cards as they wish. They may retain cards until the next round. A card may be played in three ways: a.) to grant an existing species a new adaptation; b.) to create a new species; c.) to increase a population or body size stat of an existing species.
 * 4) The food cards in the Watering Hole are revealed, and they are replaced with food tokens equal to their total value.
 * 5) Then starting with the first player each player gets one feeding action. This continues until no player has any possible feeding actions left. The efficiency of these actions can be significantly improved by combining traits in special ways. Feeding actions can be either herbivorous (from the Watering Hole) or carnivorous (from the population of other species). Some trait cards also allow species to source food directly from the supply.
 * 6) Then species that failed to feed their population, must reduce their population to the food eaten.
 * 7) Each player moves the food on their species into their food bag.
 * 8) Then the first player marker moves to the left.

If at any point a species loses all its population it goes extinct. The player draws cards into their hand equal in number to the trait cards possessed by the extinct species. The final round starts when the draw deck is empty. Any cards that the players were entitled to are instead drawn from cards set aside at the beginning of the game.

History
In 2010 a Russian company, RightGames, released Evolution: The Origin of Species designed by Dmitry Knorre and Sergei Machin. In this game the food in the watering hole is determined by dice, and there are other differences.

2013 - Evolution: Random Mutations was a sequel to The Origin of Species, which "does a great job of illustrating the random role of mutation, which can increase or decrease fitness."

North Star Games acquired the English rights to Evolution: The Origin of Species and released the result in 2014 as Evolution. They changed some rules so that Dale Yu considered "the 2014 version a different game entirely from its predecessor." A second edition was released in 2015.

Flight was added as an expansion in 2015.

A Climate expansion (incompatible with Flight) was released in 2016. It is also available as a stand alone game.

Evolution: The Beginning, a stand alone simplified version aimed at younger players, was released in 2016.

A video game adaptation of Evolution was released in 2019.

In 2020, a stand alone sequel, Oceans, was released that retains the basic core ideas, but also plays very differently. Apart from the aquatic theme, one notable innovation is the introduction of dramatic shifts such as the Cambrian explosion. Also a round is less structured and players can do the different parts of the round in any order they wish.

North Star Games have announced (via a product page at BoardGameGeek) a "complete redesign" of the system to "Make all Expansions Compatible" and "Make the base game a more gentle and inviting experience to new players". This is scheduled for release in 2023.

Reception
Stuart West reviewed Evolution for Nature (along with two other Evolution-themed games):

"The gameplay is simple to grasp, but can get very tactical. In particular, as with real evolution, the best strategy depends on what everyone else is doing. If there are a lot of herbivores, there is an advantage to being an efficient forager, with traits such as cooperation, but lots of herbivores also means a big advantage to becoming a carnivore. When carnivores appear, herbivores need defences, which carnivores try to get around — and so on, in a co-evolutionary dance."

The Guardian praised the game:

"With 129 trait cards, there’s a lot of variety – around 12,000 potential species to create – and you can split your play style between spawning peaceful plant-eaters or creating carnivores to feed on other players’ beasts. Though there is always the danger that with no other valid prey on the table, your carnivore may have to feed on your own plant-eaters."

Evolution: The Beginning and Evolution: Climate have been evaluated for use in teaching Evolution:

"Evolution: The Beginning is a great complement to an introduction to evolutionary theory. The small size and limited components make the game approachable for all types of students. It is particularly well-suited for teaching evolutionary arms races, adaptations, and interspecific interactions. In particular, we think the game is excellent for demonstrating how evolution has no foresight — a difficult concept for many students."

"Evolution: Climate is our top-rated evolution themed strategy board game for use as an educational resource. It is a phenomenal game, full of rich strategic and tactical decisions. The added complexity and interplay between the climate and species dramatically expand the potential uses for educational purposes. The gameplay, however, remains fairly simple to understand (and to teach)."

Ars Technica praised the series' artwork, the handling of the theme, it's "edutainment" value, its engine building and the enjoyability of its game play. They also called Evolution: Climate one of "the best board games of 2016''.