Darwin's Choice is a new project arrived today on Kickstarter. As the name would suggest, is a card game based on the evolution of the animal species and the task of the players will be to “build” the species more adaptable to the environments that are available on the table.

A match is divided into four rounds called ages and in every age, there are three stages in which you create the species, if they survive, and finally you activate the events of the next era.

Darwin's Choice: board game for 2 to 6 players aged 10 and up, duration about 60 minutes per game, published by Treeceratops, the authors are Marc'dür, Samuel Lutherbacher and Helium Reinschmidt.

The box is the prototype of Darwin's Choice contains:

Cards Animal are 227: 129 (large) represent a body, and/or two pairs of legs, while 89 (small) represent heads, wings, tails or a pair of legs.

The cards Vegetation and the Event cards are also well-drawn and very clear.

The tokens are cardboard quite often, well-designed and clear.

We can not give more reviews to the materials as in communications with the author, we have had confirmation that, in the phase of crowdfunding, they will be changed: while the cards in the “body” will be reduced in size (at the moment are very big and you have to have a table rather large to play in 4), some tokens will be wider.

Place in the center of the table, in a row, all the decks are covered except for 4/5 cards and vegetation: these will be put to the sides of the decks, the two right and two left. For each paper the vegetation you have the related token food. Each card in vegetation will have a token numbered of recognition.

Each player receives a set of tokens colored, the reference card and fishing 10 cards Animal, looking at them from two decks, large and small.

In the first phase of each era, in your turn, you have the opportunity to choose a main action between Build, Migrate or Mutate. Once you have performed the action on the species you want, turn your token colored to remind you that the species can no longer be the subject of other actions.

There are also two optional actions: at the beginning of each era you can choose whether to play with the cards drawn or discard them all but one and then the nine that you are missing; second, the optional action is the trading of cards between players, but there is a rule that you can create a market of cards visible to all, and in your main action, instead of acting on the species that you can swap a card in the hand with a of the market. This market is cleared at the beginning of each era.

Build: to build a new species you need at least a head and a body with the characteristics required by the vegetative growth area, in which you want to place it. For example, the paper “the Desert” requires at least two resistances to heat and no cold resistance, then I could build my species with the body of a dromedary that has three resistors in the heat, with the head of a hippo that has no resistance.

To recognize your species, piazzateci above your token, colored from the side of the “v” you can't do actions on this species up to the end of the age. You can add, or replace, the remaining parts of the species in the later rounds, with the action of Mutation, which is divided into three kinds.

The cards removed, or changed are placed in the discard pile. A single mutation is free while the second costs 3 Points to Darwin which should have been previously placed on the species.

The Migration allows you to move a species in an area, the vegetative, as long as it has the requirements and can get enough food.

After all players have finished their actions, either past the assessment phase that consists of 5 steps:

Control requirements: if a species does not meet the requirements required by the zone vegetative expires and is deleted from the game.

Food control: in this step, you determine which species has enough food to survive. The species that do not have enough food and die off and are eliminated from the game. Before you control the herbivores and then the carnivores because the species of carnivorous plants can eat those herbivores.

Survival: all the species after the preceding stages are still alive receive 1 Point for Darwin and kept it on the paper animal.

Adaptivity: in each area the vegetative are the requirements and the species that has receives the most Points Darwin indicated next to the name of the area itself.

Competitive strength: between all areas of vegetation to determine the three species with the highest competitive strength. The first takes three Points to Darwin, the second two and the third one.

Now begins the phase of transition, where you have to prepare for the new era. Fished an event and risolvetelo immediately. Then you can proceed to the exchange of areas of vegetation based on the number of players. Reassigned the token food in the areas, and therefore to the species, starting from those most adapted to the new areas of vegetation, some species that were in the top of the chain, now may not be the most competitive.

Turn all tokens in the player on the species, fish cards until you have 10 in hand, and turn the token to the first player. Are you ready for the new era!

A game of Darwin's Choice ends at the end of the evaluation of the fourth age and the player with the most Points Darwin is the winner.

In Darwin's Choice of the interaction is linked to the placement of the species of the monsters opponents to control the food reserves, while the downtime is fairly low since each player has only one action in the round.

It is not a game for newbies, and won't appeal to the lovers of control.

What we do not like. The alea is a large part of the game, fishing, cards, animal, zones, vegetative and events, and consequently little is enough to extinguish a species, that we have built with so much effort, and that has made us earn a lot of Points to Darwin, but we can not cash out because if they go with our animal. The whole experience is quite frustrating.

We used the market instead of trading up to try and control the game better, but it has had no effect.

The management of the table is confusing and the action to Migrate does nothing but increase this feeling when you have to take an animal with maybe 6 cards and a dozen or so tokens, and then having to move to the other side of the play area.

What we like to do. The idea is very interesting and also the setting. Try to create the species that is best suited to the various zones is quite satisfying. Also the scrambling for the food is well made in the rivalry between herbivores and carnivores.

As already written above, the graphics part is very well cared for, and also the symbolism is clear and leaves no doubts.

If you are interested in supporting this project, run on Kickstarter for choose your pledge!

The article Darwin's Choice: a kickstarter “evolutionary”! comes from Justnerd.en.