Dominant Species...

[MerricB]

I'm hoping that my copy of this game will arrive this week. What is it? It's a game set before the Ice Age, where each player plays a species that needs to survive... to become the Dominant Species. It's a Eurogame designed by a wargame designer - the incredible Chad Jensen ("Combat Commander: Europe") and Tom Vasel has said that it might be one of the games of the decade (2001-2010).

It's a longish game (2-4 hours), but isn't that hard to learn and very interactive from what I've heard. Of course, Chad Jensen is someone who other people should emulate for clarity of rulebooks...

Anyone else looking forward to this game?

Cheers!

 

[darjr]

I wasn't but I am now!

 

[Agamon]

I wasn't but I am now!

Ditto! This an Essen game? Why've I not heard about it?

I've got a copy of Innovation on it's way (excellent shortish civ-tech card game), as well as the new Flying Frog game, Invasion From Outer Space (Last Night On Earth with aliens vs carnies!)

 

[MerricB]

Ditto! This an Essen game? Why've I not heard about it?

Because you're not a wargamer. This is a GMT Game - they do most of the really good wargames that come out, but they also dabble in family & euro games.

However, Chad Jensen, apart from being a great wargame designer, also has a couple of Eurogame designs he's releasing through GMT Games.

Cheers!

 

[Thanee]

Yep, it does look quite interesting (though from the pictures I have seen, it also looks a bit "dry").

Bye
Thanee

 

[MerricB]

Hooray! My copy has been sent by MilSims. If I'm *very* lucky, I'll have it for the weekend. More likely it'll arrive early next week.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

It arrived on Friday, amazingly enough, and we got a 5-player game in on Saturday evening, which lasted 3-1/2 hours. We got a few rules wrong in the first turn, but none thereafter as far as I can tell.

The game is brilliant - there's a lot going on and a lot of ways to get VPs, but I found it all quite manageable. I'll be typing up a more detailed session report sometime soon, but if you enjoy good Eurogames, this is definitely one to look for.

The game play reminded me mostly of Age of Empires III (one of my other Top 10 games), but in some ways is more integrated than that game.

Cheers!

 

[Agamon]

Because you're not a wargamer. This is a GMT Game - they do most of the really good wargames that come out, but they also dabble in family & euro games.

However, Chad Jensen, apart from being a great wargame designer, also has a couple of Eurogame designs he's releasing through GMT Games.

Now, now, I'm not a Eurogamer, either. I own and play Axis & Allies, BattleLore, A Game of Thrones, Wizard Kings, etc. Just thought that with it being new now that it might be an Essen game, is all.

Looks pretty cool, I'll have to check it out.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Because you're not a wargamer. This is a GMT Game - they do most of the really good wargames that come out, but they also dabble in family & euro games.

However, Chad Jensen, apart from being a great wargame designer, also has a couple of Eurogame designs he's releasing through GMT Games.

Cheers!

Ok I'm revealing my total ignorance here - Essen? GMT? Heck I'm barely able to describe a 'eurogame' but these are completely new to me. Can you clarify? Thanks!

 

[MerricB]

Essen is a city in Germany (in the industrial Ruhr). Astonishingly, it is also the site of the biggest boardgame fair in the world. (It was last fortnight). A lot of boardgames get their premiere there.

GMT Games is probably the biggest publisher of old-school wargames - by which I mean Hex'n'counter wargames. They also make a lot of Card-Driven Wargames, such as Twilight Struggle, which are excellent. They've recently been branching into Eurogames - Dominant Species is their first major one, and it is really, really good.

Agamon isn't an old-school wargamer (grognard?) because he doesn't list the hex'n'counter wargames such as (Advanced) Squad Leader. (Mind you, he names BattleLore. It is one of a series of Command & Colors games by Richard Borg - GMT publishes two others in the series, C&C: Ancients and soon C&C: Napoleonics).

If you want to play a very, very good two-player game, it's worth checking out Twilight Struggle. It's #3 on the list of best boardgames at BGG, which is really astonishing for a site dominated by Eurogamers. It takes about 2-3 hours to play and "simulates" the Cold War between the USA and the USSR.

Cheers!