20.0 Example of play
This example shows the first 21 turns (stopping in the mid-Jurassic) of a two-player game of Bios Megafauna. The dinosaur player is the dino-croc (2-teeth, Red) and the mammal player is the dog-face (3-teeth, Orange).
Set-up. The starting Map and Display are shown. Dino-croc starts with 3 genes and goes first; dog-face starts with 4 genes.
Turn 1: Resize a Species. As his action, dino-croc moves his size animal from one to two.
Turn 2: Purchase a Card. Dog-face purchases (for free) the anteater tongue card with II DNA, and plays it under his archetype. He offsets the card a bit so he can read the relevant information, as shown.
Reveal the next card. It’s athe biped card.
New Era Tiles event. The card’s event brings two new era tiles onto the map.
Replenish the Display. The biped card is added to the rightmost position in the Display.
Turn 3: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc mutates his gators by purchasing the digging claw NI DNA for 3 genes. He places an archetype roadrunner animal in the N slot. They are now burrowing gators.
Event & Display. The new card is a Duckbill genotype, which triggers the new era tiles event before being added to the Display.
Turn 4: Expand an Animal. Dog-face expands a child (of the same archetype species) from his homeland, which travels to the meadow directly south. This meadow needs insect-eating DNA to enter, which dog-face has.
Turn 5: Expand an Animal. Dino-croc expands a child (of the same species), and moves it two spaces east, into the predator triangle of the meadow. The digging-gator now eats the anteaters.
Turn 6: Resize a Species. Dog-face moves his size animal from one to two.
Turn 7: Expand an Animal. In the meadow, dino-croc expands from the predator triangle to the meadow biome. This new herbivore is competing with the anteaters. The niche is N, and so the digging gators win the niche contest, and the anteaters die. The predatory gator-parent in the meadow also dies, since cannibalism is not allowed.
Turn 8: Purchase a Card. Dog-face buys the bloodhound N DNA card. He plays it into his archetype stack and places an N roadrunner animal..
Turn 9: Expand an Animal (new species).* Dino-croc expands a new species of the “sailback” silhouette into the predator triangle of his opponent’s cloud forest homeland. It inherits N DNA so as to be able to eat the nocturnal anteaters. Size-2 and N roadrunner animals are placed..
Turn 10: Expand an Animal. Dog-face expands an anteater child (of the same species) from his homeland, to compete with the gators in the meadow. During culling, both competitors have the niche, and there is no carnivore so predator-defense is not relevant. But dog-face has more teeth, so it wins the dentition contest. However the digging-gator is not dead; it moves to the predator triangle of the same habitat and becomes a predator of the anteater.
Turn 11: Resize a Species. Dino-croc shrinks his size animal from two to one for his archetype species.
Turn 12: Purchase a Card. Dog-face mutates his bloodhounds by buying and playing the biped (B) card.
Turn 13: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc buys for free the spines (AA) card (and gets the 3 genes that are on the card.) He mutates his archetype into spiny digging-gators.
Turn 14: Expand an animal. Dog-face expands his bipedal anteaters by moving a child of the same species to the adjacent calamites thicket biome.
Turn 15: Purchase a Card. Dino-croc buys the Carnosaur (AA) genotype card. His spiny-gators have the correct size, and over half the DNA, to be the parents.32 Because the parents have the same silhouette as the genotype, the card goes into his fossil record per 7.5.
Scoring for the Triassic. There are 5 tiles in the tarpit. The two players are tied in population at 3 each. But dino-croc has more genes, so he takes 3 victory tiles, and dog-face takes one.
Turn 16: Resize a Species. Dog-face anteaters move to size 3. This is beyond the size-range of their anteater tongues, which are discarded. The gators, since they are predators of the anteaters, are allowed to adjust their size. Since otherwise the anteaters would be too large to eat, the gators move to size 2. Their spines, which are a size-one only card, are discarded.
a. Culling. Since the bipedal bloodhound is no longer insectivorous, it dies off in the meadow. Its predator switches to plant-eating and moves into the biome.
Turn 17: Expand an Animal. Dino-croc expands to the calamites thicket as a predator.
Turn 18: Acculturation. Since the biped bloodhounds have the acorn and manual dexterity instincts, dog-face is able to place one of his archetype animals into the bone-cracking culture.
Turn 19: Reveal a Card. Dino-croc purchases and discards the duckbills/swine card.
a. New Era Tile Event. Immigrant titanosaurs (armored brontosaurs) from South America! They enter the lowest-climax biome in the tropics, namely the calamites.
b. Culling. At the end of the turn, the titanosaurs win the predator-defense contest, since they are too big and too well armored for the burrowing gators to eat. Normally, the gators would die, as would the bloodhounds. But both are adapted for rooting, and the biome has a rooter triangle (requirement N). Both animals enter this triangle, but the digging-gators enjoy the niche (I). So the bloodhounds switch to the predator triangle, eating the now-spineless gators!
Turn 20: Expand an Animal (new species).33 Dog-face buys and plays the chalicothere genotype (a horse that wants to be a gorilla!). The biped bloodhounds, at size 3 with BN DNA, become the parents. He replaces his homeland animal with a “rhino” animal, and also places “rhino” animals in size 3 and the A roadrunner positions.
Culling. The ‘sailback” nocturnal predator in the dog-face homeland, unable to eat the aggressive new horse-gorillas, goes extinct.
Erosion Event. The dog-face homeland is the only mountain on the map, so it erodes away. The short-lived horse-gorillas go extinct; its card goes into the dog-face fossil record. Then the greenhouse drops, displacing the dino-croc homeland and the calamites habitat south.
At this point (mid-Jurassic), both players are down to one species. Dog-face has 1 population, no genes, and 3 fossil record (including two for the BA genotype). Dino-croc has 3 population, 4 genes, and 5 fossil record (including two for the AA descendant).