Learn Bone Wars
Learn the game in 5 short steps. Everything links to the full rules.
Welcome to Bone Wars
America, 1877–1897. Two palaeontologists, 
Othniel Marsh and 
Edward
Cope, fight the Great Dinosaur Rush with bribes, theft and poisoned reviews. You are a fossil
hunter working for one of them — for now.
The most 
reputation points after 4 rounds wins. Almost all of them come from two
scorings, after rounds 2 and 4: for each patron, your 
loyalty × his
credibility (the shelves of his bookshelf holding papers).
1–4 players (solo against Theodore), 60–120 minutes. Ready to set up? Open the setup checklist — it adapts to your player count.
The board and your board
- Six dig sites, linked by arrows: your
team travels here to dig bones and find
species. - Four paleontologist actions at the top:
publish, 
debunk,
claim an award, 
make a minor find. - The bookshelf in the middle: Marsh’s papers left, Cope’s right, with everyone’s loyalty tracks beside them.
- Two universities on the right: where you start and end each round, choosing your patron and your grant.
Your player board holds your archive envelopes, base camps, bone crates and five action slots. The boards in detail.
Your turn: play a card
Play a card into your leftmost empty action slot and pay the slot’s cost plus the card’s. Or pass.
Team card — action points for your team: move, 
dig for bones,
discover a 
species (2 points), build a 
base camp, use a dig site
action. Team actions
Paleontologist card — move your paleontologist to a new action
space; the card adds a bonus if it matches. Paleontologist actions- Species card — either of the two, as strong as its slot allows.
Money runs out fast: the slots cost $0 to $3 from left to right.
Papers: publish and debunk
- Publish: discard 2–4 different bones (
torso, 
tail, skull, limb)
for a species card. Gain loyalty (and prizes with 3–4 bones), archive the card for its envelope
bonus, and shelve a paper worth 2–4 for your current patron. - Debunk: discard 2–4 identical bones to take a paper of that value from the other patron and move it to yours — 1, 2 or 4 loyalty.
- Awards reward what is in your archive; minor finds archive a card for a one-off bonus.
Publishing helps everyone loyal to that patron; debunking hurts everyone loyal to the other. Paleontologist actions
Passing and scoring
When you pass: pick a new profession (its bonus sets next round’s order), return your team to a
university — which may switch your patron and gives you its 
grant — and take a loyalty bonus.
After rounds 2 and 4, for each patron: count his shelves with papers (credibility) and score
your loyalty value (0–7) × that number in reputation.
The art of the game: be loyal where the shelves are full — and switch before they empty. Passing and scoring · Tips