Learn Dominant Species

Welcome to Dominant Species

90,000 BC: an ice age is coming. Each player is a whole class of animals — mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids or insects — adapting, spreading and competing over a growing map of hex tiles.

The animal with the most victory points when the Ice Age card is taken wins. Points come from scoring tiles (most species), bonus points for new tiles and tundra, and the end-of-game scoring of every tile.

2–6 players, two to four hours. Ready to set up? Open the setup checklist — it adapts to your player count.

Two counts on every tile

Every tile is judged twice:

• Species — the animal with the most cubes there wins the tile’s points when it is scored.
• Elements — multiply each element on your display by the matching disks around the tile and add up. The best total is dominant ( cone) and takes a Dominance card when the tile is scored.

A species that matches nothing on its tile is endangered and dies at the end of the turn. Details: Earth, Elements and Dominance.

Plan, then execute

1. Planning — one pawn at a time, in Initiative order, on any empty eyeball of the action display.
2. Execution — the pawns come off from the top: Initiative, Adaptation, Regression, Abundance, Wasteland, Depletion, Glaciation, Speciation, Wanderlust, Migration, Competition, Domination.
3. Reset — Extinction, the Survival card, then refill the display.

See the turn sequence and the actions from Initiative to Domination.

The earth keeps changing

• Elements flow down the display: what nobody adapts to drops into Regression next turn, what nobody places on earth drops into Wasteland and then Depletion.
• Wanderlust adds new terrain; Glaciation turns a tile into tundra each turn, leaving one cube per animal and sending the rest home.
• Competition and some cards kill species for good — only Glaciation returns cubes to your pool.

Keep an eye on the cones: dominance changes whenever elements or species change (Claiming dominance).

Scoring and the end

• Domination scores a tile by species count (sea 9-5-3-2 down to tundra 1) and gives its dominant animal a card.
• Bonus points (1, 3, 6, 10, 15…) for Glaciation, Wanderlust, the Survival card and the Ice Age.
• When the Ice Age card is taken, dominated tiles score a bonus, the turn ends, and every tile is scored one last time.

Scoring details: Domination and End of the game. Strategy: Tips & Strategy.