Teach the Game

A script to teach Dominant Species at the table — how you win, the board, a turn, the end, every way to score and what each piece is for.

How you win

“It is 90,000 BC and an ice age is coming. Each of us is a whole class of animals — mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids or insects. We adapt to the earth’s food, spread over its tiles and push each other out, while the glaciers creep in. Two to four hours. Whoever has the most victory points when the Ice Age card is taken wins.”

You need two things on as many tiles as possible:

• Many species (cubes) — the most cubes on a tile scores its points when it is scored.
• The best match of elements — that makes you dominant there, and the dominant animal takes a powerful Dominance card when the tile is scored.

The loop: place your action pawns, then resolve the actions top to bottom — adapt to elements, add and move species, glaciate and compete — and finally score tiles with Domination.

The board

1. Earth — the hex grid. Seven tiles at the start; new terrain arrives with Wanderlust, tundra with Glaciation (Earth and tiles).
2. Food chain — mammal down to insect; it breaks every tie.
3. Tile scoring — what 1st to 4th place earn on each terrain.
4. Bonus points table — 1, 3, 6, 10, 15… for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…
5. Glaciation tiles — the tundra stack.
6. Action display — twelve actions; everything you do is chosen here (The action display).
7. Available Dominance cards — five face-up rewards.
8. Wanderlust tiles — three stacks of new land.
9. Victory point track.

Each player also has an animal display: printed elements, up to six in total, and a summary of the actions.

A turn

1. Planning — in Initiative order, place one action pawn at a time on any empty eyeball until everyone has placed all of theirs (Planning phase).
2. Execution — pawns come off top to bottom, left to right; each triggers its action:

#	Action	In short
1	Initiative	Move up in turn order, place the pawn again
2	Adaptation	Take an element onto your display
3	Regression	Everyone loses elements whose type sits in the box; pawns protect
4	Abundance	Put an element on earth
5	Wasteland	Elements on tundra matching the box are wiped
6	Depletion	Remove one matching element from earth
7	Glaciation	Turn a tile into tundra (one per turn), score bonus
8	Speciation	New species around an element
9	Wanderlust	Lay a new tile, score bonus, move in
10	Migration	Move 2 to 7 species one tile
11	Competition	Kill one opposing species on up to three tiles
12	Domination	Score a tile; the dominant animal takes a card

3. Reset — endangered species die (Extinction), the Survival card scores, the display refills (Reset phase).

How the game ends

The Ice Age card is the bottom card of the Dominance deck. When it is taken, each animal scores bonus VP for the tiles it dominates; the turn finishes, then every tile is scored once more by species count. Ties go to the animal higher on the food chain (End of the game).

Ways to score

Source	How	When
Domination	Tile scoring table by species count (sea 9-5-3-2 … tundra 1)	Each Domination action
Glaciation	Bonus table for tundra tiles next to the new one	When you glaciate
Wanderlust	Bonus table for tiles next to the new tile	When you lay it
Survival card	Bonus table for tundra tiles you occupy	Every Reset Phase
Ice Age	Bonus table for tiles you dominate	When the card is taken
Dominance cards	Biodiversity, Ecodiversity, Fertile (gains); Niche Biomes (losses for leaders)	When taken
Final scoring	Every tile by species count	End of the game

What each resource is for

Piece	Why you need it	How you get it	How you use it
Action pawns	Every action	7 to 3 by player count; some cards add or remove	Placed on eyeballs each turn
Species	Majorities, presence	Gene pool via Speciation, Aquatic, Fecundity, insects’ bonus	On tiles; most cubes score
Dominance cones	Mark who is dominant	Best matching on a tile	Take Dominance cards; Ice Age bonus
Elements on your display	Matching, dominance, survival	Adaptation, some cards	Count against disks around each tile
Elements on earth	Supply for everyone	Abundance, Wanderlust, cards	Speciation spots; keep your species alive
Tundra	Survival points	Glaciation	Occupy many tundra tiles
Initiative	First pick of eyeballs	Initiative action, Nocturnal	Place before others each round

Teaching tips

• Count cubes and element matches separately on one tile, then show a tied dominance total (rehearsal).

• Spend most time on dominance versus majority: cubes score, matching takes the card.

• Walk one Regression → Wasteland → Depletion cycle: elements slide down one box each turn.

• Read the five face-up cards aloud each turn — they drive everyone’s Domination choices.

• Point out that only Glaciation sends cubes back to the gene pool; everything else kills them.