Dominant Species

Setup: The basic game supports 2–6 players, each controlling one animal. At 2/3/4/5/6 players, take 7/6/5/4/3 action pawns and 55/50/45/40/35 cubes respectively, using one cube as a score marker. Follow the fixed starting Earth, element and species layout; put Ice Age at the bottom of the card deck.

Planning and execution: In initiative order, place one pawn at a time into a vacant eyeball space. Resolve the display from top to bottom and left to right. Only the leftmost Glaciation pawn acts this turn; the others queue for later turns. Regression, Wasteland and certain animal abilities can operate without placed pawns.

Environment and adaptation: Elements on animal displays represent needs; elements at tile corners represent supply and can affect several tiles. Adaptation adds an element up to a total of six. Regression can remove added elements, but printed default elements cannot be removed. Abundance, Wasteland and Depletion alter elements on Earth.

Dominance: With a species present, sum the products of each element’s count on your display and its count on the tile. A strictly highest positive total allows a dominance cone. A tie for the highest matching total leaves no dominant animal; neither cube count nor the food chain breaks it. Claim and update dominance when circumstances change.

Expansion and competition: Speciation adds cubes from your gene pool around a selected element, with capacity depending on terrain. Wanderlust adds an adjacent tile and lets all animals move adjacent species onto it. Migration moves a limited number of species, with birds able to travel two tiles. Competition removes opposing species only on permitted terrain where both animals are present.

Glaciation and extinction: Glaciation converts a non-tundra tile next to tundra, retains one species of each animal and returns the excess to their gene pools. Remove elements surrounded by three tundra tiles. During Reset, zero-match species go extinct, though mammals may save one each turn. Species removed for reasons other than Glaciation normally leave play rather than returning to the gene pool.

Terrain and Survival scoring: A Domination action scores a tile not already chosen this turn. Rank animals by cube count and award the terrain’s points, breaking population ties in food-chain order: mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids, insects. Its dominant animal then chooses and resolves an available Dominance Card. The sole leader in total tundra cubes holds Survival and scores bonus points during Reset for tundra tiles occupied; a tie leaves the card unclaimed.

Endgame: After Ice Age is resolved, finish the remaining Domination actions, Extinction and Survival, but skip reseeding. Remove dominance cones and score every tile once more by population, without awarding cards. Highest total wins; the animal higher on the food chain wins a score tie.