North Star Games Oceans Board Game

Product Information

The end of the game is reached once all ocean zones are depopulated of fish. [4] The player with the most collective fish tokens in their score pile and on their species boards wins the game. [4] Design [ edit ] The round continues like this until all the fishies in the Reef and first ocean zone are gone….. Kaboombrian Explosion EVOLVE: Most of your cards will be played as traits to evolve one of your species. You may play a trait on a new species or on an existing species.

As with all games in the Evolution series, the goal of Oceans is to create animals that out-compete your opponents’ animals for limited food supplies. Through clever card play you create new species, give your species colourful traits to help them vie for food, and influence the availability of food resources.Oceans is a nature-themed strategy board game published in 2020 by North Star Games. [1] It is a game in the Evolution series. [2]

The Cambrian Explosion starts when the 1st Ocean zone becomes empty, and continues until the end of the game. Remove the Cambrian Explosion card from the 1st Ocean zone as a reminder that it will never be deactivated. If the Cambrian Explosion begins during a player’s playing cards phase, they may immediately play a second card (Surface or Deep). If it begins afterwards, they may not return to their playing cards phase to play a second card.Each species is defined by its population and its traits. Through the game species will gain and lose traits, and gain and lose population depending on what it can eat, and what can eat it. Despite your best efforts, some species will go extinct! Every species in Oceans lives in the same environment: the left-most species of each player is adjacent to the right-most species of the next player. Many traits trigger based on the feeding of an adjacent species. The arrow icon at the bottom of a trait refers to the species immediately adjacent to that side

Build yourself a thriving merchant fleet, and guide it to economic prosperity. Acquire the most modern steamships on the market and take over the precious ports from your rivals. Build an extensive network of trading posts and coal bunkers to expand the capability of your fleet. Make use of diverse options to carry out lucrative transports and win the prestigious Blue Riband of the North Atlantic.

Setting the Ocean Colour Scene

The theme of these games matters to me, as it does to a lot of people. The Evolution games are all abstractions, of course, but they pride themselves on their science. The team at North Star Games are justifiably proud that their 2014 adaptation of Knorre’s original game received a glowing review in the scientific journal Nature from Stuart West, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Oxford. Playing Inscryption, but the goddamn Angler boss (the second boss) has beaten me so many times, I'm losing interest. His bullshit tactics are decidedly unfun.

Lurking deep below the surface lie mysteries so bizarre they seem unnatural when first discovered: massive predators, glowing horrors, and beautiful luminescent creatures. These species hardly seem possible in the realm of biology, and yet they turn out to be real. The Deep represents the wonder of scientific discovery, with traits ranging from actual marine biology to the fantastic. Venture into the deep at your own risk! For me, Oceans is better. Not as clinically balanced as Evolution: Climate or as pitilessly cruel as Evolution: New World but a hell of a lot wilder. Even fiddling around with when scenario cards trigger is satisfyingly fun. I’ve enjoyed many games of Evolution: Climate and Evolution: New World. These are great games that nail their theme and gameplay. They’re engaging, challenging and entertaining. The foundation of the oceanic food chain are billions of one-celled organisms that capture the sun's energy through photosynthesis. Every other oceanic species is a predator, each bigger than the next, all the way up to the dreaded apex predator. And even bigger than apex predators are enormous filter feeders that gently swim through the ocean scooping up everything in their path with their baleen. A simple hand of cards is all the godly power you need to breathe life into the aquatic species you will create. Each beautifully illustrated card is a single trait that you can imbue your creation with: Filter Feeder, Apex Predator, Transparent etc. Each trait twists the rules, allowing you to create a unique ocean dweller.In summing up though I would, again, compare this game to Wingspan. Wingspan has, for me at least, a much more appealing theme and artwork but I’d much rather spend some time swimming with Oceans. It’s a game with great adherence to its theme, good strategies and tactics at 2 or more players and plenty to think about on every turn. At the game’s start, the only food source is plankton, the foundation of the ocean food web. It populates the beautifully illustrated Reef and Ocean boards. Your goal is to create and evolve species, so they find their niche in the growing ecosystem, by giving them helpful combinations of traits. Additionally, there are 2 randomly chosen scenario cards that activate and deactivate at various points during the game. The scenario cards impact the basic tenets of gameplay, encouraging people to vary their play style and strategy each game. This unassuming process works in the same way for feeding from other sources, whilst the defensive symbol (yellow shell) reduces the amount of population that another species can take from your species. If the Cambrian Explosion has not yet started, remove 1 population from each of your species and place it behind your player screen in your score pile. If the Cambrian Explosion has started, place 2 population from each of your species into your score pile. Score all of your population if you