Dominant Species

90,000 BC - A great ice age is imminent. Another gigantic battle for global dominance among the various animal species has unwittingly begun. Dominant Species is a game that abstractly simulates a tiny part of prehistory: the weighty intervention of an ice age and what this means for the creatures trying to adapt to the slowly changing earth. Each player takes on the role of one of the six great animal classes - mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, spider, or insect. Each begins the game more or less in a state of natural balance in relation to each other. But this does not last: it is indeed the 'survival of the fittest'. By cleverly placing action pawns, players will strive to become dominant on as many different terrain tiles as possible, to claim powerful card effects. Players will also have the desire to expand their individual species to earn victory points for their respective animal. Players will be supported in these endeavors by phenomena such as speciation, migration, and adaptation. All of this ultimately leads to the endgame - the final awakening of the ice age, in which the player who has accumulated the most victory points crowns their animal as the dominant species. But someone should hurry to become dominant, as it could get very cold...