Evolution: Climate

## Overview

*Evolution: Climate* is a standalone game that introduces climate into the *Evolution* game system.

In *Evolution: Climate*, players adapt their species in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce, predators lurk, and the climate can swing between scorching hot and icy cold. Traits like a Hard Shell and Horns can protect your species from Carnivores while a Long Neck will help them get food that others cannot reach. Heavy Fur and Migratory can protect your species from the cold while being Nocturnal or Burrowing will provide protection from the cruel desert sun. With over 200,000 ways to evolve your species, every game evolves into a different adventure.

   The *Climate* standalone game dramatically changes game play with several simple additions to the *Evolution* base set:

* Players draw 4 cards +1 per species per round (instead of 3 cards + 1 per species).
* Each species may have up to 4 traits (instead of 3).
* The climate moves along a Climate Track based upon the food cards played each round.
* There are additional trait cards that provide protection from the heat and cold.

*Evolution: Climate* changes *Evolution* from a two-dimensional game (dealing with the threat of Starvation and Carnivores) into a three-dimensional game (dealing with the threat of Starvation, Carnivores, and Climate effects) while increasing the vividness of the theme. It adds additional layers into what was already a dynamically strategic game.

## How to Play

**Setup**

**a.** Put the watering hole in the middle of the table. Place
the cliff next to the watering hole. Replace the watering hole with the new combined watering hole and climate track and place the temperature cube on “Temperate”.

**b.** Put the species boards and wooden markers within easy reach. Put the food tokens together to form the food bank (the food tokens are meant to be unlimited). Give each player one food token bag and one starting species board. Place the avian species boards and 12 flight trait cards next to the land species boards.

**c.** Shuffle the trait card deck and place it face down on the table to create the main deck*.*. Shuffle the Flight trait and event cards into the base deck (Flight includes carnivore cards of its own, and these extra carnivores need to be removed if playing with just the base game. The Flight carnivore images are more zoomed in than the base game, to aid separation). Set 40 cards from the draw deck, and place them to the side to form the end game deck. When the main draw deck is exhausted, use these cards for the last round instead of reshuffling. When playing a 2-player game randomly remove 40 additional traits from the main deck and remove them completely from this game.

**d.** Shuffle the 2 climate decks (warm and cold) and place them on their designated side of the climate track. Draw the

   top card of each deck and put it under its two corresponding climate regions indicated on the top of the climate card.

**e.** Determine the first player by preferred means, and give them the first player marker.

**Plants: Mini-Expansion,** Instead of feeding from the watering hole, players choose a Plant Species to eat. But there's a catch: if you send your species into another player's territory, that player gets a free attack on that species with each of his Carnivores.

**a.** The watering hole is no longer in the game. Give each player a Plant Species instead.

**b.** Instead of playing a food card, increase the population of each Plant Species and place food up to its population.

**c.** Instead of feeding at the Watering Hole, a non-Carnivore gets to
choose any Plant Species to feed from. Before a non-Carnivore feeds from your Plant Species, you have the option of taking 1 free attack on it with each of your carnivores (otherwise, normal carnivore rules apply).

At the end of the round, reduce the population of your Plant Species to the level of its highest remaining food and score any remaining food. To play this with Evolution: Climate, just turn over the Plant Species board and use the back side. Instead of increasing the Population each round, just move the Population to the appropriate level based upon the Climate.

**Gameplay**

**Phase 1, Draw cards and Free species:** Deal cards to each player (**3 cards + 1 extra card  or for climate 4 cards +1 extra card per species** a player controls) Place a species board in front of any player who has no species at all (if extinction of all species of a player occurred last round).  If the draw deck is depleted during this phase, the end game deck is used, and this round is the last round.

**Phase 2, Contribute Food and Climate Change:** Each player **secretly chooses one of the trait cards** they have in their hand, based on how much plant food they wish to add to the watering hole (indicated by the number in the leaf-symbol) and what kind of climate direction you wish the eco-system to head (indicated by the snowflake- and sun symbols). Each player places a card face down in the watering hole (which is revealed later in the round – phase 4).

**Phase 3, Adapt and Evolve:** Play cards **starting with the first player**, players may play as many trait cards as they wish (or save them for future rounds). The trait cards may be played for any of the following effects, in any order and any combination. When playing **a 6-player game**, you may all play your card simultaneously without looking at other players (to prevent game time to run away).

**a. Play a trait,** the player places a trait card face down next to one of their species. A species may **not have any duplicate traits**, nor may it have **more than 3 traits** **(or 2 when playing a 2-player game) at a time per species or when playing climate you may**
have up to 4 traits (or 3 traits when playing a 2-player game) at a time per species **(discard unwanted traits to replace them).**

**b. Create a new land species**, a player may discard a trait card face up to get a new species. He places a new species board in front of him and adds wooden markers **setting population and body size to 1**. The new species can be **added to the left or right of the species board row**, but not between two pre-existing species. You may never change or move around your species order.

**c. Increase body size or population**, a player may discard a trait card face up to increase either the population or body size of a species by 1. A species cannot have a body size or population greater than 6.

**d. Discard a trait,** players may discard trait(s) without replacing them.

**e. Create a new avian species,** a player may discard 2 cards to create an Avian species. The player takes an Avian Species Board, places it in front of him and **sets population and body size to zero.** He also takes an avian trait card and places it above the avian species board.

**f. Decrease body size,** a player may discard a trait card face up to decrease the body size of a species by 1.

**g. Redraw traits,** a player **may**
discard **any number of cards from his or her hand and** place them back in the bottom of the main deck **to draw new cards of the** same amount **as he or she just discarded. These traits** may not be used the same round **they have been drawn from the main deck.**

Once a player has spent as many trait cards as they want, play passes to the next player clockwise, and he plays cards in the same way, and so forth until all players have played their cards. Once everyone has played cards, the trait cards played are simultaneously revealed.

**Phase 4, Feeding:** Cards with a leafy border have effects that may trigger **before the food cards are revealed**. If a player has multiple traits that trigger at this point, he can choose what order to trigger them in. If there is any conflict in resolution of leafy border cards, resolution proceeds clockwise from the first player, and each player resolves all their leafy border effects before the next begins.

**Climate change,** the first player reveals the food cards and totals up all snowflake- and sun symbols on all the cards, **if either side is greater than the other move the temperature cube** 1 space in that climate direction on the climate track.If however **the greater side is more than doubled compared to the losing climate move the temperature** cube 2 space in that climate direction on the climate track. **Any food growth or decline comes in play right away** when you add food to the watering hole in the next step. Whenever the temperature cube moves into **a climate region with a climate event card attached** to it the climate will follow the properties of the event card for this round and not the climate of the region indicated by the temperature cube. After the round the climate event is removed from game and a new event from the same climate deck gets drawn and put into play in its corresponding regions. **You can only resolve one climate event card per round.**

**Reveal food cards,** the first player reveals the food cards and totals their food value. The first player adds that much food to the Watering Hole from the Food Bank (if a positive value), or removes food from the Watering Hole and returns it to the Food Bank (if it is a negative value). The revealed food cards are
placed on the discard pile.  Place food on the cliff equal to the number of players.

**Feeding species,** beginning with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player must feed a hungry species. A species is hungry if it has less food than its population. A species can never eat more food than its population. When a species takes food, it is placed in the food track, starting from the most left position.

**a. Feeding non-carnivores,** take one plant food from the watering hole, and place it on the species you are feeding. Some traits (foraging) may modify the amount of food taken from the watering hole, but a species can never take more food than it has population. Non carnivores normally eat plant food, but they can also eat meat food with traits such as scavenger and cooperation. An avian species can take food from the watering hole or the cliff, but not both areas during the same feeding (when using co-operation or foraging). An avian species must take food equal to its body size before it can feed its population, and this upkeep food is placed on the bottom of the avian species board.

**b. Feeding Carnivores,** carnivores can never eat plant food, even using traits such as long neck or co-operation. They feed by attacking other species. A species must attack if it is hungry, even if it means attacking a species with horns, or another species belonging to the same player. A player may attack **any species, including their own**. Carnivores can continue to feed (attack) after the watering hole runs out of plant food. **An attack can be made** if the carnivore’s body size is larger than the body size of the species being attacked and the carnivore has the necessary traits to overcome the attacked species defensive traits. **When a successful attack has been made** reduce the population of the attacked species by 1 and the attacking player takes meat food from the food bank equal to the body size of the attacked species and places it on the attacking carnivore’s species board.

If this reduces the population below the
amount of food already consumed, the attacked player puts the excess food in
their food bag. If the population is reduced to zero, the species becomes
extinct.

**c. End of feeding,** feeding ends when
all species have eaten food equal to their population size, or when all hungry species are no longer able to eat. Any **plant**
food remaining **on the watering hole stays in place.**

**If a species did not manage to eat** as much food as its population, reduce its population to the food eaten. If the species failed to eat any food, it becomes extinct. If the **population of a species is reduced to zero, it goes extinct**. Immediately discard the species board and trait cards on that species and draw a number of trait cards equal to the number of trait cards discarded. If the extinct species was between two other species, close the gap.

**Each player places all food eaten** by its species in their food token bag. **Upkeep food for avian species** is returned to the Food Bank, and not added to the player’s Food token bag..

Pass the start player marker to the left.

**End a game**

If the main deck is exhausted during phase 1, then add the end game deck and keep handing out cards to all players. The game ends at the end of that current round. If the main deck is exhausted for any other reason, then play one more full round, before the game ends.

- Each food in a player’s food token bag is worth one point

- Each surviving species is worth points equal to its population

-  Each trait card on a surviving species is worth one point.

Add up the points, and the player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the player with the most trait cards is the winner, with population points as the second tie breaker.

## Links and References

Official Website - Kickstarter

BoardGameGeek Review