Dominant Species — or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bits

by Mike Clarke 

This, my very first game review, was published to BoardGameGeek in December 2010. 

Since its release, Dominant Species has been coming under criticism for a number of perceived shortcomings that nearly caused me to pass on the game.

So this is a review addressing some of the criticisms which might make you reluctant (like I was) to pick it up. I’m not going to review the game play. That’s been done several times already.

People have complained the components aren’t thematic, that the board is too plain, the tiles are too thin and their artwork too simplistic and that the cards and the element tokens make the game play too random.

I was intrigued by the game, but these criticisms made me postpone buying it until there was only one copy left in my area. However, faced with the prospect of waiting until March 2013, I took the plunge and bought the last copy.

So let’s have a look at the components and the knocks against this game. I’m going to start with the board not because it’s been criticized, but because it’s been overlooked, taken for granted.

Yet it’s pretty damn special.

First, it’s a beast. Easily the thickest board of any game I own and I own more than a hundred games. It’s a monster. It fills the table. I have a leaf table and the table is not quite entirely flat. Traditional big boards (Arkham Horror) kind of bend up and leave little spaces under the board at certain spots.

But not this board. No, this monster hugs the table by sheer dint of its own weight.

Dominant Species big board
Now THAT’S a board.

When I took it out of the box, it was a little stiff and one end didn’t go down all the way so I sort of pushed it into place. It still was raised slightly and then right before my eyes it just sort of settled down as if to say….hmmmmm…..ahhhhhhh…..mmmm……TAAABBBLE.

Did I mention it was heavy?

This is a board that wants to be on your table and looks like it belongs there. In fact it could be so large as to be a problem on most common dining room or kitchen tables, but it’s not.

Why? Well because everything you need to play with including Dominance Cards, Game Tiles, Worker Placement etc…is all on the board. You don’t need much room off the board. Just a place for your animal display card and the cubes in your gene pool. That’s it! Everything else is on the very large and very heavy game board.

The photographs don’t do the board justice. It is exceptional in every way right down to its wonderful satiny and textured finish.

Others here have reported the finish makes it water repellant as well. Thankfully I haven’t had to test that out yet, but I can see where it could be true. (One reviewer said he spilled his soft drink on it and none of his friends can see a stain)

How thoughtful is that?!

So check— board definitely not a problem.

In fact it’s the best board of any game I own and I know that’s not usually the GMT way. Twilight Struggle for instance is thin cardboard I hold down with a large sheet of plexiglass.

By the way I don’t have a problem with the GMT board in that game either but for entirely different and thematic reasons that also apply to the bits and tiles in this game and which I’ll get into…right now.

Here’s the thing about the tiles. Yes they’re a little thin, but they’re very, very sturdy. Because they’re a little thinner, they don’t create a huge pile when they’re sitting in their three slots on the board ready to come onto the map.

Dominant Species game in progress
Simple, yet elegant design that makes it easy to visually assess your position at a glance.

Thinner also makes them easier to shuffle. If I have any complaint at all about them, their lack of weight makes them easier to slide around when you’re placing elements.

But they still hold the board very well and they look good on the table. As the game progresses, you don’t come back to them all that often. They just sit there with their stuff on them (which also give them weight) and so it’s not much of an issue.

Did I mention they’re quite sturdy?

This to me is an extremely minor criticism that will only be an issue to people with poor motor skills and even less patience. (You know who you are!)

However, I understand from reading designer Chad Jensen in one of the BoardGameGeek forums that the tiles will be a little thicker in the second printing. I myself am quite happy with them just the way they are. Those of us with the slightly thinner tiles will be holding the original version of this masterpiece.

The artwork on the tiles fit the overall sleek and minimalist design of the game. They’re evocative of desert, tundra, jungle, sea, wetland and forest without being distracting. This is no minor point and is also why the bits are plain as well.

This is a complex game with a lot going on and these components allow you to assess the situation on the board at a glance without getting lost on a “busy” board. It wouldn’t work as well for game play purposes to have really ornate and distracting artwork confusing the positions of the players.

Dominant Species game in progress
Tundra proliferates in a two player fight for survival

Dominant Species: An abstract with theme

Yeah your species are cubes and you’re claiming dominance with cones but they feel exactly like species in a desperate struggle for survival. The game is dripping with theme. It practically oozes out of the box .

No board game can hold its theme through the graphics on the board alone. The game lives in your imagination How often have we embraced the next great, new, good-looking game only to learn it’s just another pretty, but empty picture — yes I’m talking about you, Pirate’s Cove.

Dominant Species lives in your imagination where it delivers an engaging and memorable experience though its gameplay which is second-to-none. What a startling and original concept that gameplay should be the foremost consideration in a board game.

Despite its simplicity Dominant Species is definitely not print-and-play, as another critic suggests. It’s a professional looking and high quality board game.

And now a word on the game’s so called randomness.

Much has been made about this due to the “Dominance Cards” or the way in which “Elements” (the food you feed on) are pulled from the bag.

Well guess what? This is a game about life. Life, 90,000 years ago with the world on the verge of an Ice Age. And life as we all know is unpredictable — stuff happens. And in the time period we’re playing in, stuff is really happening and it’s happening fast.

Do we really want a perfectly predictable game about life that ignores its highs and lows — the desperation of the struggle for survival or the euphoria of making it against all odds?

So yeah maybe there’s a heatwave (you’re not getting your Elements from the bag) and its drought and the animals you need for meat aren’t as plentiful. Maybe it’s fall and there’s lots of seeds and nuts around, or maybe it isn’t and there aren’t.

Was that a cold snap (Dominance Card) that killed all the amphibians in that lake when the tundra froze over?

The game materials quote Charles Darwin. It’s not the species (dare I say gamer) with the greatest strength or the most intelligence that survives. It’s the one that’s best able to adapt.

So yeah that’s the bloody game. And yes you have to adapt and guess what? This game gives you the tools to do it.

Problem is you have to see deep into to the game to discover them all.

That’s why gamers keep thinking and talking about this game long after it’s over in much the same way you’ll see chess grandmasters debating moves long after their games are over.

The cards are powerful, but not unbalancing. They apply to different situations and its up to you to manage your situation to benefit from them. And while powerful, they are not that strong.

There is also room for several Dominance Actions so many players can access these cards on the same turn. True only one can get the first one, but if that’s an issue the cards are there for all to see and there’s time to do something about it.

The perceived randomness of the cards are a red herring. They’re only mildly powerful. The true randomness in the game, is in the element pull from the bag.

I’ve already dealt with that thematically. In terms of game play, there are ways of managing that, but it’s not obvious right away.

And that’s a good thing. Any game I can figure out on my first three plays is a game I’ll likely never play again.

So to those complaining about the randomness or the luck factor I say, “learn how to play the game better.” I also say “enjoy the ride!” It’s a roller coaster.

This game will tax your memory and exercise your brain in a way that speaks to why we fell in love with boardgames in the first place.

Well the good ones anyway.

It feels like a game for grownups It’s a serious theme (an epic struggle for survival) played on an equally epic board).

It has a professional quality feel to it. It’s why you hear people here say I hear all your criticisms and you make some good points, but I like the game anyway. They just can’t put their finger on it because this game is more than the sum of its parts.

It’s an experience.

Maybe it’s the GMT stamp. I’m not a war gamer although many moons ago one of my first boardgames was Avalon Hill’s Tactics II (before I discovered Magic Realm).

But I’m finding these GMT guys, well, they know how to make games. They know how to take a complicated theme, explain it well (the clearest, most well written and overall best damn rulebook I’ve ever read) and turn it into an experience you can absorb the first time you sit down to play it.

Yes that’s right. For all its complexity this game is easy to understand and play.

In summary, Dominant Species is a game for gamers by gamers. It’s my second GMT game and I couldn’t be happier. It’s the only game I have ever rated a 10. (Twilight Struggle’s a 9 for me. Most of my others are sevens with a few eights)

I’ll be stunned if this game doesn’t win an award.

 

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