The object of Evolution is to make new species, evolve them to give them a better chance at survival, feed and breed. You want to have the most food tokens at the end of the game to win.
How to play:
You start off with one species with zero traits and a hand of trait cards. In the middle is the watering hole, where you will get your food sources from each round. You start off by discarding a card, and adding food sources to the watering hole equal to the number in the top corner of the card. You may then place up to 3 traits on your species, start a new species, grow in body size, or grow in population. Growing in body size will help defend you against Carnivores (which I will talk about shortly), while growing in population will require more food sources, but will increase the amount of food tokens you have for the end game. This is what your board may look like:
You will then go around in a circle, taking one food source at a time, until either the water hole is empty, or no players need any more tokens. You can only take tokens based on your population. See above, they have a population of 3, but only have 2 food sources. If available, they may take one more food source. If all food sources are taken from the watering hole, and you have species that are not fed, you must decrease down to that number (above they would decrease down to 2).
Carnivores are a bit different, as they can't take food sources from the watering hole. They must attack a species of another player that has a smaller body size than the carnivore. That player then looses one of their population. After each round, the players put their food tokens into a bag, and donate another card to the watering hole and the game continues.
The trait cards help protect/feed your species and allows for better survival. There are many different traits, and they can be switched out if you have the card, so play around with them for a bit if you find you're losing population or getting attacked a lot.
The game continues until the stack of cards is out. The players then count up the number of food tokens in their bag. The player with the most wins.
Why I like this game:
It's definitely more of a competitive game but I actually think it's rather cute. The art is done well, the game is fun, and even though it can take a bit of time, it doesn't feel like ages. There are quite a number of parts, but with well organization it can be kept together nicely and not too much of a hassle to clean up.
