Species 2012

Species is a game about ecology and evolution of plants for 2 or 3 players. Eight or nine different plant species compete for soil and sun, adapting to natural circumstances and to each other, while trying to survive a rampaging herd of grazing animals destroying everything in its path.

Players try to give the plant species under their control the right advantages to win the competition with the opponents’ species, and to spread as much as possible. Every turn, after the herd wipes out most of the plants from a small part of the map, the players secretly choose which of their species acquires a new adaptation (or loses one, or spawns onto the map), after which species spread and compete. These adaptations give advantages in specific parts of the map, or in combination with other advantages, or with other species with other advantages, or ...

Adaptations are grouped into seven kinds, giving a total of more than 140 thousand different combinations, ranging from poisonous swamp trees, to shade-loving herbs with berries, and many more. There are no dice or other randomization devices in the game (aside from starting order), but the interaction of species with various combinations of adaptations adds a level of complexity that can seem as unpredictable as a die roll.