Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
40.95
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
58.95
Designer |
John H. Butterfield Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 360-720 mins |
Suggested Age | 14 and up |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
82.95
Designer |
Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playing Time | 90-150 mins |
Suggested Age | 14 and up |
Reimplements | Dominant Species |
Sixty-Something Millions of Years Ago — A great ice age has ended. With massive warming altering the globe, another titanic struggle for supremacy has unwittingly commenced between the varying animal species.
Dominant Species: Marine is a game that abstractly recreates a small portion of ancient history: the ending of an onerous ice age and what that entails for the living creatures trying to adapt to the slowly-changing earth.
Each player will assume the role of one of four major aquatic-based animal classes — dinosaur, fish, cephalopod or crustacean. Each begins the game more or less in a state of natural balance in relation to one another. But that won’t last: It is indeed “survival of the fittest.”
Through wily action pawn placement, you will attempt to thrive in as many different habitats as possible in order to claim powerful card effects. You will also want to propagate your individual species in order to earn victory points for your animal. You will be aided in these endeavors via speciation, migration and adaptation actions, among others.
All of this eventually leads to the end game – the final ascent of a vast tropical ocean and its shorelines – where the player having accumulated the most victory points will have their animal crowned the Dominant Species.
But somebody better become dominant quickly, because there’s a large asteroid heading this way....
Game Play
The large hexagonal tiles are used throughout the game to create an ever-expanding interpretation of the main ocean on earth as it might have appeared tens of millions of years ago. The smaller Hydrothermal Vent tiles will be placed atop some of the larger tiles throughout play, converting them into Vents in the process.
The action pawns drive the game. Each pawn allows a player to perform the various actions that can be taken—such as speciation, environmental change, migration or evolution. When placed on the action display, a pawn will immediately trigger that particular action for its owning player. Dominant Species: Marine includes new “special” pawns that can be acquired during the course of play. These special pawns have enhanced placement capabilities over the “basic” pawns that each player begins the game with.
Generally, players will be trying to enhance their own animal’s survivability while simultaneously trying to hinder that of their opponents’—hopefully collecting valuable victory points along the way. The various cards will aid in these efforts, giving players useful one-time abilities, ongoing benefits, or an opportunity for recurring VP gains.
Throughout the game species cubes will be added to, moved about on, and removed from the tiles in play (“earth”). Element disks will be added to and removed from both animals and earth.
When the game ends, players will conduct a final scoring of each tile and score their controlled special pawns—after which the player controlling the animal with the highest VP total wins the game.
Dominant Species Veterans
For players of the original Dominant Species, this iteration introduces several key evolutions to the system (pun definitely intended):
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
85.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Edition | 4th Edition |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | 120-240 mins |
Suggested Age | 14 and up |
Honors | |
Reimplemented By
|
Dominant Species: Marine |
Game Overview
Game Play
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
20.95
Designer |
Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playing Time | 120 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Expansion For | Combat Commander: Europe |
Honors | 2009 Charles S. Roberts Best Expansion or Supplement for an Existing Game Nominee |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
42.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 90-270 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
34.95
Designer |
John Foley Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 120 mins |
Expansion For |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
54.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 40-80 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
26.95
Designer |
Bryan Collars Chad Jensen Andrew Laws |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 180 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Expansion For |
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
26.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2-6 |
Playtime | 60 mins |
Suggested Age | 13 and up |
Honors |
|
Reimplemented By
|
Dominant Species: Marine |
15,000 B.C. – a great ice age is ending. Another titanic struggle for global supremacy has unwittingly commenced between the animal species.
Dominant Species: The Card Game is a fast-playing game that abstractly recreates a tiny portion of ancient history: the ponderous rescinding of an ice age and what that entails for the living creatures trying to adapt to the slowly-changing earth.
Players will use six major animal classes – mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, arachnid or insect – to further their goals in various terrain. Through wily card play, players will strive to become dominant at as many different terrestrial and sea biomes as possible in order to claim valuable victory points: It is survival of the fittest.
All of this leads to the end game – the final descent of the ice age – where the player who has accumulated the most victory points wins the game.
But somebody better become dominant quickly because it's getting mighty warm...
Dominant Species: The Card Game consists of ten rounds of competition, each round occurring on ten of the twelve different Biome cards. The player who starts a competition must choose to either play one Action card or pass.
Action cards consist of animals played to the table as well as events. Animals contribute their Food Chain values towards gaining valuable victory points at the various Biomes, and use their element icons to fight for control of the six Element resource cards. Animals can also sometimes suppress other animals, turning them from Healthy to Endangered, or Endangered to Extinct. Event cards can be powerful one-time effects or ongoing effects that last throughout the round.Play proceeds clockwise around the table in like fashion until every player has passed consecutively or when any one player has passed with an empty hand. At that point Element cards and the current Biome card are scored, with victorious players recording their gains on the Victory Point Track. If the competition is at a Tundra, one or more dominant players will advance one space on the Survival Track.
The current Biome card as well as all played Action cards are then discarded, and a new Biome card brought into play. Finally, each player draws (and perhaps discards) new Action cards based on his position on the Survival Track, and a new competition round begins. Play proceeds from Biome to Biome in like fashion until the game ends and a winner is determined.
Reimplements
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
86.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 120 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Honors | |
Expands | Combat Commander: Europe |
Expansion |
Combat Commander: Battle Pack #7 – Leader of Men: Tournament Battle Pack Combat Commander: Battle Pack #6 – Sea Lion Combat Commander: Battle Pack #2 – Stalingrad Combat Commander: Battle Pack #3 – Normandy Combat Commander: Battle Pack #5 – Fall of the West |
Combat Commander: Volume II - Mediterranean (or CC:M) is the expansion to Combat Commander: Europe ("CC:E"). CC:M's main theme is the addition of three new "nationalities" to the Combat Commander family:
This second module in the Combat Commander Series includes units, cards, and scenarios depicting the fighting forces of these nations.
FATE CARDS: As for Germany, Russia and America in CC:E, each of the new nationalities has its own 72-card Fate Deck highlighting its historical strengths and weaknesses (marksmanship for the British, giving them fewer shots but of higher quality; a higher likelihood of surrender for broken Italian units; quality Orders, Actions and Events for the French but saddled with only a "1" discard capability; etc.).
CC:M's Playbook will include the following:
Combat Commander is one of those rare exceptional values in wargaming - one that can be revisited time and time again, each with a new tale to tell.
NOTE: Combat Commander: Mediterranean is not a stand-alone game. You will need to own Combat Commander: Europe in order to play it.
Components:
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
79.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2 |
Playtime | 60-180 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Honors | |
Expansions |
Combat Commander: Mediterranean Combat Commander: Battle Pack #7 – Leader of Men: Tournament Battle Pack Combat Commander: Battle Pack #6 – Sea Lion |
Family | Combat Commander: Pacific |
Combat Commander: Europe is a card-driven board game covering tactical infantry combat in the European Theater of World War II. One player takes the role of the Axis (Germany) while another player commands the Allies (America or Russia). These two players will take turns playing one or more “Fate” cards from their hands in order to activate his units on the mapboard for various military functions.
Players attempt to achieve victory by moving their combat units across the game map to attack their opponent’s combat units and occupy as many objectives as possible. The degree to which a player succeeds or fails is measured by a scenario’s specific “Objective” chits, the destruction of enemy units, and the exiting of friendly units off the opponent’s board edge.
A game of Combat Commander is divided into several measures of Game Time. There is no sequence of play to follow, however: each Time segment is divided into a variable number of Player Turns, each of which may consist of one or more Fate Card "Orders" conducted by the active player. Fate Card "Actions" may generally be conducted by either player at any time. "Events" — both good and bad — will occur at random intervals to add a bit of chaos and uncertainty to each player’s perfect plan.
SCALE: Each hex of a Combat Commander map is roughly 100 feet of distance (about 30 meters). Each complete Player Phase abstractly represents several seconds of real time. Each complete measure of Game Time abstractly represents several minutes of real time.
Each unit in the game is approximated as either a single Leader, a 5-man Team, or a 10-man Squad. Radios — and individual weapons larger than a pistol, rifle or BAR — are represented by their own counters.
Vendor: GMT Games
Type: Board Games
Price:
29.95
Designer | Chad Jensen |
Publisher | GMT Games |
Players | 2-4 |
Playtime | 180 mins |
Suggested Age | 12 and up |
Honors |
Game Overview:
Urban Sprawl is a game for 2–4 players. Urban Sprawl abstractly models the growth of a town into a teeming metropolis.
Players assume the roles of entrepreneur, tycoon, and politician—each helping in the development of a hypothetical "Anywhere, USA." Wealth and Prestige will be earned and spent throughout the game. Buildings will rise only to later be demolished for better and larger fare.
Throughout the game players will gather valuable Permits. These will result in either a wealthy Investment or the foundation of a new building Contract. Players will strive to become dominant in one or more building Zones in order to acquire beneficial political offices.
All of this eventually leads to the end game—a vibrant metropolis that is revered around the world—when the player with the most Prestige will be crowned the winner.
Game Play:
The grid of streets on the board provides the framework for building the small town. The buildings will be placed within the grid and identified with control markers (wooden cubes) to show each player's contribution to the growing urban area. Each building's value is determined by the cumulative Wealth and Prestige values of the block in which is it constructed.
At the start of a player's turn he may discard one or more Building Permit cards from hand as "Investments," gaining Wealth in doing so. Next that player gets 6 "Action Points" (APs) with which to spend on any of the the following activities:
• Acquiring new Building Permit cards from those available to choose;
• Constructing new buildings from those currently available;
• Acquiring a "Favor"—a Building Contract that only that player can build.
Each activity carries with it a variable cost in APs, depending on where the chosen card lies on the board.
Once a player has spent his APs it's time for a quick reset phase in readiness for the next player's turn. It is during this phase that events can occur, elections can be held for the various political offices, and players receive payouts in Wealth and Prestige. Wealth payouts provide funding for new buildings while Prestige payouts provide victory points.
Generally, players will be trying to build in areas that provide better payouts. Players are also looking to construct more buildings of a particular "zone"—Government, Residential, Industrial, or Commercial—in order to help them win an election, as the politicians each confer a special ability to the player holding the office. Many of the buildings also provide a one-time bonus as they are built, and players can benefit from construction in the right neighborhoods.
Throughout the game, the values of the buildings will generally increase as the town grows into a city and then a large metropolis. Neighborhoods that were once valuable can become run down and new city centers spring up as the urban areas sprawl out across the grid.
When the game ends, players will conduct a final scoring of each Prestige row, earn points based on accumulated Wealth, and score bonus points for political offices held—after which the player with the highest Prestige total wins the game.