Dormant Dominant

Work hours having taken their toll this week, the Thursday gamers were whittled down to three and Crabro saw a golden opportunity to put ProfMudlark through his paces on the Dominant Species board.






When we played it as a two player game recently, we had speculated that it would be a game that the Professor would like and be good at. We anticipated that he would probably trounce us and that prediction turned out to be accurate.

The early stages of the game saw us all close together and then the gaps began to appear. For quite a while I was clear of Crabro in second place but then he started scoring heavily in the survival stage by camping on all of the tundra areas.

As the game wore on, and midnight came and went, both Crabro and I began to tire and lose focus. For myself I began to make sloppy decisions and worse not to care about anything but getting it over with. Crabro had accelerated past me but the Professor, still fully caught up in the game was making huge strides, passing 100 points and continuing serenely on.

In the end, past caring, we wound the game up and did the final scoring rather than face another whole turn at least. This was a shame for the Professor who had his sights (probably realistically) on his double century. Another round would not have made the slightest difference to the placings though as the gaps were only widening.

Image by Sharon Drummond via Flickr

It's a shame that it went on so long (starting at eight, it was nearly one am when we called a halt) because I think we all agree that it is a fascinating and enjoyable game up until the point where bed seems a preferable option and you never want to see another species cube or dominance marker.

I doubt we will play it again because it would be far too long with the whole group, but it is a satisfying blend of worker placement and area control in small doses.