Many wonder how you can play a board game by yourself, that that’s crazy. And sad. But it’s so much fun! And you definitely can if the designers of the game have included it. And Mr. Almes designed this game to be able to be played that way by Khan using his very own deck of cards.
So basically, I take a turn, I then turn over a card for Khan and that card will basically simulate a real player by taking over a spot on the board that will make it harder or impossible for me to go there.
Let's see how the first round went. I hope this does not bore anyone! It was definitely fun to play.
All I have to do is follow the order listed on this mat/card.
Round 1 of 6.
Phase 1: Gather resources. For every unoccupied spot on my ranch, I gather that resource shown. So as you can see in the picture, I get to get 3 meat, 5 leaves and 1 supply box! And I move those markers in my track to reflect the amounts I have for each. And that's it. Phase 1 complete!
Phase 2: Assign my ranchers. Before I decide how to use my ranchers, I have to see what my goals are. I look at the public contracts and my own personal private contract. I can try to obtain the dinos listed to be able to complete a contract and get those points. These are the options.
And this is my private contract. Every player, (except Khan because he's not even real) would have a private contract that no one else can try to complete.
Now I look at the board and see where I will place my ranchers to achieve my goal. Since it's the beginning of the game, I'm in need of various different dinos, so I will just go for the Stegosaurus (yellow).
Let's see this in live action:
My rancher #1: So I went for the yellow dino and the instruction on the card says, I have to roll the die. There are 3 outcomes. 1) I can safely capture the dino and take one. 2) I can get hurt by trying to capture it. Have you seen the beginning scene of Jurassic Park? Kinda like that. If that happens, I place that worker and the dino I was trying to get into the Medical Leave spot on the mat that shows all of the phase information. Or 3) I can capture 2 instead of one. You want to see how my die rolled?? Here you go!
In this case, the symbol means I take one and the one had a baby. So I was able to capture 2! So I take 2 yellow dinos and put them in my Holding Area on my playmat.
Khan's Rancher #1: He simply turns over a card (well, I have to turn it over, since again, he's not even real). Each card sort of acts a rancher. So with this first card, he places the card over the corresponding mat on the board, Mat B.
By having his card there, it's as though he has occupied all of those spots. What a tyrant. Now he does what the card says. Since I did not place any of my workers on that mat/card previously, he gains 2 yellow dinos. He places them here:
And we took turns this way until I've used all my ranchers. This is what resulted in the hard work of my brave men and women in my employ: 1 Allosaurus (red), 2 Stegosaurus (yellow) and 2 barriers or fences. And I stayed with 5 leaves and 3 meat and I used a supply box in one of my turns to get the 2 fences.
Phase 3: Bring'em home. Here I simply retrieve all of my workers from the board onto the Ranchers spot on my playmat. If any of them were injured and in the Medical Leave area, they would now go back to my playmat along with the dino they were trying to get.
Phase 4: Arrange the ranch. Now I get to arrange the dinos and fences in my ranch! This is how I arranged them.
So now my Dino’s are all safe and secure. Note that the mountains, lakes and oceans act as natural barriers that you can use to your advantage.
Phase 5: Dinner time. On the right side of my playmat where my ranchers are on, there is a column of the 4 different kinds of dinos and what they eat.
So in this case, I have 2 yellow that eat 1 leaf each, so I move down the leaf marker from 5 on the track to 3. And since I have 1 red dino, it eats 2 meat, so I move the meat marker from 3 to 1. So I will have to start getting more food in the next round to feed these and other dinos I end up getting. But as I complete contracts, those dinos go away and then I start working on another contract and keep getting point.U
Phase 6: "You bred raptors?". So now, if there are 2 dinos of the same color in your ranch, they breed and you now have a third of that same color. So now I have 3 yellow dinos! Good thing I arranged my fences in a way that would enclose the 3 dino and not have it escape and bad things happen.
Basically if a dino is not enclosed by this point, they escape. If it is an herbivore, I lose a fence. No other escapes happen because of this, but now I have to get another one in a future round before another escapes.
If a carnivore escapes, any dino of my choosing is eaten. (But not really because these are not real, they are pieces of wood painted different color.) Which means, the dino simply goes back to the main supply.).
Phase 7: Refresh for the next round. If any contracts were filled this round, this is where I would draw another contract card from that deck and make sure there are 3 in that row. There is also a Research deck that allows you to get a purple dino that gives you a certain benefit.
Wow, that is a lot of work just writing all of this down and adding pictures! Ir was fun though. I could’ve done the whole game but that may be too much on a person to enjoy reading. Maybe sometime I will just do a video playthrough of a round or a full game. We'll see.
So the game was tough some close calls. But ultimately I was defeated 😕
Game 1: Tiny Epic Dinosaurs - Roy 44 / Khan 58
Until next time, Khan
| random quote: "Your scientists were so so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." - Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park (1993) |