Evo (board game)

Evo: The Last Gasp of the Dinosaurs is a German-style board game for three to five players. It was created by Philippe Keyaerts and released by Eurogames. In 2002, it received the GAMES Magazine Game of the Year award, and it was also a finalist for the Origins Award for Best Graphic Presentation of a Board Game in 2000, as well as for the Hra Roku in 2004. The original edition went out of print in 2007, with a second edition following in 2011.

The main board consists of two reversible sections, each with differently sized halves of a prehistoric island. This allows four configurations: small-small for three players, small-large or large-small for four, and large-large for five. The island is made up of hexes representing four terrain types: desert, plains, hills, and mountains. Separate boards track the climate and round number, player scores and bidding, and each player’s dinosaur mutations. Player scores also serve as currency during bidding.

Each player begins with three Event cards, a stack of dino tokens, and a player board showing a dinosaur with one egg, one leg, a tail, a horn-less face, one fur, and one parasol. The fur and parasol represent resistance to cold and heat, respectively. Players place a token on a starting hex and set their scoring marker at ten. Play proceeds through several phases. Initiative is determined by the number of tail mutations, with ties broken by population size and then a die roll. Climate changes with a six-sided die roll, normally cycling from hot to cold and back, but a roll of two keeps the climate steady, and a one reverses the direction. In movement and combat, leg mutations increase movement range; entering an occupied hex triggers combat, where the aggressor is at a disadvantage unless they have more horn mutations. Birth allows players to add one new dino per egg mutation next to existing ones. During survival and mutation, dinos die based on climate, terrain, fur and parasol genes, and event cards. Players then score one point per surviving dino. Later turns introduce a possible meteor strike that ends the game; otherwise, players bid for new mutations, subtracting successful bids from their score. Additional mutations include gene mutations that lower future costs and card mutations that grant extra event cards. Event cards can alter play at various points. The player with the most points when the game ends