In the Footsteps of Darwin is a light tile-drafting and set collection game where players collect various animal tiles representing the animals encountered by Darwin on the voyage of the HMS Beagle. Each animal tile lists its class: arthropod, mammal, bird, reptile, its ecosystem: America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and a bonus for points or icons that could yield points. Each player has a board representing a naturalist’s notebook, with spots for 16 animal tiles and 3 character tiles. Players will select tiles from the central animal tile board and place them in the appropriate spot on their player board and then move the HMS Beagle marker for the next player. The game will end when every player has placed 12 tiles on their board. Tally your points and the player with the most points wins. – – 2 to 5 players – – 20 to 30 minutes
Turns are straightforward. There is a central board with a 3 X 3 grid of face-up animal tiles. The HMS Beagle marker goes around the outside of the grid. On a turn the active player takes one of the 3 tiles in the row or column alongside where the HMS Beagle marker currently sits. They place the chosen tile on the appropriate spot in their notebook and take any bonus tokens granted by the placed animal tile. Refill the central board with another animal tile from a face-down draw pile. Next, they move the HMS Beagle marker around the board to a new location determined by the tile they took. Play continues in this manner until all players have twelve tiles on their board. After twelve turns the game is over, final scoring takes place and the player with the most points wins.
Final scoring includes points on the animal tiles, animal tiles with a chart icon multiplied by any compass tokens collected, 5 points for each publication token collected. Publication tokens are gained when a row or column filled with 4 animals of the same type or from the same ecosystem. Points are also awarded from theory tiles. Theory tiles can be gained only by placing an animal tile over a tile of the same class and ecosystem. The covered tile counts toward the total number of tiles on your player board, but it will not be scored at game end. Almost everything else used to score points will come from the various animal tiles.
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