This foundation loosely mimics a scientific oceanic ecosystem, similar to what you’ve come to expect from games in the Evolution series. This core is fully playable on its own, but there’s more if you’re willing to dive a bit deeper… It follows the HL playbook pretty well. One of the things I found funny at the time was how destructible everything is. It might have been a selling point, but when I see chunks of concrete missing... Keep collections to yourself or inspire other shoppers! Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places. This unassuming process works in the same way for feeding from other sources, whilst the defensive symbol (yellow shell) reduces the amount of population that another species can take from your species. Includes custom-printed, high-quality food bags for storing your points, instead of cardboard player screens.

You will have an opportunity to feed it during your next turn before your aging phase. PHASE 4: DRAWING CARDS Each species is defined by its population and its traits. Through the game species will gain and lose traits, and gain and lose population depending on what it can eat, and what can eat it. Despite your best efforts, some species will go extinct! Feeding may trigger a gains icon on another species, including a species belonging to another player. When a species gains population, it takes the number of population in the blue gains icon from the 1st Ocean zone. If the 1st Ocean zone is empty (or becomes empty), continue taking population from the 2nd Ocean zone, and from the 3rd Ocean zone if the 2nd becomes empty. If the 3rd Ocean zone becomes empty, place the 60 “reserve” population into the 3rd Ocean zone so that every triggered trait is able to take the proper amount of population. Thousands of species are possible, and they all interact in their own ways as the ecosystem builds. Every game creates a one-of-a-kind world, never to be seen again. Iain McAllister lives in Dalkeith, Scotland with his wife Cath and their two dogs, Maddie and Gypsy. He has been a keen member of the local gaming scene for many years setting up and participating in many of the clubs that are part of Edinburgh's vibrant gaming scene.If the target has multiple copies of the same defensive trait, Advanced Eyes only ignores 1 of those copies. Adapt to a Connected World: Using an easy-to-learn but deep system, players use trait cards to create and adapt their own aquatic species. For me, Oceans is better. Not as clinically balanced as Evolution: Climate or as pitilessly cruel as Evolution: New World but a hell of a lot wilder. Even fiddling around with when scenario cards trigger is satisfyingly fun.

Lurking deep below the surface lie mysteries so bizarre they seem unnatural when first discovered: massive predators, glowing horrors, and beautiful luminescent creatures. These species hardly seem possible in the realm of biology, and yet they turn out to be real. The Deep represents the wonder of scientific discovery, with traits ranging from actual marine biology to the fantastic. Venture into the deep at your own risk! a b c d Niebling, William (26 March 2019). " 'Oceans' joins the 'Evolution' series". ICv2 . Retrieved 15 November 2021. FORAGE: Add up the green icons on the traits of the feeding species to get its forage value. Take that number of population from the Reef and move them to the forager’s species board. A species that does not have any green icons on any of its trait cards automatically gets a forage value of 1. A species may never forage if it has regardless of whether it has other forage icons. PHASE 3: AGING Oceans is a turn based card based game. In it, you are basically trying to encourage your species to eat for England! Eat so they can grow stronger and older! Eat so they can fend off predators! Eat so they can use their newly found vim to withstand disruptions caused by other players! Under the waves, everything that is not you is basically trying to kill you! But if you can stop staring at the gorgeous illustrations for a second, you’ll notice that species can adapt in special, survival supporting ways. Play.Feed.Age.Discard.RepeatIllustrations for the reef and surface cards were created by Catherine Hamilton, [2] and the box art was designed by Hamilton and Guillaume Ducos. Cards in "The Deep" were illustrated by various artists. [2] Reception [ edit ] Oceans is a 2-4 player board game in the highly acclaimed Evolution series. Oceans is an interactive engine builder, where players evolve their species in a continually changing ecosystem where everything is connected. Finally, you age every species you have by transferring one fish token from each of your species into your score pile. In Oceans, fish is ultimately your scoring fodder. If your species have evolved and survived long enough to eat fish, they “age” on your turn. This means you can move a fish they have each been feeding on into your score pile. But if they can’t grow older, they go extinct!