My play-through of Bios: Megafauna seems to have reached the rough equivalent of Earth’s Devonian period. All the major families of animals have colonized the land and are starting to spread out, and the continents are also acquiring extensive forest coverage. The next few turns will see some odd developments . . .

Turn Four (90 – 120 million years)

The events this turn are Flood Basalt Traps and ELMO Hyperthermal. Large-scale vulcanism is dumping huge quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, triggering a period of rapid warming. There actually isn’t much change to the world map as a result, as a few disks move back and forth between the map and the atmosphere tracks. One White Archetype is caught by the formation of a mountain hex on the Alpha craton, but that’s all.

At present, the atmosphere contains 18% free oxygen, planetary albedo is still 0.4, and the climate is Warm (verging on Hothouse). Player Green gets four actions this turn, and all other players get three.

Orange begins the turn by promoting two of his Archetype species traits: Crop to Gizzard Stones, and Endocrine Gland to Pancreas. Increasing anatomical sophistication means that the Archetype now has more green cubes, making it a more efficient herbivore. The Orange Archetype has also acquired the game’s first “Emotion,” as the Gizzard Stones and Pancreas cards match up. The Emotion is colored green, meaning that the Archetype is developing cognitive abilities related to “happiness,” the quest for comfort and a full belly. The Archetype will now find it easier to acquire green traits.

Meanwhile, with his last action Orange promotes the Scutes trait to Carapace, creating a new Armored species which replaces one of the Archetype pieces on Delta. The widespread family of giant slugs and worms has now given rise to something like a species of giant snails.

White continues to invest in his Archetype species. He acquires the Hormones trait and immediately promotes it to Muscle Shivering, moving one yellow cube to his species card and acquiring the white Monster marker. The Archetype species is now endothermic, and gains the ability to escape Endangered status by moving its pieces to an open space. This turns out to be a really good move, although I didn’t see all the implications of it until a critical point a few turns later. Incidentally, with both a blue and a white Monster marker, the White Archetype species effectively has more “organs” (traits) than any other on the planet. White places two Archetype pieces in Newborns.

Green promotes Xylem to Nitrogen Root Nodules, creating a new Burrower species. One imagines a carnivorous plant that spreads by creating extensive root systems, and which grabs prey with tough tendrils springing from underground. One of the Archetype creeples on Gamma becomes a Burrower, and Green places one Archetype and one Burrower piece into Newborns.

Black acquires the Spermatophore trait for his Marine Archetype species. Finally ready to finish moving onto the land, he resizes both the Archetype and the Flyer species to size 2. The Marine Archetype is replaced by the land-based Archetype species, with the remaining off-shore creeple becoming Endangered. Black places two Archetype creeples into Newborns.

White begins the dispersal phase by moving his Endangered piece to an empty hex on Alpha. The White Archetype then spreads to new spaces on Beta. Green places its new creeples in open spaces on Gamma. Black places its Archetype creeples in two spaces on Alpha. One of these placements gives rise to an herbivore contest between a Black Archetype and the White Archetype that just moved out of danger. White wins the contest (one green cube to none), so the Black Archetype moves into the carnivore position. Note that Black could have simply placed his Archetype piece in the carnivore position to begin with; I simply didn’t notice that fact until after the contest.

The Black Archetype left stranded at sea dies, but no others.

Turn Five (120 – 150 million years)

This turn will be busy, since the first tranche of victory points will be counted at the end of the turn, and that’s based entirely on how may creeples are on the map at the time. Every player will be investing in lots of Newborns, and traits that might be useful in winning herbivore or carnivore contests.

The events are Illawarra Reversal Superplume and Calcite Seas. A “superplume” of hot magma rises out of the mantle and impinges on the surface of the planet, while ocean chemistry leans toward the formation of calcite deposits on the sea beds. These events don’t disturb the map much, although several green disks get removed from the atmosphere tracks and placed on the map to indicate the spread of forests and off-shore plankton blooms. Free oxygen rises to 26%, albedo actually falls slightly to 0.35, and the climate remains Warm verging on Hothouse. All players get four actions this turn.

For his Flyer species, Black promotes Antennae to Olfactory Antennae, and promotes Aggregation Pheromones to Mobbing. The Flyer acquires its first Emotion, coded yellow, a “fear” Emotion that involves the flight reaction (or, in this case, the “gang up on the predator and drive it away” reaction). The Black Flyers are starting to take shape as swarms of rather large insects, using swarming behavior to take down prey and deal with larger rivals. Black places two Archetype pieces and three Flyer pieces into Newborns.

White promotes Brainstem to Pituitary Gland for his Archetype, which acquires its first Emotion. This emotion is coded blue, a “jealousy” emotion that’s all about social and sexual competition. White then acquires the Vertical Flexure trait, promoting it at once to Lunate Tail, creating a new Swimmer species. The Archetype in Beta’s one Swamp hex becomes a Swimmer. White places one Archetype and two Swimmers into Newborns.

In the Green player’s turn, I made what was probably a serious mistake. I was thinking about promoting the Archetype’s Haustorium trait, giving it the ability to act as a fully parasitic plant, but that trait requires that the species be of size no greater than 1. I had Green resize his Archetype back down to size 1, not remembering that this would make the species Venom icon effectively useless – carnivores will happily crunch down on a Venomous prey species if it’s smaller, and at size 1 a species is smaller than everything else. The implications of this didn’t become clear to me until later this turn.

Meanwhile Green resizes his Burrower species to size 3 as part of the same action. Green acquires the Oral Disc trait for the Archetype, and the places two Archetype and two Burrower creeples into Newborns.

Orange resizes his Archetype and Armored species to size 3, and acquires the trait Malphigian Tubes for the Armored species. He places three Archetypes and two Armored pieces into Newborns.

Black places his Archetype pieces in open spaces on Alpha, and places his three Flyer creeples into the carnivore position in spaces on Alpha and Beta. The Black Flyers are now preying upon both Black and White Archetypes throughout that continent. White places his Archetype piece in an open space on Beta, and places Swimmers off the coasts of Alpha and Beta.

Here’s where my mistake with Green became obvious. I went to see where I could place Green Archetypes, and realized that the species simply could not compete with either Orange species in any arena, not as an herbivore and not as a carnivore. The only possibility was for me to place Green Archetypes in available spaces on the Gamma craton. To free up space, I placed two Archetypes in spaces already occupied by Green Burrowers; the Green Archetype was a better herbivore than the Green Burrower, so the contests enabled me to move the Burrowers up to the carnivore position in those hexes. I then placed the new Burrower pieces in the carnivore position in other hexes already occupied by Green Archetypes.

Then the full extent of the problem became clear, when it was time for me to place Orange pieces. Orange Archetypes filled up the last few empty hexes in Delta, and then I looked for spots to place the Orange Armored. I realized that Orange could dramatically undercut Green, by placing each Armored in a hex on Gamma already occupied by a Green Archetype and a Green Burrower. The way this worked: the Orange Armored would enter the hex in the herbivore position, setting off a herbivore contest. The Orange Armored would win handily (three green cubes to two). Since the Archetype could not move up to an unoccupied carnivore position in the same hex, it would become Endangered. Then the Green Burrower would immediately become Endangered as well, since Burrowers can’t eat Armored. With two creeple placements, Orange was able to kill off twice as many Green pieces.

On reflection, I realized I hadn’t been playing Green very well. Located on the same continent as Orange’s advanced species, Green was bound to come into conflict sooner or later. Rather than messing around ineffectively with species size and Venom icons, I needed to be pouring investment into traits that would at least make Green’s species better herbivores. Being able to stand up to the inevitable Orange invasion needed to be my top priority, and now Green was going to pay for my neglect.

At the end of the turn, the four Green pieces which had become Endangered all died.

Now I counted populations, and found that Orange, Black, and White were all tied with eight creeples each on the map. Green, on the other hand, was down to four. Orange, Black, and White earned one Victory Point each, while Green was left with nothing.

Turn Six (150 – 180 million years)

Events this turn are Kimberlite Field Eruption and Ocean Evaporation. The major effect is that the Gamma-Delta continent drifts rapidly northward, until it no longer shares any of the latitude bands with the Alpha-Beta continent. This cuts off any possible “rafting” between the two – at a critical point in the planet’s evolution, the Black-White and Orange-Green player pairs are isolated from each other. Meanwhile, some more minor changes in geography take place.

The planet has 34% free oxygen in the atmosphere (comparable to Earth during the Cretaceous period), albedo of 0.35, and Hothouse climate. Player Green gets 5 actions, while all other players get 4.

At this point, Black decides to make a risky move. Instead of investing in his existing species, he uses all of his player actions to take a specific card away from Green. This is the “Medea” card, a balancing mechanism that permits the card’s holder to trigger major environmental changes under certain conditions. In a four-player game, Green always begins holding this card. So far, Green has had little opportunity to use it, but Black is concerned that since Green is far behind, he may try to apply it as a spoiler in some future turn. Black decides instead to make the investment necessary to take the card away from Green and keep its capabilities safe.

Orange acquires the Lateral Line trait for his Archetype, then immediately promotes it to Schooling, creating a new Swimmer species. Orange decides to press his advantage, placing two Armored and two Swimmer pieces in Newborns.

Green acquires the Windpipe trait for his Archetype, and promotes Oral Disc to Whorl-Shaped Tooth Files, improving the Archetype’s capacity for herbivory. He resizes his Archetype species to size 2, and his Burrower to size 4. He places two Archetypes and two Burrowers in Newborns.

White resizes both of his species to size 3. He acquires the Pons & Medulla trait for his Archetype, then immediately promotes it to Hypothalamus, acquiring more cubes and a second blue Emotion. The Archetype now has extremely free access to blue traits. White places two Swimmers into Newborns.

Orange places Swimmers off-shore, and places his Armored pieces in the carnivore’s position over two Green Archetypes on Gamma. Green is now blocked in, and cannot place all of his creeples in legal spaces. White places new Swimmers off-shore near Alpha.

Interim Comments

It’s beginning to appear that Orange and White are in the lead, Orange with three species and larger populations, White with its well-developed Archetype. Black may have fallen behind by failing to use Turn Six to expand, and Green is in serious trouble. The game lasted two more turns, so I’ll be summing up next post.