Decathlon - Evolution Preview

Time for the third Decathlon Event, Evolution!

One of the most popular additions we made to the 2018 Decathlon, Evolution is a game in which you attempt to create a suite of successful species by carefully adapting their traits to suit the environment. The basic game pattern is thus: each round you are dealt a hand of trait cards, with which you have the option to add to your species for an effect or to discard for a size or population increase. Following this, everyone feeds, the herbivores on the plant food of the watering hole and the carnivores on the other species! The winner is the species with the most consumed food by the end of the game.

For a full run through of how to play, follow this link.

This year, we have the following contestants:

Game #1, 7pm

Dave Harris
Megan Prettyman
Michael Williams
Amanda Ayers
Jonathan Fish

Game #2, 8pm

Daniel Halford
Kyle Dineen
Danielle Harris
Carlee Shepard
Emily Field

Game #3

1st Place Game #1
2nd Place Game #1
3rd Place Game #1
1st Place Game #2
2nd Place Game #2
3rd Place Game #2

Our Defending Champions

1st Place 2018 - Amanda Ayers
2nd Place 2018 - Kyle Dineen
3rd Place 2018 - Dave Harris

This game will be played with the flight expansion, which doesn't add much in the way of extra game mechanics but does diversify the trait pool and allow players the option of having bird species.

Additionally, these games will be set to end after a set number of rounds (tentatively thinking 7-8) so that we can finish each game within a decent time frame for people who need to work the next day. This shouldn't dramatically nerf late game strategies, but should be noted nonetheless. The round limit will be announced before each game.

Dave and Dani's Player to Watch: Emily Field

An accomplished Evolution player in our games with her, this will be Emily's first ever Decathlon event. As a herpatologist irl, watch out for her to field some mean herps in her qualifying game.

Dave and Dani's Game Advice

1. Don't equip carnivore to a species on turn one, this is the quickest way for them to starve.

2. Don't be afraid to grab bird species! The access to an alternate food source combined with event cards that scale off of the total number of bird species in the flight expansion makes them a solid bet in uncertain food environments.

3. Don't throw out defensive traits willy nilly if there are no carnivores on the board. You need to adapt your defenses to what the carnivores are equipping to deal with (and vice versa for carnivores).

4. If you create a new species in the late game, it needs to come in with a substantial card investment of defensive traits and pop, or it will just die immediately to carnivores on the field.

Finally, beware the size 6, pop 6 pack hunting apex predators. They will destroy your life.

May the fittest survive!