Travel around the world and study animals from around the world
20 years after his trip around the world, Charles Darwin is in the middle of writing The Origin of Species. He wanted to deepen his knowledge of the animal life of continents he had not visited or had visited only a few times. Who better than young naturalists eager for discovery to help the illustrious scientist finish writing his most famous work!
In Darwin's Footsteps is a family game for 2 to 5 players where naturalists complete their notebook by selecting Animal and Character tiles from the common Travel board. But beware, only tiles opposite the Beagle ship can be selected!
Thanks to the ingenious mechanics of Constrained Selection and Recovery, naturalists will have to make choices between publishing theories, observing animals of the same species, or studying species from the same continent. The competition is tough, and you'll have to be strategic to succeed Darwin.
How do you play?
During your game, you will place 12 tiles in your Naturalist Notebook. On your turn, you will follow 2 steps:
- Study an Animal or be inspired by a Character: choose one of the 3 tiles facing the Beagle ship and place it on your Notebook, in the right place. Some tiles have a bonus effect that you will resolve either immediately (gain Compass, hire a Guide, Emblematic bonus) or at the end of the game (major discovery, map).
- Move the Beagle: after placing your tile, you move the Beagle in the direction of the arrows by a number of squares equal to the distance between the tile you have just taken and the Beagle (thus between 1 and 3 squares). Your turn ends once you have replaced the missing tile on the Travel board.
During the game, you will be able to use the Guide services to make it easier to choose the tiles you need. You will also be able to :
- Develop Theories via the Recovery mechanism, i.e., cover an animal on the board with a new animal of the same species and continent.
- Write Publications by filling in the rows or columns of your notebook.
How to win?
The naturalist with the most victory points wins the game. There are different ways to win points:
- By developing Theories, objective tiles that tell you for example to observe animals in Africa, Mammals, etc. It is possible to have up to 6 Theories on your Notebook.
- By writing Publications: each complete line or column gives you points.
- By discovering specimens: some animals represent an important discovery for the scientific community.
- By mapping and surveying: the Scrolls visible on your tiles are multiplied by the number of Compass tokens in your possession.
- By collecting the Darwin token: via the Emblematic bonus, the Darwin token moves from player to player. Only the naturalist with the Darwin counter in front of him at the end of the game gains 2 bonus VPs.
