Opponents in seated order clockwise:

Dee
Tom
Riku
Nick
Kevin

We played with the N-1 variant (of course!)
And we played with my little dino minis (of course!)

It had been awhile for all since last playing Evo so we started with a little refresher and of course some of us had our brain rattled by questions about optimum climate. For the most part we jumped right in, Riku taking and holding the lead the entire game. We had an unusual run of duplicates in the auctions which made those items relatively cheap. In the very first auction, two horns were up for bid. Since my general strategy has always been to acquire a horn but not use it offensively, I definitely saw value at (most) any cost. Unfortunately, there being two horns up for bid, Tom to my left also acquired a horn which defeated my campaign of intimidation by half. By turn 3 or so Kevin to my right had also acquired a horn and so intimidation was no longer an option. The only thing I could do was draw Tom’s attention to Riku and Kevin’s to Nick and encourage them to fight it out…

…which they did, but not enough. Tom had a killer combination of tough babies AND egg laying muscles but never used them. He attacked Riku a few times as did Kevin but the dice were with Riku for the most part. The one time I relied on the dice at all, I played Unseasonal Weather and rolled the only number possible for the worst case scenario outcome and ended up losing half my dinos. Kevin, despite finishing the game with 3 feet, managed to lose 4 dinos on what turned out to be our penultimate turn. The meteor hit on the first try, following a game of strange dice rolls and odd gene draws.

Not a typical game, but Riku’s strategy of running up the auctions then letting them go and therefore staying in the lead was a major contributor to his victory. In my opinion that is as it should be; at least at our table we were all experienced gamers with a firm grip on the fact that we were bidding VPs. Had the game gone longer, perhaps it would have started to smooth out. We’ll never know!

Score order, with inventory of the total number of genes, including what the mat started with:

Riku – 42
2 parasol, 2 fur, 2 egg

Nick – 38
2 mutations, 2 cards, 2 legs, 2 eggs, 2 parasol

Dee – 37
2 egg, 2 parasol, 2 fur, 1 horn, 1 mutation, 2 feet

Kevin – 31
3 feet, 1 horn, 2 eggs, extra tail

Tom – 27
2 eggs, 1 horn, 2 fur, 2 parasol

*I must mention here that Riku is a wargamer on loan to us from Finland and is generally a man of few words who also likes to keep the games moving. This combination resulted in his saying completely deadpan seriously, "die" at every survival phase. This 'directive' eventually had us cracking up on every turn!