#draftosaurus

For some, the evening began early with fish and chips in the garden to mark a special visit from Plum’s Aunt Damson.  The evening took an even more special turn as it was the day before Pine’s Big Birthday, so there was cake.  Green also put in one of his special appearances, bringing his mum, Saffron, with him.  Salmon came for the second time, and lastly, Orange, who had acquired a motorbike…

By the time everyone else started to arrive, Cobalt was already most of the way through losing his game of 20 Strong.  This is a solo-player deck-based game where the object is to progress through a shuffled deck of cards, each of which bears a unique challenge. This challenge could be in the form of an enemy, a unique scenario, or some other requirement which are completed by rolling a set of…

While Blue, Pink and Cobalt were finishing their supper, Plum led a quick game of Draftosaurus with Black, Purple and Cobalt (who had already finished his pizza).   Cobalt was new to the game, so after a quick rules explanation the group were passing dino-meeples left and right and building themselves exciting dino-parks.  The game is really quick and simple:  players start with a handful of…

With Black, Teal, Pink, Green and Lime all away, it was looking like it was going to be a very quiet night.  In the event, however, the numbers remained good with the slightly unexpected arrival of Plum, Byzantium, Jade and Sapphire.  When Green dropped off Purple and stayed for a while, it became clear that we’d need something short to play alongside Kites, the “Feature Game“.  Kites is a…

With it being Halloween, there were lots of treats and some very fine spooky-themed attire to go along with the “Feature Game“, Betrayal at Mystery Mansion.  This is a Scooby-Doo themed re-implementation of Betrayal at House on the Hill, a semi-cooperative game, where players work together until there is a haunting and one player takes on the role of the bad guy.  So, the first task for the…

Being the first meeting after SPIEL, there was a lot of chatter about Essen and how things had changed since the last time anyone from the group went, some four or five years ago.  Lots of people from the group have been over the years, and others have been to other conventions like UKGE or HandyCon, so have something to compare it to.  Eventually, the group settled down to play games and five…

...and I'm discovering I have a penchant for two-player winter mode!

To get to know a game well, you’ve got to play it a number of times; Draftosaurus, being so short, is easy to play thirty, forty, or yes, even fifty times like I have over the course of the last month and a half. And the summer mode vs summer/winter mode vs winter mode gives it a lot of replayability and variety!

I’ve played a lot of winter mode just because that board intrigues me so much. I’ve also played it almost exclusively at two the last ~20 or so games. Almost. It’s even quicker that way. The strategic discarding to prevent your opponents from using dinosaurs that might benefit them is intriguing, too.

I like two-player Draftosaurus, but I do play it at higher player counts, too. It requires a little bit of different thinking and I find that variety enjoyable and enriching.

In winter mode specifically, I like filling up the Pyramid and Lover’s Bridge as my main way of getting points. I use the Quarantine Zone to place dinosaurs that I use in either one of these pens at the end of the game, though more often than not I tend to put my Quarantine Zone dinosaurs in the Pyramid and try to win that way when I do that. The Lookout is a must—just pay attention to what your opponent is doing, and hope you get a dinosaur that matches what they have most of!

I usually end up filling a section or two of the Well-Ordered Wood too as an alternative to putting dinosaurs I have no use for in the River. The River I use as a last resort, which I assume is par for the course. I did have one game where I filled up the Well-Ordered Wood almost entirely or entirely actually—that was a very lucky game!!

And, of course, I load up on what T. Rexes I can. This barely, if ever, hurts me—though in a tie breaker situation, I’m most definitely sure it would hurt me again lol.

…and I want to try the game’s different modes in further depth! I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of summer/winter and winter mode.

I play this one strictly on BGA at the moment since I don’t own or have access to a physical copy of the game. I’ve played it at two and all the way up to five players. There’s more dinosaur variety at higher player counts, but playing this at two is fun too! I’m tempted to try out a few more five player games, since I’ve mostly been playing at two or at four.

I like to aim for filling up the Meadow of Differences, the Woody Trio, and the King of the Jungle pens in summer mode when I can. I think there were at least one or two games where I was lucky enough to be able to fill up the Forest of Sameness with stegosauruses and triceratopses. A couple games I tried hoarding t. rexes for the King of the Jungle pen and one game that backfired on me—I lost the tie breaker because I had more t. rexes than my opponent did!

The two player version is fun as well, though the discarding of dinosaurs at the end of a turn surprised me when I first played it at two. I like this version as a quick two-player filler game to break up the longer games.

Definitely hoping to play more of this (both at two and at more players) so I can get a better feel for the winter mode board—I’ve only played with it a few times so far if I recall correctly.