First play: Dominant Species...

I finally got a chance to play Dominant Species, a game that seems to be at the top of a lot of 'Best Of' lists this year.  And I think I can see why.  It's a rather complex worker placement game with an interesting majority placement/war gamey kind of feel.  It wasn't half as complicated to learn as people make it out to be and it's actually quite enjoyable to watch your class of animals grow and adapt.

However, for an almost 3 hour game, it's rather chaotic and in our game the winner seemed to be completely determined in the final round.  As well, the worker placement choices seem a tad clunky.  Every single round started with players filling up first the limited spaces on the Dominance (scoring) row, allowing them to choose which tile to score and which special power card to use.  It seemed pretty much programmed and in a 5 or 6-player game I imagine it would be rather frustrating.  Still, for a strategy game this long to hold my attention so completely despite the randomness, there's definitely something working.  I won't be buying it but I'll definitely play it again.