defender. Birth – players can add one new dino to the board for each egg mutation they possess, next to their existing dinos (including the egg they start with). Survival and Mutation – dinos die off depending on climate and terrain, how many parasol or fur genes they have and event cards in force. The players then gain one point for each dino of their colour on the board. Meteor and Evolution – In later turns, there is a chance that a Meteor strikes the island, ending the game. In earlier turns, and in later turns in which the game does not end, the players bid for new mutations; their (successful) bids are subtracted from their score. In addition to the starting mutations, there are gene mutations which make future purchases cheaper, and card mutations which give the player additional event cards. Event cards can be used at various points to alter the game. The player with the most points when the game ends wins. Game interest The simple strategy game at the core of Evo is made more interesting by the constantly changing climate. Positions which can be advantageous in one turn are often deadly a few turns later, so unlike many games where a winning player can come to dominate the game, the balance of power shifts frequently. Unlike most German-style board games, in the first edition it is possible for a player to be eliminated if all his dino tokens are removed from the board. But this is very rare in practice. In the new edition, player elimination has been prevented by allowing players who only have two dinosaurs to be invulnerable during survival and combat phases. One of the many new unique gene abilities increases this limit to three, allowing players doing poorly to remain competitive. Reception A year after awarding Evo its Game of the Year Award, Games commented: Tom Vasel was generally appreciative, casting it primarily as a family game: Evo (second edition) has been evaluated in educational contexts, with the conclusion that it illustrates Evolutionary arms races, environmental-based versus competition-mediated adaptations, evolutionary and ecological physiology, interspecific interactions, Grinnellian niches, and climate change. Second Edition The Second Edition was published in 2011. Whilst it kept most of the game intact it completely reworked the art away from the previous cartoonish style. Also some rule changes were introduced. For example players can now always bid