Bios: Origins (second Edition)

Should this hit the table?

Quick read before the metadata.

Moderate level of direct and strategic confrontation, with frequent interaction and limited emphasis on cooperation.

Teach 2.4

Teaching signal

Replay 4.0

High replayability

Interaction 3.8

Highly interactive

Scaling 4.0

Scales well

Strategy 4.5

Deep strategy

Control 3.5

More strategic control

Table feel

Moderate level of direct and strategic confrontation, with frequent interaction and limited emphasis on cooperation.

Replay value

Bios: Origins (Second Edition) has a high variability gameboard, offering different experiences each time it is played. The presence of expansions adds new content and gameplay elements, further enhancing replay value. The game provides deep strategic possibilities and room for improvement over time. The player interaction score is average. It scales well with different numbers of players without compromising its appeal or balance. The game is moderately easy to learn, striking a balance between accessibility and depth. Overall, Bios: Origins (Second Edition) has a solid replayability score of 7.9.

Luck profile

Bios: Origins (Second Edition) has a moderate level of luck. Random elements have a notable but not exclusive impact on the game outcome. However, players have substantial ability to mitigate randomness through strategic decisions and planning. The game outcome is primarily determined by player strategy and decisions, with luck playing a minor role.

Overview

What ABG knows about this game

Bios:Origins is the 3rd part of the Bios Trilogy. The action starts much earlier than most Civilization games: 200,000 years ago or even earlier. One to four players represent the human subspecies extant at that time: Sapiens, Neanderthal, Denisovans, & Hobbits. Take them on an adventure to enlarge your brain, acquire language, discover new worlds, domesticate strange beasts (such as riding war kangaroos or mammoths), discover the wonders and terrors of religion, dive for pearls, challenge the gods, enslave rival hominins, and perhaps enter the Enlightenment. Although wars of conquest and religion are possible, most of the fighting will be internal. You have only limited control of over your ruling class, and if your priests are in control and do a poor job, they will get killed and usurped by merchants or warlords. Win by specializing as cultural, political, or industrial civilization. This means, unlike most civilization games, that a cult figure on a mountaintop in New Zealand can win over an Emperor that has swept the globe with his armies. The game integrates with Bios:Genesis and Bios:Megafauna, so that you can start as a variety of intelligent but not-quite lingual marine or terrestrial creatures. Two maps and 26 hex chits are included, to accommodate variable landforms and cratons on habitable Earth, Mars, or Venus. Solitaire and cooperative variants are included.

Mechanism

5

Area Majority / Influence Auction: Once Around Cooperative Game Modular Board Open Drafting

Family

6

Components: Map (Global Scale) Crowdfunding: Kickstarter Digital Implementations: VASSAL Mechanism: Tableau Building Players: Games with Solitaire Rules Series: BIOS (Phil Eklund)

Type

1

Strategy

Media

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Bios: Origins (second Edition) cover image

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