Evolution: Flight

Approximately 350 million years ago, the first species departed from the ground and took to the sky.  This event marked a monumental transformation in Earth’s biological ecosystem.

The addition of wings enables animals to seek out food from the air and easily relocate when food becomes scarce.  Flying is also one of the most effective ways to evade predators,.   butHowever, due to the enormous amount of energy that wings require, avian creatures have to eat more food for their body size than any other species on the planet.

 Overview

Flight is an expansion for the Evolution game system that introduces avian species into the ecosystem.  Now your species can swoop on unsuspecting prey from above, fly away from predators, or soar to a new location when food is scarce.  Will the ability to fly propel you to new heights?  Or will it bring your downfall?  Explore the expanding Evolution world and find out!

New Species – Avian Species

There are three differences between Avian species and the Land species.  

• Avian species have a maximum Body Size of 3 instead of 6.
• Avian species have an upkeep cost of food equal to their Body Size.  The upkeep cost simulates the amount of food needed to maintain wings, and it must be paid before an Avian species can feed their Population.  The upkeep food is placed on the spaces directly below the Body Size marker and does not get scored each round.
• Players must discard an extra card to add Flight to a land species to create an Avian species.

The Flight Trait

The Flight trait always accompanies an Avian Species, but behaves like a regular trait in every other respect:

• It counts as one of the 3 trait slots for an Avian species. 
• It can be negated by Intelligence.
• It counts as 1 point at the end of the game.
• It can be swapped out for another trait.  When a player swaps out Flight for another trait, they also exchange the Avian Species Board for a Land Species Board.  The Land Species has the same population and body size that the Avian Species had.  However, Land Species can never become Avian Species.   

Event Cards

Evolution: Flight introduces a new type of card called an Event Card.  There are two Event Cards in this expansion: Dive Bomb and Seed Dispersal.  These cards do not get played on a species as a trait.  Instead, they are discarded from your hand and placed directly into the discard pile.  Each Event Card has a specific can be played during your feeding turn and immediately takes place.   

The Cliff

The Cliff is a source of food similar to the Watering Hole, but only available to Avian species.  Plant Food equal to the number of players in the game is placed on the Cliff each turn when the Food cards are revealed.

Goal

The goal remains the same: propagate your species and eat lots of food!

Playing the Game

All the rules of the base game apply with the following changes:

Phase 3: Play Cards 

A player now has the option to discard 2 cards to create an Avian species.  That player takes a new Avian Species Board, puts Wooden Markers at Population “1” and Body Size “1”, and places a Flight trait card above the Avian Species Board.  

Phase 4: Feeding 

1. Reveal the Food Cards

When you place food onto the Watering Hole, place additional food on the Cliff equal to the number of players.

2. Feeding Species

• An Avian species may take food from the Watering Hole or the Cliff, but not both at the same time (for instance, with Cooperation or Foraging).  An Avian Species can Forage or Cooperate from the Cliff though, even if it Cooperates with a Land Species (Perhaps it drops food from the Cliff on the way back to the nest?).  
• An Avian species must take food equal to their Body Size before they can feed their Population.  This food is placed on the bottom of the Avian Species Board below the Body Size marker.  This upkeep food does not get placed in the Food Token Bag at the end of the round, so it will not count towards the final score.

3. End of Feeding

Each player returns their Avian upkeep food to the Food Bank before placing the remaining food into their Food Token Bag. 

End of Game

• Instead of shuffling the cards for the final round, use the 30 cards that were removed at the beginning of the game.

Timing Issues

There are several cards (like Good Eyesight) that might lead to timing issues.  Triggered effects always happen in turn order starting with the player who has the First Player Marker.  

Reference Section – Trait Cards

Brood Parasite

Before the Food Cards are revealed, an Avian species with Brood Parasite takes 1 Meat Food and increases its Population by 1 for each adjacent Avian species that its owner has in play.  If a player has Brood Parasite between two of their other Avian species’, the species with Brood Parasite takes 2 Meat Food from the Food Bank and increase its Population by 2.  This effect would trigger Cooperation once, but since Nesting applies to each Population increase, it would trigger Nesting twice.  The effect of Brood Parasite does not take place if the card is played on a Land species, though the Brood Parasite trait card would still count as 1 point at the end of the game.  

Dive-Bomb

This Event Card is played on a player’s turn during the Feeding Phase.  Dive Bomb allows that player to take an extra feeding turn with any one of their Avian species, either before or after the normal feeding turn.  If the Avian species is a Carnivore, it immediately attacks a legal target.  This effect triggers Scavenger as normal.  If the Avian species is a Non-Carnivore, it immediately takes 3 Plant Food from the Watering Hole, the Cliff, or the Food Bank.  This effect triggers Cooperation and Foraging as normal.

Camouflage

A species with Camouflage cannot be attacked unless the attacking Carnivore has the Good Eyesight trait. 

Good Eyesight

If a species with Good Eyesight is a Non-Carnivore, it takes 2 food from the Watering Hole before the Food Cards are revealed.  If there is not enough food on the Watering Hole to feed all of the species in play with Good Eyesight, then resolve the trait cards in turn order starting with the current Start Player.  Each player may determine the order of their own triggered effects if they have more than one trait that triggers at the same time.   Good Eyesight does trigger Cooperation and Foraging as well.  If a species with Good Eyesight is a Carnivore, it may attack a species with Camouflage as if that species did not have Camouflage.    

Flight

The first food taken by a species with Flight must be placed on the Body Size upkeep food slot(s) on the Avian Species Board.  The species’ Population can only be fed after it has upkeep food equal to its Body Size.  Under no circumstance can Population be fed before the appropriate upkeep is paid.  Avian species can take food from either the Watering Hole or the Cliff, but they cannot take food from both sources on the same feeding turn (for instance, with Cooperation of Foraging).  A species with Flight cannot be attacked unless the attacking Carnivore also has the Flight trait.   If a species with Flight also has the Carnivore trait, the player may discard a card from their hand into the discard pile to negate Symbiosis, Warning Call, or Climbing for this species’ next attack.

Nesting

If a species with Nesting is a Land Species, it takes 1 Plant Food from the Watering Hole or the Food Bank for each Population it gains.  This effect triggers Cooperation and Foraging for each Population increase, and can be used to remove all of the food from the Watering Hole to keep Good Eyesight and Fertile from triggering.  If a species with Nesting is an Avian Species, it takes 3 Meat Food for each Population it gains.  This effect triggers Cooperation (but not Scavenger) and may be triggered twice in one round by Brood Parasite.

An Avian species with Nesting might increase in Body Size after increasing in Population.  In this case, the appropriate amount of food should be moved from the Population food slots to the Body Size food slots.  

Seed Dispersal

This Event Card is played before a player’s Feeding Turn.  Immediately place food onto the Watering Hole or Cliffs equal to the total Population of that player’s Avian species.