The aim of Ecologies is to build a healthy, thriving ecosystem. When you are playing against other players, you’ll all be aiming to be the first to get 12 victory points. Let’s see how you do this by looking at the rules you need to know. The Set-Up In ECOLOGIES, you build and maintain food webs in diverse biomes around the world. Each biome has a different ecology, and gives unique rewards when it is healthy and balanced. But watch out, your opponents may decide it's easier to disturb and degrade your ecosystems than nurture their own. In this hectic environment, you must choose how best to protect and care for your ecologies. When you open Ecologies, you’ll see plenty of different cards. But don’t worry; understanding how the game works is simpler than you might think. The cards are separated into three categories, which we’ve outlined below. It’s all about building healthy food webs in different biomes. If you create a healthy ecology you get the perks and powers of that biome. Each organism card lists what it eats and what it’s eaten by. You arrange them with plants on the bottom, predators on top. There is a trade mechanic similar to catan where you trade with others based on what you need and what they need. It is a race to get 12 victory points and different organisms give different points. There are biotic/abiotic factor cards that can affect opponents and different strategies such as focusing on one biome, going for perks and bonuses, or disrupting other ecologies. Players earn points with their organism cards. The player earns the points as long as the cards are viable in their current ecosystem, meaning they have food and aren’t harmed. Once one player makes 12 points or more, they win. Ecologies Card Game – Educational and Enlightening!

This might sound like quite an easy target, but Ecologies can be quite a long in-depth game. If you enjoy the item management involved in many popular RPG board games or the intricate gameplay of strategy games, then you’ll be sure to enjoy Ecologies. Does the tropical forest healthy ecology bonus allow a player to see an opponent’s cards when stealing? OBJECT OF ECOLOGIES: The object of Ecologies is to be the first player to earn 12 Victory Points. NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 to 6 players MATERIALS: 21 Biome Cards, 10 Factor Cards, 77 Organism Cards, 1 Small Booklet, and 1 Card Box TYPE OF GAME: Strategy Card Game AUDIENCE: 12+The first card any player puts down must be a biome card. This card will set the foundation for what cards can be used to build your ecosystem. You only need one biome card per ecosystem; the cards are easy to tell apart because they have unique colors and abbreviations. When are players allowed to rearrange their cards? Can they purposely turn healthy ecologies on and off this way?

The game uses the terms “eats” and “eaten by” as simplified stand ins for “receives energy from” and “provides energy to.” Food webs and trophic levels are all about the way energy moves through ecologies. Producers make up the foundation of these webs by converting the energy of the sun into sugars. There is no sunlight card and biomes are assumed to have access to the sun’s energy. “Decaying biomass” just means it eats any dead tissues from the other organisms in the food web. This means the organism is a scavenger/decomposer/detritivore (SD) and should be placed on the second row above primary producers when you want that card to act in the (SD) role. This is because in terms of trophic levels, detritus (decaying biomass) is seen as level one, the same as plants, so things that eat the decaying biomass are level two, the same as primary consumers. There is no specific card for this, as long as there are any other cards in a biome, cards with (SD) are able to sit in the primary consumer level and “feed” off that decaying biomass. No, it is a powerful defensive perk, but has several limitations. While the bonus protects all your organisms in every biome from destruction, it does not protect against negative cards in general. For example, other players can still play “parasitism” or “biomagnification of pollutants.” The bonus really only prevents opponents from pointing to one of your organisms and saying “I’m using my special card or ability to destroy this.” In fact, using “biomagnification of pollutants” on a healthy desert ecology would drop the maximum trophic level of the desert to C2 and therefore render it unhealthy. This would immediately remove the healthy ecology bonus and allow for targeted destruction of organisms. In effect, the biomagnification card is a counter to the healthy ecology bonus. Ecologies is an awesome, educational game that allows for each player to build their own in-depth ecosystem. These systems are sensitive, and one wrong move can cause the whole thing to crumble, losing all the points associated with it. After the previous step, the player can put down up to two cards from their hand to help build their ecosystem. Gameplay is rooted in authentic science, as it is used in the classroom to teach real concepts to biology students. While it is scientific enough for the classroom, it is also strategic enough for any game night.When opponents single out another player, it is known as “targeting.” Some actions are towards all players, or certain players at random, but when one player chooses another player, or their cards, that player has been “targeted.” But while this is a fun way to play, we think Ecologies works best as a group game. Ecologies can be played with up to six people. In group games, the game wants the first player to earn 12 victory points. Many bonuses are used “every other turn.” These bonuses can be used the first turn they are activated, or players can wait to start using the ability in a future round. However, once the ability has been used the pattern is set and can not be altered, even if the food web temporarily becomes unhealthy and loses the bonus (no “resetting” the pattern).

The first card a player must play is a Biome Card. This card will set the base for what types of cards may feed into the Ecology. Only one Biome Card is needed per Ecology. Each Biome Card is dictated by its own color and abbreviation. Biomes give healthy ecology bonuses when five specific roles have been filled within the food web. Ecologies isn’t a simple game to play, but it isn’t as complex as it might first appear either. So, don’t be put off if you struggle in your first few games. To start playing Ecologies, one player should be chosen to go first.If you’d like to maintain the same game length and feel, we recommend choosing 10-factor cards and 7 different biomes.

The points system is based on ecological trophic levels. The producers (plants) are worth less and as you make your way up the pyramid organisms are worth more, as it takes a lot of energy to sustain them. In real life only roughly 10% of the energy makes it from one level to the next, meaning you have to have acres of land and hundreds of animals just to sustain one apex predator. The C cards, or consumer cards, do not have to be placed immediately over their food source, as one food source may effectively support numerous other organisms. The textbox on the card will show what it eats and what it is eaten by, so an effective food web can be created.Once drawn, the player can trade the cards with other players. Players can trade any card in their hand, and there are no restrictions on how trades can work. Meaning you can trade two cards for three and vice-versa. The game takes inspiration from titles like Settlers of Catan, Agricola, and Dominion. The gameplay is rooted in authentic science, as it is used in the classroom to teach real concepts to biology students. While it is scientific enough for the classroom, it is also strategic enough for any game night. Designed by a biology teacher, the game includes 77 unique organisms, 7 biomes, and beautiful vintage Victorian art. (108 cards total) If you’d like to maintain the same game length and feel, we recommend choosing 10 factor cards and 7 different biomes.