Board Game Review: DRAFTOSAURUS

 This week, I broke out a game that I had played a couple of years ago and hadn't touched since then:  Draftosaurus.  I was looking for a game that didn't require reading and one that I thought my (nearly five-year-old) son could play with us.  So how good was my choice?  Could my son play the game?  Did I enjoy the game?  Read on to find out!

Draftosaurus is a game designed for 2-5 players published by Ankama and designed by a quartet of designers:  Antoine Bauza, Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc, and Theo Riviere.  

Game Summary:

At its most basic, Draftosaurus is a drafting game with set collection elements and would be considered a "filler game" in terms of weight/complexity.  The game is played out over two rounds of drafting dinosaurs and the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. 

Game Set-up:

To begin the game, you place the appropriate number of dinosaur meeples into the draw bag (based on the number of players).  Then, each player is given a player board (all boards are identical).  The only decision you need to make is whether you are going to all play on the "summer" side of the board (a bit easier) or the "winter" side of the board (which is a bit more "gamer-y").  Finally, the youngest player starts with the wooden die.

How to Play:

First, each player takes six dinosaurs from the draw bag and keeps them hidden in their hand.  To begin the actual game, the youngest player starts by rolling the die.  After the die is rolled, each player simultaneously selects on dinosaur from their hand.  Once everyone has made their selection, all players reveal their choice and then each player places their dinosaur on their player board.  The catch is that all players other than the person who rolled the die must follow the placement rules based on the die roll.  If a player cannot (or does not want to) place a dinosaur in a pen, then they can always place their dinosaur in the river (the river is not treated like a pen).

Once each player has played their dinosaur, all players pass their hand (now five) dinosaurs to the person to their left.  The placement die also gets passed to the next player who rolls the die.  Repeat the process until there are no more dinosaurs to pass and that's the end of round 1.  The second round is played exactly as the first (start with six new dinosaurs from the remaining dinos in the draw bag) and continuing playing and passing dinos until the end of the game in which every player should have twelve dinosaurs on their individual player board.  

As for the boards themselves, each side of the board has six unique dinosaur pens and each pen has unique rules for placement.  Luckily, none of the rules are particularly complicated but your choices get more constricted as the game goes on!  For example, the summer board has six pens with the following rules:

• Forest of Sameness:  This pen can only hold dinos of the same species.
• Meadow of Differences:  This pen can only hold dinos of different species.
• Prairie of Love:  This pen can hold all different species.  At end of game, you score 5 victory points for each pair of same species dinosaurs in the pen.
• Woody Trio:  This pen can hold all different species.  At end of game, if you have exactly three dinosaurs (of any species) in the pen you earn 7 victory points, otherwise you get no points.
• King of the Jungle:  This pen can only hold one dinosaur.  You earn 7 victory points if, at the end of the game, your zoo contains at least as many dinosaurs of the species in the pen as any of your opponents' zoos.  If any of your opponents' zoos have more dinosaurs of this species, then you earn no points.
• Solitary Island:  This pen can also only hold one dinosaur.  At the end of the game, if the dinosaur in this pen is the only one of its species in your entire zoo, then you earn 7 victory points, otherwise you earn no points for this pen.

The only other special rules:

• The River:  The river is a special place that is no treated like a pen.  It can hold any number of dinosaurs and at the end of the game every dinosaur in the river is worth 1 victory point.
• T-Rex:  T-Rex is a special dinosaur in that at the end of the game any pen with at least one T-Rex in it earns 1 additional victory point.

The winter side of the board has different pens and different placement rules but the general idea is the same as on the summer side!

Winning the Game:

At the end of two rounds of drafting (for a total of 12 dinosaurs each), players add up their victory points on their individual player boards and the highest victory point total wins.  In the event of a tie, the player who has the fewest T-Rexes wins.  If players are still tied, then they share the victory.

My Thoughts:

As I said at the top of the post, I had actually played Draftosaurus a few years ago (in 2020) but hadn't touched it since then and, honestly, had mostly forgotten about how the game worked.  In the end, I was able to teach this game to my son in about ten minutes and we were off and playing!  This ended up being a super fun and breezy experience and everyone who played it enjoyed the game a lot.  There's just enough depth to the game to make people immediately want to play it again to see if they can do better...and once you master the easier Summer side of the game then you can try the Winter side.  The game rules even suggest playing two full rounds (1 on Summer, 1 on Winter) and combining the scores to get one overall winner.

The Bottom Line:

Pros:

• Super easy-to-learn
• Great dino meeples
• Nice to have two different boards with different scoring options
• Quick game, plays great for 3-5 players
• No reading required, great for younger family members

Cons:

• I wouldn't recommend this at two-players

Overall Score (out of 10):

8:  Super fun game packed in a super short time frame.  This is the type of game where people finish it and will immediately want to play another round...and you can since it's so quick! 

Note:  I am using Board Game Geek's rating scale to come up with my score.   

Board Game Geek's Rating Scale:

10:  Outstanding - will always enjoy playing

9:  Excellent - very much enjoy playing

8:  Very good - enjoy playing and would suggest it

7:  Good - usually willing to play

6:  Ok - will play if in the mood

5:  Mediocre - take it or leave it

4:  Not so good - but could play again

3:  Bad - likely won't play this again

2:  Very bad - won't play ever again

1:  Awful - defies game description