Animals: Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs reside on the modular hexagons of the super-continent Pangaea. Each hex can only support a certain number of animals. Not only that, the continent is splitting up with parts of the land disappearing and new lands emerging elsewhere. Players try to disperse as widely as is wise while still dominating each continent where they exist. The game ends as the meteorite strikes, ending the age of the great dinosaurs.

Players begin by placing herds of their dinosaurs on the single continent of Pangea, made from tiles of various terrain types. They then take turns, which comprise of drifting tiles, conducting optional actions, and finally resolving any of their own tribes that have been left in water or on overpopulated tiles. The first phase, the drift, involves a player moving a landscape tile of the same type as depicted on the card they play. The tile must be moved further away from the South Pole (the centre of Pangea) than it already is, must remain a part of the same continent and must be attached to a continent with that player's herds. Players have 4 action points to spend on other optional actions, including another drift, migrating herds, rescuing swimming herds and reproducing to create more herds.

Points are scored during the game whenever a new separate continent is formed as a result of a landscape tile drift, as well as at the end of the game for each continent. During the game, the player with the most herds on the new continent scores 2 points, while the player with the second-most scores 1. End-game scoring is much more significant, as the player with the most herds gains 1 point per landscape tile on the continent, and the player with the second most scores half that amount.

The final round begins when the meteor strike card is drawn, and the game then ends. After final scoring is completed, the player with the most points wins.

Premiere: Essen 2002

Operation is a dexterity game in which you must extract silly body parts from a hapless patient. In the course of the game you acquire cards which dictate that you must remove a certain piece from the body of the patient. To do this you use a set of tweezers that are attached by wire to the game board. If you are sloppy and touch the metal sides of the hole where the item is located, the patient's pain is indicated by a sudden buzzer and light-up nose. Successful extractions net cash, and the player with the most cash at the end of the game is the winner.

Various editions change the patient and the items to be removed, but the game stays the same in its essence:

Shrek -- just like the classic version, but with Shrek.
Simpsons -- Remove Homer's Bowler's Thumb, Pot Belly, Foot in Mouth, Rubber Neck, Trick Knee, etc.
T-Rex -- excavating bones of a T. Rex
Spiderman 3 -- healing all of Spiderman's ailments
Pit Stop -- manipulating various car parts instead of people-parts

Re-implemented by:

Operation Rescue Kit

Cavemen: The Quest for Fire is a card-drafting game in which players take the role of tribal leaders. The tribes compete for opportunities to hunt dinosaurs, recruit tribesmen, and discover new technologies, vying to be the first with enough knowledge and prestige to invent fire and usher in the age of modern humanity!

You have two resources to manage: Food and Teeth. You must spend Food each turn in order to keep your Tribe from starving. Teeth indicate prestige among the tribes. Use Teeth to bid for the conch and to acquire Cavemen and Caves.

Each turn, cards are drawn from the deck to fill a common Card Pool. Players take actions based on what is available in the pool. For example, if a Beast is drawn into the Card Pool, you can hunt it for Food and claim its Teeth as a sign of your bravery.

If you hold the conch during the Action Phase, you benefit by taking your Action first and taking a second Action after everyone else has gone once. Players can bid Teeth to take control of the Conch from another player. This can be important to get the first pick of the cards in the Card Pool.

The game features 21 different inventions that allow players to evolve diverse strategies, capitalizing on their tribe's individual strengths. There are challenging decisions every turn as players must evaluate what resources are available, guess what their opponents will do, and weigh the amount of risk they're willing to take.