It’s time to join Charles Darwin as he explores the world on his ship The Beagle. While working on his newest book On the Origin of Species, we lucked into joining him as a junior naturalist who will help him study animals and develop theories. Be the best person to add to his work and you will be the top naturalist and championed as biggest contributor!
In the Footsteps of Darwin is designed by Gregory Grard and Matthieu Verdier with art by Maud Briand and David Sitbon. It is for 2-5 players and plays in approximately 30 mins. It is published by Sorry We Are French and Hachette Games.
Overview:
You and your opponents are all junior naturalists who are helping Darwin develop theories for his work by studying animals, doing surveys and publishing your findings. The player with the most victory points will come out on top!
Gameplay:
The Game revolves around the Journey board with the Beagle ship going on the start space. Each player takes a notebook as their player board to begin. Take 12 tiles per player and place them in a stack with the first 9 being on the game board as well. Each player starts with a theory token as well.
On a player’s turn they have two steps they can perform in order. Those are:
1-Study and animal or take inspiration from a character
2-Voyage of the Beagle
In the first step, players will take one of the 3 tiles in the row or column that the Beagle currently is facing and place it onto their notebook. It may be an animal or a character. To study an animal, you place it on your notebook then take the immediate bonus. These may be end game victory points, end-game scoring, compass tokens, Darwin token or hiring a guide. Each of these will find way to get you more victory points at the end of the game.
The other aspect of the first step may be hiring a character. Here you place it on your far left side of the notebook and gain the bonus. In the game you will have no more than 3 characters total in the game so pick the one you really want!
After placement, you finish your turn with the Voyage of the Beagle and move it forward as many spaces (1,2, or 3) as the distance between the ship and the tile you took. Then you fill the empty spot in from the tile you took.
When you study an animal from a class or ecosystem you have already studied, you can cover the animal already on the board and gain a theory tile. These give extra victory points at the end of the game as well. When you finish a row or column in your notebook you can take a publication token and put it on your notebook. These will also score you more points at the end of the game.
When the last tile is added to the journey board from the draw tile, the game ends. This happens when all players have drawn 12 tiles. Score all the end-game victory points in discoveries, your charts and compasses, publications, theories and the Darwin token if it’s in your control. The player with the most points wins!
Impressions:
I like the simplicity of how easy it is to get into this game and start playing it quickly. It is a game that is easy to understand so newer players will be able to jump in without much hesitation to it. I played this at all player counts and with different players and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
The decisions re tight and everyone will have the same play of 12 tiles but it is really about finding ways to make your plays give the max amount of points per tile. So really thinking through your moves will be a big part of the strategy of this game.
The art and style of this one is great, from the characters and the animals to the details in the notebook you are keeping, they did a great job of making this game feel like you are right there in the mix on the Beagle. I like how well done the components are and it really shines on the table. This is one you could use to show some of the real-life history of Darwin as well, there are interesting facts about him in the rulebook as well.
Overall I would recommend this for players who like an easy entry game and find drafting and tile placement games to be their types of games. Players who enjoy the history of the Darwin experience will really find this game to work well in throwing you right into the mix and feeling a part of it all. Make sure to check this one out and take a voyage of your own with friends!
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