In the game Draftosaurus, you’ll be building your own Jursassic Park that is high on the cute factor and low on the “animals escaping and eating your guests” factor.
With bright, fun colors and a host of adorable dino meeples, this game is sure to entice any one who has ever dreamed of building their own Dinosaur Zoo!
How do you play Draftosaurus?
Draftosaurus is played in two rounds with each round consisting of 6 Turns.
To begin the round, players each take 6 dinosaurs from the bag and keep them hidden in their hand.
In clockwise order, players will take turns as the active player and roll the placement die. This die give a placement condition that everyone except the active player who rolled the die must follow.
At the same time, players will all choose one dinosaur from their hand to place in their zoo following the placement conditions on the die and the pens.
Each pen has a specific placement restriction and players score points based on how they fill in their pens following these restrictions.
If a player cannot or does not want to place a dinosaur in a pen, they can place it in the River.
Then all players pass their dinosaurs to the player on their left without revealing them. The placement die is then passed to the next player and a new turn begins.
Players repeat these steps until all six dinosaurs have been placed in their Zoo.
Then the second round begins and is played exactly like the first.
At the end of the second round, the game is over. Players count their points and the player with the most points wins.
What do we think?
This is just a lovely drafting game! And holy cute! These dinosaur meeples are the best!
In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Sushi Go! and is just as easily picked up by new players. In fact, it’s almost easier to teach and far better to include younger players. We’ve been able to play Draftosaurus with our son, who at five, has been able to enjoy and play along perfectly well.
The boards are completely devoid of text, making the game language independent, a huge help when wanting to include pre-readers. I find the iconography that they use to be very easily interpreted and digestible, even for younger players. As mentioned, our five year old can play along just fine because of this with only moderate reminding of placement restriction rules. Even our 4 year old has joined in!
Heavy or light, I love a good drafting game and Draftosaurus provides just enough drafting decisions to make it a fun puzzle while not being too punishing. Even though the die limits the options for where non active players can place their dinosaurs, you can usually always find a spot for it. Even better, if you can’t, or don’t want to place your dinosaur, the River is always an option, providing players with guaranteed points for when the drafting really doesn’t go their way.
There is not a lot of depth to this game, but what it lacks in depth it makes up for in fun. After all, the main reason to play games is to have fun with one another and I take such joy not only in playing this game myself, but watching how it makes literally everyone who plays it smile themselves.
The dinosaur meeples are truly just top notch, full of fun angles, curves, and personality. These majestic beasts just beg to be played with, which my kids (okay and me!) are more than happy to do.
Draftosaurus plays quickly in about 15 minutes, making it a wonderful filler for your game nights or for that quick family game before sending the kids off to sweet, sweet bedtime.
Game Info:
Title: Draftosaurus
2-5 players Ages 8+
Designer: Antoine Bauza, Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc, Théo Rivière
Artist: Jiahui Eva Gao, Vipin Alex Jacob
Publisher: Ankama
Release Date: 2019
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