Dominant Species

During the Planning Phase players take turns in Initiative order placing APs until everyone has no APs left; once that is done the Execution Phase begins and APs are removed in a fixed top-to-bottom, left-to-right order to perform actions. Actions are voluntary — when your AP is removed you may forfeit that action entirely. (p.9)

When your Initiative AP is removed you swap your initiative marker with the animal directly to your left (unless you are already first), then place the AP you just removed into any vacant eyeball space, effectively making the last AP placement of the turn and improving your turn-order position for the next Planning Phase. (p.10)

To count matching elements, sum the number of occurrences on the tile of your animal's left-most element, then add counts for its second element, third, etc., to get a total match number. A species on a tile that matches exactly zero elements is 'endangered' — endangered species cannot claim dominance and are vulnerable to extinction. (pp.6–7)

Dominance is held by the animal that matches more elements on a tile than any other single animal with presence, but it is not automatic — a player must verbally and physically claim (place a dominance cone) and players are responsible for calling and updating dominance when elements or species change; ties mean no dominance. Endangered species can never claim dominance. (p.7)

Migration happens after Wanderlust with APs resolved left-to-right; you pick up to X of your species (where X is the eyeball number) and move each to an adjacent tile — birds may move up to two tiles but cannot move over blank hexes. Competition happens after Migration, letting you choose tiles of specified terrain to eliminate one opposing species on each chosen tile; eliminated species are removed from earth and out of play. (p.15)

Glaciation converts a non-tundra tile adjacent to tundra into a tundra by placing a tundra tile on top, you remove and set aside all species from that tile then return one species of each animal to the new tundra while the remainder go back to their owners' gene pools, elements surrounded by exactly three tundra tiles are removed, and you score bonus VPs based on adjacent tundra. (p.13)