Five Board Games With Animeeples!
Intent: Inspire you to try new games and use them to invite more people into the hobby.
Animeeples? What’s that? Well some games have meeples, which are small figures in board games usually resembling a human, which are used as playing pieces. Well animeeples are just little figures that resemble animals and they’re a joy to play with! For any animal lovers out there, these games are certainly worth checking out as not only do they have animeeples in them, they are all an absolute pleasure to play!
One of my favorite thing about board games is that you can certainly find one that appeals to you, whether it’s the mechanics behind the games, how’ve they’re played, or the theme. The theme can literally be anything, there’s games for making pizza, building towns, bird-watching, dinosaur park creation, cooking, history, mythology… well I think you get the point. Anything. Both Tylor and I love animals, so these games are extremely up our alley and excite us, not only for the animals but the amazing game play as well.
Animals can be used to draw people into the hobby. What do you think of when you think of board games? Is it animals? Well it just might be after you go through this list!
Are you owl ready to learn about some fun games? I’m not lion, these are really fun!
Gods Love Dinosaurs
Designer: Kaspar Lapp
Artist: Gica Tam
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
Player Count: 2-5 players
Length: 30-45 minutes
Overview: Have you ever wanted to command the food chain? Do you love Dinosaurs? In this competitive tile placement game, your goal is simple. Score the most points by laying the most dinosaur eggs and having dinosaurs on the board. This game is a perfect representation of the food chain, you’ll have to manage the prey and predator relationship ensuring you always have enough animals to keep the circle of life flowing. You will begin with a dinosaur nest with three eggs, a starting board with a dinosaur and one of each prey and their associated habitats. In turn order, players will take a tile from the tile board, where tiles are present in five columns with an animal symbol at the bottom of each. Tiles can be placed anywhere on your board but it certainly is beneficial to match habitats. As when the last tile of the column is taken, the animal activates. The prey expand and multiply into favored habitats and predators hunt for prey, multiplying if they eat two or more. The dinosaur will rotate between the five columns. When the column with the dinosaur is activated, the dinosaur is activated after the prey or predator. In the dinosaur activation phase, you can breed a dinosaur if your primary mountain with the nest is unoccupied by paying an egg. Then all the dinosaurs may move up to five hexes but MUST end on a mountain. If they do not eat anything along the way, they starve and are removed from the board. If they eat a prey, the dinosaur survives and if they eat a predator, not only do they survive but you receive an egg for each predator eaten. The empty columns are then and only then refilled with tiles and game continues until tiles run out and may not be replaced. The player with the most points gathered from dinosaur eggs and dinosaurs on the board wins! Will you maintain a healthy food chain or will your ecosystem collapse?
Animeeple Action: This game contains frogs, rabbits, rats, tigers, eagles and dinosaurs animeeples. My personal favorite is the rabbit while Tylor’s is the rat. Did you know that the Tyrannosaurus rex hatchlings were likely covered in feathers?
Fun Fact: Pandasaurus has a few more dinosaur games, if dinosaurs are a passion of yours! Feel free to check them out!
New York Zoo
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Artist: Felix Wermke
Publisher: Capstone Games and Feuerland Spiele
Player Count: 1-5 players
Length: 30-60 minutes
Overview: Did you ever want to be a zookeeper? Do you have an unrivaled passion for taking care of animals? Rather than going to the zoo play New York Zoo instead! This game is a puzzle, polyomino tile placement game in which you compete to be the first player to fill their zoo board! You will start with a zoo board and two animals, which will be placed in the houses on the left. You’ll begin by moving the elephant on the centre board by one to four (or three based on your player count) spaces to either grab an enclosure tile or two animals for your zoo. If you choose to grab an enclosure tile, you will have to place it in your zoo and add an animal either from a house or other enclosure tiles in your zoo. If you grab animals, you may put them in one of your houses or one of the tiles on the board. It’s important to note that each tile may only carry one type of animal. As the elephant travels around the centre board, it will pass breeding spaces, which allow your animals to multiply but only if you have two of the same on in an enclosure tile and only up to two times. Now as soon as one of your enclosure tiles gets filled with animals, you will move them off your board, save one for one of your houses and get an attraction tile to help fill your zoo faster. The game ends when the first player fills their zoo with their enclosure and attraction tiles, they are the winner. Will you solve the puzzle and build your zoo the fastest? Owl wait.
Animeeples Action: This game contains flamingos, kangaroos, meerkats, penguins, arctic foxes and an elephant animeeple! My favorite is certainly the glorious elephant, while Tylor loves the meerkat as he claims it is an otter, and otters are his favorite animal! This game is particularly fun because the point isn’t necessary to fill your zoo with animals, but rather enclosure and attraction tiles, so you can be a winner with a fairly empty zoo, which is exactly how I like it. Animals having all the space in the world!
Fun Fact: Uwe Rosenberg is one of the most celebrated board game designers, designing some of the biggest games including Agricola, Caverna, Le Havre and A Feast for Odin.
Mariposas
Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave
Artist: Indi Maverick and Matt Paquette
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Player Count: 2-5 players
Length: 45-75 minutes
Overview: I don’t know about you but I think Monarch Butterflies are some of the most delightful insects on this planet. You know what’s great as well, embodying the monarch butterfly as you migrate from Mexico, reproduce and make your way back for the winter. In Mariposas, there are three rounds: Spring, Summer and Fall. You will travel from Mexico as far as Canada, reproducing, living through many generations, collecting key flowers and using Milkweed to reproduce. Each turn you will have a choice of two cards to play, which allow you to move your butterflies through North America. You will need to plan where you want to go as each season has point goals, and you will need to collect combinations of flowers to reproduce and produce new generations of butterflies so you can receive the most points as the fourth generation butterflies that return back to Mexico are the key to your success and are worth the most points. Who will be the monarch of your board game night?
Animeeples Action: This game has butterfly animeeples and they are absolutely gorgeous! Not only that but the rulebook comes with a fact page about monarch butterflies in which you can immerse yourself and educate your friends with some incredible monarch butterfly facts. Did you know monarch butterflies have been observed migrating at 11,000 ft?
Fun Fact: Alderac Entertainment Group has created a promo purple butterfly pack, in which a portion of the sales will go to charitable contribution in memory of Lexi Berry.
Root
Designer: Cole Wehrle
Artist: Kyle Ferrin
Publisher: Leder Games
Player Count: 2-4 players
Length: 60-90 minutes
Overview: What do animals even do in the forest when we’re not around? They quarrel and it is glorious! Root is a competitive asymmetrical game of adventure! Now, this game is really interesting as each character plays different and has different victory conditions, while occupying the same board! There are four factions, Marquise de Cat, the Eyrie Dynasties, the Woodland Alliance and the Vagabond. Let’s break down each of these factions. The Cats initially have the control over the forest and will work to retain control, while building up their empire in an engine-building mechanic fashion! The Eyrie are the primary challengers for control of the forest, they use a clever strategic thinking action system that allows them to challenge control of the forest from the Cats. The Alliance is more sneaky, they will travel through the forest quietly gaining supporters and hoping to enact a surprise evolution while the Cats and Eyrie battle for control. Meanwhile, the Vagabond has a secret and will work with the various factions pitting them against each other and often creating opportunities for mutual benefit. Will you be the one who claims victory in the vast wilderness?
Animeeples Action: This game comes with raccoon, cat, mice and bird animeeples! My favorite animeeple is the mice, while Tylor’s the raccoon! This game is so interesting and so cleverly done, it feels like everyone is playing a completely different game but slightly (or heavily) interfering with each other. It can become quite competitive, which will catch you off guard with how cute these animeeples are!
Fun Fact: Leder Games has variety of asymmetrical games, including Vast: The Crystal Caverns, in which you play a variety of characters with differing missions in a cave. The best part? One of the players can be the cave.
Everdell
Designer: James A. Wilson
Artist: Andrew Bosley, Cody Jones, and Dann May
Publisher: Starling Games
Player Count: 1-4 players
Length: 40-80 minutes
Overview: Did you ever want to plan a city for a bunch of animal friends? Is building healthy communities your passion? Well, Everdell might be your game. This game is a competitive worker placement game, set in a beautiful valley with towering trees, winding rivers and plenty of space to go around. It is filled with countless critters from squirrels to frogs and anything in between. In this game, you will take the role of helping expand Everdell into new territories and establishing a new village. Your job is to develop a new space by constructing buildings and collecting resources to attract new critters! What’s the catch? You only have a year to fully develop and you are competing against other players to score the most points! You will take one of three actions every turn: place a worker, play a card or prepare for the next season. The game ends when you’ve gone through all the seasons and used up all the workers. Points are collected through missions, different buildings in your village, the critters you that claim and any extra point tokens you have collected on your way. At the end of the game, whoever has the most points wins! This game is super fun as you start fairly slow with only two workers but by the end of the game the combinations you create are enthralling and rewarding. Will you attract the best critters and build the most thriving community?
Animeeples Action: This game contains a hedgehog, squirrel, turtle and a rabbit animeeple! My favorite is definitely the turtle! Look at it! Tylor’s is the hedgehog! The artwork in this game will draw you in and make you feel part of the animal community, your town will be filled with vibrant critters that really warm you heart and you have a magnificent tree to oversee your town? Try this game out for sure!
Fun Fact: Not only is there a magnificent Everdell Tree but there are many expansions in this game that create an even more immersive and rich experience. You’ll be living in Everdell in no time, we can be neighbors!
Animals I Would Love To See In Board Games
Having a game surrounding an anteater would be amazing, ants can be scored as victory points? Ah, that would make me so happy.
Otters are Tylor’s favorite animals so not only would that be an automatic purchase but I know he would love the game simply for the otters.
I would love to see games with extinct or endangered animals, where some of the profits could be donated to wildlife preserve charities.
Canadian wildlife game would be incredible as well, set in the Rocky Mountains! We are very excited to play Cascadia by Flatout Games, which does feature a lot of these coming out next year!
A game with animeeples that grow up would be great as well! You can observe the many life stages of a specific animal and really get educated about them.
Have another game you would include in this list? Let us know by commenting or connecting with us on social media!