If you\u2019re looking for more board game reviews, our sister magazines BBC Good Food<\/a>,\u00a0BBC History<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and BBC Science Focus<\/em><\/a> have also reviewed themed games!<\/p>\n We\u2019ve split these games into different categories:<\/p>\n By Elizabeth Hargrave. Alderac Entertainment Group, \u00a349.99.<\/p>\n Age 14+, 2-5 players, 45-75 minutes playing time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n From award-winning game designer Elizabeth Hargrave comes another excellent wildlife-themed board game. Based again on flying animals, this time the attention is turned away from the birds of her Wingspan<\/em> game (review below) to the Monarch butterflies, renowned for their multi-generational migration from central Mexico across northern America and back again.<\/p>\n The game is played across three seasons, starting off with spring in Michoac\u00e1n in Mexico. Players migrate their first generation of butterflies into continental North America, feeding on five types of flowers along the way. Butterflies can hatch when they land next to milkweed and can stop off at cities to collect waystation cards (extra flower tokens, a lifecycle card or a bonus card).<\/p>\n There are additional points to gain at the end of each season, with the summer and autumn goals revealed as the game progresses. However, these can be ignored if it doesn\u2019t fit with your overarching strategy. Importantly, players must remember to return as many of their fourth-generation butterflies as they can to Michoac\u00e1n before the end of autumn.<\/p>\n Reviewed by Megan Shersby<\/a>, editorial & digital co-ordinator, BBC Wildlife<\/em><\/p>\n By Nick Bentley, Dominic Crapuchettes, Ben Goldman, and Brian O\u2019Neill. Northstar Games Studio, \u00a349.99.<\/p>\n Age 12+, 2-4 players (5-6 with deluxe edition), 60-90 minutes playing time.<\/p>\n A standalone game to the award-winning Evolution<\/em> series, the aim of this marine-themed game is to create and evolve marine species in an ever-changing ecosystem, and try to stop them from going extinct. The first half of the game is relatively slow, as you gradually evolve your species using the 12 \u2018Surface\u2019 traits available, and feed from the reef to build their populations.<\/p>\n There can be quite a bit of interaction with other players\u2019 species, with the ability to passively gain food from neighbouring species when you apply parasitic or shark cleaner traits to your species. If you want to be more aggressive, you can play predatory traits that allow you to attack other species \u2013 if they don\u2019t have defensive traits to block your attack that is. You\u2019ll likely lose some species along the way, and in fact, you may find that it\u2019s a handy strategic move.<\/p>\n Then the Cambrian explosion occurs, and suddenly everything becomes a lot more extreme, with random scenario cards activating and deactivating (such as asteroid impacts!). After the explosion, players can starting using powerful trait cards from \u2018The Deep\u2019, which stray from reality into the world of the unknown, with cards such as \u2018Abyss Dweller\u2019, \u2018Electric Discharge\u2019 and \u2018The Kraken\u2019. Each of \u2018The Deep\u2019 100 cards is unique, so each game will be different.<\/p>\n If the latter half doesn\u2019t appeal to you, the game can be made more family-friendly by playing the Reef variant and avoiding the \u2018The Deep\u2019.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a deluxe edition available, which a 5-6 player expansion, acrylic fish tokens, foiled scenario and \u2018The Deep\u2019 cards, card sleeves and food bags.<\/p>\n Reviewed by Megan Shersby<\/a>, editorial & digital co-ordinator, BBC Wildlife<\/em><\/p>\n By Elizabeth Hargrave. Illustrated by Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo, and Beth Sobel. Stonemaier Games, \u00a359.99.<\/p>\n Age 10+, 1-5 players, 40-70 minutes playing time.<\/p>\n Wingspan<\/em> landed on the board gaming scene in 2019 and was soon picking up awards left, right and centre. It has since encouraged scores of board game players to discover the joy of birdwatching, and introduced many birdwatchers to the thrill of board games.<\/p>\n The premise of the game is to attract birds to your nature reserve, where they can live in one of three habitats: forest, grassland or wetland (with the exception of some migratory birds which can moved between habitats). Each of the 170 birds is assigned a power (with the exception of some high-scoring birds) which can be activated either upon playing the bird, when taking an action in the habitat that bird is living in, or once between turns.<\/p>\n For each of your turns, you have the choice of just four actions: play a card, gain food from the birdfeeder (a very cute dice tower), lay eggs or draw more bird cards. There are a wide variety of ways to gain points including playing birds, laying eggs, tucking other bird cards (either as a predator catching prey, or by creating flocks), end-of-round goals, and bonus cards. With so many different factors to take into account (including some luck) and potential strategies to focus on, it\u2019s a very easy game to play again and again without getting bored.<\/p>\n The popularity of the game has meant that\u2019s it has been swiftly followed by two expansions, with more planned for the future. So far, the two expansions are European and Oceania, released in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Each adds more bird and bonus cards to the game, end-of-round goals, differently coloured eggs, and new powers \u2013 both the \u2018brown\u2019 powers for activating when taking an action in a habitat, as well as end-of-round actions with some European birds and end-of-game actions with some Oceania birds. The Oceania expansion takes things a little bit further and introduces nectar as a new food type, which changes up the gameplay a bit and also means using new player mats.<\/p>\n Wingspan<\/em> has also been adapted to play via Steam<\/a> and on the Nintendo Switch<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reviewed by Megan Shersby<\/a>, editorial & digital co-ordinator, BBC Wildlife<\/em><\/p>\n By Bruno Cathala. IELLO,<\/p>\n Age 14+, 2-4 players, 45 minutes playing time.<\/p>\n In this game from award-winning designer Bruno Cathala, players compete to grow the best flower gardens within the desert and create the legendary Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon for the queen.<\/p>\n Vegetation tiles come in three configurations and must be carefully placed on the board, using the waters from the sparsely located fountains to grow the gardens. Turn grass tiles into flower spaces and join them up to create beautiful flower beds, tended to by assistant gardeners.<\/p>\n Precious gems are available to collect as the desert spaces are transformed, worth varying amounts of points according to colour. These gems can be used to move on from the available vegetation tiles to preferred shapes, to buy trees for the gardens or to upgrade the skills of the gardening assistants, all of which can help with increasing the final tally of victory points.<\/p>\n Players must avoid their gardens joining up, so what starts as peaceful tending of the soil quickly leads to jostling for space on the board, competition for gems, and control of the fountains and flowerbeds. The sparkly gems and meeples (assistants, trees and a watering can) are a nice touch and satisfying to use. With different point-scoring strategies to pursue, this game can be easily replayed, but isn\u2019t overly complex.<\/p>\n Reviewed by Megan Shersby<\/a>, editorial & digital co-ordinator, BBC Wildlife<\/em><\/p>\n By Hal Duncan, Ruth Veevers. Illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya. Osprey Games, \u00a329.99.<\/p>\n Age 10+, 3-5 players, 30-50 minutes playing time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A band of crytozoologists have come together to find the Cryptid, an elusive creature that has never been found. Each player has a clue as to where the species could be on the map, such as in certain types of habitat, but players don\u2019t know each other\u2019s clues.<\/p>\n On their turn, a player has two options. They can \u2018Guess\u2019 and directly ask another player whether the Cryptid could be in a certain space, to which the other player must answer truthfully and place a block (cube for \u2018no\u2019 or circle for \u2018maybe\u2019) on that space. If a cube is placed, the player whose turn it is must also place a cube onto the board in another space and must also tell the truth.<\/p>\n Alternatively a player can \u2018Search\u2019 a space they think the Cryptid could be, whereupon each player must put down a block until a cube is put down. The first person to \u2018Search\u2019 a space and correctly guess where the Cryptid is located is the winner.<\/p>\n Sounds easy, but players need to find out the clues that their opponents have, without giving too much information away about their own clue. And typically, what happens is that as information is gathered and clues are guessed, a newly placed block will throw everything into confusion.<\/p>\n Two layers of difficulty are available, the one described above, and another version where inverse clues are also provided (i.e. the species is not found in set habitats), thus doubling the number of clues available and to try to work out.<\/p>\nBoard games for nature lovers<\/h2>\n
Mariposas<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""Mariposas\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/Setup-Image-3-edeee81.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C388"\" "\\"\"Mariposas\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nOceans<\/h3>\n
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![\""Oceans\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2020\/05\/Oceans-Final-Box-Cover-HiRez_cmyk-7668d73.jpg?quality=90&resize=367%2C413"\" "\\"\"Oceans\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""oceans\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2020\/05\/Oceans-components-71ebb1f.jpg?quality=90&resize=580%2C413"\" "\\"\"oceans\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nWingspan<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""Wingspan\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/Wingspan-set-up-b5c9556.jpg?quality=90&resize=450%2C413"\" "\\"\"Wingspan\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nIshtar: Gardens of Babylon<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""Ishtar\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2021\/01\/Ishtar-components-4d4c748.jpg?quality=90&crop=2px%2C108px%2C796px%2C530px&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Ishtar\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nCryptid<\/h3>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""Photosynthesis\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/Photosynthesis-Components-Strategy-Board-Game-9b61537.jpg?quality=90&crop=2px%2C143px%2C795px%2C530px&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Photosynthesis\\"\/")
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