“Hey, those are my bones.”
Digging for Dinos is a tile-collecting game where each player controls 2 paleontologists scouring the board for a section of dinosaur bones to complete their collection.
OVERVIEW
Digging for Dinos plays 2-4 players & depending on the number of players, a grid will be constructed using tiles randomly placed to create the “board”. The goal of the game is to collect tiles and, if possible, complete whole skeletons to earn the most points. Each tile shows a section of a particular dino along with a) where in the whole skeleton it belongs, b) points for individual tiles/whole skeleton & c) the name of the dinosaur. The scoring looks something like 3|13, which means as a single piece, it’s worth 3 points. If you complete this skeleton (which this particular one takes 4 tiles), the entire skeleton would be worth 13 points. Individual tile scores range from 1-4 points each while whole skeletons can range from 5 points to low 20s.
There are 3 groups of tiles called “Eras,” & each era has a complete skeleton for each of the dinosaurs (I believe there are 7 or 8 different ones). Once you’ve gone through Era 1, continue using Era 2 tiles, then Era 3 until you run out of tiles. This is one of the ways the game end is triggered (ie, you can’t refill after a player’s turn). The other way is to complete 4 skeletons. Finish the round (equal turns) & score your tiles/skeletons.
GAMEPLAY
In a snake-draft fashion, each player will place their 2 paleontologists (workers) onto open tiles (not already claimed by someone else). Each side of these two workers shows either orthogonal arrows or diagonal arrows. You will place one of each onto different tiles until everyone has both their workers on tiles. The first player will then move one of his workers to an adjacent open tile (jumping over any tiles that already have a worker on them) & flip the worker to the opposite side (if the worker moved left/right/up/down, the next time he moves will be diagonal). Then take the tile you just moved from, place it in your play area & refill that spot with a random tile from the era stack. That’s your whole turn. Next player goes and so on, until one of the game end triggers happens. As mentioned, each tile is worth points, but if you can complete skeletons, the whole thing is worth more than the individual tiles would be.
There are two 2-tile dinos that have a special ability that may be used when those skeletons are complete. For those, you may flip one of your workers to their other side.
FINAL THOUGHTS
At first glance, this is a very simple tile collecting game. Not much strategy…at first glance. Once you’re into a few moves, you start to see how you can block others from completing their skeletons or maybe focus on high scoring tiles/skeletons or even complete some small skeletons before others get a chance to get their collection rolling.
Also, the pieces are really nice acrylic tiles that have a great clacking sound/feel to them. The game would’ve worked fine with square cards, but this is way nicer.
The game runs about 25-35 minutes & plays great at all player counts (nothing changes except the number of tiles in the grid).
We played with younger children as well as older adults & everyone enjoyed it immensely. Don’t let the simple premise fool you; this is a fun game for the entire family. Easy to learn/teach/play but with some real meat on the bones (albeit a long, long time ago).
GAMER RATING – 9
NON-GAMER/FAMILY RATING – 9
You can find Th3rd World Studios online at th3rdworld.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/3WSPublishing.
[Tony Lawhorne]
