Tiny Epic Dinosaurs

They're Tiny! They're Epic! They're Tiny Epic Dinosaurs!

Tiny Epic by Gamelyn Games are a brilliant franchise of board games. Where most small box games tend to be more simplistic, lighter and have less components in them, which does make them very ideal for day trips out, The TE games are complete, medium weight games just in... well, you guessed it, Tiny proportions.

Players: 1-4

Age: 14+ (Recommended)

Time: 30 - 60 minutes

Gameplay

TE Dinosaurs is a worker placement and resource management game where players become dinosaur ranchers. During the game you acquire, breed and sell on Dinosaurs.

The game is set over the course of 6 rounds, each round containing 7 phases -

1. Resource Collection

2. Assign Ranchers

3. Retrieve Ranchers

4. Arrange your ranch

5. Feed your dinosaurs

6. Breed dinosaurs

7. Refresh for the next round

While the steps are simple enough during each round, there is a lot to remember while playing, you have a set amount of resources available to you, those resources are predominantly meat and grass, I.E the food. Therefore when placing your workers in order to collect dinosaurs or other materials such as walls you need to keep in mind if they will cost you any of the food you will need later on in the phase. Walls are a vital part of the game, because any dinosaurs that are not enclosed by round 5 then escape, and if you do not have enough space in your pen when it comes to the breeding phase, you cannot breed your dinosaurs.

On top of all this, you will have the opportunity to sell your dinosaurs to contractors, both public and privately to help you earn more points at the end of the game.

So, like I said, as easy as the rules may seem at first glance there is in fact a lot going on, with a fair bit of forward planning and strategy to take into account.

Our Thoughts

• We really liked the idea of building up a Dinosaur farm by constantly buying, breeding and working towards the contracts. the fact there were public and Private contracts makes the game more enjoyable because you have hidden agendas to work towards.

• The research cards were are very clever addition, allowing players to work towards creating new dinosaur species, some of which had special abilities which became useful in your farm, but they were also needed for some of the contracts.

• I'm a sucker for cosy, farming games on my switch and PC so the fact one is a boardgame, and it can be played SOLO, its just a dream for me. To top it off, its a nice small box so exceptionally easy to pack up in a bag and take away on holiday with you if you're tight on space but want something a bit more in depth to play.

• The age recommendation is 14+ but I played this game with my eldest who is only 8. He needed a few hints and guidance, especially when he got stuck in a circle of just breeding Brachiosaurus over and over to feed to his T-Rex, but the majority of his game play was his own. Once he figured out how the contracts benefitted him and gave him victory points at the end of the game he abandoned his favourite dinosaur and it being eaten in pursuit of obtaining what he needed, ending the game with 3 contracts completed and scientific research to boost his final score.

• Overall, We thoroughly enjoyed this game, and it has become my favourite TE game now (sorry Galaxies). I definitely think this game is playable by younger players who are used to playing games, and with a bit of guidance will be playing it easily in no time.

Geek Rating: 5/5