The end is Nigh!!
It’s the end of the world but in a cute way. The first signs of life have emerged on a distant adorable planet. Creatures adapt to their changing planet, trying to survive the next catastrophe. Little do they know that they are doomed, the end of the world is coming…
In this game you are helping your Doomlings‘ species evolve by playing traits from your hand, and scoring points in the process. Some traits have more powerful effects, these are dominant traits – be careful though, you can only have two dominant traits in your trait pile (unless specific conditions are met – this is rare) and they can’t be stolen or discarded.
The rounds are fairly simple with 3 main steps:Play a trait from your hand.
Perform the action on the trait card (if applicable).
Stabilize – number of cards in your hand must equal your gene pool.
Each round there is a new age… These could have positive or negative effects on the Doomlings‘ planet. But wait… large world-altering catastrophes are waiting to come forth. These have large and lasting effects on the game. There are up-to 12 ages that played through, 3 of these are catastrophes… When the third catastrophe is pulled, I’m sorry… Bye bye, Doomlings… The world ends 💀
A whole new world – Set up
Setting up a game of Doomlings is quick. There are three main steps:
Sort out the agesSeparately shuffle the age and catastrophe cards.
Make 3 piles of three ages cards and place 1 catastrophe on each stack.
Shuffle each stack, one-by-one, and stack them.
Finally, place “The Birth of Life” age on top of that stack.
Each player picks 1 gene pool tracker of the colour of their liking. Set the gene pool tracker to 5.
Shuffle the big stack of trait cards and deal 5 to each player.
Now you are ready to start playing. The scores are calculated at world’s end!
Tips from beyond the grave
A few tips from previous generations of Doomlings that have all succumbed to the world’s end. May their memory live on…
Some boring traits that have no effect but high points can win you the game, just don’t play them too early as they could easily be stolen by your competitors. Dominant traits are very situational and you can only have two of them, so don’t be afraid to discard them and wait for a dominant trait that is better in the situation that your Doomlings find themselves in. Some ages can force you to discard your entire hand so be careful when waiting to play a killer effect trait. Swarms and kidney traits are better than you initially would think! Try not to look too strong as other players may target you more with negative effects.
Final thoughts before world’s end
Doomlings is a light and cozy game which is easy to introduce to friends and family no matter the occasion. It has some light strategy with some really fun combos that feel great when they come off. I love the artwork and the trait names, they make the game so enjoyable and leave me wanting to play more so I can use all the traits. There are expansions to this game so if you do end up using all the traits and want even more, you are covered! The one thing that you may find frustrating is the scoring. You have to calculate your own score at the end of the game and sometimes this can be complicated due to a lot of different effects being active for world’s end. However, my friends and I love to get Doomlings out as the first game we play on a game night – often to people wanting to play another round or two to get a win.
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