Dinosaur Board Games - 220 titles, updated 6 November 2017 Spotlight on Games > Ludographies    RSS feed   
220 Dinosaur Board Games
November 2017 added Dino Dunk
also updated for ages 5, 6, 7, and 8
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Top Recommendations:
Top Dinosaur Simulation: American Megafauna
Top Dinosaur Fun: Evo
Trias
Top Dinosaur for Kids: American Megafauna
Top Dinosaur Role-Playing: none
Top Dinosaur for Two Players: American Megafauna
Top Dinosaur Solitaire: American Megafauna
Top Dinosaur Cooperative Game: Bambino Dino
Top Dinosaur Action Game: Dino Booom
Discovery Battling T-Rex Game
Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur
Top Dinosaur Trivia Game: DinoX
Dinosaurs and Things
Walking with Dinosaurs
Top Dinosaur Card Game: T-Rex
Walking with Dinosaurs Card Game
Top Dinosaur Collectible Card Game: Cazaurio
Dino Hunt
Dinosaur King
Top Dinosaur Free: Dinosaurs of Catan

American Megafauna
if no image probably out of print
Buy it at Amazon

Phil Eklund; Sierra Madre Games-1997; Sierra Madre Games-2001; (five-player expansion-2006); 1-5 (introductory game 8+)

The evolutionary contest between dinosaurs and mammals, starting with the Triassic (when these two megadynasties were on equal footing), through the Mesozoic (when dinosaurs had the upper hand), and into the Cenozoic (today's struggle between mammals and birds). Not a kiddie game (although the introductory game can be played by them) but a full-fledged, fairly realistic simulation. [synopsis] [summary] [DNA chart] [analysis] [errata] [variants] [scenarios] [playback] [pbem playback] [pbem playback 2] [background]

Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game
Herschel Hoffmeyer; Die-Hard Games LLC-2015; 1-8; 45

Deck-building game in which each player represents one of nine prehistoric apex predators competing for territory and resources against other predators. Each species has a unique 35-card deck with different strengths, weaknesses, and strategies. Challenges include climate changes, disease, attacks from predators, infections, and deadly prey. There are many types of dinosaurs that behave in their own ways. The goal is to build up the population, evolve and become the Apex predator.

Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game: Saurophaganax Expansion Deck
Herschel Hoffmeyer; Die-Hard Games LLC-2016; 1-8; 45

Expansion kit for the Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game (above) includes 70 Cards and a card divider. Card types:

  • Environment, e.g. Hot Springs, The Great Valley
  • Prey, e.g. Diplodocus, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Camptosaurus
  • Carnivores, e.g. Megalosaurus, Compsognathus, Archaeopteryx, Cryolophosaurus
  • Allosaurus
    New cards permit pulling cards from the discard pile.

    Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game: Stomping Grounds Expansion Deck
    Herschel Hoffmeyer; Die-Hard Games LLC-2016; 1-8; 45

    Expansion kit for the Apex Theropod Deck-Building Game (above) includes 70 Cards and a card divider. Card types:

  • Evolve, Rapid Incubation, Infectious Bite, Adrenal Frenzy, Muscular Augmentation
  • Affliction, e.g. Fatal Pathogen, Broken Bone
  • Environment cards, e.g. Sulfuric Vents, Arctic Blast
  • Animals, e.g. Megaraptor, Concavenator
    Emphasis is on greater direct interaction.

    Bios: Megafauna
    Philip Eklund;
    Sierra Madre Games-2011; 1-5
    The third version of American Megafauna features considerable streamlining and simplification.

    Bitin' Off Hedz
    Cheapass Games-1996; 2-6

    A simple race game that lets you use your own plastic dinosaurs for pieces. Dinosaurs can throw rocks at each other to knock the other guy back to Start, and they can accomplish the same thing by "Bitin' Off Hedz" (landing on the other fellow's square). You win by being the first to get to the volcano and throw yourself in! Play is usually short, but can become interminable if too many players get on board.

    Burp
    Harald Bilz, Peter Gudbrod, Rainer Kröhn; Heidelberger Spieleverlag-1992/Mayfair; 2-4

    Players represent a stone age village struggling to climb the evolutionary ladder by discovering inventions.

    Conquest of Pangea
    Philip Orbanes; Winning Moves (USA)-2006; 2-4

    Species advance, evolve and battle on the super-continent which re-shapes itself during play. Apparently there is a great deal of randomness...

    Conquest of Pangea: Atlantis
    Philip Orbanes (?) for Winning Moves (USA)-2006; 2-4

    An expansion kit for the above game, it adds Atlantis as an additional continent plus a few other additions, as well as clarifying the rules to the main game.

    Cretacea: The Game of Gargantuan Survival
    Arthur Hannan; (unpublished)-2016; 2; 60

    Rules for miniature combat intended for 1/100 scale.

    Dino
    Reinhold Wittig; Hexagames-1989/Fun Connection-1992; 2-6

    The board is a 6x6 grid, on which a jungle valley is shown. Each player runs a science team, travelling to the past t: steal dinosaur eggs. Each player gets 2 play figures, then 6 nests are allocated to different playing fields with 5 dinosaurs to guard them. A meteorite is placed on a track which runs around the board. On his turn, a player may move a piece up to four fields. Unused points are used to advance the meteorite. Players must walk around squares containing dinosaurs. If it reaches an egg space, he may take it. The more eggs obtained, the greater the number of points. But take care to return to the present before the meteorite strikes, which ends the game. Positive points are awarded for eggs, negative ones for researchers still in the past.
    Originally published Edition Perlhuhn as Iridium in 1988.

    Dino Bash
    Nigel Gross & Jon Sutherland; Symbiosis Publishing Ltd-1993; 3; 60

    In a bar in an imagined world in which dinosaurs never died out, each player represents one of carnivores, herbivores or mammals. Each character features Wounds Points, Action Points, Combat Points, attack style and special abilities. They may employ various items in the bar to aid in the fight.

    Dino Drache
    Virginia Charves; Ravensburger-1993; 4

    No other information available.

    Dino Dunk
    Cody Stevens; Twin City Games-2018; 2; 45

    Dexterity game of dinosaur basketball using wooden disks. On a turn players flick either a dino or the ball to move, pass or shoot.

    Dino-Duell
    Jonathan Schouten and Paul Velleman; Ducosimo-1992; 2; 30

    Each player begins with four dinosaurs in each of three types on the. back rows of a 6x7 board. A turn is moving horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Capture is possible only under very special arrangements of pieces on the board. Players seek to get four pieces adjacent to the central river.

    DinoGenics
    Richard Keene; (unpublished); 3-5; 120

    Worker placement game of players competing to build and run dinosaur parks. They assign agents to compete over resources and then build facilities, populating them with dinosaurs. The best dinosaurs bring the most visitors, but if you haven't spent enough on the facilities they can escape and destroy parts of the park.

    Dinoland
    Andrea Angiolino, Fabrizio Casa, Luca Giuliano, Massimo Casa, Stefano Giusti and Marco Bardella; Clementoni-1993; 2-4

    Each player leads an expedition to save dinosaurs, eggs, fossils and babies from a volcano-threatened island. Play is determined by a videotape with Professor Darmin on your screen as if it was at the spaceship window. The trick is that the professor's description matches the spaceship's current location so getting close to it will ensure success.

    Dinomania
    (unknown); (web-published)-2016; 2-5; 30

    Dinosaur-themed card game of being the first to clear your hand (i.e. a shedding game).

    Dinos, Dice and Dynamite
    Andrew Hagen; (web-published)-2014; 1; 45

    Press-your-luck and worker placement solitaire game of paleontogists in the Old West. You have a crew of workers to help discover new types of dinosaurs and defend them from others. Includes a deck of cards, six dice and a programmed opponent.

    Die Dinos sind los
    Wolfgang Riedesser; ASS-1993; 2-4

    The cards show different dinosaurs and the board a jungle as well as nests with colored eggs (nest tiles). Each player gets nest tiles in his colour as well as the suitable dinosaur. All figures start at the volcano. The remaining nest tiles are shuffled and dealt to the individual nests on the playing field so that that nobody can see where the broken eggs are. Each player is dealt three cards. On his turn, each player plays a card and then moves his piece. Cards alow movement of the dinosaur or the players. The idea is to collect good eggs from nests and avoid empty nests and broken eggs. In English, the title is The Dinosaurs Are Loose.

    Dinorennen
    Friedemann Friese & Ilja Landsberg; unpublished (1992); 3-5; 45

    Prototype in which each player has a racing dinosaur that moves and also fights via card play.

    The Dinosaur Game: Survival or Extinction
    Latz Chance Games-1995; 2-16

    The board shows a long, serpentine track over which players move their pawns, propelled by die rolls. Each one represents a different type of dinosaur. Some spaces grant food tokens while others are perilous, e.g. natural disasters. In addition, it's possible, via cards, to be attacked by other dinosaurs. The winner reaches the final space while still having enough food remaining.

    Dinosaur King
    Sega/Upper Deck-2005; 2
    Collectible card game set in the Cretaceous era based on the television series for children of the same name. The set of over 150 cards include Spinosaurus, Triceratops and, of course, T-Rex, which the players send into battle employing simple rules. The cards also include barcodes so that players can scan them into their game consoles. Cards include background information, strength, type, element, technique and critical hit type.

    Dinosaur Wars
    (unknown); The Game Crafter-2015; 2-4; 150
    Players represent fossil hunters in the Badlands during the late 1800's. They set up by choosing crew and equipment and then try to find bones in complete sets and return them to a museum for money to use for further expeditions. Rustlers, claim jumpers and calamities ar challenges to overcome. Employs a modular board and roll-and-move.

    Dinosaurs of Catan
    Rick Heli; PnP-2001; 3-4

    A variant for the popular game Die Siedler von Catan / The Settlers of Catan
    [rules]

    Dominant Species
    Chad Jensen; GMT-2010; 2-6

    Worker placement and area control game beginning 90,000 BC just as an ice age begins. The possible powers are mammal, reptile, bird, amphibian, arachnid and insect. Lasts about 3 hours.

    Dragon War: Jurassic Valley Set
    Robert A. Kraus; RAK Graphics-1999; 2-6; 45

    Dinosaur-themed expansion to the Dragon War fantasy game.

    Escape from Dinosaur Island!
    Ron Shirtz; Fractal Dimensions-1998; 1

    Solitaire game of World War 2 marines battling a variety of dinosaurs and other megafauna such as sabertooths on a Pacific Island.

    Escape from 100 Million BC
    Kevin Wilson; IDW Games/Pandasaurus Games-2016; 1-6; 60

    Cooperative game in which players are stranded time travelers who must reassemble their ship before the eruption of a nearby volcano. Other challenges are roaming dinosaurs, time rifts to close and historical figures to round up. Each player has unique abilities.

    Evo
    Philippe Keyaerts; Eurogames/Descartes-2001; 3-5

    Your aim is to develop a new species of dinosaur including features such as weather, land (3 levels from sea level (warmer) to high mountains (colder), other players' dinosaurs, movement points, attacks and an auction system allows you to buy new genes (horn, fur, leg, etc.) in order to evolve your dinosaurs. The prototype was the winner of the Sim D'Or 99. [Review: Haag]

    Evolution
    David Wells; Ariel/Fantasy Games Unlimited-1976; 2

    This is played in rounds divided into three phases: Growth, Movement and Attack. Players begin by placing one piece on any intersection. Then in Growth, new pieces are placed for the existing ones, but not adjacent to any other pieces. The maximum size of a group is five pieces. After all growth is complete, Movement begins. Only groups of two or more pieces may move and moving has several other rules. Following this are Attacks. Each piece bordering an opposing piece may attack, calculating its strength from its neighboring pieces of the same color. The weaker piece is removed. Only one piece may attack in a round. At the end, for each occupied intersection a player receives one point. Also known as Guerilla.

    The Evolution Game
    Simon Boswell & Phillip Lewis (Finland)-1997; 2-4

    Simulates competition for territory with other species, changing environmental conditions, plagues, starvation, natural disasters, global catastrophes, mutation, ecological niches and the geological sequence from the Precambrian to the Pleistocene on an abstract board.

    Evolution Earth: Cataclysm
    Tomi Rantala & Jaana Hintsanen; Mindwarrior-2009/Tactic-2009; 2-4

    Deck-building card game in which players build the continents of the world and then try to conquer them with their evolving species.

    Evolution in the Box
    Jirí Mikolá; Jirasgames-2009; 2-5

    Players begin play representing a forerunner of modern man, trying to find meat and evolve his brain, which helps hunting skills. Command cards are used to decide where the player's tribe will move and whether they will be able to hunt any mammoths.

    Explorers of the Lost Valley
    Enrique Dueñas González; Gen-X Games-2016; 2-4; 25

    Press-your-luck dice and card game of African explorers who discover live dinosaurs and try to capture as many as possible. On a turn reveal two dinosaur cards. Try to capture one by rolling dice higher than their difficulty.

    Extinction
    Gary Sinauer; Sinauer Associates-1968?/1970/1971/Carolina Biological Supply Company-1978

    An educational product. There were rules for several games, but only the main one seems to have any interest. Players represent a species on an island and have genes, reproductive rate, prey attack and defense, habitat, mobility, etc. Players can change their "genes" during play, with players eliminated by competition, being preyed upon, or over-population. The 1978 edition changed the reproductive attribute cards from a fixed litter size to a multiple of the number of creatures in an area. [more]

    Fossil Hunters
    Kevin Lanzing; Clockwork Colossus Games/The Game Crafter-2015; 2-5; 30

    Area encirclement game. Players use wooden sticks to divide the board and establish their claims. They then try to finish their claims before time runs out.

    Giganten
    unknown; Carlit-1992; 2

    Differently-equipped dinosaurs battle on a checkerboard à la Chess or Stratego.

    Great Dinosaur Hunt
    Ronald Keippel; self-1993; 2-4

    Trivia game said to last thirty minutes.

    Great Dinosaur Rush
    Scott Almes; APE Games-2015; 2-5; 60

    Game of collecting sets of fossils. Each turn has two phases: dig and build (assemble the fossils into a complete dinosaur). Players may engage in take-that actions to gain Notoriety, but if at the end they have the most Notoriety, they lose points.

    In a World of Dinosaurs
    Pete Betcher; (self-published)-(forthcoming)2015; 2-4; 45

    In this two board game reminiscent of Khronos, players move dinosaurs as they try to stay alive amid meteors, landslides, tar pits, hungers, etc. When they die their fossils appear on the second, modern board, where players try to excavate them in a a set collection sub-game.

    Mesozoic Tales
    Tito Aureliano; The Game Crafter-2013/Colecionadores de Ossos-2013; 2-6; 90

    Players try to restore order after dinosaurs escape from a zoo on a remote island. Directed by mission cards, they must fight to survive and reactivate the power grid, all the time limited to carrying at most three items at a time, which can include vehicles, guns, medical packs and so on. Or they may play a dinosaur. Which applies depends on a die roll each at the start of each turn. If a dinosaur, it may be an herbivore or a carnivore. Dinosaurs are used to hamper the activities of the fellow players.

    Pangaea: The Evolution Game
    Pyramid Games (UK)-1986; 2-6

    The game object is to evolve from a lungfish into modern man. A set of event cards allow moving predators, evolving predators, and shifting continents. Somewhat high on the luck factor. A little like American Megafauna stripped very far down. Also known as Evolution.

    Pirates vs. Dinosaurs
    Richard Launius; Jolly Roger Games-2010; 2-5; 90

    Players control pirate ships whose crews have partial knowledge of a treasure buried on some Pacific island which just happens to be filled with leftover dinosaurs, and also is sinking. At the start players get to outfit their ships with crew, weapons and other equipment. One of their tasks will be to find other pieces of their maps so that they can definitively locate the treasure. Hostile dinosaurs appear in the form of cards played by others. The treasure is dug up by pulling pieces from a bag; deciding how long to keep doing this before getting back to the ship in safety is a matter of pushing one's luck.
    [Pirate Games]

    Prehistoric War P.I.G.s
    Chris Clark; Inner City Game Designs-2005; 2

    A P.I.G. is a plastic infantry guy and this is a miniatures war game of plastic dinosaurs and cave men (why do some think they are co-evals?) fight.

    Reptile Island
    Brett Christensen; web-published-2010; 1-5

    Cooperative game of Victorian-era explorers trying to escape an island inhabited by two dimetrodons.

    Die Schlacht der Dinosaurier
    Roger Ford; Schmidt-1993

    Battling dinosaur armies.

    Sir Harry and the Dinosaurs
    Roger Webb; SFSFW-2003; 1-

    A set of miniatures rules for dinosaur hunting in the year 1878 where dinosaurs are living in the jungles of India. The player tries to capture as many dinosaurs as possible in a fixed amount of time. First published in the magazine Ragnarok, issue 39.

    T-Rex
    Hanno & Wilfried Kuhn; Hans im Glück-1999/ Rio Grande Games-1999; 3-5

    The theme sounds just like that of Dino: each player runs a science team, travelling to the past to steal dinosaur eggs, taking care to return to the present before meteorites strike the earth, which ends the game. On each turn, the players choose to play high cards to collect eggs or low cards to be able to direct future collecting efforts. The winner will be the player who collects the most points in dinosaur eggs in the 12 rounds of the game. A mix of trick-taking, card counting and bluff.

    Tetrazoic
    Teel McClanahan, III; Modern Evil Press-2014; 2-6; 60

    Deck-building game of post-nuclear war genetically-engineered monsters Cards are monster parts that players use create mutations.

    Trias
    Ralf Lehmkuhl; Gecko Games-2002; 2-5

    "Trias" is German for "Triassic". Each player steers the fortunes of his dinosaur herds as they peacefully coexist on the splintering continent of Pangaea. The winner is the player who manages to dominate the most of the new continents before the meteor strikes.

    Triassic Terror
    Peter Hawes; Eagle Games-2012; 2-6; 120

    Players establish and grow herds, which migrate across the four environments, competing for the best habitats. Beware dangers such as t-Rex, velociraptors, pterodactyls and volcanoes.

    Triassic Terror: Promo Pack
    Peter Hawes; Eagle Games-2013; 2-6; 90

    Adds two predator tiles and a pterodactyl (to use as the first player token).

    Tyranno Ex
    Karl-Heinz Schmiel; Moskito-1990/Avalon Hill; 2-4

    A memory-based game of somewhat abstract evolution. [Review: Game Cabinet]

    Tyrannasaurus Wrecks
    Glen Frank; Fantasy Games Unlimited-1985; 2-4
    Folio game about time travellers hunting dinosaurs and trying to avoid getting chomped. Includes two cardstock pages of reference tables, cardstock hunter record sheet and dinosaur record sheet, 17" by 11" cardstock hex map (the actual playable area of the map is 9.5" by 10"; the rest of the map contains a turn track and reference charts/tables), and 141 cut apart counters.

    Uchronia
    Carl Chydyk; IELLO-2011; 3-5

    Card management game set in an alternate universe where dinosaurs and major civilizations exist side by side. Players vie to construct 7 buildings and gain influence and reputation points.

    Supposed to be forthcoming in June.

    Urland
    Frank Nestel; Doris & Frank-2001; 3-5

    A successor to Primordial Soup in theme only, probably one of the greatest successes from Essen 2001. Perhaps in response to complaints that every Primordial Soup turn was more or less the same, now one has at least three or four different types of turns. There is the turn in which one chooses the island of competition, after that the turn one spends only planning, after that the turn in which one goes last and has a very good chance of knowing what the land of competition will be and finally the neutral turn. As in the predecessor there are still gene cards which permit players to "break" the normal rules, but now the game is one of regional dominance rather than of feeding. In addition, in deciding to breed more fish (which will later walk onto land), one usually helps other players as well as oneself. There seem to be curiously few gene cards, but there is already precedent for an expansion kit. What many players may not realize and what designers will most admire is just how clean all the rules have been kept, how just by details like the clever ordering of the phases, the handling of the scoring track, etc., many extra and niggly rules, e.g. what to do about ties, have been very neatly avoided. Recommended for all strategists.

    Urland Expansion
    Frank Nestel; Doris & Frank-2003; 3-5

    Adds 10 new gene cards.

    Velociraptor
    J. R. Blackwell, Major Johnson, Bri Lance, Daniel Solis, Jesse Whitworth & Andrew Wilson; Board Raptor Games-2012; 3-6; 60

    In this card game players represent young velociraptors that seek prey, mutate and try to survive the environment. It is also possible to cannibalistically attack opponents.

    Some game enthusiasts may want to plan a special chili and board game night. Participants could each bring a different type of chili, from the most common Chuck's chili recipes to unique Dinosaur BBQ chili recipes.


    Learn About Dinosaurs Deutsch
    • Als Deutschland am Äquator lag. Eine Reise in die Urgeschichte. von Volker Arzt, 2001
    • Der grosse Atlas der Urgeschichte. von Douglas Palmer, 2001
    • Leben in der Urzeit. Von den Dinosauriern bis zu den ersten Menschen. von Z.V. Spinar, 1976
    • Lexikon der Vorzeit von Rodney Steel und Anthony P. Harvey, 1981
    • Ursprünge des Lebens von David Norman, 1994
    • Warum Elefanten große Ohren haben. Dem genialen Bauplan der Tiere auf der Spur. von Chris Lavers, 2001
    Also ... Thank you to Yahoo for choosing this page as their no. 1 dinosaur board games site.

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