A Practice Plan for High Scores in Dinosaur Island

Dinosaur Island has no tournament circuit. We could not find an official organized play program or a regular championship event for it, so this course’s top level is about the hardest challenges instead: the solo game, the expansion, and high scores at every player count. This last lesson pulls the course together into a plan you can follow for your next ten games.

Why measure

Final scores alone are hard to learn from. They depend on the objectives, the plot twists, and the player count. The numbers that show what to fix are the leaks: points you could have kept.

Track these after every game:

1. Final score and the winning score.
2. VPs lost to eaten visitors. Each one usually cost about 2 VPs, counting the patron who did not score.
3. Empty exhibits at the end. Each one was 10 VPs.
4. Patrons stuck in line in your biggest Park Phase. Each was a missed VP.
5. Most workers you had in a single round.
6. The round the game ended, and which objective stack you used.
7. Leftover money at the end. Anything under a multiple of $5 was wasted.

After ten games, the leaks show you where to practice.

The ten game plan

Games 1 and 2: baseline. Play normally and log everything. Do not change anything yet.

Games 3 and 4: zero eaten. Make it your only goal to finish with no visitors eaten. Buy security in the same Worker Phase as every dinosaur. Watch what it does to your score and your money.

Games 5 and 6: workers. Aim for 6 workers by the end of round three, through specialists, rare die faces, or plot twists that allow it. Note the round you reached it.

Game 7: solo. Play the seven round solo game, aiming to score one objective every round for the 10 VP bonus. The solo lesson has the plan. Solo is the best drill for planning several rounds ahead.

Games 8 and 9: the clock. Use medium objectives. At the start of every round, count the open objectives and project your final score. Practice the spend-down from the endgame lesson.

Game 10: a full table. Play at the largest count your group can manage and practice reading rivals at the research center and market.

Then compare games 1 and 2 with games 9 and 10.

The post-game review

After each game, spend two minutes as a table:

• Which objective decided the end, and who triggered it?
• Who lost the most points to loose dinosaurs, and was it avoidable?
• Which specialist or upgrade did the most work?
• Was anyone’s capacity far behind their excitement?

Our guide to handling rules arguments is useful here too: settle any rules question from the night in the rulebook before the next game.

Playing well at every count

Each player count asks for a slightly different focus, as covered in the player counts lesson:

• Solo: the objective ladder and a shrinking bag. Security protects future rounds.
• Two players: more room at the research center. Plan two rounds ahead and race the short objective clock.
• Three players: turn order matters. Weigh how the score track sets who picks first.
• Four players: a crowded research center and a fast market. Buy what you need when you see it, and deny when it is cheap.
• Five, with Totally Liquid: everything above, more crowded still.

Raising your ceiling

The biggest scores tend to share a shape, built from the ideas in this course:

• An engine bought early: workers, Dino Research II, DNA Refinement II, and upgrades used every round.
• Security that never lets a patron go, bought as threat rises.
• A park whose capacity keeps pace with excitement, using attractions for safe space.
• Exhibits stacked full rather than spread thin, with no empty ones at the end.
• Objectives finished when ahead, and the last one left alone when behind.
• A last round that spends every useful dollar.

Finding people to play

A practice plan needs opponents. Your local game store is the best place to ask about open board game nights, and Pandasaurus Games shares news about its games on its own site. Our piece on how to start a play group covers building a regular table of your own.

The Ludarium is working toward a game lounge in Indianapolis. Join the Indianapolis list for first word on local learn-to-play nights as The Ludarium grows.