Conquest of Pangea Review

Conquest of Pangea Review

The Conquest of Pangea is an area control game by Immortal Eyes Games. In this game, the Earth has a supercontinent called Pangaea and each player controls an intelligent species that is vying for domination of the Earth. The continents on the map have areas where players can place their populace markers and a corresponding place to put a terrain marker. Terrain markers have a number, which represents the cost to place a population marker there after setup. What makes this different than other areas control games is every 25 million years a continent breaks off. When that occurs, leaders and populous markers may not migrate to that continent unless you have a raft. The game continues until all of the continents have broken off at which time victory points are calculated based on the total number of dominance points a player possesses.

Conquest of Pangea’s components are very nice. The map is mounted and has spaces were you place the continents. Each continent is divided into areas where you can place a populace marker and a terrain tile. Whoever has the most populace markers in an area gets a dominance card that corresponds to the terrain type. What’s nice about these continent pieces is that they have recesses where the populace markers and terrain tiles fit perfectly. There are also 4 bags that hold populace markers and leaders (each holding a different color). The fifth bag holds the terrain tiles.

There are four types of cards in Conquest of Pangea: dominance cards, time cards, white power cards and yellow power cards. The dominance cards simply show what terrain type they are associated with and have the victory point value printed on it. Time cards show how much time has passed, have event text and show what continent breaks off if the total elapsed time is 25 million years. Yellow power cards give combat bonuses depending on terrain type. They may be used once per turn and are awarded whenever a player receives a second dominance card of a specific type. White power cards have without a doubt the worst name you could name a card. They are discarded after one use and give a combat bonus. You can earn one in a turn if you grow your species or two if you invade successfully, expand or move via a raft.

The game is set up by each player drawing a time card and placing a populous marker on any vacant area on the continent shown, followed by drawing a terrain tile and placing it on the area. Next, you take a dominance card corresponding to the terrain type. If you draw a volcano or sulfur tile, you put it in the area and put your populous marker back in your pool. You do not get a dominance card as nobody can dominate that area. This continues until all 25 areas are claimed. I found that setup took too long and would have preferred it if instead each player just took turns placing a populous marker in a vacant area until all 25 areas were claimed. Then each area could randomly be given a terrain tile and the players collect their dominance cards.

The sequence of play goes roughly like this. First, you take control of the five amber power stones. These can be used to pay for actions. The main actions are growth, expansion, invasion and migration. Growth is placing a marker in an area where you already have a marker. The marker stack may not be higher than the number on the terrain tile though. Expansion is when you place a marker in an area you don’t have a presence in. This area must be adjacent to an area of yours that has at least two markers though. Invasion is when you place a marker in an area that has reached its limit, but you do not have dominance in yet. This will trigger combat. Migration is moving one of your own markers from an area to an adjacent area. Whenever you have the most populous markers in an area, you gain dominance and get a dominance card.




Combat is done with cards and power stones. First, the invader chooses how many power stones and cards he will use. He will initially play the cards upside-down so the defender doesn’t know what they are. The minimum number he can use is the number on the terrain type of the area. Next, the defender plays his cards and all cards are revealed to show which side has the higher total value. Leaders present add +2 to the combat value of their side. If the invader wins, the defender eliminates one of his populous markers and the invaders takes its place. Otherwise, if the defender wins the invaders populous marker is eliminated.

At the end of your turn, you play a timecard. It says how much time has passed on the top. In the middle it has an event that triggers. If 25 million years have gone by since the last continent breaking off, another continent will break off. When this happens, you cannot migrate a leader or populous marker there unless you have a raft. Certain time cards give rafts and one yellow power card can be used as a raft.

Cost of Pangaea is a fun game but with some good points and some issues. The good ones are it has great components and it is very thematic other than the fact that you are controlling an intelligent species. Pangea existed hundreds of millions of years ago and there were no intelligent species back then. A modern day chicken could out think most species back then. The combat mechanic makes the game play more interesting than a typical area control game.

The first issue this game had is the rulebook does not say if an eliminated populous marker is removed from the game or goes back to your pool. I just assumed all eliminated markers are out of the game. There are also situations that occur where a player can’t do anything. This can occur if a player has used all their population markers and the only spaces they can migrate to of importance are on a continent that has broken off and they don’t have a raft. This player will just keep hoping that the next time card he draws gives him a raft.

This game is ok, but I don’t feel drawn to play it anymore since I’ve had too many turns where I couldn’t do anything.

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View the components in the unboxing video below: