A competition in the heart of the forests of northern Iran in the form of a board game

In the board game "Hyrkan", players get to know about the Hyrkan forests in the north of the country, as well as the various animal species of this ecosystem and their nutritional needs.

According to Mehr's reporter, Iran's nature is a treasure, with its wide and diverse animal and plant species and different habitats, knowing it can play an important role in increasing environmental awareness. Getting to know animals, their food needs, lifestyle and their relationship with the surrounding environment makes animal habitats more important and preserved. However, many of these species and characteristics of Iran's ecosystems were less known and there was not much opportunity to get to know them. But board games can be a different tool to understand such concepts.

While fun and competitive, these games encourage players to actively participate in the game and provide an opportunity to learn new topics and concepts. The Hirkan board game, redesigned and published by Hupa Publishing, is an example of this approach. This game is inspired by the foreign game "Ecosystem", which depicts the Hyrcanian forests of northern Iran, and the players must form a balanced and standard ecosystem by putting together cards of animal species and paying attention to the relationship between them.

The Hyrkan forests, which are on the southern edge of the Caspian Sea and the northern slopes of Alborz, are an example of Iran's natural heritage. These forests cover parts of five Iranian provinces, which from east to west are: North Khorasan province, southern and southwestern areas of Golestan province, along with parts of eastern Gorgan plain, Mazandaran province, Gilan province, and Ardabil province. The Hyrcanian forests, which are about 25 to 50 million years old, are called a natural museum with their biological diversity and natural history. Using this natural platform, the board game "Hirkan" tries to create an opportunity to learn about animal species and their biological needs in addition to entertainment.

An understanding of the biological diversity of the forests of northern Iran

The game "Hyrkan" takes the players to the world of nature and the habitat of various animals, and the mission it gives them is to build a habitat consisting of the animals of the Hyrkan forests. This game consists of 132 cards including different species of animals such as bears, wolves, eagles, fish-eaters and bees, along with a scoring book. There are also a number of pentagonal pages in the game that provide information about the different areas of the Hyrcanian forests, their habitats and animal species, which is an opportunity for players to get to know more about the biodiversity of the north of the country.

In "Hyrkan", players, in addition to learning about the Hyrkan forests in the north of the country, get to know the various animal species of this ecosystem and their nutritional needs. The criterion for earning points in the game is based on how to build the ecosystem and meet the food needs of the animals. Success in this game depends on how the cards connect and their placement.

At the beginning of the game, the cards are dealt and each player is dealt ten cards. Hirkan's game mechanism is based on the "Drafting" method. In this way, each player chooses a card from among the cards in his hand and shapes his ecosystem. He then deals the remaining cards to the player on his left. This process is repeated and cards are circulated between players to complete their biomes. The draft mechanism increases the competitive dimension of the game. In addition to paying attention to their biome, players should think about the value of cards to their opponents. Sometimes choosing a card is important because of the points it creates, and sometimes because leaving it available to others may benefit the opponent.

The goal of the game is for each player to create a unique ecosystem consisting of 20 cards in a four by five table format. Players must place the cards within the limits of this table and pay attention to the connection between them. Animal species cards must be adjacent to each other to be scored. Normally, adjacency means that cards are placed above, below, left or right of each other, and diagonal cards are not considered adjacent; However, some species, such as the eagle, have special rules for scoring. At the end of the game, each player calculates their ecosystem score using the scoring guide card. The player with the most points will be the winner.

One of the main parts of "Hirkan" is to pay attention to the relationships between different animal species. For example, if a bear is adjacent to a trout or a bee, it will receive two points for each. This rule is related to the bear's nutritional need for fish and honey and shows that the value of a card can depend on the presence of other elements in the environment. The eagle also gets points despite the rabbit and trout; with the difference that its range is wider and the desired cards can be placed up to two houses away. Also, in this special rule, diagonal proximity can also be effective in scoring. The bee also gets three points for each adjacent green field. These rules allow players to consider not only the stand-alone value of each card, but also the overall composition of the ecosystem and scoring opportunities when laying out cards.

On the other hand, in addition to entertainment and competition, this game also has an educational capacity. Familiarity with the different animal species of this Iranian forest, their food needs and habitat conditions can attract the attention of the players to the animal habitat and environmental issues. The pieces of information related to the Hyrcanian forests also give the game an Iranian identity and provide the basis for a better understanding of Iran's nature. Finally, "Hirkan" is a game that combines fun and competition with nature and animal habitats. In order to succeed in the game, players must make the best choices among the available cards, know the relationships between species, and build a healthy and standard ecosystem with their correct choices.