(Space)Base Game
Arcs is a completely unique and ambitious board game designed by Cole Wehrle, the mind behind such mad modern classics as Root, Pax Pamir and Oath. Published by Leder Games, Arcs promises a narrative-driven experience that combines the best aspects of ‘4X’ (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) games with emergent storytelling. Most of Wehrle’s games are incredibly divisive and already Arcs has become many people’s favourite game as well as seen people bounce off its chaos.
Arcs employs a clever blend of familiar and innovative mechanics, doing what Wehrle does best and throwing curve balls amongst the figurative pigeons. At first glance, the game might seem like a standard 4X affair with its focus on exploration, expansion, resource management, and conflict. However, it quickly becomes apparent that what we have here is more than the sum of its parts.
(Space)Base Game
Arcs is a completely unique and ambitious board game designed by Cole Wehrle, the mind behind such mad modern classics as Root, Pax Pamir and Oath. Published by Leder Games, Arcs promises a narrative-driven experience that combines the best aspects of ‘4X’ (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) games with emergent storytelling. Most of Wehrle’s games are incredibly divisive and already Arcs has become many people’s favourite game as well as seen people bounce off its chaos.
Arcs employs a clever blend of familiar and innovative mechanics, doing what Wehrle does best and throwing curve balls amongst the figurative pigeons. At first glance, the game might seem like a standard 4X affair with its focus on exploration, expansion, resource management, and conflict. However, it quickly becomes apparent that what we have here is more than the sum of its parts.
The game is played over several ‘chapters’, with each round taking place over six actions. Players take turns performing said actions, such as moving fleets, building cities and space ports, taxing to gain resources, influencing the available guilds and of course battling. However the standout feature here is the action system itself. Instead of a traditional action point system, players use cards from their hands in a track-taking like format. The lead player will dictate the main available action options and will always be able to take their card’s maximum amount of actions. Anyone following will have a slightly more difficult time! If you surpass the lead by playing a higher card of the same suit you will get to also take the card’s maximum action points but anyone who cannot do this is forced to take a single action, either copying that of the leader or pivoting to another. Surpassing will take the initiative to lead the next turn or you can burn an extra card to seize it but losing a turn in the process. The dual-use cards force players to constantly weigh their options, as using a card for one purpose often means sacrificing another potential action.
Leaders and Lore
The game was good enough but this tiny Leaders and Lore box expansion adds everything I want to take a good game into excellence. In the box there are eight Leader cards. These leaders all proved a core set of powers or abilities and will also dictate your asymmetric setup instructions. What I just love about these Leaders is that every one of them has a positive power and also one thing that has a negative impact on your game. This duality really pushes you to play a certain way, opening up play styles that you maybe hadn’t tried before. For example, the Anarchist doesn’t get to place any cities during set up and has a relic and weapons resources to begin. Their positive power is that they are ‘inspiring’, this means that they can tax for resources much easier, taxing empty cities as if they were their own. However as they are also ‘principled’, they cannot tax their own loyal cities at all. Or the ‘Overseer’ starts with less ships and agents but can damage a building they rule to take an action again on their turn. All of the leaders offer something really interesting to play with and the restrictions are not minor, they have a real impact on the game style that you will need to take on.
Then there are lore cards. These are like the court cards except they cannot be raided/stolen by spending keys. There are fourteen cards in the box all offering a very different kind of ability. At the beginning of the game these will be drafted with the leaders and each player will only ever have one per game, unless a Lore card alters that. Many of them will only activate when certain ambitions are declared. For example, with ‘Warlord’s Cruelty’, while Warlord is declared, you may tax cities that you have already taxed that turn. Or other cards will offer you an additional action option. For example, ‘Force Beams’, states that instead of a classic move action, you a can use ‘guide’, allowing you to move any ships you like, including other players’ ships to another location. They are all powerful in their own way as long as you take advantage of their styles.
Leaders and Lore is not an expansion that will help enable your own personal style of play but instead encourage you to explore the outer reaches of space, the universe, and beyond!
