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It felt right watching it at the time. Clever is for sure a good ability, but you still have to spend an action to play the Taco. Playing it at 5cp is a possibility but then there's no money for 2 animals

won't argue against that :P

Ahh, of course. It's the best play then. Plus finishing the game with 1 worker is way more style points

Cant take 5 money cause they have to take extra worker to block the Uni right?

I like the idea of a video vs the AI. I'm not sure 3 of them is actually harder than 1 of them, though. Them all taking the cheap donations from each other seems like it would be easier. But I'll for sure do a 1v1 sometime next week

happy to hear you are planning to do a match vs legendary AI, looking forward to it :) thank you! I strongly disagree about vs3 being easier than vs1 - both from my own experience (vs 1 took me like 20 tries, vs 3 at least 50) and steam archievements (2,8% won a vs1 against legendary AI but only 1,5% against vs3). In my experience, in vs1 you can influence the game more, for example with causing break or using aggressive tactics (constrict/venom). Also, you only have to deal with only one enemy that potentially takes the good cards, takes conservation project slots etc. I think in vs3 luck (especially drawing lucky) plays a much bigger role, as there is just almost always one of the enemies that gets lucky or plays well and is, all things considered, ending the game pretty damn fast. If vs3 is easier for you, I would love to see you demonstrate it

​@matt_skates It's possible I got lucky, but I did just beat 3 of them on the first try :P They don't know how to close out the game properly which gives you (me?) way too much time. Like, they are doing Cards actions and Build actions while all of them are on 80-90 points. After playing it I don't believe it's easier than 1v1, but probably the same difficulty. The problem is the AI is not very smart and you have time to take advantage of that.

@ the final turn count was 26 - one of them crossed first. Let me know if that's about the same for your games

​@@NoWondersTV first try? damn!! I know you are an Ark Nova machine but wouldnt have thought you could do it on first try. :) congrats that's amazing! I agree AI is not too smart, just has quite a strong head start with 25 appeal and all actions upgraded

That's actually a good idea, I should play Ark while on a treadmill!

Glad it helped! My days of making Castles of Burgundy videos are over, but if Pistol Star ever decides to start making videos again his channel is one to watch!

I don't feel like it's solved at all. Knowing the Turtle and water are strong is one thing, but then how do you pivot when there are very few water tiles for the game? I'm still enjoying it!

I've lost the title after my 3rd Emu cup game today

It's been emu meta for the past 2 years

@NoWondersTV thats what was holding me back! See you at 800🫡

Sponsors, animals and association give you points. Build and cards just give you the means to use these actions. Natural progression for any game typically that players get more efficient. Minimalize using cards and build. Also focus less on upgrading your actions or getting double uni & double partner zoo. That's all fluff. In the most efficient gameplan you would probably build once, never get a partner zoo/uni and just release animals over and over. Kiosks and upgraded build have just been overrated since the beginning because intuitively that's what you want to do in similar games (build engine first, focus points later). Kiosks hardly really have much time to pay off though as the game is typically 4 or 5 breaks and if it is 5 breaks you won't be able to spend all your money last round. So a round 2 kiosk of upgraded build only benefits you for 3 breaks and is usually giving you like +6 money over the game which is about 2 points. The typical round 2 build upgrade just doesn't do much if you're using it to build a kiosk 1-3 times and a pavillion ~4 times. Basically you are getting like ~8 extra money and convert those to ~4 extra points and covering ~6 extra spots on your map. Covering more spots is usually not that relevant though as 2 size reward does that just as fine with even more convenient timing and filling up your zoo rarely happens anyway because you don't want to build that much. I think there are two main reasons to upgrade build: 1) you want to really build on something now and upgraded build let's you snake towards it (and 2 size reward doesn't work somehow). Usually this is crucial rep reward, free uni/partner zoo. Often giving you the upgrade you would otherwise have taken anyway. 2) you desperately need to play 2 animals which upgraded build let's you do, usually a 2 or 3 size animal and a 1 size. Once again if 2 size reward doesn't work somehow.

Yes, I thought Experimental Forest was the prelude that let you ignore requirements on your first card. Don't ask me why I thought that.

Agreed, if you are playing an animal just to release. Different story if they're in the zoo already. Eagle gives an extra action though, which is likely worth the 11 money

Ok ok, this is true. If they're not played yet then money is the important metric to consider.

selling eagle was not correct there imo

I think it was. He was super low on money and had two eagles. Plus despite the 5 card library some hand tension if you keep it.

Haha, well I do agree that it takes skill knowing there are times where it's actually good to sell/discard an Eagle. It shows you have awareness of game state and are not just blindly following strategy advice. I wouldn't have sold the Eagle there either, though. Something does need to be sold because we have just no money. But I think Dugong and Stork can probably go first.

Eagles get overrated a bunch. Eagles are great for crossing way past 100 to win a close game and they are very good utility to win a project, end a round unexpected early etc. Also pretty decent releases. But for 'normal' usage an eagle isn't that great value actually. If you average points per turn with normal play for top players it's like 110 points per 30 turns so a simple determination isn't actually all that many points. If you're not using the determination for any special cases other big animals are just getting you better value. And if you have 2 eagles the chance the 2nd eagle will have a great use case drops of a lot actually. So i think it's actually a pretty easy sell there.

@@markvanderwerf8592 I think if you have both eagles and you can support 2 projects (you have 4 X tokens to push association back up) - it's not overrated at all... Although I just lost a game doing that, so maybe I'm overrating it... 😅 It just feels like a simply massive final turn

So upgrading Assoc doesn't have to be your 1st or even 2nd upgrade. Like you said, donations can be expensive early, and you often don't have the extra workers to use early. It's great to have later in the game for that extra efficiency being able to use 2 workers in one action. It's often a way to unlock your 4th worker, which can be 1 or 2 CP on certain maps. How often do you finish the game with doing a project as a last action? Now if you get last worker + donate with that action you're adding +9 to your final score. Happens incredibly often. I like that it gives you a way to get tangible points, something that upgraded Build doesn't really offer.

Yes I see. Good points all. I agree that it has a lot of potential for that late game oomph. Especially if you can end with a determination action and can double donate. Thanks for the tips!

I think there are many different ways to look at it. I won't defend the Goat/Ibex too much. The main thing to me is that there is a clear gap between the top 3, and a clear gap between the top 5. The bottom 5 Spirit Animals I will usually pick depending on starting tiles and animals. So... Goat/Ibex vs Elk 1. Order of placement. A mountain is a mountain, you can place it whenever you want. A tree requires you to go brown (brown) green. So when a tray pops up that is green/water/water that you really want to deny from your Turtle opponent, you can't effectively use the green yet. 2. Risk. A stack of 2 mountains will score 3(+4). A stack of 2 brown will score 0(+0). When you have a stack of 2 brown you are saying "I really need a green tile now". You might say it's easier to deny the Goat/Ibex because there are 23 mountain tiles vs 40 brown/green tiles. But because you are reliant on the order that you place them there can definitely be situations where your opponent has a ton of tree bases and you deny all of the green (or the opposite, they never get a chance to build tree bases). 3. Animals. It kinda works both ways. If you say the tree animals are better/there are more of them, surely that means trees are more contested ;) But I do think the animals are about equal. I rate the Bat and Squirrel pretty highly. The Croc is average. The Kingfisher and Wolf are probably bottom 2 animals in the game. The bush animals are pretty good, although there is a ton of overlap with most of them needing cubes on the bushes. I also rate the Vulture and Fish pretty highly. Bear and Macaque are great. Llama can be good. I like that you can finish the Manta Ray, Bear, Llama patterns before eventually building your tall mountains, something trees cannot do. Definitely not saying Goat/Ibex is better, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone says. And again, when it comes to the bottom 5 Spirit Animals it's more important to look at the trays and animals instead of thinking that the Stork is just better in a vacuum.

@@NoWondersTV Great points! Thanks :D

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed your first game! Yes, multiple boats can be on the same islands. Everything is done simultaneously, so it would be quite funny to be able to move your boat first and block someone else :) Personally I like the other side of the board more. It feels better being able to use your dice to move around and not be restricted to 1 move per day. But both are enjoyable. And for tips... I won't spoil too much of the strategy. It's fun to learn. But I will say that saving any reroll tokens you get for the last day or 2 is important. That is when your dice rolls matter the most. During the last day you have 8 companions to activate, as opposed to 1 at the start of the game.

@NoWondersTV thanks for the kindness, the inputs and the tips, i will try some house rules like adding the camps you do along the way, two tents not being abre tô be in The same spot at the same time... i guess in this way it would interesting tô see the strategies of like running tô get the 20 in The mostra short track or taking a long track an trying to more camps than the others

Yep, that was a very lucky draw. Gave me exactly what I needed at the time

@@anthonyward2433 at the moment I do. But both options are equally viable

@@monkeyunit4533 very true 😂

Making the guides themselves isn't too hard, it's climbing to a good rank that is the hard part 😅 I still plan on making guides like these every now and then. I just need to find games I enjoy and am motivated to climb in first.

Lol I wish I studied German, it's a really a beautiful sounding language to me. In my school I had a choice between LV1 (first foreign language) English and LV2 Spanish, or LV1 German and LV2 English so English being more important I felt obligated to pick English/Spanish. I know a few words and sentences but writing is a whole other story. My favourite show ever is Dark btw which is all in German, it's amazing 😊 I like also LaFee and Nena (I don't know if it's cringy to like their music in Germany but... Yeah... lol). But yeah I feel like it has to be also because I'm French. The "franco-allemande" (so germano-french???) relationship is something that was always really nice to see on tv growing up. In France we really like all our neighbours. We love the Italians and the Spaniards too but apparently, they don't really like us back. 🤷‍♀️ The Belgians are like our brothers but I'm not sure they consider us as such either lol I think we even love the Brits eventhough they don't believe it. It's just nice banter lol

@Guudys beautiful sounding language? That's what the Germans say about French but I've never heard the other way round 😅 LaFee and Nena are a little bit cringe as far as I can tell. But who cares. Nena definitely a legend but she has lost a lot of reputation due to COVID scepticism. I visit France regularly. I have a lot of friends in Paris and I also grew up kind of close to France.

@@randaleundhurra yeah I read about how she's an antivaxx now. It's unfortunately quite a turn off lol

@@randaleundhurra oh and yeah, idk it sounds really nice. It's a bit harsh sounding but I really like it. I like the sound of Russian too 🤷‍♀️ I can count in German, and say a few words but definitely can't hold a conversation. I think I'd be lost with the die/das/der and how the structure a sentence (like the verb - is it the verb?? Or the subject?? - being at the end of the sentence). But my father learnt it and said it's actually not that complicated when you know all the rules of grammar and whatnot. Maybe I should give it a real try one day. I don't regret learning Spanish though, when I was like 15-16 or so, we moved to the SW of France so quite close to Basque Country so Spanish was definitely more useful than German.

@Guudys I mean if it's fun for you, you could but other than that it's probably not that important or useful to speak German 😃

no, you don’t pay venom if you use a venom action during that action

I have had the score/turn metric on previous editions. I think it tells us more about the player than about the "strategy" they use, though. Ark Nova is too tactical to go into any game with a strategy in mind and I think it's counterproductive to tell people that playing 7 sponsors per game on average is a winning formula. What I like about the top 20 is that it shows you can be successful with a wide variety of playstyles

Pretty much. Like I'm not mad about it, but at the same time really lol

Weird how that's considered good manner in chess but bad in some boardgames.

pain

Yep, and I honestly have no idea how MW will affect the stats. Will be interesting to see for sure

Will MW be the arena version though? MW is enjoyable but overall feels worse than the basegame especially for arena.

@@markvanderwerf8592 it was leading the vote for next season last time I checked, but it’s not in for certain just yet

@@NoWondersTV hmm that would be a pity if it wins. I can see MW being fun if it had a few tweaks, especially to the action cards and maybe a few of the sea animals. But overall the only mechanic i really like of it is the extra university, pretty much anything else just makes the game worse.

@ I like the new cards, wave mechanic and animal universities. Dislike reef. Really dislike the unique action cards. We'll see how 3 months of it plays out...

2 size reward can help reduce the need to build as often, also taking actions at 3 and 4 while build hangs out at 5. Then either build or x back the action.

Avoiding junk build actions e.g. pointless single kiosks in round 1; High priority on 2-size reward to house small animals; Building pre-emptive 5 size when it's affordable to make efficient use of the action; prioritizing releases and recognising the value of opening enclosures; making clever effects a high priority in the lategame; Knowing when it's correct for you to push the break instead of extending the round by doing a build action you don't really need

Both the other answers are great. As long as you're making use of your Build action it's fine - I do like building a preemptive 5-size enclosure at times. But if you already have enough enclosures then x-ing it back is one way. Better if you can do Animals at 3 with a Clever ability to push it down. Or maybe your 2-size reward can cover a Clever spot on the map during the break. Or yeah you can leave Build at 5 while you play a 4-strength sponsor, or grab a Partner Zoo. You'll probably do a combination of all of them!

That's a good point, not as common to start with both the rep unis anymore.

@@carljohanr I manually copy/paste them into a spreadsheet

That is definitely another way to look at it. I think of it like if I can avoid upgrading Build then it means I have other answers to getting enclosures (2-size reward being the main one). But if I have to upgrade Build then using Build is my main way of getting enclosures. No point upgrading it if I don't plan on using it, right. Certainly not upgrading Build and then using it multiple times to build small enclosures is asking to lose

something I notice in a lot of my no build games is what I think of as 4/3 games: games where you take 4 cards actions and 3 build actions (or 4 build actions 3 cards actions). I find this combo of numbers comes up in a lot of well executed tempo games as well as solo games, and it makes a lot of sense I think that these are the kinds of games that benefit from not upgrading build. Build upgrade only really makes your builds more efficient with very particular combos of enclosures, it mainly benefits you in other ways which give you more reasons to build instead (like increasing your income, opening up new enclosure spots, and enabling mapfill)

Yep, the number of action cards upgraded is down, largely due to people taking worker at 2 CP. Could also slightly explain lower turn counts and more projects being done.

2 cp worker is up and 2 space enclosure is up. More and more players realize how to and when to use that. Also a realisation that kiosks and upgraded build in general are often not needed.

Haha! To defend myself, that is mostly due to the snapping project reward ;) You can see I am red in number of cards actions taken, but green in cards drawn from the deck!

Even Tsong Chen lost 4 games today. Happens to the best players in the world :(

Hi! It's to do with the number of workers you need. First time you do a project (or any Assoc action) in the round you use 1 worker. If you want to do that same Assoc action later in the round then you need to use 2 more workers. That's why getting 3 workers is a key number towards the end of the game - so you can support 2 projects in the same round. Glad you're enjoying the game!

@@NoWondersTV Thank you so much for the reply! Ahh now I understand why you want 3 workers。