From the designer of Ark Nova: "The new aquarium tiles (special enclosures) have a water requirement printed on them, which means they have to be build next to water. This also means they count for cards like the conservation project "Aquatic" and trigger cards like the sponsor card "Aquarium" from the base set. They do not count as a water space on the map for other cards, who needs to be build next to water."
Can’t wait! They’ve addressed so many of the complaints, added some great new stuff, and kept the fundamentals that make Ark Nova one of my top 3 games of all time!
Tom Vasel in dec 5 2021 with dice tower did emphatically give ark nova a 10 which was enough to convince me to go all in on the game. Good to see the expansion didn’t lower it.
I'm surprised Tom said this is noob friendly. My first impression watching this was "def not noob friendly" haha. This takes an already huge game and really opens it up! Love the new "use whenever, once" CP bonus tiles. Kinda reminds me of Scrolls in Res Arcana 1st expansion. Also, the Reef Dweller accumulating chaining abilities looks REALLY interesting. Kinda like CoB with livestock points and AN with petting zoo points, but with really cool new abilities! Snapping is getting more aggressive with the new Wave function and updated Cards action card. The new action cards look cool, and the universities. Oh, and the Aquariums and new animals! That's a WHOLE LOT! I really look forward to playing with this!
Cheers for this Tom. Ark Nova is a game i've been lukewarm on, but this expansion seems to have played whack-a-mole on many of my bugbears about the game. The action card system in particular, Civ a new dawn just did it so much better with technology upgrading your action cards. Glad to see some extra cards here as that makes that part of the game far more interesting.
The size of the deck is one of the reasons I love Ark Nova. It's not the same game every time because you don't get the same couple of cards. You have to adapt your strategy to what is out there rather than just doing the same thing with the same cards every time. (I do hate trying to shuffle the huge deck (and I don't like mucking), but I break it down into smaller bits and shuffle those, then cut and mix in random order to make the deck....)
That color difference on the hex for the size-cost in the upper left corner is really too subtle... I would have maybe added a diagonal line through it in the background.
We played this today for the first time and I like it a lot! Indeed it isn't a game changing expansion (I still can't win) but I agree with you totally: the action cards are the best, closely followed by the reef cards build up. If this is the standard for future expansions of Ark Nova, I think it can easily be a world favorite!
People slowly started realising that 4 player Ark Nova is the best because of the faster flow of the middle section. Now with the expansion 2 player games will be a lot better.
Knew this expansion would be well received! The only thing that concerns me about it is the new university. If exactly one of the base conservation projects is a specific animal type, then the corresponding university is surely much more valuable and the person who can get it first is entirely determined by the luck of player order and starting card strength. That player then gets a real head-start by being a symbol ahead and having a guaranteed animal of that type. Tom didn't mention this though, so hopefully it's not an issue in practice
I don't think that's a problem. It's a strong opening strategy, for sure, but it only gives you a boost, and other people will be doing other things. We'll see when the true experts get a hold of the expansion.
You pick the major icon you want to get. Other players just go for other projects like the continents. The new university addresses rare scenario where the 4th player gets left out, or if you have all animals base projects. And the difference of a round is about 5 money so isn't game breaking if you get it round after, in the unlikely scenario of needing it in the first place
I never saw that as a problem with the continent conservation projects, so I don't think it'll be an issue here. Because you can say something very similar there: first player to get a shot at a partner zoo gets a headstart for that project and even doens't pay money for that icon (even more so will get all future icons cheaper). Also going for this university means skipping on an super early partner zoo and at least in our games money is so tight early on that a partner zoo is very commonly choosen early (not a hard rule, but I usually see several partner zoos being snatched up in the first round more often than not) Also both can be in play at the same time then 1 player can go for a partner zoo and an other one for the animal type.
I mistaken thought you had to take animal cards out of the deck to make room for the marine animals and keep the deck the same size. Great review, love your enthusiasm.
I was really excited about Ark Nova for about a half dozen plays, but then I started to realize that my challenges in bringing strategies together was not so much my inexperience with the game, but rather a decent bit of clunkiness of the underlying design. Getting to the cards you need can indeed be a crapshoot. The sponsor cards are especially troublesome in this regard. This expansion gives me flashbacks to the Brink of War expansion for Race for the Galaxy, where a bunch of new cards were added along with a few mechanisms to help you deal with the deck dilution that just happened. I wasn't of fan of it there, and don't know that I'd love it here. I'd rather see an overall tighter design. Thank you for this very helpful review! I do understand why people love this game. I almost loved it myself. This expansion seems to worsen my conerns though, so I really appreciate this info.
At 30 min a player, does the base need to be shorter? No, same game length. Your actions are more powerful is offset by the time to draft them. Though if you want to, upgrade all 5 of your base action or some other house rule to speed up your game
to me 10/10 is a game that is absolutely perfect, with not even a single issue, pure dimond of gaming and also innovative enough to not be just a copy of other game with different theme. Is it really 10/10? Or is it more like 8-9/10 but you score it 10 as your subjective opinion? is score 10/10 objective? I don't think so, i bet there are few issues with this, if there aren't any issues with this expansion and it is just pure gold, then fine 10/10 is good score
@@Wylie288 for you only, and yes it is possible. You admitted that this expansion isn't 10/10 by saying what you said. Don't normalise things that are "stupid" because it will become like that. We have a full scale of 1-10 to use it in full, not to score games only 6-10 and treat the other 1-5 like it don't exist. Please show me a board game that is scored lower than 4 or 3, you probably won't find any. Just like in PC games people score games 6-10, not 1-10, and the reason for it is to not make development team "sad" that they made bad game. I've seen loads of reviews for boardgames and I've noticed same issue, yet board games are in a different bouble.
I've played over 100 games of Ark Nova on BoardGameArena. It essentially replaced the board game for me. Still getting this but hoping they will release the expansion on BGA soon.
BGA can either inspire me to play games physically or kill any motivation to play them physically. In this case, I literally sold my copy of ark nova. . . My wife wasn’t into it and then BGA came along and made it much more straightforward to play
Criticisms about the deck size and not getting you card you need is a false criticism. I've played hundreds of games of Terraforming Mars and mid 50 games of Ark Nova. The criticism applies to TM because cards rely on synergy but in Ark Nova, every card is good. No game breaking combo.
I Disagree that every cards is good in Ark Nova. All cards are usable for sure. Some monkeys Lack power and require synergy which is hard to get. Birds with determination are OP tho
I'm one of those not-a-fan ones. Own it. Played it a lot but it left me wanting something every time I played. And it also doesn't help that it's a long game and that you can see your loss 1/4 into the game and then it's just rounds of misery. Hoping this expansion changes that pattern.
30 min a player isn't long. It's in most people's sweet spot There are only a couple combos that are banned from top level players. Otherwise it's hard to predict the winner until 80-100% way through, unless your game has some massive skill gaps
Did something have that ability? The tag search ability he mentioned means draw until you get the tag you are looking for, which is already in the game (map bonus of Hollywood Hills for Sponsor cards)
Not a specific card, he clarified 5:52 you just draw till a card with that matching symbol is revealed and take that one, put the others on the bottom of the deck. That would probably only take a few seconds.
Of course you are allowed to not like a game :), but that's unfortunate since this game is just so smooth and pleasant. I can now easily play a two player game under one hour without issues.
From the designer of Ark Nova: "The new aquarium tiles (special enclosures) have a water requirement printed on them, which means they have to be build next to water. This also means they count for cards like the conservation project "Aquatic" and trigger cards like the sponsor card "Aquarium" from the base set.
They do not count as a water space on the map for other cards, who needs to be build next to water."
The last part is false. They do count as a water space for future enclosure placement.
@@stingray1666its not false. Matthias Wigge (designer of Ark Nova) literally said that comment in BGG which I copypasted here.
@@Kamion991 and the designer are correct, Stingray is wrong. Just here to bolster the truth.
Can’t wait! They’ve addressed so many of the complaints, added some great new stuff, and kept the fundamentals that make Ark Nova one of my top 3 games of all time!
10? Already preordered but hyped even more now!!! Can't wait
Tom Vasel in dec 5 2021 with dice tower did emphatically give ark nova a 10 which was enough to convince me to go all in on the game.
Good to see the expansion didn’t lower it.
I'm surprised Tom said this is noob friendly. My first impression watching this was "def not noob friendly" haha. This takes an already huge game and really opens it up! Love the new "use whenever, once" CP bonus tiles. Kinda reminds me of Scrolls in Res Arcana 1st expansion. Also, the Reef Dweller accumulating chaining abilities looks REALLY interesting. Kinda like CoB with livestock points and AN with petting zoo points, but with really cool new abilities! Snapping is getting more aggressive with the new Wave function and updated Cards action card. The new action cards look cool, and the universities. Oh, and the Aquariums and new animals! That's a WHOLE LOT! I really look forward to playing with this!
Cheers for this Tom. Ark Nova is a game i've been lukewarm on, but this expansion seems to have played whack-a-mole on many of my bugbears about the game. The action card system in particular, Civ a new dawn just did it so much better with technology upgrading your action cards. Glad to see some extra cards here as that makes that part of the game far more interesting.
I am so excited to get my hands on this, love this game.
The size of the deck is one of the reasons I love Ark Nova. It's not the same game every time because you don't get the same couple of cards. You have to adapt your strategy to what is out there rather than just doing the same thing with the same cards every time. (I do hate trying to shuffle the huge deck (and I don't like mucking), but I break it down into smaller bits and shuffle those, then cut and mix in random order to make the deck....)
Been waiting for this review to see what it actually added. Instantly preordered it after seeing this. Can’t wait!
I'm super excited to get this expansion. I love Ark Nova. I play it all the time on BGA and also play my physical copy of the game.
Looking forward to expanding our favorite game of all time!
I'm not jealous at all you got this already..... Not at all..... Not..... 😭😭😭😭😭 I'm pretty much hunting this down first at essen!!
Sounds amazing! Ark Nova is my favourite game too and I can't wait to get this!
That color difference on the hex for the size-cost in the upper left corner is really too subtle... I would have maybe added a diagonal line through it in the background.
We played this today for the first time and I like it a lot! Indeed it isn't a game changing expansion (I still can't win) but I agree with you totally: the action cards are the best, closely followed by the reef cards build up. If this is the standard for future expansions of Ark Nova, I think it can easily be a world favorite!
Ye, people who claims Ark Nova is random should check bga top players with 98% win rate. Balance wise they are some problems imo
Yay! Does this mean it is releasing soon? Capstone is usually pretty good.
People slowly started realising that 4 player Ark Nova is the best because of the faster flow of the middle section. Now with the expansion 2 player games will be a lot better.
Cannot wait to get my hands on this.
Knew this expansion would be well received!
The only thing that concerns me about it is the new university. If exactly one of the base conservation projects is a specific animal type, then the corresponding university is surely much more valuable and the person who can get it first is entirely determined by the luck of player order and starting card strength. That player then gets a real head-start by being a symbol ahead and having a guaranteed animal of that type. Tom didn't mention this though, so hopefully it's not an issue in practice
I don't think that's a problem. It's a strong opening strategy, for sure, but it only gives you a boost, and other people will be doing other things. We'll see when the true experts get a hold of the expansion.
You pick the major icon you want to get. Other players just go for other projects like the continents. The new university addresses rare scenario where the 4th player gets left out, or if you have all animals base projects. And the difference of a round is about 5 money so isn't game breaking if you get it round after, in the unlikely scenario of needing it in the first place
I never saw that as a problem with the continent conservation projects, so I don't think it'll be an issue here.
Because you can say something very similar there: first player to get a shot at a partner zoo gets a headstart for that project and even doens't pay money for that icon (even more so will get all future icons cheaper).
Also going for this university means skipping on an super early partner zoo and at least in our games money is so tight early on that a partner zoo is very commonly choosen early (not a hard rule, but I usually see several partner zoos being snatched up in the first round more often than not)
Also both can be in play at the same time then 1 player can go for a partner zoo and an other one for the animal type.
How many and which games/expansions have received a 10 from Tom?
Not many
I played my 52nd game of Ark Nova yesterday. I am more excited about this expansion than any upcoming new game. Can't wait!
Is there an Essen preorder?
I mistaken thought you had to take animal cards out of the deck to make room for the marine animals and keep the deck the same size. Great review, love your enthusiasm.
Does this expansion work well with the solo mode?
Yes
I was really excited about Ark Nova for about a half dozen plays, but then I started to realize that my challenges in bringing strategies together was not so much my inexperience with the game, but rather a decent bit of clunkiness of the underlying design. Getting to the cards you need can indeed be a crapshoot. The sponsor cards are especially troublesome in this regard.
This expansion gives me flashbacks to the Brink of War expansion for Race for the Galaxy, where a bunch of new cards were added along with a few mechanisms to help you deal with the deck dilution that just happened. I wasn't of fan of it there, and don't know that I'd love it here. I'd rather see an overall tighter design.
Thank you for this very helpful review! I do understand why people love this game. I almost loved it myself. This expansion seems to worsen my conerns though, so I really appreciate this info.
Nice to start with a jab at Frantic Fiends 😆
Does it reduce the gameplay duration?
At 30 min a player, does the base need to be shorter?
No, same game length. Your actions are more powerful is offset by the time to draft them. Though if you want to, upgrade all 5 of your base action or some other house rule to speed up your game
30 min a player? 😂 My mate and I usually need 4 hours for a duo game@@goldsmeeth2771
Been lusting for this ever since I heard of it. Your review makes me yearn for it even more!
Exactly.. a 10 to Tom ? Preordered. And i always say… that’s enough ! I don’t spend any more money on games….
will it fit in the main box
Yes
This made a perfect game perfecterer.
to me 10/10 is a game that is absolutely perfect, with not even a single issue, pure dimond of gaming and also innovative enough to not be just a copy of other game with different theme. Is it really 10/10? Or is it more like 8-9/10 but you score it 10 as your subjective opinion? is score 10/10 objective? I don't think so, i bet there are few issues with this, if there aren't any issues with this expansion and it is just pure gold, then fine 10/10 is good score
Thats not actually possible and the concept of 10/10 being literally perfect has always been stupid.
@@Wylie288 for you only, and yes it is possible.
You admitted that this expansion isn't 10/10 by saying what you said.
Don't normalise things that are "stupid" because it will become like that.
We have a full scale of 1-10 to use it in full, not to score games only 6-10 and treat the other 1-5 like it don't exist.
Please show me a board game that is scored lower than 4 or 3, you probably won't find any.
Just like in PC games people score games 6-10, not 1-10, and the reason for it is to not make development team "sad" that they made bad game.
I've seen loads of reviews for boardgames and I've noticed same issue, yet board games are in a different bouble.
Ya, pre-ordered. Gimme, Gimme please ...
I hope that the next expansion will replace the coins, cause they are the ugliest play coins of all time for sure! x'D
I've played over 100 games of Ark Nova on BoardGameArena. It essentially replaced the board game for me.
Still getting this but hoping they will release the expansion on BGA soon.
BGA can either inspire me to play games physically or kill any motivation to play them physically. In this case, I literally sold my copy of ark nova. . . My wife wasn’t into it and then BGA came along and made it much more straightforward to play
Wow! A 10 that’s wild
And i must buy again new wooden playerboard...
How come a horse is a size 1 animal but a fish no larger than your hand is a size 2 animal?
Because sizes are relative to their enclosures? Fish is big for aquarium but horse is small for pasture?
i played some of this on TTS and the i love the water and new animals stuff but i hate the cards ones. It just make the game to unbalanced imo
Criticisms about the deck size and not getting you card you need is a false criticism. I've played hundreds of games of Terraforming Mars and mid 50 games of Ark Nova.
The criticism applies to TM because cards rely on synergy but in Ark Nova, every card is good. No game breaking combo.
I Disagree that every cards is good in Ark Nova. All cards are usable for sure. Some monkeys Lack power and require synergy which is hard to get. Birds with determination are OP tho
Easiest 10
I'm one of those not-a-fan ones. Own it. Played it a lot but it left me wanting something every time I played. And it also doesn't help that it's a long game and that you can see your loss 1/4 into the game and then it's just rounds of misery. Hoping this expansion changes that pattern.
30 min a player isn't long. It's in most people's sweet spot
There are only a couple combos that are banned from top level players. Otherwise it's hard to predict the winner until 80-100% way through, unless your game has some massive skill gaps
I'm curious: Which combos are banned? @@goldsmeeth2771
Being able to search that ginormous unique deck for a specific card seems like it would slow the game WAAAAY down.
One thing we do is we continue play as long as the action doesn't affect the other players.
Its sped up our games a lot
Did something have that ability? The tag search ability he mentioned means draw until you get the tag you are looking for, which is already in the game (map bonus of Hollywood Hills for Sponsor cards)
Yeah it is definitely only a tag. Should only take a few seconds to find one.
Not a specific card, he clarified 5:52 you just draw till a card with that matching symbol is revealed and take that one, put the others on the bottom of the deck. That would probably only take a few seconds.
Yeah, that's one of the two things I don't like about this expansion.
I tried to get into this game. It was just too long and convoluted
Of course you are allowed to not like a game :), but that's unfortunate since this game is just so smooth and pleasant. I can now easily play a two player game under one hour without issues.
@@brianl6151agreed. The amount of non gamers I have been able to teach this too is soooo big.
On BGA, or with the physical copy? We haven't been able to get our sessions that short yet.@@brianl6151