REVIEW ADDENDUM: We were talking so much so I'm not sure how, but we missed Prelude Actions. Prelude actions are the way that you can somewhat mitigate a bad hand of cards, by giving you the ability to do extra actions in a turn. When you tax your cities for resources (or indeed raid other players for their resources) you can spend those resources to do extra actions. Each of the five types of resources is linked to a specific action: Weapons give your played card the "battle" ability. Relics allow you to secure a card in the court that has your influence on it Fuel allows you move Psionics allow you to copy an action of the lead card Materials allow you to build or repair Prelude actions are a fantastic design choice because the interesting decision point here is that those very same resources contribute towards THREE out of the five available ambitions (the public scoring conditions, and the ONLY way to get points) in the game; materials and fuel for Tycoon, Psionics for Empath, Relics for Keeper. Spending them might get you a short term advantage through extra actions in a turn, but could very well hamper your ability to score the related ambition. Moreover, there are ONLY FIVE of each resource in the game, so they are extremely limited, which makes them even more valuable for their action and scoring potential. Bet your ass people will be raiding you to get them. It's a fascinating choice and one that I'm gutted we didn't cover! So consider it now covered, and consider it very good.
With now more than 15 games of the base game I can say you guys had the most accurate helpful pov out there with the SUSD one (although a bit to much gushing about it in the later which can be misleading). You've talked about all the potentially "frustrating" aspects of this game in a similar way that feel about them: "can be frustrating but actually it's good and it's a feature of it if you can go past the frustrating aspect of X..."
Thank you so much for your comment! I really appreciate that mate, I'm very happy to know it's a helpful and accurate take on how the game feels. Thanks for checking out the video! Have you played the Blighted Reach? Any tips to prep for it?
Dope video! You guys have some great camera presence. If you’re open to feedback, i think your intro should be trimmed. The graphics, transitions and images are awesome! But 35 seconds of it feels like a lot. Id assume youd have better viewer retention if you cut it to 10 seconds. But, im sure you can see your youtube analytics to see if your viewership falls off during the intro. I think the intro adds an awesome flare of personality! But can be cut a bit, everything else is STELLAR!!! Cheers friends
Thanks for the feedback man! And thanks so much for your super nice comment! We are playing around with a few intro options so your feedback is spot on! Thanks for it! Matt
Appreciate the feedback my dude! Matt (as said below) is working on it, we've been tinkering over the past few weeks with the music and graphics and length - we'll make some adjustments!
Haven't watched the entire thing yet, just missing the last section of the video. Great review so far, without a doubt! Just wanted to offer some pushback on one thing: 11:42 - "If you do something wrong at the start you may pay it for a long time" → I'd like to disagree here. The game is actually unusually forgiving in this specific aspect because the ambitions are worth so little on chapter 1. Whatever bad happens to a player on Chapter 1, they can totally bounce back from it. Similarly, even if a single player completely and utterly dominates on Chapter 1, they won what? 9 points? Hardly victory-assuring.
Thanks for your feedback! I think Matt is not really referring to points, but more referring to positioning, attacks in the wrong place and your influence. If you get a pounding in chapter one, get outbid for cards, it's a long ass long way back to rebuild your fleet regardless of how many points are available.
Thank you so much for the review, that was super helpful. I adore the art of Root and Arcs but I don't enjoy games that get too competitive. This will be a hard decision, maybe i get a chance for a game at Spiel to try one of them.
Hey Sonja! Thanks for checking it out! I'm glad it was helpful for you. It is a very competitive game that is highly interactive, but I'd certainly recommend trying it out! It looks like Arcs will be there at Spiel, I assume it can be demoed. I think right now of the two games, I prefer Root (and Matt does too).
It's 100% the best individual mechanical thing about the game for us so far in our plays. It's super cool, clean and smart, and as you mentioned, it's really thematic!
I haven’t watched all of the review yet, but prelude actions are missed in so many reviews, and you’re so right that they’re key to mitigating your hand of cards.
We did indeed miss it but we are 100% aware of them and what they do and how important they are. sorry we missed it! I was very aware that we were ending up talking forever. I'll pin a comment describing them
@@boardstupidukThanks for the response! Totally understand, and appreciate you following up with the comment discussing them. You’re not alone, many reviewers don’t cover prelude actions! And I believe it’s the #1 common factor among negative reviews and people who feel their decisions were too constrained by the cards, they’re typically forgetting about prelude actions or weren’t able to tap into what they make possible.
Understood dude! No problem, rest assured we were fully cognizant of the prelude actions and what they do and used them as much as possible from game 1! I did a bunch of rules reading on this game in advance of our plays. Our commentary is made even considering the preludes.
That's fair, I found that with Arcs, you won't necessarily have a great experience every time you play, which leads to sometimes thinking "yeah I'm done with that for a while"
@@boardstupiduk I really like Oath organic story telling though, and it gave me quite a relaxing time strangely enough - did you get a bit of that in Arcs?
Completely the opposite lol I've found every game of Arcs to be incredibly stressful! Often in a good way, the way that games give you that turn angst in your gut as you hope you pull something off, and sometimes in a bad way where it just feels bad. But each game is memorable and it is exciting and bold.
RAAAAAAAGEEE!!!! lol JK I love Arcs and my family hates how mean it is. Hoping my gaming group loves it like I do because It's soooo cool. I love all the resource combinations you can do and make a Copy or Pivot into like 2-3 actions instead of just 1. I ended up just playing the campaign myself and doing my best to just play two players well to feel out the experience. It's super cool. It feels heavier than base Arcs in that first game because they add new systems on top but once you have it down it becomes cake and it is a really cool campaign system. Arcs is an outstanding game no matter which version you play. Definitely not for everyone, but I think it's great.
Thanks so much for the comments and for checking out the review! That's been entirely our experience as well, some people love the chaos and being aggro as hell, other people really don't like it at all 🤣 I'm really looking forward to the campaign! Good point on the resource combos we didn't really focus on prelude actions which we perhaps should have.
Great review, I enjoyed your thoughts. I think players have to set aside a lot of preconceived notions about board games and long term strategy as a means of success in order to fully enjoy Arcs. It is maybe one of the most aggressively short term tactics focused games I’ve ever played. Circumstances can change drastically in a single turn and derail any ideal plans you had set aside. There are ALWAYS opportunities to turn the tide and succeed in spite of your current situation. The game rewards clever manipulation of the current game state and it’s likely you’ll have to carve out an unconventional and roundabout path to victory.
I agree, the game is better when you see what happens, and are prepared to act on the fly. We note that the game has a high ceiling and will reward repeat plays and especially those more experienced with the game and able to carve out those very same unconventional victories.
The trays are actually for storing the pieces between acts of the campaign, which is why they are in the campaign box.. Your take on the game is spot on. TI4 has been my #1 game since it was released, until played the Blighted Reach expansion. If small Arcs is clever, big Arcs is simply genus! (And even more to be either loved with a passion, or loathed... Hope its the former for you guys. Just don't try it with 2 players!)
Realised I didn't see the second sentence of your comment! Thanks so much for the comment! I can't wait to start The Blighted Reach, and I'm sure it'll be full of emotions for Matt lol. I don't think Arcs is any good at 2 players to be honest, the more the merrier. More chaos
Please share your experience with 2 players? Waiting for my copy of expansions and the base game is still good with 2 players. How is it with the blighted reach?
Enjoy The Blighted Reach. As you say in the review it’s the original vision for the game. I have played it twice now and although I really enjoy the base game playing the campaign really makes you appreciate the overall game design .
Very interesting review, I am convinced I will really enjoy the game. It feels that one needs to have an expectation of struggling to survive and grow, and have the hands where you lead as the triumphant moments, rather than expect every turn to be progressive. It’s a bit like playing a TCG against a Control Deck, until you break out of the control it’s hard work, then when you have made some progress it slaps you down again.
Absolutely! It's a bold design and Steve I think you would like it - I definitely recommend you play it when you get the chance and then decide if it's for you. If you're in our area feel free to let us know and we'll get you to the table if it's possible. There's an important design element we missed out which is the Prelude actions, I'll be pinning a comment in a bit to describe them.
This is such a weird game. It's like someone took 80% of things that I really like about games and then threw in 20% of the things I hate most about games. I don't know if I'll ever play The Blighted Reach myself, so I look forward to hearing what you guys think about that.
Ha! That's a fun take and probably accurate for a lot of people. I look forward to playing it and trying to organise our thoughts in any way on what certainly is an unusual game. Did you play it recently dude? What didn't you like about it?
@@boardstupiduk I tried it about a month ago. Memoir '44 style limitations on what I can do are my kryptonite. But I haven't played Arcs enough times to know the ratio of good experiences to bad experiences. I just know that there is a time bomb in the design that will go off at some point. I have quibbles about other things, most of which are potentially frustration causing. That's why I need a bigger sample size to be able to judge, this game has the potential to be a really enjoyable time or a miserable gaming experience. Every time I sit down to play, it's that old revels advert from 2001.
HA! It's 100% a Revels game. I fucking love that analogy. It's very apropos, you have no idea if you'll have a great enjoyable game or just get stomped for 2 hours.
HAHA! As soon as I saw this game the first time I immediately thought of Brian Boru. I mean kind of yeah, but it's way more aggro than that game, the feeling is more swingy and tactical as well alongside having the area control elements and public scoring objectives. Cheers for checking out our review of Arcs!
We hated and sold back Twilight Imp 4 because we are not much negociations but we love very much and play a lot Eclipse so we still donno if this game is for us?
There isn't negotiation in this game so much as there is a lot of encouraged table talk as a way to slap down whoever might be leading. It's a very different feeling game to eclipse, and more aggro in my opinion
TI4 may take 9 hours, but you have never played Eclipse Second Dawn if you think it takes 9 hours. So why would you imply you ever played the game when you clearly have not? Eclipse is a space opera? You played TI4 and assume Eclipse is the same - that’s pathetic.
What's more pathetic, is making an assumption without listening! We didn't compare TI4 to Second Dawn. I've played them both plenty. TI4 is a Space Opera. Arcs is a Condensed Space Opera, Eclipse Second Dawn is often pointed at as an alternative to TI4 so was also worth mentioning, no it does not take 9 hours. Go wash your ears out.
REVIEW ADDENDUM: We were talking so much so I'm not sure how, but we missed Prelude Actions. Prelude actions are the way that you can somewhat mitigate a bad hand of cards, by giving you the ability to do extra actions in a turn. When you tax your cities for resources (or indeed raid other players for their resources) you can spend those resources to do extra actions. Each of the five types of resources is linked to a specific action:
Weapons give your played card the "battle" ability.
Relics allow you to secure a card in the court that has your influence on it
Fuel allows you move
Psionics allow you to copy an action of the lead card
Materials allow you to build or repair
Prelude actions are a fantastic design choice because the interesting decision point here is that those very same resources contribute towards THREE out of the five available ambitions (the public scoring conditions, and the ONLY way to get points) in the game; materials and fuel for Tycoon, Psionics for Empath, Relics for Keeper.
Spending them might get you a short term advantage through extra actions in a turn, but could very well hamper your ability to score the related ambition.
Moreover, there are ONLY FIVE of each resource in the game, so they are extremely limited, which makes them even more valuable for their action and scoring potential. Bet your ass people will be raiding you to get them.
It's a fascinating choice and one that I'm gutted we didn't cover! So consider it now covered, and consider it very good.
With now more than 15 games of the base game I can say you guys had the most accurate helpful pov out there with the SUSD one (although a bit to much gushing about it in the later which can be misleading). You've talked about all the potentially "frustrating" aspects of this game in a similar way that feel about them: "can be frustrating but actually it's good and it's a feature of it if you can go past the frustrating aspect of X..."
Thank you so much for your comment! I really appreciate that mate, I'm very happy to know it's a helpful and accurate take on how the game feels. Thanks for checking out the video! Have you played the Blighted Reach? Any tips to prep for it?
Dope video! You guys have some great camera presence.
If you’re open to feedback, i think your intro should be trimmed. The graphics, transitions and images are awesome! But 35 seconds of it feels like a lot. Id assume youd have better viewer retention if you cut it to 10 seconds. But, im sure you can see your youtube analytics to see if your viewership falls off during the intro.
I think the intro adds an awesome flare of personality! But can be cut a bit, everything else is STELLAR!!! Cheers friends
Thanks for the feedback man! And thanks so much for your super nice comment! We are playing around with a few intro options so your feedback is spot on! Thanks for it!
Matt
Appreciate the feedback my dude! Matt (as said below) is working on it, we've been tinkering over the past few weeks with the music and graphics and length - we'll make some adjustments!
Matt! Back to the editing cave! No food for you for one week.
Also great to see your new rating system!!!
Thank you so much! We are getting the hang of it
Great review guys. Gave me a lot because I was interested in this title now I understand it better and know what it is all about. Helped me, thanks
Appreciate you Max!
Haven't watched the entire thing yet, just missing the last section of the video. Great review so far, without a doubt! Just wanted to offer some pushback on one thing:
11:42 - "If you do something wrong at the start you may pay it for a long time" → I'd like to disagree here. The game is actually unusually forgiving in this specific aspect because the ambitions are worth so little on chapter 1. Whatever bad happens to a player on Chapter 1, they can totally bounce back from it. Similarly, even if a single player completely and utterly dominates on Chapter 1, they won what? 9 points? Hardly victory-assuring.
Thanks for your feedback! I think Matt is not really referring to points, but more referring to positioning, attacks in the wrong place and your influence. If you get a pounding in chapter one, get outbid for cards, it's a long ass long way back to rebuild your fleet regardless of how many points are available.
Thank you so much for the review, that was super helpful. I adore the art of Root and Arcs but I don't enjoy games that get too competitive. This will be a hard decision, maybe i get a chance for a game at Spiel to try one of them.
Hey Sonja! Thanks for checking it out! I'm glad it was helpful for you. It is a very competitive game that is highly interactive, but I'd certainly recommend trying it out! It looks like Arcs will be there at Spiel, I assume it can be demoed. I think right now of the two games, I prefer Root (and Matt does too).
Wow I love the 3 different dice. That makes each attack a bit different mechanically AND thematically.
It's 100% the best individual mechanical thing about the game for us so far in our plays. It's super cool, clean and smart, and as you mentioned, it's really thematic!
Good job with the reviews. I think you didn’t talk about the prelude actions. Playing with ressources is the key to mitigate your hand of cards.
I haven’t watched all of the review yet, but prelude actions are missed in so many reviews, and you’re so right that they’re key to mitigating your hand of cards.
We did indeed miss it but we are 100% aware of them and what they do and how important they are. sorry we missed it! I was very aware that we were ending up talking forever. I'll pin a comment describing them
Fair! Super important and when I watched it back I can't believe we missed it and still talked this long. I'll pin a comment describing same
@@boardstupidukThanks for the response! Totally understand, and appreciate you following up with the comment discussing them. You’re not alone, many reviewers don’t cover prelude actions! And I believe it’s the #1 common factor among negative reviews and people who feel their decisions were too constrained by the cards, they’re typically forgetting about prelude actions or weren’t able to tap into what they make possible.
Understood dude! No problem, rest assured we were fully cognizant of the prelude actions and what they do and used them as much as possible from game 1! I did a bunch of rules reading on this game in advance of our plays. Our commentary is made even considering the preludes.
1999 pop punk intro gets a like.
Haha! Another person of fine taste I see \m/, (> u
Nice review.
Thanks mate! Appreciate it
I remember comments from SUSD about root talking about always thinking about "next time" but the game never reached the "wow this time was amazing!"
That's fair, I found that with Arcs, you won't necessarily have a great experience every time you play, which leads to sometimes thinking "yeah I'm done with that for a while"
@@boardstupiduk I really like Oath organic story telling though, and it gave me quite a relaxing time strangely enough - did you get a bit of that in Arcs?
Completely the opposite lol I've found every game of Arcs to be incredibly stressful! Often in a good way, the way that games give you that turn angst in your gut as you hope you pull something off, and sometimes in a bad way where it just feels bad. But each game is memorable and it is exciting and bold.
RAAAAAAAGEEE!!!! lol JK I love Arcs and my family hates how mean it is. Hoping my gaming group loves it like I do because It's soooo cool. I love all the resource combinations you can do and make a Copy or Pivot into like 2-3 actions instead of just 1. I ended up just playing the campaign myself and doing my best to just play two players well to feel out the experience. It's super cool. It feels heavier than base Arcs in that first game because they add new systems on top but once you have it down it becomes cake and it is a really cool campaign system. Arcs is an outstanding game no matter which version you play. Definitely not for everyone, but I think it's great.
Thanks so much for the comments and for checking out the review! That's been entirely our experience as well, some people love the chaos and being aggro as hell, other people really don't like it at all 🤣 I'm really looking forward to the campaign! Good point on the resource combos we didn't really focus on prelude actions which we perhaps should have.
Great review, I enjoyed your thoughts. I think players have to set aside a lot of preconceived notions about board games and long term strategy as a means of success in order to fully enjoy Arcs.
It is maybe one of the most aggressively short term tactics focused games I’ve ever played. Circumstances can change drastically in a single turn and derail any ideal plans you had set aside. There are ALWAYS opportunities to turn the tide and succeed in spite of your current situation. The game rewards clever manipulation of the current game state and it’s likely you’ll have to carve out an unconventional and roundabout path to victory.
I agree, the game is better when you see what happens, and are prepared to act on the fly. We note that the game has a high ceiling and will reward repeat plays and especially those more experienced with the game and able to carve out those very same unconventional victories.
The trays are actually for storing the pieces between acts of the campaign, which is why they are in the campaign box..
Your take on the game is spot on. TI4 has been my #1 game since it was released, until played the Blighted Reach expansion. If small Arcs is clever, big Arcs is simply genus! (And even more to be either loved with a passion, or loathed... Hope its the former for you guys. Just don't try it with 2 players!)
But they fit so well! Yep I gathered as much, just needed to clarify for the purpose of the review. I look forward to getting started on it!
Realised I didn't see the second sentence of your comment! Thanks so much for the comment! I can't wait to start The Blighted Reach, and I'm sure it'll be full of emotions for Matt lol. I don't think Arcs is any good at 2 players to be honest, the more the merrier. More chaos
@@boardstupiduk Embrace the Chaos!
LET CHAOS REIGN
Please share your experience with 2 players? Waiting for my copy of expansions and the base game is still good with 2 players. How is it with the blighted reach?
Enjoy The Blighted Reach. As you say in the review it’s the original vision for the game. I have played it twice now and although I really enjoy the base game playing the campaign really makes you appreciate the overall game design .
I can't wait! Very excited to play the full Blighted Reach! I'm keen to see the full breadth of the design principles
Very interesting review, I am convinced I will really enjoy the game. It feels that one needs to have an expectation of struggling to survive and grow, and have the hands where you lead as the triumphant moments, rather than expect every turn to be progressive. It’s a bit like playing a TCG against a Control Deck, until you break out of the control it’s hard work, then when you have made some progress it slaps you down again.
Absolutely! It's a bold design and Steve I think you would like it - I definitely recommend you play it when you get the chance and then decide if it's for you. If you're in our area feel free to let us know and we'll get you to the table if it's possible. There's an important design element we missed out which is the Prelude actions, I'll be pinning a comment in a bit to describe them.
This is such a weird game. It's like someone took 80% of things that I really like about games and then threw in 20% of the things I hate most about games. I don't know if I'll ever play The Blighted Reach myself, so I look forward to hearing what you guys think about that.
Ha! That's a fun take and probably accurate for a lot of people. I look forward to playing it and trying to organise our thoughts in any way on what certainly is an unusual game. Did you play it recently dude? What didn't you like about it?
@@boardstupiduk I tried it about a month ago.
Memoir '44 style limitations on what I can do are my kryptonite. But I haven't played Arcs enough times to know the ratio of good experiences to bad experiences. I just know that there is a time bomb in the design that will go off at some point.
I have quibbles about other things, most of which are potentially frustration causing. That's why I need a bigger sample size to be able to judge, this game has the potential to be a really enjoyable time or a miserable gaming experience. Every time I sit down to play, it's that old revels advert from 2001.
HA! It's 100% a Revels game. I fucking love that analogy. It's very apropos, you have no idea if you'll have a great enjoyable game or just get stomped for 2 hours.
So it's Brian Boru in space but without the marriages?
HAHA! As soon as I saw this game the first time I immediately thought of Brian Boru. I mean kind of yeah, but it's way more aggro than that game, the feeling is more swingy and tactical as well alongside having the area control elements and public scoring objectives. Cheers for checking out our review of Arcs!
We hated and sold back Twilight Imp 4 because we are not much negociations but we love very much and play a lot Eclipse so we still donno if this game is for us?
There isn't negotiation in this game so much as there is a lot of encouraged table talk as a way to slap down whoever might be leading. It's a very different feeling game to eclipse, and more aggro in my opinion
TI4 may take 9 hours, but you have never played Eclipse Second Dawn if you think it takes 9 hours. So why would you imply you ever played the game when you clearly have not? Eclipse is a space opera? You played TI4 and assume Eclipse is the same - that’s pathetic.
What's more pathetic, is making an assumption without listening! We didn't compare TI4 to Second Dawn. I've played them both plenty. TI4 is a Space Opera. Arcs is a Condensed Space Opera, Eclipse Second Dawn is often pointed at as an alternative to TI4 so was also worth mentioning, no it does not take 9 hours. Go wash your ears out.