Ark Nova | Early Game Strategy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มิ.ย. 2024
- Today we have a look at 5 of my recent games to see the reasoning and strategy behind my opening card picks. Does the plan change once the display is revealed? Is there enough to formulate a plan? What about when there's nothing related to the base projects?
0:00 - Intro
0:14 - Game 1
2:32 - Game 2
4:26 - Game 3
6:46 - Game 4
9:07 - Game 5
10:50 - Upgrade Order
Check out the full Ark Nova playlist for more replay analysis and strategy videos!
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Great video, thanks for sharing some of your opening hand strategies!
My boardgame group in Melbourne just discovered this so these tips are very helpful. Also good to see a fellow Aussie delivering board game content. Great stuff mate! 🇦🇺
Melbourne represent 😎
Fantastic video! Even as someone who has played hundreds of games of Ark Nova, I learned a lot. Cheers!
Thanks for these videos, they are very helpful as someone new to the game but looking to make better decisions. Hoping we'll see the mid-game video soon? It's currently my biggest weakness, especially getting distracted from early game goals based on cards/project dynamics.
Very very good strategy video. I have learnt so much! I consider myself a decent Ark Nova player, yet you showed me many new possibilities and ways of thinking, particularly keeping cards that can be useless for now but have potential for powerful synergies.
Great video! your succinct strategy advice is a good reference for when my friends ask me during their first games of ark nova what to do
Thanks Connor!
Great idea to share your thoughts on opening. Its one of the key moments of every game as it set the flow of the game until first break. Maybe you could use the screen better or just make the cards bigger as they are hard to see. Great pace by the way - no need to make the video longer than it has to be. Also - maybe a discussion about where to start building on the map could be relevant?
I have a video on the Strategy for all 8 maps which covers where to start building on each map. Thanks for the feedback! 🙂
Waiting for the next video!
Soon!
Thanks Sam, more great content! FWIW a little pattern I find helpful is to upgrade animals first if it will get the second upgrade across the line quickly. Also, total straw man as I know you rate the playgrounds but I think of them every time I hear how great federal grants is as they can be better in some situations and don’t get nearly as much love 😢
Good point - animals and build can be interchangeable and animals first can be a good way to hit 5 rep.
I do rate the Playgrounds pretty highly! Still a tier below Federal Grants for me, but I'm always happy to start with them. The Science icon and 3 immediate money can be really useful in round 1. Sometimes those points from the Playgrounds can put you in Pilfering range too 😬
I'll have to do a Sponsors tier list soon
Do you have a full game play through of Game 1 somewhere? I’d love to watch it!
I haven't covered that game on the channel - it wasn't too exciting from memory. I snapped Science Museum, won the race to Habitats 5, and drew a Sun Bear somewhere along the way.
Game is here if you're interested in watching the replay on BGA - boardgamearena.com/table?table=424606270
On this map Explorer can bei played in round one when taking a partner zoo and taking the bonus in the map for the second partner zoo. I think this ist a good start aiming for.
It seems that the hands are progressively worse. This makes picks more obvious, because there are only remotely playable cards to keep.
About the upgrades. I find it also important to consider how much of your income is going to be spent on animals and enclosures. Making donations is expansive and that extra 5 money from upgraded sponsors to trigger the break is something. If there is no money to quickly dump the animals, break and finish the game asap, it makes sense to upgrade sponsors as well.
Its a great video and thanks to your other breakdowns I got to top 80 on BGA :)
Top 80 is awesome! Keep it going!
I still need to learn from BDW how to play upgraded sponsors games better. I've had games where it's worked out beautifully and the extra money from breaks or benefits from sponsors helps me finish the game quickly. Then I also have games where I can't close out the game and I fall behind without those big multi-association actions + donations later.
I love that both playstyles are viable and it's what makes Ark Nova such a great game
That last opening is very interesting. How did it work out rushing Fur Seal? I probably would have focused on sponsorship reptiles, taking the alligator. Alternatively, if you kept the petting zoo animal and snap the 2nd, you could play both round 1 and still have enough money for round 2 Fur Seal.
The opening worked out okay because I got to cause the break before either of us played animals. If they'd played a bit faster I would have been behind which is why I prefer the 2 Africa play looking back. Pretty interesting game though. 38 turn game with 11 projects supported between us.
I tried looking at the situations before hearing you're response. For the first game I came up with Lynx/Deer/Grants/Herbivore.
Build3 (card to 1 with bonus) -Associate Europe - Sponsor (grants) - Build3 (5money) - Animals 5 (lynx/deer).
What do you think of this line? Im not playing on high level right now, so I suspect this might be too slow/open to early break by opponent.
It's a quick opening. You should be able to get all that done before a break happens, especially if you are not using cards yourself. I don't think it's worth rushing the Lynx out if it means you are not building your first enclosures next to the Observation Tower. The thing about the Lynx is, it doesn't give great value unless you are getting a lot of appeal from the Iconic animal ability (think 6+ instead of 3).
In your scenario you finish the round with 10 appeal (5 from Deer, 5 from Lynx). If you just play the Deer next to the Tower you get 7 appeal. So it's a pretty small difference for a lot more money spent which will hurt your round 2.
I love the thinking outside the box though!
In game 4, why would you not grab the EUR partner zoo before Break 5 / Gain 5? My inclination would be to grab it before my opponent does.
Specifically if that situation the opponent's Association action was on 2, so they couldn't grab it with their first move. Otherwise I would agree, it's an important first grab!
Im new to BGA, how do you get the board to display like this? I have to scroll up and down constantly to be able to see everything?
There’s a cog icon (just under where the break/coffee is displayed) that will let you change a lot of settings. You can make the association board and cards smaller for a start, then adjust column sizes until you are happy
I would say you can play your Game 4 hand better by not playing sponsor early. The hand isn't good, but I would at least consider Association, Build 3, Build 1 going for the double partner zoo on turn 3. Turn 4 playing Explorer and depending on the state of the timer / opponent playing sponsor or rushing the break snapping golden tamarin into playing tamarin and wallaby on turn 6.
Pretty sure this is by far the best turn 6 state you can get, maybe even pouching one of the partner programs. It's a bit risky cause it empties your hand and cards is on 2 after turn 6, but I dislike going for stork, not using the build x2 and keeping this big hand with much limited explorer value.
Would be interesting to hear what you think about this approach.
edit: interesting you didnt even consider pelican as a keep in game 5. Its not great, but I would have taken it as the save option, being the stronger overall animal than the sloth bear. I see the problem that pelican wants animals to be played on 5 to let you build your 5 size for the seal. The Lemur totally saved you there, but it should be fine to expect drawing into something with cards on 5. For the result it didn't matter, just seems a bit greedy to keep 4 cards you cant play so you most likely have to discard 1. Maybe just my personal preference to keep one bad but safe card to play.
I think game 4 can have many different approaches. In the actual game I drew 3 cards from the deck and found a different bird. Looking at it now I would take the hand-size Uni instead of the Europe partner zoo straight away. Makes more sense because of the amount of cards we want to carry into the next round. I do like the upside that the White Stork gives though. Being part of the Europe project and the fact that it is the best animal in the game to release.
A card like Explorer I do want to get out as early as possible, but I also think waiting until round 2 makes very little difference and is fine. The Tamarin play is interesting because it fits with the enclosures needed to rush out the 2nd Partner Zoo and gives some immediate Explorer bonuses. It's a better round 1 for sure. It's also a worse round 2 (no project) and a better round 1 for the opponent (more time to build + play animals). So there are pros and cons, but it's still a solid plan.
For game 5 - I really don't rate the Pelican. It's quite a large investment for little appeal and the extra build action isn't worth a lot early game. That's its main issue, you are paying a lot for the extra action instead of appeal in a time of the game where extra actions don't mean much. In the actual game I played the Fur Seal at the start of round 2 which worked out okay. It was a quick round 1 where neither myself or the opponent played animals. I don't mind having a "bad" round 1 (no animals played) as long as things are equally bad for my opponent.
@@NoWondersTV thanks a lot for your reasoning, these "bad" hands are often more intriguing to play and think about. I often hesitate to keep a single petting zoo animal, was interesting to hear your thoughts.
Can someone say what kind of digital version is this, please? Thid doed not look like steam tabletop to me
This is boardgamearena.com
@@NoWondersTV Thnx! Already there, playing like mad over the past weeks )
I don't understand why "explorer" is a good pick.
Up to 24$ and 12 points (but probably closer to 16$ and 8points) is an incredibly good rate for a sponsor
cool
Just adding to what Andrew said; a great income card like federal grants may net 18 income across a game and 3 points, and a native animal sponsor may gain 12+ points - explorer gives you both in 1 card
Yep, basically what the others have said. The appeal and money really add up by the end of the game!
@@lordgrok thanks for the reply it helps me understand why a card is good. I was looking at it and thinking about what was lost from not upgrading association and thought that would off set a lot of the advantage but when you lay it out it makes sense.