Finally got to play Arcs and WOW. This game is something else. One of my friends said it felt like it took the best parts of Risk but it took one hour instead of twelve and no one spent the whole game hiding in Australia. The great plays were game-defining highlights, the mistakes were obvious and brutal, and the dice were nothing short of ruthless bastards. I rolled a handful of skirmish and assault dice to get some ships off my last starport. All blanks. I grabbed all assault dice instead and threw them. The intercept and self hits were enough to wipe out my fleet. It was a hail mary from a losing position and the dice were just the nail in my coffin. I laughed so hard I cried. I had 9 points at the end of chapter 4. The winner had 32. We agreed to play again next week.
Still need to try blighted reach and will give my thoughts on that at a different time. But Arcs, lol, what a game. What an absolute bastard of a game that utterly brutalizes stuff ups. I lost my entire fleet one game due to the next player trumping me in a suit, for only a small benefit to themselves. It utterly ruined me though, my entire fleet sitting there and it just got shredded. You have to laugh. Arcs in many ways does the remarkable in that it reshapes 4x entirely, or at least galaxy spanning empire games if you don't consider Arcs to meet some 4X purity test. The "sit for 6 hours gently exploring until you have big fleets and high tech and then have one main fight while doing fetch quests for 1vp here and there" is in the bin. And that's a good thing. Because Arcs is on all the time, not for 30 minutes at the end of 12 hours. What a refreshing take on a genre thats felt stale to me for a while now.
Did you try Leaders & Lore? Arcs is a weird game. I'd like to try core, core + L&L and then Blighted Reach, but I don't know if I'd like to own it so hopefully someone else buys it 😅
Yes, i think the game has enough going without Leaders and Lore to start with for sure. I dont think i would use them with new players, just because they shape your game so much
@@3MBG Weirdly I dont think i'll ever play with L&L but I adore Blighted Reach. I think the leaders give too much "direction" which works against the cardplay whereas blighted reach solves this by having players work weirdly parallel at times and a decently clever negotiation phase.
Despite the fact that I like the 2 SUSD videos about the game, they really could have cut them down by 30% at least, as they felt waaay too verbose and meandering to me. On the other hand, your review has helped me understand what the game is all about on a very basic level, so thank you very much for that! I can't wait to finally try the game in TTS before preordering it.
For sure one of those games you just have to brush off things and keep on making new plans. Cards get stolen from you? Time to counter attack or pivot to something new. Fleet get destroyed? Time to start using that you you've neglected on the other side of the map. Such an awesome game.
I'll be playing a game of Root next week with some friends who've only played the digital version but loved it, and my copy of Arcs should be in before the end of October. It sounds like I made the right decision to pre-order it because you make it sound perfect for us.
I was able tp play it for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. I still need to get my head around the strategies, but it'd definitely on that I can see myself playing again and again.
Honestly my new favorite game. I like it in all versions: Base, Leaders & Lore and Blighted Reach. They all are great and are really their own game in itself. I recommend all of it.
I stayed away from Root because I didn't want to have to teach it. I stayed away from Oath because I'd never get a campaign game to the table repeatedly enough. This one appears to be easier to get to the table, easier to teach, apparently is good at a wider range of player counts and is getting lavish praise from every reviewer I respect. Now just for it to be restocked....... Also I played Smartphone Inc for the first time last weekend and if you've not tried it I think you'd maybe like it. Very interactive and cutthroat economic game with an interesting action selection system. Reminded me a bit of Hansa Teutonica and Power Grid in some ways. Given the rest of the groups reaction could be an ew fave for us at least
I'm really intrigued by this game, but have no experience with the genre. Twilight Imperium seems very long and complicated, but Eclipse also seems somewhat approachable. Which would you recommend to a relative beginner?
That's hard, because Arcs has the simplest rules, while its the hardest of them to get good at. TI IV has the most rules, but its all logical if you've ever played an empire building computer game like stellaris or master of orion.
@@3MBG Interesting point, but then the playtime also becomes an issue. Is it better to get a logical game on the table once a year or play a similar game more often? That's the main advantage of Eclipse compared to TI, as far as I understand, but Arcs seems a little more colourful to me, maybe, not to mention the cheaper price, at least for the base game...
I played Oath four times just to give it a very fair chance. Very unique game, but I’m fine never playing it again. I’ll play Arcs any day of the week and am looking forward to trying Blighted Reach.
@@3MBGglad I wasn’t the only that found Oath a bore. That said I’m still on the fence with Arcs. It’s good, 3X (no exploring really) but the hype feels a bit overblown for me. Consecutive bad hands can suck if you can’t do the couple things you need to.
I think the bad hand thing is not an issue, its a skill gap. Same as twilight struggle really, people would moan about not having the right hands there where the game is making do with what you have.
I really really love ARCS. The game arrived as i was getting a little jaded with the usual track based Euros and was looking for a little more conflict. So many great mechanisms working together (many of which you mention). Shout out to the quick combat system where attackers choose everything. Speeds up the game nicely.
Oath was among the worst games i played the year it came out. There is a reason there is no Oath in 3 minutes video, because i found the game utterly without merit and joyless. Take that for what you will ;)
I sold Oath after two playthroughs, because while the campaign was interesting and well thought out, the core game was nothing special and not that fun to play. Arcs without the campaign stands on its own and is a great game by itself. And then when you add the campaign (which by the way consists of only 3 games) the game grows exponentially, for me in the best possible way. New favourite game by a mile.
I've only played it once so far, but it was super luck based imo. I had pretty much all mobilization cards one round, so I couldn't do (very well) any of the things I wanted or needed to do for the objectives. I guess in hindsight, like a trick taking game, just take the lead and make everyone else do mobilization all round? Not fun though if you don't want to do that yourself. I definitely will give it another go I think, but polarizing indeed...I was disappointed by the amount of luck in Eclipse - and this dials that up a LOT. I was genuinely shocked after 1 play by how popular this game is. I could easily never play it again and not be bothered about it.
I think you are mistaking luck for "not getting how the game works". I've played with a very skilled player and he kicked the stuffing out of everyone each game, because he was in tune with the main truth of the game more than the rest of us. It's not about going "my hand wont let me do what i want" and far more about saying "what can i do with this hand". That isn't luck at all. It's just a different skill from what traditional 4x games teach us.
Played it once, and had the exact same problem. The action disparity was brutal when your hand didn’t fit with the leads- very unsatisfying to get locked out of the game for 6 turns.
@@daegon1985 You're not though. You can use an extra card to take the initiative. It's a bit painful to be down one card, but that's far less painful than having 6 turns of a single pip of copy or pivot.
@@3MBG Luck still impacts letting you do what you want. Like I said, I could take the lead and make everyone else do what I have cards for - but I don't want to do what I have the cards for... I want to play the game according to my strategy, not according to whatever I was dealt. I don't like the trick taking combo for this kind of game. I had that suspicion that I needed to play it more like a trick taking game than a 4x sort of thing, but this isn't the kind of trick taking game I want to play, too much window dressing trying to disguise this as another type of game. Again, I'm surprised as many folks like it as is apparently the case.
Finally got to play Arcs and WOW. This game is something else. One of my friends said it felt like it took the best parts of Risk but it took one hour instead of twelve and no one spent the whole game hiding in Australia. The great plays were game-defining highlights, the mistakes were obvious and brutal, and the dice were nothing short of ruthless bastards.
I rolled a handful of skirmish and assault dice to get some ships off my last starport. All blanks. I grabbed all assault dice instead and threw them. The intercept and self hits were enough to wipe out my fleet. It was a hail mary from a losing position and the dice were just the nail in my coffin. I laughed so hard I cried. I had 9 points at the end of chapter 4. The winner had 32.
We agreed to play again next week.
Excellent. And yeah, nowhere to hide in Arcs and playing safe just means losing hard.
Still need to try blighted reach and will give my thoughts on that at a different time. But Arcs, lol, what a game. What an absolute bastard of a game that utterly brutalizes stuff ups. I lost my entire fleet one game due to the next player trumping me in a suit, for only a small benefit to themselves. It utterly ruined me though, my entire fleet sitting there and it just got shredded. You have to laugh. Arcs in many ways does the remarkable in that it reshapes 4x entirely, or at least galaxy spanning empire games if you don't consider Arcs to meet some 4X purity test. The "sit for 6 hours gently exploring until you have big fleets and high tech and then have one main fight while doing fetch quests for 1vp here and there" is in the bin. And that's a good thing. Because Arcs is on all the time, not for 30 minutes at the end of 12 hours.
What a refreshing take on a genre thats felt stale to me for a while now.
Did you try Leaders & Lore?
Arcs is a weird game. I'd like to try core, core + L&L and then Blighted Reach, but I don't know if I'd like to own it so hopefully someone else buys it 😅
Yes, i think the game has enough going without Leaders and Lore to start with for sure. I dont think i would use them with new players, just because they shape your game so much
@@3MBG Weirdly I dont think i'll ever play with L&L but I adore Blighted Reach. I think the leaders give too much "direction" which works against the cardplay whereas blighted reach solves this by having players work weirdly parallel at times and a decently clever negotiation phase.
@@Bleuchz i bet you like chewy bacon, tho?
All bacon is good, chewy, crispy, American and real bacon.
Best quick explanation of the game I've seen. Thank you!
Despite the fact that I like the 2 SUSD videos about the game, they really could have cut them down by 30% at least, as they felt waaay too verbose and meandering to me.
On the other hand, your review has helped me understand what the game is all about on a very basic level, so thank you very much for that!
I can't wait to finally try the game in TTS before preordering it.
For sure one of those games you just have to brush off things and keep on making new plans. Cards get stolen from you? Time to counter attack or pivot to something new. Fleet get destroyed? Time to start using that you you've neglected on the other side of the map. Such an awesome game.
Thee 3 min vids are so good, thanks.
Glad to be of service
Fantastically well structured, thorough, thoughtful and concise review. Really useful, entertaining and much appreciated: Thanks
I'll be playing a game of Root next week with some friends who've only played the digital version but loved it, and my copy of Arcs should be in before the end of October. It sounds like I made the right decision to pre-order it because you make it sound perfect for us.
The first time I played Arcs I was blown away. A very unique experience. Incredible. But definitely not for everyone.
I was able tp play it for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. I still need to get my head around the strategies, but it'd definitely on that I can see myself playing again and again.
Seems like a 10/10 for me, to be honest.
Add a mention of Preludes and I’d say this would be the best teach in three minutes possible!
Arcs has been the table at my gaming group as of late. I haven't tried it yet, but I may.
I was on the edge of my seat until the very end waiting to see if it got the gold medal game of honor
I kinda had to, even though ive had my butt kicked every time i've played this, i can't deny just how damned clever it is
Honestly my new favorite game. I like it in all versions: Base, Leaders & Lore and Blighted Reach. They all are great and are really their own game in itself. I recommend all of it.
I stayed away from Root because I didn't want to have to teach it. I stayed away from Oath because I'd never get a campaign game to the table repeatedly enough. This one appears to be easier to get to the table, easier to teach, apparently is good at a wider range of player counts and is getting lavish praise from every reviewer I respect. Now just for it to be restocked.......
Also I played Smartphone Inc for the first time last weekend and if you've not tried it I think you'd maybe like it. Very interactive and cutthroat economic game with an interesting action selection system. Reminded me a bit of Hansa Teutonica and Power Grid in some ways. Given the rest of the groups reaction could be an ew fave for us at least
Smartphone is on my "to play" shelf, i got it in a sale about a year ago.
@@3MBG Bang that puppy out, it's amazing! Best played with 3/5 so that you're maximising the interaction.
I have played it a couple times on table top simulator and had a great time. Waiting for the physical copy to arrive
The wife pre-ordered a copy for me. Can't wait to get it to the table!
I'm sooo huped for my first session in about two weeks from now 😊
This game is awesome, but agree polarising. There is a few that will never play it again.
I'm really intrigued by this game, but have no experience with the genre. Twilight Imperium seems very long and complicated, but Eclipse also seems somewhat approachable. Which would you recommend to a relative beginner?
That's hard, because Arcs has the simplest rules, while its the hardest of them to get good at. TI IV has the most rules, but its all logical if you've ever played an empire building computer game like stellaris or master of orion.
@@3MBG Interesting point, but then the playtime also becomes an issue. Is it better to get a logical game on the table once a year or play a similar game more often? That's the main advantage of Eclipse compared to TI, as far as I understand, but Arcs seems a little more colourful to me, maybe, not to mention the cheaper price, at least for the base game...
Eclipse is a little bit simpler i guess, the big thing that is overwhelming for new players there is the tech tiles. It can be a lot to keep in mind
excited to play this game! But i gotta get a few more plays of Oath in before I pick this one up
What's funny is i can't stand Oath at all, i nearly didn't play Arcs because of it. So not sure if liking Oath will mean you like Arcs at all.
I played Oath four times just to give it a very fair chance. Very unique game, but I’m fine never playing it again. I’ll play Arcs any day of the week and am looking forward to trying Blighted Reach.
@@3MBGglad I wasn’t the only that found Oath a bore.
That said I’m still on the fence with Arcs. It’s good, 3X (no exploring really) but the hype feels a bit overblown for me. Consecutive bad hands can suck if you can’t do the couple things you need to.
I think the bad hand thing is not an issue, its a skill gap. Same as twilight struggle really, people would moan about not having the right hands there where the game is making do with what you have.
@@3MBGI'm told that Blighted Reach expansion is a lot like Oath
Who will like it more?Root player or Oath player?
Not sure, but i loathed Oath and thought it was one of the worst games i've ever played, yet adored Arcs
I played it with my Root group and we loved it. I didn't like Oath much and I don't see a lot of similarities with it in Arcs.
Where is the speaker from? Interesting accent
Aotearoa/New Zealand
I really really love ARCS. The game arrived as i was getting a little jaded with the usual track based Euros and was looking for a little more conflict.
So many great mechanisms working together (many of which you mention). Shout out to the quick combat system where attackers choose everything. Speeds up the game nicely.
How long is the game approx pr player? And do you think it works well for 2 players? :)
2 players, nope. Not at all
Alright thanks, probably rules out for me then as I mostly play with my wife
@SummaPlusANumberGrrr if you want a big space battle game for two players, get star wars rebellion.
^this is a great suggestion. Rebellion is about as good as 2 player games get.
Any idea when this will be out to buy??
I assume shortly. I was not a kickstarter backer and asked for a review copy very late in the piece.
I am weary after Oath. Two bearded English guys on another channel oversold it and after four play throughs I was actually angry. One day, maybe.😊
Oath was among the worst games i played the year it came out. There is a reason there is no Oath in 3 minutes video, because i found the game utterly without merit and joyless. Take that for what you will ;)
I sold Oath after two playthroughs, because while the campaign was interesting and well thought out, the core game was nothing special and not that fun to play. Arcs without the campaign stands on its own and is a great game by itself. And then when you add the campaign (which by the way consists of only 3 games) the game grows exponentially, for me in the best possible way. New favourite game by a mile.
I've only played it once so far, but it was super luck based imo. I had pretty much all mobilization cards one round, so I couldn't do (very well) any of the things I wanted or needed to do for the objectives. I guess in hindsight, like a trick taking game, just take the lead and make everyone else do mobilization all round? Not fun though if you don't want to do that yourself. I definitely will give it another go I think, but polarizing indeed...I was disappointed by the amount of luck in Eclipse - and this dials that up a LOT. I was genuinely shocked after 1 play by how popular this game is. I could easily never play it again and not be bothered about it.
I think you are mistaking luck for "not getting how the game works". I've played with a very skilled player and he kicked the stuffing out of everyone each game, because he was in tune with the main truth of the game more than the rest of us. It's not about going "my hand wont let me do what i want" and far more about saying "what can i do with this hand".
That isn't luck at all. It's just a different skill from what traditional 4x games teach us.
Played it once, and had the exact same problem. The action disparity was brutal when your hand didn’t fit with the leads- very unsatisfying to get locked out of the game for 6 turns.
@@daegon1985 You're not though. You can use an extra card to take the initiative. It's a bit painful to be down one card, but that's far less painful than having 6 turns of a single pip of copy or pivot.
@@3MBG Luck still impacts letting you do what you want. Like I said, I could take the lead and make everyone else do what I have cards for - but I don't want to do what I have the cards for... I want to play the game according to my strategy, not according to whatever I was dealt. I don't like the trick taking combo for this kind of game. I had that suspicion that I needed to play it more like a trick taking game than a 4x sort of thing, but this isn't the kind of trick taking game I want to play, too much window dressing trying to disguise this as another type of game. Again, I'm surprised as many folks like it as is apparently the case.
Meh game is too fiddly