So, lost ruins, a game i like and would play again. But not one i'm going to rush to grab off the shelf. A lot to like here, but it occupies a similar space to Raiders of Scythia which i prefer mechanically. I even joked while playing it that it felt 100% like a Shem Phillips game, in a good way though. Lovely to look at though
Great review Jarrod! What distinguishes this game for me is the exquisite artwork. This is an impressive effort for a 1st time design team. And I'm looking forward to playing with the new Leaders expansion!
I got this as a gift for Christmas this year and I'm really looking forward to playing it. I'm still working my way up to more complex games and this seems like a good blend of easy to understand but hard to maximize point gain
Yep, its still a pretty complex game, but its made up of a lot of smaller sub systems. Its a good game to play if you want to learn about a lot of boardgame mechanics at once
This game does looks pretty interesting. However, I think i've played so much Spirit Island that I would keep wanting to get rid of those explorers. Either by Lightning Bolt, Flood or evoking some kind of natural disaster.
I feel like the biggest issue with the guardians isn't the fear card. You almost never fail to kill them. Not killing a guardian costs you 5 points and leaves them up for grabs, and it makes killing monsters feel a bit trivial rather than scary. The fact that all monsters are the same level reinforces that. Tier 2 explorations still have the same monsters as tier 1. Asides from that, the game is great.
Yeah, i liked arnak, but that feeling around the guardians, of them being just a thing you can bypass, just left me feeling flat. I guess that's the old "arkham horror" player in me. I expect guardians of temples to eat my face
After more plays I find myself often ignoring the guardians, even on the last turn and especially on the first, to focus on the archeology track. Losing out on 6 points is significant but you definitely need to weigh your options. It also provides a strong disincentive for other players trying to get a better action as they'll need to fight the guardian.
Solid stuff from you, as usual. For my part, I seem to enjoy this game more than I expect. I’m inclined to agree with all of the points you made, and yet, there’s just something about it that makes me really enjoy it. Some combination of the charming art style and the combotastic turns just has me coming back to it, as well as some X factor I can’t put my finger on (theme? Mechanic + flavor tie in? I’m not sure). I’ll definitely be looking at Raiders of Scythia now though. Cheers!
The convinently inhabited island might be the better alternative to making indigineous a resource or them just being ok with their ruins being plund... explored.
Which is exactly why they did it. I added that word to the opening to point out that the game has a very colonial theme in that respect, and that they are attempting to side step it. Trust me, i vastly prefer that to the other options, but it was worth a small call out there
Thank you for breaking this game down. Every review I've seen in it so far is trying to cover everything out of order. Love your clinical, nutshell style on this. Am I wrong to call this game Clank!+?
Well clank has a dungeon where you move your character, as well as deliberately forced card usage that made the game more randomness-driven for the sake of "excitement". Accompanying this are the Dragon Attack mechanic & random treasure values. Contrast with Arnak's more strategic card play(even though the deckbuilding part's underused imo due to the limited draws, and how every WP spot can be taken with just the basic non-fear cards)
Language dependency meter - should you pick a copy in another language? 2.5/5p Icon/colour/number dependent, text dependent, reading dependent - 1p Minimal private information / Minimal verbal communication - 1p (all private information is public first) Available rule book in different languages - 1p Zero cultural/political aggression - 0.5p (some fictional treasure looting) Multiple modern mechanisms - (-1)p Would work fine, but only for an experienced gaming group.
I would be interested in seeing an update with the leaders expansion. I love the base game but the expansion takes a good game and makes it great. I have over 100 plays of it now. The decision around when to defeat or not defeat a guardian is a big part of the game. It's usually easy to defeat it but then you don't have the resources to go up the tech track and that is far more valuable. But on the flip side, while from a points perspective the fear card isn't a big deal they can really clog up your deck. Often causing your hand in later rounds to be quite bad.
Thanks for this video! This exactly the kind of overview I was looking for. Definitely enough to let me know I don't need this game. I've been enjoying Dune: Imperium so I think I'll stick to that.
Hey J, did you get the chance to play Dune imperium? It uses a similar worker placement + deckbuilder mechanism. Combat in Dune is very consequential compared to guardian mechanism in Arnak.
I played D:I with two players and (along with getting very very salty) thought it was just okay but then played it with four and thought it was phenomenal.
Fair enough. We change the graphics package and make tweaks every year, just so the channel doesn't get stale. Some like the new ones more, others not. But id rather keep giving it all a fresh coat of paint every year than get stagnant and complacent.
Looks similar indeed, but worker placement's a different tactical & strategic beast from Clank's "exciting" randomness via forced card use + play-card-and-move
Its a super cool game actually, there are so many options! Me and my GF is renting it for a week, and we are playing it nonstop, and the game mechanics branches out into so many different options
Excellent summary. How do you compare its worker placement+deckbuilding combo compared to Dune: Imperium, Endless Winter: Paleoamericans, Copycat, etc? IMO the deckbuilding in Arnak feels underused since you only have limited draws, and can take the final WP spots just with starter cards. The purchaseable cards seemed like they were designed for a longer game, only for the designers to shrink down the gameplay due to the massive AP the game caused to playtesters lol. It felt like something that could've worked with deckless handbuilding & management. That said, the rest of the game more than makes up for it. Weakening the deckbuilding aspect seemed like a worthy sacrifice to prevent the WP part from becoming overpowered. How does Dune Imperium etc compare in that regard? And side note, how does D:I's conflict compare to Actic Scavenger's skirmish?
DI's conflict is a bit like the skirmish, but with less bluffing oddly enough. As for lost ruins deckbuilding, i thought overall the game was a safe design and didn't push anything to a point where i was really intrigued by it.
I have a feeling this game is lacking in visual design. Everything is very vibrant and has so many details, that it's very difficult to read information from the table at a glance.
Yeah, I would say you dont have enough experience with the game to understand what the guardians means and don't means. Fear can be easy to get rid of, but the end of the round where you get the fear may easily screw over your next round. Not killing the guardian means 5 points potentially will be lost if you can't come back around before another player gets there.
Rewatching, my comment is more that its a boring part of the game for something that should be varied and interesting. They are important, and yes, worth a big points swing. But the act of beating a guardian just feels..... meh.
Love the theme and components. But designer to designer, what did you think about the decision space? I’m having trouble putting my finger on it, but it didn’t feel right. Not rewarding maybe? Because I could chose most any action with any resource and gain any resource as a reward. I’ve noticed this is lots of popular, newer games. I imagine the intention was to make it so that players never feel stuck... but when there are ~ 8 types of components you can acquire, and they all involve a wide distribution of mostly the same resources... I feel like there’s no real reason to go hard on “artifact cards” v playing as a generalist. The only incentives I see to select between components (cards, tiles, idols, etc) are 1. immediate availability and 2. How/how often they would reactivate. ...Making the gameplay feel mostly like a blindfolded tactical optimization puzzle, and making the resources feel completely abstracted. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, just wondering if anyone else noticed or felt this. Cheers!
Yeah Scott, i think you nailed it. It was far looser than the Raiders game in that respect. I never really felt blocked out or unable to act and do something
@@3MBGWell, no. You make some great videos but for a three minute intro the first half is too bogged down in technical details that don’t help make clear what’s really going on in the overall game.
"Conveniently uninhabited" - seems for some games it's easier for them to just side step the ramifications of colonial powers looting the history of local regions, rather than addressing it...
Yep, that's exactly the point I wanted to make there too. The whole pulp archeology trope is pretty heavy with colonialist ideas, its very convenient there are no indigenous people here.
I dislike this static game. The board, for what it is, shouldn’t be static. Mage knights tile placement eclipses this. The research track is way way to powerful and it took my group of 4 3 hours to play. Tooooo long.
@@3MBG Yep. Well past its welcome time. We played a second game the other night and that was about 2 hours, with three people. Still the research track was what won it.
So, lost ruins, a game i like and would play again. But not one i'm going to rush to grab off the shelf. A lot to like here, but it occupies a similar space to Raiders of Scythia which i prefer mechanically. I even joked while playing it that it felt 100% like a Shem Phillips game, in a good way though. Lovely to look at though
I do love Shem Phillips games
Is it interactive at all with other players (outside of denial of worker placement spots and purchase of cards)?
Nah, not really nibbler
I remember when your channel had around 1700 subs. It’s so fantastic to see how much it’s grown. A definite recommend to all my BG friends out there.
I'm curious if the "Expedition Leaders" expansion does anything to sway your opinion.
You are on FIRE with the final one-liners lately!! Great review!
Great review Jarrod! What distinguishes this game for me is the exquisite artwork. This is an impressive effort for a 1st time design team. And I'm looking forward to playing with the new Leaders expansion!
I got this as a gift for Christmas this year and I'm really looking forward to playing it. I'm still working my way up to more complex games and this seems like a good blend of easy to understand but hard to maximize point gain
Yep, its still a pretty complex game, but its made up of a lot of smaller sub systems. Its a good game to play if you want to learn about a lot of boardgame mechanics at once
This game does looks pretty interesting. However, I think i've played so much Spirit Island that I would keep wanting to get rid of those explorers. Either by Lightning Bolt, Flood or evoking some kind of natural disaster.
This is an 100% correct point of view and I am here for it
Hey at least the explorers here befriend local wildlife & study the remnants of a great civilization, not colonizing them lol
It's insane how you litterally explained all you actually need to know in under 4 minutes
You're welcome :) Taking the time so you don't have to is the core of the channel
Next time friends gonna play this for the first time, I'll just show them this video 😂
Love this game!! Great review as always 👍
I feel like the biggest issue with the guardians isn't the fear card. You almost never fail to kill them. Not killing a guardian costs you 5 points and leaves them up for grabs, and it makes killing monsters feel a bit trivial rather than scary. The fact that all monsters are the same level reinforces that. Tier 2 explorations still have the same monsters as tier 1.
Asides from that, the game is great.
Yeah, i liked arnak, but that feeling around the guardians, of them being just a thing you can bypass, just left me feeling flat. I guess that's the old "arkham horror" player in me. I expect guardians of temples to eat my face
The guardians' bonus skills seem to imply that the explorers _befriend_ rather that kill them e.g. using the rhino or entelodonts as "car" substitutes
After more plays I find myself often ignoring the guardians, even on the last turn and especially on the first, to focus on the archeology track. Losing out on 6 points is significant but you definitely need to weigh your options. It also provides a strong disincentive for other players trying to get a better action as they'll need to fight the guardian.
Solid stuff from you, as usual. For my part, I seem to enjoy this game more than I expect. I’m inclined to agree with all of the points you made, and yet, there’s just something about it that makes me really enjoy it. Some combination of the charming art style and the combotastic turns just has me coming back to it, as well as some X factor I can’t put my finger on (theme? Mechanic + flavor tie in? I’m not sure). I’ll definitely be looking at Raiders of Scythia now though.
Cheers!
This is my new favorite intro :)
The convinently inhabited island might be the better alternative to making indigineous a resource or them just being ok with their ruins being plund... explored.
Which is exactly why they did it. I added that word to the opening to point out that the game has a very colonial theme in that respect, and that they are attempting to side step it. Trust me, i vastly prefer that to the other options, but it was worth a small call out there
@@3MBG in addition, the guardians' skills imply that the explorers befriend them instead of defeating them
Thank you for breaking this game down. Every review I've seen in it so far is trying to cover everything out of order. Love your clinical, nutshell style on this.
Am I wrong to call this game Clank!+?
I havent played clank, but i understand it has a lot in common with Arnak. As does the next game im reviewing, Dune Imperium
Well clank has a dungeon where you move your character, as well as deliberately forced card usage that made the game more randomness-driven for the sake of "excitement". Accompanying this are the Dragon Attack mechanic & random treasure values. Contrast with Arnak's more strategic card play(even though the deckbuilding part's underused imo due to the limited draws, and how every WP spot can be taken with just the basic non-fear cards)
@@3MBG does Dune Imperium integrate the deckbuilding tightly with the WP? Or is it somewhat underused
Language dependency meter - should you pick a copy in another language? 2.5/5p
Icon/colour/number dependent, text dependent, reading dependent - 1p
Minimal private information / Minimal verbal communication - 1p (all private information is public first)
Available rule book in different languages - 1p
Zero cultural/political aggression - 0.5p (some fictional treasure looting)
Multiple modern mechanisms - (-1)p
Would work fine, but only for an experienced gaming group.
Woulda been nice if u linked your videos of the last 2 board games u mentioned. But thanks for the great explanation
There is a link to one of them at the end of the video, and any game that i show with a graphic from the channel, you can just find on the channel.
I would be interested in seeing an update with the leaders expansion. I love the base game but the expansion takes a good game and makes it great. I have over 100 plays of it now. The decision around when to defeat or not defeat a guardian is a big part of the game. It's usually easy to defeat it but then you don't have the resources to go up the tech track and that is far more valuable. But on the flip side, while from a points perspective the fear card isn't a big deal they can really clog up your deck. Often causing your hand in later rounds to be quite bad.
We don't tend to do that sorry. I mean, i probably could, but in general we only do expansions if i get them at the same time as the game.
Thanks
Thanks for this video! This exactly the kind of overview I was looking for. Definitely enough to let me know I don't need this game. I've been enjoying Dune: Imperium so I think I'll stick to that.
Dune Imperium is currently on our test table. So stay tuned for a recap of that. Not this weekend, but next.
This is already out in New Zealand? Wow I'm jealous!
It was a 2nd hand copy too. It not a review copy, got it off someone else. So it must have been here for a little while
@@3MBG Its wasn't out in NZ. C got it imported from USA but made it to you pretty quickly.
I would watch Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the North Sea!
I'd kinda watch pretty much anything Indiana Jones..... (except perhaps crystal skull, lol)
@@3MBG Ditto
Good game
Hey J, did you get the chance to play Dune imperium? It uses a similar worker placement + deckbuilder mechanism. Combat in Dune is very consequential compared to guardian mechanism in Arnak.
Ask me again in exactly 1 weeks time ;)
I played D:I with two players and (along with getting very very salty) thought it was just okay but then played it with four and thought it was phenomenal.
ok, i preferred Dune imperium a lot more
Haha, same here
I liked the infographics at the beginning of the older videos better :/
Fair enough. We change the graphics package and make tweaks every year, just so the channel doesn't get stale. Some like the new ones more, others not. But id rather keep giving it all a fresh coat of paint every year than get stagnant and complacent.
Seems very similar to clank
Not played clank, but from what i know of it, a bit, yeah
Looks similar indeed, but worker placement's a different tactical & strategic beast from Clank's "exciting" randomness via forced card use + play-card-and-move
Looks like just an ok game.
I will let it pass.
Good video, keep it up
Its a super cool game actually, there are so many options! Me and my GF is renting it for a week, and we are playing it nonstop, and the game mechanics branches out into so many different options
Excellent summary. How do you compare its worker placement+deckbuilding combo compared to Dune: Imperium, Endless Winter: Paleoamericans, Copycat, etc?
IMO the deckbuilding in Arnak feels underused since you only have limited draws, and can take the final WP spots just with starter cards. The purchaseable cards seemed like they were designed for a longer game, only for the designers to shrink down the gameplay due to the massive AP the game caused to playtesters lol. It felt like something that could've worked with deckless handbuilding & management.
That said, the rest of the game more than makes up for it. Weakening the deckbuilding aspect seemed like a worthy sacrifice to prevent the WP part from becoming overpowered. How does Dune Imperium etc compare in that regard?
And side note, how does D:I's conflict compare to Actic Scavenger's skirmish?
DI's conflict is a bit like the skirmish, but with less bluffing oddly enough. As for lost ruins deckbuilding, i thought overall the game was a safe design and didn't push anything to a point where i was really intrigued by it.
I have a feeling this game is lacking in visual design. Everything is very vibrant and has so many details, that it's very difficult to read information from the table at a glance.
Yeah, I would say you dont have enough experience with the game to understand what the guardians means and don't means. Fear can be easy to get rid of, but the end of the round where you get the fear may easily screw over your next round. Not killing the guardian means 5 points potentially will be lost if you can't come back around before another player gets there.
Whut?
Rewatching, my comment is more that its a boring part of the game for something that should be varied and interesting. They are important, and yes, worth a big points swing. But the act of beating a guardian just feels..... meh.
Heyyy please can you do Art Decko
No plans at this stage, later this week i'm putting up a video which will show the games we have coming up
Love the theme and components. But designer to designer, what did you think about the decision space?
I’m having trouble putting my finger on it, but it didn’t feel right. Not rewarding maybe? Because I could chose most any action with any resource and gain any resource as a reward. I’ve noticed this is lots of popular, newer games. I imagine the intention was to make it so that players never feel stuck... but when there are ~ 8 types of components you can acquire, and they all involve a wide distribution of mostly the same resources... I feel like there’s no real reason to go hard on “artifact cards” v playing as a generalist.
The only incentives I see to select between components (cards, tiles, idols, etc) are 1. immediate availability and 2. How/how often they would reactivate. ...Making the gameplay feel mostly like a blindfolded tactical optimization puzzle, and making the resources feel completely abstracted.
I’m not sure if I’m making sense, just wondering if anyone else noticed or felt this.
Cheers!
Yeah Scott, i think you nailed it. It was far looser than the Raiders game in that respect. I never really felt blocked out or unable to act and do something
This was enjoyable but a very forgettable game
Couldn't follow this explanation at all.
The funny thing about this comment, is it's telling on you, not me ;)
@@3MBGWell, no. You make some great videos but for a three minute intro the first half is too bogged down in technical details that don’t help make clear what’s really going on in the overall game.
"Conveniently uninhabited" - seems for some games it's easier for them to just side step the ramifications of colonial powers looting the history of local regions, rather than addressing it...
Yep, that's exactly the point I wanted to make there too. The whole pulp archeology trope is pretty heavy with colonialist ideas, its very convenient there are no indigenous people here.
@@3MBG I figured that might've been how you felt, just based on the tone when you said that phrase!
I dislike this static game. The board, for what it is, shouldn’t be static. Mage knights tile placement eclipses this. The research track is way way to powerful and it took my group of 4 3 hours to play. Tooooo long.
3 hours? We played 4 player games in just over an hour.
@@3MBG Yep. Well past its welcome time. We played a second game the other night and that was about 2 hours, with three people. Still the research track was what won it.