I know this video is 6 months old , but generally speaking, over the years your videos are getting better and better. You are now one of my 'go to' channels for board game explanations. Thanks for your contributions to the hobby!
Really appreciate your support, thanks for watching! 🙏 Haha ocassionally there are still comments in our older videos, which made us look to our old videos and cringe a little bit haha. Thank you again!
Great video! Some finer points that may be overlooked 14:25 Here even though the weapon city isn’t circled, remember it is also a Loyal piece 17:14 When you gain a resource beyond capacity, you must discard a resource, this can be the one you just gained, or an old resource
Got Arcs as a gift, watched the video from start to finish, and was able to play a 2 player game all in the same day. Great work on explaining the rules and thanks!
Thanks this video helped me learn how to play. For what it’s worth, when I’m teaching others I teach the actions and what they do before I do the card play. Only because when I tried it the other way people kept asking about the cards while I was trying to teach the card play.
Thank you for your clear explanation! I feel better about this game. It looks like it is more approachable and offers plenty of strategy. Can’t wait to get my copy!!
24:55 "Note that everything I just went through for taking trophies, provoking outrage, and ransacking the court, applies equally to destroying rival pieces outside battle". I think you might be trying to say "...applies equally to destroying rival _CITIES_ outside battle". Destroying a starport or ship outside of battle doesn't provoke outrage.
20:09 Red is not blocked from catapulting, they are able to “catapult” into the gate and stop their movement there , right? basically it becomes a normal move action due to to the blockage. I guess it’s the same as you said but the wording for me was confusing.
My brain hurts just from watching the rules - I can't imagine playing this game! (Which I will be doing tomorrow... wish me luck. Pretty sure I'm gonna need it!) Thank you for a great teach video!
I was able to purchase a copy yesterday. Thanks for this video. I feel like this is a game where I am not going to be that good at teaching, will definitely miss some things lol.
24:37 you say that you need to put all rival pieces in the trophy zone, but you were playing orange and you put orange in the trophy zone too. Was that a mistake or do you have to put your own agents into yhe trophy zone too while ransacking the court?
Great tutorial, thank you! 18:58 I'm confused by the different adjacent systems. Wouldn't the red planet also be adjacent to the systems to the right of the bottom gate? Could you please explain this?
Quick question about 13:25, I’ll paraphrase: “if you played a second card to seize initiative this card doesn’t give you any actions” - do you mean you get no actions from the first card as well? Or just no additional actions for playing the second card?
@9:30 it says “a single ambition may be declared multiple times in the same round.” how is this possible? I can see it being declared multiple times over the course of the chapter, but not in the same round.
20:10 I may be wrong but doesn't Red be able to catapult to the Psionic planet and then to Material one on top since there is only a single line between the systems 5 and 6?
I believe you are correct! I interpreted Catapult as "Move until you can't," and the blocking systems would be ones controlled by other players' ships.
@@phk975 From what I read, no: "Catapult moves-keep moving the ships as much as you want, dropping them off as you want, until they move into any planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else." The key is "controlled by anyone else". In this exemple, red isn't blocked by the planet. Unless I misread and the condition is "until they move intro any planet" OR "a gate controlled by anyone else". Either way, the sentence seems poorly written
@@GuillaumeBellemare "Unless I misread and the condition is "until they move intro any planet" OR "a gate controlled by anyone else". Either way, the sentence seems poorly written" This is correct. All planets stop catapult move no matter who controls them.
@@GuillaumeBellemare Your last statement is the correct one. I agree, it could be written better in the rulebook. The aid booklet clarifies this with some styling: "until they move into any planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else."
I have a question: what happens if you play a card of the same suit as the lead that is a lower number? Is that just not allowed? (i.e. you'd just play it face down since surpass isn't an option)
Thanks, really well done...glad to subscribe! I'll be bringing this to a game night shortly, and this should really help in me being able to introduce it and all of us learning it.
28:57 I don't like this tiebreaker mechanic... Does this feel more "fair" in the game? My first-layer tiebreaker would be "player with the most systems in their control". Would that screw with the game- balance?
You can tax (1) “any loyal city” or (2) “a rival city in a system you control”. So by condition (1), you can tax the yellow/loyal city despite blue controlling the system. Who controls the system applies only to condition (2).
So playing cards, you can't play a card of lower value than the suit played? Like in the example a 4 was used, but you can't play the 2 of that suit, even though it is in suit?
@@thomashughes7336 almost. If I've only got low cards I'd try and keep a variety of suits and hope for someone to declare an ambition so you can surpass their zero
Hopefully you can help me out. When someone seize initiative, the card that was used (face up) will be able to use the action points in the card? I understand that the only card that will be discarded and not be able to use again to play with, will be the face down (used to seize initiative). Thank you!!! Great vid by the way
20:17 In the rulebook for catapult moves it says "keep moving the ships as much as you want, dropping them off as much as you want, until they move into any planet or gate that is controlled by anyone else." I'm confused how that would be an illegal move. The first move was leagal because blue controlled the yellow planet. The second move was legal because nobody controlled the yellow starport and city. The next move was legal because nobody controlled the red city. The last move was legal because it was the final move blue could do because they moved into a planet that was controlled by someone else. I am confused where you got "you can go to a single planet system as part of your catapult"
You're misquoting it slightly. It says, "ANY planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else." You're just missing the the word "a" but it changes the intent of the line: it ends when you reach [a planet, no matter who controls it] or [a gate that someone else controls]. The player aid pamphlet uses better formatting by bolding the gate clause as well to make it clear these are separate conditions.
The attacker chooses everything. The defender makes no decisions in combat. So the atacker both assigns hits to opponent ships as well as any self hits or intercepts. Normal hits must always go to ships first, if there are any (attacker decides which). Building hits always go to buildings (attacker's choice) and they are lost if there are none.
at 9:36 the video says "a single ambition may be declared multiple times in the same round". I believe this is a mistake. I think you can play a single Lead card per round, and you can declare an ambition only once using the same Lead card. Thus an ambition CANNOT be declared multiple times in the same round. What was probably meant is that it's legal to have more than one ambition marker in the same ambition box, but that is not what was said.
I think he meant “chapter” and not “round”. Seems like there are many rounds in a chapter, and each round 1 ambition can be declared (from the initiative player, I think).
Page 22 says "Rarely, a player will have no starports or ships on the map. If this happens, they place 3 fresh ships in any gate at the end of their turn." It uses the word OR. So does this mean if you have ships, but not starports you get to place 3 fresh ships every turn??
Played a game of this where i drew 6 of the same card, won the initiative then next 2 rounds noone could take initiative because i had all the same type of cards. Finally someone took initiative by playing a 2nd card face down (causing them to lose actions), but they also had 3 of the same card. This game truly sucks when your actions are limited by randomly dealt cards with no draft.
Copying, pivoting, seizing initiative, and using resource prelude actions can be used to overcome bad hands. In reality, there are only bad hands in Arcs. The strategy of Arcs involves overcoming your bad hands by using the options available.
@@WideMouth yeh i love having less actions in a round because ive had to copy or pivot. Nothing better than doing actions you dont want to do because of RNJesus of the shuffle. Spend a whole round doing setup and next round get screwed. The game is so rng its crazy and the mitigation costs you turns... trash game
@@garysurridge4082 Bro, I’m trying to offer you valid tips and options to play the game well. You complained about the action system without once even mentioning prelude actions, which are a core element of how actions work. I think if you looked online for some in-depth strategy guides, you’d have a better understanding of how to make the most of your hand.
@@garysurridge4082War of the Ring is one of the best 2p strategic board games to ever exist. Every round all of your possible actions are determined by the roll of the dice at the beginning of the round. Your goal is to make the most of the hand you were dealt. Either this is something for you or not but it's something that I find highly enjoyable.
The competitive scene for this game is gonna be top notch.
why do you say that just curious
Just kinda the way it is. Different account sry
I know this video is 6 months old , but generally speaking, over the years your videos are getting better and better. You are now one of my 'go to' channels for board game explanations. Thanks for your contributions to the hobby!
Really appreciate your support, thanks for watching! 🙏 Haha ocassionally there are still comments in our older videos, which made us look to our old videos and cringe a little bit haha. Thank you again!
Great video!
Some finer points that may be overlooked
14:25 Here even though the weapon city isn’t circled, remember it is also a Loyal piece
17:14 When you gain a resource beyond capacity, you must discard a resource, this can be the one you just gained, or an old resource
Got Arcs as a gift, watched the video from start to finish, and was able to play a 2 player game all in the same day. Great work on explaining the rules and thanks!
Glad it helped, thanks for the kind words!🙏🙏
Thanks this video helped me learn how to play. For what it’s worth, when I’m teaching others I teach the actions and what they do before I do the card play. Only because when I tried it the other way people kept asking about the cards while I was trying to teach the card play.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much for your kind words
The trick taking part is going to be the hardest to explain for me
This is the best tutorial of Arcs available. Thank you!
🙏Thank you
Thank you for your clear explanation! I feel better about this game. It looks like it is more approachable and offers plenty of strategy. Can’t wait to get my copy!!
I'm so glad that you have tutorial for Arcs! I was looking at your overview before, and this is awesome! Best tutorial for Arcs. Thank you
Thanks so much 🙏
Great steady explanation. One minor point is you cannot raid star base, only cities
Not with that attitude.
It's really very well done, guys. Thank you so much. It's a great tutorial video.
Thank you very much.
24:55 "Note that everything I just went through for taking trophies, provoking outrage, and ransacking the court, applies equally to destroying rival pieces outside battle".
I think you might be trying to say "...applies equally to destroying rival _CITIES_ outside battle". Destroying a starport or ship outside of battle doesn't provoke outrage.
20:09 Red is not blocked from catapulting, they are able to “catapult” into the gate and stop their movement there , right? basically it becomes a normal move action due to to the blockage. I guess it’s the same as you said but the wording for me was confusing.
Got my copy today. Unboxed, organized and tore through the rule books for Base and Blighted expansion. Ready for business!
Wooot! Enjoy!
did you sleeve the cards
My brain hurts just from watching the rules - I can't imagine playing this game! (Which I will be doing tomorrow... wish me luck. Pretty sure I'm gonna need it!) Thank you for a great teach video!
🙏 Hehe good luck, you got this!
I was able to purchase a copy yesterday. Thanks for this video. I feel like this is a game where I am not going to be that good at teaching, will definitely miss some things lol.
You got this! Have fun!
Just got my copy today!. Thank you for the explanation
Wooot! Hope you enjoy playing!
24:37 you say that you need to put all rival pieces in the trophy zone, but you were playing orange and you put orange in the trophy zone too.
Was that a mistake or do you have to put your own agents into yhe trophy zone too while ransacking the court?
The components for this look soooo nice
Great tutorial, thank you!
18:58 I'm confused by the different adjacent systems. Wouldn't the red planet also be adjacent to the systems to the right of the bottom gate? Could you please explain this?
It seems it should be adjacent to at least 2 or 3 other systems not just the one.
Quick question about 13:25, I’ll paraphrase: “if you played a second card to seize initiative this card doesn’t give you any actions” - do you mean you get no actions from the first card as well? Or just no additional actions for playing the second card?
Second card
Thank you so much for this tutorial! It helped me out a lot and you explained it all in a great way!
Thank you so much for your kind words
Thanks for the video! Are you able to tell me the measurements of the resource tokens?
@9:30 it says “a single ambition may be declared multiple times in the same round.” how is this possible? I can see it being declared multiple times over the course of the chapter, but not in the same round.
Great video, y'all!! Thank you! Can't wait to get this one to the table.
🙏 thanks so much!! Happy gaming!
Finally i find a video which isnt just someone gushing over the game but a proper tutorial. Thank you 😊
🙏 thanks so much for your kind words, we're humbled
Thanks for making this. We are gonna play this soon❤
Thanks so much! Enjoy!
20:10 I may be wrong but doesn't Red be able to catapult to the Psionic planet and then to Material one on top since there is only a single line between the systems 5 and 6?
I believe you are correct! I interpreted Catapult as "Move until you can't," and the blocking systems would be ones controlled by other players' ships.
Catapult moves stop at planets.
@@phk975 From what I read, no: "Catapult moves-keep moving the ships as much as you want, dropping them off as you want, until they move into any planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else."
The key is "controlled by anyone else". In this exemple, red isn't blocked by the planet.
Unless I misread and the condition is "until they move intro any planet" OR "a gate controlled by anyone else". Either way, the sentence seems poorly written
@@GuillaumeBellemare "Unless I misread and the condition is "until they move intro any planet" OR "a gate controlled by anyone else". Either way, the sentence seems poorly written"
This is correct. All planets stop catapult move no matter who controls them.
@@GuillaumeBellemare Your last statement is the correct one. I agree, it could be written better in the rulebook. The aid booklet clarifies this with some styling: "until they move into any planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else."
I just got this in the mail. I'm so excited to play!
We're excited for youuu!
I have a question: what happens if you play a card of the same suit as the lead that is a lower number? Is that just not allowed? (i.e. you'd just play it face down since surpass isn't an option)
correct
Will you do the campaign mode too?
We're unsure at this stage, but you never know! 🙏
When can you use items, besides for ambitions?
Thanks, really well done...glad to subscribe! I'll be bringing this to a game night shortly, and this should really help in me being able to introduce it and all of us learning it.
Thank youfor the kind words. Hope you have fun playing. Or get everyone to watch it first also to help your teaching load😆
very nice teach! only thing I didn't understand was the Intercept thing during combat
28:57 I don't like this tiebreaker mechanic... Does this feel more "fair" in the game? My first-layer tiebreaker would be "player with the most systems in their control". Would that screw with the game- balance?
Thank you for teaching this game!
Thank you 🙏🙏🙏
Great explanation thanks!
🙏Thanks so much
What happens if all your ships, Starbases and cities are destroyed?
@16:30 why can you tax the yellow/loyal city on the blue planet? Doesnt blue control that system?
You can tax (1) “any loyal city” or (2) “a rival city in a system you control”.
So by condition (1), you can tax the yellow/loyal city despite blue controlling the system. Who controls the system applies only to condition (2).
Just to make sure: you can move damaged ships?
Yes
Thanks this is very nice! Will there be a campaign rules video?
Thank you! Not at the moment, but who knows! :)
Hmmm…. The ships are pretty big compared to TTS
Congratz on being the official rules vid for Arcs!
I assume you were awarded the honour because of my glowing endorsement of your Oath video? ;)
🙏😆 Im sure . Thank you so much for your continuos support! Really appreciate your visit
So playing cards, you can't play a card of lower value than the suit played? Like in the example a 4 was used, but you can't play the 2 of that suit, even though it is in suit?
I believe any number lower than the lead card is considered a copy (only one pip action)
As @ryokun1 said, it would function as a copy, so, yeah, you can't play the lower valued card face up.
Okay, so it almost forces you to take initiative if you have a low hand, so you can get the most actions?
@@thomashughes7336 almost. If I've only got low cards I'd try and keep a variety of suits and hope for someone to declare an ambition so you can surpass their zero
Hopefully you can help me out. When someone seize initiative, the card that was used (face up) will be able to use the action points in the card? I understand that the only card that will be discarded and not be able to use again to play with, will be the face down (used to seize initiative).
Thank you!!! Great vid by the way
It's still be able to use!
Yes, your face-up card will still be treated normally regardless of the face-down one you spent (all pips if surpassed, 1 if pivot etc)
20:17
In the rulebook for catapult moves it says "keep moving the ships as much as you want, dropping them off as much as you want, until they move into any planet or gate that is controlled by anyone else." I'm confused how that would be an illegal move. The first move was leagal because blue controlled the yellow planet. The second move was legal because nobody controlled the yellow starport and city. The next move was legal because nobody controlled the red city. The last move was legal because it was the final move blue could do because they moved into a planet that was controlled by someone else. I am confused where you got "you can go to a single planet system as part of your catapult"
You're misquoting it slightly. It says, "ANY planet or a gate that is controlled by anyone else." You're just missing the the word "a" but it changes the intent of the line: it ends when you reach [a planet, no matter who controls it] or [a gate that someone else controls].
The player aid pamphlet uses better formatting by bolding the gate clause as well to make it clear these are separate conditions.
@@anemptyeye so when you reach a planet, even if it isn't controlled by anyone, your catapult move is over? That makes a lot more sense to me now
@@JAMman Yeah, exactly. I think the online rulebook has already been updated to be more clear about that.
I'm a little confused about battles. Does the attacker or defender choose which pieces receive hits? Does it depend on which symbols appear?
The attacker chooses everything. The defender makes no decisions in combat. So the atacker both assigns hits to opponent ships as well as any self hits or intercepts. Normal hits must always go to ships first, if there are any (attacker decides which). Building hits always go to buildings (attacker's choice) and they are lost if there are none.
Is this Kickstarter version?
Really good video!
Is it crowd funded/kickstarter copies that people received in the last few weeks!? (Besides review copies of course)
On fulfillment I believe
What happens when someone seizes the initiative and then someone plays a 7 following lead suit?
The initiative can be taken once per round.
Bottom of Page 10, Seizing
at 9:36 the video says "a single ambition may be declared multiple times in the same round". I believe this is a mistake. I think you can play a single Lead card per round, and you can declare an ambition only once using the same Lead card. Thus an ambition CANNOT be declared multiple times in the same round. What was probably meant is that it's legal to have more than one ambition marker in the same ambition box, but that is not what was said.
It's possible to declare an ambition through different means in the game.
The part of the video I mentioned talks about declaring ambition in the context of playing a Lead card. I think it is unambiguous
I think he meant “chapter” and not “round”. Seems like there are many rounds in a chapter, and each round 1 ambition can be declared (from the initiative player, I think).
Came looking for this comment and also agree that he likely made the error saying multiple times per 'round' rather than 'chapter'
Page 22 says "Rarely, a player will have no starports or ships
on the map. If this happens, they place 3 fresh
ships in any gate at the end of their turn." It uses the word OR. So does this mean if you have ships, but not starports you get to place 3 fresh ships every turn??
this video seems to start in the middle of a sentence…
On the Arc to Boardgame Teaching Greatness…
Thank you kindly 🙏
Campaign mode!!!
Hahaha you're not the only one. We dont have it, so will need to ask Leder Games
Played a game of this where i drew 6 of the same card, won the initiative then next 2 rounds noone could take initiative because i had all the same type of cards. Finally someone took initiative by playing a 2nd card face down (causing them to lose actions), but they also had 3 of the same card. This game truly sucks when your actions are limited by randomly dealt cards with no draft.
Copying, pivoting, seizing initiative, and using resource prelude actions can be used to overcome bad hands. In reality, there are only bad hands in Arcs. The strategy of Arcs involves overcoming your bad hands by using the options available.
@@WideMouth yeh i love having less actions in a round because ive had to copy or pivot. Nothing better than doing actions you dont want to do because of RNJesus of the shuffle. Spend a whole round doing setup and next round get screwed. The game is so rng its crazy and the mitigation costs you turns... trash game
@@garysurridge4082 Bro, I’m trying to offer you valid tips and options to play the game well. You complained about the action system without once even mentioning prelude actions, which are a core element of how actions work. I think if you looked online for some in-depth strategy guides, you’d have a better understanding of how to make the most of your hand.
@@garysurridge4082War of the Ring is one of the best 2p strategic board games to ever exist. Every round all of your possible actions are determined by the roll of the dice at the beginning of the round. Your goal is to make the most of the hand you were dealt. Either this is something for you or not but it's something that I find highly enjoyable.