We’re not just about IP content here at BCP. We know that geekdom is a very broad church – an ever-expanding universe, in fact – so we’re going to take a look at one of the most exciting, talked-about boardgames out there right now… and give you a chance to win the game and BOTH expansions. This is a very big box of stuff, btw, so it’ll be a UK only giveaway, alas.

ARCS

(RRP: £59.99; Leaders & Lore: £19.99; The Blighted Reach: £99.99)

So here it is: the next big thing. Bold statement? Maybe, but look at the success of Leder Games’ wonderful, whimsical asymmetrical delight ROOT – you just know that this is going to be huge. A deeply complex, tactical 4X with Trick-taking elements set in a quirky sci-fi universe, ARCS is a quite remarkable game. Polarising, in some cases, but remarkable.

The name comes from the representation of 3D space on a 2D board, with different Arc markers noting inaccessible areas of space (amongst other things 😉) The game is, in essence, a 4X: Expand, Explore, Exploit, Exterminate. Build Cities (to tax them and gain resources) and Starports (to build ships and fling them between jump gates), travel to other planets that may or may not be occupied, and conquer them by guile or combat. Pretty standard stuff, so far; it all feels very familiar, though not in a bad way. Taxing cities for resources is particularly important, as it provides you with additional action choices (these being rather limited, as I’ll come to), or in the case of Weapons, to battle. Because at its heart this is a Trick-taking game, which for someone raised on Bridge and Whist is simply a delight.

Your cards are divided into thematic suits – Administration, Aggression, Construction, and Mobilization – which have different actions, and the higher the card value, the fewer actions you can take. Follow suit from the first player, and you get to take your listed actions, but you can equally change suit, for a single action from that suit, or play facedown to copy an action from theirs. Or, if you’re feeling wild, play 2 cards, sacrificing an action to take the initiative.

Initiative control is vitally important, as this allows you to determine Ambitions: the game objectives for the coming round. Ambitions are similarly determined by card suit, and the earlier you choose the Ambition, the more it’s worth for the round. Ambitions are about having the most of a given resource(s), most ships destroyed or captives taken.

Combat, incidentally, is both elegant and completely vicious. Only the attacker rolls dice, with the Blue Skirmish dice representing a lightning strike with limited risk reward, the Red Assault dice a much higher chance of damage to both sides, and the Orange Raid dice a chance to nick your opponent’s stuff. #spoileralert : Raids are key to victory. Even, however, at your most desperate, the tide can turn your way, with a little luck. That’s not to say you’re totally dependent on the luck of the draw – far from it, in fact. The game is about making dynamic, tactical decisions in the moment, rather than necessarily being bound to a singular course of action. Compared to other 4Xs, where there can be a lot of downtime, strategizing the minutiae of your turn whilst others drift of, this is a game where even a single card played grips your attention, forces you to adapt, modify and change tack even within a wider game plan. For instance, I might start with planets that give me plenty of Empath resources: do I follow this through for the whole game, or is that too obvious – will there be a target on my back every time I think of gathering that resource? Or should I fake out my opponents, and make them think that’s my objective? Or maybe – just maybe – do both?

Even at its most basic, ARCS is asymmetrical, as you don’t begin with the same resources as one another. However, you can emphasise this through the addition of both Leaders and Lore which give you different starting abilities and objectives (this is further developed in the expansion card pack of the same name). Ironically, the rulebook discourages you from playing with these from the outset, when I think they are VITAL to the enjoyment of the thing: they help the new player have sense of where to focus their attention, and the more experienced have a sense of the wider narrative.

As an expansion, Leaders and Lore doubles down on this. For example, your leader might see expansion as the key to your society’s survival, and so your ships have faster, more efficient Sprinter drives. Equally, your culture might be isolationist, and so render you unable to make even informal alliances with other players. It’s neatly thematic and keeps even the basic game feeling fresh. But in terms of the wider narrative, there is also the massive, sprawling Blighted Reach expansion, which elevates the whole game into a massive narrative campaign. The box is far bigger than the base game, with storage for everything released thus far (and more), dividers, tokens, new flagship command ships, and of course… the blight. As it spreads across the galaxy, will you work together? Exploit the weakness of others? How will you survive the decay infecting and corrupting every world it touches?

It’s a 3-Act Narrative campaign, and it really takes the game to another level, with card decks of different branching and overlapping narratives. A choice in Act 1 to destroy a planet might end up with you being flooded with refugees in Act 2; an alliance might only bear fruit much later in the game; a discovery of an unimaginably ancient artefact could rewrite everything. Each individual game of the campaign takes a couple of hours to play, so it can be drawn out over a few sessions or a single mammoth campaign day. It adds almost limitless replayability to the game and makes it hugely satisfying – and a very worthwhile investment.

There’s a lot of meat on these bones, helped in no small part by some of the best designed player aids I’ve ever encountered, clear, concise and comprehensive. ARCS is a really extraordinary game, but I do understand why it may not be to everybody’s taste. Some may find the art style a little too whimsical, some may find the intersection of diverse game mechanics off-putting. It’s space marmite, and you’d be a fool not to try it.

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

So… How do you win ALL OF THIS?! Well, as ever, this is going to be one of those times you head over to the Instagram @big_geekingout, but remember to comment below for 5 bonus entries! Just tell us your favourite sci-fi movie. Not a hard question AT ALL, that :D

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
Sam blogs @big_geekingout and as part of bigcomicpage.com with an emphasis on dad-gaming and IP content. Recovering competitive card gamer, infrequent skirmish wargamer, and generally average boardgamer. Decent Modeller with a fondness for terrain. Enthusiastic if not especially capable miniature Painter. Media and English Teacher, which is a cover for being a movie nerd. Reasonable cook. Occasional Parent.

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