CGE Lost Ruins of Arnak Board Game

As others have said, this is an excellent board game. The art is absolutely beautiful, and it is genuinely fun to explore the new sites with their corresponding guardians. The research track is sometimes said to be less fun, and it is more or less buying victory points. However, as an academic, I can really appreciate that thematic implementation of an expedition. The search and discovery it represents, with the magnifying glass going first followed by publishing research, is satisfying along with the research assistants it enables you to recruit along the way that come when you publish your research (i.e. move your journal token up the track). The art in the research track is fun as well, and I think it has Latin notes scribbled in small font along it as well, as the researchers get progressively more excited by their discoveries! I thought this was going to be a downside, but it surprised me in how much I enjoyed the track as a thematic game mechanic. Two other important notes: 1) With new items and artifacts played out in each game, along with the new worker placement sites and guardians that are randomly laid out each game - the game is highly replayable with lots of variety. 2) The game uses a lot of mechanics, part worker placement, part deck building (with thin decks), part resource management, and part exploration. However, in my mind, I like this a lot as it forces you to not focus too much on just perfecting one particular mechanic or part of your engine and forget what you are playing. By masterfully integrating a number of different mechanics, it allows those mechanics to fade into the background as you focus on thematically running an expedition. My only negative is that there are a lot of options to choose from, and towards the end game it can invite analysis paralysis that can delay the game. I hope that this goes away with more play throughs. In general, there are enough options and mechanics to choose from each turn that no matter what you do, it will net you points in a positive way with some fun combos to boot. There is just the right amount of randomization and luck to make you feel rewarded with an earned victory when a strategy pays off, and also not feel too bad about it when you don't win. I look forward to trying the Expedition Leaders expansion soon!

Ruins of Arnak is an amazing euro-game about finding the lost ruins of Atlantis....er....Arnak! RoA mixes two of my favorite game mechanics in one game-worker placement and deck building-into a frantic and fun race between players to be the first to discover the lost ancient temples of Atlant-um-Arnak. Players will use their workers and decks of cards to do three main objectives: 1) to explore the island of Arnak and gather resources and knowledge while fighting off powerful and fearsome monster guardians! 2) Use those resources to buy more cards to give yourself more special abilities and more powerful moves,; 3) use those cards and resources to move up the REASEARCH TRACK that allows a player to recruit helpers, gain special abilities and ultimately decipher the lost language of Atlantis...er....Arnak and discover the location of it's greatest temple! To put is simply, Arnak is a great game! If you love archaeology themed games, then this is a no-brainer! It has enough variety in the base game for many replays AND has TONS OF POTENTIAL for expansions that could make the game endlessly re-playable! Ruins of Arnak is rare among euros in that the game actually has a cool theme that the game mechanics actually support. This is the kind of game both euro-gamers and AmeriTHRASHERS can enjoy equally. The game is also gorgeous to look at and will be a real head turner when set up on the table.

This game is wonderful. It combines a couple of my favorite mechanics, deck-building and worker-placement, into one game and the theme and artwork make it sing. It is strongly improved with the expansion that adds asymmetry to the explorers the character's play, I honestly wouldn't play it without the expansion at this point. I also own Dune Imperium Uprising, which also combines worker placement and deck building into one game. I love both and play both, though this one plays a lot better at 2 players, not having to rely on an AI "third player" to balance things. So if its just me and one other friend we will usually reach for this instead of Dune. The quality of this game is pretty good. The plastic tablets and arrowheads are nice, but then offset by standard cardboard gold and compass tokens. Those were upgraded quickly. The board, cards and everything else is good quality, so the value is definitely there for the cost. With two board options and different strategies to play the replay ability is pretty infinite. Adding in the expansions with additional boards and the new explorers kicks it up to 11 for me. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who is into the hobby.

Great game with a ton of replayability, good base for expansions. If you love worker placement and deck building with a touch of race against time this is the game.

My wife and I have thoroughly enjoyed every play of this game (now at 21 times played). The mechanics were easy to grasp and there are enough decisions to be made to keep the game interesting without making it cumbersome. We love the two-track element of this game with the combination of exploration and research. The research track was just a cool race for points and some special rewards for accomplishing goals. Exploring the jungle and building our decks was enjoyable as well. It's obvious the designers meant this to be a fun experience due to the fact that the guardians really weren't all that harmful. Gaining some fear cards but having no other detrimental outcome made flipping over a guardian tile much less nerve wracking as a decision (It should be noted, however, that the fear cards you get for not defeating a monster can cost you. I had 2 fear cards in my hand at the end of the game and lost by 1 point. So they can matter). We recommend this game to anyone looking for a really fun, easy to learn, well-themed game. The art is great, the components are solid and it's got all the hallmarks of a great family game.

Likes: 1. combines worker placement with deck building. Both are equally important 2. the artwork is well done. No one will complain about it. 3. items and artifacts available up top change over time, so you have to adjust with the game 4. you always have many options to make in the game (often like 6 available things: several locations to go, buy a card, play a card, research). Note: you can only do one a turn so if there is a really good item you think everyone wants, you should buy it as your first move. 5. all the mechanics one their own are simple to comprehend (mixing them together is when it gets interesting...) 6. cards have icons super easy to understand (there is no small text anywhere in the game!!) 7. good components in the game (Chucky plastic pieces for gems, arrows, tablets) Dislikes: 1. analysis paralysis can be a lot, especially the last rounds. I can take minutes to plan things out optimally. If you miscalculate, you are left behind usually and feel meh. Hopefully you have forgiving playmates. (example: exploring new locations gives you blue tokens, and those tokens can help you get resources, and then you can use those resources to move up the research track before my opponent, which will then get me a bonus resource, and I can use that bonus resources to explore a new location again, get those blue tokens again, and then use those resources to go up the research track... and so on). If done optimally, that is what the last round should often sound like. My opinion of the game: I like the engine building and critical thinking. It is a challenge to do everything optimally. The theme and artwork make the whole process more enjoyable. I think you can also tone back the heavy thinking and enjoy the journey as well. And lastly, the price and value. I got it for $60 with amazon prime. That price is fair. I would not spend more than $70/$75 for this unless it really sounds like your type of game. I hope this helps your purchase decision! :) bye bye world!

Combines deck building, worker placement and resource management into one great game! It's probably one of my new favorite Euro games which is pretty hard to do since I don't play that many. (Agricola and Suburbia are the only two that I like.) Pros: While it doesn't have any direct interaction you can counterplay your opponent with either taking a worker spot or buying a card from under them. The card you can buy are one of a kind. Each of them have similar effects but you will be the only one with that actual effect. Except the Artifacts have some unique things going on. Finding a new worker site is probably the best action you can do rather than going to an old one. Neutral Research is just another track but at least you get something after each level even if half the time it's just exploration tokens. Sometimes the cards you want never show up in that game. Bad Research is super good. You will have to do some and you will want to get to the top before the end of the game just to even have enough points. Overall Great Euro game! I want to get the expansion to get those individual player things but I can play the base game for at least another 20 plays. There's a 4 game solo campaign that looks fun and will play soon.

Game mechanics are very easy to learn but there's a lot of depth and different strategies to use will you won't get bored. When we have game night this is always a top choice for me and my friends. The game pieces are of high quality and it's easy to set up.

Great game... Many actions to do every round and you get rewarded for earlier game investments... Must play for all board game fans

OMG absolutely love it! Just as fun for two players as it is a group. A must try!

Artwork of this game is so wonderful and captivating. This game combines deck building and worker placement themes nicely which makes gameplay rich and intense.

Good

It was a great purchase. The product was well shipped. The price was fine too.