Let’s Talk About One of My Favorite Games

Welcome to this week’s gaming post! This week I’m discussing one of my favorite euro games. So without further ado, let’s jump into the recent highlights.

I recently played a two-person game of the Lost Ruins of Arnak. In this Indiana Jones themed game, in each round players alternate taking actions, such as placing a worker, playing a card, discovering a new site, overcoming a guardian, and progressing along a research track. The round ends when all players have passed, usually once players have placed all of their workers and played all of their cards from their hand, and the game ends after five rounds.

I love the combination of worker placement and deckbuilding in games, and it’s really well implemented here. Players only have two workers each round and with only five rounds, it means that players will likely only get ten worker placement actions over the course of the entire game. Unlike some other semi-deckbuilding games (cough cough, Dune: Imperium), it feels like you are able to tailor your deck more in Arnak. I think this is helped by having a smaller deck, placing new item cards at the bottom of your deck instead of your discard, activating artifact cards immediately when you purchase them, and the game providing more chances to draw and exile cards. In the most recent game I played, I was regularly going through my entire deck of cards in each round.

I also really enjoy the multi-use cards. You can either use the card for its travel icon, which is needed when placing a worker, or you can use the card for its main effect on the card itself. This creates tough decisions around how to best leverage your hand of cards.

In addition, I love it when games introduce new action spots over the course of the game because it creates a sense of progression and scale, and the mechanism is used to great effect here. At the beginning of the game, you’ll only have access to basic worker placement spots, but one of your available actions is to discover a new site. There are two levels available, with level two spots costing more resources to discover, but they provide better rewards.

In combination with the deckbuilding element, the first couple of rounds are likely going to play out relatively quickly because players won’t be able to do as much. However, by the last couple of rounds, you’ll likely be able to carry out more actions as a result of better action spaces, assistants, and the cards you’ve collected. Yet, unlike Endless Winter: Paleoamericans, which has you drowning in resources by the end of the game, in Arnak, you still never feel like you have all of the resources you need to do everything you want.

This creates a sense of trying to figure out how to eke out as many resources and actions each round with just your two workers and starting hand of five cards. Even when you feel stuck, there’s almost always a way to get the resource you need, it just might take jumping through a few hoops to get there. It almost feels like trying to solve a puzzle, and I love that about this game. Although if you’re prone to analysis paralysis, then you may not enjoy this as much.

There are also two excellent expansions, and of the two I’d recommend picking up Expedition Leaders first as it adds asymmetric starting decks and abilities, as well as two new alternative research tracks, which offer more variety. And if you’re a solo gamer, the second expansion: The Missing Expedition, is also outstanding as the six chapter campaign encourages you to focus on certain aspects of the game. Finally, I really enjoy the components, art, and overall production value of the game.

In addition to the slight analysis paralysis issue that can crop up, there is some randomness/luck when discovering new sites and placing guardians. Since you draw the top tile from each stack, sometimes the site may not give you the exact resources you need at that moment, and the guardian’s cost doesn’t match up to the resources you have. Again, there’s almost always ways to get around this, but if that amount of randomness/luck bothers you, then I can see how that may be an issue to some. Finally, since rounds continue until all players have passed, it can feel frustrating if you end the round early, and have to wait/watch as others continue taking actions.

Overall, Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of my favorite games of all time, and I recently picked it as my number one Gateway+ game. While it may be a bit heavier than your typical Gateway+ game, especially with just the base game, it’s a pretty easy teach and the theme makes it easier to jump into. After having played through the recent Missing Expedition campaign, Arnak is easily one of my most played games this year. However, even with all of those recent plays, I’m still eager to pull this one out again and try out new strategies and leaders.

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s gaming highlights! I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned, future content, or format in the comments section below. Happy gaming!

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