Skip to content
Login / Register
Menu
Kickstarter – Gamefound
Board Games
Strategy
Family and Children
Party
Adult
Thematic
Ελληνικα Παιχνιδια
LCG
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game
RPGs
D & D
Pathfinder
Gamebooks
Others
Accessories
Game Mats
Bags
Dice
Sleeves
Sapphire Sleeves
Paladin Sleeves
Other
Novels – Books
Plunder boxes
Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Search for:
Home
/
Shop
/
Board Games
/
Strategy
Add to Wishlist
Ark Nova
90m - 150m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 14+
Hand management games are games with cards in them that reward players for playing the cards in certain sequences or groups. The optimal sequence/grouping may vary, depending on board position, cards held and cards played by opponents. Managing your hand means gaining the most value out of available cards under given circumstances. Cards often have multiple uses in the game, further obfuscating an "optimal" sequence.
Hand Management
The primary goal of a set collection mechanic is to encourage a player to collect a set of items.
Set Collection
Tile Placement games feature placing a piece to score VPs, with the amount often based on adjacent pieces or pieces in the same group/cluster, and keying off non-spatial properties like color, "feature completion", cluster size etc.
Tile Placement
Variable Player Powers is a mechanic that grants different abilities and/or paths to victory to the players.
Variable Player Powers
Animals
59.00
€
30 day low:
Out of stock
Search for:
Kickstarter – Gamefound
Board Games
Strategy
Family and Children
Party
Adult
Thematic
Ελληνικα Παιχνιδια
LCG
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game
RPGs
D & D
Pathfinder
Gamebooks
Others
Accessories
Game Mats
Bags
Dice
Sleeves
Sapphire Sleeves
Paladin Sleeves
Other
Novels – Books
Plunder boxes
Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Login
Cart
Your cart is empty!
Return to shop
Skip to content
Open toolbar
Accessibility Tools
Accessibility Tools
Increase Text
Increase Text
Decrease Text
Decrease Text
Grayscale
Grayscale
High Contrast
High Contrast
Negative Contrast
Negative Contrast
Light Background
Light Background
Links Underline
Links Underline
Readable Font
Readable Font
Reset
Reset
Addiction2k
Not sure how I feel about this just yet. It’s a bit of a struggle to get animals into play and a bad start can bog you down for a minute. But it’s not as hard to play from behind as in TM. I also felt like it was missing the clever bits, I personally didn’t see any really good combos. The real problem here is there isn't a lot of card draw. In every round of TM you can draw into new cards that you decide to keep, as well as draw during the round. This gives you the capability to change course. And Prelude gives you the ability to keep a monster card early because you can get away from behind them. Ark Nova doesn't have these capabilities and that is why it's mired in the 7s for me. A strong expansion could fix it. Yeah I just couldn’t get this above a 7, even tho I’ve won 3 out of 4 games. Here’s hoping an expansion improves it for me. The expansion makes it easier to get some symbols, gets rid of stagnant cards, and adds asymmetrical player powers. Up to an 8.
35tango
*NOTE* This review currently only has 2 plays with only 2 players. I do realize this game is probably plays much better with 3 or 4 people. I can also accept that I might just be terrible at this type of game. This game is close to being great to me, but the outcomes of my games has left a sour taste in my mouth. Learning the game took 4 hours with the assistance of videos. I feel like the manual and quick reference material leaves much to be desired. The iconography kind of sucks too. With all of that said, this game is fun, and interesting, and even the art kind of has a fun, nostalgic, genuine zoo vibe. The tactical nature of designing your zoo and trying to reactively achieve the most objectives is fun. My biggest issue with this game, is how swingy the end of the game can be. You can spend an entire game working toward staying close in appeal and conservation, only to get completely blown out on the last turn. My first game by 25 points and my second game by 40 points. It left me feeling terrible. I almost always lose at games, and am totally fine with that. This is the first time where I felt like I was defeated by the game as much as I was by my opponent. UPDATE: Upon subsequent plays, I've come to the conclusion that I just suck at this type of game. It is not fundamentally flawed as I had believed. Ark Nova is a good game that I enjoy playing in spite of the fact that I suck at it.
adamscott
On one hand, I found the gameplay enjoyable. I especially liked the action selection mechanic. On the other hand, there is way too much iconography and the need to combo cards (ie match icons) means that luck of the draw is significant. That's fine in a lighter game like Wingspan which has similar luck of the card draw, but in a long, heavy game that bothers me a bit. Also, I find the zoo theme abhorrent.