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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
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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
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Abdul
Excellent theme that is brought to life through the game's mechanics. Many of them have been borrowed from other games, but they work well together in Ark Nova. I think what gives this a different feel to TM and other tableau builders, is a stronger sense of building up. Many cards have prerequisites which require several turns to build towards, giving you mini-goals to work towards throughout the game, in addition to your long term objectives. Ark Nova plays smoothly with quick turns and stays compelling despite its lengthy play time.
abhiroo
I've cooled on Ark Nova a bit after 100-odd plays (mostly on BGA), but this is still a solid medium-to-heavy game that scratches all those Euro itches in a very digestible format and an interesting theme, although I'd argue that the choices you're making in this game aren't all that different to those in 'smaller' engine-builders with fewer moving parts. The game suffers on a tabletop - having to keep track of your tableau's icons and powers (and your opponents') is arduous and leads to protracted turns. And as you grind out more plays, the theme does tend to blur into the background as it condenses into yet-another-set-collection Euro, where you just scramble for the icons you need, but perhaps that's criticism you could level at any Euro. Having played this so many times now, I've seen enough plays where the luck of the draw of the map and initial hand gives players a huge head-start, incredibly important in a game like this where starting well is half the game, and the catch-up mechanisms are far too sparse to make a significant difference. Ark Nova might just be another iteration of (mostly) multiplayer solitaire, but when everything clicks just right to give you that perfect end-game cavalcade of points, it feels immensely enjoyable and satisfying in a way few other games of this genre can match.
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.