Board Games
Ark Nova — Does it Live up to the Hype?
Designed by Mathias Wigge, a game for 1–4 players with a 90–150 minute playtime for players 14+.
Ark Nova!
If you follow board game news and trends, this will not be the first time (or the last) that you will hear about Ark Nova.
Ark Nova is a brand new game already racking up awards and picking up new fans daily. Out of nowhere, Ark Nova has moved into the Top 180 games with its eye firmly on the Top 100. Capstone Games and Feuerland have a winner on their hands.
Why is Ark Nova getting so much hype?
It’s been the hottest (or in the top 3 hottest games) seemingly for months now. The cover art conveys a realistic portrayal of animals, as opposed to games like Root and Everdell. The presentation brings to mind Hobby Champion Wingspan if anything.
The game has a hefty price tag for what’s in the box at about 100 euros, but that hasn’t slowed it down one bit. Three players in my group had already purchased it before I’d even had the chance to play it.
I expected not to like it very much. I was told that it played like a long solitaire with a play pattern, not unlike Terraforming Mars (minus the card drafting). I tend to avoid those types of games as there is a lot of downtime between turns and not a ton of things you need to pay attention to from the other players (compared to other games).
The Game Mechanisms
This game includes Hand Management, Set Collection, Income Generation, Card Drafting (not really), Tile Placement, End Game Bonuses, and Variable Set-ups.
Hand Management is one of the most important parts of this game. Even though I won my first game handily, I found my hand often full of cards that I either couldn’t use or were not aligned with my perceived strategy.
Ark Nova implements an interesting action selection system. The 5 actions are laid out from 1–5 with the higher number being a more powerful action. Once you activate a card it goes back down to the 1 slot (from wherever it was activated) and the rest of the cards behind it move up. This system emphasizes a priority on actions in the 4 and 5 slot to not only get the strongest version of the action but also to move the greatest number of cards forward.
Even though you’ll end up drawing a load of cards that would be unwise to pursue, you’ll have plenty of ways to mitigate that if you spend some time on card draw and working your way up the track of public cards. The further down that track you go the more face-up cards you have access to.
Set Collection is certainly emphasized in this game. From what I noticed it worked well for me to specialize. In my game, I ended up with an insanely good Primate game plan that carried me to victory!
The income/VP track mimics the system used in Rajas of the Ganges, which I’m a fan of! When a player’s VP marker crosses their income marker, the end game is triggered. This leaves players the task of balancing easy money with harder to get but more impactful VP bumps.
My Thoughts
Having only played Ark Nova the one time, I give these comments as a new player and realize your mileage may vary.
1) It’s not that heavy in my opinion. It’s a fine difficulty level in terms of learnability and play strategy. I would rate it about a 3.2/5.0 weight. Players who worry this might be too thinky for them need not worry. I believe you can pick a strategy based on your opening cards and put your head down to focus and still have a good time.
2) Balancing the timing/sequencing of your action cards is interesting but not overwhelming. If you are even thinking about your current action and potential actions the next turn you will be fine.
3) There is a fun feeling of building your zoo up and gaining more and more as you play the game, very little tearing other players down. A type of race to the top. And it does switch gears from an income to a racing game at a point.
4) I currently would rate this as an 8/10 and am interested to see if that rating will hold.
5) I worry about the potential for opponents to have analysis paralysis or not pay much attention till their own turn, dragging the game out and decreasing your personal playtime. Also there are a lot of rules to be remembered. It seems many players will make mistakes if you aren’t watching them, or until they learn the game well.
I’m eager to try Ark Nova again and I hope it remains as good a game as it seems to be.
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