Let's Game More

1-4 Players

Designer: Mathias Wigge

Publisher: Capstone Games / Feuerland Spiele

I’m slowly venturing into the heavier side, specially on euros. Ark Nova is a game that has made a big impact on BGG, but is the fame deserved or is it hype?

Gameplay

In Ark Nova, you are managing a scientific zoo, by playing animals, acquiring sponsors and making deals with universities and other zoos. This is all based on a very interesting 5 action card system, where each card lies under a position 1-5 that determines the strength of the action. When you take the action, it goes to the 1 position, pushing all others one space up. Each action can also be upgraded to a more versatile version where you can usually do multiple things at a time.

By playing cards and doing many actions, you go up on two different scoring tracks, appeal and conservation. Appeal is your actual points, and also your income, while conservation gives you bonuses and has ranges that subtract from your score. Once those two meet, the game will end, and the score will be your appeal minus the lower range of your conservation, which can be negative.

Solo Gameplay

Solo play replaces the break system that some action use to move the game forward and activate income with a fixed time system. You start with seven cubes, and each action moves one to the left. After the last one is moved, the break is triggered like on the multiplayer game, the top cube goes to the main board, and you reset with one cube less. At the end of the sixth round, game is over. You have to be positive to win.

Components

Ark Nova has a ton of pieces, from habitats from sizes 1-5, special habitats and other diverse tokens. Thankfully, it comes with two trays where you can organize them and make them super quick to both setup and tear down the game. Components have a simplistic look, very euro-y, but are very effective in their usage.

This is a card based game, and believe it there is variety. The pile of cards is absolutely huge! Normally this can be good or bad, but Ark Nova does not require specific cards, but actually is all about collections of symbols, and there is a nice spread. Cards also present some scientific information and try to be as thematically accurate as possible.

Just a little quibble though: this has to be the blandest and uninspired money ever. It doesn’t even look like money. But, honestly, it’s not the star of the show anyway.

Conclusion

I love card based euros, so there is a lot of competition on this area. Does Ark Nova shine? Oh, yes, it does. Before playing I was a bit intimidated by the many things happening in this game, but it takes but a few rounds to get adjusted, and its heart it is a very fluid game. The action card system is the big differential, and it works beautifully, creating a lot of tension and very interesting decision spaces throughout the game.

Also, this is a game where you can’t do everything. That’s not just a statement, it’s a built in mechanism. You can only upgrade 4 out of the 5 cards, you can only partner with 4 out of the 5 zoos. You upgrade or have more workers for the influence board, but not both. However, you never feel out of options. Every turn feels relevant and rewarding.

The sheer amount of cards is impressive, and it could be a good or a bad thing if not well balanced. I have now played with I believe most if not all of the deck, and I never had a game where I felt that I couldn’t do anything. The fact that the spread of the symbols is well done, there is always a route you can go to, and very rarely is the same. Just be aware that the deck is a pain to shuffle…

Score: 9.5/10

Designers: Michał Jagodziński and Kamil Langie
Artist: Jarosław Wajs
Publisher: Thistroy Games

Sometimes is good to take a look at not only new games, but ones that flew under people’s radars. I feel like that is the case with Micro Cosmos. I was a big fan of the light but compelling game Thistroy previously releases, Micro City. Is their take on space also good?

Gameplay

On your turn, first you may upgrade your ship, then you must move. After moving, you may at up to two cards with a very interesting system. You have two rows of 3 cards in your cargo, and each cards have colors on the bottom and top. If the color of your location matches the color of the part of the card touching the cargo, you get to activate it. Cards played or used from the bottom row go to the top, ones on top are discarded.

Then you may take one or two actions, depending on your location. You can gather resources, find and settle survivors for more resources and points, add colonies and trading posts that get you points and also increase your terraforming capabilities and get you also points.

Terraforming is the last action, where in each planet you may spend resources to contribute to that planet. Each resource contribute bumps you up in the track for that planet, and when all have been added, it is terraformed. Then each point on the track gets you a vp, and the ones who contributed the most get a bonus. Game ends when either 3 or 4 planets have been terraformed.

Solo Gameplay

Automa has their own dedicated ship and deck. Their turn couldn’t be simpler. Turn a card, do what it says. Resource decisions have just a couple of rules, and it’s mostly doing the same things as you. In my experience, scoring for the Automa has been very close to my own pretty much all games, which feels like a very well tested effort.

Components

I am always curious on how small box games deal with component usage and storage, but this one is quite good. It’s a small but tall box, with a great tray system which makes setting up and tearing down very easy. Symbology is mostly clear and, while it’s not the easiest rulebook to read, I felt it left me with little doubts.

A few minor quibbles, though. First, tokens are obviously small, so it’s a game susceptible to bumps, so be aware if you, like me, are clumsy. Second, a way to keep track of your terraforming rate would be good to avoid counting your colonies and trading posts every time. Finally, the reference card is quite good, but could have a quick description with costs of each action. You get the hang of it easily, but it would have been helpful.

Conclusion

I was expecting a light game like Micro City, but this is a much more involved beast. It’s very much a resource management game, where you spend as quickly as you earn them. It’s also a lightn and ing fast ordeal where every opportunity counts. As far as little box big game goes, there is very little here not to recommend. Micro Cosmos is a game that leaves me impressed after every game.

Score: 9/10

1-5 Players

Designer: Connie Vogelman

Artist: Kwanchai Moriya

Publisher: Stonemaier Games

About the Game

When I was wondering about the next Stonemaier game, space faring bees was not in my guess list. But here we have a worker placement / tile layer with variable worker values. Is it worth the buzz?

Gameplay

On your turn, you either place one of your bee workers or recall all of your workers to your mat.

When placing, you chose a worker, all with values 1-4, and place them in any action on the board. No spaces are ever blocked, instead if it’s already occupied you bump the existing one. Spaces are not complex, are mostly about getting or trading resources and cards, or adding tiles to your base.

When workers go back to the active pool, either by being bumped or when you recall them, their value increases by one. Level 4 workers trigger special bonuses when played, but when their value would increase instead they hibernate. You lose that worker, but you get a bonus on tracks on the main board. Game ends when all the hibernate spots are taken or when a player uses all 7 of their hibernate tokens.

Solo Gameplay

Automa Factory is amazing, everyone knows that, but that might be the smoothest of them all. You setup with 3 grey and 2 yellow with values depending on the difficulty. On your turn, you flip over a card and do the first action you can, using the top of the deck to see what color will activate and other decisions.

Basically, every automa card will recall and get some points depending on how many of that color they have placed, or carve if they have a level 4 worker, or one of the other actions. When the Automa performers an action, they will mostly get points or some tiles or explanation tokens. Also, most of the actions are clearly are right there on the card, so they are super simple.

Components

That part is almost obvious, Stonemaier has always great components. But Apiary is an interesting case, specially after Expeditions. It’s minimalistic.

The tiles are small, have simple drawings in the middle, and there is a lot of blank space. However, it’s a game with a lot of simultaneous components in the table, so I think overall the approach works beautifully, specially from an usability stand point.

Conclusion

Reviewing Stonemaier games is always a tough deal. There is a ton of excitement and expectations. So I tried to go in as blind as possible, not seeing gameplay or reviews, or even following the design diary.

My initial feeling is that even though it seems overwhelming, about 3 turns in I understood the flow. Is a very intuitive game, and a bit on the light side for the most part.

However, it’s a rich game. Navigating the flow of the bees, yours and others, is the key here. Sometimes a less effective action can absolutely worth in the big picture.

The downside on this game is that the individual mats and factions are important, but not game changing. The flow feels mostly the same. Not a huge deal, but it’s something that I hope gets expanded.

In the end, I feel like this is one of the most approachable or their games. Specially with the great insert, the game can be setup very quickly, and it’s not a long game, but every minute feels interesting and rewarding.

Score : 9/10