The Trick To Taking A Game Of Arcs Is Being A Flexible Emperor

Running a space empire is hard work. There are always rival empires looking to elbow their way into power. There’s a constant tension between what needs to get done to keep the empire running and what needs to get done to ensure the empire of its future.

There are a lot of great board games that give players the feeling of being in control of one of these sprawling organizations. Games like Twilight Imperium, Eclipse and Star Wars: Rebellion give players time to put bold plans into action. But they also often take a lot of time out of a game day to get things in motion.

Arcs, the new board game from Leder Games, wants to get to the good parts of a grand strategy game quickly. It also understands that massive governments rarely get to do what they want when they want. What looks like a visionary agenda is often times a combination of opportunity, ineffecient choices and blind, dumb luck.

The company sent along a copy of the game for this review. Outside of my thoughts on it, this game is one that’s stayed in the conversation with my friends long after we’ve tried it out. Leder Games have a tendency to do that; their other titles include Vast, Root and Oath

Euchre In Space

The heart of Arcs gameplay is a trick taking card game. Each turn, players play a card where the suit determines what actions they can take and the value determines who takes the initiative for the next round. In play it’s never that simple.

Going first means getting to declare an ambition which determines how players score points in a round. It also zeroes out the value of whatever card gets played first which means that players rarely get to stay in first position from turn to turn. Players have to balance turn order, actions taken and hand management with the play of a single card.

To make the most efficient move players have to play a high card that matches the suit of the first card played. Otherwise they usually only get to take one action during a turn. They can take more if the have the proper resources but having specific resources on hand is how many of the ambitions score points.

This aspect of the game injects a lot of the feelings that would come with running a massive star empire. There’s a frustration about never quite being able to do everything necessary to get a plan into place and a joy that sets in when a plan works unexpectedly. Not to mention the satisfaction of making a play that screws up a rival’s plan and knowing that nobody is getting what they want this turn.

Never Enough Time (Or Space)

Each game of Arcs is played over five rounds called chapters. Players score points based on the ambitions declared in each chapter. These ambitions range from having the most of a particular resource to having captured the most rival pieces from the board.

Most games in this style give players a chance to explore a map, set down bases and build up resources. Arcs ain’t got time for that. The randomized setup stretches star fleets, casts everyone as uncomfotable neighbors and puts certain resources at a premium from the first chapter.

This unfomfortable start makes every game of Arcs feel like it has a Star Wars style cold open. Peace in the galaxy isn’t an option as all the different galactic powers are jammed into the powder keg together. Pretty soon there will be some spaceships shooting at each other as they rumble into the screen.

Courting Galactic Disaster

Players can further customize their playstyle by acquiring court cards. These cards give powers to the players that control them as well as count for resources when scoring ambitions. Like so many other elements of Arcs, their dual nature makes them a resource worth fighting over.

Often times, economic woes are the engines that drive wars in strategy games. Arcs doesn’t have megacredits or space bucks, but stealing a court card from a rival either from their ownership or before they can complain it triggers the same desire for revenge. Arcs understands that wars are just as often begun because of hurt feelings as much as brutal ambition.

Let The Ships Fall Where They May

Battling empires need starships so they can clash against one another. These massive ships are very simplified in Arcs: they are either fresh, damaged or off the board. The devil in the details are in the dice.

There are three types of attack dice that reflect differet orders for each ship in a battle. Blue dice play it safe with low damage but no risk to ships. Red dice are more aggressive but mean the fleet will likely be a mix of damaged and lost ships. Orange dice offer an opportunity to steal resources but at a high likelihood of damage and the potential to cause outrage by hitting civilian targets.

While battles resolve in a single roll, both sides feel the pain. There’s a giddy joy to taking something from another player even as your fleet burns in orbit. There’s also the howling anguish of the dice betraying a massive fleet as the plucky defenders do more damage with less ships.

Final Thoughts On Arcs

Arcs has a lot of game packed into one box. I thought I would play it once or twice, figure it out and then quickly move onto The Blighted Reach campaign box which turns Arcs into a mini legacy game that can be played in three small sessions or one big one like its older siblings. But the base game has held my attention longer than I expected.

Everygame makes me feel like the head of a big space bureaucracy. I watch my big plans get ground up through bad planning, inefficient infrastructure and awful timing. But then I see it happen to everyone else and knowing that it’s not just me makes winning all the better.