Arcs Expansions Review - The Blighted Reach and Leaders and Lore

The deep strategy of the sci-fi board game Arcs wasn't enough for you by itself? Even with its huge amount of replayability? You want more? Luckily, Leder Games have got you, with 2 expansions that add to the base Arcs game. In this article, we'll look at the huge box The Blighted Reach Expansion and the small card pack Leaders and Lore and see what they add to games.

Arcs is a sci-fi strategy board game by Cole Wehrle and Leder Games, and you can read our review of it here, which is recommended before you read this review of the expansions.

What Are The Arcs The Blighted Reach and Leaders And Lore Expansions?

The 2 Arcs expansions, The Blighted Reach and Leaders and Lore are supplementary expansions to the core Arcs game. One adds a new campaign element and the other supplements the Leaders and Lore add-on that was introduced in the base game. We look at both in detail below.

What Does The Arcs The Blighted Reach Expansion Add To Games?

Arcs The Blighted Reach Expansion adds a whole campaign to the Arcs base game and includes more components than the original box. The Blighted Reach box is also designed so that you can also store your base Arcs game inside, so everything is combined in a single place.

The Blighted Reach Expansion contains a 3 arc campaign, that starts with players selecting a character, known as a Fate to play. These are randomly drawn from the 8 available in the first act. Each fate has its own objective, and if you complete your objective, you can continue to play your fate in the next act (drawing 1 new fate to see if you wish to change). If you fail your objective, your current fate is discarded, and you draw 2 new ones. There are 24 fates in total, 8 in each of the 3 acts, so every game you play will offer a different combination of paths and objectives to seek.

Each fate also has its own fate deck, which gives you cards, and also adds cards to the court deck, and other rules as the game progresses, this means that the fates that the other players are playing will also add elements to the game, impacting your own depending on their fates.

The whole campaign adds an overarching element of the Empire and an Imperial Council that does add a lot of rules and complexity to the base game. There are some extremely crazy abilities to unlock, and it can really shake the balance of the game. It also changes the game entirely from the base Arcs game, giving it much more of an unbalanced narrative element than a strategy game. It is a lot of fun, and exploring the different fates is extremely rewarding, but just because you like the base Arcs game, doesn't mean you will like this, and also some that didn't love the base game, will love this instead. It is highly recommended that you play the base game a few times before taking on the campaign, because the complexity added here is high, and not having a core understanding of the base rules will make you miss the joy of exploring The Blighted Reach

What Does The Arcs Leaders and Lore Pack Add To Games?

The Arcs Leaders and Lore Pack adds a further 8 Leader and 14 Lore cards, to those already already available in the core Arcs game. The Leaders and Lore game mode adds a random element to games, stepping away from the core strategy of the base game, and sits nicely between the base game, and the Blighted Reach expansion. The leader card details the abilities and setup for that leader, and the lore card adds another unique ability.

The Leaders and Lore Packs adds more variety to those already included in the base game, improving replayability and adding in some great leader/lore combinations. It feels odd that a pack of 22 cards wasn't just added into the core game, or that the 22 leaders and lore cards weren't removed from the core game into a larger Leaders and Lore pack. It seems strange to include half in the core game with an extra purchase for the extra variety when it could all just be included together for a very minor 22-card price bump on the core game, or make it a completely separate purchase for those who want the asymmetrical abilities variety in Arcs gameplay.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Arcs Expansions?

The Leaders and Lore Pack adds the same fun variety to games of Arcs that's already included in the cards in the base game, it just increases the number of options and randomness of drawing, thus increasing replayability. Between the 16 leaders and 28 lore cards, that's a lot of combinations. It feels very weird that it's split in half and either not all in an expansion, or all in the base game for such a low amount of cards. Leaders and Lore sits nicely between the base strategy of the core game, and the Blighted Reach Expansion, adding in variety, but not the complexity of the full campaign.

The Blighted Reach Expansion completely changes the Arcs' experience. It moves from a strategy game to a narrative experience, simply using the base game mechanics to move the story along. I love both games, but they are completely different, and may not be for everyone, especially as to get the full experience, you need to play through all 3 acts.

Should I Buy The Arcs Expansions?

If you liked Arcs with the Leaders and Lore experience from the core set, then the Leaders and Lore Pack adds more of that to keep things fresh.

If you want an incredible narrative experience, and enjoy the core mechanic of Arcs, then The Blighted Reach is a lot of fun, with a huge amount of replability. If you're looking for a balanced experience, focusing on the core strategy of Arcs, then the Blighted Reach isn't for you, as it just uses the mechanics to progress the narrative. That also works on the flipside, and if you didn't like Arcs, but want an enjoyable narrative experience, then you might love the Blighted Reach, where you didn't love the strategy of the base game.

The copy of Arcs The Blight Reach and Leaders and Lore Expansions used to produce this review were provided by Asmodee UK.