Arcs Review - Fun Unbridled Space Chaos

You're there. You're nearly there. Your push for power has nearly brought you glory. You hold the resources, and no one can stop you. But something changes. Something shifts and that material wealth will no longer see you at the peak of power. So you shift. You pivot. Your now worthless materials are pushed into production, and your vast fleet emerges into the stars. You burn the fuel you have stockpiled and you prepare to release hell on those that oppose you. The hand you were dealt has forced this, it is not what you sort when you first started, but fate has decreed you become a monster. Welcome to Arcs.

Arcs is a sci-fi strategy board game by Cole Wehrle and Leder Games. Most will know their work from the popular Root and Oath board games. Arcs has seen the tabletop industry divided, is it complicated and random, or is this 2024's game of the year? In this review, we'll look at how to play, and how it feels to play.

How Do You Play Arcs?

You will see Arcs described as a trick-taking game and in essence, this means that players play cards with a suit and a value, and the card the first player plays, sets the standard for those played after. In Arcs, there are 4 types of cards, Administration, Aggression, Construction, and Mobilization. Each of those cards has values 1 through 7. The first player to play a card can play any of their choice. The suit of the card details the actions that they can take, and all cards also have a number of pips (the higher the card value, the fewer pips it has), which details the number of those actions they can do. A 4 pip aggression card means you can take any combination of 4 move, battle, or secure actions.

The actions players can take in Arcs see them doing a mixture of building cities and shipyards, building ships and hiring agents, moving ships to locations to build on, taxing cities they own, or control by having the most ships in an area for resources, or battle with your ships against enemy ships and cities. You can also secure cards, known as the court, where hired agents go onto. If you have the most agents there, you get the card and its ability, and you also capture any enemy agents on that card. 

The next player then has a choice when they play their card. They can play the same suit, but a higher value, known as surpassing, and they get actions equal to the number of pips on their card. They can play any card face down, known as copying, and take 1 action on the card that was already played. Or the player can play a card face up, and take one action from their card.

When the lead player plays their card, they can also declare an ambition, of which there are 5 to choose from, but they can only choose the one shown on the card they play. In each chapter, only 3 ambitions can be declared, and once declared, anyone can win them, not just the player who declared the ambition. The 5 ambitions are:

• Tycoon - won by having the most fuel and material
• Tyrant - won by having the most captives
• Warlord - won by having the most trophies
• Keeper - won by having the most relics
• Empath - won by having the most psionics

Is There A Lot Of Strategy In Arcs?

The hand you draw each turn in Arcs sets the tone for your turn. Don't have a lot of aggression cards? You're not going to be doing a lot of Warlord or Tyanting. Even if you've been working towards that for the last few chapters, you're going to need to adapt each chapter based on the cards you draw. That might not be appealing to some players, I certainly found it frustrating as I built up my forces and focused the first few chapters on smashing as many of my opponent's ships and cities as possible in my first game, but the more you play Arcs, the more aware you become of the options you have. If you have a huge armada, it still stops your opponent from taxing their own cities and allows you to focus on other areas. If you have a huge amount of stockpiled resources, you can use them for bonus actions that turn, like moving and attacking, outside of the actions from the card you play to watch the galaxy burn.

The timing of declaring an ambition is also extremely strategic as it indicates what you're aiming for. You can only declare an ambition if you play the first card by holding the initiative during each turn in each chapter, and only 3 out of the 5 can be declared, which means that if you spend the entire chapter gaining relics, but the other players all declare 3 different ambitions, you won't score for having them this chapter. Declaring too early pushes other players to compete towards that ambition too, although it's usually pretty obvious what you're aiming for, knowing how and when to pivot your game is a huge part of the strategy.

How Long Does A Game Of Arcs Take?

The Arcs' box says 60-120 mins for a game, and that feels about right. Games are rarely super quick, but that's part of the charm. It's not about fast strategy, it's about the slow domination of an area of the game, and the ability to slowly win back other areas if required. You really want to consider your options as you play, and you need to give the other players a chance to do the same. Everything from the card you play to the actions and sequencing of those actions is key, and shouldn't be rushed.

One thing to note is that the setup is pretty fast. There's a deck of cards to shuffle for actions, the components for each player to collect, and the guild deck to shuffle and draw a couple of cards from. The most complex, which isn't that complex, is setting up the map. There are a few set-up card options for each player count, and this details which areas of the map aren't used, and where to set up your pieces. Once that's done, you're ready to go.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Arcs?

I was blown away by Arcs in my first game. I went at it as I usually do in my first play of almost any game, and led with violence over strategy, building up a mighty empire with which to empty the stars of my enemies in later turns. But the cards weren't to be, and I was forced to rethink, which was initially frustrating, why couldn't I play the game I wanted? But actually, no one was playing the game they wanted. Had I pushed forward aggressively, everyone else would have been forced to react and play my game, which they started preparing for, completely setting them off when I forcibly pivoted into gaining resources and using my fleet to protect myself. And it feels like that's what Arcs is about. There's a little bit of chaos with the random card draw, but you can absolutely ride that, and turn it into your strategy, as every other player will be, whilst trying to second-guess your strategy (it's not difficult when playing me, ships, all the ships) and either beat you to it, or offset it with their own.

Should I Buy Arcs?

I think Arcs is an awesome game, but is it for everyone? No, it's not. If you don't like longer games, then Arcs is definitely a slow and steady game. It's not a 4-hour slog, but it's at least a couple of hours. There are multiple paths to victory, but they're not all available to you, and the mercy of the card draws may upset some. If you've played Cole Wehrle's other games (Root and Oath), then you'll know what you're getting into and will probably love it. If you're not looking for deep strategy or especially reactive strategy, then this won't be for you. But if the above review sounds like something you and your group will enjoy, then it's definitely a game that gets better the more you play it, and a regular group will find a huge amount of replayability here.

The copy of Arcs used to produce this review was provided by Asmodee UK.