Arcs
Fight for actions the way you'd fight for tricks, and for whichever ambitions get declared in a crumbling reach of space.
- 2–4 players
- about 90 min
- Proper brain work
- Strategy
- Adventure
- Sci-fi
The goal
Gain Power by winning the ambitions declared in each chapter; the most Power wins.
How it plays
- 1The game lasts up to 5 chapters. Each chapter everyone is dealt a hand of action cards in four suits: Administration, Aggression, Construction and Mobilization. The suit says which actions you may take and the pips say how many.
- 2Each round the player with the initiative leads a card and takes actions of its suit, one per pip. On leading they may also declare the ambition matching the card's number, making it worth Power when the chapter is scored.
- 3The others follow in turn in one of three ways: Surpass, a higher card of the lead suit, acting on its pips; Copy, any card face down, for a single action of the lead suit; or Pivot, a card of another suit, for a single action of that suit.
- 4You can seize the initiative by playing an extra card face down. If nobody seizes it, it goes to whoever surpassed with the highest number.
- 5Actions include building cities, starports and ships, moving fleets, battling (with dice), taxing for resources, and influencing and securing cards in the court.
How you win
At the end of a chapter the declared ambitions are scored: Tycoon, Tyrant, Warlord, Keeper and Empath each compare one thing, and first and second place gain Power. The game ends when, at the close of a chapter, someone has reached the threshold (27 with four players, 30 with three, 33 with two), or after chapter 5; the most Power wins.
First time?
- An ambition nobody declares is worth nothing, so don't stockpile for it in advance.
- With the wrong suits in hand, a single copied action still beats doing nothing.
- The Blighted Reach campaign expansion is on the shelf too; learn the base game first.