Arcs

Arcs is the latest title from Leder Games. It's a space-based wargame from designer Cole Wehrle and artist Kyle Ferrin that has the look of a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) game but it isn't a 4X... It was funded through Kickstarter and most backers got their copies in July, so it's already attracted a lot of intention, but it's likely to be October before the game reaches retail shelves - so for those who didn't crowdfund the game there's been much eager anticipation.

The core game comes in a modest box, similar to Root (Leder Games). It's played on a map of space divided into planetary sectors and an inner circle of spaces that are considered gates as each is connected to a group of planets. There are variable set ups for each player count (2, 3 or 4 players) and each set up removes some sectors from the game. Players start with a fleet of ships at assigned locations and you can also expect to start with a city on one planet and spaceport on another: the city can be taxed to give you whichever of the five resources that planet produces, and the spaceport can be used to build more ships and to accelerate your ships' movement when using unoccupied gate spaces and those under your control.

Cole Wehrle's designs are famous for their asymmetry: in Root, players don't just have asymmetric powers but they each use completely different game mechanics! Gamers may be surprised therefore to find that the basic game of Arcs involves no asymmetric powers. These are introduced tho' when you incorporate Leader and Lore cards - both those supplied in the base game and the additional cards that come in a small expansion box. When you play using these you draft them at the start of the game and they'll give you special powers and an imposed limitation: they're bound to alter your tactics but players will still all be using the same game mechanics. That means Arcs is comparatively easy to teach and learn.

That doesn't mean tho' that Arc doesn't have its own endearing eccentricities... For starters, action selection is determined through something akin to a trick-taking mechanic. For each of the game's six 'chapters', players each start with a hand of six cards dealt from a deck with four suits numbered 1-7 (2-6 if you're playing with just two or three players). The player with the lead, plays the card and takes the number of actions empowered by that suit indicated by the pips on the card (lower numbered cards have more pips). If other players follow suit with a higher numbered card, they take the number of actions indicated by the pips on their card. Follow suit with a lower numbered card or with a card from another suit that you play face-down to 'copy' the action, and you just take a single action from those enabled by that suit. Finally, you have the option of playing any card from another suit face up to 'pivot' to give you just one of that suit's actions. The player who played the highest numbered card in the lead suit has the initiative for the next 'trick'.

The action cards are also used to determine what will score for the chapter you are playing. If you're doing well in battle and accumulating as trophies the detritus of enemy ships you might well want to declare Warlord as a scoring 'ambition' for the chapter. This involves a push-your-luck decision, however: call the ambition early and others may switch tactics to try to battle and overtake your collection of kills; hesitate too long and you may find the the ambitions already all taken.

This all might sound like Arcs is a game of luck. You may well find you've been dealt a hand of cards that doesn't give you the actions you were hoping to be able to take and/or one that lumbers you with a chapter-full of single actions while others are making hay with multiple actions. You can find you don't have a card in your hand with the icon on it that lets you set the ambition you want to see activated. For sure, it can be frustrating, but, like life, the joy of Arcs is working out how to make the very best use of the cards you're dealt...

And in any event you're not just limited to the actions indicated by your action card. Aside from building ships, cities and spaceports, taxing cities, moving ships and battling, there's an action that lets you place out an agent meeple on one of the 'court' cards on display and another action to take any card on which you have the most meeples. These cards may give you an extra ability and/or a special action that can be taken in addition to those indicated on your action card. Likewise, resources you collect, typically by taking the tax action, can be spent to take a corresponding action. This tho' may involve a painful sacrifice because the resource you're spending might be just what you need to have in your possession for that chapter's scoring...

At its heart Arcs is a wargame and the game encourages attacking play. So much so that it offers no direct defence and leaves it entirely up to the attacker how hits are allocated. When you take the battle action, your roll a die for each of your ships at the same location as a rival's ship or building. Each ship and building has, in effect, two hit points - so one hit will damage its target and two will destroy it: attack two rival ships and roll two hits and you can choose either to damage both ships or destroy one and leave the other intact.

We're used to games with custom six-sided dice that vary in their strength and impact. Arcs has these but the choice of which dice to use is entirely up to the attacker. The blue dice have a single hit on three faces but are blank on the other three, so each gives you a 50/50 chance of a single hit with no risk to the attacker. Any red dice you choose to use are much more likely to do damage but they come with an increased risk of damaging your own ships too: they have a 5 out of 6 prospect of dishing out damage, including a 1 in 3 chance of imposing two hits, but there's a 50% chance that you'll take one damage to your own ships plus a 1 in 6 chance that you'll take a point of damage for all the undamaged ships your opponent has at that location. Finally the orange dice are specifically intended for 'raiding' rival buildings. These dice do no damage to rival ships but each has a 50% chance of doing one point of damage to a building. There's also a 50% chance of scoring raid icons that let you steal resources and/or court cards from your opponent. Like the red dice, these dice come with a 50% chance of damaging your own ships and if your rival has ships at the location there's an additional 1 in 3 chance you'll suffer a hit for each of their intact ships. Raid dice can net you major benefits and can deny an opponent the resources with which they were expecting to score but they come with a very high risk (damage to your own ships on 5 out of 6 die faces if your rival also has intact ships in situ).

We really like Arcs' push-your-luck dice selection but there are other risk/reward dilemmas over attacking. When you destroy a rival's city you aren't just denying them an asset, you can also find you gain a court card if there's one in the display that has their meeples on it. There's a huge downside tho': your attack will Provoke Outrage. You'll immediately lose all resources produced by that city and any court cards you have that have that city's resource icon on it, and you'll lose for the rest of the game the ability to spend that resource to take the action ordinarily available for that resource...

Most of those who've played Arcs have applauded its eccentric but elegant design, and with the various Leader and Lore cards in their almost innumerable combinations it's a game with huge replayability. But tho' it's a great standalone game in its own right, we may in time come to think of Arcs as really just the entrée to Arcs: The Blighted Reach. That's a much bigger box game that's billed as an 'expansion' to Arcs. In fact it's a much more complex, very much more asymmetric design that's intended to be played as a 'campaign' of three games... Watch this space for more to come on The Blighted Reach...

(Review by Selwyn Ward)

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