I played the new Carl Wehrle boardgame “Arcs” for the first time last weekend: directing fleets of spaceships, building cities, levying taxes, exerting influence and securing guild support for special abilities (having seen how cool some of those were, I should have done more of that…)
Image from Leder Games: https://ledergames.com/products/arcs
It has some interesting game mechanics, including:
- Actions, tricks, and the initiative: The actions you can do on each turn depend on a trick-taking-like card mechanism. Leading on the trick is a powerful position and helps determine what sort of turn it will be - but the game is neatly constructed so that, even if you have a poor hand, I think you will always have the opportunity to win the initiative at least once in each chapter (as long as you’re willing to pay the price of an extra card when the chance arises!)
- Into battle!: When you send a fleet into battle, you are the only one who makes decisions and rolls dice - the defender doesn’t get involved at all. (I’m reminded of a trend in some RPGs - in particular those Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark - to always have the player roll dice, not the GM.) You pick a dice type for each of your ships depending on what you’re trying to achieve and how reckless you’re feeling - choosing from a safer “skirmish” die, a mutually destuctive “assault”, or a “raid” to steal resources and destroy the enemy’s buildings on the planet surface. And when you roll, the dice show what you managed to do - and how much of your own fleet was lost in the process…
- Objective setting doesn’t get tougher than this?: Which achievements are actually worth any points at the end of each chapter (enemies destroyed? different resources collected?) depend on which ambitions you, racing against other players, managed to get into play - and to do that, you need the initiative on a turn, going back to the point above. There are six possible ambitions and at most three of them can be declared for each chapter - so you may find your strengths come to naught, or perhaps even more gallingly, that you manage to get an ambition declared and thed watch as someone beats you at achieving it…
This is by no means intended as a full review - if you are interested in reading more about the game, there is plenty online, including:
But now I understand the rules, I’m looking forward to another game where I may have more strategy - although we could also introduce some of the expansions so I may still be on my toes!
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Played Carl Wehrle boardgame "Arcs" for the first time. Directing fleets of spaceships, building cities, levying taxes, securing guild support for special abilities (I should have done more of that...) - now I understand the rules, looking forward to another game where I may have more strategy!
— Terry Boon (@terryboon.bsky.social) January 27, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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