#Lost ruins of arnak amazon full#

One common mechanic I see in many complex board games is track advancement, where players have to push their tokens up two, three, or even four tracks that might represent things like science or research or culture, but that are physically and thematically disconnected from the rest of the game. Players can also move their two tokens up the research track for more rewards, buy item or artifact cards to beef up their decks, defeat Guardians who appear whenever a new site is excavated, and more. They also start with six-card decks with four basic action cards that either let the player take one specific resource or allow placement of an explorer, and two Fear cards that are worth -1 victory point but can be used for explorer placement at the bottom dig sites.

(As far as I can tell, the game’s title isn’t a play on arnaque, the French word for a scam.) Each player has two explorers whom they’ll place on the board at various dig sites, exploring the lost ruins of the title and gaining resources. It has quite a bit in common with that last title, as it’s more complex than the typical family-level game-put a pin in that for the moment-but is much easier to play once you get through the first round and understand the basic mechanics, with a very satisfying set of rules that can make the game fun even for players who don’t end up winning.Īrnak is an adventuring game that brings in a bunch of familiar game mechanics, including worker placement, deckbuilding, hand management, and track advancement, without giving you too much of anything. The game was one of the three finalists for the 2021 Kennerspiel des Jahres (experts’ game of the year), losing out to Paleo, but has raced into the top 40 on the tough-to-crack BoardGameGeek all-time rankings, and is the #2 “family” game behind only the runaway hit Wingspan.

#Lost ruins of arnak amazon full#

Lost Ruins of Arnak is a late 2020 release, a bit older than what I typically review here, but it’s become such a breakout hit-and a surprising one, given its size and the daunting setup-that it’s worth reaching back a little to give it a full breakdown.