Unlock the secrets of the island
Lost Ruins of Arnak is a 1-4 player worker placement and deck building game in which you lead an expedition to explore the fabled island of Arnak. It is now available for pre-order from CGE, or you can wait to purchase it from your local game store in November.
In the solo mode, you will be competing against a rival team of archaeologists and follow the 2-player rules with a few modifications. The game lasts 5 rounds. You will be sending your archaeologists to explore various locations on the board, and then research the findings to earn points. As you progress, the resources and artifacts you get will add cards to your deck thus making it more effective and allowing you to move further. You start with 2 archaeologist pawns and a deck of 6 cards: 2 Funding cards, 2 Exploration cards and 2 Fear cards. On each turn, you draw 5 cards from your deck and then proceed to take one main action and an unlimited number of free actions.
You can play the cards in your hand to purchase better cards from the market. Some of them take effect immediately, others go into your deck to be used later. You can also place your workers in a spot on the board, as long as you can pay the cost. You may also purchase up to two assistants that give you a resource when you use them. To move upwards from one area of the board to the next, you have to pay the cost and also overcome the site guardian by paying the guardian's cost. If you can't overcome it, you gain a Fear card (Fear cards deduct from your final score).
The rival team has 6 archaeologist pawns and will be taking 10 actions every round. It has a deck of action cards which you can customize to make easier or more difficult. On its turn, you flip one of its cards and execute what it shows: the card may instruct you to place the AI pawn on a spot on the board, thus blocking it for you while it's there. It may also take cards from the market or progress on the research track. When the AI takes a spot or a card from the market, it doesn't receive any resources, it only blocks spots or gains victory points.
At the end of the game, you calculate points for the items and artifacts cards you collected, from idol tiles you took from the board, for research tokens, and any guardians you overcame. If you score more points than the AI, you win the game.
I've had this on my wishlist since it was released. It looks like a great game!
I played this today, for the first time. My gamin' pal owns it (it's currently her favorite game to play Solo). I tied her on the first game and beat her on the 2nd. I managed to squeak out 65 points on game two. I dunno know if that's any good. She's surpassed 90 points before, or so she said. 🙂