This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: Lost Ruins of Arnak
Designer: Elwen & Min
Year: 2020
Country: Czechia
Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Lost Ruins of Arnak is a mid-weight game in which each player commands a rival expedition exploring an uninhabited island and its ruins and mysteries. There are several different elements to it, combining deckbuilding, worker placement, and resource management.
On the board, you have three different categories of locations: camp, field and deep field. In camp, you can dig to gain basic resources such as coins and compass tokens. In the field and deep field, you can discover a new location and murder its guardian. (Or, in the game’s terminology, gain the respect of it’s guardian.)
In terms of theme, Lost Ruins of Arnak belongs in the category of Indiana Jones and Uncharted -style stories where you look for ruins in the jungle, but the game makes a point of being as non-violent and non-extractive as possible. You’re competing to find the Lost Temple in the most non-appropriative way possible, while still retaining the basic structures of the genre.
When you send your people to find a new location, they’ll gain new resources and have a chance at beating the temple guardian. All the benefits gained from this can be spent on the research track, trying to go further in your attempt to uncover the secrets of the Lost Temple. This is where the real game is, attempting to win by getting ahead first and gaining resources along the way.
Compared to other games in this genre, Lost Ruins of Arnak felt easy to learn and understand, fast to grasp so that pretty soon you’re focusing on how to gain enough compass tokens to send your folks to the field one more time.