Lost Ruins of Arnak

The opportunity to explore a previously undiscovered island doesn’t come along very often. What secrets might you find on the island of Arnak? As you venture further inland, you’ll find more artifacts and treasures. But the guardians of the island will not disclose their secrets easily.

Lost Ruins Of Arnak combines worker placement and deck-building mechanisms and is designed by Mín and Elwin. Up to four players ages 12+ can play and a game takes about 30 minutes per player.

Czech Games Edition was kind enough to send us not only the base game for review but also the Expedition Leaders and The Missing Expedition expansions, which I will be reviewing soon.

Setup

Setting up Lost Ruins Of Arnak is not a quick process. Start by laying out the main gameboard and the Supply board.

Shuffle and place the Artifact deck, Item deck, and Fear deck in their appropriate spots, then fill the card row with Artifacts (to the left of the round marker) and Items (to the right).

Place face-up and face-down Idol tiles on all the open spots on the island, then use water tiles to block some of the initial movement spots if you have fewer than four players. Randomly assign Research Bonus Tiles to the marked spaces on the Research track, and stack Research Bonus tiles by the Lost Temple.

Finally, place the resources (gold coins, compasses, tablets, arrowheads, rubies, site tiles, Guardian tiles, and Assistant tiles) on the corresponding spots on the Supply board. When placing the Assistant tiles, shuffle them into three random stacks of four before placing them on their corresponding slots.

Then each player will take a player board, matching starting cards, colored Archaeologist meeples, research tokens (magnifying glass and notebook), and two Fear cards. Players will place both research tokens on the Research track (magnifying glass on top).

Take a deep breath after that marathon. Then, the first player will be the one who most recently traveled to a new place.

Gameplay

Players start by shuffling their starting cards and drawing five. These will be the only cards they will get for the round, unless they are able to draw more cards using bonuses on the board or purchased cards.

Every turn, a player gets one main action and unlimited free actions (denoted by a lightning bolt).

The main actions are as follows:

• Dig at a site
• Discover a new site
• Overcome a Guardian
• Buy a card
• Play a card
• Research
• Pass

To Dig or to Discover a site, a player must first pay to move their Archeologist to that spot on the island. Typically, they’ll use cards where the travel icon at the top left of the card matches or exceeds the transportation cost.

If a player is Discovering a new site, they will also have to pay a compass cost (0-6 compasses depending on site Level). Then they take the Idol tile from the location and immediately get its pictured bonus. After this, place the top site tile from the proper stack face-up on the site. The player gets the bonuses listed on the tile, then places a new Guardian tile over the site tile.

Overcoming a Guardian is another main action, and each Guardian has a resource cost to defeat it. The player pays those resources and takes the Guardian tile. Each defeated Guardian is worth five points and also has a one-time use detailed at the top right corner.

Players could also Play a Card from their hand, to use the power listed at the bottom of the card. Some cards can be played as a free action to get resource(s). Artifacts and Items always have a power that can be activated as a main action.

Players can also choose to spend their resources to Purchase Cards. Artifacts cost compasses and provide an immediate benefit, before being put on the bottom of a player’s deck at the end of the round. Items cost gold coins and are placed under the deck immediately.

But a player could also spend a combination of resources to move a Research token up the Research track. Each spot on the track has an associated cost. Each time a player moves a token to a new level on the track, they will gain bonuses like compasses, coins, or Assistants. The magnifying glass can move all the way to the top of the track. But the notebook can never move past the magnifying glass, nor can it reach all the way to the Lost Temple. (Discover first, then write your findings down!)

Players continue to take turns until they choose to stop or are unable to take any further actions.

End Of Round

Once all players pass, the round ends. Each player takes their Archaeologist meeples back to their player board. If a player pulls an Archaeologist back from a site with a Guardian on it, that player adds a Fear card to their deck.

Next, exile one Item and one Artifact card next to the Moon Staff, move it to the next round spot, then refill any empty spots with new cards.

Players shuffle any cards in their play area and place them under their draw pile, then draw back up to five cards.

End Of Game Scoring

At the end of the fifth round, players still take their Archaeologists back to their boards because they might still add Fear card(s) to their deck. Then it’s time to calculate each player’s final score.

Players gain points for: how far they advanced along the Research Track with their magnifying glass and notebook, bonus Temple tiles, Idol tiles, uncovered Idol slots on their gameboard, Guardians defeated, Items, and Artifacts. Players also lose one point for each Fear card still in their deck at the end of the game. The player with the most points wins!

Solo Mode

Lost Ruins of Arnak comes with a built-in solo mode. You are trying to beat a Rival who has a deck of ten action cards used every single round. The deck lets you scale difficulty by adjusting the proportion of Red (hard) and Green (easier) action cards. It’s a quicker version of the two-player game, and if you like playing solo games, it works well.

CGE also has a free solo campaign you can find on the company’s website, including printable cards and a companion app.

Impressions

When I first punched out Lost Ruins of Arnak, I was a little apprehensive. The sheer amount of components in this game felt overwhelming. Setup took quite a while. But once I started playing, I discovered why Arnak is so well regarded.

Early on, the game is quite tight. You only have five cards each round that don’t do a whole lot. You have to pick and choose how to get resources wisely; try to open the island of Arnak up for exploration while also advancing up the Research track.

But I, and everyone I’ve played with, enjoyed that balancing act. As the game progresses and players explore new sites, you can gain more resources every time you send your Archaeologists across the island.

But that five-card hand per round and only two Archaeologists means you have to be certain of what you’re doing every turn. So you’d better make sure you’re taking time to purchase Item and Artifact cards to give you more powerful options. And keep your eye out for bonuses that just might allow you to move an Archaeologist more than once.

Final Thoughts

Lost Ruins of Arnak is a great combination of a deck-building game and a worker-placement game. It’s played well at every player count.  I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve played the two-player version with my son; but I do think it truly shines with four players. It really opens up the island for exploration more than at a lower player count.

It’s also quite replayable. The Artifact and Item decks are big enough that you won’t see the same cards every playthrough. And different cards will give you a different boost depending on which round you purchase them. There are more Site cards than available spots, so you never know which Site you’ll get when you explore.

The artwork throughout the game is gorgeous. Whether you’re looking at the main board, the cards, the Sites, or even the Guardian tiles, you can tell a lot of time, thought, and talent went into the production.

Lost Ruins of Arnak isn’t kidding when it says it’s for players 12+. The decision-making space is probably too much for kids much younger than that. But it’s a great game for teens and parents alike. My 13-year old son loves to play it and my board game group does, too.

So grab your fedora and bullwhip and set sail for the lost island of Arnak. Ask for it at your local game store, buy direct from CGE, or find it on Amazon.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Lost Ruins of Arnak from CGE for this review.

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