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Res Arcana

Thomas Lehmann is the designer behind the ‘For The Galaxy’ games. That’s Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy, Jump Drive and New Frontiers for the uninitiated. Which ever you prefer out of these games they all provide a satisfying engine building game of combos galore. When it was announced that Res Arcana would also be an engine building game from Lehmann many assumed this would be a fantasy reskin. Many were wrong.

While Res Arcana does offer you the same satisfying engine building game play the why’s and how are very different. For a start you will have all 8 cards that you can use in your hand from the beginning of the game. While there are some other cards and powers you can gain, these are all from the central tableau and will never enter your hand. In the simpler variants these cards can be preselected or randomly dealt but for the proper gameplay you will need to draft them

It is in this drafting phase that you start to play out your whole game even though a card hasn’t been played yet. Spot cards that synergise with each other, prioritise and take risks. It’s a drafting phase that is more exciting than it should be. The powers on these cards, the engine that you will be building, are someone vanilla when you stop and think about it, allowing you to gain and change resources and alike. But they come together in a sum greater than their parts and chaining together a combo that your opponent never saw coming is a wondrous moment,

The limited amount of cards also makes Res Arcana easier to teach than you would think. Each player only has to grok 8 cards in their first game. Use the advised set up and this is straightforward stuff. Res Arcana is a brilliant card game, that has great components and plays quickly with a huge focus on satisfaction. Forget the galaxy. Arcana is where it is at.

Player count: 2-4
Time: 20-60 minutes
Age rating: 12+

12+

Price

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