| Game | # plays |
| Ark Nova | 39 |
| Dune: Imperium | 29 |
| Gaia Project | 20 |
| Great Western Trail | 19 |
| Kingdom Death Monsters | 15 |
| Root | 13 |
| Terra Mystica | 12 |
| Brass: Birmingham | 11 |
| It’s a wonderful world | 11 |
| Grand Austria Hotel | 10 |
Ark Nova is a zoo-theme tableau building board game and is most likely my most-played game this year. Why? Ark Nova falls right into a very comfortable zone for mid-weight filler games for me and my gaming group, with the following qualities:
- Play quickly at 2p (30 – 40 minutes), decently at 3p (60 – 75 minutes) with quick setup and cleanup time,
- The most time-consuming part of the setup is the shuffling, which should be done at the END of a game.
- In your turn, you do one of 5 actions: Build, Animal, Card, Sponsor, Associate. The turns are quick since all but the Animal action can be resolved quickly and experienced players shouldn’t take more than one minute per turn.
- Good variability and replayability with a low level of tightness: You always have something you can do. You never feel too poor (and only feel too rich once in a while). Even skipping your turn for an X-token doesn’t feel too bad.
- Decent luck mitigation: You draw cards a lot in this game, and drawing cards push the economy of each player with the break mechanics. And as you upgrade your cards, you become less and less dependant on the luck of the draw. Luck still plays a decent role, but for a short filler game, I don’t mind the luck factor that much.
- Nice progression: this is a key characteristics of tableau building, and on this aspect, Ark Nova does it very very well. There are so many things that give you that feeling of progression:
- The income from sponsors, conservation projects, increasing your appeal
- Upgrading your cards and boards (partner zoos, universities, freeing up association workers)
- Filling up your zoos with enclosures and then animals
- Good combo: Ark Nova does a good job with creating a chain of events frequent enough to result in satisfying combos that tableau building players thirst for. From the first time you build an enclosure and move suitable animals to them to the action you take that trigger a break and a whole lot of things, opening resources for more actions in later rounds, there are more as you learn about the game. For example, ending the game with a double action feels really good.
- The race: I love games that have a racing aspect. One of my favorite entry level worker-placement games is Finishing Time: so simple and would have been boring, yet so exciting thanks to the race to end the game. It’s the same with Ark Nova: the whole game is a race, and it keeps players on their seat, while the end-game scoring keeps it exciting instead of a sudden anticlimatic ending.
To me, Ark Nova is in the same vein as Yokohama or Grand Austria Hotel, quick mid-weight games that can be played with 2 people in less than 45 minutes. They are good at the start of a game day while waiting for others to arrive, as a filler in between heavier games, or one last game to wrap up the day, when most but 2 – 3 people remain.
Comparing to Grand Austria Hotel, Ark Nova takes a bit more time per game and is less tight, i.e. a bit more relaxing to play. Comparing to Yokohama, Ark Nova is much longer at 2p and 3p, but has faster setup time, and more progression, i.e. it feels a bit more fulfilling playing Ark Nova.
So among the three best options for 2p mid-weight, if I look for a tighter experience, it’s Grand Austria Hotel. If I look for a shorter game, it’s Yokohama.
I have to admit I would be a little bit defensive here, and want to be clear Ark Nova is not my favorite game this year. I might have played Ark Nova the most, but if going by that, my top game in 2021 would be 5211, and 2020 Tiny Towns. My most enjoyable sessions are still playing Gaia Project, and my new favorite is Dune: Imperium with IX expansion. But Ark Nova, as I have said, has its own place. I know exactly what would happen when one person arrives early this weekend for our game day: setting up Ark Nova.