Arcs is 2024’s Best New Board Game

Part 2, The Campaign: https://youtu.be/_GUatRy1LRk

The review kinda left it ambiguous if Tom liked the game or not

Oh god, Tom, your superpower is making me buy four-letter board games.

For future reference, if anyone has a really long video and then there's a second part and they want me to watch the second part, ending part one with "and it gets weirder" will 100% do the job every time.

BUT DO YOU LIKE IT?

Thank you for drawing attention to the Kyle Ferrin Artwork Klaxon. It's always going off at my house and my children are so tired.

A vanishingly small number of American viewers will have the first idea what "a stick of rock" is, let alone what the hell Tom's use of it in a tortured metaphor could possibly mean. As a public service: Rock is a Britishism for a specific kind of hard candy similar to what Americans would call a peppermint stick. Originally called Blackpool Rock (or, for you Graham Greene fans, Brighton Rock) based on whatever resort town sold it. The difference between rock and peppermint sticks is twofold: first, rock is quite a bit thicker, maybe twice the diameter of a peppermint stick. Second, the candy is made so that in cross-section, it has a design - for instance, the letters BLACKPOOL ROCK. The design runs the length of the stick, so that wherever you break it, the design's visible. As with millefiori, which uses a very similar production technique, only for glass. (Millefiori: also a Reiner Knizia board game. Onward.) Hence: "dramatically lopsided games that have an asymmetry running through them like a stick of rock...though it would have to be a really wide stick of rock to fit the word "asymmetry" through it, you know?"

If I had a nickel for every 30+ min Leder Games review from Tom where he said their new game is his favourite of all time, I’d have two nickels, etc etc. In all seriousness though, I’m super happy to see this game deliver on its promises!

We played our first 3-player game (non-campaign) last week and it blew us away. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. My personal game of the year (at least until I get Earthborne Rangers in my hands - then we'll see)

I taught this game to someone who got a bit on edge that the attacker makes all the decisions in combat. At first, I didn't understand why it seemed to sit ill with him, but then he explained that it felt like some of the perceived gaming agency he had been accustomed to, trained to in most other board games had been taken from him. I wonder how particular that is, but if that's something that might bother you or your gamer pal, too, just a thing to put on radars: the attacker makes all combat decisions in base Arcs, including choosing which defending units were hit/destroyed when the dice rolls need to be doled out. In this and many ways (said video above), it turns the formula on its head.

"It's like trying to wrestle an eel. An eel that hates you. Probably hates you because you're trying to wrestle it. Why are you trying to wrestle it? What's wrong with you?" ... "They're just questions, Leon... It's a test designed to provoke an emotional response."

You know it’s serious when the cards are sleeved. 😅

"There's just so much game in this individual system" hell yeah, that's better than the other way around

The satisfactory music as background music! what the hell!!!! I got sooo messed up because I was like... what?! (7:58 for anyone wondering)

“This game will please absolutely everyone” (Two minutes later) “You can’t play peacefully”

This is amazing, Tom! The atmosphere you create, the music, the beautiful shots of the game. I really like the sincere reviewing interspersed with silly bits to keep our attention. More sustainable for you to make but still informative and a joy to watch ❤

Tom is such a great barometer for games I should not purchase. This review really helped me understand what Arcs is and why I shouldn't get it. I genuinely appreciate that.

IT IS SO GOOD! The designers learned everything they could from making Root and Oath and combined the best parts of both to create a Ti4 sized experience in half the rules and double the convenience. A masterstroke.

Played through 2 acts of the campaign last weekend. After first game, we all said, "Well that was kind of interesting...but I can't quite see where this is going". After the second game where planets were being obliterated, space mushrooms were being befriended, and one player was desperately trying to hold together the crumbling empire while the rest of us gleefully pushed the metaphorical head of the drowning empire underwater while also somehow paying taxes into it we all realized, "Ah...this is not what I thought it was going to be at all." In the best way. Cole, Kyle, and Leder Games have done it again.

I’ve had the game out on my kitchen table since it came in the mail. I just enjoy looking at it. I’m nearly to the point I’m going to put a sign in the yard telling strangers to come in and play with me.