Ark Nova - Opening Moves and Strategy Tips in 15 min

[@Yriel129]

I have to add that I really enjoy this format of actually giving new players sound advice on the basic strategies in a game. In the long run, so much joy is found in learning board games all by yourself but some games take a few times to wrap one's head around them and it's nice to have a bit of a kickstart.

[@MrAndyjobo]

What a great video overall. The question/response conversation format landed really well. You made a good case for scoring an early conservation project and covered a lot of interesting scenarios. The opening hands analyses were great.

[@TheKirov21]

Really love the format and information flow. Keep it going!

[@franktitzler2689]

Great beginning strategy guide for what has become my favorite game. Thank you!

[@HelderP83]

Great video, really useful for us beginners :) looking forward to the next iterations.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

Thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. This is a fun game.

[@aetherllama8398]

This is really interesting, my group plays quite differently. We almost always take the 5 income first and get our 2nd worker from reputation or partner zoos. I'll keep your strategy in mind for when I get sufficient income from sponsor cards, I'm usually just so constrained by money in the early rounds.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

It's a big complicated game, and I'm certain there's more than one way through it. With beginning players, there's a tendency to focus on income versus conservation projects, which causes the game to take a long time. It doesn't sound like you have that problem. This is an intro video, of course. I have an intermediate video that might be of interest to you. I think your strategy of taking the 5 income (the free enclosure is another one that achieves a similar thing) might work in certain groups or in combination with other ideas. In my own play group, we had a few people who really liked those early income bonuses, but after playing a while longer, they converted to taking the second worker most of the time. I aggressively seek income in other ways, particularly well placed kiosks, sponsors cards, and even pavilions next to kiosks. In the late game, I often have more money than I can profitably spend because I'm too busy scoring conservation points. Perhaps your group can take the 5 income bonus and use the time I spend building kiosks to do something better. You'll have to work it out at the table. This is a very good game, and good games don't have a single "solution".

[@aetherllama8398]

@@SpiderForgeGAMES I found your intermediate video helpful, thank you. In my group, round 1 is slow and I have time to build a kiosk. After that, I don't have time unless I upgrade build. Appreciate the response, I agree It's a great game with many options.

[@Z0nd4]

I like this Socratic video. The feelings are very accuraced jajaja

[@oskargunn]

I think the European Pond Turtle had to be in an enclosure which was near water. Otherwise great tutorial on how to start and good strategy on how to choose initial 4 cards.

[@Jerayjay]

he also needs a certain amount of reputation in order to play that sponsor which he didnt have

[@legofail1111]

@@Jerayjaythe only restriction for Native Lizards is you can have no more than 25 appeal. There is no reputation restriction.

[@pdxtai]

11:58 Could the turtle go in the 1 enclosure? It wasn't next to water.

[@NaveenVohra]

11:48 This sponsor card requires 25 points on appeal /ticket to be able to play right? Nice to watch the tips with examples here. Thank you! :)

[@CreepySilences]

@@NaveenVohra No, it can only be played while you have no more than 25 appeal.

[@Avataarkaap]

Great video. Thanks for these tips.

[@kirksellman1999]

Helpful video. Thanks for making it for us. Subscribed.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

Thanks for the sub!

[@HavocMaster2956]

In example 2 it is possible to support predators before the first break with the leopard if you build over at least one 2 money space on silver lake.

[@loklok_favourite_art]

Great video. Love it.

[@claytonberry8141]

Well done!

[@BrunoBaronet]

Great series! Thanks

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

My pleasure!

[@J-Wheeler-G]

I like upgrading the cards, card first (most of the times). It has worked pretty well for me.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

I'm not sure there's a wrong answer to the upgrade question, but it will affect the rest of your strategy. The most common answer certainly seems to be Association, but I like to upgrade Build. Like you, I don't take the most common path in favor of a strategy I enjoy playing.

[@J-Wheeler-G]

@@SpiderForgeGAMES Yes it also really depends on setup and the cards that you draw.

[@Yriel129]

In my first game, I scored a hefty negative 44 points. It felt rather low but I do like to think it had to do with more experienced Euro players racing each other in the 3 player game. Having a new game on Monday, a little worried I'm going to score super low again but I guess the "negative" aspect of scoring is a factor in the feeling.

[@IamJFD]

im pretty sure there are a lot of thinga you can do just to stop scoring negative, no matter how everyone rushes thinga.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

I got destroyed in my first game. If anyone has played before, they have a huge advantage.

[@taw6528]

Great game indeed it took 4 hours for our first game, but learnt a lot

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

It gets a bit faster as you learn it. All the same, we've just about worn our copy out. Thanks.

[@Bobbleranger]

Nice one

[@DakingofAP]

Very helpful video thank you :)

[@UAlredyKnowWhatItIss]

Are kiosks worth building? If so, when and how many? I haven't really used them in the few games I played.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

You pay 2 money to build a kiosk. If it is next to 1 occupied enclosure, it pays 1 money each break, so you earn your investment back after 2 breaks. If it is next to an enclosure and a pavilion, you get 2 money each break and one appeal for the pavilion. I've often gotten 4-5 income from a single kiosk, so it pays off much bigger and much faster. One of the primary reasons I like to upgrade my building card early is that I can throw in a kiosk and/or a pavilion with each build. If you have the right map or a side-entrance sponsors card, you can create as much income from your map as you get form appeal, that's certainly nice. So yes, kiosks are very important to building up income early. On the other hand, kiosks are less important late in the game because there are fewer breaks left and you may have all the money you need. However, even late game, kiosks and pavilions can help fill up your map for 7 appeal or score more points on the architectural zoo final scoring card.

[@jwfcp]

I would say its worth leaving a few gaps in your zoo as you go along, just keep an eye open for places where it will net you like 4+ income a pop. Also remember the kiosks do count pavilions, so an early game opening could be a kiosk flanked by upwards of 6 pavilions to jumpstart your economy. If Filled enclosures substitute some of those kiosks all the better, but if they aren't going to get filled for a couple rounds, no harm in pushing the enclosure back a row for more cash now.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

This is good advice. Engineer (a sponsors card) can help you by letting you build 2 kiosks in a single build action.

[@alexreichline]

@@SpiderForgeGAMES just to clarify, a kiosk will gain more income by having a pavilion next to it but the appeal that is gained from placing the pavilion happens just the one time when you place it. You do not gain appeal every break for every pavilion you have.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

@@alexreichline Absolutely.

[@benjaminberrebi3180]

Will you do a sequel with more Ark Nova strategies ? (Maybe on the solo mode?) Great great video 👏👏👏

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

I'm working on a sequel right now (actually rigging a not-so-official green screen to present cards on). Thanks watching and there's more to come.

[@aggazel1]

Hello guys, could you explain in depth the appeal track [the green one] ? I am having problems making progress on that track :).

[@CitizenLane-]

The appeal track isn’t the green one.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

The green track is all about conservation projects.

[@tuethuc]

your moves in the last example is interesting, but i would not try it in multi-player game. i’d instead build the 1 encloser for the first build action, to achieve asap the conservation project. it is 1 move faster than your play. being late than your oponent in the same conservation project is the worse situation in this game, so i avoid. what are your thoughts? what will you do when you are in such situation?

[@SpiderForgeLIFE]

I think it depends on your opponents and what they are doing. I agree, it is very bad to be caught one move short. If someone else is going for the same conservation project, you need to rush. If not, you'll have judge how much you can afford to optimize.

[@tuethuc]

@@SpiderForgeLIFE thanks for your answer. We can’t wait for another clip like this. Very very useful.

[@brickisland6353]

Ark Nove is one of the best games I've played in resent times. Yes, it has some drawbacks. But normaly it's great fun. But when you draw 6 sponsor cards on your opening hand. Then it's a bit boring. 🙂

[@georgeresso6835]

what a cute video...im still not sold on a game thats 90+ minutes where i take a bunch of actions...good or bad and end up with 5 vp at the end of the game...while still drawing frantically for any cards helpful to my strategy...212 cards... all unique...ugh...at least EARTH has 2 main actions that let you DRAW cards and a plethora of cards that u can activate to draw cards...

[@ilanf2]

They did make an update to the game (think version 1.1) where they changed the scoring. Instead of substracting your appeal minus the spot of your conservation, the conservation track now has numbers that you add to your appeal. Getting exactly 100 points would equal to having the appeal reach the same point of the conservation.

[@troyajohnson26]

Should they have balanced petting zoo cards a little more? It sounds like they aren't really worth doing unless maybe you get early draws that work together or something.

[@CrimzinEclipse2010]

Pet zoo cards are very powerful for what you pay for them: $6 for the petting zoo. Then around $20-$25 for the 3 cards. That’s about a $30 investment for a minimum of 15 appeal points, or about 2/1 for your money.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

To my mind, you either have 2 petting zoo animals in your hand, or you let them go.

[@ShogiDojoLyon]

😃

[@lockoutslayer]

Played for the first time today. I had no animal cards dealt to me in my (8) starting hand. . . It took 7 hours

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

That's bad luck. The odds of getting zero animals aren't high. Better luck in future games.

[@malcolm-chrisbikoumou972]

I would rather have a starting hand with 0 animals than a starting hand with 8 animals. The more you play, the more you will understand that sponsors are the best cards in the game and can carry a player to victory all by themselves.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

@@malcolm-chrisbikoumou972 The sponsors in the expansion seem to be quite a lot better on average, which has changed things. Without the expansion, I definitely want some animals. Of course, it depends strongly on which animals and which sponsors.

[@lanceb247Upload]

Sounds like you didn’t shuffle properly, making sure you split the card types lol

[@ulrikborgbjerg2482]

a little long - but I really like the examples.

[@cyrusol]

The association worker reward early on for 2 conservation points seems like a noob trap because it permanently locks you out of the 4th upgrade for the action cards.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

I agree, I don't like it either. Not to mention, you can get an association worker with your first conservation project on most maps, so why waste the chance to upgrade a card at 2 conservation points.

[@lanceb247Upload]

Learned that the hard way on my very first game… 🙄

[@georgeresso6835]

3.7%

[@jennamillsap8220]

Worst soundtrack ever. Could have skipped it and it wouldn't have taken away from the purpose of the video one bit.

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

I know, but it's hard to change without resetting the most successful video I have. I just dropped a new one, and I took the music down about 15 db.

[@ElzariusUnity]

I don't know why people like Ark Nova that much. It doesn't bring anyhing new, theme is meh, and there are better games with same mechanics.

[@divac7777]

What other games do you think are better?

[@ElzariusUnity]

@@divac7777 TM does the card part better. As for in general - quite a few. TM itself a bit overrated.

[@divac7777]

@@ElzariusUnity What are their names?

[@SpiderForgeGAMES]

Other people don't have to like the same games you like, and you don't have to like the games they like, it's cool.

[@jennprescott2757]

I love it. So many routes it victory.