Flash Review — Lost Ruins of Arnak

Players: 1-4
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Good
Age: 12+
Playtime: 30-120 min (30 min per player)
Complexity: 6.5/10

There is much to explore in those mysterious ruins, and possibly much to fight off, too.
Acquire new tools, hack through the jungle, face fearsome guardians, and make sure to keep a detailed log of all your discoveries.

Arnak is another hybrid deck-builder/worker placement game, much like Dune: Imperium. This time around it’s all about finding the Indiana Jones within you and letting him shine. Now where other deck-builders have players pick between using each card for its effect (to accomplish something in the game) or its currency value (to buy more cards), Arnak throws in a third option: transportation. So you can also opt to use the transport icon(s) on your precious card to take your explorers to new, virgin locations. Which of the three options to pick? Oh, sweet agony.
Through the purchase of regular equipment (with gold) and the discovery of powerful artifacts (using compass tokens), your card deck will grow and open up plenty of options for you to amass resources and transform them into progress on the research track—’cause that’s there the big victory points are to be earned.

Lost Ruins of Arnak surprised me: it looks like your typical, tired Eurogame design, when in fact it’s nothing like that. Cool mechanics, novel concepts (I love the idol bonus options on the player board) and beautiful illustrations make for a compelling package indeed.

Most easily forgotten rule: When you upgrade an assistant, you also refresh them. (So make sure to use them before you upgrade!)

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Flash Review — Sleuth

Players: 3-7
Age: 10+
Playtime: 30-45 min
Complexity: 4/10

A valuable jewel has been stolen, and it’s up to you with your clever use of logic to figure out which one it was. Play your question cards, write down what you’re told, and deduce the rest.

This isn’t a new game by any stretch: Sleuth was first published back in 1971 as one of 3M’s gamettes. But Sid Sackson’s game endured, went through several incarnations and is still in print, with the rights currently in the hands of Eagle-Gryphon Games, who put out an edition very reminiscent of the original.

Whereas Clue asks who committed the murder, in what room and with what weapon, Sleuth is only interested in the identity of the missing piece of jewelry. However, that difference is superficial: the game still boils down to three categories of information with several different values, and you’re trying to nail each one. Gem type (diamond, pearl, opal), type (solitaire, pair, cluster) and color (red, blue, green, yellow). So one jewel card—the stolen gem!—is removed from the game sight unseen, some cards are dealt face up on the table Texas Hold’em-style, and the rest distributed amongst the players. Which is the missing mystery card?
Each player is dealt four question cards and the game begins.

Sleuth is essentially Clue without the board, which gets rid of all the problems and frustrations connected to the roll of the die. No more hoping to make it to the library to ask the question that’s burning your lips: if that question is on one of your four question cards, you’ll get to ask it on your turn, no matter what. (“How many blue gems are you holding?” “How many pairs”?) Then draw a new card to bring your hand back to four, and keep going. While all questions require their answers to be spoken out loud, some of them will also provide additional information only the interrogator is privy to.

Looking for yet another improvement over Clue? Fine: if you think you’re one bit of information away from solving the case, you get to ask another player any question you want (your question cards be damned), and then you have to go for it: write down what you think the answer is, peek at the secret card, and revel in your deductive glory. You got it wrong? Then you’re out of the game but keep answering questions until someone wins—which usually takes very little time.

All in all, Sleuth remains the best deduction game I’ve encountered so far. It’ll take something truly special to dethrone this one.

Most easily forgotten rule: If you think you know the identity of the stolen gem, you can say so at any time, and not just on your turn.

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Flash Review — Imperium: Classics

Players: 1-4
Works well with just 2: Yes!
Solo quality: Really good
Age: 14+
Playtime: 40-160 min (40 min per player)
Complexity: 6/10

You are the leader of a famous civilization from history. Will you be able to guide your people through their barbaric years and achieve empire-hood?
Expand your territory, grow your population, husband your resources, keep unrest in check, and grab those Fame cards whenever you can.

I’m a big fan of deck-building games, and Imperium is a deck-builder like no other. There is a market of common cards (in several varieties) that all players can purchase from, but each civilization comes with a personalized stack of cards that represent their own, unique path to domination.

It works like this:
You begin with your starter deck, which is different in size and contents for each civilization. These early cards allow you to start expanding your domain by grabbing new cards from the market, but not by paying currency like you would expect: instead, some card actions let you acquire new cards (while other cards perform other functions). Then you have a Nation deck (also different for each civilization), which slowly drips into your starting deck: one Nation card gets added to your deck with each reshuffle of your discard pile. (So it pays to reshuffle quickly, but go too fast and you’ll miss out on some valuable plays.) Once the Nation deck runs out, the next card to drip into your deck is your Accession card—a famous leader, location or accomplishment (Julius Caesar for the Romans, Olympic Games for the Greeks!). When that happens, your ragtag collection of barbarians becomes a bona fide empire, and you can start adding powerful and civ-specific Development cards to your deck with each reshuffle, further shaping your destiny. (But those are costly! Make sure you have the resources you need to pay for the card you want when you’re about to reshuffle.)

Some cards can only be played by barbarians, and others only by empires. This means that in the first half of the game, you’re trying to temporarily stow away empire cards until you’re allowed to play them; conversely, in the latter half of the game, you’re trying to get rid of barbarian cards so they don’t gum up the works each time you draw a new hand.
Game end is triggered by specific decks running dry, and victory points are tallied. Will your Macedonians defeat the Scythians? Only one way to find out.

Imperium is the most intriguing deck-builder I’ve played so far, partly because it really feels like a civ game in card form (more so than something like Nations, for instance), but also because the eight different civilizations provided in the box—with eight more in the compatible Imperium: Legends sister game—create an impressive network of possibilities to explore. I’ve heard complaints about the art, which has a European comic book style to it, but I really enjoy it, and I can see myself playing this one for a long time to come.

Oh, yes: Don’t spend too much time with the rulebook. At first it’ll seem like it’s not teaching you much of anything, but keep in mind that the cards do most of the heavy lifting. Just start playing the game and it’ll all fall into place.

Most easily forgotten rule: Make sure to drop a progress token on one card in the market when you start your clean up at the end of each turn.

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