Res Arcana

Enjoyed the game, very simple, yet very complex, with the endles deckbuilding options. Try Draft once the main game gets dry. Great buy and great service from the MM team

This is a great engine building / resource conversion game. Every time feels like a new puzzle to figure out and it plays in a perfect amount of time (about 10-15 minutes per player).

This is an engine-building race game. That's all there is to it. Convert resources into other resources, resources into points. It is very satisfying. You choose a mage, you are dealt 8 random cards that may be items or creatures that give you a resource or a way to create or steal resources, but you also need resources to play these cards or purchase places of power or monument to your tableau. You have to figure out how to make those cards work together to crank out 10 victory points faster than your opponent. The base game has a good amount of replayability and there are two expansions to add to that- all reasonably priced. If you're good at extracting theme from the beautiful artwork you can even tell yourself a little story about the items, places and creatures you encountered. It's just so satisfying to get dealt a seemingly impossible combination and yet come out on top.

I have been playing Res Arcana on Board Game Arena and loved it so much I bought a copy. The thing I like best is finding the surprising card combinations that create a winning engine. Not only the cards in your hand (we have been using the drafting rules), but the random order that the monuments come up, and the random places of power (5 of 10 per game) provide unique combinations: can I generate gold and buy 10 points of monuments? Can I generate death and rack up victory points with the Catacombs of the Dead? Or, should I go for dragons and the Dragon Lair to hoard gold for victory points? When someone else buys the place of power I was counting on, can I find another path to victory? For example, the mermaid can put a resource on a card and generate a point each turn. (It took a while to see how she worked.) The key to success is finding new strategies of generating and transforming resources (gold, elan/fire, life, calm/water and death) into victory points more quickly than your opponents. I've played at least 30 games and am still discovering new ways to use different cards together with monuments and places of power to generate a winning combination. The mechanics are simple; the variety and complexity keep the game interesting.

This game is so good that I need about 4 more expansions to increase game play. We play this a few times every week when we're slowing down for bed. We love it.

This game is so good that I need about 4 more expansions to increase game play. We play this a few times every week when we're slowing down for bed. We love it.