Spelunking in the Spider Temple

I don’t need much of a reason to play 🧭 Lost Ruins of Arnak, it is one of my favorite games after all. I think it is undoubtedly one of the best euros ever made! Receiving the new Adventure Chest from @czech_games_edition is a pretty extraordinary reason though, so the afternoon program for yesterday was given: Playing Arnak! 🥳

I was happy when the box was announced: a big box to store ‘everything Arnak’ with some additional tray system. I was instantly convinced. Finding out it even acts as an additional small expansion was the cherry on top! 🙃

There are some small additions like a few new sites, guardians, idols and assistants you can mix in, but also some new stuff for solo play. Most importantly though, there is a huge new double-sided board! That’s two new temples with unique mechanics! 🤩

Yesterday we explored the uncharted Spider Temple! 🕷️ This brings in the new Dark Tablets that come with the box. You can get these special tablets with the help of some sites on the map or through certain research track rewards. The tablets then are either used as a basic tablet, or used for invoking altars on the temple track. 🪔

Invoking means you get to place an artifact card from the display on an altar, activating its effect, and also taking part in a majority scoring at the end with the tablet that you place on the altar - beware though, each tablet placed on the temple is also worth minus points, so these “free” artifact card activations can get costly! 😱 Other players can also activate that card later, also joining the majority race. 

I wanted something simple to play, so I chose the Professor. 💼 Unsurprisingly I had tons of artifacts in my deck by the end, due to the bonus resources I got for those. I don’t think it’s a super powerful character, but I do enjoy its theme. And also, artifacts can sometimes help you out big time.

Reni chose the Captain 💪, who has the most straightforward ability: getting a 3rd worker. It’s super powerful, but also has the caveat that you need to pay so many movement symbols every round, which costs valuable cards. 

In the end I took the win by a small margin, but it was hard fought! We both maxed out the research tracks. 🤭