Ark Nova - Digital Board Game Playthrough

And I'm the bad guy. [Music] Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Broken Meble. This is another digital play through and this time by popular demand I'm going to do Ark Nova. Now, this is technically the second time I've recorded this because I recorded it once on my home PC and forgot the reason why I don't record playthroughs on my home PC.

The home PC has a 4K ultrawide monitor. And Streamyard can only record in 1080p, unless you want to pay a million pounds to get up to to 2K quality. So, basically, that video was done fine. It was a good video, but it was done in a kind of letter box style format. Now, I haven't got rid of the video entirely, but what I might do is after I've uploaded this one, I might upload it as a bonus video and just put the proviso out that it's in a weird format and you'll just have to bear with it.

But, you know, this will be the main one to show off the app. So, Ark Nova, my favorite game of all time since my last top 50. I mean, of my top 50, top 100, whatever. I mean, it's my favorite game and I love it a bit. And I've been enjoying Direwolf's app. Now, this is now out of um early access. it is officially released.

It is a tad on the expensive side, I will say. I mean, it is retailing at £18, which I think for a board game app is a bit expensive. Just a bit. Um, given that I bought Deep Rock Galactic for a tenor and I've sunk like 600 hours into that game and basically, you know, done a lot with that game. And that is an indie game.

four player co-op, procedurally generated levels, 3D graphics, the works. For a board game port, I think 18 quid is just sort of taking the mick really. But, uh, economies of scale and all that. But I am basically going to show off the app just in a, you know, light context with some of the menus and that and then we're just going to just jump straight into a game and I'm going to have a little play through and you'll get to see how it works.

Now, I'm not going to teach you how to play Arc Nova. But if I do have some little tips and tricks along the way like I did in the other video, then I will, you know, mention them from time to time, but you will have to accept I will need to take a drink from my chamomile tea every now and again because my throat is only going to last so long.

So, let's load you up, Mr. Ark Nova. Come on. In you go. Let's play it. Play now. So, here we are. This is Ark Nova. I had to uh skip ahead a little bit because I forgot that all the audio settings were at default. I have turned off all the background music. Uh so you can't hear any of that. I hear that a lot of people hate hearing background music on loop in terms of the video game music.

So I decided to turn it off. But you'll still get a bit of the ambient noise in the background. So it can feel like you're listening to a relaxation tape with all the lovely bird noises and that. But I could always turn that down a little bit more. You can go into the settings and change things like the animation speed, you know, the UI scale.

I think medium and 3x is great if you know what you're doing, but we'll put it on 2x so that you can kind of see what's going on. Uh hold control to view cards. Definitely, uh worth hitting that one. You can see the rules. You can change the, you know, quality, so high resolution, etc. And of course, audio where I have turned the various things down.

I think we might just turn the ambience down just a little bit more so it's more background rather than just overpowering. So you can play online or you can play local play and there is also a tutorial. So if you want to play the tutorial, this is if you are learning the game completely new, you can basically go onto these free.

Now this is locked on this particular version of the game. Um I had checked it out a while back though and these tutorials are pretty good. They take you through, you know, step by step how it works. Three different lessons. So two based on all the actions and one to actually get into a game. And if you've never played Art Nova before, I think this is a very good way to learn the game from scratch.

You know, easier than having someone teach it to you like in the board game form, I reckon. So, by all means, if you think, "Oh, I've never played Art Nover before. How am I going to do it?" You do have a way out here, but I'm not going to show off the tutorial. That is not the purpose of this video.

So, in the menu, now that I've logged in, you can see uh the available things here. So, you got these seasons like these seasonal games where basically it gives you like a special rules modifier and some scoring modifiers. I like these now and again to play for something different. But one thing I really don't like about these is leaderboards.

I hate leaderboards. I hate it on Board Game Arena. I hate it here. I don't care Frosty if you're the number one ranked person on a digital board game app. The game is has some elements of luck, you know. It's not like you're, you know, it's not like this is the Olympic Games or anything. I'm not that fussed.

So, this sort of stuff I just don't really care about. So, I just play this to try a different variation. But, if you're that fussed about leaderboards and stuff, then go right ahead. But given that you can see that the game scores can go up to 200 almost here, it kind of tells you that this is kind of like playing the broken version of Ark Nova because it is Nion impossible to get these sort well, Nion, it is impossible to get this kind of score without these modifiers.

It literally is that impossible. So, we're ignoring that. You can play solo play with the uh normal 2010 zero appeal. So, the solo mode as per the board game. The solo mode that is done by the third party is not in this for obvious reasons, but you know, that's all well and good. You can play against the AI anyway and I like the solo mode in normal game.

It's perfectly fine for me. Um, and then coming back, we have uh the pass and play and we have challenges. I particularly like these because I've already completed them all, but basically they give you rules modifiers to replace the brown objectives for you in a game. The AI gets them, but you don't.

But the idea is is that these inflict some major rules change on the game. There's quite a few of them, and they have harder versions as well once you've completed the easy version. I mean, here, like you can't win the game unless you've got five unique animals and five unique continents. Not too bad.

But then consider that on one of them you have to play the game and only take level five actions. Ouch. Uh but you get to upgrade one at the start of the game. But then if you play the hard version, you don't even get the upgrade. Trust me, this one took me a while to complete. But you know, there's a few other cool ones here like um you know, let's try Yeah, into the wild.

So you start with migration recording in your zoo and you only lose half as much appeal. Normal, fine. But then in the hard version, you can't win unless you've released at least three animals. So, it really gets you to focus on migration. There's some cool challenges here, and it just adds to the longevity of the game.

So, it's all well and good fun. So, we have uh you pass versus AI. You can play against up to three AI, and you can play in what's called malice mode, which I'm going to do here. I usually play on hard mode because yes, you can go to unfair and expert and stuff like that. But the thing is when you play unfair, expert, and legendary, it's just ba basically you're playing with the AI on cheaty mode.

I don't like that. I mean, look at this. AI opponents start with 25 appeal on unfair. That is already unfair. I mean, that is insanely hard to beat, right? But then you start going randomly upgrading any or all of their actions at the start of the game. That's just physically impossible. But what I like to do is I like to do a mirrored so we always get the same map.

Uh I like to play peaceful mode personally. So you know that's the way I I like to do this sort of things. I like the alternate maps. So they've been tweaked for a little bit of balance and one AI. So I don't want was it I don't want There we go. Close those two cuz I don't want two AI. I just want to play against one AI mirrored hard.

So we're going to get into it. So what is malice mode? Well, malice mode is basically where you get to have a handicap at the start of the game here. So, as you can see, I have to choose a handicap. I would love these in the board game version because I would love to have one of these if I was playing against my friends who aren't as, you know, good at the game or learning it still themselves.

So, I can either start with a hand size limit of two and never get it above three, or I can start with five less cash and in my income phase, I have to lose one for each 10 I gained rounded down. I don't like the idea of losing income. I'm going to try and see if I can manage with a shorthanded hand cuz it looks like we've got the commercial harbor here where you discard cards for free money.

So, you know what? I think I can properly manage short-handed. So, I'm going to try that one. Boom. So, the the interface is pretty cool. So, hopefully you're seeing my thing on the left hand side of the screen and it's no longer covering the important information down here. So, I can see my income, my money, my reputation, victory points, and that stupid new scoring system that they got.

Oh, no. I don't like to win the game with negative points, but it's like for crying out loud, you know, you got like punishing games like barrage and stuff like that, Lorenzo, and Bianca Fico, but no, god forbid you might end the game on a negative point. But, you know, you can see your green points.

You can see your your conservation points, your appeal points, how many workers you've got. Same for the opponents. For some reason, this one's called Dove, this uh lady here. And you can see the association board on the right. I can see my objectives, sponsors, animals, when I've played them, and the various stuff of the board.

I can basically bring them, bring the tracks out, see the entire board, whatever I want to do. So, first off, we need to see I need to I like this commercial harbor alternate actually because you get more of these card draw actions as placement bonuses. And that's kind of something the original map's missing.

But, uh, let's see what have I got here. So, I got the Americas, Predators, and herbivores. Do I have any of those? I have a predator. I have a fox. That's probably a good start. Herbivore breeding program would be good as an alternate start if I had a herbivore, which I don't. Um, spokesperson is generally a very good one.

I'd normally like herptologist and the lizard together, but they're not really needed for this. A high in a combound would combine with the predators. It would allow me to get two predators very quickly or focus on the five if I feel like it. Uh, expert on small animals might not be bad and so would spokesperson, but that leaves me with only one animal in my hand, and it's only a fox.

Although, to be fair, the only other animals in my hand are a bird that doesn't get me that much either, and a lizard that gets me very little anyway. So, and I'd have to do two separate build actions to get said lizard. So, you know what? I think I'm actually going to go with free sponsors in my starting lineup.

And we'll go with the spokesperson because that could be a good reputation gain. And we'll take expert on small animals cuz with predators, I mean, you can get big predators, but I have I quite like expert and small animals. It is a very good monetary reduction. Although herpatologist might be good anyway because if the opponent decides they want to play reptiles, then the reptiles will just get me income and predators can be quite large actually.

Um, and it's and it's a five free five sponsors at the start of the game is going to make it very hard to play that. All right. All right. I'm going to take the herbologist as a potential money earner. Here we go. All right. Malice rules. Can we Oh, no. I do not need the tips. Nope. I do not need the tips.

go away. Yeah, it gives you tool tips on your first um play through and annoyingly it's giving me the things because I've play this normally on my home PC, not on my laptop. So, let me just go into settings and change that. So, enable tool tips off. That was what was the problem. Okay. And I mean you can change the yeah you can see like there you can change the scale of the view.

I personally like it on medium. Animation speed. You should try to have it at least at 2x otherwise it's going to take forever. So go with that. Okay. So malice. Can we take that away? Thank you. There we go. That's better. So build menu card actions on the bottom. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do this.

Um so I like to personally get the harbor quite quick. Uh there's not really anything in there that I particularly like except for more reptiles. So that might not be a bad shout, but I got sponsors on five. So I think we should get one of these played ASAP. But then I've also got the association action.

So if I get a university and get a science symbol, I can play the spokesperson early. That could be pretty powerful. So I'm actually going to do that. So let's get something with a science symbol. Bear in mind, this does not have marine worlds in this at the moment. I'm sure at some point they will introduce Marine Worlds.

But sadly, you have to play this with just the base game. Big whoop. I love Marine Worlds. I include it in every game of it I play. If I don't have it in the game, I suddenly don't think the game is rubbish. You know, it's great. Now, I can't in I can't increase my hand limit above three anyway. So, I might as well just take the high rep one.

Okay. End return. Now, you can get this out of the way. So I mean I can see that you know I can get partner zoo here and times two and everything if I want I can see the appeal track but I would quite like that to go away now please. So okay let's see. So he's done stuff. So now I'm going to play the spokesperson uh circle I'm on reputation four and I've only had two turns.

Um now another another good thing about not taking expert on small animals. I have an objective here for large animals. So that would have slightly contradicted things. I have a feeling though I will probably be going for the uh as said you can hold control down or you can wait there we go there. Um actually I might change that on the tool tip game play.

Yeah hold control to view cards. I think you can just uh yeah you can toggle it on and off. I prefer the toggle. So or you can just hover over it. So actually yeah maybe I will change that back. There we go. So here we go. So gain green points for each animal category icon of which I have more than the next person.

I think I'm going to go for that rather than large animals. Large animals are not really my style. All right. So what do we need then? So we got can't play those. We need to just build. But I could also get that lizard for later. Now I want to play the predator first. So let's just get a build done.

Size one. And I think I don't need the size one in any particular location. So, I mean, I could get another rep and flip a card immediately, but then I lose the effect of the commercial harbor. That's what I'm kind of worried about. But that's probably not going to be a big deal compared to flipping a card.

I think that's pretty sweet. So, let's do that. We'll get to the commercial harbor available um sorry, later on. But yeah, upgrading an action already is not a bad deal. And considering there's quite a few sponsors in my hand and I want to get them played, maybe flipping sponsors might not be a bad shout.

Um, let's have a look see. Yeah, I don't particularly need I mean, if I take the build flip, it will allow me to go through here and do a little bit easier for that that side of things, but I don't think that's my priority right now. So, I'm going to try and play these monsters ASAP so they're not stuck in my hand.

And I'm going to flip that one. All right. So, I've put it on times two animation, so it's reasonably quick for the um uh the computer, but I usually have it on 3x because I kind of know what the computer is doing, so it's not that hard to keep track of it. But you can see all their details here. You can see all the icons.

I've got two science here. You can hover over it and it'll tell you what they are. So, there's Americas and herbivores. I hope that my avatar is where it's meant to be because annoyingly you do have a bit of dead space in this game which you can click on stuff around to basically make silly little sound effects.

It's a gimmick more than anything else. And it it even it even works on the map which is kind of weird. I mean it's a nice little gimmick but whatever. Okay, so they've done that. I probably should get on and play the fox. So although clever could move something. Yeah, actually that's pretty good. So So fox goes in.

I can see the fox over here. If I want to see what the card does, I can do that. If I want to see what the card does here, I just hold control and it will give me the details. And now it lets me do clever, which I will do because I can't associate for a long time yet. So let's bring that down. Let's try and focus on getting the two predator symbols.

I don't think getting five predator symbols is worth gunning for early game. you you ideally want to get one of these cards at a quick two level cuz if you don't get too if you don't start going up the green track, you can potentially fall behind. But now I can actually play the Here we go. Uh did somebody take one of the good sponsors?

Yeah, I think they did. But yes, we can now play the hyena compound. And that should be easy enough to place, I think. Oh, actually this could be a problem. I'm not sure it will fit. Uh, let's see if it will fit. You can undo your turn. So, it's not the end of the world. Nope. It shows me that I can actually place this in some respects.

Oh, yeah. Cuz it's just got to connect to a rock. So, on that basis, it's either got to go there, which is not bad, or it goes 1 2 3 4, which doesn't cover any placement bonuses. I would quite like to cover a placement bonus at some point. an X token could be very handy. But that being said, that being said, I do want to get the commercial armor, although that's just as fast as any other.

So, okay, let's rotate it round. Plunk it there. Now, I get to resolve Hunter and get an animal. Well, as much as I have got the large animals objective, that's not really what I'm gunning for. America's I'm going to take monkey man. Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey. H. All right, let's see.

Not a lot I can I mean, I got a bit of money. I could actually afford to build and play this actually. So, yeah, why not? I don't even need to use the cards actually at this point. I seem pretty good at the moment. Unless I want any of these particular animals rather than No, cuz I wouldn't be able to afford to place them.

So, let's uh play one. This doesn't have to go in any particular location. So, let's just get to this commercial harbor as fast as I can. That' be a nice place for a kiosk later. Yeah, he's he's broke for a bit of money, which is kind of weird given that he has all the money in the world, but let's play.

Yeah, let's play the clever monkey. So, play. Yeah, you get little sound effects. Uh, do I want to move something down to number one? Well, I am going to need more cards soon, but association will be handy when I, you know, when we use it again, and I do want it near five at some stage, but I do want the break to happen at some point.

So, you know what? I'm actually going to decline in this instance. I think it's fine where it is. Right, you've built. And if you want to see what their board state is, you can just click on their avatar and boom, there you go. So, it's uh spectating theirs. They've done what I normally do, which is start at the harbor and work your way up.

Because I seem to be going on a bit of a reputation craze this time round, though, I decided I wanted to uh go with something else. Right. Well, let's get the herbivore out. Well, there we go. I got all my cards out at the start of the game. That's not bad at all. And best of all, I now need to play cards, which means I can now trigger the break and get the X token for it.

So, it tells me that the breaks trigger, but it's going to let me do my game first. Do I want to take any of these cards? Uh, they don't have I mean, uh, I guess the crocodile would be an intelligent move because it's America's anor, but it's also size 4 and 18. There's no way I'll be able to afford to play it in ages.

I need something that I can afford. Bear in mind, I'm only going to have 17 cash in a minute. Uh, for 17 cash, I can play this lizard, which would refund me some money as well. So, I think the lizard is a good bet to snap. Drawing free cards would be good though. But then you should also bear in mind that it's not always good to just draw blind.

Some people sort of go, "Oh, this game was just luck of the draw." I mean there is an element of that yes but at the end of the day you are also trying to you know if if taking one card that you know you're going to use is usually better than drawing blind. So on this occasion I am going to take snapfield lizard.

I'm going to snap it. Snappy snappy snappy. Going to move this microphone back a little bit. There we go. So, he's done what I've done, which is the sort of quick what I'm planning to do, which is the quick support of a two project, which is fine because I'm going to do the same thing with Predators.

Although, he is doing quite well. She is, sorry, she is doing quite well in the Americas. So, ooh, and a green project's just come out to do with that. So, I better be mindful. Anyway, so I guess with associate, we could get a university, but I think we're just going to copy what they did basically.

So, choose a project bonus. Could get another university like now to flip another card, but I don't know. I feel like I would rather just get an association work and work my way through that. So, let's just do that. Okay. Besides, I can flip a card here. Uh, this is a point where I actually feel like maybe I ought to maybe not flip associate, but flipping cards might not be bad because I am going high rep or flipping build so that I can build into these areas a little bit easier.

But I think uh I think cards might not be a bad shout cuz I'm getting good rep. I could draw from reputation range. I think that would be good. I mean, I'm only going to build Well, I suppose I could have built a size two in a more, but then I can only afford a size two because I need to afford the lizard, so it doesn't really make much difference.

Okay, so can't quite play the hydraologist from the display. That's fine. Although, I could just draw it in a minute, actually. So, size two. Uh, this needs to be next to a rock. So, let's put it down here. Draw a card. You are too expensive. You are tempting because the bird of paradise is quite nice.

But what am I going to do? I can play the hydraologist from the display for one money. I'll have the money to do that. So if I'm going to do that anyway, why don't I take the bird posturing? It's unlikely that ah I really did not expect the AI to cause a break. That's a bit weird when they got a lot of money, but oh well.

Bye-bye, hydraologist. Um, oh, they didn't trigger it. Sorry, they just broke for five. Oh, I do have time actually then. So, what's better to play that? I mean, that is a five. Why am I peering into the screen? I can just zoom in, right? So, okay, that's uh five points, which is tempting, but the hydraologist is going to get me a lot of money by moving down there.

So, uh, hydraologist first. I can't rule out the fact that they might cause a break. Exactly. So, how many bonuses did he just get there? So, he drew a card and built that, too. But where did he get the card from? Or was that part of his turn? Hm. Lost track of that one. Okay, fine. So, how much money have I got now then?

12 15. That's I still not got enough money to play the uh thing that I want to, which is a bit of a problem. Although, I can eventually get diversity researcher, which is going to be a good card to have. Or or I could just draw it now. Actually, these are two pretty good two pretty good sponsors in general.

It might be good just to get them to be on the safe side. Let's do that. Draw three cards in the deck within reputation range. So, okay. One, two, and I don't particularly want paying zoo animals this time. Oh, that was Ah, that's quite a good one. Okay. Ah, well, I got to discard a card anyway. Uh, I guess it's got to be the bird.

I'd rather play the alpineex than the bird. Dove's getting on with a lot of good green conservation projects here. I need to be a little bit worried about that. I took the partner zoo bonus as well. I would have quite like that. No, I can still do the smaller one though. If I don't care about America's too much, I could just release the monkey.

So, there is that. We might consider that anyway. Uh, can I afford to play these two animals currently? No, cuz I'd have to pay I'd have to pay four to play that. So that would put me down at 19. I then play that for 10. Leaves me with nine. I get two money afterwards, which leaves me one short to play the sprint lizard.

That's kind of annoying. However, could I potentially I can actually Oh, no. I can't. Ah, I can't. And I can't put the primate park in any way that would make it sort of uh fall out of there. Not without playing the alpine bits first. So I think playing two animals is probably wishful thinking there.

I don't see how I can do it without wasting my time with sponsors and I don't really want to do that. Uh perhaps we could just associate first. Get the bonus. That's probably not a bad shout. I don't desperately need Americas, especially when you need four of them. I mean he's going to beat me to four if not five.

It will take me a while to get there. I think taking advantage of some of this stuff is now what it's good. Let's just play this animal while I can. Hang on a minute. Undo turn. If I play the lizard first, let's see. I pay four to put a enclosure down. That puts me down to 19. I then play the lizard.

That puts me to seven, which I then gain three, which puts me on 10. So, I can actually afford to play two animals if I do it in that order. Okay, that's not a bad shout for action efficiency, but it must go next to two available mountains to play this uh so it's got to go there or it's got to go there.

Well, I do want to get to this thing eventually. Oh, yeah, and the hydraologist gets me some money as well. I should have faced that in. In that case, I didn't have much to worry about. Wow, they can play the tortoise. Wow, they are skyrocketing ahead on points. Where did they get the means to do that?

Wow. Okay, that's a bit of a leap in points. I need to get a move on. Okay, well, we're going to get a move on. So, let's start off with you. Let's start off with the lizard and put you in there. draw a card and then I can play this animal and my turn. Still got a way to go yet, but we're working on it.

We're working on it. All right. Sometimes you got to play the long game. All right. So, we don't need to associate just yet. Although, he could associate and ruin my day by using up my workers. So, I think we probably ought to associate first. Um, I could work on research because I could easily get a few more research icons and eventually play that one.

So, we'll see. Uh, but first I need to just accept the fact I'm not going to get the America's one and release an animal. So, project bonus, uh, university, get some money X tokens. Now, we need to start getting bonuses. So given that I don't have a good hand size, it may be good to like draw cards while I'm doing all this as well cuz that could be quite a good thing given that my hand size is two.

This would make up a little bit for the malice. Uh and then I can just play build whenever I need to or just hurry up and get the university and flip that. So I think we'll take the card one. So release that one. Choose an enclosure to empty. That will do. Uh, nothing specific about these ones. Nope.

Cool. Choose a reward. Draw free cards, which would be a terrible idea at this point because there's no way I would play them and the computer would just try and screw me over. So, we're going to have to take the money and can snap a card. Some good choices here actually. Uh, don't want to take the parrot.

That requires a partner zoo. Migration could be interesting. Uh, but now it's probably going to be the shoe bill. The shoe bill is quite an efficient uh bird. And he did it. That is the computer is playing very weird with the brakes, I must say. Forcing me to discard. All right. Well, how much is that going to get me?

I mean, that's going to get me 10 money and then can potentially get me, you know, more science symbols. So, that's a good card to play. I don't desperately need the monkey park. And I guess I mean I am going to eventually have a decent amount of research in my zoo. I could certainly get to two without too much trouble.

Uh so I guess after taking the shoe bill, I might have to say goodbye to the shoe bill. But that does seem like a bit of a waste. We're definitely getting rid of the park though. But I do get to snap. So I could just snap another decent bird or just snap that herbivore. Actually, that probably might be a better shout.

Yeah, we'll go with that. Sorry, shoe bill. The computer is definitely getting a lot of good cards today. All right. All right. What do I want out of this slot? Uh, migration report is tempting because it does give a science icon, but I feel there's better ways to it. If I can get myself a partner zoo eventually, I can play the birds.

But again, that's eventually. I don't have it yet. Uh sponsors is up high, animals is down low. I think migration block could be interesting with some of the stuff coming later. And as I say, I want to get to four science points so that I can uh do this particular associate action for as max as possible.

So the quickest way to do that is to take something that gives me a science symbol. So let's take migration report. Why the why is it telling me about the solo mode stuff? I know how that works, right? Okay. Okay. Associates all the way down there. So, we need to do this. I think we get uh diversity uh researcher out.

Oh, yeah. And it's getting me reputation for playing science symbol. So, that would be quite a good idea. Playing a little donkey and a manga. Computer's doing very well this game. I'm a little bit concerned. The last one I played I, you know, I beat the computer quite well, but this one just seems to be off to a rocketing start.

I mean, look, six Americas and all this. This is actually kind of embarrassing how well they're doing. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the bezy was cheating at this point just to be annoying. I I do think it's legitimately going a little bit too good for its own good cuz even on hard mode, it shouldn't be this hard.

I mean, it's got 27 income. I mean, what is it what is it doing? How does it manage to afford a lot of this? I'm really stumped by how it's managing to afford this stuff, but I don't know. Maybe hopefully it will stall at some point. I mean, it's got no cards, no money. I'm not going to break anytime soon.

So, you know, hopefully we can do something about this. All right. Well, that's enough uh squawking and moaning. Let's actually get it done. So, there's not much there. If I do an associate first to get the university gets me another rep, can work towards the next bit. Uh probably want to do cards though so that I can just have more options.

But then I've got a hand size of two. I need to be mindful of this hand size of two. Uh but we're gonna get another university and we're gonna actually we could just get Yeah, we probably want that university though. Two science symbols. So maybe that might not be a bad shout actually. Let's do two exit because I do want that ASAP.

So I can get that back up to five. Let's take that one. So, it gets me a bonus worker and lets me flip a card, which could be somewhat useful. At this point, I have a lot of money. I am falling behind on points. So, why don't we get the associate action cuz then I can start doing donations or we do the build so that I can just build a lot of stuff.

Both are pretty legit ideas, but this will be the last time I get to flip anything and that's possibly going to be problematic. But I think being able to do associate actions and get some of these points is going to be invaluable because the computer can't do it and I need to seriously catch up in points.

I don't think building is going to help me as such. So, let's flip associate. It's like everything the computer wants is just kind of turned up at this point. Um, right. Discard that one. All right. So, I'm going to need X tokens and god knows what galore. So, we need to do stuff until we get there.

Uh, well, certainly drawing more cards might not be a bad shout. So, I know what to build. So, let's have a look. I don't have a partner that one. I could uh build this one. I mean, what's that worth? Six. That's probably not a bad shout for an animal just to get one animal. I don't think playing any of those is going to be useful right now.

else. Let's just draw from the deck and discard. So, I got a reptile without a partner zoo. Get another herbivore icon. Polar bear exhibit is not going to be much use, I don't think. I mean, it's not bad, I guess, but the reptile breeding program. I mean, I need to get a actual partner zoo first before I can do that, but I suppose that's something for down the line.

I think the polar bear exhibit is probably the least thing I care about, although getting water icons is not bad either. Maybe the migration recording. I mean, I'm nah. More science symbols is good. Um, I think I don't desperately want the polar bear exhibit because I am going to work my way to reptile breeding program at some stage.

So, and that's going to get me more stuff. Uh, so going to cause another break in a minute, aren't they? Which is definitely going to make me very sad if they do that. I mean, I can play migration recording. That's probably not a bad shout. Just play something. [Applause] Gets me reputation. Gets me an X token.

And they cause the break. H computer really is going heavy on the break, which is the only reason they seem to be doing all right at the moment, I think. All right, fine. We don't have those two. But I say money X tokens just seems to be getting everything right. Let's see. Uh any particularly good animal there?

I mean another reptile would that would be great if I could actually play it. I don't have three those. I mean I could just get a deer. I guess that's worth points and we can work on getting it played. So, I mean, if I take the big croc and eventually get the thorny devil. Yeah, cuz then he's not going to take that snapping tiger.

He's got no way of playing it. I could probably work towards that. And it's an easy animal to play if I've got Yeah, I've got space for it as well, actually. So, why don't we take the horny devil for now? Okay, so probably let's see. I've only got one X token. And I need to get to five pronto. So let's build the enclosure for this guy first.

And I can build over water and things. So I can connect the commercial harbor now, which might be good. Or I could do a times two action allowing me to associate and then associate again. That could be very handy actually. I think I might do that especially as I can just cover these spaces and I don't really care about the uh requirements anymore.

Ah, I can only cover one. Is that it? All right. So, I go there. That's fine. I want the times two. So, times two. If I put that on associate, then I'll be able to do quite a lot of associate actions. [Music] Fine. All right. So, can play two animals. Might as well get that out of the way. Clever Forny Devil.

Let's just Forny devil. There you go. And you fine. Move an action to one. Uh don't desperately need sponsors and I don't want to cause many more breaks. So, um I need to draw more cards in a minute. So, let's take sponsors down a notch for now. How have I still only got 19 victory points? I don't get it.

Why am I not getting points? He has got 13 of those though. And I need Yeah, he did have a tortoise and that, but oh well, let's try and pull some of it back. So, we are going to do maximum research. Choose a project bonus. A university might not be a bad shout. Free X tokens also might not be a bad shout.

Uh, building actually might not be a bad shout just to stop me having to build loads of stuff. I think the X tokens are probably going to be quite handy. Although the university gets me a point, gets me another rep, makes my hand size a bit less damaging, and means I can start concentrating on um things.

But yeah, the lack of X tokens is a little concerning. But I think we'll take the university to quicken this up so I can go up the partner uh partner zoo track. [Music] And as I say, it's getting me more bonuses, so it's not a bad thing, right? Let's take that crocodile out. Uh let's see. Money or the times two.

I mean, we're still quite away from breaking So, a times two token might still be quite good. And for this, we could I certainly don't want to put times two on cards because I think that's a bit extreme. Um, times two on a build might not be a bad idea because then I can build, you know, I can build a big thing for this and then build something else on top to make up for the fact that I don't have a lot of stuff available.

Drawing two sets of cards will just accelerate the break more. I don't really want to do that. Um, unless I do sponsors, that could be quite cool. Build is a bit of a problem at the moment. So, let's put on there. Make a donation. Hell yeah. Uh, yes. Uh, so we can do another one of those. So, with two of those, we can actually do a partner zoo.

Um, do I have any of these cards that requires a partner zoo? I'm going to need either Africa or Finny at this rate. I don't have any of those. If I take Africa, then I might be able to get that one later. And there are a few African ones there. I probably maybe need to think about. Nope, I haven't got any America, so I'm not even concerned with that right now.

So, probably Africa is the good one here. And perform an association task. No harm. Getting more rep. Yep. Get more bonuses and make a donation. Hell yeah. Yep. I can still afford the crocodile, so I haven't bought myself up there. Still only on 38 though. What is going on? Well, they haven't done as much as they have been.

So, you know, maybe I can still catch this up, right? I don't want to draw cards right now. I need to hurry up and get this built. So, let's build A5. So, I can build over the water and connect the harbor, which is probably not a bad shout. Um, I don't really have any need for the other bonuses, so I think let's do that.

Although I must still remain connected to a water. So if I do that, I'm still connected to this water here. So that's probably the best shout. Get some money. Draw a card. So I could get the giraffe. Uh which one's better? This one is six and draw a card. It only cost me 10. This one requires me to get a free.

It is a herbivore, though. Although the chances of me getting to four herbivores before this game is over is kind of slim really. Um and I don't see I mean there is the deer there I guess. Uh but can pay sponsors down. I think maybe take the giraffe and see. All right. Uh spend a multiplayer token. Let's see.

I could build something where ah hang on a sec. Can I undo what I did before? I can only undo. All right, hang on. Um, let's work this out. Uh, undo the turret. Right. So, build. Why is it not letting me do a five now? It's bugged out. It's not letting me do a five. Oh, you got to spend an X token, you [ __ ] Right.

Right. Choose a building. Flip it. Put it there. Right. Done. Two. Draw a card. Not the giraffe. Draw that. Spend the multiplier to do this action again. Yes. Don't spend any X tokens. Build a two because then I can actually fit the stupid monkey in it. Um, and preferably put it next to water so that I can take advantage of the money gain.

So, an X token would not be a bad shout there. Okay. Use an ability to end your turn. Oh, yes. I can now sell stuff I don't want to. So, they have stalled a bit, but I'm not exactly gaining that much momentum here. All right. So, got some money back and can snap two cards. Do I have any Asian stuff to release?

No. But they do. And I'm fearing that they'll take the card and use it against me. So, I might have to deny them the card. Even though taking two herbivores might not be a bad shout, I think. I mean, as much as her, I just don't think I can get the four herbivores. And I can't let them get the Asia thing because I know what I mean.

What would they release if they get the Asia one? They can release a size three, a size two, uh, yeah, size two and a size three. So, they've got a decent amount of points to although it loses six and gains four. Is it four or three for it? Four. Yeah, I can't I can't let them get hold of it. I just can't.

I can always sell it. So, we'll snap that one. And we'll snap the Let's snap the deer because ah I wanted to share a space though with something that's also What other herbivore do I have in my zoo? A size two. It can't share. Uh, will I get a chance to draw it again? Maybe. I'm going to take the snap the draft and snap the alien one because I just cannot let you have that card.

And then if I was desperate, I could just sell it, which I might have to consider doing soon. Okay, see [Music] I have a feeling I'm going to lose this game, which is annoying given that I won the last one, the one that I couldn't put as the main video. Okay, let's see. Five sponsors. I mean, I can play a bunch of these as sponsors anyway.

Sponsorship Reptiles is actually not that bad a card for me to play. It would get me more income by a long shot and get me a few points. It's not like I can really play this thing yet. But then he's got a load of money. He can do stuff. I don't have a lot of money. So, there is that. Uh, let's sell.

Yeah, let's sell something first. Let's sell this thing. That money, but yes, I don't have a lot of money. That is a problem. But then if I buy something, yeah, it's probably better to draw some cards. Sponsorship reptiles probably a good one. Take the deer. And then let's draw two from here and see what we get.

Uh, that's not happening. It still says cabbage action or whatever when he takes like the two reputation action. It's kind of weird, but okay. Fine. Let's see. The money can play the animal if I sell something, which is probably not a bad shout. Although, do I want to play that given that I've now just picked up the hippo, which is probably a better animal to play for various reasons now, actually.

And I can perform that. Yeah, that's better. That's a better one actually. Uh, sell something first. It may cause the break. Oh, no. No, I can just play the reptiles one. So, okay. Sell monkey money then. No playable animals. Oh, it's worth 12. You've got to be kidding me. Oh, for God's sake. Um, do I cause a break?

I mean, these got more money. I'd have to discard down to three cards, which means I wouldn't be able to play these things. Ah. Um. Oh man. And it won't let me undo that, will it? Oh, you got to be kidding me. That's not nice. That is not nice at all. Uh, can I do something that won't cost me a load of money or trigger the pray?

Oh, what did you do that for? because they can do a lot more. But playing six and having sponsors would have been great. Ah, why can't I undo that? That is so annoying. H because if I play six, I won't be able to play really anything anyway. Uh if I do that, if I play the card, then at least All right, fine.

We'll just go with it and see. I mean, as I say, the break will trigger by itself. The rate is going through cards. That's fine. In which case, I've already got a two. So, I guess well, given I'm going to earn a bit of money, I might as well prep for having more stuff. So, let's put a three out. And can't I mean, I can draw more cards, but that's not well actually saying I will recover some money actually.

So, why don't we do that? Um, I want to build next to water, dissolve the effects, draw some ink. None of these are particularly great for me. I mean, I suppose the leopard's actually pretty sweet, but then I'd have to play a free next to that, which is I mean, it's a good one, but it is expensive and there's other stuff out there.

So, let's just take something weird. Let's just take a little snake now. Are you going to cause a break? You might do. You have a habit of doing that. So, why don't we actually sell that snake cuz we're not really going to need it right now. I told you I got really good nice cards. All right. Fine. Uh, now if I cause the break, I can get the X token.

I'll get a load of money and then I can start doing stuff with all of these. Um, if I draw cards, then I'll be able to play one of these animals. But I kind of want to play multiple if that makes sense. But then I suppose I can work towards that. So it's free money or four money so it doesn't really make a huge amount of difference.

Let's take Let's take you. And just to make certain they don't screw me over at the last bit, let's just keep selling it because money is money. Right. Now, play that animal and trigger the break as one turn so I'm not wasting time. action sponsors and we'll just do it at four. Use an ability. Don't need to.

Right. That gets me some money and my association people back. Who would I want to take out of this slot? Ah, he's got two paying zoo animals. I cannot let you have that painting zoo animal because you will just own me with that. So, I've got to steal that from him. Come on from her from eat. Oh, you have one anyway.

Typical. Typical. You just happen to have one. Yeah, I'm getting creamed. Absolutely creamed. The the AI just got so lucky with their star. It was ridiculous. I mean, there is nothing that I can do in these projects. I've already done half of them. Even if I do like multiple animals, it's only going to do so much.

I just really have not had the luck here. Right. Actually, wait a minute. I can do two animals. Let's I mean, it's going to use up all my X tokens, but frankly, what have I got to lose at this point? Actually, if I take a partner zoo, I could flip it and then do better with that. So, yeah. can do multiple association tasks as well.

So, let's do a partner zoo. Let's do Europe. Well, it makes things cheaper. Upgrade an action. Can finally upgrade um something like animals or build. I mean, yeah, the build's not really a massive deal. So, let's upgrade animals. Can perform another associated task. Why not? draw cards. I don't see what any of this is going to Although I do have a lot of rock icons.

That might not necessarily be a bad shout. Make a donation. Hell yes. Use an ability. Well, I'm not going to use the horse. [Music] Goth gets points for playing university as well. Typical, right? So that means I should be able to play two animals now, which is good. So in you go and in you go. Boost sponsors.

Do I want sponsors on five? Yes, I do. I mean, if I build something, then I can play animals. That's going to get me two for every rock icon, but then this will also get me three points at the end of the game. Uh, so there is wordiness to playing it. Place a cable way. Where am I going to somewhere?

I mean, I could build over everything. So, it really doesn't matter where I put it as long as I can build stuff for like the so but if we do that gets me points and can draw a carbon deck. Could probably get the leopard. Leopard's not a bad one in fact. Although, ah, I've got the association action so I can do a level five for four.

That plus the leopard could be good if I can get enough done. In which case did I want to play the sponsor at all. If I focused more on that. Uh let's take the leopard and put something down. Well, I am going to need to build an enclosure. I don't think I need more cards. I need the associate up there.

So, let's put that down. He was able to play a giant panda for crying out loud. Absolutely cringed. Well, it was fun while it lasted. That is a disappointing game. Here's a project bonus. None of these are going to matter. No good at all. I mean, I'm getting some points from this, but it's not going to be enough to catch him up.

Although it's I only got one for that. Yeah, that's going to be insane. I got one as well. Yeah. Oh, well that goes to uh that goes to the computer. But I mean, you want to watch a better victory, watch the uh second video I'm going to put up. The second video will have me winning the game. Um you know, it was quite a tight game, but the end game scoring I got was kind of ridiculous.

So, that really made a diff um I said the endame scoring I think they got good ends game scoring, but I managed to win that one. So yeah, I mean the hard AI does have an effect and that malice does put a handicap on you. I mean having a hand size of two was not pleasant. Um that forced me to get rid of more cards than I would have liked and the AI just got such a stupidly good start with herbivores and all the Americas everything.

I mean they they weren't in the display. They were just drawing those. So there was definitely a bit of bad luck involved in that one. But uh now well these things happen. So yeah, there you go. That's a demonstration of Arc Nova. So hopefully you enjoyed the video and uh let me know your thoughts on the app.

Does it look good? Do you play it? You know, how much fun have you had with it? And uh by all means check out the second video that I put up. Bear in mind it is a letter box format. So there is that problem. But it's a bonus video. I just don't feel like scrapping it, especially now given that that was one that I won the game in and this one I lost the game in.

So yeah, that's the way it is. So take care and remember as always, it's only a game. Bye for now.