Games Like Lost Ruins of Arnak (Live)– Board Games & Coffee, Ep 2.2

0:00 So, you go over here and find games based on what I already love. The same sort of thing actually happens here. You could go Lost Ruins of Arnak and then it pops up and it says I want these kinds of games. Here I have some shelves and some categories and you can do a search there. This is This is what already exists and we took some time to explore that. But does this capture what Lost Ruins of Arnak is? Let me jump over here. Well, we have some latency. Oh, you know what? I'm going to just jump into it because

0:53 I don't want to sit here waiting for people to comment for too long. Let's take a look at one, all right? For me, I would probably select multi-use cards. In fact, I did select multi-use cards. You can see that it's highlighted. So, multi-use cards comes up, Brass: Birmingham, Dune: Imperium. I think I think Dune: Imperium is a great recommendation if you want something that feels very similar to Lost Ruins of Arnak. Uh that would probably probably be first on my list if I was going to give you something similar. Um for those of you that don't know, both games have a uh deck-building worker placement. So, it's not just worker placement because in order to pay for the worker to go to the space, you also have to discard a card from your hand or you have to pay the cost of that using your cards and then cards are multi-purpose. You use cards also for purchasing in Dune Imperium, Uh uh they have abilities in Lost Ruins of Arnak. I think this is

2:15 What I'm getting at is that while there are some great mechanisms and categories in order to capture what Lost Ruins of Arnak really is I think Yeah, I think it needs a category of its own. That's what I'm getting at. I think it needs a category of its own. Now what would we call that category? I spent some time thinking about this. To me, I'm about to tell you what I think. I'm looking over at the chat to see if there's any messages coming through. All right. I'll tell you what I came up with. I would call this hand-driven action selection. That's what I think makes this game really, really work. And that's what I would really like to see.

3:09 In fact, when you look at the the the games that other people have already liked hand-driven action selection. Ark Nova, Planet Unknown Architects of the West Kingdom The White Castle, Viticulture, none of them are hand-driven action selection. Tapestry, I honestly I can't remember. But that's not what captures what the game is. So over here, what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a new shelf.

3:50 And that's promptly We are past this. We're moving to what hand-driven action selection game have I not thought of? So, I'm going to be listing a few of them. We'll talk about my recommendations, and if you've got any, please let me know.

4:27 And let's do it. I do quickly here. hand driven action selection

4:51 Oops. Oh, I did it by myself. I didn't need to type there. I titled the definition. I will type up the definition later. Maybe I'll link my video also. So, we will say save.

5:22 And the B

5:42 And the appearance

6:03 All right. Good. Now, back to Lost Ruins of Arnak. And we're going to add this one to this shelf. Okay. Now, this is going to be interactive. This is the part where you interact.

6:29 If you are not me, and you go to Lost Ruins of Arnak right now, it's going to appear right here. If you think that this is a great example of a hand-driven action selection, you can upvote it for that particular list. As we keep adding more games to this collection, you can vote for the ones that you think belong, or you can downvote them if you don't like it. So, this will be pretty interesting because we're going to be building this together. I will add them as you comment down here, and then as they get added, if you want to vote for the ones you agree with, you can go ahead and do that. So, link is also in the description of this video. First one, Dune Imperium.

7:20 Yep, I got to be logged in as myself. There we Hand-driven action selection. I already talked about this. If you're just joining me now, um well, you missed it. We already talked about Dune Imperium. I'm just going to add why I think is a great recommendation if you enjoy Lost Ruins of Arnak. So, in a sentence, why is Dune: Imperium a great uh alternative? I think it captures a similar flow and core loop but adds in a greater degree of interaction and the conflict between players.

8:26 It is resolved at the end of each round. Oh, shoot. I forgot. I had already added in Dune: Imperium. Okay, well, that's my reason why. Am I going to override it's already there? Dune: Imperium is already recommended for players who like The Lost Ruins of Arnak. Override the current text below with yours. Worker placement driven by cards but with more tension from Man, I'm not going to override that. I forgot that I'd already added that one. Okay, let's do another one. What did I think of? Okay. Ah. This is a game that I love. I actually haven't done a video on this one yet. Baghdad: The City of Peace.

9:18 Did anybody play Baghdad: The City of Peace? So, in this game, you're moving around a rondel. Each time you move, you're moving around a rondel, but to perform the action on the tile where you land, uh you have to have icons matching the type of action that it is. And these icons come from the cards that you play. And you can only have three cards showing at a time. So, at the beginning of your turn, you're going to slide down the cards. And whatever the last played card was, it's going to be discarded. And a new card will be put in place. Now, the cool thing I love, love, love about this game is that the the card that gets discarded, uh, it gets triggered. And oftentimes it has an objective on it. So, what you're trying to do is satisfy the objectives of the cards you play before they discard they get discarded. So, does this make sense? You play a card and you get to have the icons, you get to perform actions, but then three turns later that card gets discarded. And if you satisfied the objective, you get a benefit. So, you're trying to like sequence all of these cards in such a way that you can get a lot of victory points. I love it. The planning is very very interesting.

10:44 Um, but it also gets at that um, that hand-driven action selection. So, I'm going to add that one down here. I added it as novel mechanics already. Man, it's such a good game. Okay. Hand-driven action selection. If I've convinced you, you can vote for it. All right. And then, add it Lost Ruins of Arnak. Why?

11:14 Action is selected from a rondel rather than worker placement.

11:45 Each of which also has its own objective. Action selection from a rondel rather than worker placement. And cost is paid for by player card, each of which also has its own objective. Slower and mechanic but requires far more planning. All right, say that. And save. Okay. Uh let's do another one. Man, I really want to Should I put I want to get one that like Okay, you know, we'll do we'll do Great Western Trail.

12:33 Great Western Trail, I think, is one that everybody knows. So, as long as we have people still joining us, we'll add a game that people are familiar with. So, this is actually This is actually also very similar because Great Western Trail is not not a rondel, is it? It is like an action trail that you're moving on. The cool thing about Great Western Trail is that it's trails constructed by players. So, the actions that are available to you are the result of players putting their tiles on the board. And you get to the end, you get rewards for the cards that you have with you, and then you go back to the start and you repeat again. So, it has that rondel-ish thing, but it's really an action track.

13:20 Um and and most of the actions that you're doing are paid for by cards. So, that really puts a restriction on what it is that you can achieve. Although, missing Great Western Trail is really like discovery. That's something that that uh Lost Ruins of Arnak has, Great Western Trail does not have. There's not really discovery in this game. Um But, we're going to add it, so And the event action selection. And why I like Great Western Trail Oops, not I why I like Lost Ruins.

14:06 So, through a action trail um but paid for by actions oops, by cards in hand. Unlike Lost Ruins of Arnak Unlike Lost Ruins of Arnak there is no discovery. There's threats, but they're not they're not like a surprise, right? You're putting these spaces on the board to make things more expensive. It's not nearly the same thing as revealing a uh what do they call them? Beasts? Monsters? I can't remember what it's called in Lost Ruins of Arnak, but it's it's nothing like that where you have a huge threat you have to pay for. There is not discovery.

14:58 There is not the discovery of threats, we'll say. The discovery of threats. All right. Let's do another one. If you've got one, please let me know. I actually have 12, so we'll see how many I get through. I kind of like I kind of like uh just just reviewing these games. Okay. If you like discovery, you know what I'm going to throw in there. And

15:36 ultimate edition. I need the ultimate edition now. I haven't played ultimate edition. Ooh. Okay. Look at Now, this is interesting because the thing about Mage Knight is that the cards are multi-purpose. You can either use them for a basic action, you can have like an advanced action where you play a mana, or you can just play a card sideways in order for it to count for anything. But, you're everything you do is like you're you're moving over a board, you're interacting with things on the board, and it's got the discovery because you're flipping over tiles and you're facing enemies from there. So, it is way more complex and a lot more adventure.

16:26 So, let's do Lost Ruins again. This is big. Man, sometimes I just kind of assume people will know something about it. If you've never played this one, it's been around for a while now. Mage Knight is a very epic epic adventure game. Way more so than like Box was. It It doesn't even really feel like a euro game or it's not really It's got a really good deck building mechanic to it. That's why it it seems kind of more euro-y. I don't really play role playing games. Anyway. Um a deck builder role playing game.

17:18 multi use cards like Lost Ruins of Arnak. Far more thematic interaction. A great choice for something more immersive. We'll say that. That's my one two sentence about Lost Ruins of about Mage Knight.

18:07 Okay. What are we going to do? Trying to figure out which one of my favorites. I could ask you. Although I think with the latency, I'm not going to get a response. All right, these are the ones that I wrote down. So, Lost Ruins of Arnak, Dune Imperium. Oh, I know what it's going to be. I'll tell you all of them, but I know what I'm going to do next. I think. Baghdad, I did that one. Mage Knight, oh. Actually, I'll put it this game this game no one knows this game. Also, I think this game's out of print and the publisher is uh shut down. So, I don't think you'll find it unless you find a used copy. But really really cool action selection of the card uh game by cards. Awesome game.

18:53 Uh Brass, I don't know if I should add Brass or not. I shouldn't have time talking about it. People feel Everyone knows Brass. Um and besides, it's on BoardGameGeek. I'm going to look over there. Great Western Trail, we did Maracaibo, a lot like Great Western Trail. Underwater Cities. Under You know what? Every time I talk about Lost Ruins of Arnak, people people mention Lost um underwater cities. I'm going to do underwater cities.

19:25 Yeah. Oh, and you know what? I was going to show you how you can make up these categories on your own. I will still do that. Right after we do underwater cities. I've got a lot of things here for underwater cities. I It's not on card games, though. No way.

19:48 You know kind of it. Hopefully that makes it a little bit better. Okay. Tile placement. These are dumb. Okay. Some of these that it's on are just not appropriate. And that one, too. Animal-themed games? What? My goodness. Really? Animal-themed games? Maybe. Like in so far there are animal game. That'll update shortly. Let's do hand-driven action selection. Okay.

20:37 So, this is a game where there are three tiers of actions and three tiers of cards. Oh, look at there's pictures. do do do Mm. Not the best pictures. Player on the board. So, what you're doing is you're you're choosing the action you want to perform and you're playing a card that goes alongside with it. If you play a card that matches the color of the action, that card goes into your tableau. That's where your engine comes from and you're doing production every round and getting things from the cards that you've collected. So, the the hand-driven action selection is how do you you're you're looking at the action you want to take and it's like worker placement. So, if somebody else takes it, they block you from it.

21:25 But, then you've got to play a card alongside with every single one and cards uh each have a benefit which they will give you later. So, I have a lot of people have told me that this one I got to spell the whole name, don't I? A lot of people have told me that uh Empires of the North excuse me is a better choice because there's a lot more agency in the game and it feels like there's not as much luck. To be honest, I still have not even played the game. But, I've checked it out. I just need to get my hands on a copy in order to play it. So, um I mean, I feel like it's like worker placement because you're actually placing like a tile not a worker, but it it is. It's worker placement.

22:14 This is worker placement, but every worker is accompanied by a card. Players will receive a benefit so long as the played card matches the color of the selected action. It goes into the tableau. But, this is I'm going to keep it short cuz I don't want to be too wordy. Okay. Last thing I wanted you to do. Sweet. Look at this. So, now we have our hand-driven action selection and there are several games on here. You can vote for any of these games by clicking the arrows.

23:06 I can't click it cuz I my vote is already counted on all of them. If I click it, it'll just take the vote away. But, you can. So, you vote for the one that you think is the best Android action selection. Now, what about you? Can you go around making shelves for these games to fit on? Well, yes and no. The way that the perfect board game works is players or users get more uh credibility as they use the app. So, you get victory points. In fact, here, look it. I don't You go into your profile and you can see how many victory points you have. You need certain numbers in order to unlock features. So, if you're a new user, you're not going to have a lot of victory points. You're not going to be able to do stuff like this right off the bat. But, what you can do is you can go over into your shelfie. Here, let me go over here.

23:56 Let's pretend I'm not logged in. So, it's very easy to find at the top. Build my shelfie. And it's going to let you start adding games. So, Lost Ruins of Arnak and it appears on your shelf. Now, you're going to have to sign in in order to save your shelf. But, when you do, once you sign in, it's going to Oh, now look at me. I have got to go over here. Mhm. All right. I need to create I need to connect to my actual shelf, but I'm going to do that in a separate window.

24:36 Board Game Dad's games. All right, there we go. Here we go. So, once you create your shelfie, you're going to have a lot of games. See, I have played a lot of games. They will load once I scroll down. There we go. There, all these games. And if it gets a little bit overwhelming, you can actually go over here, boop, and add subcollections. So, I have made a subcollection for my heavy games. Those are my heavy games. And my family games. Those are my family games, that at least the ones that I've added to this list. And oh, these are family games that I featured on my channel, actually.

25:24 And then, videos. Oh no, sorry. Video. That's me. My my wish list. Okay, now there's not really There's not even a limit to how many subcollections you can make, but you can you can make your subcollections, you can review your comments and your reviews as you go through this. So, there's a lot of ways that you can customize and organize your stuff. Now, make a really great subcollection and tell me about it. Yeah, it could actually become a public shelf, the kind of shelf that you search for. So, I think if you search for BoardGameDad, favorites, my shelf is going to come up and you can find me on here and see what I've rated on all of my games. It's either going to come up here as a search result or you click on the little shelfy view and it'll show you this the on a pretty little shelf. So, that's how you can interact with the app.

26:16 Um Yeah. So, now that we're getting to the end of things, uh last thing I want to leave you with is I I do have one more comment here. I'm going to Let's remove this one. Oops. Boop. Boop. Boop. Does it make more sense to name a shelf after a pioneering game? So, check this out. Games like Catan. This is something I'm still debating. If you're trying to discover games that are like Lost Ruins of Arnak? Does it make sense to just call just call the shelf games like Lost Ruins of Arnak? I got I don't really know, honestly.

27:02 Like, maybe. Um It is it is an option. It kind of depends on how people think about games. So, if you'd like to respond to that, uh please let me know, especially as this as I'm about to get offline.

27:30 Someone's commenting something, but I I don't understand. It's like an incomplete sentence. All right. Finally, last thing I'm going to say as we jump off next week, if there's a game we want to discuss on, um oh man, I'm up for suggestions. Just let me know. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time. Okay.