I like that you told us to take a break before the last card. I was pretty tired (had some motion sickness that lasted all day) when I started watching the tutorial. Fell asleep after setup. Then I decided to read the book. Fell asleep when I got the cards. Then I switched back to you, and I'm pretty sure I wont fall asleep this time.
@@fatherofgames9239 I made it all the way through. Was feeling much better. Now to play a solo round, so I can teach the game to my wife without her getting bored.
Thank you! I was skeptical Ark Nova could be properly teach in less than 20 minutes but you absolutely pulled it off, not an easy feat. Definitely looking forward to more of your 'how to play' extra lean and to the point videos. There are some excellent 'How to plays' out there but often extremely elaborate and adapted to complete boardgame neophytes - your fast approach is actually refreshing, keep it up!
I do love finding new and well done board game channels. Thank you for this. Just bought the game and I didn't have an hour to sit and watch the other Ark Nova videos out there.
Great tutorial, my girlfriend and I spent 3 hours last night setting up and reading the rules of the game. Your video helped us correct a few things and explained the mechanics of the game really well!
I watched another rules video last night which was twice as long, put me to sleep, and made me much less excited about our first play of this game. You did a great job teaching and it was much more understandable, I feel like I have a chance tomorrow! Thank you!
You are the type of person I would be asking to teach me every game! I’ve only encountered a few gamers who teach as well as you. Clear, concise, the video was excellent, and you’re an absolute hottie! Subscribed and I’ll be checking out the rest of your content for sure. I watched this video, read over the icons and glossary sheets included with the game, and received a very basic explanation from someone who’d played once and I ended up winning my first ever game against one other first time player, one person who’d played 4 times, and one person who’d played 6 or 7 times online only. Thank you so much!
😊thanks so much Casey, I’m glad to hear the video was helpful for you and especially glad to hear you won your first game, board games are definitely more enjoyable when you win
This video was very helpful! Playing the game for the 1st time today that a friend owns. Wanted to get a jump on the rules! I feel like I understand how to play very well!! Great job!
Great tutorial, i love how you covered setup, and gameplay, and properly segmented it for easy reference. I had to review the conservation section multiple times, because i didnt realize A) you take it from the left items on your zoo board B) could play another conservation from your hand and C) that the top options gave you persistent effects, and the bottom options are stronger one-time effects.
Thanks I’m glad it was helpful for you, the conservative section definitely takes some getting used to for sure I’m glad to hear this was able to clear some things up there :)
This is one of the best how to play videos I’ve ever seen. No fat, just what is needed. With just this video + some checking of the rule books we were able to play the entire game. For comparison - for brass I had to watch several how to plays + two gameplay videos to fully grasp all the rules.
Hey thanks so much I really appreciate that. Glad to hear the video was helpful for you, hopefully I can make more how to plays that can be helpful for you in the future as well :)
Thanks, you can draw a card from the board when you do what is called snapping, if your cards action is at 5 strength then you may draw any one card from the board and replenish at the end of your turn. To play cards from the board your animals action must be upgraded and you can only play cards from the display in your reputation range paying the extra cost on the folder by the card. As far as your other question regarding conservation bonuses you can do each pink bonus you’ve unlocked once during each break.
Hi! Great rules explanation! I have a question about the Japanese Macaque. It shows that I need an Asia tag to play it. The card comes with an Asia tag, does that count for playing the card?
I'm so glad I've found your channel. This was amazing! I've been watching board game content for years, I read a lot of rulebooks, and teach a lot of games. The articulation, the order of the teach, the red circles, everything was so easy to follow and digest. Will be using this video to help teach my wife. Gonna check out the rest of your stuff. Keep it up!
Hi. Great turtorial. Im still confused as to when you use the 7 cubes on the left of the player board. Also a little confused about when to use cubes on the left of the association board.
Hey thanks, when you support a conservation project card under or above the association board you choose one of the cubes from the left of your zoo map to use, this will provide you with and ongoing bonus each break or a one time bonus, the donations on the left side of the association board are done after taking an association action once it has been upgraded to do that you take a cube from your supply not your board and pay the coin cost of the lowest value showing on the association board and gaining one conservation point. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much!! We were struggling trying to do a walkthrough with the rules and decided to take a break. So glad my husband turned on RU-vid and saw your video...we watched it together and it made so many things so much easier to understand!! it is a super fun game, but without you clear, concise breakdown I'm not sure I would have found that out 😀
You have earned a sub sir! Seem similar gamers though I'm heavily a solo roller, there's loads of us loners out here... 😉 😂 👍 Thanks for the content dude
Thanks so much for the sub, solo games have definitely come a long way since solitaire lol I’ve been getting into solo games a lot this year as well, Ark Nova is surprisingly good solo I recommend it if you haven’t tried it yet 😀.
That was a great explanation!! Despite that, I lost you towards the end...my wife and I are looking for a game to replace Wingspan (which we've played weekly since October 2021). Do you think this is a worthy choice?
@@iamavig haha it wasn’t one of my favourites but it definitely has a lot of fans, Ark Nova is a really good game but it is much different from wingspan despite them both being animal related. Ark Nova is tough to learn but not too hard once you understand the rules. If you wanted something easier and still animal themed I’d try everdell first if you haven’t yet, it’s more approachable and a fantastic game. Thanks for the feedback :)
@@fatherofgames9239 Everdell already graces our bookshelf! Our current rotation is Wingspan, Everdell, Pan Am, Star Wars TDG, and we've done all of Exit The Game escape rooms!
@@kuldeep4932 thanks, probably the new everdell expansions when they arrive and I have some kickstarters arriving in the coming months but other than that Im not too sure. Is there anything you’d like a video on?
@@fatherofgames9239 Ooh the Everdell expansions sounds great. I haven't yet found a good Barrage tutorial and that game never fails to confuse me lol, if you know the game and are interested in making a video of it, that would be lovely (also considering its on BGA too now)!
A lot of animals do have multiple continent icons on their cost, it just means that for the example of the American bison you must have 3 Americas continent icons in your zoo to be able to play it, those Americas icons can come from previously played animals in your zoo (shown on the top right of the cards) or from the matching partner zoo, as long as you have the three matching icons in your zoo the card can be played. (Assuming you have the enclosure available and required money)
What is the procedure for moving a previously played bird or reptile into the special enclosure when played? Is that covered in the rule book somewhere?
It’s covered very briefly on page 10 of the rulebook under the upgraded build action, how it works is when you build a large bird aviary or reptile house any animals that could live in those as shown on their building requirements can take up space in those buildings in which case you immediately flip over a standard enclosure where each these animals previously were to its unoccupied side and put a number of cubes in the special enclosures as the value showing on the animals that are being moved there (it’s the number on the special enclose icon in the animals building requirements).
Hello, I recently attempted to play Ark Nova alone and didn't so great in the attempt is it generally recommended to play in a group first before playing alone, or when playing alone would it be one person playing for other people?
Hey Steven, sorry to hear you’re first game didn’t go well it definitely is a lot to learn at once, solo isn’t necessarily not recommended to learn first its a great way to play but it does change a few things I personally think playing a two player game is the best way to start. Hope the next game goes better :)
@@fatherofgames9239 it’s alright, I was unsure with the solo game if it’s one player playing for everyone else, or a player playing on his own which puts the game on a turn timer with the end being after round 6? This is generally not recommended for both the base game and the expansion pack marine worlds to attempt it alone, good to know I see it does change a few of the base mechanics, where that may be a little harder to manage When first starting out do a minimum of a two player game to best understand ark nova, good idea
In the video portion about building around 6:30, you stated that a building can never placed over water or rock. In general, that case is true. However, I played for the first time last night, and I received a card that allowed me with the exception to build over water/rock. So "never" is not quite right.
I have a question. The situation is the following: Player A triggered the end of game by gaining appeal, which made his appeal counter go past his conservation counter. That means that players B and C each get one more turn. At this point, the Break Token was two spaces away from the last space on the Break Track. Now, what happens if, for example, player B triggered break? Because if the break triggers the Break income can actually change players points (which Player A may not have counted) with Conservation Points and also with the 2-tile enclosure that you can get as income to completely fill your Zoo and gain 7 appeal. And the second problem is that in this situation player C will receive a large amount of cash on his last turn (and the last turn of the whole game). In this arrangement, he will be able, for example, to play as the only one of all players, several animals for the zoo. The other players will be disadvantaged in this arrangement because they will not be able to use these money. So should we trigger a break when the endgame starts or not? Thank you in advance for your answer :)
Hey so to the best of my knowledge and from what I can discern from the rulebook, once the end of game is triggered its not calculated until all players have finished their remaining turns, it’s indicating the game will end but hasn’t yet, since player B and C still have one more turn. After player Bs turn you would trigger the break as normal, at the end of player Bs turn. Since the scoring hasn’t started yet player A would still receive any break rewards as normal so they could gain the one conservation point or the 2 space enclosure gaining points as normal. Finally player C would gain a small advantage on their last turn having money from the break that just happened but that’s just the way it worked out and since they weren’t the one to trigger the end of game they’re losing anyways. After that scoring is calculated as normal by players adding their conservation points from end of game scoring cards. Hope this helps.
Are you allowed to play the association number more than 1 time between breaks? For cxamlpe, place 2 people tokens on #5? Confused because option 3 requires 2 tokens to play 1 extra time.
Great video. I just watched it last weekend before going to play the game with friends for the first time. I had no problems at all playing. Usually in games this complex I'm basically totally clueless the first game. The design of the game is great too and really facilitates it being understood relatively easily despite its complexity.
Thanks so much glad to hear it was helpful for you, I agree the iconography and design make it one that is easier to figure out once you know the rules.
i have tried to play like 3 times and i could not get past the set up and what turns look like. I have just finished the video and i will watch again before i play to remind myself etc. Cheers for the video. there are sooo many rules.. too many to learn and teach friends at the same time.
It definitely is a tough game to get through for sure, definitely no shortage of rules it’s definitely worth the effort though. I hope you’re able to get through all the rules :).
There definitely is a big learning curve with this one but it’s a lot of fun if you can get through all the rules. I agree though definitely not an easy one.
The base conservation cards (green backed ones) are dealt to the association board at the start of the game and anyone can play on these. The yellow backed ones are in the zoo deck, the zoo deck isn’t just animals it also has sponsor and association cards mixed in, all the cards have the same backs. They can be played to the top of the association board as an association action.
I totally get that, I figured there were already a lot of longer how to plays on this that went into more detail so I wanted to make this quicker especially for people who are relearning the game after not playing it for a while. I hope you find one that is more helpful :)
@@fatherofgames9239 Thanks for the quick reply. I really do think there is an important place for your approach to this rules teach, and I will return to it as likely my second rules run through, I just need to find a slightly slower one first :-) 😀
at 8m20s in the video does anyone know what the bonus icon on the far right does? Its' the black X and the @ card. I can't seem to find it in the instructions and when I google it I find an incomplete answer. When you get that bonus, what do you get?
There’s definitely a lot of symbols to learn with this one. The one you’re referring to is the option to play a sponsor card from your hand paying its cost. The sponsor action card will not go down to the 1 space on your board if you choose to do this action either.
@@fatherofgames9239 Awesome, thanks! I had read that it had to do with playing a sponsor card, but when do you use the bonus? If it's immediately what if you don't have one in your hand? Or do you hold on to the bonus tile until you choose to use it as an action?
@@ran3221 no problem, all bonus tiles provide an immediate bonus so you’d play it after moving past that bonus on the board, if you didn’t have one to play then you wouldn’t be able to play one but that’s why there’s two options when passing the 5 or 8 space on the conservation track. If the sponsor bonus tile was there you wouldn’t choose that bonus if you didn’t have one to play.
@@fatherofgames9239 Excellent. Played through the game once so far, took about 6 hours going through it and re-reading instructions. That was my last unanswered question I wanted answered before I play it next. Your video was super helpful, thanks again.
@5:13: Even with Association upgraded, a player must do *different* tasks, so this scenario (the player doing level 2 tasks twice as indicated by a total of three workers) would be illegal.
You must do different actions if your doing two association actions on one turn as allowed only once the association action is upgraded, but if you have enough association workers then an association task you already have a worker on may be chosen again it just requires two more workers instead of one.
@@fatherofgames9239 Yes, I'm very familiar with the game. I was just pointing out that at the above time stamped spot, it may come across to some newer players to the game as something you're allowed to do as part of the same assoc action.
I'm curious about something: I've seen come videos about this game and the board looks different in each one. The cards and "folders" in the center have different orientation in different videos (horizontal vs. vertical), why this?
The board is double sided with two different orientations of the cards just for preference everything’s in the same spot just oriented a different way.
@@fatherofgames9239 really… I figured out of courtesy, they would have let you know. But yeah, you are the lead video of “how to video” for Ark Nova on the Board Game Arena website. When you go to the game, your video is featured in the how-to video to watch. (there is a link on that page that will take you to a feed of 38 video but you are the only featured video) Congratulations! And you are killing it on views. Putting aside the view count of the channels Before You Play (BYP) and Jon Gets Games.…. the average views per how-to video is probably 15,000… And you are currently at 140,000!!!! Only BYP has a higher view count, currently at 170,000. Heck, even Rahdo only has 26,000 views. And of all the how-to’s videos BGA could pick….. They picked you and an obscure, recently started content creator! no offense on that last sentence ….. but you only been creating content for a year and only have 37 video on your channel. Setting aside Ark Nova it looks like your average views per channel is maybe an average of 900….. Sorry, a little geek out here; it’s just exciting to see a new content creator breakthrough all the noise and algorithm bias of RU-vid and be relevant in this niche space. I guess it’s just a testament to the quality of your videos… Congratulations, proud for you
Yes that is correct, and for an animal that can be placed in a special enclosure there will be a number showing how many spaces in that enclosure they take up, usually one space but sometimes more
I got this game for Christmas, and this might seem like an odd complaint… but the amount of space this game takes up is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I don’t have a table in my house that will fit this game comfortably.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like the game, no game is for everyone, that’s a reasonable complaint for sure it does take up a decent amount of space and the main board is pretty long. Hopefully you can find a way to manage it since it is a great game but if not hopefully you’re able to find one that fits better
We played it for the first time yesterday and it only just fits onto our dining room table - everything is squeezed on, and some players kept accidentally dropping pieces. Maybe we need a new dining room table 🙃
It’s definitely slow at the start for sure and then ramps up toward the end, similar to Scythe in that regard and there is definitely quite a few rules to remember but it’s a great game.
Wow, great explanation of a very complicated game. This took us about an hour learn. Should have stopped here first. There are some other videos out there that just made it more confusing. Really once you get the basics and play a couple of times it’s a really enjoyable game. Thanks for the great video. It cleared up a couple of things for me.
Yes the lowest two are removed, the remaining cards slide down and new cards are added to the opposite end. It’s done this way so cards previously out of a players reputation range could end up in range after a break.
