The other track moves you towards the end of the game much quicker but is more difficult to earn in good amounts. It is always a good idea to try to move up on the conservation track, as the flipping of one of your cards to side 2, the pink side, will significantly upgrade it.

Ark Nova | Board Game | BoardGameGeek Ark Nova | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Players choose from five actions: drawing cards; building enclosures; playing animal cards, which requires an empty enclosure and awards the player special effects; performing an association task, which give different benefits, such as increasing reputation, adding to hand limit or reducing animal cost; and playing scoring cards, which award points at the end of the game in addition to immediate or ongoing effects. It’s not flawless – odd components here and there could do with an upgrade and you’ll need to invest a couple of hours in most games. The game includes 1 larger central gameboard, 1 association board, 8 double sided player mats, 255 playing cards, 129 wooden pieces, and more than 250 cardboard tokens and tiles.

You can also acquire conservation cards from the deck, the same way you get animal and sponsor cards, and when you play one, you make it public after claiming one spot for yourself. The easiest way to achieve it is by increasing their score on the conservation tracker or by adding a second university to their board but a similar bonus could also be obtained from the map or from some card effects.

Ark Nova | Board Games | Gathering Games Ark Nova | Board Games | Gathering Games

The Animals card is laid in the number 1 slot and the other four cards are random to the other slots. It is moderately luck based as to how early you will be able to get this done, as your hand size of 3 and limited money will give you little flexibility for early strategy, so don’t aim for this to the detriment of everything else. Once you’ve finally played your latest animal acquisition, you take your reward: appeal or, if you’re very lucky, conservation points. I would personally attempt to achieve the moves through sponsoring a base conservation project, as I will explain next.To begin with, you’ll mostly acquire animals, score sponsorship opportunities or conservation projects by drawing cards blind from the deck. Ark Nova has received several awards, including the Golden Geek Award for Best Heavy Game of the Year. I’d have liked slightly thicker play mats, but this is made up for by the number included and the variety this offer – you can play all with identical basic sides or with unique sides. Everyone starts the game with two private objective cards, but unlike most games with that feature, Ark Nova lets you keep both for a while, only requiring that you choose one once any player reaches 10 on the conservation track.

Ark Nova is an excellent board game, but too complex for new - Polygon Ark Nova is an excellent board game, but too complex for new

This is handy because this isn’t a short game, even though the end may creep up on you more quickly than you might think. I have found that it is generally a good idea to flip your association card with the first card upgrade you achieve as this allows you to make donations to animal welfare programs, significantly boosting you up the green conservation track relative to other players.Each of the 7 spaces on the left should be filled with a player cube while the 4 collaboration spaces on the right should be filled with association worker tokens.