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If you love an easy to learn, fantasy-themed game, then Res Arcana delivers. Whether you like strategy games or quick games, Res Arcana will have something to offer as it has surprising depth. Let’s look more at why.
The aim of the game
In Res Arcana, you play the role of a mage. You collect magical essences (the resources of the game) and use these to build artifacts and use their powers. You also buy monuments with gold and command dragons. All this allows mages to accumulate power represented by victory points and if one mage has 10+ points (in the base game), they win.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Res Arcana is quite quick and fluid. It is easy, but players do have meaningful choices. You start with a fixed set of artifacts to utilise, but additional cards can be acquired. Players can’t play every card so appreciating what cards to build and what cards to use as resources is vital.
Each round players gather resources from their ‘components’ – these include artifacts built, but can also include inherent mage abilities, items, monuments or places of power. Then players take it in turns to carry out actions, one at a time. This will involve using the cards in hand to collect more resources or build artifacts or buy additional cards in the form of places of power or monuments. It is a game where if you play in a silo, it often doesn’t help. It can be done, but usually it is best to keep an eye on what your opponents might be doing. You may have no control over the cards they play from their hand, but sometimes you will have the opportunity to buy a monument or place of power before another player and scupper their plans.The resources players have is open information, so you’ll see what players are stockpiling to fuel a particular action. You may also have the opportunity to force them to lose resources so keep a watch on what other players are doing.
The components
These are excellent and you get a nice resource sorting tray to use which includes a central pot for the pearls you can get in the Perlae Imperii expansion. The cards are of good thick stock and the artwork is beautiful and richly themed. The tokens for the resources too are good quality and components of this quality usually bodes well and Res Arcana is no exception.
Expansions
The game does have two expansions, with the Perlae Imperii addition, there is also Lux et Tenebrae expansion. The former includes pearls as a new resources and direct source of victory points as well as additional new cards. The latter introduces new components too, scrolls with attached abilities and demons as a creature type
Game experience
I’ve played Res Arcana a fair bit now. I love the theme and the game has a depth that several play throughs help give you an understanding of. Getting the balance right between building artifacts and cycling through the cards to gain resources may take a game or two to appreciate, but once you get the hang of this, your games should be easier and at least you can feel you have a better chance of success. Some games I will say have felt rather quick. It is possible for players to build a point scoring engine quickly and to accumulate enough victory points to win before other players have much chance to get into the game. Games can feel slow at first, which is understandable and expected as you build your first artifacts, but then you’ll likely find as players get close to the finishing line the game can finish quickly. Usually, in the games I’ve played, games are mostly balanced and more than one player has a realistic chance of victory. With victory being checked at the end of a round, it is possible for more than one player reaching the victory target and there is a tie-breaker.
Overall
This is a game I will usually play if available. Games are quick enough that you could easily get several games in over even a moderate game session – the box says 30-60 minutes as a guide to playing time – so even with runaway leaders you can simply get another game in and play again without feeling too bad. In this case the speed of play becomes an advantage.
Every game I’ve played is different, even if the principles remain the same in terms of how to build a victory point scoring engine. It would be nice to have even more mages and components to build, but I can’t complain as the choice is good enough to create variety over multiple plays. I would certainly recommend Res Arcana as a light game, with some depth, a wonderful theme, that’s quick and easy to play.
