The “management of things” sagas in the world of video games have always been the cardinal points of modern gaming. From the forerunner Simcity which led me in full adolescence to almost “want to become” mayor, while I was surrounded by aspiring Rap singers and assistants (or, for those who didn’t walk the streets of the 90s, the proto influencers) to the Tycoon saga, where the gameplay was changing from countryside to parks, I certainly had no shortage of opportunities to understand what it means to run a farm, the state of bananas (yes, I’m talking to you, the undisputed Emperador de Tropico) or a fast food restaurant.
And what’s more managerial than a good Eurogame? Maybe keep Switzerland’s accounts in perfect order, but I have some doubts. And so we still find ourselves hoeing the land with Agricola, managing food with Food Chain Magnate or industrializing England with Brass: Birmingham. From the screen to the table, it’s a short step.
So that wonderful publisher that bears the name of Feuerland Spiele (Does Terra Mystica mean anything to you? No? Badly!) takes us back to the times of Zoo Tycoon, with our elephants, zebras, macaques and wombats to be packed into enclosures, for the joy of visitors and, of course, of our Tycoon-ish pockets, thanks to Ark Nova.
A game that has been, for better or for worse, compared to Terraforming Mars (say a little…) but which, in my humble opinion, has very little of this other gaming masterpiece.
Of course, you must shuffle well the cards, find the right combinations and seize the moment before the cheetah in the window goes to your opponents… But beyond this, Ark Nova is a much more robust and less “casual” management game than Fryxelius’s masterpiece, certainly lasting longer, and, like an italian saying, is for an audience of “wild boar lovers not only in polenta, but also in cans”.
Like, if you were not satisfied with the hundreds of species present in the base game, and just as we lovers of this game were wondering where the entire category of aquatic animals had gone, here it comes, like a bolt from the blue, the expansion of this masterpiece which, in just a few months, Ark Nova: Marine Worlds whic has climbed the “mountain” of Boardgamegeek charts as if it were Reinhold Messner, the famous climber.
Here, new universities, powers, icons and, obviously, sea, lake and river beasts are added to the already delirious quantity of strategic and tactical alternatives.
And naturally, like every “Euro” expansion, the chaos in the setup also expands: literally risking drowning in hundreds and hundreds of cards, will our brave heroes be able to start the first round of the game?
Maybe yes, thanks to The Dicetroyers’ life jacket, our organizer for Ark Nova with the Marine Worlds expansion. Each deck will be in its place, each token will have its own slot, and everything will fit in the basic game box, with wire closure and sleeved cards.
Our “All In” is the result of our first project, the organizer for Ark Nova (base game), and so we thought of all of you who already have our first setupper. In fact, here it is, the Ark Nova upgrade pack, which will allow you to replace part of the “old” boxes with new ones, to accommodate also the Marine Worlds expansion!
By destroying the zoological chaos of Ark Nova, you will finally be free to fence off everything you want, without worrying about the beasts escaping. And shipwreck will be sweet to you, in this sea.
Discover also the other games in our catalog and contact us for any request or question!
