It was that one evening a week when I currently manage to get some gaming in once again.
This week finally (since I bought the game back in 2015) saw Arctic Scavengers hit the table. The edition I have comes with the base game, plus two expansions HQ and Recon.
Setting up a game
I had spent some time Monday configuring my copy of the game as an all in setup. Afterwards on the Fenland Gamers Discord channel for lcg/ccg/tcg games (I know Artic Scavengers is a deckbuilder) I asked Diego to bring his copy of the game so we could quickly and easily play a base game only.
When you look through the rulebooks (there are two in the box, one covers the base game and HQ expansion, the other just the Recon expansion) you are presented with the premise that the expansions are module and told which cards to add to include for the module. They then suggest the market has a particular unit plus 9 others to make up to 10 units to buy from. That gives you the impression that you can choose any other units etc. However if you go all in on the modules. You do not have that freedom of choice. You are basically not using any of the base games units.
But I do really like this kind of a la carte module choice during setup. Plus there are two or three modules that do not actually add cards to the game but change rules.
I also like that scattered through out the modules there are suggested setups for things like the contested resource deck, and suggestions on tweaking things.
A final word about setup of the game. The game comes with an insert that organises the cards and helps speed up the process of setting up. However it also means that cards warp/bend when stored this way as I found out Monday. A better solution would have been labelled card dividers but hindsight is a marvellous thing, especially some 8 years later.
Onto the game
Set in the near future of 2097 in an arctic post-apocalyptic world when humanity is struggling to survive and attract new tribal members from survivors. The theme of the game made me think of post-apocalyptic movies such as The Colony, and Snowpiercer, and even the board game Dead of Winter (without the zombies naturally). But did the theme come through as we played the game?
Diego, Marcin, Dave, and myself played the base game plus the gangs, leaders, and buildings modules thrown in.
The leaders each of us chose are below:
I liked the art it had the right tone for the theme. But did it help get the theme across?
On your turn you can go hunting which allows you to recruit new tribe members. You can go scavenging that allows you to go looking for useful items in the junkyard. Or you can take part in a fight with the other tribes for contested items like bigger groups of tribe members or more powerful items than can be found in the junkyard. But do these mechanics help get the theme across?
Now I’ve asked that question three times about theme without answering it. For me the theme seems paper thin. It’s hard to get the theme across in a deckbuilder. Without being told what the theme was you might guess it’s post-apocalyptic from the art.
The combat phase at the end of each round that took place from the third round onwards felt very Dune Imperium like. But I did like the combat. It gave you an interesting choice to make with your hand of five cards. How many did you save for the combat and how many did you use to do one or two of the other actions? Was that contested resource worth going all in for? Something only you knew when you became the initiator for the round. There is the bluffing element also, where you could save two cards that are useless in combat. But it makes the other players think about how many they commit. Maybe forcing them to do less action wise trying to beat you in combat.
The game itself is 16 rounds. With the contested items deck acting as the game timer. I like clever touches like this.
I liked the asymmetry that the leaders added to the game. We went with the default way of choosing our leader of being dealt two, pick one and discard the other. However in one of the two rulebooks there are a couple of alternate rules for picking them.
At the end of the game after the gangs went to the appropriate tribe, the dust settled and Marcin had amassed the most tribe members.
I did enjoy Artic Scavengers. It was a fun experience. Just sad that it has taken so long to get to the table.
Another great evening gaming.
Next week Marvel Champions hits the table.
