Ark Nova Board Game

In Ark Nova, you will plan and design a modern, scientifically managed zoo. With the ultimate goal of owning the most successful zoological establishment, you will build enclosures, accommodate animals, and support conservation projects all over the world. Specialists and unique buildings will help you in achieving this goal.

Each player has a set of five action cards to manage their gameplay, and the power of an action is determined by the slot the card currently occupies. These action cards are as follows:

• Get cards: Allows you to gain new zoo cards (animals, sponsors, and conservation project cards).
• Build action card: Allows you to build standard or special enclosures, kiosks, and pavilions.
• Animals cards: Allows you to accommodate animals in your zoo.
• Association cards: Allows your association workers to carry out different tasks.
• sponsor cards: Allows you to play a sponsor card in your zoo or to raise money.

Board game box contents:

• 212 Zoo Cards
• 11 Scoring Cards
• 12 Base Conservation Project Cards
• 20 Double sided Action cards (5 per player).
• 1 Game board
• 1 Association board
• 8 player zoo mats
• 90 Standard Enclosure tiles (cardboard)
• 34 Kiosk / Pavilion tiles (cardboard)
• 12 Special enclosure tiles (cardboard)
• 15 Unique buildings tiles (cardboard)
• 20 partner zoo tokens
• 12 university tokens
• 9 bonus tile tokens
• 20 cross tokens
• 8 multiplier tokens
• 8 venom tokens
• 8 constriction tokens
• 1 tile for solo play
• 70 money tokens (cardboard)
• 1 coffee break token (timber)
• Association workers (timber)
• Player cubes (timber)
• Score markers (timber)

Our review and recommendation:

Firstly I strongly recommend this game. 
We were late to try out Ark Nova because we played Terraforming Mars and enjoyed it so much and heard it was very similar. Whilst it has similarities to Terraforming Mars it plays completely different and we missed out on not getting into this game sooner. It has become one of our most favourite games. Be warned at 4 players it can take considerable time to play, but we have found all players have always thoroughly enjoyed it. Personally I enjoy this game the best at 2 players. It typically rates very high on board game geek and has loads of replay ability. When I teach this game I clearly indicate that sometimes you won't get the cards you want, this is part of the game, and part of the strategy that you should invest into deck hunting. It is a particular strategy that the game pushes and if you accept it you can be rewarded, even if you do manage to get a fairly good hand to begin with investing in deck hunting will likely improve you game score and enjoyment of finding those great combos.

I feel end game scoring is the most unique component to this game that I haven't seen done before. It does create a bit of a race to build that zoo the best you can when time is running out, and sometimes you feel like your zoo is 90 percent complete. This can generate a little frustration that you couldn't quite finish it due to other players triggering end game scoring sooner than you had wished. At end of game there always seems to be positive banter around the table how each could have progressed their goal which really adds to the enthusiasm and positive vibe to this game.

The unique scoring mechanism is something to boast about in this game. The end game round triggers when your zoo appeal counter (ticket price), passes over your conservation counter, but your zoo appeal counter starts at the opposite end of the track to your conservation counter with both counters progressing towards each other. You are continually watching other players progressing one of their counters, which makes you think am I getting left behind on my current strategy? Do I need to invest more in Conservation points or Zoo Appeal? i.e. If I get my Panda's I'll push up my conservation points, but they cost so much, instead should I build out my petting zoo to boost my zoo appeal or upgrade my cards to improve my engine?
We will never see this game leave our board game shelf and I'm always up for a game of Ark Nova if someone asks. For me I score this a 9 out of 10 and I still can't get my head wrapped around that scoring mechanic and how best maximise that achievable score with the actions that count!

 Upgrades available:

We have a full range of optional upgrades for Ark Nova. I've listed them below in the order I would purchase first to bring the most value to the game:

1.  3D Tiles for enclosures, pavilions, kiosks and unique buildings to replace the cardboard
2. Marine World Expansion which adds upgraded timber tokens, and additional cards that add considerable gameplay improvements and increase variability.
3. 70 Metal coins to replace the cardboard coins.
4. Organiser with card holder and discard tray
5. Sleeves to protect your cards
6. Additional Map packs