Arcs Review

No game divided our table like Arcs. Half of us called it the boldest design in years; the other half wanted their turn order back. Both camps are right — and that's exactly what Cole Wehrle intended. This is a galactic struggle steered by, of all things, trick-taking.

How it plays

Each round, players play action cards in a trick-taking structure: follow the lead suit and you act at full strength, deviate and you act weakly or seize the initiative. Those actions move fleets, fight battles, tax planets and build outposts across a shared star cluster. Ambitions — the scoring conditions — are declared mid-round by the players themselves, so even the goalposts are a weapon.

The base game is a self-contained two-hour brawl. The Blighted Reach campaign expansion turns it into a three-act epic with asymmetric fates — but master the base game first.

What makes it shine

The card system generates agonizing, delicious turns. Holding a fistful of aggression cards when administration is led feels like being dealt a bad hand in poker — except you can mutiny, seize initiative, and flip the whole round. When Arcs sings, it produces stories no euro ever will.

It's also Leder Games' usual visual feast: Kyle Ferrin's art makes even a tax collector look charismatic.

Where it stumbles

Arcs is swingy, mean, and occasionally unfair by design. Dice-driven combat can vaporize a fleet, and a bad deal genuinely limits your round. Players who need control will bounce off it hard — this is a game about adapting to chaos, not eliminating it.

Who it's for

Gamers who love drama over optimization: fans of Root, Dune, or political games where the table itself is the puzzle. If your group takes losses personally or optimizes quietly in the corner, spend your $60 on SETI instead.