Arctic Scavengers: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Deck-Building, Hand Management
Player Age: 13+ Player Count: 1 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Robert K. GabhartGame Artist:Martin HoffmannPublisher: Rio Grande GamesYear Published: 2015BGG Weight: 2.26Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 13+
Game Designer: Robert K. Gabhart
Rundown:
Arctic Scavengers is set in a post-apocalyptic world where your goal is based purely on banding survivors together to create the largest community. Whoever has the most points on their card (signified by the number of people shown on the bottom left of the card) at the end of the game is the winner. This is a deck-building game with three main card types. The first type is a person. These cards will add to your victory points, unlike the other cards that aid people in your community. They will sometimes have abilities on the bottom of the card and contain attributes in drawing cards, digging for cards, hunt value, and Skirmish value. Some of these cards will also have either a supply deck icon or a food/medicine cost on the top right of the card.
The second type is the medicine card that has a value of medicine which will be used when purchasing cards. These will be found in the junkyard, There are plenty of people in this post-apocalyptic world that need to be healed before they can aid your community.
The third type is the equipment card. Each person can have one piece equipped and these cards will be used to enhance values that already exist on the person being played.
Alteration:
With this game, comes two expansions; HQ and Recon. These expansions add variability in the form of more mercenary, junk, and contested cards. There are also suggestions for changing how certain scenarios play.
There are three main new card types; gangs, tribal leaders and buildings. Gang cards will award bonus points at the end of the game to the player with the most of a certain card type in their deck.
Tribal Leaders create unique player abilities and benefits.
Buildings can take several turns to build but can have an ongoing effect and can even allow you to store cards for later turns.
Phases:
A turn will consist of a drawing phase and a resource gathering phase, then players will end the round with a simultaneous skirmish phase. an example of the card details are shown below as this can be crucial for the resource gathering phase.
Drawing Phase:
At the start of your turn draw back up to five cards (first discarding any leftover cards from the last round). If you are the first player of the round and this is either the third round or beyond the third round, you will be able to peek at the top card of the contested deck. This allows you to see what the winner of the Skirmish will gain. Each round the first player will move to the next player in a clockwise fashion.
Resource Gathering Phase:
On your turn during the resource gathering phase you can perform multiple actions, although, each action can only be performed once. Additionally, each person [card] can only use their attributes to do one action each turn.
Draw Cards:
You may discard any amount of cards with a ‘draw card’ symbol to gain cards equal to the total as a replacement for your hand.
Dig:
Using the shovel icon, the dig action allows you to draw cards equal to this number from the junkyard, then add one card of your choice to your discard pile and the rest to the bottom of the deck.
Hunt:
Hunting is how a player prepares for hiring. You can discard as many cards as you choose to total the food they provide. Don't forget people will be able to hunt more food when the right tool is equipped.
Hire:
Using the food you have hunted, and any medical supplies you gain from discarded medical cards, you can now purchase one mercenary from any one of the static decks in the centre of the table.
Trash:
As a free action, a player may discard any amount of unused cards from their hand (and remove them from their deck) by shuffling them into the junkyard pile. Before you remove your refugees just remember that they are worth one point each.
Preparing for Skirmish:
At the end of each turn, you will keep any cards that you didn't use this turn for the simultaneous skirmish. You will also alert the other players to how many cards this is.
Skirmish Phase:
At the end of each turn, the active player will declare how many unused cards will be saved for the skirmish at the end of the round. Then the skirmish will resolve, as described below. For the first three rounds, no skirmish will occur as this time is used for building your deck.
Interaction:
The skirmish is the main interaction between players in this game as everyone must weigh up using cards on their turn or saving them for the coming skirmish. There is an advantage to going first in the round as you will be aware of the contested card (that which is being fought for in the skirmish).
The last player also has the advantage of knowing how many cards every player has committed to battle with. The player with the highest skirmish value will win the contested card for their deck. Tie-breakers are settled by having the most people cards in the skirmish. There are several cards in the game that can be played in this phase, like the sniper which can be used to eliminate another player's person card in the skirmish. However, the sniper forfeits adding their value to the skirmish. Remember any cards you don't use on your turn by luck or planning will be committed into the Skirmish, and then the player with the highest fight value will win the Skirmish.
Determination:
- Good combination of static card decks and unknown cards when it comes to the deck-building.
- Plenty of variability included in the box.
- Only one instance of each action per turn, this means that it isn't a combo-heavy deck-building game.
- Even though players are winning stronger cards for their deck, there isn't a runaway leader issue.
Arctic Scavengers is one of the deck-building games that succeed in its theme. It's a harsh post-apocalyptic world where players are constantly deciding between adding more tools and people to their arsenal, or fighting for the contested cards. Arctic Scavengers has a lot of new elements to the genre when compared to other deck-builders. This game isn't about building combo-heavy turns, instead it's about having a deck strong enough to survive. This could be through digging, buying point-heavy cards in the marketplace, or more commonly, fighting in the Skirmish. I enjoyed the game a lot, and if you enjoy different twists on this genre then I definitely recommend Arctic Scavengers to add to your collection, it's staying in mine and earning a Silver Seal of Approval.
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