Hand Management

In The Ares Project, 2-4 players are competing to see which of their factions will lead mankind into the future. Each faction has its own deck of cards, buildings, upgrades, attacks, special powers, and a screen behind which a player will play cards. Your opponents do not know what you are building. When a player lays down an attack card, he chooses an opponent, the players drop their screens, and they battle for control of the Frontier, i.e. the center of the table. Whoever controls the Frontier scores points and also has the ability to attack player bases directly. Eliminate your opponent to win instantly, or have the most points when the game ends.

In Artus, the round table of legend is a turntable in the center of the game board with a space marked with a crown for the king, numbers on the edge from +10 to -15 counter-clockwise from the king, and a few spaces worth 0.

Each player has six cards in hand – two knight cards, two royalty cards, and two scoring cards – and plays two cards each turn. By doing this, players are able to place figures of their color or neutral figures around the table, score certain areas or figures under certain circumstances, and place rings on neutral figures or to move them. The neutral figure bearing three rings is the current king, and the table is always oriented to place this figure in the crown location. A new king can come into power though, which will find everyone sitting in a new location.

The player with the most points after eleven rounds wins the game. Artus has two sets of rules: basic rules for families and casual gamers and "professional rules" for more experienced gamers.

Game description of the 2011 revised edition from the publisher:

Welcome to Cadwallon, an infamous city known for the chicanery of its artful guilds! Can your guild sweep through its districts and gain power through recruiting influential citizens and acquiring valuable relics?

The revised edition of Arcana is a card game of recruitment and resource gathering for 2-4 crafty leaders. Command a guild of loyal agents during a series of district encounters against your opponents. Score the most prominent citizens, advantageous locations, and valuable treasures through bribery and power struggles. Collect the highest amount of victory points to become the master guild of Cadwallon!

This vibrant game creates a fantastical atmosphere for players to enjoy while they attempt to best their opponents through strategic card play. Make your guild the most influential by winning Stake cards and strengthening your deck with impressive Personalities, advantageous Locations, or tempting Relics to use in bribery.

The revised edition of Arcana introduces two new guilds to choose from, the Guild of Fortune-tellers and the Guild of Architects, as well a variety of optional rules that players can utilize to enhance their experience. Players can customize their guild, fulfill objectives, recruit Militia, invoke the ability of their Guild Masters, affect game play through random events, or optimize tactical strategy through card discards. Which variant will you use in your game?

Summary of Play

Arcana is played over a series of rounds that are comprised of two phases, the Intrigue phase and the Resolution phase. Send Agents from your unique guild deck to any of Cadwallon’s districts to claim control of Stake cards: Personalities, Locations, and Relics, all of which award victory points.

During these district encounters players gain control of Stake cards by playing their Agent cards. Stake cards are won through meeting or exceeding the card’s main arcanum: either Military, Political, Spiritual, or Financial. Whichever Agent has the highest matching arcanum type wins the current revealed Stake card in that district.

Of course if the Stake card you are after is a Personality card you can choose to bribe them with a Relic Card instead, immediately ending the phase and wresting the victory points from your opponents should you succeed.

Players can increase the mystery of the final outcome through bluffing. Players control two friendly distracts (piles of Stake cards) in which they can place their Agents facedown. Will your opponent chance opposing you when he is uncertain of your arcanum value?

A description of the game from Ravensburger:

In this paradise of a card game, two players take part in a very special competition: who will pick the nicest fruits from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge? It sounds easier than it is, since your opponent decides what happens to your cards.

Belongs to the Ravensburger Fun For 2 Series.

Newest game from the pair that made 1960: The Making of the President. The goal here is to be the founding father with the most renown at the end of the game, which consists of the making of the US constitution.

Each round, an article of the constitution is put up for consideration, which is either a Federalist, Anti-Federalist, Big State, or Small State issue. Players have a hand of three delegate cards that represent their respective states and also have a special ability. Players may use these cards' special abilities, use the cards to vote for or against the issue under consideration, or to try and claim tokens in each of the four types of issues. When a round ends, the issue either passes, or is flipped to its opposite side (Federalist/Anti or Big/Small).

Players score points for having voted with the majority, and also for having tokens matching the issue types that are voted into the constitution.