Arctic Review

boardgamequest.com:

I’m always on the lookout for good “cute animal” games, since my daughter is more likely to want to play such games with me. She is very adamant that those animals must not be hurt in any way during the game, however abstractedly it may occur.

I’m happy to report that no animals are harmed in the playing of Arctic from Ludonaute, a set collection game for 2-4 players, with a play time of 10 minutes per player.

The deck of cards is divided into four sets and each player is dealt three cards, then six cards are placed faceup on the table to create what is called “the river”. A numbered track of six “Landscape” cards is also placed above the river, then six animal tokens are placed on the three space of this track. Players are given a secret Animal Totem tile which will correlate with one of the animal tokens on the landscape.

During the game, players will take turns playing cards from their hand, faceup, one on top of another, to their personal score pile. The top card of your score pile at the start of your turn will determine how many cards are to be played on that turn (anywhere from 1-5).

So if I play a fox card with a placement value of three, then on my next turn, I must put three new cards from my hand on top of that fox card (on the first turn you will play only 1 card, since there are no cards on your score pile yet). After placing their cards the player takes the animal power card that matches the animal on their topmost card.

Next, that player must move the two animal tokens indicated on their card up or down on the landscape track. The cards on the landscape are numbered 0-15, and the position of the token matching your secret Totem tile will determine how many points it’s worth at the game’s end.

Next, the player draws cards from the River equal to the draw value of the card currently on top of their score pile. This value can be anywhere from 1-5, and players have a hand limit of 7 (any excess hand cards are placed in a penalty pile). The player takes