The Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition Expansion Review

boardgamequest.com:

While I’m not the biggest fan of euro games, one of my standout hits for 2020 was The Lost Ruins of Arnark. This hybrid worker placement and deck-building game clicked on all cylinders for me and it’s one of the few euros I regularly play.

Today we are going to be looking at the the newest expansion for The Lost Ruins of Arnak, dubbed The Missing Expedition. This one not only adds in more variety, but also a solo/cooperative campaign. So grab your bullwhip and fedora as we explore what makes this one tick.

If you have played the previous expansion for Lost Ruins of Arnak, Expedition Leaders, then you will already be familiar with some of what comes in the expansion. If not, check out my review linked above for more details.

For The Missing Expedition, you’ve got quite a few additions in the new variety category: 2 leaders, 2 temple boards, item and artifact cards, 3 guardians, 4 assistants, and some new idols. Also included are 6 new site tiles that use some of the campaign’s encounter cards.

Speaking of the campaign, the main focus of this new expansion is the 6 mission campaign, which can be played either solo or cooperatively with another player.

For those not interested in solo/coop campaigns, I’ll dive into the new components briefly. The two new leaders are the Mechanic and the Journalist. The Mechanic’s main thing is a machine that spins during the game, providing her with resources and other benefits. She also gets a 3rd assistant in the form of a monkey named Rusty (points deducted for not naming it Mojo). Rusty helps her spin the wheel, giving her access to more of her benefits.

The other leader is the Journalist. His features are twofold. He has an ability called Preliminary Findings where he can move his Notebook one row higher than this Magnifying Glass on the research track (I feel like there is a commentary here on the state of the 24hr news cycle…). He also gets to write articles by visiting sites around the board. When he does, he can pay an extra