Ark Nova Solo Playthrough and Review (with Marine Worlds expansion) | Bits & Biology

Welcome to Bits & Biology, a channel about board games from the perspective of a biologist gamer. In this video I play through a solo game of Ark Nova with the Marine Worlds expansion, followed by my review of the game. Timestamps can be found below in case you want to skip around.

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Have you played Ark Nova? Have you tried the Marine Worlds expansion? What do you think of the game? What other games would you like to see on the channel? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

00:00 Introduction
1:37 Marine Worlds expansion
2:37 Solo game differences from multiplayer game
5:28 Finishing with setup (Final Scoring cards; Bonus tiles)
7:57 Some information about the alternate Action cards from the Marine Worlds expansion
9:39 A look at my Final Scoring cards
10:58 Choosing Zoo cards
14:51 Game start
28:27 Break
30:12 Round 2
41:44 Break
43:56 Round 3
51:43 Break
54:40 Round 4
1:04:10 Break
1:05:53 Round 5
1:14:26 Break
1:16:21Round 6
1:22:02 Scoring and wrap-up
1:24:53 Review (includes comments about the Marine Worlds expansion)

Link to Ark Nova on Board Game Geek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...

Ark Nova forum post with fan-made “junior variant” and “family variant”: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2765...

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
(at the end of the description)
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**** SPOILERS! ****

*
*
Here’s how round 6 should have played:
Starting resources:
51 money; 3 X-tokens; 3 workers
3 Asia icons; 3 Research icons
55 Appeal; 9 Conservation pts; 9 Reputation pts
Association card at level 1; Sponsors card at level 5

Recall that in turn 1 of round 6 I accidentally played the Sloth Bear into my zoo when I failed to notice I did not have a size 3 enclosure. This gave me an extra Asia icon and 6 appeal points, and boosted my Association card to level 5. This resulted in me being able to support 2 conservation projects on my next turn (when I also used X-tokens gained in the same turn – another no-no).

Here's what *should have happened instead:

Turn 1:
Play Sponsors card to add Diversity Researcher to my zoo and gain 2 Appeal and 1 Research icon.

Turn 2:
Play Association card (now at level 2) with 3 X-tokens to boost to level 5.
Support Research conservation project with 4 Research icons to gain 4 Conservation pts.
When supporting Research conservation project, gain size 2 enclosure (as bonus) to cover Sponsors card bonus.
Use Sponsors bonus to play Hydrologist from the display (paying 1 money to do so) and gain 2 Appeal from my 2 water icons.
Make a Donation with 12 money to gain 1 Conservation point.

Total Appeal before end-game scoring: 59 (compared to 61 with the bear)
Total Conservation points before end-game scoring: 14 (compared to15 with the bear)

Final score should have been:
17 Conservation points (w/ target score = 73)
63 Appeal points
Missed target score by 10 points, which isn’t terrible. 😊