Introduction

In Arcs, players lead spacefaring societies through an epic story of survival and dominance in the outer reaches of the galaxy. The game is played until one player reaches the required amount of Power (points) to win. The Power needed varies by player count:

• 4 players: 27 Power

• 3 players: 30 Power

• 2 players: 33 Power
  

How to Win: Players gain Power by completing objectives called ambitions, which are declared during play. These ambitions are scored at the end of each chapter (a series of rounds). The game typically lasts 3–5 chapters, with the player holding the most Power at the end declared the winner.

Playtime:

• First game: ~45 minutes per player.

• Experienced players: ~30 minutes per player.
  

Setup

Follow these steps to prepare the game:

1. Prepare the Table

• Lay out the map of the galaxy.

• Gather the battle dice (18 total) and resource tokens (25 total).

• Randomly choose a player to receive the initiative marker (indicating the first turn).

2. Set Up Action and Court Decks

• Shuffle the action cards numbered 2–6 to form the action deck.

• For 4 players, add cards numbered 1 and 7 to the action deck; otherwise, return them to the box.

• Shuffle the Court deck (Vox and Guild cards) and place 3 cards (2 for 2 players) face-up to form the Court row.

3. Place Markers

• Place the chapter marker on "1" on the chapter track.

• Place the ambition markers on their starting spaces (blue side) on the map.

• Place the zero marker in the Ambition Declared slot.

4. Assign Starting Locations

• Draw a setup card that matches the number of players.

• Follow its instructions to:

  • Mark clusters and systems as out of play using path and out-of-play markers.

  • Randomly assign starting systems for each player (labeled A, B, and C on the setup card).

5. Prepare Players

Each player:

• Chooses a color and collects their matching pieces:

  • Player board

  • 5 cities, 5 starports, 15 ships, and 10 agents

• Places their Power marker on "0" on the Power track.

• Places pieces on the map according to the setup card (e.g., 3 ships and 1 city in system A, 3 ships and 1 starport in system B).

• Gains 2 resource tokens matching their starting systems (placed on their player board).
  

Core Concepts

The Arc of Play

Arcs is played in chapters, with each chapter consisting of several rounds.

• Rounds: In each round, players take turns performing actions.

• Chapters: When players run out of action cards, the chapter ends, and players score Power for completed ambitions. The game typically lasts 3–5 chapters.
  

Power and Ambitions

Players earn Power by completing ambitions.

• The player with the initiative marker can declare an ambition during their turn, based on the action card they play.

• At the end of the chapter, players score Power for ambitions they contributed to, even if another player declared the ambition.
  

The Map

The map is divided into 6 clusters, each containing:

• 3 planets: Sites where cities and starports can be built.

• 1 gate: Connecting clusters for ship movement.

Clusters are adjacent if they share a thin border. Some clusters may be marked out of play during setup.

Resources and Cities

There are 5 types of resources, corresponding to planet types.

• Players gain resources by taxing cities or raiding Rivals.

• Resources can be spent on actions and ambitions.

Cities also unlock resource slots on the player board and may provide Power bonuses for winning ambitions.

Agents and the Court

Agents represent your society’s administrators and diplomats.

• Influence: Agents can be placed on cards in the Court.

• Secure: By placing more agents than a Rival, you can claim a card, gaining its benefits and capturing Rival agents.
  

Damage and Control

• Fresh pieces: Undamaged ships and buildings.

• Damaged pieces: Tipped-over ships or flipped-over buildings.

• Control: You control a system if you have more fresh ships there than any Rival. Control affects taxing, ship movement, and Rival actions.
  

Trophies and Captives

• Trophies: Destroying Rival pieces adds them to your Trophies box, contributing to the Warlord ambition.

• Captives: Captured Rival agents are added to your Captives box, contributing to the Tyrant ambition.
  

Playing a Chapter

Each chapter consists of rounds, where players take turns until they run out of action cards. A chapter ends when:

1. All players are out of cards.

2. All players with cards pass the initiative consecutively.
   

Round Structure

1. Initiative Player's Turn:

   • The player with the initiative marker plays one action card face-up as the lead card.

   • They take actions based on the card's pips (symbols in the card's top-left corner).

2. Other Players' Turns:

   • Each player, in clockwise order, plays one action card in one of three ways:

     • Surpass: Play a card of the same suit as the lead card with a higher number.

     • Copy: Play any card face-down and take one action from the lead card.

     • Pivot: Play a card of a different suit and take one action from your card.

3. Check Initiative:

   • If a player seized the initiative this round, they keep it.

   • Otherwise, the initiative goes to the player who played the highest card of the lead suit.

4. Discard Played Cards:

   • All played action cards are discarded. If players still have cards, a new round begins.
     

Declaring Ambitions

• If you have the initiative, you may declare an ambition shown on your lead card before taking actions.

• Place the zero marker on the card to show the declared ambition.
  

Seizing the Initiative

• Any player (except the one holding the initiative marker) can seize the initiative by:

  • Playing an extra action card face-down (ignoring its effects).

  • Playing a "7" card (4-player games only).
    

Standard Actions

Players can perform these actions on their turn by spending pips from the action card they play. Each action corresponds to specific suits and mechanics.

1. Tax (Administration Suit)

• Choose a city to tax:

  • Loyal City (your own): Gain 1 resource matching the city's planet type.

  • Rival City (you control): Gain 1 resource and capture 1 agent from that Rival.

• Tax Limit: Each city can only be taxed once per turn.

• Captured agents go into your Captives box, contributing to the Tyrant ambition.

2. Build (Construction Suit)

• You can build:

  • A city or starport in a system with a Loyal piece and an available building slot.

  • A ship at a Loyal starport.

• If building in a system controlled by another player, your new piece starts damaged.

3. Move (Mobilization & Aggression Suits)

• Move any number of Loyal ships from one system to an adjacent system.

• If moving from a Loyal starport, you can take Catapult moves (move multiple times) until stopped by control rules or terrain limits.

4. Repair (Construction & Administration Suits)

• Repair one damaged ship (stand it upright) or building (flip it to its fresh side).

5. Influence (Mobilization & Administration Suits)

• Place an agent on any card in the Court to compete for its control.

6. Secure (Aggression Suit)

• Take control of a Court card if you have more agents on it than any Rival.

• Captured Rival agents go to your Captives box, and the card's "When Secured" effect resolves.

7. Battle (Aggression Suit)

Battles occur in a system with your ships. Steps include:

1. Choose Battle System: Select a system with Loyal ships.

2. Choose Defender: Pick a Rival with pieces in the system.

3. Collect Dice: Roll dice to attack based on your ships' strength:

   • Assault: Quick damage, but risky.

   • Skirmish: Steady damage with lower risk.

   • Raid: Risky but steals resources or cards.

4. Resolve Dice:

   • Apply hits to ships and buildings.

   • If Raid dice succeed, steal resources or cards.

5. Claim Trophies: Destroyed pieces go into Trophies boxes, contributing to the Warlord ambition.
   

Ending a Chapter

When the chapter ends (all cards played or all players pass), follow these steps:

Step 1: Score Ambitions

Evaluate and score declared ambitions:

• Tycoon: Most Fuel and Material resources/cards.

• Tyrant: Most agents in the Captives box.

• Warlord: Most pieces in the Trophies box.

• Keeper: Most Relic resources/cards.

• Empath: Most Psionic resources/cards.

The player with the most in each category gains first place Power, and the second-most gains second place Power. Ties for first place result in second-place scoring. Ties for second place gain nothing.

Bonus City Power: Uncovered bonuses on your player board grant extra Power for winning ambitions.

Step 2: Clean Up

• Return all Trophies and Captives to their original supplies.

• Return ambition markers to the map and flip the lowest-value unflipped marker for the next chapter.
  

Step 3: Check for Game End

The game ends if:

• Any player reaches the required Power (27 for 4 players, 30 for 3, 33 for 2).

• The chapter marker reaches "5."

If the game ends, the player with the most Power wins. If tied, the tied player closest to the initiative marker wins.

Step 4: Prepare for the Next Chapter

• Shuffle and deal 6 action cards to each player.

• The player with the initiative marker starts the next chapter.
  

Resources

Resources represent assets and capabilities your society can use for various actions. They come in 5 types:

1. Material: Used for Build or Repair actions.

2. Fuel: Used for Move actions.

3. Weapons: Allow your action pips to take Battle actions.

4. Relics: Used for Secure actions.

5. Psionics: Used for actions listed on the lead card.
   

Managing Resources

• Storage: Resources are stored in slots on your player board. If all slots are full, discard excess resources.

• Unlocking Slots: Building cities uncovers more resource slots and may provide Power bonuses for ambitions.

• Spending Resources: Resources can be spent during the Prelude phase of your turn (before taking pips-based actions).
  

Raiding Resources

• Rivals can steal resources from you during a raid in battle. Each resource has a raid cost, requiring a certain number of raid successes to be stolen.
  

Guild Cards

Guild cards represent the support of powerful groups in the galaxy. They are acquired by influencing and securing them in the Court.

Parts of a Guild Card

1. Suit: Each Guild card matches one of the 5 resource types. They contribute to ambitions just like resources.

2. Rules: Guild cards often grant special abilities, modifiers, or actions.

3. Raid Cost: Rivals must meet the raid cost to steal the card.
   

Using Guild Cards

• Guild cards offer Prelude actions that you can activate on your turn.

• Some cards grant new actions or modify existing ones.

• Guild cards cannot be used immediately if secured during the same turn.
  

Leaders & Lore

After becoming familiar with the basic game, you can enhance your play with Leaders & Lore, which adds unique abilities and strategies.

Leader Cards

• Leader cards give you special powers, starting resources, and pieces.

• Each player begins with one leader card, which grants them unique abilities or advantages throughout the game.
  

Lore Cards

• Lore cards provide persistent effects that continue throughout the game.

• Unlike Guild cards, Lore cards don’t contribute to ambitions and cannot be stolen.

• You can choose Lore cards during the setup phase and place them into play.
  

Setup for Leaders & Lore

1. Lay out the leader cards and lore cards face-up.

2. Players take turns selecting one leader and one lore card. A player cannot have more than one leader or lore card.

3. Players place their starting pieces as indicated on their leader card (ships, cities, resources).

4. Lore cards are added to players' strategies and provide ongoing advantages during the game.
   

Example: Leader & Lore in Action

A Mystic Leader card might allow the player to gain Psionic resources when they Copy or Pivot to tax a city. A Tool-Priest Lore card could allow them to summon a ship once per turn at any city they control.

Other Actions

Prelude Actions

Some cards and resources allow for Prelude actions, which are taken before any standard actions.

• Prelude actions often involve gaining resources, placing agents, or gaining temporary bonuses.

• These actions are limited to the duration of your Prelude and cannot be used on cards you've secured during the same round.
  

New Actions

• Some cards provide new actions that replace standard actions. For example, a card might give you a new Battle action that lets you perform a specific type of battle maneuver.

• Modifiers: Some cards give modifiers that enhance existing actions. For instance, a modifier might add extra dice to a battle or allow you to build in additional systems.
  

Modifiers

• Modifiers enhance the standard actions. They apply to actions you perform, such as giving you more resources when you tax a city or increasing the effectiveness of a battle.

• Important: Modifiers apply only to standard actions (like Tax, Battle, Build), not to new actions granted by other cards.
  

Rules Hierarchy

The following rules hierarchy applies:

1. Rulebook: The rulebook takes precedence over aid sheets or player boards.

2. Cards: Any rule on a card supersedes the rulebook, unless it states otherwise.

3. Cannot: The word "cannot" is absolute and cannot be overridden unless the rule explicitly says "ignore."
   

Negotiations

• Players may make deals or promises during the game, but these are not binding.

• Piece Trading: Players cannot exchange pieces unless explicitly allowed by the game rules.
  

Private Information

• Players cannot share the cards in their hand with anyone else during the game.
  

Turn Etiquette

• Although declaring an ambition and seizing the initiative happen before performing actions, these can be done during a player's turn as long as no new information has been revealed (such as dice rolls or card draws).

• Avoid getting bogged down in technicalities unless it’s crucial to the game. Keep the game flowing!
  

Split Discard Piles

For a slower, more strategic game, you can split the action discard pile into two: one for cards played face-up and another for face-down cards. This method requires memory and increases the game’s complexity.

Tiebreakers and Choice Order

Tiebreakers

If a tiebreaker is needed and no specific rule applies, break ties in turn order.

• If a decision must be made simultaneously (like choosing card effects), the player whose turn it is decides the order of resolution.
  

Elimination & Concession

• If a player loses all starports or ships, they automatically receive 3 fresh ships at the end of their turn.

• In two-player games, if a player has clearly won, the opponent may concede.
  

Piece Limits

Pieces are limited by what’s available in the box.

• Agent placeholders: If there are no agents left, use a placeholder until you gain one.

• Returning Pieces: Pieces that are destroyed or returned go back to the original supply unless otherwise specified (e.g., cities go to the player board's city slots).
  

Replacing Pieces

• If you replace a damaged piece, it is placed in a damaged state.
  

Glossary

Key terms used throughout the game:

• Adjacent: Two systems are adjacent if they share a thin border.

• Battle: An action where players attack each other’s ships or buildings.

• Build: To construct a city, starport, or ship.

• Control: You control a system if you have more fresh ships there than anyone else.

• Fresh: A piece that is upright and undamaged.

• Hit: To damage a piece, making it go from fresh to damaged.

• Loyal: Refers to pieces of your color.

• Raid: To steal resources or cards during a battle.

• Rival: Any player who is not you.

• Seize the Initiative: To take the initiative marker from the current holder.

• Turn Order: The sequence in which players take their turns, starting with the player who has the initiative.