[2muchcoffeeman]

If you aren’t finding Arcs or Root “deep” or competitive enough you’re probably playing it wrong. Both have war game elements and a lot of subtle shenanigans you can play.

If you’re pure euro gamers but need a bit more interaction maybe try Brass Birmingham, Food Chain Magnate, 1846, City of the Big Shoulders, Inis, Kemet.

[faizshah]

The problem we had with Arcs (and Root) is that we didn’t find the strategy as deep as Dune Imperium. If you think about Dune Imperium, when you make a turn, and even between turns, you are constantly considering reveal power vs card powers vs war power vs resources, and you are making long term strategic decisions vs short term tactical ones vs deck building vs even the order of operations within a turn and round. Every time an opponent makes a move, because the game is so zero sum, you constantly have to pivot your plan if a space is taken, if a war shifts, etc.

When we played Arcs, we found it was much more about making short term tactical decisions, and there wasn’t as much room for that kind of deep long term planning, so the experience felt less competitive and less tense for us.

So we are looking for something that gives a similar player experience of constantly balancing short and long term strategy like that, but without going all the way to something with very very complex rules like Twilight Imperium.

Does that make sense?

[2muchcoffeeman]

I’ve played all those games And I understand why you’re saying what you’re saying.

The war games aspects of Root and Arcs are kinda polarising and there’s definitely a certain mind set required. Dune imperium is a lot more straight forward in that it’s clear what needs to happen and how you might do it.