Archa Nova: Marine Worlds Expansion Review

It wasn't long ago that you could read about the highly successful zoo-themed board game Archa Nova on our blog. Shortly after its release, it climbed to an incredible 4th place on the BGG world rankings. It was hard to find any flaws in the game, making it the perfect choice for all Eurogame fans and animal lovers. Now, however, designer Mathias Wigge brings us the Marine Worlds expansion. Does such a great game even need an expansion, and is it worth buying? You will find out that and much more in the following review.

What's in the box

Before we describe and evaluate Marine Worlds, let's see what this relatively small box hides inside. The first thing that will catch your eye is the new association board, which replaces the original one. Next is a large deck of 81 playing cards, 38 of which replace the original cards, giving us 43 brand-new ones to look forward to. Among them are 32 animal cards, primarily aquatic creatures, and 6 new final scoring cards. The box also contains new special enclosure tiles, such as small and large aquariums, 7 university tokens, alternative action card figures, and bonus tokens.

What's new?

The biggest contribution of this expansion, as the name suggests, are the aquatic creatures and the new mechanics associated with them. New creatures have their own icon featuring an octopus on a blue background. You must place the vast majority of these creatures into an aquarium, so your zoo can now boast a beautiful marine world. These aquatic creature cards may also feature a coral reef symbol. When you place such a creature in your zoo, you trigger all the coral reef symbols you already own. So, the more “coral” animals you have, the more bonuses you get.

Another great mechanic is the wave symbol on animal cards. When you refresh the card display and a creature with the wave symbol appears, the last card in the display is removed and another one is added. This makes the cards in the display rotate faster, giving you a better chance of finding the right one for your zoo. As mentioned above, you get a new association board because a fourth university token is added to the game. This allows you to add the symbol of one of several animal classes (predator, herbivore, etc.) to your zoo and draw a card of that class from the deck.

Our impressions

• 43 new playing cards, including animals, sponsors, and conservation projects, are a huge benefit.
• The draw deck is starting to resemble a Jenga tower given the number of cards, but the new wave mechanic is an absolutely perfect tool for cycling through the deck as much as possible. Because of this, you can't hesitate too long about which card to take from the display, as the wave might just sweep it into the discard pile.
• New special enclosures like Aquariums look great, and you have to carefully consider which special buildings to construct, as you might run out of space in your zoo.
• New university tokens help you, especially when fulfilling conservation projects.
• The new final scoring cards are a major plus, especially for players who have already played Archa Nova several times. Personally, as someone who has played it many times, the original cards had become a bit stale. The new cards are a great way to create fresh challenges for both beginners and experienced players.
• The game also includes alternative action cards that spice things up for seasoned players.
• Some icons have been slightly changed and are now much clearer.
• With a little care, the expansion box fits into the original one and closes without any issues. For me, that's a small, pleasant bonus.

Verdict

As mentioned in the previous review, it's hard to find fault with the base game, and it's no different with the Marine Worlds expansion. Honestly, I wondered if such a great game was missing anything or could even be improved.

Marine Worlds showed us that this is exactly what the game was missing, and we don't play the game at home without the expansion anymore. With plenty of new cards, new mechanics, and components, it's an expansion suitable for both beginners and advanced players—especially the latter. If you enjoy Archa Nova, you simply must get Marine Worlds. Just be careful that you can actually tear yourself away from the game. The 9/10 rating on BGG is proof of how perfect this expansion is. One only has to ask, will the author surprise us with further improvements in the future? Because he really nailed this one.

author Daniel Korčák