How to play Arcs

Arcs is a science-fiction strategy game by Leder Games where players command factions competing for dominance inside a collapsing galactic empire. What makes it unlike other space games is the engine that drives every decision: a hand of numbered action cards whose suits and values determine not only what you can do on your turn, but what your opponents are allowed to do on theirs.

Games are structured into chapters — short, punchy bursts of play that each end with a scoring moment. Ambitions you declare during the chapter pay out at its close, so you're constantly reading the table, threatening objectives, and deciding when to seize the initiative versus when to ride someone else's lead.

Never played a trick-taking game? The loop underneath Arcs is simple: one player leads a card, and everyone else answers with a single card of their own — match the suit and beat the number for a full turn, or slip in any card sideways for one small action. Arcs just points the trick-taker's eternal question — is this card worth spending now? — at moving fleets and declaring objectives instead of winning tricks.

What's in the box, and what each piece does at the table:

• 1 map of the Reach — the shared board: six star clusters, each a numbered gate plus 3 planets, ringed by the ambition boxes, the chapter track, the Power track, and slots for the round's played cards. The face-up Court row of cards sits alongside it.
• 28 action cards (4 suits, numbered 1–7) — the game's engine. The suit sets your menu of actions, the number decides who Surpasses whom, and the pips say how many actions the card gives. With 2–3 players the "1" and "7" cards stay in the box.
• 12 setup cards (4 each for 2, 3, and 4 players) — one is drawn per game to place everyone's starting fleets and close off part of the map, so the Reach starts differently every time.
• 25 Guild cards + 6 Vox cards — shuffled into the Court deck. Guild cards give resources, new actions, and rule-bending modifiers once you secure them with agents; Vox cards are one-shot incidents that resolve immediately.
• 8 leader cards + 14 lore cards — the optional Leaders & Lore mode: asymmetric powers and starting positions, recommended only after a game or two.
• 4 player boards — each holds your resources in raid-cost slots, your unbuilt cities (building them uncovers resource slots and scoring bonuses), and your Trophies and Captives boxes.
• Ships (15 per player) — your fleets: they move, battle, and decide who controls each system. Upright ships are fresh; a damaged ship is tipped on its side.
• Agents (10 per player) — the diplomats you place on Court cards to influence and secure them; rivals can capture them as Captives.
• Cities and starports (5 + 5 per player) — buildings for planet slots: cities are taxed for resources, starports build ships and launch catapult moves. They flip to a darker side when damaged.
• Power markers (2 per player) — track your score on the Power track along the map's bottom edge; the second marker is used only by expansions.
• 25 resource tokens (5 each of Material, Fuel, Weapons, Relics, Psionics) — spend them for bonus actions (Fuel moves, Material builds, Weapons fuel battles…) and count them toward ambitions.
• 18 battle dice (6 assault, 6 skirmish, 6 raid) — you roll up to one per attacking ship: skirmish is safe, assault hits hard at a cost, raid steals cards and resources but is risky.
• 3 ambition markers + 1 zero marker — the markers price the declared ambitions (first- and second-place Power) and flip to bigger payouts as chapters pass; the zero marker covers a declaring player's card number, dropping it to 0.
• 1 initiative marker — shows who leads the round; it lies on its side once the initiative has been seized.
• 1 chapter marker, 4 path markers, 6 out-of-play markers — the chapter marker walks the five-space chapter track; the others blank out unused clusters and stitch the neighboring gates together.
• 4 aid sheets — turn structure and action summaries, one per player.

A game runs up to 5 chapters; a chapter is a series of rounds, and a round is one card from each player. Here's the rhythm:

1. The initiative player leads. Play an action card face up as the lead card. Its suit fixes the menu — Administration taxes, repairs, or influences; Aggression battles, moves, or secures; Construction builds or repairs; Mobilization moves or influences — and you take one action per pip on the card.
2. Declare an ambition (optional, before acting). If your lead card is a 2–6, you may declare the matching ambition — Tycoon (2), Tyrant (3), Warlord (4), Keeper (5), Empath (6); a "7" declares any of them. Place the highest-value available ambition marker on that box, then cover your card's number with the zero marker: it's now a 0 that anyone can Surpass — announcing your goal costs tempo — but you keep every pip.
3. Everyone else follows, clockwise, one card each: Surpass — a face-up card of the lead suit with a higher number, taking actions for all of your card's pips; Copy — any card face down, for a single action of the lead card; or Pivot — a face-up card of another suit, for a single action of your card.
4. Seize the initiative. When you play your card (the leader can't), you may also discard a second card face down to seize the initiative — or, in 4-player games, Surpass with a "7". Lay the marker on its side: it can be seized only once per round.
5. End the round. If nobody seized, the highest Surpass takes the initiative (no Surpass — it stays put). Discard the played cards face down and lead anew, until all hands are empty — that ends the chapter: score every declared ambition, then shuffle and deal fresh hands of 6.

Two seasoning rules give Arcs its depth. Before spending your card's pips you have a Prelude: you may spend resource tokens for bonus actions — Fuel moves, Material builds or repairs, Weapons let pips battle, Relics secure, Psionics take any lead-card action. And battle is dice you assemble yourself: up to one die per attacking ship, choosing safe skirmish, brutal assault, or thieving raid dice — then you resolve every face you roll, including the ones that hit your own fleet. Damaged pieces tip or flip; destroyed rival pieces go to your Trophies box, captured agents to Captives.

A round in play. Ana holds the initiative and leads a "4" Construction card, declaring Warlord — the top ambition marker goes on the Warlord box and the zero marker drops her card to 0. Her three pips build a starport, build a ship there, and repair a tipped ship. Beto Surpasses with a "5" Construction (any number beats 0) and spends his two pips building a city, opening a resource slot. Carla plays a card face down to Copy — one build — and discards a second card to seize the initiative. Diego Pivots with a "2" Aggression card for a single action: a battle in Beto's home system, rolling three skirmish dice for his three ships and tipping two defenders — softening Beto up for the Warlord race Ana just opened. The round ends: Beto's "5" was the highest Surpass, but Carla seized, so Carla leads next.

The game ends at the end of a chapter — never mid-round — once any player has at least 27 Power (4 players), 30 (3 players), or 33 (2 players), or when chapter 5 concludes. Highest Power wins; on a tie, the tied player earliest in turn order takes it. Mind the wording: reaching the threshold ends the game, but the most Power wins it — you can trigger the ending and still lose the count.

Power flows almost entirely from declared ambitions, scored at each chapter's close: Tycoon (most Material and Fuel), Tyrant (most Captives), Warlord (most Trophies), Keeper (most Relics), Empath (most Psionics). First place takes the higher number on every marker in that box, second place the lower; players tied for first all drop to second-place money, and you score nothing with zero of the counted thing. Cities pay too: each outright first place is worth +2 or +5 bonus Power once your city slots are uncovered. After every chapter the weakest ambition marker flips to its stronger side, so the last chapters swing hardest.

Strategically, ambitions are declared with your card but scored by anyone — the cheapest points at the table come from winning a race a rival started. Watch what opponents hoard, declare what you already dominate, and remember that seizing the initiative late in a chapter decides who declares the final payout — and who merely funds it.