{"id":3525,"date":"2004-04-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/04\/17\/arenamaximus\/"},"modified":"2004-04-17T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-04-17T10:00:00","slug":"arenamaximus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/04\/17\/arenamaximus\/","title":{"rendered":"Arena\nMaximus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arena
\nMaximus<\/a><\/h2>\n

This new offering by Fantasy Flight caught my eye during our last visit in the US
\n\u2013 I\u2019m a big fan of Arena games in the spirit of AH\u2019s old
\n\u201cCircus Maximus<\/a>\u201d \u2013 unfortunately there are not many playable ones
\naround….<\/p>\n

\u201cArena Maximus\u201d packs quite a lot in a small box: Heart of the game is a
\nvariable arena circuit built from many single tiles (curved and straight) \u2013 good
\nidea! Each player (up to 5) gets a different chariot with variable abilities, and there
\nis also a nicely designed deck of cards which drives the game forward. The rules are
\npresent in several languages, what is definitely missing is a good cheat sheet which
\nexplains the various symbols, but this is what boardgamegeek<\/a> is made for.<\/p>\n

The chariots are rated in potential maneuverability (=the ability to add or deduct
\nwhip cards to\/from the speed pool), aggressiveness (the number of possible ram, block or
\nattack maneuvers) and sheer durability (each chariot can take a certain amount of hits
\nuntil it breaks down, but it can start again with a final \u201csecond life\u201d).<\/p>\n

An interesting mechanism is centered around the card hand: the maximum is always 7,
\nbut the cards in your speed pool count towards this limit. In other words: the faster you
\ngo (the more whip cards you have played), the less you can react to threats by playing
\ncards from your hand. And there are many threats: most track tiles have some kind of
\ndanger: you need to play certain cards or you have to have a certain speed to avoid hits.
\nIn addition the track tiles are unknown until you enter the last known tile (then you see
\nthe next three), which means that the leader of the race always runs the danger of
\ncrashing.<\/p>\n

\"Arena<\/p>\n

The race itself is very tight \u2013 as the last in the line and the last one to
\nenter a tile starts the next round, the runner-ups constantly overtake the leader. When a
\nplayer enters a tile with another chariot, a complex set of decision steps begins. First
\nyou have to decide if you want to ram the chariots before you (by playing sets of rein
\nand whip cards which have to be countered). Then the chariots before you can block you
\n(by playing rein cards, which then you have to counter). THEN you \u201cencounter\u201d
\nthe space (probably having to play additional cards), and THEN you can attack the other
\nchariots with whip cards (which can then counterattack if they want and are able to).
\nFailure to counter any card usually results in damage to your chariot.<\/p>\n

It took us a while to learn how to go \u201cthrough the motions\u201d, and then we
\nsometimes felt it was preventing game flow a little, although this could change with
\nfrequent playing. All in all the game did rather play like a \u201cGerman\u201d game
\n\u2013 you watch the card hands of your opponents carefully before you maneuver in
\nposition, many decisions are not made because of the actual state of the race but rather
\nbecause of your card hand. Although you never know your opponent\u2019s exact cards,
\nattacking someone who has just depleted all his cards to gain the lead can be perceived
\nas a valid and unrisky tactic option. Optional \u201cMagic\u201d cards actually add to
\nthis impression, as they simply give you more options. A very interesting ruling occurs
\ntowards the end of the game (which plays as any chariot race should play – mean, with
\nmany nasty surprises): If a player cannot win anymore he is NOT allowed to act as a
\nkingmaker (by playing aggressive cards against one or the other player). This simple rule
\nis actually very elegant if you think about it. I wonder if it could be transferred to
\nother games, for example the kingmaker-feast \u201cVinci<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

All in all this is a good game for the \u201csilver\u201d line from Fantasy Flight
\n\u2013The game has depth, is not overly complicated, perhaps luck-driven, but not dumb.
\nWhy a sixth player was not included may be anybody\u2019s guess- I think for racing
\ngames the old adage \u201cthe more the merrier\u201d is certainly true!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arena Maximus This new offering by Fantasy Flight caught my eye during our last visit in the US \u2013 I\u2019m a big fan of Arena games in the spirit of AH\u2019s old \u201cCircus Maximus\u201d \u2013 unfortunately there are not many playable ones around…. \u201cArena Maximus\u201d packs quite a lot in a small box: Heart of … Arena
\nMaximus<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}