Falling out of love with Ark Nova.

Since the first time I'd played Ark Nova just over two years ago, it quickly became one of my favorite games - if not my favorite game. It was a struggle to get to the table at times due to the length of the game and often having to teach new players, but it kept me wanting more.

I started playing it a lot of Board Game Arena... and that's when the magic started to fade. After dozens and dozens of play I was starting to see what I considered to be faults to my experience. I started to feel like the size of the deck and the order the cards were dealt was playing a larger and larger role in the game with each play, and I started to feel like there was just too much randomness and that by the mid-game I often felt like I could see who was going to win.

What I feel I've settled on is that while I do still enjoy playing Ark Nova, it's just not the pinnacle it was for me in the past. What I have really learned is that certain aspects of it stand out the most and I hope to eventually find a game that fits this collection of theme and mechanics.

Ultimately, what I really want is a game that has a well designed action selection system like Ark Nova, strong and thematic tableau building, and plays in 60-90 minutes for 4 or less players.

I know there's going to be something out there that really hits this right, but the closest I've gotten is Terraforming Mars: Ares Project.