An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

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FrankJones
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Joined: 30 June 2024, 00:24

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by FrankJones »

yazavats wrote: 12 September 2026, 20:05
FrankJones wrote: 12 September 2026, 19:40
But 9 of those actions will be playing 3 small animals. Only the double eagle action will be 2 animals. So, you calculated everything right except the final arithmetic, which is 2 + (3)*(9). 29 animals.
Okay, so my error was in thinking waza small can't be utilized during hypnosis. It apparently can since that's what BGA allows. I suppose even though you're using an opponent's action, the 2+1 criteria still applies since it's not something determined by the action itself. It's a niche scenario which I've never utilized myself so forgive my ignorance. I mostly play waza small for money or stalling, if ever. I'm not familiar with the hot seat game mechanic you speak of. I wasn't aware you can manipulate the game state to that extent on BGA outside of making a tutorial.
Reshuffling is also a very niche thing I haven't considered. I've never been in a game where the deck ran out of cards. Okay, thanks for the new insights.

Yeah, the reshuffle idea only occurred to me after the fact, and it's tough to set up, because once I had everything else ready, I knew I was going to launch the sequence when the deck finally cooperated after the break. 3 times in a row I had to just skip to the next break with sponsors because somehow a batch of projects and medium-large animals came out. So, I didn't think to have one of the relevant release projects on the board at the start of the sequence. A pity, because then I could have tried for 32. And there's no way I'm doing it again. It was move number 3220 when I initiated the action.

Hotseat is the same as playing with 3 friends - I could have had 3 friends playing on their own computers, but it was easier to just play hot seat (which allows any number of players to play from the same computer).

I controlled all 4 players, which was tough at times and makes it easy to screw up. More ideal would be 4 different humans each of whom was keeping track of his or her responsibilities.

Regardless, as long as the players are playing cooperatively, essentially, the setup can be arrived at. (In a real game, obviously someone would end the game once it becomes apparent what the player is trying to do :) ) Or would trigger a break if the player tried stacking the 2x tokens before starting the sequence. Or any number of reasons why this scenario would never come close to happening in a real game. But I'm guessing people have done double eagle with waza small and hypnosis, so perhaps some people can chime in with their actual personal record for animals played in one turn

So, what I'm wondering is, can this be done with zero x2 tokens on the animals card at the start? I think so but I'm not sure?

Start with eagle eagle. Then use determination from one of the eagles to play a posturing 3x bird, grabbing the 3 exterior placement bonuses and thus 3 of the x2 tokens. Include one Europe animal or any other animal that places a tile, and put it on the actual 2x. Grab the x2 from the 15-reputation spot.

Now, we still have one more determination, and the animals card has all 5 x2 tokens, and we still have our two hypnosis actions. SO, we still have 9 animals actions left.

So, in theory, this could be set up without the x2 tokens at the start, making it possibly in theory to execute this to some extent in an actual game. If the player had this set up, there would be no way to stop it, right? Triggering end game would still allow this as the final turn. What would not be possible is repeatedly doing the full-strength cards action multiple times because the other players wouldn't just be sitting around doing nothing.

And in an actual game, money would be a factor because nobody would be able to have all those discount sponsors in play.

So, someone could set this up in a real game, and the limiting factor would be the usual ones: money, cards, and enclosure space.


And for what it's worth, I had no idea whether this whole thing would work either, or exactly how the hypnosis would work. That's why I wanted to try it out.

I'm still learning the game, and I'm not all that good (yet).

I figured it would be a good brain puzzle to try while also becoming very familiar with the deck. And I like doing puzzles to keep my brain sharp, and, I am often confined to my computer area for long stretches listening to music, so, I figured, why not goof around and try this.
FrankJones
Posts: 2667
Joined: 30 June 2024, 00:24

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by FrankJones »

yazavats wrote: 12 September 2026, 20:05
FrankJones wrote: 12 September 2026, 19:40
But 9 of those actions will be playing 3 small animals. Only the double eagle action will be 2 animals. So, you calculated everything right except the final arithmetic, which is 2 + (3)*(9). 29 animals.
Okay, so my error was in thinking waza small can't be utilized during hypnosis. It apparently can since that's what BGA allows. I suppose even though you're using an opponent's action, the 2+1 criteria still applies since it's not something determined by the action itself. It's a niche scenario which I've never utilized myself so forgive my ignorance.
Don't be silly. You basically nailed it, and you're in no way ignorant about any aspect of the game. You have a 563 Elo and I have yet to play a rated game. My Elo is still zero.

I keep waiting to play rated games until I can get through on game without getting a rule wrong or otherwise initiating a sequence that ends up failing because I missed some small requirement or some other issue.

For example, I keep forgetting that I can only cover ONE (not more) water space with the specialized build actions card (build-4, I think?), and I also keep forgetting that I cannot place a sponsors building on rock or water.

Or any number of other goofs I make after starting my turn.

My most recent friendly mode game was the height of inefficiency. 38 turns, and I only won because I got bailed by a miraculous card draw sequence that allowed me to Free a 5-size enclosure with a project, play an eagle into it, play a second animal when I had no enclosure other than the petting zoo, and play landscape gardener with my determination for 16 points from my silly pile of pavilions. I wasn't holding these cards as some sort of brilliant end-game plan, they fell into my lap right near the end.

Granted, the map was Drawing board, which I really hate and find very difficult to play on.
Last edited by FrankJones on 12 September 2026, 20:52, edited 1 time in total.
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yazavats
Posts: 76
Joined: 27 September 2022, 23:47

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by yazavats »

FrankJones wrote: 12 September 2026, 20:31
Don't be silly. You basically nailed it, and you're in no way ignorant about any aspect of the game. You have a 563 Elo and I have yet to play a rated game. My Elo is still zero.

I keep waiting to play rated games until I can get through on game without getting a rule wrong or otherwise initiating a sequence that ends up failing because I missed some small requirement or some other issue.

For example, I keep forgetting that I can only cover ONE (not more) water space with the specialized build actions card (build-4, I think?), and I also keep forgetting that I cannot place a sponsors building on rock or water.

Or any number of other goofs I make after starting my turn.
I make lots of goofs, misplays, oversights, etc. Which become especially glaring in late game, when I can pin down my loss to one of them. This has kept me from reaching master rank. I hope to optimize my gameplay enough to make it happen. I suggest you simply start playing competitively. There's no way your game will get perfectly optimized otherwise. Perfect is the enemy of good after all. And you're depriving yourself of enjoyable experiences if you like the game, which you apparently do since you go through such lengths for these scenarios.

Also, the discord I've linked has many top players. A lot of which like to watch the "sorryimlikethis"s regular ark nova wednesday stream on the "no wonders" YouTube channel which is another good learning source.
FrankJones
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Joined: 30 June 2024, 00:24

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by FrankJones »

True. I might as well jump in and start playing rated games at this point. I play turn-based, so I just need to think out my moves, check the recruitments, etc.

You're right, perfect is the enemy of good. That's an excellent phrase to keep in mind.


The "No Wonders" channel is great, I actually referenced him in the other recent thread about hypothetical silliness (that one was about a "no-animals" game, so pretty much the compete opposite of this one.)

I'll just give the spoiler, 212-212 is possible in a game in which neither player ever used the animals action card.

:)

The link, for anyone interested:

https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=50734
FrankJones
Posts: 2667
Joined: 30 June 2024, 00:24

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by FrankJones »

yazavats wrote: 12 September 2026, 20:42 I suggest you simply start playing competitively. There's no way your game will get perfectly optimized otherwise. Perfect is the enemy of good after all. And you're depriving yourself of enjoyable experiences if you like the game, which you apparently do since you go through such lengths for these scenarios.

I do think one analysis of a messy game might help, and then I'll start playing for Elo.

Here's the link if you have some time to take a look, but no worries if you have other things going on; someone will likely reply and analyze:

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=914193810
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yazavats
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Joined: 27 September 2022, 23:47

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by yazavats »

FrankJones wrote: 12 September 2026, 23:06 Here's the link if you have some time to take a look, but no worries if you have other things going on; someone will likely reply and analyze:
https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=914193810
I'll try to take a look at it during the day today when I find the time. We're on different circadian rhythms here. :)
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Armyguy
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Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by Armyguy »

It seems there's been an in-depth view into action accumulation, but I've not really seen anyone look into the necessary card accumulation. 28-34 cards is by no means trivial.
FrankJones
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Joined: 30 June 2024, 00:24

Re: An Ark Nova maximum animals puzzle

Post by FrankJones »

Armyguy wrote: 13 September 2026, 07:33 It seems there's been an in-depth view into action accumulation, but I've not really seen anyone look into the necessary card accumulation. 28-34 cards is by no means trivial.
I discussed that in the above posts.

Start with 6 (I had both upgrades), and do the cards action as many times as possible (in theory, 7 times in a 4-player game).

When playing birds, The Hyena compound and barred owl hut will draw a lot of cards, as well as birds that have card draw abilities themselves.

Waza Small animals will snap a small animal from the display each time, providing up to 9 more small animals. (Use a dig ability to refresh fully once the display is nearly empty).

In the end, I had several more small animals than I could actually play. I was able to pick and choose the best scoring ones.
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