Board Game Arena

I was surprised to learn that if you place the Side Entrance on the right side of the map before another enclosure, you can't place an enclosure where you normally would (on the left, under the map).

Is this normal, or a bug? (also, I tried posting about this three times the other day with the table number and the post never appeared)

You have to place enclosures/buildings adjacent to an existing one. If the Side Entrance is your only building, you have to place your next building adjacent to the Side Entrance. Short answer: Yes, it is normal.

Exception: if you play with map A, you start with an 3-space enclosure, so in this situation, your Side Entrance can never be your first building.

By the way: you don’t need to place your first enclosure/building in the bottom left corner, you can place it anywhere, if at least one space is placed on a border space of your map (that could be right, top, bottom or left).

I understand that you don't have to place your first enclosure in the bottom left, I just normally do. And in that case, or any first placement, you are able to place the enclosure next to a border. But what surprised me was that the Side Entrance prevented me from making a "normal" first enclosure placement. Side Entrance isn't an enclosure, but rather a second way in.

Next time, I'll make sure I place an enclosure first, near the lake, before playing Side Entrance.

The requirement to place a building adjacent to an existing one is not restricted to enclosures, but applies to all kind of buildings (i.e. kiosks, pavilions, standard enclosures, special enclosures and unique buildings). The Side Entrance is the only building, that may ignore this requirement.

So, if you place the Side Entrance as your first building, your next building (enclosure, kiosk, whatever…) must be placed adjacent to the Side Entrance, because your next building must apply to this placement rule.

So in essence, you lose the advantage that Side Entrance gives you! OK, understood. Good to know!

I found this out the hard way as well. It's been mentioned already but play an enclosure first, then side entrance if you want to play it in another part of your map.