(Photo credit to Giga Mech Games)
In dreams she welcomes you; drawing you to her; visions of unspeakable horrors so terrible that chills your blood. Yet you have come, and not just you, but others who also have answered her dreaded call. What awaits you in those dark halls is unknown, but you must know as this gnawing ache drives you forward into the madness. You have come for answers.Â
Machina Arcana is a 1-4 player horror adventure game of Lovecraftian terror in a steampunk setting. Players are explorers, investigating a dark labyrinth filled with terror and populated with creatures beyond this realm. Armed with skills and equipment players embark on an adventure broken into chapters and an escalating tide of monsters more powerful than the previous. The player’s goal is to survive and come out with the answers they so desperately seek.
To start, players pick what adventure they want to play; the rules recommend that first-time players start with the first one, horrors on the ice. This review will cover the basic setup of the first chapter. Give each player a player board, their explorer tokens, their chosen explorer card, attribute markers (essence, health, and stamina), and their explorer standee. Each player sets their starting attributes indicated on their hero card.  Next take out the chapter board, the chapter cards, and the horror rating, spawn rating, and monster threat markers. Take explorer and horror standard cards and shuffle in the scenario-specific ones to form the explorer and horror decks. Take the four-level 1 equipment decks (weapons, artifacts, consumables, and apparel) and shuffle each one into their appropriate face-down piles. Next, gather the level one monster cards and standees; shuffle the deck into a face-down pile placed next to the chapter board. Finally, take all of the map tiles, shuffle them and draw the bottom tile and place it; this is the starting tile. Place an entry marker on the board and the heroes on that space. Flip the first chapter card and follow the instructions. You are ready to begin.
The game is played in turns of four phases; explorer, spawn, horror and monster. The explorers spend stamina to take actions like moving, activating spaces on the tiles, and fighting monsters. Tiles have various action spaces that heroes activate during their turn. You can find a list of all of the actions and costs in the player’s aid, but we will go over a few of the basic ones here.
It costs one stamina to move one space and movement can be both orthogonal and diagonal. Heroes find equipment by searching chests for 3 stamina. When searching a chest, draw the two top cards from any deck and keep one and either return the other to the top of its deck or destroy it. Each hero type can equip a main item of a specific type for free; see the rulebook for each one. Heroes can activate an explore space and draw the top card of the explore deck.
Explore cards offer a benefit and some are linked to the player who drew them and provides a permanent additional action. Recharge stations allow a player to possibly regain health or stamina. A switch will activate a trap and all units on a trap space will take 3 black dice of damage, potentially causing a wound. Exploding barrels cause damage to each adjacent unit also potentially causing a wound.
Each hero has basic actions on their hero card that they can use. Equipment can be used by paying the stamina cost as well. To attack a monster using either their hero skill or weapon, pay the stamina and roll the stated number of dice. If the roll is higher than the monster’s armor, the monster suffers a wound. Each monster has a number of health points and when they take more wounds than health, they are destroyed. A hero that kills a monster gains 1 essence.
After each hero has taken all their actions, it’s the spawn phase. Each player will roll the 10-sided die and determine if a monster spawns. If the roll is equal to or above the current spawn rating, draw the top monster card and place its standee at the closest spawn point to the current player. Then increase the monster threat level by 1. If the roll is less, no monster is spawned and the spawn rating is decreased by 1. After all heroes have rolled for a monster spawn, one player rolls the die to determine if there is a horror event. Same principle if the roll is equal to or higher, draw a horror card and put into play. Resolve any first-time effects and if there are any lasting effects, they remain until a new horror event enters play. The last phase is when all spawned monsters act. Each monster acts in accordance with a pre-determined set of rules indicated in the rulebook. Each monster card had its armor, willpower, health, stamina, and actions they take. Monsters will spend stamina to move and attack the closest hero. Once all monsters have activated, the turn ends, players reset their stamina and a new turn begins with the explorer phase. The game continues until the heroes complete the scenario or they are killed.
There are more rules about how to advance to the next chapter and explore more tiles, but those are detailed in the rulebook. The game comes with a start-up guide that shows you several turns and how to perform the various actions available. It is recommended that at least one new player reads the start-up guide.
The main goal is to survive, as the game continues and more chapters are played, the monsters increase in difficulty but players also gain access to better equipment. Equipment in the game can be augmented and upgraded to be more powerful and effective. It is definitely advised to keep opening chests. Since the main goal is to survive, players should not focus on fighting all of the monsters; but on positioning themselves to use the traps and barrels to hurt the monsters instead and use combat to finish them off or if trapped. Health is critical, and there are only a few ways to gain it back, and full-on attacking is a sure way to lose it fast.
This is one of the best dungeon crawler games I have ever played. It’s rich in themes and challenges; each tile is a unique puzzle to solve and maximize. Very few survival games offer the depth of strategic decisions that Machina Arcana does. Each event and horror card weave a narrative that is unique. The random tile placement presents a new experience every time. In addition, the game never has more than a 2×2 tile layout as a scrolling tile mechanic removes tiles that have already been explored. The game scales well at all player counts and has mechanics built in to adjust the length and difficulty.
The third edition box can store the base game and all of the current expansions; with customized trays included and instructions on how to store it. There are no miniatures, it is played with standees much like Arkham and Eldritch horror. I would not let the lack of miniatures deter me from the fantastic gameplay offered. I love the challenges offered as well as the simple mechanics that new players can dive in with only a few rules to get going and learn as the game progresses.
Lovecraft fans and steampunk fans alike should find this a fun and challenging game. While there are many other great Lovecraft games out there, Machina Arcana I believe is one definitely worth considering as well. To learn more and purchase this game, visit Giga Mech Games.
Written by Ed Carter
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