A strong opening move in Lost Ruins of Arnak board game can set give you an early game advantage, prevent you from falling behind and help you win more.
Let’s take a look at some of the best first moves you can take on the bird temple map:
Camp Site: Arrow or Gem
Taking the campsite Arrow or Gem is a safe choice. Either of these will give you a good start on the research track.
Advancing research also grants a Gold, facilitating early-round items.
Both pathways on the research track require the same investment (a value of 3). Selecting the Arrow incurs no additional card cost but you’ll spend 1 compass (Arrows are worth 2). Alternatively, choosing Gem will cost an extra card.
Securing both Arrow and Gem slots within your first two actions affords the opportunity to advance your Magnifying Glass twice, guaranteeing a bonus resource and a compass, or progressing your book to get your first assistant.
Either of these options are good.
In terms of picking for first assistant you’ll just want to avoid the item discount, draw card, exile and upgrade ones (these are typically lower value).
Camp Site: Compass
If both Arrow and Gem slots have been claimed, the next best choice is to take 2 Compasses. This enables discovery of a dig site in the first round.
Now you’ll need to decide whether or not to defeat the Guardian. Ideally, you’ll both be able to advance on the research track and overcome the Guardian.
Opting to disregard the Guardian (typically advisable with a 4 Gold Guardian) often permits advancement on the research track twice. For this reason, early exploration is often a strong opening strategy.
First Move Exploration
Opening with exploration is such a strong move that you’ll often find experienced players opting for it whenever they have enough compass (typically not 1st player as they don’t start with compass).
Many guardians require an Arrow to overcome. In cases where the dig site yields an Arrow, the site essentially offsets the cost of overcoming the guardian.
Subsequently, you can utilize your idol to advance on the research track. Alternatively, you may opt to overlook the guardian entirely and advance on the research track twice.
Buying an Item
Occasionally, a particularly valuable item may be worth taking on your first turn, with the Dog item card being a prime example.
Depending on the number of players, you may still have the opportunity to secure a good campsite on your next turn.
In a 3-player game, as the 1st player you’ll often be able to take the compass campsite on your 2nd turn.
However, in a 4-player game, this becomes more challenging, as by the time your turn comes back around, the Arrow, Gem, and Compass sites may already be claimed.
This can place you in a tough spot, potentially locking you both out of dig site exploration and research track progression.
In all these scenarios the key take away is to ensure that you can still progress up the research track whether by taking Arrow/Gem or ensuring that you can discover a dig site.
