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‘Clans’ by Leo Colovini
Games night....... 17th July 2003
Kendall and Spiller arrive together at 8.30 p.m. precisely. Dicken is in the final throws of setting up ‘Clans’, so a prompt start is anticipated. Just time for a resume of the week’s sport; ‘England stuff South Africa in one day final’, ‘Chelsea’s Russian benefactor spends more roubles’ and other tittle-tattle. Before commencing, Dicken asks for clarification on a couple of rules and suggests a quick read through. Kendall and Spiller pooh-pooh such an idea and dash headlong into the game.
‘Clans’ is the second game by Leo Colovini to have found its way into our games collection, ‘Doge’ being the first. Regular readers (is there such a thing) may recall that ‘Doge’ is something of a mind-bender and only loosely connected with its theme of Venice. ‘Clans’is something of a mind-bender and only loosely connected with its theme of ..... clans? None-the-less both are solid games with solid components.
The board shows lots of land areas of four types (mountain, plains, forests, grass) grouped into fives. There are five colours of tents and one of each colour goes in a land in the group. Players (2-5) each draw a card showing one colour of tent, keeping the card secret. Their task is to score as many points as possible with that colour as the game progresses. All colours score and only at the end is it revealed who was what.
Kendall starts... or rather tries to start. He finds it near impossible to recall how to make his first play. This is the second evening of ‘Clans’. The first involved four players and two games were played. It all seemed so easy. Now the gloves are off and no quarter shall be given. After several minutes Kendall shuffles a red tent into a mountain area to join a yellow tent. Dicken and Spiller brood and shuffle in turn. It could be a long night under the stars.
Points are scored whenever tents are taken off the board – at least that’s how we play it, and we’re sticking with it. Theoretically (or as the rules have it) the tents don’t come off, but sit in their cosy clusters and bugger up your spatial awareness. Anyhow, they score at the point when the cluster becomes isolated – no tent in an adjacent land. And that is achieved by moving one tent or a cluster of tents from one land to an adjacent land. Sounds easy.
Dicken moves the last adjacent tent into a cluster and the first lot of tents comes off. Dicken is smug. Kendall is smug. Dicken thinks Kendall has unwittingly set him up, Kendall thinks Dicken has fallen for a cunning ploy. There are four tents in the cluster, so each colour therein scores 4 points (even if more than one tent of that colour is present). As it’s a Forest, and forests are currently the bonus type each colour scores a bonus of 1 point. Later the type changes and the bonus increases. Finally, Dicken takes a yellow disc from the track, which will be worth 1 more point at the end of the game.
Thus the scoring. Brains are already addled and there is only one recourse. Pringles and beer needed.
There are a few other important rules, but not a lot more to talk about. In fact the game is one in which very little talking is done, save to be-moan the slowness of Dicken’s play or to intimate that another player has just dropped one. This is in the best tradition of German puzzle-gaming, even if Mr Colovini hails from Venice. ‘It’s the puzzles what gets ‘em thinking, but it's the themes what gets ‘em talking’. Each to his own, but one hopes that occasionally the twain shall meet.
The last group is isolated and the final scores tallied. Remarkably there’s a four-way tie for first place, with only the blue tent lagging by just one point. ‘It couldn’t be closer’ yells Spiller excitedly. Kendall points out that if the blue tent had scored just one more point ..... The overall scores seem remarkably low, less than 25 with a score track running to 50+.
Remarkably, the Ragnars have got the rules wrong. A second game is demanded.
The second game is better and equally tight and equally exciting (if you’re into brain-waves). At the finish Dicken captivates the crowd by taking a full five minutes pondering his pen-ultimate move. ‘It’s critical!’ He successfully manages to capture second place, propelling Spiller into an unlikely victory, whilst Kendall falls into third. Suddenly the game has the scent of tall poppies about it! Kendall is unhappy that no-one wanted him to win. Spiller is bemused to learn that Dicken wasn’t playing the black tents after all.
‘Clans’ is undeniably a good purchase, but perhaps will find its true place as the last game of an evening. That position tonight falls to ‘Carcassonne’.‘Hunters and gatherers’ had been considered, but was deemed longer. Matching game length with game style is an ongoing debate in Ragnar game-testing at present. ‘Carcassonne’ gets it about as good as it gets.
The game follows its usual pattern. Dicken tries to control the farming and look for options, Spiller and Kendall look for other options and try to muscle in late on farming. Big Cities do well and there are some impressive scores for thieves (16 points!). Dicken draws four of the six Monasteries, which he is able to cluster together for easy points. It’s a tight finish with Kendall scoring 72 and Dicken 76. ‘Its the farmers what won it’ – again. Actually, probably the Monasteries made the real difference.
Spiller scores just 45 points! ‘Could do better’.
Carol joins the throng and the evening whiles away with stories of psychopaths we have known and not loved. Kendall recounting how a dead cat was thrown into his garden for burial. How Dicken suffered a cup of rancid tea. And how Spiller was traumatised by an ageing hippy going ‘Commando’!
Time for bed.
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‘Clans’ by Colovini and ‘For Sale’ by Stefan Dorra
Dicken and Kendall have convened early in order to peruse the box-top alternatives for ‘Canal Mania’. This means picking out the best elements of four different mock-ups and trying to imagine how this would marry up as a whole. Getting someone else to design art-work had seemed like an easier alternative to D.I.Y; but possibly not. After ten minutes no definitive solution has emerged, so the ringing of the doorbell comes as welcome relief.
Paul and Sarah arrive. They are friends from church and this is their first games-night; the eighth and ninth new guests of the year respectively. Sarah is also the most heavily pregnant guest ever to have attended; but the Ragnars are not phased by such things.
Two games are lined up for the evening. Paul and Sarah’s experience runs to ‘Monopoly’, ‘Cluedo’, ‘Risk’, ‘Boggle’ and several others including that ‘most irritatingly titled horse-race game which one can never recall when writing a review…’ Light but not insignificant is deemed appropriate, and so ‘Clans’ and ‘For Sale’ (Kendall’s birthday present from Phil) are ready to roll. Dicken launches into a rules explanation of ‘Clans’, while Kendall fettles around fetching plates, knives etc. to make snacking a possibility rather than just a nice idea.
The rules take rather longer to explain than the size of the rule booklet seems to merit. This is because this game doesn’t give too many obvious clues as to why a rule should be one thing and not another. The theme of the game is tenuous, giving little to hold onto. Sarah and Paul are also pretty quick on the up-take, with the result that they are asking for the explanation of another rule before the full flavour of the current one has been absorbed and digested.
None-the-less the game gets underway and proves as brain-twisting as in the past (see previous review for a fuller explanation of mechanics).
Despite Ragnar experience it’s Paul who emerges winner in a quick and very low scoring game. Kendall and Dicken are left wondering if they have ever really got to grips with how this game works. Certainly the whole affair seems rather flat, and the host (Kendall) feels somewhat relieved when the guests suggest having another game of the same.
Kendall insists on reversing the player order, so that instead of Kendall following Dicken he now follows Paul. The second game gets underway, with Dicken adopting a more studious and painfully ‘steady’ approach. So much so that conversations on Tory leadership candidates, Ofsted inspections, Church finances etc. keep breaking out like so many fires at a pyromaniac’s convention. After one such digression, Kendall checks his ‘hut’ and announces to everyone’s astonishment that his is black. No amount of double bluffing can dissuade the others from profiting at his dreadful faux pas.
Paul, however is proving profligate in providing opportunity for Kendall to complete villages. So much so that Kendall has seven tokens at game end to a mere two or three for each other player. Dicken has manfully tried to prevent Kendall’s black huts from being included in completed villages, but to no avail. Kendall romps home to an easy victory. Sarah is distraught to find that she has been beaten by the ‘non-player’.
So to ‘For Sale’, which comes in a small, sturdy box and has 60 cards (two sets of 30 each), some cardboard money and a set of rules. Not a huge amount, but very nicely produced. Four of the first set of cards are dealt into the middle and there are admiring comments about what is on view; real estate. This is game about buying and selling property.
Paul bids first - $1000. He is hoping to get a house in the mountains worth 22 points. Sarah raises the bid to $2000. Dicken elects to drop out, which means he pays nothing and takes the least valuable property – the dog kennel worth 4 points. Kendall stays in raising the bid to $4000, Paul raises the bid to $5000. Too rich for Sarah, she withdraws and collects the least valuable property remaining – the tent worth 7 points. She has to pay half her bid (rounded down) to the bank, but gets to keep the other half (in this case $1000). Kendall drops out, pays $2000 and collects a wooden shack worth 15 points. Paul gets the house in the mountains, but has to pay all the money he bid.
Very simple. Seven quick rounds (two cards having been removed). Only Kendall has any clue to the significance of what is being purchased, but no-one seems to mind. Everyone has a feeling about property whether it be a cardboard box (1 point) or a space station (30 points). Each player’s money gradually dwindles or else dwindles in great leaps. Any money not spent carries over into the final scoring
So to the second phase of the game. Instead of four properties up for grabs, there are now four cheques. These range in value from zero value to $15000. Players secretly offer one property per round for sale. The highest value property gets the largest cheque etc. etc. Very simple. Seven quick rounds (two cards having been removed).
Final scoring takes place with players totalling their cheques and any money left over from phase one. Kendall wins with $62000 to Dicken’s $59000, Sarah’s $55000 and Paul brings up the rear with $48000.
Scores on the doors…’Clans’ 6/10. ‘For Sale’ 8/10.
No chance for a second playing of ‘For Sale’, although it is briefly mooted. Paul and Sarah are evidently keen to get better at playing a game, by playing it successively. Dicken and Kendall are long-toothed social gamers who have long since realised that in this genre:
- Fun is to be had in the finding out
- Replaying gradually lowers interest
- Playing many games develops game skills generally
- It’s easier to win if you know the rules best
Dicken heads off home, an early start beckons. Kendall gets out the Canal Mania art-work. Paul and Sarah provide helpful advice before they too take their leave. They promise they will return.
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