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CLANS
by Leo Colovini
art unknown
publish Venice Connection/Rio Grande
Players: 2-4
Duration: 20 mins.
PACE: Quick. Light game with lots of simple decisions. Tactical but hard to analyze.
COMPLEXITY: Light. I taught this to an 8-yo girl who picked up on it right away. And the game seems to simple to be gamer fodder, but there are a lot of subtle tactics.
LUCK: None. There is a bit of player chaos and deduction, but not any luck. And yet this game is very accessible for young players.
TENSION: Low. It's just a fun, light tactics game. But alway hoping your opponent will miss a good move as he considers all his options.
VICIOUS: Medium. If you can figure out who the other players' colors are, you can be very mean. If you can't, you can't do much to them.
SOCIAL: Medium. Every move drastically effects everyone's plans and that'll get people talking -- or not, if they want to keep their colors secret!
THEME: Medium. It's a Colovini game, so expect the abstract. But I must say that for such a short game with such simple rules, the 'wandering clans' setting is a great idea for the game. This is probably his highest 'theme' game -- but that isn't saying too much.
GAMER APPEAL: Maybe. Ultra light tactical filler. This is one of my favorites.
NON-GAMER APPEAL: Yes. Simple to learn and gives them lots of interesting decisions to make without taxing the brain.
2 PLAYERS: Excellent. Maybe even best with only 2 players.
REPLAY: Very good. The game is pure elegance and I never seem to get tired of it.
I've played 30+ times.
Good with 2-4 players.
Best with 2-3 players. |
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Quick summary | The production is great: 60 wooden huts in 5 colors, score markers, cardboard chips to mark the rounds, and a huge gameboard that they somehow managed to fit in a box the size of TransAmerica (I believe Leo Colovini and Winning Moves have somehow manipulated the space between atoms thus ushering in a new era of scientific megaboxology!) Where was I? Ah yes, the GAME! First of all, I am happy to report that the game played with rules as written is a lightly challenging, very simple, very fun game that plays quickly. The setting is that all humanity is scattered across the continent, but as they travel they band together for defense and when they can find no one else to add to their wandering camps, they settle down and form a village. Players move all the huts from one territory to another. Players may only move into occupied territories, never empty spaces. When a hut/group of huts can't move because it's surrounded by empty spaces, it has become a village and scores as many points as there are huts for every color in that village (eg. a region with 6 huts is worth 6 points to every color in the region regardless of how many of each color hut is in the region.) But if all 5 colors are in a region, all the single huts get booted out. And there is terrain to consider: a town founded on unfavorable terrain will die out! Since players can only move huts from one region per turn, and usually there are at least three regions they wish they could move, decisions are tough and fun. The game is excellent 2 or 3 players, and fun, but decidedly more chaotic with 4. I taught this game in less than a minute to several different groups and everyone who has played this -- non-gamers and gamers AND young children -- have enjoyed this game and request it when we get together. They like the artwork, the simplicity of play, and the fun decisions. Now for an issue I have with the box: it lies. But those lies are a good thing. It says 'Age 10+' and 'Playing Time: 30 minutes.' Fact of the matter is that I've played it with an 8 year old and a 9 year old and they liked it so much that the next time they came over, out of all the games I have, they requested to play it again! And, I suspect that if you eliminate the 'strife' and 'unfavorable terrain' rules as a variant, you could play it with children as young as 5 years old, which makes this game worth buying on that criterion alone. The other lie is 30 minutes. Try 15 or 20 minutes! Which means it's short enough to be 'filler' but fun enough to want to play it over and over and over and over...
I think for the price, the duration, the age range, the non-gamer appeal, the simplicity, the tactics -- this game should not be passed up. It's not going to make a gamer rewrite his Top 10 list, but it sure will get played a lot. Short, fast, simple. Recommended. |
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