1728

Please elaborate? I’ve only played it once but I’m intrigued whenever someone says something is broken.

1729

Far be it from me to challenge the gaming authoritah of The Bruce, but whatchoo talkin’ 'bout, Bruce?

I’ve played this a number of times and there are numerous different ways to play and to deck build. Focusing on boots is a strong strategy but doesn’t always work. Same for the other resources. Also, you have to adapt to what other players are doing.

1730

It’s all about the feet. The movement cards are way more valuable than any other card type. @tomchick even gave it a name: ABGB (Always Be Getting Boots).

1731

It is such a strong strategy that I feel it fatally distorts the deckbuilding. All other strategies end up being compensatory. While you can certainly win doing other things, I think the boots mechanic breaks the game. I love what the design is trying to do, but I don’t think it works in the end.

Btw, I don’t claim to be an authority! That’s just my considered opinion based on experience. And I also wasn’t immediately convinced, so that I tried to argue the point with Tom, but eventually got to the same place with more plays.

1732

A non-boot strategy is usually a loss, but a boots only strategy rarely works. The key is balancing boots with the other resources IMO and the game is not broken. Part of this is how the players react.

For example, I see that Tom has bought a lot of boots and looks to be positioned to make a run for the exit. If I feel I can compete with his speed, and I can beat his score, then I can go boots as well. However, it’s more likely he will have a boot advantage so the right play is NOT to try to out-boot Tom but go hard the other way: pump up skill and/or swords to score VP fast, and also to grab any nearby treasure. Rather than run for the exit or go deep, you max out your VP gain over the turns it will take Tom to make the exit and then 4 turns after that for you to be knocked out. For example, if you have the skill for it, buying a Tome every 4 turns generates 28 VP which is more than the 20 you get for exiting alive. And if you can grab a treasure while doing so, your net VP gain can be quite high. So a high-skill deck can often blow a high-boot deck out of the water with VPs on cards and treasures. Same deal with killings monsters for VP, provided there are a lot of monsters in the dungeon row. Also if I see someone is going full-boots early I can plan ahead.

If that hasn’t been your folks’ experience, then maybe people aren’t adapting their strategy to what others players do. My experience has been every strategy can be countered.

1733

Well, you won’t find me going “full boots” because that’s not really an option. It depends on what cards are available. Which is why the guy who jumps on the good boots cards gets a hefty advantage. If Clank was the sort of deck-builder where we all have access to the same pool of cards, I might agree that you could react to each other’s strategies. But it’s not that kind of game. It’s too short and random for much meaningful reaction strategy. Which is fine, since it’s a pretty simple game.

I will say that I prefer the “hard” side of the board for how it forces more difficult and damaging paths. A boots deck can’t as easily run away with the game. Better yet, the add-on with the water stuff mitigates boots advantages. But, really, I’ve broken up with Clank because I can think of about a dozen deck-builders I’d rather play.

-Tom

1734

I find myself with two of the D&D games I thought I would play, but now have Descent and Gloomhaven. I am not sure I will even go back to Descent having played a few Gloomhaven scenarios and I have almost zero interest in learning the D&D games, having learned Wrath of Arshardalon months ago, but never actually playing it.

1735

I will agree that the intro map to Clank! is heavily boot-centric and ABGB is a viable strategy on that map. However, the advanced and expansion maps are much more balanced.

Tom, other than Ascension, what other deck building games do you prefer to Clank!?

Lastly, has anyone tried Clank! in Space? How does that compare?

1736

Is it even available?

1737

They are reportedly releasing to retail once all Kickstarter copies are fulfilled. I think the latest post indicates a late January release. I’m hoping that’s true and that there’s plenty of retail to go around as I’d love to pick up a copy.

1738

Great, thanks.

Speaking of crawlers, Santa is reportedly bringing me Zombicide: Black Plague if he can fit the box down the chimney. That should keep me busy until Gloomhaven is available.

1739

I’ve bought Kingdomino and Schotten Totten for my sister’s common-law partner. I played Kingdomino a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to giving Schotten Totten a try.
Also looking forward to getting One Deck Dungeon which is apparently shipping to some people but I haven’t even gotten a shipping notice yet.

1740

Did you check the site that gives you a shipping notice or is nothing showing there for you yet? Mine arrived Tuesday so hopefully your wait is short!

1741

No, I had no idea there was a site. I thought I would get some kind of email.
Oh, I found it. Apparently the site has been disabled as it was inaccurate. But it sounds like Canadian orders have been shipped so hopefully it will be arriving shortly.

1742

Most of them. :)

I don’t mean to disparage Clank too much. It’s just I don’t have much interest in a deck-builder coupled to a racing game on a dungeon map. The DC Comics deck builder is the one I’d probably roll out in lieu of Clank. About the same weight, but a lot more direct interaction. I really like Star Realms as a two-player game. As far as deck-builders coupled to boards, Wallace’s Study in Emerald, A Few Acres of Snow, and Mythica are my favorites.

The Legendary Alien game does some cool narrative and mechanical stuff based on each of the movies (I presume Legendary Marvel does as well, but I haven’t tried it). I just picked up Aeon’s End, which is thematically limp, but does a great job using deck-building mechanics to set up a sort of “spell engine” for each player. I recently found Paperback on Steam which I like enough that I might pick up the physical version. Flip City is a really muscular economic engine deck-builder that’s popular over here. Arctic Scavengers is probably my favorite deck-builder for its pacing, interaction, and unique thematic use of interacting with cards in different ways.

-Tom

1743

Please dig this out of the closet.

1744

I know I’ve already mentioned it before, but you guys totally need to check out Time of Crisis.

1745

I just played a game of Quest for El Dorado with my daughters, and it went really well! They enjoyed it, and want to play again. They especially enjoy calling it “El Dorito”.

1746

Marvel Legendary is much more loosely themed, alas.

1747

Played Legendary Encounters Firefly tonight it was quite good IMO. Our group agreed to play it again. One person had played the Legendary Encounters Alien game and said the Firefly version was mechanically fairly similar. I enjoy the Firefly theme.