| Title | Steampunk is more than just a visual style in the superlative Clockwork Wars |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game reviews |
| When | February 9, 2016 |
A tech tree should be a game's skeleton, giving it its shape. And since a tech tree is variable, it should create distinct shapes. These choices will make this kind of game; those choices will make that kind of game..
Read the full articleI absolutely loved the Serge Gainsbourg reference.
Nobody else writes reviews like this, Tom, at least since Bruce stopped reviewing for Games Domain. I knew nothing about this game, but I'm definitely interested now.
"There are templates in the manual so you can set up balanced maps, but
you can instead hand out tiles and build the map one hex at a time,
round robin. This is how you get the most interesting maps, but I can
assure you someone is going to get screwed by geography."
Oh god. Twilight Imperium flashbacks. Another Fantasy Flight game where the map and races are so imbalanced that 90% of the time you can predict the winner as soon as the map is done being set up.
Only eight hours till the game is over!
Tom, How long does it take your group to play Empires? How long is Clockwork?
We can usually play a 5 player game of Empires in a little less than 2 hours. I'm curious how long Clockwork is now.
Thanks for this amazing review, Tom. I really appreciate that you don't spend a ton of time going through rules/how-a-game-plays, and instead focus on an analysis of what makes it engaging and fun. That makes reading your reviews so much more fulfilling and informative, I think. Also, I love hearing gameplay stories; Propaganda for the win!
This sounds like someone looked at Dominion, got rid of the worst bits, and made the best bits better.
Tom, your reviews, when they are positive, are better than any ad copy ever written!
Hey Tom,
I used to be a big fan of your work in Computer Gaming World, up until they stopped running "Tom vs Bruce" and the great magazine disappeared from my library, and later on, all publication. Almost a decade later, I listen to Idle Thumbs' "Three Moves Ahead" podcast on Wargame and lo and behold, you're in it. I never knew about your site until then, but it's great to see that you're still writing. Keep it up!
Thanks so much, Mr. Khang! Glad you found your way here.
Corrections:
"Astonomy"
"stream [sic] train-less opponents"
"You play [it] at the end of a battle phase"
"we all reveal what we'[v]e written"
There are several copies for sale on BGG. You can buy it from the publisher with the expansion and a bunch of extras for $180.
-Tom
I’ve been hovering on BGG lately and didn’t quite grasp you could buy stuff there…
and the publisher is having a sale…
oh man…
But the shipping, ouch, almost doubles the cost :(.
edit: also, maybe cheeky, but have you reviewed Root? I searched through your sortable table and couldn’t find it. Seems it’d be just your type of board game.
I have not reviewed it, but I’ve played a ton. I have all the expansions and extra content. And while I understand the complaints about Root, I love it. Maybe even lurv it!
-Tom
AFAIK the complaints are the factions are “too asymmetric for their own good…”
which sounds like a plus for me :S
Unfortunately this is not available anywhere at the moment through distribution.
