Dave and Jennie brought Clans of Caledonia for our game night last week. This Euro-style game released in 2017 was both fun and challenging. I will share an overview of the game as well as thoughts and opinions. An Overview of the Game In Clans of Caledonia, players take on the role of Scottish Clans in 19th century Scotland. The game is designed for one to four players. Each player selects from a group of unique clan tiles and starting tiles which make the starting resources and persistent abilities slightly different for each. The game takes place over the course of five rounds. Each round utilizes a randomly selected bonus which can earn each player victory points for completion at the end of the round. Players place workers, farms and factories on different locations on the board. Considerations must be made for terrain on the board; forests, mountains fields and water. The workers produce money (coins), farms produce resources and during the production phase the factories can process resources creating produced goods. Export contracts can be selected and completed by supplying the proper resources then gaining the resulting points, products and resources. Players can choose to buy or sell their resources and produced goods at the market. These market actions require the use of merchants and will drive the prices of goods up (after a buy) or down (after a sale). After five rounds have been completed, players tally the results of multiple victory point categories. The player with the most points wins. Thoughts and Opinions
This medium-to-heavy-weight Euro game has a lot going on. In addition to the robust economic mechanisms, there is also an element of territory control. Different locations may block other players or take advantage of neighborhood pricing in nearby hexes. Interacting with other players occurs primarily on the board in the placement of pieces on the board, in the export contract board and in the market. There are a lot of choices and decisions to be made, though all are manageable. The shipping and navigation portion was a bit confusing as it seemed to be calculated slightly differently when applied to shipping across water tiles versus when using to calculate separation of settlements at the end of the game. Our group of Jennie, Dave, Chris and myself enjoyed the game. Chris and I were new to the game and attempted to compete against Jennie and Dave who had a few plays under their belts. I can see how it might take a game or two to get fully familiarized with the nuances of how the goods relate to each other and advantages to locations on the board. Somehow I ended up with the high score by just a couple of points, so being new to the game was apparently not a huge handicap. Those liking Euro-style games and some brain drain should enjoy Clans of Caledonia. If you'd like to read more about it on Board Game Geek, click here. I appreciate the continued support and feedback from fellow board gamers and those getting into the hobby. Please use the comments section to add your thoughts or ask questions. Thank you for visiting King's GameNight tabletop gaming blog and... Game on!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
March 2021
King's GameNight
Special 10% off Coupon Code: KGN10
|