The Art of Noise

Thursday night games! Adam and Hannah were the hosts, and I (Sam) was the guest. The first point of order was to change my clothes, as I had come straight from football and was drenched. That resolved, we stepped lightly to the Games Cupboard and debated our choices. It quickly narrowed down to either Tinner’s Trail or Clank!, which I had brought along, and Hannah plumped for Clank over TT.

I went through the rules and we set off. In Clank! you’re racing around a dungeon trying to emerge victorious by having the most treasure, which comes in the form of artefacts and gold, (many cards also score points). It’s a deck-building game, so you’re improving your cards as you go, and they have three currencies: skill to gain more cards, travel to navigate the dungeon, and swords to deal with any lurking monsters. 

The dungeon, Easton

Which all sounds very generic, but the clank of the title is the noise you make that puts you in dragon-related peril. Whenever you play a card that makes clank (it’s a noun as well as a verb) you have to place a cube of your colour on the Clank! area - and when the dragon attacks all these cubes go in the bag, before a certain amount (it increases as the game goes on) are pulled out. If your cubes are among them, you take damage. 

That's clanking!

That's clank!

That’s basically it - there are some other frills on the board that can help you and cards that can hinder, but the gist of the game is grab loot and get out. The getting out is also pertinent though, because as soon as one player returns to the surface (getting a Mastery bonus for doing so) there are only 4 turns left for the remaining players underground to try and make the surface, and in each round the dragon attacks again!

Adam chickens out whilst Hannah and I are stranded

This endgame was pretty tense. Adam was first to the surface, and Hannah and I had to dash back as quickly as we could. I made it thanks to a fortuitous deal of the cards, but Hannah was blasted to unconsciousness by the dragon. Adam!!!!

Adam and I are safe, whilst Hannah (red) is one cube from comatose

Because she wasn’t in the depths - the lower part of the board - she could be rescued and score her points. But she missed out on the Mastery token, and as a result, finished third behind me. Adam was first!!!

Adam 105

Sam 92

Hannah 73

It was really fun. Very silly, with no dice-rolling but a genuine push-your-luck feel throughout. The best treasure is down deep, but then you have further to get back. If you do trigger the endgame, you need to be confident you’re going to outscore your opponents. And the dragon attacks are laced with tension, because you really don’t want your cubes to come out. Like Hit Z Road, I found myself rooting for Hannah to make it. 

Thanks guys - thanks for bailing me out with T-Shirt and socks too!