Dec
11
Clans
Aaaaaaand we’re back! After a long delay due to efforts to bring Boardgame News up to speed, FAB reviews will appear far more regularly in the weeks ahead.
Theme Week: The Fewer, The Better
Games by designer Leo Colovini tend to be more strategic and less chaotic when played with the fewest number of people listed on the box. (Some argue that his games are most fun when played with zero players, but we’ll ignore those sourpusses.) FAB has already reviewed Colovini’s Cartagena and Familienbande; this week, seven more games from Signor Colovini.
Designer: Leo Colovini
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Year Published: 2002
Price: $27.95
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Number of Players:
2
3
4
Age Range:
10-up
Family
Teen
Game Type:
Hidden roles
The necessities of life are considered to be food, water, and shelter from the elements. Good things all, you can hardly argue against them being essential to your well-being. Leo Colovini, however, would like to add another element to the list: the ability to form relationships with your neighbors and show them who’s boss of the land.
Clans brings players back to the dawn of time, when small groups of people lived in settlements isolated from their strangely-colored peers. The game board, which consists of four types of terrain divided into 60 regions, starts with a small wooden hut on each region; these huts come in five colors (black, blue, yellow, red, green) which are placed semi-randomly at the start of the game.
Each player’s turn is simplicity itself: You take all of the huts from one region and move them into an adjacent region that …
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