Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure

Designer: Paul Dennen

Artist: Rayph Beisner, Raul Ramos, Nate Storm

Published: 2016
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 30-60 Mins
BGG Rating: 7.8
BGG Ranking: 90

Publisher: Dire Wolf

Mechanisms: Deck Building, End Game Bonuses, Open Drafting, Player Elimination, Push Your Luck

Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm

Game Description:

Burgle your way to adventure in the deck-building board game Clank! Sneak into an angry dragon's mountain lair to steal precious artifacts. Delve deeper to find more valuable loot. Acquire cards for your deck and watch your thievish abilities grow.

 

Be quick and be quiet. One false step and CLANK! Each careless sound draws the attention of the dragon, and each artifact stolen increases its rage. You can enjoy your plunder only if you make it out of the depths alive!

 

Quick play overview:

Players will move through the dungeon, collect artifacts and buy some expensive cards, while trying to escape the dangerous dragon… it’s dragon’s loot after all.

 

This game added movement and combat on top of the standard “money” to acquire new cards. Players will try to balance their decks to have enough ENERGY to buy new and better cards, BOOTS  to get deep into the dungeon for the best artifacts and SWORDS to fight monsters for points and other rewards.

 

After each player’s turn the market row will be refilled and if at least one new card has a dragon symbol, that player will have to draw cubes from the dragon bag and check who got damaged in the latest dragon attack.

 

“If I don’t put my cubes in the bag, I’m safe right? Right?” Well, yes… but you are a greedy adventurer with bags full of juicy stolen items… and carrying all that loot around ain’t easy. There will be some clanking done, if you want it or not.

 

Once players got an artifact, they should get the hell out of the dungeon as only the players who reach the inn can tell the tale and earn extra points.

 

 

Final thoughts:

Clank! has a great mix of pure fast deck-building and some additional choices that make the game fun. Adding the possibility of being eliminated and scoring 0 points (or some points if you managed to reach the safe zone), is a great idea. Because if it happens, it’s usually at the end of the game and the player usually pushed their luck just a bit too much and got what he deserved. You cannot just grab stuff from the dragon and not pay the consequences, well not for a long time at least.

 

The game can take a bit too long if (new) players have to read each card  only once it’s their turn instead of checking the available cards in advance and only read the 1-2 new cards that became available after the previous player’s turn.

 

 

 

FINAL SCORE:

Gameplay & How often I want to play it: 8/10

The game has a nice flow to it. A good mix between buying cards that provide good points and cards that will allow you to move around and actually bring those points out of the dungeon.

The game can get a bit long as new cards are always showing up and players can take a long time to finish their turn… so it’s not my deck-builder of choice.

 

Art & Graphic Design:

The gameboard and nice art on cards bring this game to file. Graphic design is clean and easy to read.

 

Rules & Complexity:

The ruleset is very easy. Three different icons that manage 99% of the actions in the game are easy to remember.

Complexity is also very low. There are little to no special rules that you should thing about during the game.

 

Theme & Mechanism fit:

Walking into the den of the dragon and trying to bring out as much gold as possible without being burned to a crisp is a great fit to the push your luck and deck-building mechanism. Acquiring equipment and companions along the way to help you bring out the loot is fun and well implemented.

 

Fun & Replayability:

The market deck is big and yet, most of the cards do the same things with a different ratio. There are not many combos that you should be looking for etc. It’s a tactical game, not a strategic one.  Replayability comes from having fun with friends and pushing them into taking bigger risks than you and hoping that they get burned by listening to your suggestions.