ELEMENTAL CLASH

Todays review will be of Elemental Clash, an as of yet unpublished Living Card Game (LCG) which has been fully developed and extensively tested. Elemental Clash focuses on a world in which magic runs rampant. Sorcerers and Wizards vie for power using their magical spells, cast from powerful Spellbooks. Battle is waged in an attempt to destroy the Spellbook of your opponent, proving your status as a more powerful, witty, and adept master of magic. The first magic user who has no spells left in his Spellbook is declared the loser, having been outmatched in a battle of wits.

This back story is brought to life in the game play of Elemental Clash through the use of a deck depletion based victory mechanic. Each player begins the game with a deck of 40 cards, which can be either one of the pre-constructed decks or one in which you have chosen cards from several different “booster sets” to mix and match. Four different base Elements exist in the game: Water, Earth, Air and Fire, with the capability to mix and match Element card types (each Element has cards associated with it), or focus on a one Element deck. Booster sets, in traditional LCG style, will contain one of each card from an expansion set. Your constructed deck of cards is considered to be your “Spellbook”. The basic rundown of the game will be familiar to players of the popular CCG Magic: the Gathering. Players will hold a hand of 5 cards which may contain Spells, Creatures, or Elemental Stones. Spells and Creatures, as they sound, are the main means of protecting from and dealing damage, as well as augmenting various aspects of the game. Elemental Stones are the power which is required to play these Spells and Creatures (think mana for you MtG players).

Although the game does draw many similarities from MtG, there are significant differences which allow Elemental Clash to stand out as a separate game. Short summaries of these unique aspects are as follows:

1. SPELL DECK/LIFE FORCE COMBINATION

Rather than having both a life force AND a deck, Elemental Clash combines these two aspects in to the simple Spellbook concept. Each player’s deck of 40 cards represents their ability to cast spells. Damage dealt to a player causes that player to lose cards from his Spellbook, which subsequently get placed in to his “Archive” (discard pile). When a player goes to draw a card and none or left, the game ends and that player has lost.

2. PLAY FIELD ZONES

The Elemental Clash playing field is much more defined and integral to play. Each players playing field is divided into three distinct areas, the Attack Zone, Defense Zone and Elemental Stone Zone. These three regions will be the locations in which you are allowed to play your Spells, Creatures, and Elemental Stones.

THE ATTACK ZONE

The Attack and Defense Zones will hold only creatures, and will determine what roles a Creature can play. In the Attack Zone, creatures are allowed to directly attack the opposing player, attempting to deal damage and force discarding from the player’s Spellbook. Creatures in this zone are unable to block incoming attacks, but may be the target of direct attacks themselves (which is a viable option to kill off your opponents attack zone creatures). Only 5 creatures may ever be in this zone at once.

THE DEFENSE ZONE

Creatures played in the Defense Zone, as it may seem obvious, are capable of defending from incoming attacks directed at a player. These creatures may not be the target of DIRECT attacks, but may instead be dealt damage that was intended to hurt a player directly. This zone allows for damage mitigation in the hopes of preserving ones Spellbook. Only 5 creatures may ever been in this zone at once.

THE ELEMENTAL STONE ZONE

As mentioned previously, this region will contain the Elemental Stones which are required to play your Spells and Creatures. Each turn a player may play one Elemental Stone to this region. This may seem much like mana in MtG, but a key difference in game play changes how this mechanic works dramatically. Rather than having individual lands/mana to use, Elemental Stones function in piles. Each player will have 5 spaces in their Elemental Stone Zone in which to form piles of Elemental Stones. These piles will be used to play spells and creatures. Elemental Stone piles generate energy which is capable of being used to summon Spells and Creatures to do the Wizard’s bidding. The type of energy produced by an Elemental Stone pile is determined by what color of stone rests on the bottom of the pile. This means that several different types of Elemental Stones (Earth, Fire, Water, Air) can be in one pile, but ONLY one type of energy will be generated from that pile. Creatures and Spells have both an element and a level associated with them, as denoted on the cards. These cards may be level 1-3, which is equal to the amount of Elemental Stone power required to cast them. For example, an Earth Creature with a level of 3 would require an Elemental Stone pile of 3 stones (or in some special cases, fewer stones which produce more energy), with an Earth stone at the bottom of the pile. If the conditions for playing a Spell or Creature are met by one of your Elemental Stone piles, you may play your card on top of that pile. Spells played in this manner will then take effect and remain there until the beginning of a players next turn, at which time they are moved to the discard pile in most cases. Creatures played in this manner remain on the pile until the beginning of the next players turn, at which point they may be moved to either the Attack or Defense zones in order to carry out the role required by the Sorcerer. Elemental Stone piles which have a card played on top of them are considered used until that card is removed.

An image of the playing zones can be seen here:

———————————————————————————————————–

Ok, now that we have covered the unique aspects of Elemental Clash, lets take a look at how a player turns progress in the game:

PLAYER TURNS

Each turn a player will have a general turn order to follow. On a players turn the player will do the following:

1. The player may move any creatures played on an Elemental Stone pile during his previous turn to either the Attack or Defense zone of his play field. Spells cast in the previous turn will generally be moved to the Archive.

2. The player MUST draw a card from their Spellbook to their hand

3. The player may play an Elemental Stone to their Elemental Stone zone, forming a new pile or adding to an existing one.

4. Player may play any Spells/Creatures that they have the appropriate Elemental Stone piles for

5. Player may attack with any Creatures in the Attack Zone

The opposing player may have several responses which they may carry out on an opponents turn. These steps are by no means exhaustive as to what can be done on a player turn, but are more a general flow of how a player turn plays out. After a player has finished his turn, play will pass to the next player, who will carry out their turn. This will continue until one player is unable to draw a card from their Spellbook, at which point they have lost.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS/REVIEW

GAME ART

All of the artwork for this game has been done, as far as I know, by the game designer Andreas Propst. The art, although done in a sketch format, is unique and well done. The card design is colorful, simple, and easy to read. All-in-all, for a early design with only one artist, the artwork done on this game is elegant and above satisfactory. Is it professional computer design? No… But lets be realistic, we are talking about one man here…

GAME PLAY

As you can see, Elemental Clash bears many similarities to CCGs past and present. While this may be true, I think the unique mechanics presented in the game provide a new enough feel to distinguish the game from some of its predecessors. The integration of a divided playing field in to the game design changes the game from a purely card based deck building game to a game which requires thought on the best “board” positioning of ones Creatures, Spells and Elemental Stones. The deck depletion mechanism simplifies the game end conditions by doing away with the concept of “life” that is so common in LCG/CCG/TCG games.

Long time CCG players may not be the target audience for this game, although as a CCG player myself I did get some enjoyment out of using the cards to attempt to build new and interesting concept decks. With the simpler play style, non-collectable card sets, and easy to understand (read non-convoluted) rules, Elemental Clash may well target itself towards the non-CCG crowd. It may even serve as a decent introduction to the world of CCGs (even though it isn’t one) for those people who have a fledgling interest in delving in to the money sink of CCG play.

DESIGNER

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with the designer/developer of Elemental Clash, Andreas Propst, about his game and his plans for the future. Although the base game is set to be published “soon”, Andreas has already worked out several expansion sets to the game which will be available shortly after initial publishing. Additionally, Andreas, along with some programming helpers, has managed to implement a Vassal module for play. He has offered to allow players to try the game against the developer, and can be contacted on board game geek under the user name Jilocasin.

Vassal can be downloaded from:

http://www.vassalengine.org

and you can find the Elemental Clash module at:

http://www.vassalengine.org/community/index.php?option=com_v…

Also, for those of you who do try out the game, here is a promotional card which will be available ONLY from this blog.  Feel free to grab it up!

And for even more Elemental Clash info please see:  http://elementalclash.com

Second on my review list is the worker placement game, Stone Age:

Stone age is a beautifully designed worker placement mechanic game produced by Rio Grande Games. In this game players decide how best to utilize their “workers” to collect resources, food, tools, cards and more workers. Achieving resources is important for building/buying huts in order to score victory points. Maintaining a balance of collecting resources, earning food, and scoring victory points is the main challenge of the game. Each turn is divided in to 3 stages:

I. Worker Placement – each player takes a turn placing meeples on to any of the available action spots (mating, tool building, hunting, resource harvesting, farming, card buying or hut buying). This phase continues until all meeples from all players have been placed.

II. Actions – each player performs the actions dictated by where they have placed their meeples. Actions may be taken in any order (resource collection before buying a hut or hut before resources?), and the order of events can affect game play.

III. Feeding – each player must now pay 1 food for each meeple/worker they have. Failure to feed your workers results in a loss of victory points or the necessity to pay resources.

These phases are carried out each turn. Game play ends when one one pile of huts (used for scoring victory points) have been depleted. At this point players score points based on remaining resources, cards collected (too detailed to explain in a short review), and varying other factors determined by collected cards. The player who has the most victory points at the end of the game wins!

As far as family game play goes, I will break this review down in to several categories:

1) Ease of Play: The game play here could be a bit complex for a family starting out in gaming. I noticed that my family tended to get stuck on collecting resources, forgetting all-together the existence of cards at the beginning. That said, I find new players quickly adapt to the rules, and in the second or third game pick up on the importance of other game factors. The three stages are well defined, and easy to follow. Layout of the board, and icons used to define game play are simple to understand and easy to follow.

2) Clarity of Rules: The clarity of the rule set is very important to family game play. Older parents, or younger children, often have a hard time following the ambiguous rules that come with many of the more “gamer style” games. Stone age, however, comes with a relatively concise and easy to follow rule book, and even puts certain rule abbreviations on the individual player boards. Additionally, a small reference guide is included for quick rule checks and point references. My mother, who is notoriously bad with rules, had absolutely no questions after her first game through.

3) Visual Appeal: This is one are where this game truly shines. The board included with stone age is an example of true beauty in a board design. Colorful illustrations on both the main game board and the individual player boards. The art is well drawn in all examples.

4) Quality of production: I have mixed opinions on this. In terms of the game board, game pieces, dice, etc. I think the production quality of Stone Age is on par with any game out there. That being said, the insert included with the box leaves something to be desired. This game comes with some the most elaborate art you could hope for, with a design printed even on the BACK of the game board. On the other hand….flimsy cardboard insert with no real organizational pattern. I just don’t get it.

5) Fun Factor: Excellent! I always enjoy this game, and it has quickly worked its way in to the family top 3 (following Carcassone and Ticket to Ride). There can be minimal, or more extensive, player interaction. Everyone gets a turn at first choice of play, and this provides great balance to the game. Additonally, play time is not too long which saves from the boredom factor often common in family game play.

6) Strategy: I think perhaps the game may lack a little here. Granted, there are multiple ways to go about managing both the feeding of your workers and the scoring of VP, but in the most part it comes down to “get just enough food, just enough resources, buy a hut or some cards to score VP”. This isn’t meant to be taken the wrong way, and I do believe a fair amount of planning can be undertaken to ensure a victory. However, with some luck in the roll of the dice, and a fairly predictable game pattern, it isn’t the MOST strategic game out there.

Summary:
As everyone can probably tell, Stone Age is a game which I myself, as well as my family, greatly enjoy. It is a quick worker placement style game which has simple, easy to follow game play. With beautiful art, well written rules, and a competitive but non-threatening style, Stone Age provides a good introduction to the worker-placement mechanic while maintaining a light gaming environment. I recommend this game for anyone looking to introduce their family to a light-medium gaming experience.

Thank you much for reading my review. Stay tuned to my blog for more Family Focus Game Reviews, or check out  my geeklist on Boardgamegeek for more reviews oriented at gaming within a family environment. The geeklist can be found at:

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/46140

Also, note that Elemental Clash has recently become available as a module on VASSAL, an online engine which has modules available for many different card and board games.  If you are interested, please take a look…new designers need all the exposure they can get.  Enjoy the card all, and look forward to the release, and my review, of Elemental Clash!

First on the list is Ingenious, a Knizia classic.

Ingenious is an abstract tile game in which the players place colored double-hexagonal tiles in order to match tile colors. In placing a tile, players score 1 point in that color for each tile in a straight line which matches its color. At first this concept can be a bit hard to grasp, and indeed it is even difficult to explain in text. However, as will be discussed later, the rulebook offers clear and precise visual examples of appropriate scoring. The goal of the game is to advance your score in each individual color. At end game, a players individual score is equal to the color in which they have the lowest score. For this reason, the goal of the game is to evenly advance your score in each color.

As far as family game play goes, I will attempt to break this down in to several categories:

1) Ease of Play: Ingenious provides a simple, easy to grasp abstract game which I find to be simple enough for all members of the family. Being the most avid gamer in the family, I find the game to be strategic enough to satisfy my hungers, but easy enough for my parents to compete. No advanced rule knowledge is required. Simply play your tiles, count your points, take a new tile and advance play to the left.

2) Clarity of Rules: As stated earlier, the rule book for this game is well defined and clear in describing the mechanisms of the game. Although text explanations may not always suffice, the rulebook provides good visual examples of appropriate scoring. Even my mom, who routinely has trouble with even the most mundane of rules, was able to quickly grasp the gameplay of Ingenious

3) Visual Appeal: As with most abstracts (particularly newer ones), the visual appeal of Ingenious is…well….mostly in its colors. The board is well designed, well laid out, and the pieces are colorful. Aside from this…visual appeal is a bit lacking.

4) Quality of production: I was a bit surprised at the quality of production here. For some reason I had expected a plastic game board which could somewhat hold the hex tiles in place after play. However, upon receiving the game I found the board to be cardboard. Granted, this hardly detracts from the game, but it was less than expected. Aside from this minor flaw, the game includes nice plastic tiles, convenient tile holders, and a nice bag for use in drawing tiles

5) Fun Factor: This is the really important part as far as family play is concerned. Ingenious, although an abstract, provides an enjoyable play for my family. The whole family is always willing to bring this one to the table, and it often gets everyone in the mood for more games after game play has finished.

Summary:
Ingenious is a simple, fun, and (mildly) attractive abstract game which is well suited for family play. The quick turn play, simplicity, and small learning curve ensure that it will often make its way to the table. Additionally, the ability to quickly move through 2-3 games is a real plus at family gaming events. Finally, the easy to grasp strategy is a real plus. I often find myself lacking games in which the entire family can participate on an equal strategic level. Ingenious provides just this, a fun and simple game with an element of strategy understandable by the whole family. This results in a game which is fun for the whole family, children to adult.

Thank you much for reading my review. Stay tuned to my blog for more Family Focus Game reviews, or see my  geeklist on Boardgamegeek.com for more reviews oriented at gaming within a family environment. The geeklist can be found at:

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/46140

If you’ve wandered this way you are probably familiar with Boardgamegeek.com, the site that has inspired my passion for board gaming, reviewing, designing and collecting.  This blog will serve as a hub for all of my reviews, my session reports, my thoughts and musings.  Soon I will migrate my Family Focus Review series from BGG over to WordPress, forming and easy to navigate and easy to read center for Family Gamers to get info on the latest, greatest (or possibly not so great) games to hit my table.  I hope this resource will prove useful to many of you out there…allowing you to spend quality time with your family in a more intimate and social environment.

~ Ryan