I bought this game on a whim as it was very cheap, and although I had done some research on it I didn't know a great deal about it. I had run across it once before while at a go weekend organized by the Belgian Go Federation. A Dutch 4-dan was pushing it, and while I only watched from a distance, it was clear he was quite enthusiastic about it.

After a couple plays, it became clear to me why a strong go player would like this game so much.

The Theme

I’ll start here, as I’ll be quickly finished. The supposed theme is movement of primitive tribes, and the founding of the first villages. However, this game is really an abstract, and it doesn't even try very hard to convince you of the contrary. If you don't expect any theme to hinder the gameplay, you'll be fine appreciating Clans.

Components

Clans comes in a tiny box, so I was amazed at the size of the board: it folds out six times, so even in the box is small, the board is quite respectable in size.



The board is divided into regions, each containing the following (Settlers reminiscent) areas: meadows, mountains, forests, and prairie. In each region, one of these areas is represented twice, and the others once. Rivers and lakes serve to divide the regions. An attentive eye will notice already that this game is quite abstract at heart; the board does not remotely resemble an actual landscape, though it looks quite nice. On the right of the board is a score track, and a sort of 'time-line' (more on this later).



Also in the box are twelve yellow cardboard ‘village’ discs, a bagful of wooden huts in red, blue, yellow, green and black, and five thick cardboard tiles each depicting a hut in one of the five colors. All in all, I think it's great that they didn't make the box any larger than it had to be. It does a wonderful job of storing the components, and especially of not taking a lot of space on the shelf! It makes the game easy to stuff in a backpack as well.



Rulebook & Rules

The rulebook is clearly written and has ample examples in case of doubt. You will be playing this game very soon even when learning from the rulebook and will not have to refer back to it later.

Clans is a game with a small number of simple rules. Setup consists of randomly putting huts on every areas on the board. This is done in such a way that every region contains one hut of every color.

The yellow discs are placed on the ‘time-line’, and each player gets randomly dealt one of the hut tiles. The excess tiles are put away without being seen. The color of the hut you were dealt is your color, meaning that you know what color you are, but not what colors your opponents are. Player colors are only revealed at the end of the game, so figuring out what colors your opponents play and trying not to give away your own is a part of the game, though in my opinion not an essential one. You do not need to know what colors your opponents play in order to win, even if it can definitely help.

Next, a starting player is randomly selected, and player start taking their turns going clockwise around the table:

- Choose an area containing one to six huts and move all huts in it to an adjacent area containing at least one hut. Crossing a river is ok; crossing a lake is not allowed.
- If this move results in areas being ‘isolated’, i.e. the areas surrounding it are all empty, then a village is founded in each newly isolated area:

+ If all five colors are present in the village, a clan war breaks out: remove all colors having only one hut in the new village.
+ Score points for all colors present in the village: each color scores 1 point per hut present in the village, regardless of the number of huts for each color. The person that founded the village receives the uppermost village chit from the time-line.

The game is over when the last village chit is awarded. Every player adds the number of village chits earned to their color’s score, whoever has the highest score wins the game.

Sounds simple, right?

What transforms this game into a truly good one is the time-line. It divides the game in different eras, each having one area type where it’s better to found a village that era (bonus points), and one where it’s worse (no points!). You keep track of the era you’re in through the village chits: if the last chit for the current era is taken, the following era sets in. The later the era, the more bonus points are awarded for the ‘optimum’ area, but the shorter the eras are.

Gameplay, Strategy & Tactics

Gameplay in Clans seems quite simple: move huts from one area to another, score points for any villages created. Repeat until the 12th village is built. If players don't spend a lot of thought on their moves, a 4 player game could easily be over in 15 minutes. It's pretty easy to play a couple games like this, then dismiss the game as a 'simple filler'.

If you enjoy playing abstract strategy games however, and you try to figure out how you're supposed to actually win this game, you will start to see the strategy and tactics hiding under the gaudy, colorful huts. It’s in this department that Clans has really surpassed my expectations. Played like this, and as an abstract I believe it's the way it's meant to be played, Clans is a brainburner that can be played very seriously, and can easily take 30-45 minutes to finish.

Even if I feel I haven't begun to scratch the surface of the strategy and tactics available, I'll make a few observations about the game, in no particular order, that may be food for thought. If any Clans veterans can validate and/or elaborate on these, please do. I'm eager to learn.

1) You cannot move huts to an empty area.

You move huts away from an area, and this area will remain empty for the rest of the game, so every move causes the board to change irreversibly. This tells us several things. First, every move matters; there are no trivial moves. Although there are mediocre games where this is the case, every game I rate highly has this characteristic.

More importantly though, it allows you to steer the game in a favorable direction. Two empty adjacent areas may well form a sort of 'fire lane', preventing huts from one side of it to get to the other side. Together with lakes and the sides of the board, these impassable areas can be used to your advantage to either change the color ratio, or preserve it, whichever serves your own ends best.

2) You cannot move a group containing more than 6 huts.

This can be used to 'lock' a group of huts in a certain area. Huts can be added, but the group cannot move away anymore. Make sure that when this happens, the group is either in a bad spot and contains few huts of your color, or is in a good spot and has at least as many huts in your color as in any other color. Just pay attention to timing here: if the era changes before the group is scored as a village, your plans may be foiled. Of course, this works the other way around too. If it would be more favorable for you to score the group in the next area, set up an easy village for your neighbor to speed up time.

3) There's only one high-potential area type at a time. There's only one area type on which any founded villages do not score any points at a time. Which area type is good/bad changes throughout the game.

This is of course an important part of the game. If you can get a group of enemy huts to be scored in a barren area, this is always a good thing, even if it's your opponent who scores it. As for the previous item, timing is important because what's good or bad changes throughout the game. Looking ahead and anticipating is key.

4) Clan Wars: If all colors are represented in a village, lone huts do not score any points.

Keep an eye on the possibility of clan wars occurring. As is often the case, this can be used to your advantage, or turn against you. Especially in the corners of the board it can easily happen that a region gets isolated. If this happens, the corner is basically wasted. As there is exactly one hut of every color, no points will be scored. and no-one will be so kind to give the next player a free village chit. Unless, of course, this is a small price to pay in order to speed up the game...

5) I know my own color, but not those of my opponents.

This has some implications, but I prefer not to pay too much attention to this (playing well without worrying about this is hard enough). As a consequence, I have not much to say about this. Any comments on this are welcome.

6)Points are scored only when villages get founded. Villages get founded when areas are isolated.

Scoring points is only possible through creating villages, and this mostly happens because your opponent set it up for you (knowingly or not). This means that Clans is not so much about scoring the most points for yourself, as it is about making your opponents score your points, and on the other hand not scoring too many points for them. In my opinion this is the strangest thing about the game.

A strong Clans player will look ahead, and set up favorable moves.

7)Late game villages potentially score a lot more points than early villages.

I think realising this improved my play considerably. The more huts of your color are left for scoring at the later stages of the game, the higher your odds for winning. So, try to 'burn' the other colors as soon as possible, and if possible try to save your own huts for later. I'm guessing it's better to avoid getting many of your own huts together in the opening, as this increases the risk that they'll be scored early.

Also, even if moves in the opening may seem less consequential, make no mistake: it's in the opening that the stages for the late game are set.

Conclusion

Clans caught me completely unawares with its depth. It's a very interesting and unique game, in a tiny and deceptively youthful package.

If you get the chance, I'd strongly recommend you to pick up a copy.

My rating:


The images used in this review were uploaded by Frouvne, peterk, caparica, and Gialmere. Thanks!