Man, you guys have to work on the transition music Volume. The music exploded on my headphone after Tom talked for a bit. Big fan. So take it as constructive.
Hi Tom. Excellent reviews and explanations. I have been watching loads of your reviews lately. My family love playing clank, and now I am looking for another Dungeon crawler type. I like your review of Dungeon run, but i am in the UK and finding it hard to get. I am also looking at Descent, but I don't want anything too complicated or time consuming to setup (Descent looks a bit more involved than Dungeon run and clank right?). I also looked at Dungeon quest, and even Dungeon! which might be too simplistic.. not sure, although as it is cheap to get and looks ok, my 11 year old might really like it, which was what your daughter said on your Dungeon! review. Any ideas or pointers would be great. thx, Russ
I stumbled upon this game the first day if GenCon and I kicked myself for not buying it immediately! since it sold out on day one....oh well. I look forward to this when it hits stores!
I like it, nice deck building game. The one I want to see is the review of Vast : The Crystal Castles, would be nice to see Zee's opinion on that one as it's not straight Ameritrash, people are saying that it really is a Gamers Game.
Ckank! is a lot more fun, but suffers a little bit from "waiting your turn" at 4 players count (but is very good at 2 or 3 players). 7 wonders is really good at any players count from 3 to 7 and maybe a little more strategic. They both have a strong tactical / opportunistic dimension, but I've found Clank! to be more prone to variance due to luck on the draw on critical turns, which also makes it fun to play. I've played Clank! a lot less so I might be biased against its strategic dimension though, but that's certainly the way the game feels as a beginner.
In hindsight my critiques of Clank! are only two (well, three) things for an otherwise perfect mashup of deckbuilding, push-your-luck, and light fantasy dungeon crawl: 1. A deckbuilder that allows the game to end so early that folks' decks are still basically identical, means pure randomness and luck can steal games, and this doesnt feel good. Over time a better built deck will overcome randomness and win - but that time must be allowed. So a player snatching the first available treasure and skedaddling to start the endgame countdown, seems to really go against the game's core strength and denies everyone else the chance to actually deckbuild. 2. For a deckbuilder, the game is frustratingly lacking in ways to trash cards and thin your deck, meaning the only way to overcome the weakness of starting cards is to grow your deck as fast as possible - which kills any hope of building a tight or focused deck built around any sort of strategy (such as monkey idols, companions, or crowns). This waters down theme and makes decks feel samey. 3?: A minor subsidiary complaint is there arent enough ways to give opponents Clank. Maybe that was a design choice based on wanting to avoid too many "take that" elements, but again this fails to embrace the theme of a group of dastardly rogues backstabbing and tripping each other left and right. My group established three house rules to fix these three problems, abd it's helped a lot! 1. The fix here is a sort of minimum time limit: folks may leave early, but they will wait on the Meeple flag in exit order. The first exiter will NOT go to the first space of the Countdown Track until ALL the following criteria are met: a. Dragon Rage has at least reached a 3-cube space, AND b. Two players end their turn in the Depths simultaneously OR two remaining players in the game are holding at least one Artifact each. Once these criteria are met, the FIRST exiter moves to the first Countdown space and gets to do the usual maniacal laughter while playing Dragon. Skip these rules in two-player. 2. Similar to the infinite Goblin that can be beaten up for money, another card is added to the Reserve, which ive called the Forget Spell. It starts the game with three cubes on it in each player's color. On your turn, remove one of your cubes from it. If there were already zero, you can reveal any card in your hand and pay the purchase Skill cost to Trash that card (treat Starter cards as costing 1). Then put three of your cubes back on the Forget Spell. Do this only once per turn. Unlike regular Trashing, you cannot first use the card for its ability; you must Forget unused cards from your hand. 3. If you want to add more "take that", add the "Firecracker" card to the Reserve area. Like the Goblin and the Forget Spell this is permanent and no one can buy it. To use Firecracker, expend Boots equal to the distance between you and an opponent you do NOT share a board space with. (These boots can't be used to move this turn.) That player may COUNTER your Firecracker by discarding cards with Sword icons; only one Sword is enough to deflect the Firecracker. If they discarded swords equal to or higher than the boots you expended, they REVERSE your Firecracker. They can also reverse it by discarding a Sidestep. Reversal causes the Firecracker to hit you instead of them. Whoever is hit draws the top card of the Dungeon Deck and counts all icons on it other than skill cost (blue, bottom right) and points value (green, top right). Numbers inside Skill diamonds don't count, the blue diamond is worth one. Swords on Monsters DO count, so do the symbols for Enters, Danger, and Dragon Attack. The person hit by the Firecracker totals all the icons and adds this much Clank. If a Monster with an Arrive trigger is revealed, resolve that trigger now. Then, if the card had a Dtagon Attack, resolve that too. Finally, put it on the bottom of the Dungeon Deck.
If only this was not so hideously overpriced. I can buy Talisman 4th AND an expansion for less, with a whole bunch of minis and far more cardboard in the box.
I picked this up today. I am seriously disappointed at the price for what you get. We even had a $10 off coupon and it was still way too much! Having difficulty wanting to play the game after I seen what I got for the money I just spent. 😕
yeah i mean it's a great game, so you should play, especially since you already paid for it! at the price they could at least have made the cards thicker/better quality though. or included sleeves, and like maybe 100 more cards haha.
it gets replayibility as you get the expansions... I played the core without expansions several times and never got bored... now with the expansions I am revisiting it. hope there will be more to come though
what I hate btw is that this is a pure "player elimination" amerithrash. but it doesnt bother me, as I like simple games and the board.. so my game group and I like it
Im proud that I had a chance to work on this! Thank you!
What did you do?
Man, you guys have to work on the transition music Volume. The music exploded on my headphone after Tom talked for a bit.
Big fan. So take it as constructive.
Having a gameboard in a deckbuilder usually results in magic: Trains and Super Motherload come to mind. Can't wait for this one!
I noticed the "Dice Tower seal of approval" on the one in my local toy shop. Have to try it out
Love the clarity of the video in this one.
Nice 'Shut the door'-outro! ;D
And great video quality!
Thanks for the review Tom and Dice Tower Team! It didn't take you 5 or even 2 years lol. I'm glad you liked it!
the Artwork made me buy this game! ;)
Very much appreciate your video man. Thank you.
Wow! what a high quality video! Did you change something with the camera or lighting recently? Superb quality!
Agreed, the video quality is much better than usual. Looks good!
Wow, Renegade Games is just killing it lately. Can't wait for Lotus and Blood of an Englishman!
Yes they are! Covert looks cool too! Company to watch!
Thanks for your reviews are very helpful.
It's like a cross between D&D and Dominion. Pretty good!
Hi Tom. Excellent reviews and explanations. I have been watching loads of your reviews lately. My family love playing clank, and now I am looking for another Dungeon crawler type. I like your review of Dungeon run, but i am in the UK and finding it hard to get. I am also looking at Descent, but I don't want anything too complicated or time consuming to setup (Descent looks a bit more involved than Dungeon run and clank right?). I also looked at Dungeon quest, and even Dungeon! which might be too simplistic.. not sure, although as it is cheap to get and looks ok, my 11 year old might really like it, which was what your daughter said on your Dungeon! review. Any ideas or pointers would be great. thx, Russ
And it has made to "into my collection" apparently (as shown in the yesterday's live Q&A).
I stumbled upon this game the first day if GenCon and I kicked myself for not buying it immediately! since it sold out on day one....oh well. I look forward to this when it hits stores!
Cool review!
I like it, nice deck building game. The one I want to see is the review of Vast : The Crystal Castles, would be nice to see Zee's opinion on that one as it's not straight Ameritrash, people are saying that it really is a Gamers Game.
Crystal Caverns. The Crystal Castle is from He-Man and it's plural is a band name.
Thanks for the great review Tom. Between Clank and 7 Wonders for a 4 member family, which one would be your pick?
Manos clank!
Ckank! is a lot more fun, but suffers a little bit from "waiting your turn" at 4 players count (but is very good at 2 or 3 players). 7 wonders is really good at any players count from 3 to 7 and maybe a little more strategic. They both have a strong tactical / opportunistic dimension, but I've found Clank! to be more prone to variance due to luck on the draw on critical turns, which also makes it fun to play. I've played Clank! a lot less so I might be biased against its strategic dimension though, but that's certainly the way the game feels as a beginner.
In hindsight my critiques of Clank! are only two (well, three) things for an otherwise perfect mashup of deckbuilding, push-your-luck, and light fantasy dungeon crawl:
1. A deckbuilder that allows the game to end so early that folks' decks are still basically identical, means pure randomness and luck can steal games, and this doesnt feel good. Over time a better built deck will overcome randomness and win - but that time must be allowed. So a player snatching the first available treasure and skedaddling to start the endgame countdown, seems to really go against the game's core strength and denies everyone else the chance to actually deckbuild.
2. For a deckbuilder, the game is frustratingly lacking in ways to trash cards and thin your deck, meaning the only way to overcome the weakness of starting cards is to grow your deck as fast as possible - which kills any hope of building a tight or focused deck built around any sort of strategy (such as monkey idols, companions, or crowns). This waters down theme and makes decks feel samey.
3?: A minor subsidiary complaint is there arent enough ways to give opponents Clank. Maybe that was a design choice based on wanting to avoid too many "take that" elements, but again this fails to embrace the theme of a group of dastardly rogues backstabbing and tripping each other left and right.
My group established three house rules to fix these three problems, abd it's helped a lot!
1. The fix here is a sort of minimum time limit: folks may leave early, but they will wait on the Meeple flag in exit order. The first exiter will NOT go to the first space of the Countdown Track until ALL the following criteria are met:
a. Dragon Rage has at least reached a 3-cube space, AND
b. Two players end their turn in the Depths simultaneously OR two remaining players in the game are holding at least one Artifact each.
Once these criteria are met, the FIRST exiter moves to the first Countdown space and gets to do the usual maniacal laughter while playing Dragon.
Skip these rules in two-player.
2. Similar to the infinite Goblin that can be beaten up for money, another card is added to the Reserve, which ive called the Forget Spell. It starts the game with three cubes on it in each player's color. On your turn, remove one of your cubes from it. If there were already zero, you can reveal any card in your hand and pay the purchase Skill cost to Trash that card (treat Starter cards as costing 1). Then put three of your cubes back on the Forget Spell. Do this only once per turn. Unlike regular Trashing, you cannot first use the card for its ability; you must Forget unused cards from your hand.
3. If you want to add more "take that", add the "Firecracker" card to the Reserve area. Like the Goblin and the Forget Spell this is permanent and no one can buy it. To use Firecracker, expend Boots equal to the distance between you and an opponent you do NOT share a board space with. (These boots can't be used to move this turn.) That player may COUNTER your Firecracker by discarding cards with Sword icons; only one Sword is enough to deflect the Firecracker. If they discarded swords equal to or higher than the boots you expended, they REVERSE your Firecracker. They can also reverse it by discarding a Sidestep. Reversal causes the Firecracker to hit you instead of them. Whoever is hit draws the top card of the Dungeon Deck and counts all icons on it other than skill cost (blue, bottom right) and points value (green, top right). Numbers inside Skill diamonds don't count, the blue diamond is worth one. Swords on Monsters DO count, so do the symbols for Enters, Danger, and Dragon Attack. The person hit by the Firecracker totals all the icons and adds this much Clank. If a Monster with an Arrive trigger is revealed, resolve that trigger now. Then, if the card had a Dtagon Attack, resolve that too. Finally, put it on the bottom of the Dungeon Deck.
New camera?
Looks really fun, but wow is that board dark...
Dark is certainly a theme. The cards are dark too. However, I had no trouble reading them when I played.
I was wondering. Do you shuffle your Deck before each turn or just when you have no cards left to draw?
You shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck when you need to draw a card and have an empty deck.
Is 2 player TOO fast? Hoping to get this for me and my parter but wondering if maybe it's not worth it at 2.
did u ever find an answer for this?
alas, i did not!@@shazam2323
You forgot to drop the board
Clank is a robot named XJ 20651 ans its in ratchet and clank future crack in time
sounds way too difficult for me personally, nice art though!
i like this hi def
If only this was not so hideously overpriced. I can buy Talisman 4th AND an expansion for less, with a whole bunch of minis and far more cardboard in the box.
at MSRP it really is overpriced, purely based on the amount and quality of stuff in the box. still a great game despite that!
I picked this up today. I am seriously disappointed at the price for what you get. We even had a $10 off coupon and it was still way too much! Having difficulty wanting to play the game after I seen what I got for the money I just spent. 😕
yeah i mean it's a great game, so you should play, especially since you already paid for it! at the price they could at least have made the cards thicker/better quality though. or included sleeves, and like maybe 100 more cards haha.
Nice light deckbuilding game. Board ugly tho.
That board just looks messy
The dragon is a lady, why has no one in any of these reviews actually read and understood that.
lol I actually noticed it... and compared to the lady dragon from the Shrek movie xD
It's a good game, but the replay ability isn't the best. Board is meh
it gets replayibility as you get the expansions... I played the core without expansions several times and never got bored... now with the expansions I am revisiting it.
hope there will be more to come though
what I hate btw is that this is a pure "player elimination" amerithrash. but it doesnt bother me, as I like simple games and the board.. so my game group and I like it
@@elangelmon if only you get rescued but drop all your treasures instead, like deep sea adventure
Clank jeux