Clank!

Today's game review is of the 2016 release, Clank!  For 2-4 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview
You are a thief, longing to be tops in the realm.  There's a dungeon filled with loot and of course a dragon guarding it all.  Need I say more?

In Clank!, your goal is to earn the most points by delving into the dungeon, grab one artifact plus what loot you can in the various rooms you'll explore, and get outta there before the dragon comes and puts a damper on the fun.  Of course, competing thieves, monsters, and other challenges are down there, too.  But it's not all bad- there's a market and allies who can be quite helpful . . . though sometimes the best things you can do make a lot of noise (symbolized by adding 'clank' cubes to a bag).  Whenever the dragon attacks, a certain number of cubes are taken at random from the bag, and you take damage whenever your color is drawn.  So plan carefully!  You die if your health meter reaches zero.

A deck building game combined with a dungeon crawler, Clank! has players using cards to move from room to room in search of secrets and artifacts.  Some chambers can be accessed only via certain means, and the paths can be fraught with monsters.  So make sure your deck can address all of these challenges (more on this later).

the board with some cards; image from here

There are effectively three board areas: outside, inside the dungeon (but above ground), and the depths.  You cannot leave the dungeon until you go into the depths and take one artifact.  Then you can hang out to grab more loot or high tail it back to fresh air.  What will you choose?


Simplified Gameplay
You start the game with a shuffled 10-card deck of fixed cards (see image below).  On your turn, you draw 5 and must play all of them on your turn (even ones that may have a negative effect) in any order.  Generally cards give you one (or more) of three resources: skill (needed to buy cards to add to your deck), swords (to fight monsters), and boots (to move around the dungeon).  Some can give you money, too, which you can use in the market to buy cool objects.  Play your cards, use your resources to buy/fight/move, and strategize accordingly.  Used (and purchased) cards are placed in your discard pile, to be shuffled into your deck and used again when the deck runs out.  Make sure you get the right mixture of skill, swords, and boots . . . all the skill in the world won't matter if you can't move from room to room.

starting cards; image from here

Turns proceed clockwise.  Any player who gets out of the dungeon gets 20 points, and the first to do so starts the countdown to ending the game.  The other players have 5 turns to get out, marked by increasing dragon attacks.  If you end up above ground (but still inside the dungeon), your points are tallied but without that 20-point bonus true escapees enjoy.  But if you're in the depths at game's end, you're annihilated [in the game] and you get no points.

Points are awarded at game's end by adding the value of your artifact, loot, money, and certain cards in your deck (labeled with points on them).

Review
I really like this game, which combines deck building with dungeon crawling in a fun way.  If you like Dominion, you'll love this.  The point system is well constructed (with lots of ways to earn them) so that it's not all about speed- I was the first out of the dungeon, with a decent artifact, and finished third.  This will be a staple in my collection.

Rating: A