Clank! - A Quest For Booty - A Review

First Time's Not the Charm

What do you mean, "Watch out for the dragon?" What dragon?

I have a confession to make: on my first play of Clank!, I was not impressed at all. I knew that it ranked fairly high on the BGG listings here and as of February this year, I had several versions of Clank! on my wishlist because of how highly it was rated. Yet, I had never pulled the trigger on the game since I had yet to play it and I had learned from past mistakes about buying games before I played them. I first wanted to play the game before I pulled the trigger on it and due to circumstances beyond my control, I had been unable to play the game (since no one I knew had the game).

However, this all changed in February of this year since I was able to attend 2D Con Unplugged in Bloomington, MN for the first time. I had been wanting to attend a gaming convention as I had never had the opportunity to, but I wasn't really certain which one I should attend since I had never really dipped my feet into the realm of conventions before. I had attended a few conventions in the past (TwinCities Con, and a random juggling convention when I was in middle school) but never really had much of an opportunity to do so, so I was a bit of a neophyte in that regard. Anthony, my friend whom I have wrote about a lot in this blog, suggested that we go to 2D Con Unplugged as it was a smaller con and had a wide range of board games available to play.

Intrigued, I agreed to go and immediately started perusing the list of available games that were available on their list here on BGG. I found that they had quite a few games that I had wanted to try out, but never had the opportunity to play and I was beyond excited about the prospect. Games like Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Thunder Road: Vendetta, and Lost Ruins of Arnak (to name a few) were available for congoers to borrow at the con and play, which greatly excited me. I began putting together a (very long) list of games that I wanted to play at the con and starred several games that I would like to play specifically, Clank! being one of them.

I love dungeon crawlers and had been able to play Deliverance quite a bit in 2023/2024 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I've written about it in the past, but it does an excellent job of creating a cooperative game that is challenging, but not overly so, leaving the players feeling like the game is out to get them. Deliverance was my high standard of games to compare dungeon crawlers to and nothing in the past had really met with how much I liked the game. One Deck Dungeon had been played several times in 2023 after I purchased it, but it felt a bit lacking and too dependent upon dice rolls to really be considered a contender in the "Best Dungeon Crawler" category.

I came into the con with really high hopes for Clank! as I had watched several "How to Play" videos on the game and was very excited for what the game could potentially be. After a thrilling set of games of Thunder Road: Vendetta and Heat: Pedal to the Metal, I was now ready to try Clank!. Anthony had joined me for the latter game and we had a third for Heat: Pedal to the Metal, but ultimately, we decided to play a two player game of Clank!. We set up the game and proceeded through the harrowing process of diving into the dungeon and depths to defalcate the dominion of the dragon. Alas, both of us experienced an overexuberance of greed and found ourselves caught in the clutches of the particularly peeved wyrm in the deep depths, resulting in a total loss for both of our attempts.

We were a bit uncertain with how we felt about the game since it seemed to be much more unbalanced than we had previously thought and I was disappointed that the game did not feel like a #79 on the BGG rankings. It felt geared more towards a larger group since we found ourselves pulling our cubes more than we did the dragons, and there seemed to be an awful lot of dragon attacks during the game. I personally was significantly questioning what Clank! brought to the table that was not already done better by other games as I was not really thrilled with how the game had concluded.

Both Anthony and I concluded that we would like to try the game again with four players since the initial game felt like it was a bit clumsy in it's attempts to perform what we had been promised. The cards were great, but there was something that we couldn't put our finger on that felt a bit off. Anthony would be bringing his kids to the second day of 2D-Con and we would attempt to play the game with them again to see how it all shook out.

Compromise Comes Second

Each set of cards has a subtle indicator of which game it is from.

Day 2 of the Con rolled around and we started the con with a simple game of Good Puppers at the request of his daughter, which was a simple card game that didn't really fit what I was wanting to play. However, feeling gracious since Anthony had brought along two more players for our game, we finished the game and then started to set up Clank! again. It was at this time that we realized that we had played our initial game of Clank! with two separate expansion decks included in the game (the Sunken Treasures and Mummy's Curse expansions) which had both filled out the deck of the game and also had additional mechanics that weren't in the base game.

We removed the extemporaneous cards that had been included in the game, paring down the game to the base game only components (I'm certain we missed a card or two and a few of the secrets, both major and minor), which significantly reduced the size of our deck that we were working with. As a side note, I do appreciate how each of the expansion cards were differentiated from the base game with subtle yet obvious differences in their design (see photos to left). It made pulling out the extra expansion cards fairly easy and we were able to rebuild the basic deck without significant concerns of adding in cards that weren't part of the game we were playing.

With that done, Anthony and I had higher hopes that this game would go a bit better than the previous game, especially with a higher player count of four, versus the two that we had previously played with. As the game progressed and we taught his kids to play the game, I began to find a new appreciation for how Clank! played and enjoyed the game far more than I had previously. I ended up losing to Anthony's son due to him taking a few more risks than I did and ended up getting more treasure than I had with my expedition. He ended up beating me by a whopping 19 points and that represented a significant loss for me, which was not what I expected at all.

It was a much better game than we previously had played, feeling a bit more put together and more "tight" overall based on the initial play of the game. The game itself was much longer and despite teaching two new players how to play the game, we still were able to get into it quite quickly. There were fewer dragon attacks overall and while we did have one player lose the game because she was stuck in the depths after we had escaped, it was ultimately her fault rather than the dragon's overall attack pattern. It was better the second time and I felt like I had grasped the deck-building mechanic a bit more than when I had previously played.

There was still something missing in my mind and while the game was an easy "7" for me, I still was on the fence about whether or not I should add it to my collection. I wasn't totally sold about the game and significantly lowered (and removed a few options) the game on my wishlist from "Must Have" status to "Thinking About It" status. I wasn't completely sold on the game, but it was decent enough that I was willing to play the game if it was offered.

A Chance Encounter

I felt like the thieves on the box, stealing away with my treasure!

About a month went by and I was fairly content with my decision about not adding Clank! to my collection. It had lost it's luster for me after playing twice and while I was not really sold on the game, I still didn't feel the need to purchase the game, especially since it was an older game and would most likely be harder to find without paying full price for the game. While I wasn't going to buy the game for myself, I was pretty content with playing the game if/when it was offered to me to play.

Some more time passed and on a whim, I decided to check out Half Price Books after work on Friday last week. There were a few games on offer: My Father's Work, Etherfields, and even the first two expansions for PitchCar (sadly no base version), but all were too highly priced for me to want to pick up myself. Disappointed and frustrated at my lack of finding anything good, I decided to check out a second location of the store closer to my home and came across both Charterstone and Small World. Both had been previously on offer when I had come earlier in February and I wasn't terribly keen on picking up either (the former because I don't have time for a legacy game and the latter because Anthony already owns a copy and I didn't want to pay for one).

I perused the shelves further, not expecting to find anything worth getting until a box caught my eye. It was a used copy of Clank! that was being sold for $30 and upon further inspection, the board and cards looked basically unused. The box had some wear and tear on it, but it looked like the game had been sold without ever being played more than once. I was torn because I had previously played the game and wasn't a huge fan of it, but here it sat in front of me with that tantalizing price. A quick search on Google showed that it was being sold for $70 on Amazon and even more on other sites, so I was getting the game for a steal.

I hemmed and hawed for some time about getting the game, but what ultimately sold me on purchasing the game was the realization that I would be very angry with myself for walking away from the game without purchasing it. I had enjoyed it enough, and there was no one I knew that owned it, which made it easy for me to purchase the game and add it to my collection. Triumphantly, I proceeded out of the store with my purchase and later that day, even purchased sleeves for the game from my local Board Game Café. I was riding high on the wave of a new game and was very happy with the purchase that I had made, despite feeling a bit on the fence about the game proper.

Replaying and Re-Evaluating

Even with a haul like this, I still lost.

I wasn't able to play with my wife, Sarah, on Friday since I had a standing board game night with Anthony, but I was excited about the purchase and how it looked. I was able to pull it out on Saturday and taught Sarah to play the initial game of Clank!. Unfortunately, our game was interrupted by our daughter and due to overwhelming circumstances, Sarah was not fully into the game and ended up not really clicking fully with the game before we finished.

I however enjoyed that play of the game far more than I previously had and ended up getting a much better feel for the game. I found that the game felt different than I had previously played and maybe it was my new perspective to enjoy more lighter fare, but I found that I liked the game much more than when I had played it at 2D Con. While the game itself was not any different, I had changed with my thinking and I found that I was enjoying playing the game much more than previously. The game went from a "7" in my mind to an "8" with that single playthrough and I was very happy with my purchase.

I can't really say what felt different this game, but I think that it was a combination of having it by my own copy of the game, containing only the base parts of the game, as well as being able to enjoy the game with my best friend, despite mitigating circumstances. Maybe it was also that I had an amazing game and was able to get out of the depths with not only one, but two separate artefacts, or because I was able to snag the "Treasure Hunter" card early in the game which allowed me to gain a whopping three gems without the added "clank!" In any case, I found that I had enjoyed the game far more than my initial two playthroughs and was very happy with my purchase.

I was surprised on Sunday when Sarah asked if we would be able to play the game again, because she wanted to attempt to play without having our daughter interrupt us while we played. I happily agreed and found myself enjoying the game even more than I had the previous day. We ended with an epic conclusion with Sarah exiting the keep of the dragon with her haul, earning the second mastery token, just as I was about to pull the final five cubes from the dragon attack that would end her thieving career. A short time later, we had totaled all our points and Sarah had managed to squeak out a win with 142 points to my 138 points.

I would like to say that part of her win came from my excellent coaching and helping her with strategy, but ultimately, Sarah played better than I did, which was a surprise to say the least. Normally with games, I tend to have a much higher score than Sarah and usually win about 90% of the time when we play anything strategic. A loss in Clank! was completely unexpected for me and made me appreciate that there was more to the game than what I had originally thought.

A Solo Play and Single-Mindedness

After that game with Sarah on Sunday night, I was convinced that the game was definitely a keeper. There was something about Clank! that scratched an itch that I hadn't previously been aware of. There was strategy for sure, but also a push your luck element with the items and secrets in the depths, as well as with some of the card draws and the dragon attacks. I found that despite my best efforts at attempting to win in my second game with Sarah, and even with my second game with Anthony and his kids, I had still lost the game because of some of those random elements that I couldn't control.

Rather than being irritated at Clank! for having elements like that, I was excited. Finally I had a game that I was able to play where my win/loss ratio wasn't close to 90%! I think what stood out to me the most was the many elements of the game that could be randomized. From the cards to the secrets on the board as well as pulls of cubes from the dragon attacks. There were so many elements that were out of my control and continued to be throughout the game that it often felt like I was unable to plan for everything and that was refreshing.

I then found out, after significant perusal of the Dire Wolf website that the game itself came with an app that had a built-in solo mode to play the game with. I had seen that previously, but had forgotten about it since it was several months ago and my memory is awful right now (a combo of ADHD and two kids who don't let me get sleep). I quickly downloaded the application, pulled it up and saw that the built-in solo mode had various quests that could be completed while playing the game.

I immediately launched the application on Monday after downloading it, and despite already getting two plays in that day (I usually try for at minimum one play a day), I knew that I had to try the solo mode of Clank!. The play was distinctly Clank!, but it felt different enough that I found myself taking more chances and being more bold with my choices, something that didn't happen when I played with others. The quests included pushed me to try different strategies and I was rewarded for completing them with gold, experience, and even some minor secrets.

After I finished the game, I found that there was even a way to play multiplayer with the app integration and allowed players to track historically what games that they had played. While I have yet to attempt a game while playing with the app, I am excited about what this means for future tracking here on BGG, and to see what scores I and others have accomplished with the game. I have found myself eagerly looking forward to another game of Clank!, which is a far cry from where I was just over a month ago with my original plays of the game.

It definitely taught me a valuable lesson when playing games: give it more than one try as you might find that you enjoy the game initially. There might be mitigating factors from the game you played originally and it might be more fun than you realize. I think with that in mind, I may have to give Scythe another chance...

Give Me Your Thoughts: - What games have you originally played that you found to be ok, or even had a bad first impression, but upon subsequent plays have enjoyed them more?
- What do you think changed from game to game that made you like the game after you attempted it again?
- We all have games that we're on the fence about and would definitely question if it was available to purchase, but what would be a tipping point for a game like that for you to purchase it?


Thank you again for reading my blog. It's been such a fun time answering your questions and responses as they come up and I appreciate the interaction. I value each of your comments and will do my best to follow up on them as you post them, and I appreciate the interaction that you provide here.

Have a wonderful weekend and keep on playing those board games everyone! Remember, no matter how small your contribution here, you matter and you are important.

Thanks all!

*Originally posted on BoardGameGeek 15/3/2024*