Clans of Caledonia

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Clans of Caledonia
Game data
author Juma Al-JouJou
graphic Klemens Franz
publishing company German : Karma Games ,
Spanish : Gen-X Games,
Portuguese : Meeple BR Jogos,
Russian : Crowd Games,
Polish : Czacha Games,
Korean : BoardM Factory,
Japanese : Ten Days Games,
Italian : Red Glove,
French : PixieGames
Publishing year 2017
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 90 minutes
Age from 12 years

Awards

Clans of Caledonia is a board game by the German game designer Juma Al-JouJou , which appeared in 2017 after a successful campaign on Kickstarter by its publisher Karma Games. It is a resource management game that is about the domination of different clans in Scotland.

The game was voted 2nd in the Swiss Gamers Award in 2017 and 4th in the German Game Award in 2018 . The game also won the MinD game award 2019 in the complex games category and was nominated for the Jogo do Ano and the International Gamers Award . It was also one of four games played at the European Championship Boardgames .

Background and game material

Thematically, Clans of Caledonia is located in Scotland, where the players try to make their own clan the most successful in Scotland through the production of goods, the export of the goods produced and by expanding into the Highlands. The game runs over 5 rounds, each round being divided into several phases. The player who got the most points at the end wins the game.

In addition to the game instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a modular game board consisting of four parts, which allows 16 variants,
  • a market board,
  • 6 transparent price markers for the market board,
  • an export table,
  • Game pieces in four colors each:
    • 16 cattle,
    • 16 sheep,
    • 16 bakeries,
    • 16 cheese factories,
    • 16 acres,
    • 16 whiskey distilleries
    • 32 workers,
    • 28 dealers,
  • Scoring stones in four colors each:
    • four order markers
    • four shipping markers
    • four settlement markers
    • four fame markers
  • four export boxes,
  • four player boards,
  • nine clan tiles,
  • 9 starter tiles,
  • nine harbor tiles,
  • 9 scoring tokens,
  • four fame tokens,
  • eight technology tiles,
  • 16 harbor markers,
  • 70 coins (30 1s, 20 5s and 20 10s)
  • Were:
    • 14 wool,
    • 10 milk cans,
    • 10 cheeses,
    • 10 cereals,
    • 10 bread,
    • 10 whiskey barrels,
  • 12 goods tokens,
  • 50 export orders,
  • three markers for imported goods: cotton, tobacco and sugar cane,
  • two dice (for the solo game)
  • a 1 MacDonald tile as the starting player marker.

Style of play

Game preparation

At the beginning of the game, the game board is composed of the four game board elements, which means that a total of 16 variants are possible for the map shown. Four of the mixed harbor tiles are placed in the harbor areas of the game board corners. The market board is also placed in the middle of the table, the transparent price markers are placed on the values ​​circled in the middle of the board and thus determine the starting value of the goods (wool, milk, grain, bread, cheese and whiskey). The export board is placed next to the game board as a further element. 5 of the mixed scoring tiles are drawn at random and placed on the tableau. The export orders are shuffled and placed as a face-down draw pile next to the tableau, then one of the orders is placed face up on each export crate on the tableau. The markers for the three imported goods tobacco, cotton and sugar cane are also placed next to the tableau.

Each player receives a player board and all the pieces of the color he has chosen. These tokens are placed on the tableau according to the specifications, four worker figures (lumberjack and miner) are placed on the forest and mountain spaces and five dice (traders) on the trader track, the players place two more traders next to the tableau. The shipping marker is placed on the first space of the shipping track and the two technology tokens are placed on the corresponding spaces under the workers. In addition, each player receives four port markers and an export crate, which are placed next to the board.

The first starting player is drawn and all other players place their turn order markers on the turn order track on the export board. Clan tiles are drawn randomly according to the number of players plus 1 and each is assigned a starting tile. The pairs are placed in the middle of the table and in turn order the players can choose one of the pairs, the remaining set is removed from the game. All players receive the goods indicated on the starting tile and the money (currency pound, £) as starting capital. Then all players in the order in which the game is played first place a woodcutter on a forest field or a miner on a mountain field and then, contrary to the order, place a second piece on the field. For each worker placed, the placement costs must be paid based on the type of worker (lumberjack £ 6 and miner £ 10) and the space on which they are placed (£ 1 to £ 6).

Game flow

Phase per round
  • Preparatory phase
  • Action phase
  • Production phase
  • Scoring phase

The game runs over five rounds and within each round four phases are played in which the players can perform different actions. The starting player determined before the first round receives the starting player marker and begins the game. In the preparation phase, at the beginning of each round, the scoring tile from the previous round is first turned over (not applicable in the first round) and new export orders are placed on empty boxes on the export board based on the number of players. All players take back the dealers they placed on the market board in the preliminary round and place them next to their market board.

After the preparation phase, the main phase of the game follows, the action phase. In this phase the players are allowed to carry out several actions with their resources, whereby in turn order beginning with the starting player each player can only ever carry out one of the following eight actions in any order and also several times. This phase continues until all players have passed and the production phase begins. The possible actions are:

# place action Effects needed
1. Market board Act With the help of the dealer from the personal supply next to the player board, the players can buy or sell goods. The active player places as many traders above or below the respective trade bar as he wants to buy or sell goods. Then he pays or receives the specified price and exchanges the corresponding number of specific goods for it. Depending on the campaign, prices rise or fall by as many price levels as goods were traded. The traders used remain on the market board until the end of the round and the same goods may never be bought and sold in a round. In addition, only one commodity may be traded per campaign, other types of goods can be traded in later campaigns. Dealer; Money or goods
2. Export table Take export order To take any export order, a player pays the costs indicated for the round and places this on his own empty export crate. Each player, with the exception of the one who has chosen the Buchanan clan, is only allowed to have one export order and has to fulfill this in order to empty his box again. The export orders increase by £ 5 each round as the game progresses. Money, empty export crate
3. game schedule Expand In order to expand, the player places one of the topmost units on his player board on a field on the game board that is adjacent to his own field or can be reached from there by boat. Both types of workers (lumberjacks and miners), farm animals (sheep, cattle) and all production facilities (cheese dairy, bakery, field, distillery) count as units. For placement, the cost of the units and the cost of the field on which it is to be placed are paid. All livestock and production facilities may only be placed on grassland, the miners only in the mountains and the woodcutters only in the forest.

If a player places his own unit next to a production unit of another player, he may immediately buy up to 3 goods corresponding to the production unit at a price reduced by £ 2 or £ 3 as an additional trading action as a neighborhood bonus (4 if there are two players). For this purchase, the player needs the appropriate number of dealers and the prices are increased after the action as usual with the market action.

If a player builds his fourth cheese dairy, bakery or distillery and has an empty export crate at the same time, he may draw three export orders from the draw pile as a building bonus and take one or none of these, whereby he has to pay the price due.

Units, money
4th Player board Improve shipping For the price of £ 4 a player can improve his shipping options by one position on the player board. In doing so, he expands the train options when expanding across rivers and lakes. money
5. Player board Improve technology For the price of £ 10, a player can upgrade the loggers 'and miners' technologies so that they bring in £ 2 more per train and worker during the production phase.
6th Player board Recruit dealers For the price of £ 4, a player can recruit another dealer from his player board and thus make it available for trading. money
7th Export box, export panel Fulfill export order If a player has all the required goods (including meat from the slaughter of farm animals on the game board, which are put back on the player board) for an export order in his export crate, he can fulfill this export order. In return, he surrenders the corresponding goods and receives the equivalent value of imported goods and export bonuses specified on the order.

If a player receives imported goods (tobacco, cotton, sugar cane), the corresponding marker on the counting track of the export board is moved forward by the amount received. The player in question can receive a cash bonus if the marker exceeds the corresponding mark. If a player receives direct export bonuses, these are redeemed directly according to the game instructions.

Were
8th. Export table Fit If a player cannot or does not want to take any more action, he passes and is eliminated from the current action phase. The player places his order marker in the first free position on the turn order track and receives the specified amount of money directly.

When all players have passed, the production phase begins, in which all players receive income in the form of money or goods for all of their units on the board. The income corresponds to that shown on the player board for the corresponding units:

  1. Lumberjacks make £ 4 each, or £ 6 with improved technology
  2. Miners make £ 6 each, with improved technology £ 8
  3. Sheep and cattle each produce wool or milk once, fields produce grain twice
  4. Dairies process one unit of milk into one unit of cheese, bakeries process one unit of grain into one unit of bread and distilleries process one unit of grain into one unit of whiskey.

At the end of the round there is a scoring phase in which the fame bonus indicated on the scoring tile for the current round is awarded and displayed with the fame marker on the export board.

Playing

The game ends after 5 game rounds, which are given by the five scoring tiles. Then the final accounting takes place, whereby the players receive points for different areas:

  • For each step of the fame marker on the scoring list: 1 victory point
  • For each basic commodity (milk, grain, wool): 1 victory point
  • For each processed good (cheese, bread, whiskey): 2 victory points
  • For every £ 10: 1 victory point
  • For each unit of hops on the completed orders: 1 victory point
  • For cotton, tobacco and sugar cane on the completed orders, the players receive victory points depending on the relative amount (according to the scoring track) of imported goods. The most frequently imported goods are awarded 3, for the second most frequently 4 and for the rarest 5 victory points.
  • In addition, when playing with three or four players, the player with the most completed export orders receives 12 victory points and the second placed 6 victory points. In a game with only two players, the player with the most completed export orders receives 8 victory points.
  • In the settlement scoring, the player with the most settlements connected by shipping receives an additional 18, the second placed 12 and the third placed 6 victory points.

The winner of the game is the player with the most victory points according to the final settlement.

Solo play and variants

In addition to the standard game, the instructions also describe a solo version and several versions of the game. In all cases the game is played according to the basic rules and only modified in details:

Solo variant
In the solo version, as in the standard game, the player tries to score as many victory points as possible. At the beginning he reduces the game board by a few marginal spaces that are not used in a game with two players, as well as all spaces with a value of £ 1 on which he places neutral pieces at the beginning of the game. The game is modified by an additional market phase in which the market prices are changed randomly by two market cubes. In addition, the price cube will be removed for individual export orders.
Simplifications
Simplifications are recommended for beginners. Scoring and harbor tiles should be omitted and the scoring of imported goods is simplified.
Dense game plan
Unused harbor tiles cover up to four land spaces.
Without a clan
Omitting the clans leads to equal victory conditions without asymmetrical advantages for the individual players
Clan selection by auction
The clan selection can also be negotiated by auction, whereby the players bid with victory points on the individual clans, which are recorded as negative victory points for the player in the event of a successful campaign.

Expenses and reception

Clans of Caledonia was developed by Juma Al-JouJou . He presented it in 2016 at the 2016 Göttingen game designer meeting and submitted it to the 2017 Hippodice game designer competition. On April 25, 2017, he started a Kickstarter campaign for the game with a target amount of 29,000 euros, which was supported by almost 6,500 supporters with almost 400,000 euros until May 18, 2017. Al-JouJou worked with the well-known game illustrator Klemens Franz for the realization . The game was officially published by Al-JouJous Verlag Karma Games for the International Game Days 2017 in Essen and was sold out there within a short time. In the same year, the game was voted 2nd most popular game at the Swiss Gamers Award 2017. In 2018, Clans of Caledonia was voted fourth in the German Game Award , and it was also nominated for the MinD Game Award and the Portuguese Jogo do Ano .

In addition to the edition in German and English at Karma Games, Clans of Caledonia was published internationally as a licensed edition. In 2017 it was published in Spanish by Gen-X Games and in Portuguese by Meeple BR Jogos. This was followed in 2018 in Russian by Crowd Games, in Polish by Czacha Games, in Korean by BoardM Factory, in Japanese by Ten Days Games, in Italian by Red Glove and in French by PixieGames.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Official game rules for Clans of Caedonia ; accessed on December 6, 2018.
  2. ^ Clans of Caledonia: A Game about Whiskey, Trade, and Glory. Campaign on kickstarter; accessed on December 6, 2018.
  3. ^ Winner of the German Game Award ; accessed on December 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ The nomination list for the MinD game award (category: complex games) ; accessed on December 6, 2018.
  5. ↑ Versions of Clans of Caledonia in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on December 6, 2018.

Web links