Land of Clans

Land of Clans

Since we are working together with Tactic Games now, they gave us Land of Clans to review. Since the game looks like a lot of fun, we gladly accepted! In this game your clans are roaming the Scottish Highlands looking for land to settle in. It was up to us to make sure we would conquer it!

How to Play.

For the setup place the game board and let each player choose the color he wants to play with. Each player gets two sorcerer cards (the cards with 8 icons on it) and keep them faceup. Also deal five random cards to each player that will stay hidden. After that, you place four win tiles in the corners of the board, one for each corner, and put the remaining win tokens in the bag. Make sure all the castle tiles are close to the board so they are easy to reach.

The rules to play the game are simple. On your turn, you can either conquer a space on the board, or you can attack another players castle. To conquer a space, Place one of your tokens on the gameboard with the matching number from your card, and discard that card. Always take a new card to refill your hand to five cards. In order to make a castle, try to create one of the shapes of the win tiles that are placed in the corner. Once you succeed in this, you can take a castle tile with the same shape of the win tile, take back your tokens and place your castle on it. Take the win tile and place it close to your components, you have now won the points of that tile. Don’t forget to replace the win tile with a new one from the bag. If you have no tokens left because they are all on the board. Simply move any of your tokens on the board to the newly conquered space. If the cards run out, reshuffle.

If you want to attack a castle from another player, you need to have at least as many tokens around that castle as your opponent. The castle token itself also counts for one token and a token place diagonally from that castle, doesn’t count. If the defender also has another castle touching the castle being defended, this is one extra token, but the same goes for the attacker. If you attack, play any number of cards with a sword icon on it. The number of cards you play, can’t be changed afterwards. The defender may then play cards with a shield on it. If the attacker has more swords then there are shields, your attack is successful and you replace your castle with the castle you have just attacked. You also gain the matching win tile from your opponent. Both players refill their hand up till five cards. If the attack is not successful, simply discard all the played cards and refill your hand to five cards. You can also conquer a no mans land space on the board, but only if it’s the last space you need to finalize you castle. You also have to place a castle tile there with your castle on top. As a last action, you can play one of your sorcerers card on any turn. This will give you the power to place your token on any space you want, even if there is an opponent on it. In such case, replace his/her token with your token. But no mans land cannot be conquered with the sorcerer card, unless the normal conditions are met. After use, you discard your sorcerer card. The game ends when a player collects their fourth win tile. The player with the most points, wins the game.

You can also play in teams and play in teams of two. You follow the same rules for the most part, but you share the components with your teammate. During an attack or when defending your castle, both teammates can play cards to attack or defend. All the won points will add to the team’s total score. When a team gains four tiles, the game ends.

Playthrough of the game.

We really like Land of Clans. It’s an easy quick light game with not to much thinking. If you are not in the mood to plan entire strategies or play a board game for two hours, this is a great game to turn at. We have played Land of Clans so far with the two of us and we play one round in about 15 – 20 minutes. This game is also luck based as you need exact spaces to defend your castle, or attack an opponent and also to score points and finish a castle in the first place. But Tactic games thought this trough because there are multiple spaces on the board you can choose from. If you have a red nine for example, you can choose from two different spots on the board, unless one or both is taken. That way, there is always a spot that will fit you better and place you closer to your enemy, or gives you all the space you need to build a castle.

We also noticed that Tactic Games really stepped up with the quality of the components. The game board is a lot thicker and the components itself have a better quality. They also made a nice simple insert again which will makes it easier to clean up the game.

Final thoughts.

Land of Clans is an easy to learn light strategic game with not to much thinking. One round of this game is pretty fast and the it is not to much luck based since you can always choose what space you will conquer. The components are pretty good quality and you will find that the game board will brighten up the more components are placed to build your castles.