The Premise and Standings
Each week we’ll face off in a best of three series playing a different board game from our collection. The winner claims the moniker of C&C Clash Champ for the week. The loser has their shame publicly displayed here. The lesser player also gets to choose the game for the next week.
We will maintain a record of wins and losses throughout the year to see who finishes 2022 as the ultimate board game champ in our household.
Our current C&C Champion is Chaos after winning last week’s Santorini showdown.
Current Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 2 Chaos – 1 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 5 Chaos – 4 Confetti
After losing last week, Confetti has chosen The Quacks of Quedlinburg.
The Game – The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The Quacks of Quedlinburg has players competing as they push their luck to create bigger and better potions in their cauldrons. Players do this by pulling colored chips from their potion bags to add to their pot one at a time. Each color represents a unique ingredient with its own benefits, but beware because too many cherry bombs (white chips) and the pot will explode.
While each player starts with identical potion bag setups, they will soon have to decide what chips to add to their bag at the end of each round. Quacks offers variety by providing several spell books that imbue the ingredients with different benefits. The drawing of a fortune teller card each round also provides one more random element to keep players on their toes.
Each round the makeup of their potions enable players to earn victory points, rubies, and spending power in a few ways. However, they will have to balance pushing their luck to earn more rewards or playing it safe in order to keep their pot from exploding and costing them either points or spending power. A lot of strategy goes into the game, but players will still have to hope luck is on their side.
There have been two expansions so far: The Herb Witches and The Alchemist. Each expansions adds new elements to add more variety and strategy to the game. The Herb Witches add a new ingredient, the loco weed, and three one time use benefits that each player gets to use whenever they wish. The Alchemist add the concept of healing sick villagers, which comes with its own potential benefits and strategy for players.
Can players create an ingredient bag powerful enough to prevail or will luck and competition stand in their way?
Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
As the longest reigning C&C Clash Champion of all time (two weeks), I hope to continue my winning ways and extend my streak. I love Quacks, but I also know that even the best player can be ruined by bad luck. Sadly, lady fate has befowled me more than once in this game. I tend to play a little more cautiously, so I’ll have to push myself to be a little more bold so I can rack up enough points to claim victory.
Confetti’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
I love Quacks and it’s always a joy to play. It’s always fun to see if I can get my pot and ingredients working well. One of my personal goals is always to buy a six pumpkin. That always feels like a bit of a win to me. I’m hoping to win and that my pot doesn’t blow up too many times.
Game 1:
We kept our first game simple by playing without the herb witches or alchemist additions. This game began nicely by removing a white 1-chip from each of our bags pretty early. This allowed us to both push our pots a little harder. We both grabbed extra points and spending power easily. Chaos maintained a slight lead over Confetti for the first several rounds. Then during round six, Confetti’s draws resulted in an early pot explosion. Luck was not on her side. Suddenly, Chaos took a much larger lead. From there, the game continued on a steady path with both players doing well with their pots, but Confetti could not close the game. The final scores were Chaos – 71 and Confetti – 61.
Chaos began his race to successfully defend his championship.
Game 2:
For the second game, we invited the herb witches to come out and play. We both had to quickly adjust to having the normal number of white chips in play again and not over extending our pots in fear of blowing up. The available ingredients and herb witch powers both pushed us both into trying to diversify the number of colors in our pots.
Chaos’ dream of getting the first clash shut out started to seem impossible as Confetti began to out pace him. Even the herb witch bonuses worked better for Confetti. She doubled her buying power into larger buys. She earned more points for having a larger number of colors in her pot. Even her free placement of six chips worked better for her. Chaos’ catch up mechanic rat tails were no match for Confetti dropping several chips in a row that allowed her to move 5-7 spaces.
Only a miracle could save Chaos… or a lot of bad luck for confetti. In the second half of the game, the fortune teller cards kept giving benefits and points to the player who was behind. Chaos kept benefiting while Confetti could only watch. That wasn’t where it stopped though. Two rounds in a row, Confetti’s pot exploded early, allowing Chaos to catch up.
By the final round, Chaos still lagged behind, but victory no longer looked out of reach. The combatants began pulling chips. Confetti once again went boom! She was powerless to stop Chaos from easily grabbing the win back.
Chaos’ luck held out when Confetti decided to tamp down her frustration and not stab him out of anger. How could the game do this to her? The win should have been her’s!
Game 3:
We had previously decided that if a player wins the first two games, the losing player could decide whether the final game happened or not. No need to prolong a sure defeat, but also a chance at some redemption could be fought for.
Confetti normally loves Quacks of Quedlinburg, but this time out, she was over it. She still felt cheated of her win. Even Chaos had to admit that without an avalanche of luck, he would not have been able to seize victory. Confetti opted to skip the final game because she wasn’t sure she could handle the game being mean to her again.
Your Winner and still C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!
Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts
I’m happy to retain the championship and will happily continue defending it. It does suck to feel your win is a little less earned, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Hopefully Confetti won’t let the loss shake her confidence too much and she’ll come back ready to go next week. She’ll have to bring her A-game if she hopes to beat the only C&C Clash Champion to never lose his title!
Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts
I’m feeling a little betrayed by one of my favorite games. I never thought this week was a guaranteed win, but I didn’t think it would end like that. Sigh. Chaos can have this week. I plan to make February my month though.
Next Week:
Confetti hopes to take flight in Wingspan!
Chaos & Confetti 