Clash of Chaos and Confetti #7 – Stone Age

 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 feels dumb as a rock.  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 Confetti after winning last week’s Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game showdown.

Pre-Clash Current Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 3 Chaos – 3 Confetti
• Individual game wins:  9 Chaos – 8 Confetti

After losing last week, Chaos has chosen Stone Age.

The Game – Stone Age

Stone Age is a worker placement game that has players building up tribes as they advance into stronger civilizations.  Players will carefully weigh their options as they decide how to grow their tribes through resource gathering, agricultural gains, tool building, population growth, village expansion, and civilization advancement.  All choices come with their own benefits, but effort spent in one area can cost players in others. Players should also never forget that they must make sure they always have enough to feed their tribes at the end of rounds.  Starvation is really a tribe’s best strategy.    

Of course, a solid plan isn’t enough to guarantee victory.  Dice rolls and luck will influence just how successfully tribe members carry out orders.  There is also the unknown of which civilization cards (advancements) will be up for grabs and which resources will be most in demand as huts are constructed.  Purchasing civilization cards and building huts will be the most important ways to gain points.  Civilization cards give players additional ways to earn points during the end game: x additional points for population, y additional points for agricultural level, z additional points for tool acquisition.  Huts construction is a way to score points now.  Each hut built will turn hard-earned resources into points.

Players will have to carefully balance their options if they hope to find success.

Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:

Losing two weeks in a row doesn’t feel great, so I thought it was about time I returned to basics.  What better way to do that than taking it all the way back to the stone age!  Honestly, Stone Age is a game I’ve enjoyed, but haven’t actually played in years.  I thought it might be fun to bust it out.

To Confetti I say, “Welcome to the Stone Age!  You’re about to get rocked!”  

Confetti’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:

Gotta love a winning streak – I’m unstoppable! Or, I hope so anyway. I haven’t actually played Stone Age in years and worker placement games aren’t my favorite. Figures Chaos would try to trip me up with his choice. I remember Stone Age being reasonably fun though. With momentum on my side, I think I can pull out another victory.

Game 1:

Being both of our first game of Stone Age in quite some time, we both started out a bit more slowly.  We carefully built up our tools, agriculture, and population while making sure our people were fed.  

Once we got a little more comfortable and our food stores seemed pretty set, our strategies started to take a bit more shape.  Chaos hoped to use the civilization cards to slightly boost his current resources and to bring him an avalanche of points during the end game scoring.  Confetti leaned more into turning her resources into points now by going heavy on the huts.  

During the final score tallies, we both imagined the other player having the upper hand.  When all was said and done though, Confetti came out slightly ahead.  Chaos’ civility was no match for Confetti’s sprawling village of huts.

Final score: Chaos  230 – Confetti 235

Game 2:

Our second game played out very differently than our first.  Having found a winning strategy in the first game, Confetti immediately focused on grabbing resources and building huts.  Chaos had to adapt to Confetti’s tempo.  There would be no time to dilly-dally as the hut pile was being demolished.  

Neither player took the time to create more meeple and made due with their five starting pieces.  With Confetti rounding up resources, Chaos once again found himself buying civilization cards.  

This game wrapped up at warp speed.  Both players had much less advanced tribes, so it made sense that they both scored much lower than the previous game.  This time however, Chaos game out on top.

Final score: Chaos 144 – Confetti 136

Game 3:

Once again we the final game would decide it all for us.  Taking what we learned from the first two games, we did our best to apply our new knowledge.  This time we did our best to balance growth with points acquisition.  Both our populations hit seven meeples.  Chaos had a higher agriculture of 7 to 5.  Confetti boosted her 6 tools to Chaos’ 4.  

Staying true to form, Confetti still found herself drawn toward hut construction.  Chaos dabbled in huts but kept his eye on purchasing civilization cards, especially questing for unique symbols.  

The game went longer than the first, but Confetti still pulled the trigger on the end game by clearing out a stack of huts.  Confetti already had a sizable lead from hut points but this time she also made sure to invest in some endgame points as well.  Scoring thirty from her tools alone was quite the boon.  Chaos crossed his fingers that his civilization cards would come through again.  Each scoring bonus at the end chipped away at his deficit, however it was his unique symbols that pushed him over the top.  With 49 points from seven unique symbols, he eked past Confetti for the win.

Final Score: Chaos 169 – Confetti 157

Your winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!

Chaos Post-Clash Thoughts:

These games felt like nail biters.  I was never fully convinced that Confetti wasn’t trouncing me.  Seeing her move around the scoring board while I’m praying my civilization cards will pay off is a bit scary.  Thankfully, the long view paid off.  I’m happy to once again be sitting on top of the throne as Clash Champion.  I’ll celebrate with some of the Valentie’s Day candy that we now have sitting around the house.  It’s what our stone age ancestor would have wanted.

Confetti Post-Clash Thoughts:

Bummed to have lost, but I held my own! Before this, I’d only played Stone Age twice so I’m pretty pleased with my performance. Now to think of something I want to play where I can trounce Chaos!

Next week: Radlands (neither of us have played before!)