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 can go kick rocks. 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 Marvel United battle.
Pre-Clash Current Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 9 Chaos – 10 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 28 Chaos – 26 Confetti
After losing last week, Chaos has chosen Innovation.
The Game – Innovation
Innovation is a card game built around the premise of competing civilizations advancing through different ages of society and technological sophistication. The game will have players moving from pre-history to the renaissance to the modern era. It’s a race to build the greatest civilization first.
The base mechanics of the game are very simple. Each player will work their way through different societal and technological advancements by playing cards to their own personal table space. There are five different color stacks that each play will have. As they meld cards to the top of their stacks, they will have the use of their top most cards’ abilities (dogmas). These domgas provide the core and meat of the game. The dogmas may allow the players to perform special actions or may even attack their opponent. Whether a dogma works or who benefits from it will be determined by the type of symbol associated with the action and the number of symbols each player has.
There are several paths to victory in innovation. Dogma effects will allow cards to be scored. If a player has to draw a card beyond the tenth age, the game immediately ends and the player with the highest score wins. Scoring also allows players to potentially seize achievement cards. The first player to gain six achievements, through scoring or other means, will win. The final way to win is through dogma effects. Several of the higher level dogmas have special win conditions. They can be tough to pull off but they are viable alternative winning strategies.
With 105 cards to play with and multiple paths to victory, players will need to play carefully and thoughtfully to win at Innovation.
Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
It’s been a rough few gaming weeks on my end, but Innovation is all about bettering yourself, so I am going to embrace that theme and claim victory this week. Step aside Shane Helms, there’s a new Sensation of Innovation in town and you’re looking at him. TIme for me to build a mini-empire and prove why I’m the best board gamer of any age!
Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:
Innovation is a really fun engine builder! I’m excited to be able to play a few games of it. Chaos has been on a losing streak, so hopefully I can hang on to the championship.
Game 1 –
Innovation is a game with many routes to victory. Chaos and Confetti both set about working their way to a win differently.
Chaos opted to grab a bunch of small points in lieu of building a strong board presence. He wanted to rake in one and two point cards in order to nab the early achievement cards. Confetti, on the other hand, aimed for a powerful board to represent her strong society. She wasn’t scoring many points, but she was racing through the card age levels. Confetti looking at the long game.
By the mid to late game, both strategies strengths and weaknesses became obvious. Chaos had a wealth of points and a solid lead with achievements but he struggled to climb into later ages in order to claim further achievements. Meanwhile, Confetti’s engine now allowed her to score some big points, but she had to amass a large amount due to all the early achievements already be claimed.
In the end, Chaos was able to drag his meager civilization into the sixth age and claim his final achievement. Had he not been able to do so, Confetti’s newly established, higher scoring dogma cards might have been too much for him to handle in the long run. In reality, Chaos’ civilization would probably collapse while being remembered for its achievements, and Confetti’s society would probably still be humming along nicely, but in terms of this game, Chaos won and that is all that matters to him.
Game 1 Winner: Chaos by scoring 6 achievements
Game 2 –
Game 2 saw a much more back and forth battle. This time both players worked on building up their boards and scoring what points they could. Confetti grabbed the first score based achievement, but Chaos responded by seizing the monument achievement by melding four castle cards with masonry. Chaos took the level 2 achievement and Confetti claimed the level 3. Neither player would let themselves fall too far behind.
As the game progressed, both Chaos’ strategy became heavily reliant on attacking Confetti’s score pile and stealing from it. This allowed him to start edging her out on both points and achievements. Confetti found herself in a bit of a predicament, and soon realized it was better to burn it all down than give Chaos an easy win. She started blowing up both of their score piles.
Both players kept building up their boards but were also unable to actually claim a points-based achievement. Finally, Chaos saw an opportunity to win by using a combination of A.I. and Software. Unknowingly, Confetti prevented that plan by completely wiping out her score pile, so he couldn’t get a score lower than her. That ended up not mattering though because Chaos was able to get three of every symbol and claim Empire as his sixth and final achievement. There was nothing Confetti could do to stop him.
Game 2 Winner: Chaos by scoring 6 achievements
Game 3 –
Confetti did want to play a third game anyway (Innovation is fun!), but time got away from us. So, only two games this week.
Your Winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!
Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:
I don’t play innovation as much as I used to, but it has always been a great game. Winning this week only makes it look even better. It’s too bad you’re reading this and not with me in person because you can’t see my happy dance. Once again I reclaim my title and set the world right. Now to see if I can get a good streak of successful defenses going.
Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:
Boo, I hate losing, especially when in Game 1 I had a much better engine going than Chaos. Ah well, there’s always next week!
New Standings:
Post-Clash Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 10 Chaos – 10 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 30 Chaos – 26 Confetti
Next Week: Splendor!
Chaos & Confetti 