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 burns their toast and their spirits start dragging (dragon?). 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 Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice match.
Pre-Clash Current Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 17 Chaos – 22 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 55 Chaos – 54 Confetti
After losing last week, Confetti has chosen Flamecraft.
The Game – Flamecraft
Flamecraft has players joining a town that is focused on growth. This is also a town that thrives off the relationships between humans and artisan dragons. The dragons will help shops run smoothly and yield special items and recipes. As flamekeepers, players will work to maximize the good the dragons are doing and to build their own reputation in town.
The town will begin with six starter shops and dragons. On their turn, players will move to a new shop. If the shop is already occupied, they must pay one good to each player already there in order to enter. Once in a shop, a player may either gather or enchant.
If a player gathers, they will take the resources available through the shop and any attached dragons and enchantments. They will then have the opportunity to add a dragon to the shop for a reward, to fire up a dragon attached to the shop (activate their special ability), and take advantage of any shop abilities as well.
If a player decides to enchant the shop, they will pay the required cost for an available enchantment that matches their current shop. The enchantment will reward players with its listed prizes which may include reputation, coins, or draws. Then, the enchantment will attach to the shop to reward further goods during future gathers. Lastly, the player will be allowed to fire up all dragons currently residing in the shop.
As players move about town, gathering and enchanting, they will collect and spend goods, coins, and two types of dragon cards. The goods and coins will be spent on enchantments. The artisan dragons will be used to fill shops. The fancy dragons will be used to score reputation either during the game or during end-game scoring.
As shops fill up, new shops will be added to town, representing the growing prosperity of the small village. The game, however, does send when either the final card from the artisan dragon or enchantment deck is drawn or revealed. Then, each player will get one last turn before final scoring occurs.
Throughout the game, players have hopefully been building up their reputation. During final scoring, players will get one additional reputation for each coin they have. They may also collect any reputation rewards from any fancy dragons that have the moon icon whose requirements are met. The player with the highest reputation when all is said and done is declared the winner!
It’s a battle of goodness as everyone works to add the most to the town and earn the reputation as the best good person around.
Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
This is a new game for both of us, so it’ll be interesting as we both try to figure out the best strategies. The concept of the game, better a town through the use of dragons, is cute, but I’ll guess we’ll see how cut throat this game can get. Either way, I plan to burn down the competition and stand victorious in the ashes of their hopes.
Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:
Super excited to finally get Flamecraft to the table. Chaos bought the deluxe version for me as a surprise and life has been so busy that we haven’t gotten to play it yet. I knew picking it for a Clash would guarantee it made it to the table, but that does mean we’re both going in blind. I’m hoping that I can come out on top and regain my C&C Clash Championship.
Game 1 –
Game one saw both players gathering goods from shops as they placed dragons and tested out different game mechanics. They slowly built up reputation points, but mostly gathered goods.
Finally, Chaos broke the seal on adding enchantments and gained the game’s first big reputation haul. The race began. Suddenly, this was a game of enchantment buying and point securing.
Confetti took a slight lead and continued to maintain it while Chaos stayed right behind her. New shops rolled into town. More dragons found employment. Goods were gathered and traded.
The final artisan dragon revealed itself during Confetti’s turn, and the endgame began. Knowing the game was close, Chaos gathered some diamonds to ensure one of his fancy dragons would payoff during final scoring. He also placed a dragon to reward himself with another fancy dragon. He hoped blind luck would give him a dragon that would earn him a few more points. Unfortunately, he got a sun fancy dragon with no way to have it pay out.
Confetti’s final turn saw her placing a final enchantment and pulling in a few more reputation, giving her a very solid lead.
During final scoring, Confetti’s post-game points barely added anything. Chaos on the other hand started pulling in a respectable amount of reputation. Unfortunately, his growth just wasn’t enough. He blamed that final lame duck fancy dragon.
Either way, Confetti declared victory in their inaugural game of Flamecraft.
Game 1 Winner: Confetti
Game 1 Score: 42 Chaos – 44 Confetti
Game 2 –
With game two came a greater understanding of Flamecraft’s mechanics and strategies. Confetti quickly started grabbing goods with an aim at buying enchantments quickly. However, thanks to her fancy dragons, she also had a few tricks up her sleeves.
Chaos, meanwhile, focused on gathering goods and placing dragons that would reward him more fancy dragons. These extra dragons would pay off another dragon, but he also felt it might not be a bad idea to have a few extra paths towards points.
Chaos’ fancy dragons were mostly moon (end-game) scorers so he did his best to focus on the now while also maneuvering himself to earn some final points as well. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Confetti kept pulling sun (during-game) fancy dragons. She kept putting in the work to get them to go off, but Chaos also kept unknowingly messing up her plans. She did eventually align the proper elements and had two dragons achieve their goals in a single turn. She ended up gaining over a dozen reputation in a single turn.
Once again the game seemed pretty close and once again, the final artisan dragon revealed itself during Confetti’s turn. It felt as if the game could go either way, so both players knew they had to make their final turn matter.
Chaos visited the pizza coven that allowed him to maximize his turn wonderfully. He played a dragon, fed all the park dragons, played another dragon which got him another fancy dragon, and in total racked up enough points to give him a decent lead.
Confetti countered by enchanting a shop for a decent number of points, and then fire up all the crystal dragons which gave her what she needed to gain six reputation from a sun fancy dragon. She again pulled ahead of Chaos.
The final deciding factor fell to Chaos’ moon fancy dragons. He had so many fancy dragons that even though they didn’t all go off, they earned him enough reputation to rocket him past Confetti and into the winner’s circle.
Game 2 Winner: Chaos
Game 2 Score: 55 Chaos – 47 Confetti
Game 3 –
For the first two games of the clash, the purple enhancement deck was used. The purple deck is recommended for beginning players. For the final deciding game, the gold enchantment deck was subbed in to make things more interesting.
This time around, Confetti quickly jumped on Chaos’ strategy from the previous game and started also snatching up any fancy dragons she could get. This game, she got a healthy mix of sun and moon dragons. With short term and long term goals in mid, Confetti set to work.
Chaos ended up with dragons of mostly one type, so had a rougher start picking up fancy dragons. By the time he got his game going a bit more, he was already behind on them and then started drawing ones that were pretty contradictory. Chaos still took aim for fancy dragon points, but he decided he had to hit the enchantments hard to maintain any chance of success.
Confetti kept pouring into her fancy dragons while also grabbing the enchantment’s Chaos wanted right before he could. Chaos kept pivoting with what he had. He slowly amassed a stockpile of coins and kept using it to fulfill enchantments and then restock on coins again.
By the halfway point in the game, Confetti had built an over twenty point lead in the game. Chaos did all he could to stretch out the game’s length so he could keep trying to close the gap. Unfortunately, the dragons he drew just weren’t what he needed.
As the game finally came to a close, the final points were totalled and almost every post-game point Chaos earned, Confetti earned using a similar card that simply required a different type of dragon or good.
Confetti managed to tame her dragons and win the game.
Game 3 Winner: Confetti
Game 3 Score: 119 Chaos – 122 Confetti
Your winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Confetti!
Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:
Confetti got lucky. Time to make sure that doesn’t happen next week!
Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:
I really liked Flamecraft a lot and would definitely recommend it as a game. I’m happy I came out back on top, especially since it was my new game. 🙂
New Standings:
Post-Clash Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 17 Chaos – 23 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 56 Chaos – 56 Confetti
Next Week: Suspend
Chaos & Confetti 