Clash of Chaos and Confetti #44: Kill Dr Lucky

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 shan’t be invited to the next formal gathering. 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 Costume Party Assassins/Costume Party Detective duel.

Pre-Clash Current Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 21 Chaos – 23 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 64 Chaos – 59 Confetti

After losing last week, Confetti has chosen Kill Dr. Lucky.

The Game – Kill Dr. Lucky

In Kill Dr. Lucky, players are guests at another of Dr. Lucky’s fantastic parties at his grandiose mansion.  This party is great, but wouldn’t it be better with a dash of murder?  

Players will work to be the first to successfully kill the good doctor.  The only things standing in their way are one another and that cursed Dr.’s lucky streak.

There are several potential starting map setups for Kill Dr. Lucky, which will depend on number of players and whether they wish to play on the traditional or alternate board.  No matter what map they choose, the players will all start together and Dr. Lucky will begin in a separate room.  Once each player has been dealt five or six cards (again this depends on player count), a random person will start the game and the hunt will begin.

During their turn, a player will get to move and perform an action.  Players will always have one free move action, which will allow them to step into an adjacent room, or one that is connected directly by a hallway.  They may also use move cards before or after their free movement.

Once any movement is made, a player can take one of two different actions, depending on whether they are out of sight of other guests and Dr. Lucky.  Out of sight means that no other figures are in their room, in an immediately adjacent room, and in a room that can have a straight line drawn from inside its door to inside the hiding player’s doorway.  

If a guest is completely out of sight of other players and Dr. Lucky, they may draw a card.  Cards may allow extra movement or provide weapons for attacking Dr. Lucky.  Many cards will also have cloverleafs which can be used to prevent the murder of Dr. Lucky.

If a guest is in the same room as Dr. Lucky and also out of sight of all other players, they may attempt to kill Dr. Lucky.  They will use their base strength (one plus the number of previous failed murder attempts they have made) plus any one weapon bonus they wish to play.  Once the kill strength has been added up, going clockwise around the table once, each player will have a chance to play as many or as few cloverleafs as they want.  If the number of played cloverleafs does not equal or surpass the kill strength, the murder succeeds and the attackign player wins.  However, if enough cloverleafs are gathered, then the attempt fails and Dr. Lucky continues on his merry way.  The failing player will tuck one card used to stop them underneath their character portrait, representing a failed attempt and used as a reminder of strength for future kill attempts.

Normally, play will continue clockwise, but Dr. Lucky does get to take a turn between each players’ turns.  Dr. Lucky will always move to the next highest numbered room, until he reaches the highest number and then begins at the lowest again.  After all players have had at least one turn though, Dr. Lucky will activate players whose room he enters.  If he steps into a room, he will begin the turn of the next player clockwise who is in his room.  This can cause someone to have multiple turns in a room or for someone to have their turn skipped.  

Gameplay will continue until someone makes a successful attempt on Dr. Lucky’s life.

There are a few variants that include different maps, adding pets, or having Dr. Lucky hunt players instead.

At two players, there will be two non-human-played guests along with Dr. Lucky.  These non-player guests will always move to the next lowest number (the opposite of Dr. Lucky’s movement).  They may make attempts on Dr. Lucky’s life as well, but they have no hand cards to use.  Human players may use their movements on the non-player guests to manipulate them.  

When a player makes a kill attempt, the non-player guests will flip one card from the deck each to contribute to trying to stop a murder.

Parties at Dr. Lucky’s are always killer!

Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:

I don’t get to play it a lot, but I really like Kill Dr. Lucky.  It’s basically reverse Clue.  There’s a decent amount of strategy and pre-planning and goes into finding success.  I hope Dr. Lucky’s party leads to my successful championship retention party.

Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:

We haven’t played Kill Dr. Lucky in a while, but I do like the game. I’m hoping that some of Dr. Lucky’s good fortune will rub off on me, so I can break out of this losing streak I’m stuck in.

Game 1 – 

Opting for their favorite colors, Chaos would be playing as Proximo Domingo “The Banker” (Green) and Confetti would be playing as Cathcart Brunsonby “The Fixer.”  The non-player guests would be Gail Russo “The Avenger” (Teal) and Augustijn Oraange “The Gambler” (Orange).  This game took place on the traditional board with the west wing closed.

The game started off well enough for all involved parties.  Chaos continually set himself up for kill attempts while Confetti tried to start stacking up on her available cards.  Confetti hoped for a late game card advantage, while Chaos hoped building up power would eventually make him unstoppable.

Of course, Confetti wound up in place for the occasional kill attempt and even the nonplayer guests took a shot or two at Dr. Lucky.  

What helped decide the game was the help or lack of help of the nonplayer guests during each of Chaos and Confetti’s turns.  When Chaos went for the kill, Augustijn kept pulling up large cloverleaf cards which helped Confetti not spend her own cards.  However, during Confetti’s attempts at murder, Gail, who went before Chaos, kept provided little to no cloverleaf.  This meant Chaos kept having to cover most of the cloverleaf cost in order to ensure the game would not end.  Often Augustijn would end up contributing well, but unsure of when the luck might fall through, Chaos kept bleeding cards.

As the game ran on, Chaos had a slight edge on base strength, but Confetti’s hand full of cards had her sitting pretty.  Chaos failed at six separate attempts on Dr. Lucky’s life.  

Before long, Chaos encountered a kill attempt that he couldn’t prevent alone.  Sadly, the other guests were of no help. Confetti slew Dr. Lucky on her fourth attempt and the game was hers!

Game 1 Winner: Confetti with her bare hands in the foyer

Game 2 – 

Game two took place in the downstairs portion of the alternate game board.  Chaos and Confetti took up the same guest tokens.  This time they would be joined by nonplayer guests: Gerthne Wildbloom “The Survivor” (Red) and Quincette Small “The Sleuth” (Blue).

This time around, Chaos decided to fall back and play a bit more strategically.  While he still went for several kill attempts, he made a point of gathering cards for later use.  He decided it might be wiser to use his moves on Gerthne, whose turn was before his.  By giving Gerthne more turns, he actually rewarded himself with more turns as well and denied Confetti from getting as many.  

Confetti found herself getting a bit frustrated by regularly having her turn skipped over.  Thankfully, Dr. Lucky’s movements would eventually break the cycle and get her back into the game.  Since most of her turns took place because of the entry of Dr. Lucky, Confetti ended up being more offensive.  She attacked more and drew fewer cards.  

The nonplayer guests got pushed around like the pawns they were.  They went for win attempts, but none of those were ever really taken seriously.

Thanks to items, Chaos was able to make the most of his attacks, which burned through Confetti’s cloverleaf cards pretty quickly.  Then, all it took was a sketchy attack in the drawing room for Chaos to draw Dr. Lucky’s story to a close.  

Game 2 Winner: Chaos with the choking hazard in the drawing room

Game 3 – 

The final game took place on the upper floor of the alternate board.  Once again, Chaos and Confetti used the same characters, but this time they were joined by Janet Principle “The Celebrity” (Purple) and Meymun Smelt “The Misfit” (Grey).

The long hallway that connected many of the rooms created an interesting dynamic at allowed for a lot of potential manipulation of turn order.  Chaos happened to take a lot of shots at Dr. Lucky early on, and he pulled out some big weapons along the way.  The nonplayer guests proved lacking, as Confetti had to supply all the stopping power herself.

Their ineptitude stayed true though once Confetti went on the attack.  After gathering many cards, Confetti tried a few attacks of her own.  Chaos had to fend them off with almost no help from the other guests.

Oddly, Meyum Smelt attempted a few kills himself, which thanks to Confetti’s “screw you” attitude, left Chaos cleaning up that mess as well.  Despite four strong attacks, Chaos could not land the final blow.  

The game came to an end when Confetti landed her fourth attack, thus bringing an end to Dr. Lucky and this week’s clash.

Game 3 Winner: Confetti with her bare hands in the Tennessee Room

Your Winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Confetti!

Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:

I had one heck of a run going for a bit.  My recent wins give me hope that I can still pull off a successful year, but things are still really on the bubble.  Let’s hope I can get another little winning streak started next week.

Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:

I DID IT – TAKE THAT CHAOS! WOOO! One step closer to knocking Chaos out of this competition for good. 

New Standings:

Post-Clash Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 21 Chaos – 24 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 65 Chaos – 61 Confetti

Next Week: Chess