Clash of Chaos and Confetti #47: Biblios

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 might need to read Board Games for Dummies. 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 Chess clash.

Pre-Clash Current Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 22 Chaos – 24 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 67 Chaos – 61 Confetti – 1 Draw

After losing last week, Confetti has chosen Biblios.

The Game – Biblios

In Bibios, players are working to create the greatest collection of sacred texts.  They will require the right resources and workers to get the job done.  

To set up the game, five dice will be placed on the center board.  Each die should be set to three.  Next, players will remove gold cards from the deck based on the number of people playing (2 of each gold type for two players).  Then, they will shuffle the deck and remove more cards facedown, again based on the number of players (21 for two players).  This helps prevent anyone from card counting perfectly.  With that, the game is ready to go.

Biblios takes place over two parts.  The first section of the game is the gifting phase, which represents donations.  Players will take turns allotting the donations.  On their turn, a player will privately draw cards one by one.  Before drawing the next, the player will decide what to do with the card they have.  The drawn card can either be kept, sent to auction or placed in the public space.  Once the player has fulfilled a destination they may not choose it again until their next turn.  Keeping a card and the auction deck can only take one card a turn.  The public space will receive as many cards as there are opponents to the active player.  Once all areas are sated, the turn will pass.  This process will continue until the deck is depleted completely.

Cards that are kept will help build a deck for the second half of the game and for scoring.  Cards placed face down into the auction deck will also become more important in the second half of the game.  The cards in the public space will be claimed by the other players.  Going clockwise, each opponent will choose a card to add to their deck until all the cards are taken.  Each opponent should receive one card.

Once the gifting phase is done, the game will move into the auction phase.  The auction deck should be shuffled.  Then, the active player will flip over a card from the auction deck and bidding will start.  Going clockwise, each player will be given a chance to bid or pass.  If a player passes, they are out of the bidding process until the next card is revealed.  Bidding will continue until only one player remains.  They will then pay for their card using either gold for resources or cards for gold.

The cards found in the game are either gold: used for buying cards or breaking ties, bishops that can raise or lower the value of the dice on the central board, or resources which are used for scoring at the end of the game.

If a player officially receives a bishop into their hand whether they decide to keep it, gain it in the public space, or win it at auction, they must use it immediately.  The dice are important because they represent the points that can be earned at the end of the game.

Those points are earned through the five colored resource cards.  At the end of the game, players will total the value of each color resource they have.  Whichever player has the highest total wins all the points from the die on that respective color.  A tie is broken by whoever has the lowest letter, with “a” being the lowest.  

Once the points are distributed, the player with the highest total points wins.  Ties are broken with gold. 

It’s a showdown of scripture, a battle of books, and a clash of collections!  Who will come out on top and who will only be collecting losses?

Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:

Books are my thing (check out my monthly book reviews!) and I am studying librarianship, so this game about building a collection of books should be all for me!  However, I do recognize that some of my favorite games and topics have not been too kind to me this year.  I’m keeping hope alive though and I plan to do whatever it takes (within the context and rules of the game) to win!  Go Chaos!

Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:

I’ve run out of games I feel confident in winning, but hoping I can get lucky in something we haven’t played in a while. I don’t remember Biblios well, but I remember it being quick and fun. Hopefully I can come out on top and knock Chaos out of the competition for good. 

Game 1 –

Chaos started the first game.  Both players carefully weighed their options as they allocated cards during the gift phase.   Round and round they went doing their best to bolster their hands while leaving the other lacking.  The strategy for Chaos and Confetti seemed to be grab high numbers, give low numbers, and send bishops to auction.

During the auction phase, both players fought pretty hard on the first few bids, which wasn’t great for their money supplies.  The sent away bishops also started to make appearances.  Chaos mostly let Confetti take the first few, hoping to see what she colors she valued most.  Then, the took the last few to tilt points in his favor (or so he thought).  The final card he got was a bishop which he used to lower blue, since Confetti seemed so bent on raising it.  This would simply end up hurting Chaos.

During final scoring, Confetti took the brown monks, a category that both players invested a lot of time and money into.  Chaos took blue and green, a low scoring category but one he grabbed a single card for once he realized neither he nor Chaos seemed to be valuing.  Confetti easily took orange and then Chaos took red with no competition at all.

In the end, Confetti grabbed the highest scoring category, but Chaos was able to eke out a win with his combined three mid-scoring categories.

Game 1 Winner: Chaos

Game 1 Score: 9 Chaos – 7 Confetti

Game 2 –

Confetti chose to begin game two.  This time around, both players decided to vary their strategy a little.  Confetti now took a mix of card types hoping to give herself flexibility.  Chaos opted to grab as much gold as he could to give himself an advantage during the auction phase.

With a better sense of the game, the gifting phrase flew by and the auction phrase began quickly.  Chaos’ plan of being able to dominate the bidding became a reality as he shut out Confetti’s bids easily.  However, the issue of only  being able to grab what was available meant Chaos didn’t feel too confident in any category.  He came in with few resources and his supplies seemed limited.

Chaos decided to get a little cut throat.  As his funds started to dwindle, he hoped to force a little extra spending from Confetti.  Chaos made a low bid he could not pay in order to get Confetti to bid higher and pay a slightly inflated price.  What Chaos didn’t realize was that Confetti had no money.  Chaos couldn’t pay for the two gold, so he was penalized into giving Confetti a random card.  The high brown card she took would eventually  seal the deal in her favor for that category. 

With neither player having gold to auction with, the rest of the game went pretty quickly, and then so did scoring.  It turned out that Confetti had the advantage in every category, so she took all the points.

Game 2 Winner: Confetti

Game 2 Score: 0 Chaos – 17 Confetti

Game 3:

Chaos started the final game.  This time he carefully tried to diversify his takings.  Confetti did the same.  Both players could only moan and groan as they kept forcing themselves to give strong cards to the other.  Yes, the number of good cards handed over to an opponent was pretty balanced, but that didn’t mean it felt good.

Once the gifting was wrapped up, the auction process began.  Chaos and Confetti grabbed what cards they could but neither felt super confident about what might come their way.  There was a careful balance of trying to grab what seemed most important but also never wanting to overspend.  Often the first bidder announced what felt reasonable and the other player backed down out of fear of blowing all their money too soon.

During the scoring phase, it became apparent that feeling of the game being so close was borne from reality.  The dice ended up splitting three to Chaos and two to Confetti, but it was their values that mattered most.  Confetti’s orange and green die only brought in two points a piece, which allowed Chaos to close the book on this week’s clash with a win.

Game 3 Winner: Chaos

Game 3 Score: 10 Chaos – 4 Confetti

Your Winner and STILL C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!!

Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:

Nothing is guaranteed yet, but I am really starting to believe that I can win for the year.  I’m so close, but the margin for error is still so tiny.  Like a good book, the ending of this year’s clash series is going to be a nailbiter.  Again, Go Chaos!

Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:

So annoyed that I’ve let Chaos come back so much. Ugh. Hopefully I can stop his climb.

New Standings:

Post-Clash Standings:

• Weekly Winner: 23 Chaos – 24 Confetti
• Individual game wins: 69 Chaos – 62 Confetti – 1 Draw

Next Week: Yahtzee