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 kitty litter. 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 Mexican Train melee.
Pre-Clash Current Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 24 Chaos – 26 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 73 Chaos – 66 Confetti – 1 Draw
After losing last week, Chaos has chosen Boop.
The Game – Boop
Boop is a two-player abstract strategy game that will have players placing kittens and cats on a bed in order to gain dominance and the most comfortable nap positions.
Both players will begin the game with eight kitten pieces, and they will take turns placing the kittens on the 6X6 board. The trick is that whenever a kitten is placed, it will push all surrounding kittens one square away either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally depending on their starting position. Kittens will not be pushed (booped) if the space they are being pushed to is already occupied.
If a player gets three kittens in a row, they will graduate those kittens into cats. The kittens pieces will be placed in the game box and three cats will be placed into the player’s pool of pieces (off the board). Alternatively, if a player has all eight of their pieces on the board, they may graduate one of their kittens to a cat.
Cats are played the same way as kittens, but they are unable to be pushed by kittens. Cats still push around kittens though. Three kittens in a row will get a player cats, but three cats in a row will earn a player victory.
It’s a cute battle of cat herding. Who will prove to be the king/queen of cats, and who will feel like they’ve just watched the movie version of Cats.
Chaos’ Pre-Clash Thoughts:
Some people may be wondering why we’re doing a clash this week when the overall winner for the year has already been decided. It’s simple really: 1) We like to play games, so it’s always good to have an excuse to play, 2) the actual C&C title can still change hands, 3) our yearly stats are still a thing, and 4) Chaos is going to end this year on a win!
Confetti’s Pre-Clash Thoughts:
I’m really excited about owning and getting to play Boop – unfortunately, the game itself is super spatial so I’m not optimistic about my chances of actually winning. Regardless, I won the most clashes this year already so my victory is set.
Game 1 –
This was both Chaos and Confetti’s first game of Boop. They both placed kittens, slowly getting used to the push mechanic. It can take a beat to wrap one’s head around the planning it takes to place kittens in ways that they will hopefully find their way to three in a row. More importantly, both competitors had to get used to the other person completely messing up their plans whenever a new kitten was placed.
Chaos achieved being the first to graduate a set of kittens to cats. However, within a few turns, Confetti surprised him by gaining a set of cats as well. Now, they needed to readjust expectations as the cats provided another wrinkle to the push/boop mechanic.
As the battle continued, kittens were bumped from bed in favor of larger cats. The biggest winner proved to be Chaos though, as he got his cats all lined up and took the first win!
Game 1 Winner: Chaos
Game 2 –
Confetti started the second game, but again Chaos graduated a set of kittens first. He took some time to get a second set of cats before truly going for meeting the win condition.
Confetti was having a lot of trouble getting her kittens in a row, especially with Chaos’ cats getting so pushy. That is when Confetti started relying on the alternate upgrade stipulation of simply getting all eight of her pieces on the board. That allowed her to upgrade a few kittens before she finally got a set of kittens graduated.
Chaos’ advantage started to fade as he could not find a path to getting three cats in a row. Confetti kept interfering with his plans.
Finally, Confetti was able to sneak in a diagonal three-in-a-row. This fight wasn’t pretty as both players kept having plans fall apart, but a Confetti still stuck the landing to tie up the clash.
Game 2 Winner: Confetti
Game 3 –
For the first time, Chaos started a game of Boop. This round, chaos played a lot more aggressively. After getting his first set of cats, he made it his goal to keep Confetti mostly cat free. He pushed her kittens away from one another and off the bed. He didn’t want her taking advantage of the alternate upgrade rule again He, however, was more than happy to grab a few cats that way.
Confetti fought back valiantly, grabbing a few cats along the way, but she had trouble gaining the upper hand back. She had to opt between regaining board presence and blocking potential wins for Chaos. It was a lot to balance.
Finally, Chaos worked his way around Confetti’s cat commandos and grabbed a diagonal win, and so a year of Clashes ended with Chaos regaining the championship title.
Game 3 Winner: Chaos
Your Winner and NEW C&C Clash Champion: Chaos!
Chaos’ Post-Clash Thoughts:
Well, at least the year ends with the championship title in the right hands. Also, I would like to take a moment to draw attention to the fact that I have the most individual game wins. Furthermore, there was one week where Confetti felt ill, so we skipped a title defense that week. That one week could have allowed me to tie up the weekly win score. Oh well, I guess the only thing we know is that I’ll be entering 2023 as the C&C Clash Champion!
Confetti’s Post-Clash Thoughts:
I won one game of Boop, which is definitely a personal victory. I’m excited that I won the most clashes overall for the year and can’t wait to see what the new year will hold as we revamp our clash for the new year. I hope everyone had a great holiday season!
New Standings:
Post-Clash Standings:
- Weekly Winner: 25 Chaos – 26 Confetti
- Individual game wins: 75 Chaos – 68 Confetti – 1 Draw
Next Year: So many games, so much competition, and quite a few surprises!
Chaos & Confetti 