Get Down, Get Deeper and Down…
Clank Catacombs took what was already an incredible push-your-luck game of exploration and fighting monsters while in search of treasure and made it even better! The one thing that was always missing from Clank! was that the exploration side was very weak. Playing with seasoned players always meant that they knew the optimum route down to get the best treasure and then the best way back up to victory. There was never any real sense of exploring. Well, Catacombs flipped that on its head and gave us nothing but exploration. Now rather than a single board that everyone can see from the start, you now have a stack of tiles that could come up in any order and either make or break your game plan. This has now become my favourite way to play the franchise, creating so much replayability in just a standard board game size box. And with a little more of an Indianna Jones flavour than D&D it really grabs my attention. But the one thing missing was risk. Apart from maybe an ice cave, stopping your movement, there was no reason not to explore into the unknown. Well, here comes Lairs and Lost Chambers!
Snakes, why’d there have to be snakes…
This small box expansion offers everything you need to make your experience just that little bit more dangerous but also that much more exciting if you find the right tile. First there are ‘lairs’. These rooms add a number of new foes that will need defeating in return for big bounties. For example, if you stumble into Medusa’s lair you will take damage for looking her in the eyes but if you can defeat her, show a secret tome and wield a few swords, then for the rest of the game you can carry around her head and avoid all tunnel monsters! Or defeat the Sphynx and gain treasure. I like these little additions as not only do they offer a nice reward, but there is now a real risk when deciding to explore onto a new tile. Taking two damage if surprised by Medusa could be huge! I also love that these offer more ways to spend your swords. The other tiles that come in the deck also offer simple traps that will stop your movement and give you damage unless you discard a card from your hand and some of these tiles force your hand by dictating which route you must enter the tile through. Again, RISK!
Fortune and Glory kid, fortune and Glory!
Then there is everything I love in an expansion. More, more more! There are a few more above ground tiles as well as plenty more undercount ones. These include the aforementioned traps and new forced entry points. But there are also new titular ‘Lost Chambers’. These are all limited interaction spaces. Once there you can spend a certain amount in order to get a reward but then must place a cube there to show that no one else can find it. This counters the riskiness of exploring with the race to find these big boons. It also gives you far more interesting ways to spend your money than simply on satchels and lock picks. Then there are the card! Nothing excites me in a deck builder expansion more than more cards to add into the mix! The best thing to be added is the new ‘trophy’ mechanism. Most new monster cards as well as some spell cards now get to be kept in your player area and can offer ongoing powers or even end game scoring. For example, the Golden Hourglass will reward you with a coin every time you shuffle your discard pile. If you get that early on you are going to be rolling in wealth! Or the
Get Down, Get Deeper and Down…
Clank Catacombs took what was already an incredible push-your-luck game of exploration and fighting monsters while in search of treasure and made it even better! The one thing that was always missing from Clank! was that the exploration side was very weak. Playing with seasoned players always meant that they knew the optimum route down to get the best treasure and then the best way back up to victory. There was never any real sense of exploring. Well, Catacombs flipped that on its head and gave us nothing but exploration. Now rather than a single board that everyone can see from the start, you now have a stack of tiles that could come up in any order and either make or break your game plan. This has now become my favourite way to play the franchise, creating so much replayability in just a standard board game size box. And with a little more of an Indianna Jones flavour than D&D it really grabs my attention. But the one thing missing was risk. Apart from maybe an ice cave, stopping your movement, there was no reason not to explore into the unknown. Well, here comes Lairs and Lost Chambers!
Snakes, why’d there have to be snakes…
This small box expansion offers everything you need to make your experience just that little bit more dangerous but also that much more exciting if you find the right tile. First there are ‘lairs’. These rooms add a number of new foes that will need defeating in return for big bounties. For example, if you stumble into Medusa’s lair you will take damage for looking her in the eyes but if you can defeat her, show a secret tome and wield a few swords, then for the rest of the game you can carry around her head and avoid all tunnel monsters! Or defeat the Sphynx and gain treasure. I like these little additions as not only do they offer a nice reward, but there is now a real risk when deciding to explore onto a new tile. Taking two damage if surprised by Medusa could be huge! I also love that these offer more ways to spend your swords. The other tiles that come in the deck also offer simple traps that will stop your movement and give you damage unless you discard a card from your hand and some of these tiles force your hand by dictating which route you must enter the tile through. Again, RISK!
Fortune and Glory kid, fortune and Glory!
Then there is everything I love in an expansion. More, more more! There are a few more above ground tiles as well as plenty more undercount ones. These include the aforementioned traps and new forced entry points. But there are also new titular ‘Lost Chambers’. These are all limited interaction spaces. Once there you can spend a certain amount in order to get a reward but then must place a cube there to show that no one else can find it. This counters the riskiness of exploring with the race to find these big boons. It also gives you far more interesting ways to spend your money than simply on satchels and lock picks. Then there are the card! Nothing excites me in a deck builder expansion more than more cards to add into the mix! The best thing to be added is the new ‘trophy’ mechanism. Most new monster cards as well as some spell cards now get to be kept in your player area and can offer ongoing powers or even end game scoring. For example, the Golden Hourglass will reward you with a coin every time you shuffle your discard pile. If you get that early on you are going to be rolling in wealth! Or the
Heart of the Dark allows you to take off two clank every time you get a trophy. These add a wonderful freshness to the one off cards in the deck.
If you like Clank! you will certain like Clank Catacombs. But if you like Clank Catacombs then you will love Lairs and Lost Chambers. It is one of those expansions that mainly adds more of what you love with a little extra if you want to mix it in. However there is nothing stopping you opting to take out the lairs if you don’t like the risk and just add the rest of the tiles. Either way, if you are already on board the Clank Catacombs! ghost train then this is an absolute must!
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
88%
