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On November 30, 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from Napoleon. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson decided to send two explorers – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – to discover this huge terra incognita.
Lewis & Clark is a board game in which each player manages an expedition intended to cross the North American continent. Their goal is to be the first to reach the Pacific. Each one has his own Corps of Discovery that will be completed by the Native Americans and the trappers met during the journey. He has to cleverly manage his characters and also the resources he finds along the way. Beware, sometimes frugality is better than abundance.
Lewis & Clark features dual use cards. To be activated, one card must be combined with another one, which becomes unavailable for a while. Thus, players are faced with a constant dilemma: play a card or sacrifice it. During the game, each player acquires character cards that enlarge his hand, building a crew that gives him more options but it needs to be optimized as he will recycle his cards more slowly. This new "handbuilding" mechanism fits strongly with the historical background.
Since the aim of the game is to be the first on the Pacific coast, the timing and the opportunistic use of the other players' positions are crucial.
- engaging exploration theme
- cooperative storytelling potential in group play
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- set collection / route planning — Historically themed expedition with decisions about routes and provisioning
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Life finds a way.
- AI can't do that.
- Talk is cheap because supply always exceeds demand.
References (from this video)
- puzzly, strategic hand management
- strong engine-building feel
- potential for pace drag if mismanaged
- punishment tokens can slow momentum
- deck-building racing and resource conversion
- exploration and river travel
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deck_building — build and utilize a hand of cards to perform actions
- Race — race down the river/mountains with optimal card play
- racing — race down the river/mountains with optimal card play
- resource_conversion — convert resources to movement and progress
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "This is a deck deconstruction game where you want to be the first player to abandon all of your artichokes"
- "hidden movement games are a strange one for me"
- "it's a very light game it's very quick bit of silly fun"
- "the more weird a theme is the heavier the game is"
- "Revive is such a great card driven Euro"
- "best game from 2022 No Doubt"
References (from this video)
- strong deck-building and hand-management integration
- excellent card synergy and resource conversion trees
- dual use of cards as workers and activators adds depth
- length can balloon beyond the box stated duration
- frustration can arise from negative feedback loops and resource penalties
- the pacing can feel slow for a race game at times
- exploration, river racing, deck-building
- American frontier river expedition with mountains to traverse
- racing with strategic deck-building and hand management
- Coliseum
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- crowding management — you must watch crowding on the board and timing of actions to avoid bottlenecks
- Deck building — build and optimize a hand of cards to move downriver and through mountains
- deck-building — build and optimize a hand of cards to move downriver and through mountains
- hand management — cards must be sequenced for efficient activation; some cards activate others
- negative feedback loops — poor choices can create penalties that are hard to shed mid-race
- Resource management — cards convert into resources; managing what to use as workers versus activators is key
- resource management and conversion — cards convert into resources; managing what to use as workers versus activators is key
- routing/ racing — continuous decision of card usage to minimize wasted movement while racing the clock
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I cannot recommend this one
- the box here is way too big
- the components are very small like all the different tokens and wooden bits are a mini skill and they're quite fiddly to handle
- this game shines for me is the deck building and the Hand management part
- the strongest example of a game that I've played that has been completely debilitated by the length
- this is one of the old school Euros dating back to the year 2000
- I would rate this like a six and a half out of ten
- I actually think I prefer Coliseum to the Princes of Florence