We are really proud today to present Lewis & Clark, a game from Cédrick Chaboussit published by Ludonaute.
We are in 1803 and the USA just bought Louisiana from Napoleon. Thomas Jefferson is sending 2 explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to discover and chart this new territory...
In Lewis & Clark, your goal is to lead the first expedition to reach the Pacific coast. To move forward along this path, you need to use your cards (and available actions on the board) to get resources and spend them wisely and timely to progress as fast as possible.
The key mechanism of the game is the following: when you play a card, its power is applied with a strength of zero, which means it has no effect by default! So most of the time, you have to play 2 cards: one for its power, and another one that you use just for its strength value. So you really have to pay attention on how you combine your cards, and plan your next turns carefully, otherwise you may well miss the card you really needed!
Another interesting mechanism is that at some point all (or almost all) your cards are on the table, and you can choose at the end of your turn to "build a camp" in order to get back all your cards in your hand. But this comes at a cost: each remaining card in your hand or extra resource/meeple on your expedition board will bring your expedition back 1 step on the path. So what looks like as a very quick progression on the map may turn out to be a very modest progress or even a setback later if you didn't keep in mind that you need to build your camp at some point...
To learn more about the rules, click on the video below :
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Lewis & Clark is a really good game (7.6 on BGG), but pay attention, it's also a difficult one! The rules are straightforward and not overly complex, but this game is not easy to master. After all, crossing North America in 1803 was definitely not easy!
After Russian Railroads, Nippon and Madeira, Lewis & Clark is another adaptation beautifully crafted by Alena Laskavaia (Victoria_La). This adaptation was a huge work and the quality of the result is really great: she really deserves a giant thank you from all the community for this!
A big thank you also goes to Ludonaute and game designer Cédrick for creating this game and for making it possible to have it here online. And by the way, Ludonaute just released a new game this month:
Oh Captain! set in the Legends of Luma universe. We strongly encourage you to have a look at it!
Enjoy!
