Clocktowers holds an amusing place in my collection. I’ve had it for a pretty long time. I think I picked it up in 2005 or 2006. I’ve barely played it. And I don’t have any plans on getting rid of it.
Okay. A lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s a deck of cards and takes up less space then most books. (Decks of cards get a lot more leeway when in comes to purges. SOMEDAY I WILL PLAY VERRATOR FOR THE FIRST TIME) But that’s not the only reason.
Clocktowers is the card-version of the board game Capitol which was reprinted as Skyline 3000. While I’ve never even seen Capital, I did buy and play Skyline 3000. And I thought Skyline 3000 wasn’t bad but it wasn’t a game that I held onto. The box was bigger than a book after all :D
Seriously, though, while being a good game is the most important part for a game to survive a purge, the game actually seeing any play is also important. Storage space is also part of the equation.
I have to admit that I didn’t properly grok Clocktowers when I first got it, which led to less play. I thought it was more of a pure set collection game and I couldn’t understand why we were building so few towers.
Now, with years of gaming under my belt, I realize that Clocktowers is driven by scarcity. There’s not even close to enough tower parts to go around so you are fighting over scraps to build any towers at all. That’s still a form of set collection but scales are tipped more extremely. If we had understood that back when I first got the game, we’d have played a lot more Clocktowers.
Now, I know that Slyline 3000 is a deeper, richer gaming experience than Clocktowers. But I wasn’t playing Skyline 3000 and Clocktowers, at a fraction of the space, gives me a similar experience. This is the same reason I still own King of the Elves but not Elfenlands anymore.
(On the contrary wise, Ticket to Ride: New York does not replace any of the big Ticket to Ride games. Because those are games that DO see play)
In some ways, Clocktowers feels like a missed opportunity for me. If I understood what it was trying to do when I didn’t have nearly as many games, it would have seen more play. But I think it’s worth keeping on the shelf.
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