Clash! Dawn of Steam - Unboxing and First Impressions

I like Kickstarters...and Steampunk...though my feelings about card games are somewhat neutral...I Kickstarted this anyway, lol.

I was first attracted by the artwork which was very nice and had a slightly different style to it that I quite enjoyed the 'feel' of. Not being a dedicated player of these sort of card games I'm unable to comment on any element of the game mechanics that might be considered innovative but I will be giving the game itself a proper play-test soon so an actual game-play review will be coming...honestly...

For those of you who like some context for these features then the Kickstarter page can be found here.

The Box

It did indeed come in a box. Unfortunately the box was held together by a sticker that damages the box a little if you just try to rip it away...I cut mine with a scalpel to avoid this. I'm not the only person to raise this minor issue so I doubt any subsequent retail version will have it.

Before we look at the actual game components there was also a book of background stories to the game which I mistakenly thought initially was the actual instructions. The instructions were actually on what I thought was going to be a 'quick start' guide but which are actually the complete instructions. One of the other backers of this game of my acquaintance over at Games and Tea was missing the instructions but apparently upon contact with the games creators they rectified this issue quickly and were suitably apologetic. As some-one who has experienced both extremes of customer service this was nice to hear.

Booklet and Instructions

I would have liked a slightly more substantial instruction booklet but that's just personal preference as I'm quite good at keeping books and rather unfortunately I'm quite good at losing leaflets. The booklet is an extra based on the tier at which I pledged to the game so I'm not sure if this will be available commercially or not.

Game Components

The necessary dice, card decks, and character cards to play the game.

The Cards

Obviously this is the part that most of you are interested in. Taking pictures of each individual card wasn't really practical but the picture is high definition enough so you can copy it and zoom in should you be interested in particular artwork pieces...

Settings Decks, Fate Deck. and Main Deck backs.

These are the main decks used in game. One of you is attempting to save the city (Hope) and the other is trying to destroy it utterly (Fear). There are four of each card in the decks but showing the same card four times struck me as a bit redundant so I've just shown one of each. A few backers have also raised an issue about how accurately the cards have been cut and about the overall quality. Like most people I sleeve the cards in games like this anyway so it's not a major problem but hopefully the game producers will address this in retail editions.

Hope

Fear

Hopefully I should get time for a few games this weekend and will be able to give a review on how well the game itself plays...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.