Creature Caravan (Saturday Review)

The land of Arzium is facing a new threat. Ember Zombies have left their volcanic lands to the north and are walking through the previously peaceful lands that we call our home. You can easily recognise them with their charcoal bodies. Yet, there is hope. The city of Eastrey offers a safe haven for the creatures that are threatened by the malicious fire fairies. Everyone must make their way across deserts and plains, over mountains and through deep canyons and seek refuge, picking up other wandering creatures along the way, to join their Creature Caravan by Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games with illustrations from Ryan Laukat.

Yes, the world of Arzium is in peril again and it is up to you and up to three other brave adventurers to drive your caravan east, picking up friendly creatures to add to your crew. If you have played any of Red Ravens‘ other games, you will feel right at home. Not only is the art by the talented Ryan Laukat, who designs and illustrates his games, very recognisable, but iconography and certain mechanisms are also very similar to other games from this publisher, making Creature Caravan relatively quick to pick up, if you have played a game like Above and Below or Near and Far.

Card Caravan

However, even if you have never played a game from Red Raven Games before, it won’t take long to learn. It’s a tableau builder at its core. So cycling through the deck of over 130 cards to find ones that create synergies and make your turns more effective and actions more powerful is important.

To play the cards you have, you need a combination of food, bags or coins. So in your first game, you will probably just try to get to grips with the game’s economy. You will quickly realize that you shouldn’t try to play every card you draw. In fact, cards are often more valuable when they are converted into resources: one card for one food or three cards for one coin. So discarding cards to get food or coins to allow you to play another card is often your best bet.

It also means you’ll cycle through the deck more quickly, which is a good thing, because sometimes the best cards just happen to be at the bottom. Bear in mind that some cards are more useful at the beginning of the game, while others are better at the end.

Many cards give you points, but often the amount of points you get depends on what other cards you have in your tableau by the end of the game. Yet, it’s easy to waste too much time and effort trying to find the card and getting the necessary resources to gain a 12-point bonus, for example, when you could score the same in other ways. On the other hand, trying to find cards that make your actions more effective and powerful is often a good idea.

In fact, getting a feel for the deck and the card synergies is the biggest part of Creature Caravan.

Travelling Caravan

In your first game, you will probably also focus on getting cards that allow you to move across the modular game board. After all, the game wants you to move from left to right to reach the final destination, Eastray. You get a point for every step forward and a bonus for reaching the city.

Yet, in later games, you realize that there are many ways in which to get points. Reaching the sanctuary of the city is only one of them. You get points by trading coins or bags for bread, for picking up and immediately defeating Ember Zombies and from cards. Creature Caravan is a real point salad. Once you have played the game a few times, you realize that you have to try and do a bit of everything to get the most points.

For example, I have been quite successful in focusing on fighting the zombies. If you get a lot of fighting actions, you can score really well. I have also done well with trying to collect a lot of coins or bags and trading them for food and gaining points that way. So focussing on travel isn’t the be-all and end-all of Creature Caravan, even though the story of the game steers you towards it.

I think that’s possibly what makes the game feel a little overwhelming when you play it for the first time. There are three different types of resources. There are many ways of scoring points. You’re pulled into a lot of different directions. However, you have to remember that you can never do everything and it’s best to focus on a couple of things at a time. Once you have played your first game though, it’ll all make sense and you’ll do a lot better from then on.

Dicey Caravan

Let me talk about the other mechanism that is at the core of this game next. It’s what drew me to it in the first place. Actually, it’s two mechanisms really: dice placement and simultaneous play.

Everyone has five dice, which are rolled at the beginning of each round. You get a free reroll, if you don’t like the result, but you have to roll all dice again. Then, everyone takes their actions in parallel.

The majority of actions cost one dice. There are some that require two and some need a dice and a resource. There are also actions that don’t require any dice, like converting a card for a food. Additionally, most actions require a dice with a certain minimum pip value. For example, moving along the plains requires a dice with a pip value of three or higher. So you can place a three, four, five or six.

To take an action, you simply place the required dice on the relevant spot and carry out the action. Everyone starts with the same basic actions on their player board. However, many creature cards give you access to more actions. Adding a card to your caravan is a free action, as in it doesn’t cost a dice, but you still need to pay the required resources.

Some cards give you ongoing or one-off bonuses. For example, there is a card that gives you an extra dice, which can be very powerful.

Once everyone has used up their dice and taken as many free actions as they want, the round is over. Everyone places a camp next to their caravan player token, gathers up their dice, gets the relevant card bonuses and then rolls them all again to start another round.

Creature Chaos

I know that simultaneous play sometimes feels chaotic and you can never be sure if other players are following the rules correctly. Yet, I think in Creature Caravan it works really well.

Of course, if you’re teaching the game to others, you will have to help everyone and make sure they understand how it works, but otherwise, the fact that everyone plays at the same time means that there is very little downtime.

Sure, it does depend on your group. There will always be some people who are really quick and take all the actions they need without hesitation, while others take longer to consider their options and work out the order in which to do things. Yet, on the whole, people usually finish around the same time.

There is one more interesting mechanism in Creature Caravan: the way the trade actions and zombie fighting are implemented. It’s a little hard to explain, but the way it works creates a certain tempo which makes it progressively harder for everyone to trade and defeat zombies. It puts the pressure on everyone and adds a little spice to what otherwise would be a completely multiplayer solitaire game.

Finally, Creature Caravan comes with a solo mode. I have only played the game with two, three and four players myself. So I don’t know how well the solo mode works, but it’s there if you’re interested.

I really love this tableau builder where you travel across a landscape that can be different between games. I love the randomness of the card deck. I love the randomness of the dice. It’s just enough to ensure that everyone’s score at the end of every game is always pretty close. Creature Caravan is a well-designed family game that you can genuinely enjoy every moment of.

Useful Links

• Creature Caravan: https://www.redravengames.com/creature-caravan/
• Rulebook: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/291561/creature-caravan-rulebook
• Red Raven Games: https://www.redravengames.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385331/creature-caravan

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

“Desert Night” by Sascha Ende
Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/480-desert-night
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: