Gamehelplewisclark

Theme

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.

Overview

• Lewis & Clark is a board game in which the players manage an expedition intended to cross the North American continent.
• Their goal is to be the first to reach the Pacific.
• Each one has their own Corps of Discovery that will be completed by the Native Americans and the trappers met during the journey.
• They have to cleverly manage their characters and also the resources they find along the way.
• Beware, sometimes frugality is better than abundance.

Game play

• 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 their hand, building a crew that gives them more options but it needs to be optimised as they will recycle their cards more slowly.
• This new "hand building" 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.

RECRUITMENT PHASE - Note:

To recruit a character, you have to pay the fur and equipment cost as shown on their card slot in the row of available cards. The rulebook states: "You can partially or completely pay the required Equipment by discarding one (and only one) card from your hand. Then you save as many Equipment as indicated by the Recruitment Discount on the back of the discarded card."

The 'Recruitment Discount' is the same as the strength of the card. This is important to know because you can't see the back of the card in this online version.

Also note that when you use a character card this way, using its strength in lieu of equipment, that card is gone from your hand. So, when you camp and get your people back, the person won't be there. They ran off into the wilderness.