Ganz Schön Clever AKA That’s Pretty Clever is a roll & write game with different colour dice.
I can confirm, it is in fact, pretty clever.
Choose your dice well in Ganz schön clever to enter them into the matching coloured area, put together tricky chain-scoring opportunities, and rack up the points. The dice you don’t use are as important as what you do because every die that’s smaller than the chosen one can be used by the other players, keeping everyone in the game at all times.
Ganz Schön Clever Game Play
So to start, the currently active player rolls the dice. They choose one of the dice and mark their sheet depending on the colour of the die selected.
Any dice rolled LOWER than the number taken are added to a Silver Platter (in the box) and the remaining dice are re-rolled and this is repeated until they have taken 3 dice. Then, any unselected dice are also added to the Silver Platter.
Then all non-active players choose one of the dice from the Silver Platter and mark off their sheet. The play goes clockwise over several rounds.
Each colour die affects a different part of your sheet and therefore your scoring, let’s take a look.
Dice & Scoring Blocks
So firstly, the White die has two uses but its primary use is as a wild and can be used for any colour.
The Yellow die lets you cross off a matching number box in the Yellow area.
Every completed Yellow column scores the points at the bottom of that column at the end of the game. Every completed row gives you a bonus at the end of it that you use immediately. These let you add something to the relevant colour area. For example, if it shows an Orange 6, you add a 6 onto the Orange row of your sheet. This allows you to create combos.
Completing the Diagonal row gives you a +1 which you mark at the top of your sheet. That can be crossed out later and used to reuse a dice again.
The Blue die is always totalled with the White die to cross off that value box in the Blue section. Gain the bonus for each completed row and column. This section is worth a number of points depending on how many numbers are crossed off.
Scoring Rows
The Green boxes need to meet the requirement in the box. They’re filled left to right and the bonus under each number is gained immediately. This row is worth points equal to the number above the last filled box in the row.
The Orange row is filled from left to right with any number. Again, gain the bonus when you fill the box above them. The row is worth the value of all the numbers entered in the entire row.
The Purple row is filled from left to right and each number must be higher than the one before it. But, any number can go after a 6. Again, gain the bonus under the box as that box is filled. Score the total of all numbers entered in that row at the end of the game.
After a number of rounds, the game ends and you add up each colour section. Then for each of those Red Foxes you ‘unlock’, you will score the lowest value colour again.
Most points win.
Theme
It’s abstract, but that’s OK 🙂
Setup
This involves being given a sheet and putting some dice on the table. Pens are included in the box.
So yeah, easy.
Components & Artwork
Not much to say here.
I will say the iconography, while initially intimidating, was VERY clear. If you don’t know the game the sheet looks like a total mess. Boxes and numbers and symbols and colours all over the place. However, once it’s explained you can see it’s very well done.
If I wanted to be picky I would like to see some funkier dice.
Ease of Teaching & Accessibility
Teaching is easy. Once you explain each section and how the dice work you pretty much have it nailed down.
Some little rules around which dice you take and stuff but nothing major.
As I mentioned, the symbols all make sense so they’re easy to pick up as you fill your boxes and unlock things. There is no hidden information here so teaching is easy and it’s very accessible.
We did keep picking the dice up to roll without putting the dice with a value lower than the die taken onto the platter. Experienced players and n00bs.
Ganz Schön Clever Summary
I’ve owned a lot of Roll & Writes over the years with only Qwixx and Welcome To… surviving.
But this game is pretty good. You roll the dice and take what you think is best. I feel you don’t have THAT many decisions to make though.
In your first roll, any 5s or 6s are going to destroy your available dice pool. Many of the lower numbers might not give you what you want so it’s basically working with what’s left, or take the next best option.
One of the best things about this is trying to combo multiple actions from one die.
Taking a Yellow die completes a row and gives you a Blue X, the Blue X completes a column and gives you a Purple 6, and the Purple 6 gives you a re-roll to use later.
That is a lot of fun, I mean I assume so, if I ever play well enough to do it I’ll let you know.
Jesta ThaRogue