2 – 4 players by Daniel Callister 2009, (v3.

1, 31 Dec 2015)

Components
Summary
1 Rules Sheet 1 Draw Bag
54 Cards 54 Game Tokens In Clovis, each player represents a band of hunter-gatherers
Sabretooth Den (x1) Dire Wolf (x13) living in the North American continent 12,000 years ago. Large
Breed (x1) Cave Bear (x12) game, once abundant, is growing scarce. Distant bands now find
themselves in direct competition for limited resources. It’s
Option (x4) Ground Sloth (x11)
survival of the fittest in a dangerous world of spears, mammoths
Spear Cards (x48) Mammoth (x10) and sabretooth cats.
I (x16), II (x24), III (x8) Sabretooth (x8)

Setup
Each player receives the same starting hand, consisting of two single Spear cards
and two double Spear cards (a total of four cards for each player). Cards in a
player’s hand are used to form Hunting Parties.

The remaining Spear cards are sorted into two piles and placed in the play area so
that they are accessible to all players. The first pile is placed face-up and contains
only the remaining double Spear cards. The remaining single and triple Spear
cards are shuffled together and placed face-down to form the second pile.

The Breed card, the four Option cards and the Sabretooth Den card are placed face-up in a central location. All
Game tokens are placed in the draw bag and mixed thoroughly. The starting player draws eight Game tokens
randomly from the draw bag and places them face-up near the Breed, Option and Sabretooth Den cards.

Throughout the game, when Sabretooth

tokens are drawn, they are immediately placed
on the Sabretooth Den card, where they will
accumulate until the end of the game. Any
time this happens, the starting player
continues drawing Game tokens until the
number of non-Sabretooth tokens drawn
equals the number of rounds remaining in the
game (eight tokens in Round 1, one token in
Round 8). The decreasing availability of
Game tokens represents the process of
species extinction.
How to Play
Clovis is played in eight rounds in which players send competing Hunting Parties to claim available items (called
objectives). A Hunting Party consists of one or more Spear cards from a player’s hand. The strength of the Hunting
Party is the sum of its Spears. Each round consists of a number of player turns. Players take turns claiming either a
specific game token available that round, the Option card, or the Breed card. Each player may designate only one
hunting party on any turn and a single hunting party may only claim a single objective. If a player is unable to form a
hunting party on their turn they must pass. Play proceeds in a clockwise fashion until all players have passed. At this
point the round ends and the winning hunting parties collect their objectives.
Claiming Objectives with Hunting Parties:
Hunting Parties are formed in order to claim objectives. Objectives consist of:
1) the Game tokens available that round,
2) the Breed card, or
3) the Option card
During play Hunting Parties are placed face-up adjacent to their objective so that the strength of the Hunting Party
(total number of spears) may easily be seen by all players.
A player may send no more than one Hunting Party to any single objective (i.e. Hunting Parties may not be reinforced
after they have been put in place.) This is true whether or not another band is present on the same objective.
Players may send Hunting Parties to objectives that already have Hunting Parties from other players, but only if the
strength of the new Hunting Party is greater than the Hunting Party currently claiming that objective.
All Spear cards, once in place at an objective, remain where they are until the end of the round, even if a stronger
Hunting Party has gained control of their objective. No Spear card may be placed more than once in a single round.

End of a round
The round ends once all players have either placed all of their Spear cards or are unable to place their remaining cards
without violating the placement rules. Game tokens are awarded to the strongest hunting parties, the Breed and
Option cards remain in the common area.
Each Game token from that round is awarded to the player that sent the strongest Hunting Party to that Game
token. If a Game tokens has no Hunting Party, it is discarded from the game. Each player keeps their awarded Game
tokens face-down next to them. At the end of the game the value of these tokens will determine the winner.
When a player is awarded the Breed objective, he/she adds to their hand the top card from one of the two Spear card
draw piles, increasing the strength of their hand for the rest of the game.
When a player is awarded the Option objective, they immediately select and execute one of the available Option
privileges (Follow the Herd, Expanded Territory, or Sneaky Sneaky). Once executed, the card showing the chosen
privilege is turned face-down signifying that it is not available the next time a player is awarded the Option objective.
Any other face-down Option privilege cards are then turned face-up signifying that they are available next round.

Randomly draw one Game token from the Game token bag and add it face-down to your score
pile. If a Sabretooth token is drawn, it is placed in the Sabretooth Den and the player draws
another token to replace it.

2
 Draw the top Spear card from one of the Spear card draw piles. This Spear card is added to your
hand to be used in subsequent rounds.

Choose one Game token randomly from an opponent’s score pile and add it to your score pile.

Once the objectives have been resolved, players gather their Hunting Parties from the common area and place them
back into their hands to be used again in subsequent rounds.
The last player to place a Hunting Party in the previous round begins the new round by randomly drawing from the
Game token draw bag a new group of available Game tokens (one fewer than in the previous round). Remember, any
Sabretooth tokens drawn at any time are placed in the Sabretooth Den and replaced with another Game token.

Sabretooth Den and Game End Scoring

After the final round has concluded and the objectives have been resolved, the player with the most Dire Wolf tokens
in their score pile is awarded all of the Sabretooth tokens from the Sabretooth Den.
Each player totals the value of the Game tokens in their score pile. The player with the highest total value is the
winner.

In case of a tie, the winner is the tied player with the smallest band (fewest number of total spears) since their band
consists of decidedly better hunters. If there is still a tie, the winner is the tied player with the fewest number of Game
tokens in their score pile, since their band was the most resourceful. If there is still no single winner… play again!