Whose Turn Is It Anyway?

Expansion Pack: Devon Board Game Weekend 2024

April 10, 2024 Loaded Dice Gaming Group
Expansion Pack: Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
Whose Turn Is It Anyway?
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Whose Turn Is It Anyway?
Expansion Pack: Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
Apr 10, 2024
Loaded Dice Gaming Group

Back in late February we attended another convention called the Devon Board Game Weekend which was hosted at the Fox & Hound Country Hotel in Eggesford and jointly ran by the hotel and Meeples Corner. 

THE PLAYERS: JP, Adrian & Davey

In this episode you'll learn:
- all about the cosy and intermit convention that is Devon Board Game Weekend
- JP & Robs misfortunate mistake in hotel room bookings
- that there was no rum spilling incidents this year
- more about the games we played across the weekend
- what makes this convention different to others we've attended

LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW
Devon Board Game Weekend Website - https://foxandhoundshotel.co.uk/devon-board-game-weekend/
Fox & Hound Country Hotel Website - https://foxandhoundshotel.co.uk/
Meeples Corner Website - https://meeplescorner.co.uk/

EPISODE CHAPTERS
0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count
4:59 - TURN 2 - The Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
9:53 - Dog friendly atmosphere
11:37 - Dune Imperium Uprising
19:32 - Point City & Tussi Mussie
23:22 - Furnace
25:20 - Ticket to Ride Europe
28:31 - Merlin
34:50 - Dice Forge
40:40 - In the Hall of the Mountain King
44:31 - A brief aside on JP & Robs loveshack
48:06 - Viking See-saw
49:00 - The Gallerist
59:10 - Senjutsu: Battle for Japan
1:04:18 - Cosmoctopus
1:08:22 - Paladins of the West Kingdom
1:15:20 - The Saturday Night Event Dinner
1:23:05 - Imperium: Horizons
1:30:19 - Brass: Lancashire
1:35:24 - War of the Ring The Card Game
1:43:08 - TURN 3 - Final thoughts on Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
1:47:09 - TURN 4 - The Final Turn

We're LIVE at the UK Games Expo this year and we can't wait to bring one of our episodes to our listeners in person.  We're running the show on Friday 31st 13:30 - 14:30 in the Dice Room (Piazza 4).

You can find out more information about the show right here.
https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/1415-whose-turn-is-it-anyway-live-podcast/

Support the Show.

SUPPORTING THE SHOW
- Support us on Ko-Fi

ENGAGING WITH THE SHOW
We want your questions so engage with the show through our channels below:
- Email Us
- BoardGameGeek
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Youtube
- TikTok

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Back in late February we attended another convention called the Devon Board Game Weekend which was hosted at the Fox & Hound Country Hotel in Eggesford and jointly ran by the hotel and Meeples Corner. 

THE PLAYERS: JP, Adrian & Davey

In this episode you'll learn:
- all about the cosy and intermit convention that is Devon Board Game Weekend
- JP & Robs misfortunate mistake in hotel room bookings
- that there was no rum spilling incidents this year
- more about the games we played across the weekend
- what makes this convention different to others we've attended

LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW
Devon Board Game Weekend Website - https://foxandhoundshotel.co.uk/devon-board-game-weekend/
Fox & Hound Country Hotel Website - https://foxandhoundshotel.co.uk/
Meeples Corner Website - https://meeplescorner.co.uk/

EPISODE CHAPTERS
0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count
4:59 - TURN 2 - The Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
9:53 - Dog friendly atmosphere
11:37 - Dune Imperium Uprising
19:32 - Point City & Tussi Mussie
23:22 - Furnace
25:20 - Ticket to Ride Europe
28:31 - Merlin
34:50 - Dice Forge
40:40 - In the Hall of the Mountain King
44:31 - A brief aside on JP & Robs loveshack
48:06 - Viking See-saw
49:00 - The Gallerist
59:10 - Senjutsu: Battle for Japan
1:04:18 - Cosmoctopus
1:08:22 - Paladins of the West Kingdom
1:15:20 - The Saturday Night Event Dinner
1:23:05 - Imperium: Horizons
1:30:19 - Brass: Lancashire
1:35:24 - War of the Ring The Card Game
1:43:08 - TURN 3 - Final thoughts on Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
1:47:09 - TURN 4 - The Final Turn

We're LIVE at the UK Games Expo this year and we can't wait to bring one of our episodes to our listeners in person.  We're running the show on Friday 31st 13:30 - 14:30 in the Dice Room (Piazza 4).

You can find out more information about the show right here.
https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/events/1415-whose-turn-is-it-anyway-live-podcast/

Support the Show.

SUPPORTING THE SHOW
- Support us on Ko-Fi

ENGAGING WITH THE SHOW
We want your questions so engage with the show through our channels below:
- Email Us
- BoardGameGeek
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Youtube
- TikTok

TURN 1 - Player Count
0:00
[Music]
0:15
welcome to whose turn is it Anyway your board gaming podcast where we talk about board games and on occasion some board
0:21
game conventions which is exactly what we're going to be talking about today we've got uh a good lineup of the Devon
0:27
board gaming weekend that we attended back in late February um and on the
0:33
episode we've got Adrian hello and Davey hello how are you doing gentlemen I'm
0:40
good I've just spent nine void Falls worth of money on a car or not on a car
0:46
but fixing the car so Galactic Edition or or standard galactic whatever's the over1 one probably Galactic Edition yeah
0:54
nine void Falls worth of fees of fixing cars so I'm I've got a smile on my face
1:01
just about still but yeah is that now a denomination of money is void
1:07
full you've got like a CX of space you now have a void fall of money you know
1:13
build Builders will pay each other six void falls for the day and stuff like that that's how it works I might charge myself hours so how many void Falls do
1:20
you get paid a day that's that's good yeah we'll do that so there we go that's how I'm doing so py yeah nice how about
1:27
you Davey what I want to hear more about Adrian car what have you done I don't know that I've done anything just
1:33
everything needed replacing at once apparently theot season yes it was the guy like rubbing his hands together and
1:39
going yeah I think you need to replace all of this I don't know about that but
1:45
yeah he did so that will come to did he go no he didn't it's when he's doing the
1:51
calculator for more than a minute that's what you got to worry it's deducting what you P deducting what you've paid
1:57
already and adding that on and taxs and coffee break and all that like it'll
2:02
come to 8.9 void Falls 8.9 void Falls
2:08
and uh will he take void Falls or just the the equivalent worth currency just the equivalent worth I think if I turned
2:13
up with nine void Falls and went there you go they might look at me a bit funny there we go now we can call your car the
2:19
Destroyer as well yeah it's true yeah hopefully I won't have it long that's that's the really frustrating bit is
2:24
hopefully I'm getting a new car in like 3 4 months time so that's the really frustrating part but never mind car a
2:30
[ __ ] though aren't they I such a drain you need them but they're a pain in the ass the destroyer of wallets
2:38
yeah anyway Davey how's your car my car's okay yeah yeah yeah um not much to
2:45
report on my car at least it's it's not it's not a boat at the moment so that's fine I don't know if everyone knows but
2:50
my previous car got flooded out and I ended up sending a picture to all you guys where I was just in the middle of
2:57
the puddle more like a river but but yeah that scene out of James Bond um spy
3:03
love me in his Lotus a spre and trying to go underwater with it right yeah but
3:08
you're not in a gadget car I'm not in a gadget car on an Audi which basically has a low air intake so it just sucked
3:15
up water through the straw my passenger side was just absolutely water logged it just came right up and I was like I'm
3:22
not it's it's higher than the water is outside and the passenger side I just like what's going
3:27
on but yeah so I have I've got a car since then so nothing really to report
3:34
other than that no fair enough my if anyone saw me at the conventionals was walking a bit um hunched over cuz I SL
3:41
the disc but I'm feeling better now a bit more mobile yeah back to my dancing
3:47
and my Tango snake hips snake hips exactly yeah yeah how are you doing JP
3:54
yeah my car's fine as well so yeah no nothing to report it's quite beautifully boring it works and drives around but no
4:00
no not a lot really just busy busy life busy things going on workwise and everything else um and gaming wise well
4:08
have you talked about your move yet you've moved we've moved location I've mentioned you mentioned it yeah I think
4:13
you're fully settled now though yeah yeah you spoke we spoke about yeah definitely yeah we definitely settled H
4:21
what it been a month and a half only two months which is mad yeah when I think about it we spent nearly like 11 months
4:28
trying to move house and then finally in and now it's like oh yeah we've always been here now it's just really strange
4:35
um but yes our podcast headquarters is in a new area uh you can't see it but we've got this really makeshift uh table
4:42
stand that holds the mic up which is it's pretty cool it's like a little mini robot it's like one of the little robots
4:47
in Star Wars that goes around the ships cleaning it and does all like the weird tasks yeah so yeah it's all good should
4:53
we talk about the board gaming weekend yes let's let's do it let's s
TURN 2 - The Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
5:00
[Music]
5:09
so this episode is all about the Devon Bor gaming weekend uh held at the Fox
5:14
and Hounds Country Hotel in egford I think I got that right I always say edford wrong or egford it's edford I
5:20
think um and it's quite near crediton not so far from exor um for those that
5:26
wondering where the hell this is I mean if you're in the southwest you might have half an idea but if you're anywhere else you probably won't know so it's all
5:32
good yeah should check it out there it's nice venue It's a Lovely Hotel uh with you know kind of out the way in the
5:38
country hence the name and it's uh ran by um a chat called Matt and his wife
5:45
and and I think his family daughter and son pop in and work there I think his daughter was uh waiting on us as well um
5:53
throughout the weekend we've been to this convention before our first time was was last year I think Adrian this
5:59
was your first this is my first one this is your first one we we went last year and we had such a great time we didn't
6:05
actually do an episode to to fully feature this last year we I think due to time and everything else going on we we
6:11
kind of had to bolt in one of our episodes so we said no we're going to do a proper episode to cover this um this
6:18
convention because it is quite unique and it's very different I would say to
6:24
to a lot of the other ones um mainly because of its size and the way it's ran and and it kind of has that intimate
6:32
feel to it is kind of what I would say um and that's basically because of the culture and the environment that's kind
6:38
of established by by Matt but it's also kind of co-run by Kristoff from mles
6:43
corner y um who uh both of them together kind of put on this event for the weekend so basically they they shut the
6:50
whole hotel down from like 3:00 on the Friday pretty much and they say the
6:56
facilities are yours um until pretty much similar time on a Sunday so yeah um
7:03
I think we get fed as well you definitely get fed um we always like getting fed at these things exactly the
7:10
food's very good food was very good yeah what do we have on the uh the Friday has like a bit of a curry yeah mix wasn't it
7:17
it was Buffet Curry bit that as you say depending what you picked cuz I think it was supposed to be three very separate
7:23
meals but most people treated it like a like a spoon of everything actually yeah it worked
7:31
variety is the spice of life yes we had a buffet on Friday and then obviously cook breakfast each morning lovely yeah
7:39
um and then uh Saturday was the the event dinner we we'll cover that kind of later in the episode um and then they
7:46
did run a carv on the Sunday uh which I didn't have but I know the Cur did the C
7:51
did very happy with it when when I left so so yeah so I think from our group um
7:57
obviously we had us three yep um we had uh Tambo and Rob we had Becky and curle
8:04
and anyone else that I can't remember that was it from us wasn't it was it yeah yeah I think that was it right yeah
8:09
yeah just Taz was my friend who came along with me yeah Taz who drove us in so thank you Taz for the drive really
8:15
appreciate that um because basically as Davey alluded to he couldn't drive anywhere let alone walk anywhere um
8:22
because of your back right yeah um and uh yeah we we met a few people that we
8:27
knew uh you and some of our listeners I know Matt Lawrence and Paul Richards
8:33
attended on this Saturday uh so it was great to see you guys I know we didn't get any games in this uh this time but
8:39
always a pleasure to to see you guys um anyone else that we met along the way
8:44
Simon and Sarah Simon Sarah yes Simon was um obviously we saw we met him last
8:51
year at the event we did during the rum Rush Scandal he did he witnessed the rum Rush Scandal he did he did and he scared
8:57
quickly which I don't blame him for because without knowing these people I would have done the same but um I think
9:03
it's time for me to leave um no nice to see Simon again they were on our table
9:09
just quite nice so yeah for Saturday evening yeah and we um also uh Joel and
9:16
CLA from the Devon dice podcast Friends of the Pod uh and Friends of every
9:21
convention that we seem to go to because they were always there never always a good laugh to uh to game with and and
9:27
socialize with so yeah it's always a joy for us to to do um so yeah I think other
9:32
people will probably talk there were plenty of other people that I think we've seen before and all that lot as well so if we haven't called you out
9:39
sorry cuz we've forgotten you and don't like you very much um called you out as well sounds like called you out your
9:47
[ __ ] little bit threatening there a just we've given shout outs to everyone else if you're a dog person it was
Dog friendly atmosphere
9:54
fantastic cuz there was literally a dog on hand every because everyone took their dogs there I think there what
10:00
seven dogs there's the most dogs I've seen at a board gaming convention ever in like this tiny little room and every
10:07
time you turned around there was a dog looking at you like please pet me like yeah you went to get a drink and you had
10:14
to pet about yeah seven dogs on the way in and then on the way back and then when one barked they all started kicking
10:20
that was one thing one would bark and then suddenly it' be like they would all set off and and then
10:27
they would be quiet again you you get until you got to pet the doggies like a doggies and then
10:33
suddenly and off it goes again I mean if you hate dogs you might not enjoy that
10:38
but I I I like dogs I to call them cute so for me it was not not an issue
10:43
whatsoever but I think it's quite nice that you can bring them and you know if that's the factor you I'd love to go to
10:50
this weekend I have to put the dog somewhere or whatever you just bring bring your dog along it was well behaved dogs though wasn't it so the the title
10:58
was sort of behaved dogs welcome and yes there was the odd barking here or there but there was no horrible Behavior no
11:04
snarling or anything right so let's get on to the games that we played at this weekend games what games we just we we
11:11
just played with dogs and eat food and I mean that sounds like a great weekend yeah I'm not going to lie baby just held
11:17
up the pillar that's what it looked like
11:23
Anyway any at any moment I was always leaning on something so if there's any photos of me I'm always like leaning on
11:29
the on the wall talking to people leaning across
11:34
the bar as far as possible so let's kick it off then who who wants to start one of you two I'll
Dune Imperium Uprising
11:40
start if you want yeah go um so so the first game we kind of got to the table is June Imperium Uprising which we've I
11:48
think I've mentioned before you you done a expose on it on the previous episode yeah but we've got it to the table a lot
11:54
more now and I still think my opinion holds uh valid
12:00
how what did you think of it JP because this was your first playthrough as well it yeah it was I've been trying to put off play in it and it's weird isn't it
12:06
you think I'd actually rushed to play I love Junior period it was a great game nothing nothing wrong with it um got uh
12:13
the rise of X got mortality played it loads and loads of times loved the game so I was kind of like I was a bit
12:20
knocked to be honest when this got um announced and the way that this product is it kind of I don't know I don't know
12:26
why it pisses me off but it it does um because it is effectively uh an upgrade
12:33
pack is how I see it that's how it should we feel it should have been sold as as an upgrade pack to then slot into
12:39
the already made June but it it's like you know I've been putting it off and putting it off and and just not kind of
12:46
jumping in straight away and then an opportunity came to play it obviously the weekend we played it and and then I
12:52
was like God this is better and it's just one of them annoying little moments like yeah you're
12:59
right it is better I like it I mean I was always going to like it it's not fundamentally any different to June
13:05
Imperium it's June Imperium was some extra bits yeah um and but I do like the
13:11
the changes that they they've added with the spies and um the combat uh conflict
13:16
cards that are kind of tweaked with how you get VPS of matching pairs I think that's probably the best bit weirdly and
13:23
it's such a small thing but it means that combat you so unless if you don't
13:30
know basically on the combat cards now they have pctures and it's either an hopter a dagger um a Mor morab de um so
13:39
the little desert Mouse um or um a Cris knife I say that yeah um so it's now and
13:47
they're different colors and basically it's the bottom left of the actual combat card and you have to collect two
13:53
of those and you flip two of them over and then you get a VP so it actually kind of dict Tak the battle a little bit
14:00
and you can see who maybe wants this a little bit more before you've even started putting troops in cuz you're like that person's got um you know the
14:07
desert Mouse already they might want this desert Mouse to just come out to get another VP so you it's already started to put these thoughts you know
14:14
or like these games into play and then the other thing is second place is actually usually a better reward than
14:21
first place so first place is the card first place you're getting the card that
14:26
you want for the VPS more than you actually want reward the the second place reward is better so sometimes you
14:33
can pretend you're going for a fight and then back out or yeah it's it's it's added less
14:40
Randomness to what encounter you definitely want to go into um which is quite nice yeah I'm intrigued to play it
14:47
I'll be honest it's one of those where again like yourself I've got the Bas and I've picked up X and I've not even
14:53
opened my copy of x yet because I've played with you guys and it's it's one of those where I kind of don't want to
14:59
play it but do want to play it and it's it's not like we talked about it before
15:05
it felt like it was going to be like Great Western Trail to Great Western Trail New Zealand but New Zealand is such a change that you couldn't
15:13
fundamentally upgrade it with a pack I don't think whereas from what you guys are saying this could be upgraded with just a new board and an extra deck of
15:21
cards 100% which is yeah which feels a bit different at that point yeah yeah I
15:26
suppose the whole deck of you have to take out all the combat cards and the whole deck of normal cards you have to
15:32
remove so therefore it is a whole new game but a lot of the old cards still
15:37
probably could have worked um and they could have Incorporated the new upgrades with more graft Etc like what's in um
15:46
the immortality um but even so right even spies Etc but even so like if I
15:53
understand the the rationale of putting out a new set of Imperium cards maybe for balance reasons or whatever even
16:00
they do say you can merge them in with the old ones which is exactly what I've done spoiler alert I've bought this by
16:05
the way um and uh so yeah it's I think
16:11
it's the way that the product is is a barrier I think for for many people and I think if it was just case of look it's
16:18
the 2.0 version and we we've tweeted some bits I've added some bits and there's a new board here's some extra
16:24
cards here's some extra components for like the spies and things here's some worms you know worms are cool right
16:31
where were the worms in the original game now they're here they're in player token Yeah well yeah true and now you
16:37
can send them into battle and they get double bubble rewards from the worms yeah Little D worms but I have purchased
16:45
it as we said I I have kind of relented and then I've kind of treated it as it is an upgrade pack just forget about the
16:51
fact that I've got duplicate components on um you know the the wooden me and
16:56
forget about you know a lot of that but think about actually you've got more water resources now and I've got more
17:02
Solari resources and spice um and I've got the deluxe box and I was trying to
17:09
basically see can I fit all of this in the deluxe box and you can it's a squeeze and I haven't had to Chuck
17:16
anything away or move anything out and there a slight bit of lift lid but it's doable and you can't sleeve cards I'm guessing I'm I don't sleeve cards so if
17:23
you sleeve you're knackered yeah um but for an UNS sleever like me you think
17:29
after being scorched once you might sleeve your C especially for June Imperium yeah yeah for me once um but In
17:38
fairness that wasn't my fault no it wasn't your fault well maybe this pass
17:43
now it's been like a year we could pass a little bit of blame on what you got me really excited and
17:50
shouted at me about something and I just gesticulated my glass over I thought it
17:55
was my fault that's fine um so yeah no I did enjoy it I've enjoyed that particular play I thought the game
18:02
itself we didn't actually have many um worms come out from memory I don't think we no we didn't it was a really quick
18:08
game it's quickest game I've played ever JP just pushed the game on and I had to pretty much just try and chase him you
18:15
somehow you you're snowballing the victory points and then I thought I I just picked him out of it and he had
18:22
what he had a card yeah that got you an Intrigue card that got you a VP so it
18:27
still ended the game anyway so there was a very like roller coaster of emotions it was good fun though yeah no I really
18:33
enjoyed it and uh just cemented because I've been holding off for it for a while for the same reason you said Adrian um
18:40
now I've kind of played it it's like reignited my excitement for the game again oh yeah I really want to play this more um so actually I'm really intrigued
18:47
about the uh the sixth player variant yeah it would be good to play because it's like a team game where you've got
18:53
the emperor versus um Mal right yeah and uh and then you you basically play as a
18:59
team there's some interesting mechanics on how that works uh so I'm Keen to give it a go whether it's any good who knows
19:05
cuz there's nothing wrong with a pace game all but it's nice it's in it I did see some mention of certain characters
19:11
who are a bit op in the team game oh really yeah ban those so yeah there was
19:17
some workarounds and stuff like that but I'd seen a couple of comments and I was like you know when you just see the one and you're like yeah that's fine then
19:22
you see a second one and you're like hold on a second maybe there is an issue with it so haven't played it myself
19:28
haven't even played but just one probably to keep an eye on if you're doing the team so you guys
Point City & Tussi Mussie
19:33
grouped up as a four like first thing didn't you we got there a little bit early I think so that's why I I was in the room when you decided and I got left
19:39
on my Todd a right you said you didn't want to play anything at that time no I
19:45
didn't I walked off and then came back and you guys were all as a foresome deciding you were playing a game so um
19:51
luckily Mark I feel bad now I feel bad now I didn't real luckily Mark I think Mark Ellis yeah um saved me so he agreed
19:59
to play Point City which apparently is like the ingame in his gaming group at
20:05
the moment and I've played it before and it it was fine I'll be honest played it again still can see the puzzle in it so
20:12
you're you've got a little grid of cards and you're picking cards that are next to each other some are worth basically
20:18
purchase power and some are the city you're building up Mark absolutely
20:24
smashed me so you can tell that he's played a few times before cuz just as I was like I've built my nice engine and now I'm going to go into points he was
20:30
like done okay like beat me by like 40 points out of 60 or something I can't what it
20:37
was now but um absolutely smashed me I still enjoy I can still see what the puzzle is there it just felt like it was
20:44
way overhyped before it landed so I enjoyed it I enjoyed my play through and I was grateful to be rescued and
20:50
actually get a game in which was good um but yeah I just felt really overhyped
20:55
originally but I think if you go into it not having her heard hype about it you'd find a fun interesting engaging and
21:02
quick game the rules overlay is very small on that game so oh nice it's really fun um and then afterwards we had
21:09
a little bit of time left and I've been enamored by tussy musy she's an
21:15
Elizabeth harra button shy game and it's really simple just one goes face up one
21:21
goes face down you decide which of you draw two cards decide which card goes face up which card goes face down your
21:27
opponent picks if they pick the face down when it goes into your I'm going to say Arrangement if they pick the face up
21:33
when it goes into their bouquet and all of it is part of your hand and some cards will say plus one Victory point
21:39
for everything in your bouquet or plus one for each red card next to it and whether it's in your Buc Arrangement it
21:45
will be next to it um because you kind of put them out from left to right it's
21:50
really quick really fun really simple and yeah we just played a few rounds of that um and then other people I think
21:56
started turning up so we got a good couple of games in together so thank you very much from rescuing me cuz uh none
22:02
of my podcast friends thought about including me so you know it's nice in my head we asked you for some
22:08
strange reason can be with that five six player mode anyway so yeah we could have tried
22:16
it out could we we could have tried it out I don't know why knew the rules for that so it's a bit different isn't it
22:22
learning the rules for a game in my defense it was not my game with Junior period I just turned up and played it's
22:28
fine over it yeah definitely doesn't sound like so over it so over this right
22:34
now he's written it down he's ESP getting his notes he is not over this I'm not over it yeah you said cuz it's
22:42
going to be a while I had to make notes so I did I did abandoned by podcasters
22:48
point1 good man good man cuz we haven't actually mentioned it was it was a little bit ago now and that's mainly
22:55
because we've been we've had a lot of podcasts in between um it's been my fault mainly um and we just
23:02
had life things as well sickness work the usual things the joys of Life got near month ago right was near a month
23:08
ago yeah so we' made Copus notes and but we promise that we'll do this episode to ourselves to Adan sketched on his walls
23:15
they abandoned me once do it
23:21
again yeah um I think for me I'm not going to go into too much detail on this
Furnace
23:26
one because I think Rob covered it on a previous episode not long back but we we all had a little game of furnace um at
23:34
the event uh which is exactly the game that Rob was talking about um in terms of our play and also Taz I think is his
23:41
first play of he really enjoyed it yeah um yeah just again great game isn't it I
23:47
don't know what else to say just it's always a joy to play that game I think I need the expansion though he's good I
23:52
can make it well I to make it five player because sometime I took furnace with me um and there was five of us and
23:59
I like oh yeah I don't have the expansion it was Joel that had the expansion because we got his version out and it's like oh yes we can't play this
24:05
I put this to the side but cuz it's just a nice fun quick game isn't it yeah we
24:11
just needed that kind of hour we had an hour before dinner right and we said what what can we play can just fill in
24:16
that Gap and and then I think you came back with furnace perfect job done let's wheel it out so I'm really glad Rob
24:23
enjoyed it never know with Rob I think you mentioned this um on the AI episode
24:28
not long he's going through a bit of a journey in in his gaming yeah um so he's trying new things
24:36
and and it's really nice to kind of see him just Branch out and and try games he's not going to love them all but
24:42
normally quite just Dungeon Crawlers in it just I'm just going to keep it's a natural step I was fine dungeon callers
24:49
your usually your first game that you play a lot of and then suddenly suddenly
24:54
Euro start tickling well at least I've found for a lot of people Euro start in this itch and you're like oh wow this I
25:01
can do some cool things here and then it clicks and suddenly you're playing void full till 4:00 a.m. in the morning it's
25:08
oh yes you setting up vo till 4: a.m. in the morning yeah true yeah it it's
25:13
either that or I tend to find people go in Katan and then like Ticket to Ride and kind of that not D It's kind of the
25:19
other way into it and as a Flawless segue my other game or one of my other games I played on the Friday was Ticket
Ticket to Ride Europe
25:25
to Ride Europe so oh yeah I saw you play so yeah the cures um had it but hadn't
25:31
played it they played base tickets to ride and Europe doesn't really add a lot but what it adds is just a it makes it
25:38
slightly less mean because you've got train stations which is an option that allows you to extend your route kind of thing and it's got tunnels which adds an
25:45
uncertainty element of have I got enough trains to build this out it's just set
25:51
collection I've got a route with four red dot like four red spaces on it I must have four red cards in hand and
25:58
with a tunnel you flip some cards over from the top of the deck and if those cards come up red you have to pay for
26:03
more with more cards so it just adds that level of uncertainty with it so yeah so they really seem to enjoy it
26:09
I've played it a bunch and I'll be honest I think I'm kind of over Ticket to Ride it's it's a very nice puzzle but
26:14
what I like is the small box versions cuz you get that same hit of quick card collection and roote building in like 20
26:21
minutes rather than an hour and a half but glad they enjoyed it and I think yeah for me it's definitely the better
26:27
of the two out of Base ticket to ride and Europe but I think if you like Mina Gams you might
26:33
like the base one Europe's the only Ticket to Ride I've played um my parents have got it they've got Europe um and
26:40
then they recently got Japan as well I Haven play that's just a map I think is that just the map is it yeah okay yeah
26:47
I'm not played still haven't played to ride it's good it's good it's it's it's
26:52
it's so much family game it's harmless is the like even if you even if you're not enamored with it I can quite happily
26:58
still play that game and not think to myself oh I really dislike this I don't think there's a lot to hate there's just
27:04
I think for me the puzzle is kind of done and yeah other things but I've had
27:10
plenty of people go let's just play tickets R yeah cool it's quite nice to sit there and kind of play and have a
27:15
chat and do lots of other things as well you know it's not one it still requires some thought which is why it's enjoyable
27:22
but it doesn't require so much that you have to focus completely on the game what did we play after this so we went
27:27
for the the mix of curries the the the trifactor of curry curry and strog
27:33
enough C oh was Str enough as well wasn't it it was I think it was like it was like a te or a Rogan Josh cuz it was
27:39
like tomato and then there was uh a cormer and then a um a Str they Str I
27:46
think yeah there we go the weirdest mix ever but it was lovely and a humusy thing that looked like a vegetable patch
27:53
yeah oh yeah it literally didn't like a vegetable patch it yeah I think that was pretty nice yeah I
27:58
yeah I'm not fan but yeah so it was just funny watching people come cuz I just
28:04
went strong off right with the potato whatever it was and then watched everyone else come back with this
28:10
strange array of different um go like food gops but like brown different brown
28:16
color Browns and the all the SAU is blending together Curry and a Str enough mixing it was quite funny to watch but
28:23
yeah all all really tasty I was quite because when someone says a buffet you think oh that's been flashed really
28:28
quickly but it was really well done ni it was nice yeah so after dinner we played Merlin we did with Becky and Taz
Merlin
28:36
yeah um thank you for convincing me to agree to play it that Ro cuz I was
28:41
having none of it originally and you really enjoyed it I think it's really good it's is a good game it's pretty
28:48
much a roll and move but I heard this it's a roll and move but it's got basically the r a rondle in the middle
28:55
and this rondle has different color uh like houses and the houses there you've
29:00
got me pools from your own um kind of what's the word feudal State say or your
29:07
feudal Kingdom where you're trying to influence um Merlin's court and you want
29:13
to be the next one to sit at the round table so you see the other houses and you have to send your uh princess no um
29:21
baroness no idea there's four different characters there's the shieldy one there's the bannery one the influence
29:29
who who I think is the baroness um and the um brav s Robin brav S
29:35
Robin bravely R away shut up um so yeah the shield um
29:43
the the Builder the the baroness and the the flag carrier um and basically your flags
29:52
give you little abilities to do in your turn um the influence cubes give you VPS
29:57
so and scoring phase and it's done by the person that owns the most adding up the amount in there so
30:05
there's a nice little kind of um area control that's going on in each one of these as well um and the Builder is
30:12
another little section off of the board it's a bit of a table hog um where you have to go and there's like hexes and by
30:19
building a castle there you you gain VPS for area control over here as well and
30:26
um it's all move but it's got a really clever way in which you move because
30:32
you'll roll three dice um and you roll of your color and you roll one white
30:37
dice the white dice is Merlin and With Merlin you get these little staffs and With Merlin when you move him you can
30:44
use a staff and get double action of where you are so you get double action of that spot um and with your normal
30:51
dice you can spend flags and have a little fun moving bits but you can kind of look around and think when you want to use Merlin like who's going to use
30:58
Merlin and then all of this trickery happens you know people are moving here they're everywhere taking other spots
31:03
and it's it was a really good four player game cuz the turns aren't too long um you you can kind of plan your
31:12
turn not much of a change it other than maybe Merlin moves around that changes things and that keeps it interesting and
31:19
you can you have like little gold cards that continually flow which give you
31:26
little object like objective to do as well as at the end of the turn you have to kind of fight off these enemies who
31:32
are trying to burn down your castle and you have got to get the little Shield that deflect them otherwise you get
31:37
minus VPS there also a little fight over Excalibur and a little fight over the gril cuz the gril gives you um um
31:44
majority control in an area and Excalibur gives you points for killing all the the enemies at your gate so yeah
31:53
I'm intrigued to see what the expansion brings as well cuz there's the there's a boxes what's her name what G no the evil
32:01
one oh Morana Morana there's a Morana expansion where it brings in some other
32:07
type of apples and other objectives and there's also another another expansion
32:12
which I can't remember what that one has it's why they have the Merlin big box cuz Paul sold me this copy it was and
32:19
the only reason he got rid of it is cuz he got the big box version of it so I don't need the other version anymore so
32:24
I want to give it a go I enjoy I've really enjoyed um stepan Fields other game so Castle burgundy was good fun um
32:32
and fair only one played so I was I need to play more yeah y I was exactly the same boat and you can feel that same DNA
32:38
as Castle burgundy I think still think cast burgundy does it well better I think it I think cast does do better but
32:45
it was there was you've got these dice it's which order to use them in as you said there's like this tug of war with Merlin and you're trying to hold off
32:52
until it's you know you've rolled a four is I want to get Merlin four spaces from that so you really hoping people and at
32:59
the same time you're using your dice in whatever order to move your people your person around the rondle and that felt
33:06
very castles of burgundy like it's got dice which will dictate it but you have ways of mitigating it some of the
33:12
abilities allow you to go the wrong way or turn the dice over so you've got
33:18
whatever the minus 7 is so 7us 3 is four so if it's a three on one side it would be four on the other for instance so
33:24
it's got all of those kind of dice mitigation Parts in it that are in
33:30
castles of burgundy and I've got Hamburg waiting for me at home as well I still need to get to the table but yeah I'm so
33:36
far I've loved every F I've played but as just say it's only the two and I've watched just a bunch of playthroughs of his other games and think I'll like them
33:43
all yeah I do want to play a lot of the Cities collections as well there's Amsterdam I want to play and uh what was
33:50
the other one I think it was was it Mar oh Mar cash that's the other one cuz Co
33:56
looks good I always so that looks good so yeah so really really happy CU at the on that evening I
34:03
was like I don't want to learn another new game I'm feeling knackered this is
34:08
you know this is like a midweight Euro I'm sure there must be something better and and we just couldn't decide and it's like let's do Merlin okay and yeah
34:14
really glad really enjoyed it good Becky won as well Becky won nice yeah nice
34:19
smashed us with like by 10 points quite a big gap yeah yeah so yeah um I think
34:26
Becky enjoyed it more than she thought she would as well was actually when I first looked at this I thought oh my God
34:31
and I think that rondle does as soon as you look at it you think oh what are we playing and but then as soon as you
34:36
start it's not too complicated there's a lot of copying of symbols so there's not as many as you think you would have to
34:43
learn when you first look at the board um so there's a lot of duplications and once you kind of get that and get into
34:49
the flow it was quite a quick game so still talking about Friday um kind of
Dice Forge
34:54
getting to the end of the day or end of the evening for me um and we cracked out
35:00
dice Forge nice which was just you know don't want anything heavy I don't want to do a Davey and play castles till 700
35:06
a.m. um or whatever it was full ball game 4 a.m. 4:00 a.m. castles of
35:12
burgundy you fiend um and then we just kind of thought yeah dice Fortress will that out um so we had a nice uh three
35:19
player for those that don't know what it is it's basically Lego dice it is it's Lego dice the game and
35:26
you you you yeah you don't like it do you it's just missing something it's missing the I
35:33
think it it could be really good I was like really excited to be placing these little faces on the dice and then I'd roll them and
35:40
go I didn't roll what I Pi that's right yeah oh that's that's right as well I
35:46
just felt a little bit underwhelmed by the whole experience the excitement of putting the thing on the dice was more
35:51
exciting than the actual game to me and then that started to like mess with my head a little when I was playing dice
35:57
Forge it's fair I mean I I quite enjoy it for what it is it's on the lighter end um and the the kind of theme of it
36:04
is it's all kind of like Heroes and gods and Greek mythology kind of kind of thing but it really doesn't matter like
36:10
most most C games um but you you kind of on your turn is that you have these two dice you have the light Dy and the dark
36:16
D and you can either purchase die faes out of cost um and you can basically use
36:25
the die face to pop out the the the orig one on the dice and then replace it like a LEGO study thing that goes in so you
36:32
can kind of go you know what I want to build this dice to to be a bit more give me more economy in in Sun shards or Moon
36:38
shards or victory points or money or whatever it is that you're you're trying to do um but so there's a little
36:44
interesting choice of obviously you got limited space on a on a D6 and which dice do you put it on and sometimes you
36:51
get certain faces that or say times two of the other dice so you kind of figuring that out as well
36:58
um so that's kind of one thing that you can do and or you on the other action is that you go onto the kind of the main
37:03
board and spend your moon and uh Sun shards and get these cards and abilities and some of them will be like engine
37:09
building stuff some will be oneoff um effects or or just straight up VP through the end of the game and and yeah
37:16
it's quite nice in the fact that no matter whose turn it is is you roll the dice you roll your dice and you get the
37:22
stuff so you're always doing something regardless it's not a long game you know
37:28
you know three or four players it's done within an hour if that and uh and it's
37:34
it's really like what you said before about Ticket to Ride it's just nice yeah in offensive it's inoffensive it's worse
37:40
it offends me but apart from dut offends him um I don't know why I feel like I
37:45
should enjoy it as well and everyone else does but it's one of those games everyone's has one of those games and for me it was dice for it's 90% toy
37:53
factor I think that game yeah I do agree the the building of the and the making
37:58
the dice and deciding oh which Bas am I going to pop off not actually the rolling the dice or doing that's not really why the game is as fun as it is
38:06
if it was a if it was a okay you upgrade this dice to this and you just pull different dice out of a tray as you
38:11
upgraded then I I would not play that game again I don't think it's just the fun of Pop I really want to play dice
38:18
realms for the same reason because that's another game where you've got heavier though he's a lot heavier by all
38:23
accounts but it's exactly the same idea is is you're just popping faces out and replacing them to a kind of game
38:29
whatever is Euro isn't it yeah I think curly bought dice Realms and then subsequently I think he's selling it so
38:36
possibly I don't I don't think he's even played it yet I think he got a good deal on it and then was like oh I have to
38:41
have this at ukge wasn't it and then he got such a good deal on it he picked it up but then I don't think he's ever
38:47
actually been that anamed by it or wanted to play it so such a good deal he had to buy it yeah fair play it is a lot
38:55
of plastic pieces in that box as well so yeah I we nearly played it once we we we
39:01
got the the the box out open started to go for the rule book and I think he just went can't be asked like I don't know a
39:08
bit too much on on whatever it was we were doing so we play something else fair enough I'm intrigued I I think I
39:13
think that I think those kind that toy Factor can Elevate certain games yeah I
39:20
think without that yeah it won't be much no going on is there cuz there isn't really and I do understand that
39:25
sometimes getting a game out and it being more of a hassle to unpack yeah
39:31
than actually play can be offputting yeah I've got void such a such a like oh
39:37
I need to get it I love this game and then every time I've went to play it I took it with me to um full board and to
39:45
Devon um board game weekend and I've I was just too daunted to get out at both
39:50
places just being like Oh yeah we'll play it and I go yeah they want to set it up yeah might with me to the 24-hour
39:58
event because at least then I've got 24 hours and might just get yeah set up Hedy yeah yeah I know how to play this
40:06
game I know how to play this game very well so I I know how to play I know the
40:11
rules well rather than try and bragging about playing void fall I think void fall is for me it's just not a
40:18
convention game like it's not is it it's too big it's too big Tak up my whole bag
40:23
pretty much then I can't fit other games in it's too Hefty the setup is a is a [ __ ] and even if you get people to help
40:29
you it's still a [ __ ] um and I think it just takes up a lot of time when in your
40:34
convention day but there we go there we go so that kind of sums up my Friday really yeah so I played another game the
In the Hall of the Mountain King
40:42
late n crew me Joel and Taz played in the Hall of the Mountain King which is a
40:47
game I picked up at full board it's a game I wanted to play for a while I look to the kickstarter and it looks quite
40:52
interesting it's Unique in the way that um you get your resources via a casc aing kind of uh Tableau which you build
41:00
into like a pyramid and the only way of getting those resour resources on there is to put another um troll above your
41:07
kind of moot of trolls at the bottom and you'll get the ones that the cards
41:13
touching underneath as well as itself but you can't when it gets resources it puts the resources on the card so you
41:20
got to spend off of the card first before you can then Cascade another troll once there to to get it so it's
41:26
got a nice like push and pull of resources and then on the board it has
41:31
um a very puzzly kind of you've got to work out the best the most efficient
41:37
route to build your little cave system through cuz you've got little blocks
41:42
that require hammers which the resources to destroy you've got resources down which when you build over them you'll
41:48
get the resources um you've got little spells where when you get crystals you can do Spells at the start of your turn
41:53
along with workshops that if your tunnel touches you get work workshop and you get that Workshop as many times as
41:59
you've covered the entrances so if you cover it completely you can do a workshop up to four times
42:05
um and then on top of that so on top of this little kind of cave complex you're
42:10
working you got pimps and then statues out on the board as well and there's another little puzzle on top of that
42:16
which is the colors of the board so it's got it's got um I think it's like a dark red
42:24
on the outside Al like a lighter red on the outside and then it kind of go is yellow orange and in The Middle's got a
42:29
different color and depending on where you socket your plimp cuz some tiles
42:34
have a little hole if you put statue on you can lock that in and you get modifiers depending on what color your
42:41
statue's in if you get it towards the middle it's going to be worth more the trick is the different color
42:47
statues are locked into to that onto that plimp no one else can build that color statue there right so you're kind
42:53
of watching what other people are doing the statues and I think it's a game that actually probably get better the more times you play it and the more times you
42:59
learn it but it is enjoyable in the first experience but you kind of working the puzzle out once you worked out the
43:05
puzzle then you're going to be watching what other people are doing with their puzzle and that's where the game will come into its own because when you're
43:12
first trying to you're just trying to work out the resource puzzle everything else to start with and that added extra
43:17
bit of you can't lock in the staty there can give you some feel bad moments because you're like oh I've worked out
43:24
on I've got this color you know I've got this plimp I've got this statue I'm going to be moving over you move over
43:29
there and oh you can't do that yeah oh why oh because if you look here where
43:34
the point bit is you can't build that color on that bit oh oh no it's been doing for 30 minutes yeah whereas I
43:43
think Taz ran into that a couple of times and Joel was just pretty tired at this point so I think he was he was like
43:49
I'll play it again but it was it was very late in the evening and yeah I do
43:54
enjoy the game I don't know if it's going to be a keeper but I think one I want to play a couple more times and see
43:59
how people find it and cuz it is a bit different that's the biggest thing is it's got the resource generation it's
44:05
got a nice little polyomino puzzle on the board it's pretty fun it definitely has a little bit of depth there which
44:12
once you get isn't actually too much depth but then it's kind of got the competition aspect there as well which is why I can see a lot of people love it
44:19
and a lot of people hate it and that's going to be the reason why but yeah we we finished that about 3:00 in the
44:25
morning I think and then to bed yeah I think so about 3:00 in the morning went to bed I sensible yeah you were yeah the
A brief aside on JP & Robs loveshack
44:33
one story I've not actually told and I it's just popped back into my mind cuz it was a month ago oh Jee oh yeah Your
44:39
Love Shack it's my love shack yeah is is when I checked in um to the hotel and I
44:45
spoke to uh Tom so Tom's one of the the staff that works at the hotel nice guy
44:51
and and remember him from last year and it's all right Tom um yeah so uh just
44:56
remind me we got a twin room right and he went no you've got a double and I me
45:01
and I thought he was joking I thought he's whining me out I said you serious yeah yeah you booked a double and then then I looked and oh crap I've booked a
45:08
double um well an idiot and then I'm sharing a room with Rob so says Rob I've I've messed up mate
45:17
he said we he said what's up so we got shower a bed you know we've done worse
45:23
things me and Rob we go it wasn't just a bed though was it no it's everything yeah it was a four poster bed it was
45:30
yeah don't don't leave the it was a grand four poster bed very nice yeah it looks very it looks very romantic very
45:37
romantic very romantic we took a photo hugging together on there but I was stuck I was stuck in the disabled room
45:43
which part of me thought did did they did someone pH ahead and well yeah back
45:48
back cuz I was glad I had the disabled room in all cuz literally it had lots of handles that I could like Spiderman my
45:55
way to the to the to nice yeah yeah yeah Spider-Man to the to
46:00
but there you are with the four poster bed as well I swear someone must have rang in advance when they switched it JP
46:06
and Rob little need a little nudge um can you uh can you just give them a little double please yeah so so we uh we
46:13
decided that you know we didn't want to stay up till 3:00 a.m. and we both walked off hand inand to to bed yeah so
46:19
uh yeah that was it interesting start him why do birds suddenly appear thing
46:26
is we've shared a room so many times I think in essence we was in a twin room
46:31
but we might as well have been in the same because the I mean we were pretty close than that the Gap was like 6 in
46:37
apart on the bed like if that it's like well at that point you might as well be in a dou boiling hot in the room so you
46:43
can sleep with any clothes on no well that's enough about your ESS
46:48
in Adventures what um but but yeah it was uh it was fun it was a fun moment um
46:55
and I'm I'm like I don't really care and Rob's like yeah it's all good it's all good yeah so we just cuddle and went to
47:00
sleep so yeah cud just nice yeah I was up on the second floor so I had a little single room cuz I wasn't I originally
47:08
wasn't going to go was I no you were a late edition wer you I'd said look I've got to budget my money um I've got a 900
47:14
car um repaired you didn't I didn't know about dur in March um so no I decided to
47:21
kind of ration out what I was going to and what I wasn't and being sensible and then it got to three weeks before and
47:28
unfortunately Marcus couldn't make it so he um he offered up his room and I had
47:34
been a good boy and saved more than I thought I would and I thought you know I'm having completely fom moded all the
47:40
way through um the t board game weekend I was like no I'm going to I'm
47:47
going to now put my name down for it and I was very fortunate to get it CU I know there were other people asking about it as well so yes so I ended up in a little
47:54
single room like on the second floor there's kind of like the it's kind of like one of those old country houses
48:00
where it's got window like the odd window on the second floor and those are all little rooms but yeah before that I
Viking See-saw
48:07
played a bit of Viking seesaw which I think is my new go-to like 20-minute filler game that
48:14
everyone seems to love cuz the components are beautiful um and they see saw or did they sea they seea they seaw
48:21
yeah not Saucy not Saucy but seesaw and um secret identity which is my kind of
48:27
new new sort of so Clover just one esque game where people who perhaps aren't
48:34
great with words and word association it's just Picture Association instead but it's strange how some people's
48:40
brains just don't work with word association as well as as pictures and stuff like that so that's my new one but
48:46
yeah we played a game of each of that and then yeah that was my Friday done nice nice a Saturday Saturday so we
48:53
started off with a fry that was lovely yeah it was good good way to start of the day it's always a good way to start
48:58
any convention isn't it fry up yeah first game we rocked up into was a game
The Gallerist
49:03
I've been wanting to play for ages which a did a teach a very light game or the gallerist the
49:09
gallerist funny story though we have to tell what before Adrian goes through this is Rob Rob joined us for this game
49:18
I did think I was like oh Rob's doing a little Rob's trying to L like wow he's you know he's really leveling up um he
49:24
really he was like really excited he's like really wanted to to try this yeah and he kept saying about art they art sounds like or looks like broken sword
49:31
and he kept showing me the P cuz I was like I don't know if I'm no broken sword or not so he kept showing me the
49:36
pictures and I was like yeah no that's the one I'm thinking of that's nothing like the gallerist but yeah yeah Rob yeah fair enough like sure I don't see
49:43
it myself but if you think that looks like that that's all good by me and then he turns up and went this is Art Society
49:50
yeah this is nothing like I thought and uh yeah game were you thinking about
49:56
Robert oh art oh art Society yeah no this is very different art yeah it's a
50:03
similar theme well no is sort of well one's about collecting art and one's
50:08
about both yeah both about art some way yeah I botched the teach massively it
50:14
felt like and I definitely got some bits wrong and even after the game I found out I got some bits wrong oh did you
50:20
yeah oh you only do the thing after the first colored stack of oh it's it's both
50:26
the same game the Raina Conor one is the same one that oink did but they did a version of it that fits into a tiny box
50:32
like that called Modern Art that's it yeah so it's both the same game but yeah
50:37
there's not that many there's more we yeah sorry so yeah so yeah you only do the intermediate
50:46
scoring at the end of the first stack of colored and not each one the reason why
50:52
I thought each one was because if you use the expansion that I was waiting specifically before you put three
50:57
different tiles out yeah but it still only scores the once and I was like oh okay so it must score but no not quite
51:03
but oh so we we kinda of played a little bit of an easy mode because we got extra stuff yeah we all got it didn't we so
51:09
yeah yeah true yeah I en I enjoyed it again it's only my second playthrough and I had fun and it's still definitely
51:16
top of my ler list M so it's up there for me I've really enjoyed it to start
51:21
with it wasn't clicking it took a little bit to go in that game took me like a
51:27
couple of turns and then I was like okay now a couple just two just two turns well just yeah but usually I would look
51:33
at it and I kind of understand what at least what I'm trying to do whereas this it I didn't know like that where you got
51:39
on on the wheel was a lot harder to determine where I'm getting on the wheel and kind of where it's flowing but once
51:45
that flow I understood it it it you know it flows really nicely it doesn't it
51:52
doesn't limit you on any of your turns there's obviously you give other people more actions which is probably where
51:58
also it frees up or where you can kind of get a lot of your economy going as
52:04
you're like w I think this person wants to go here so I'm going to go here so I can get my extra actions and do all of these which is quite nice I like that
52:11
well it's got a lot of Canan and weather machine in there it's like an amalgamation of those two games in my
52:16
opinion that's what it felt like the most out of all of them CU it didn't really feel like um aisb at all or on
52:23
mars or on Mars This is why Adrian likes it yeah which is it more very much cban and I think it
52:30
took all the best best aspects of cban best as aspects of weather machine and
52:36
put them together and I made a really fun game I still prefer weather machine in my opinion I know I'm out there you
52:42
know compared to a lot of people but galleris was up there definitely yeah I enjoy I enjoy my play of it I for me I
52:48
don't think it's up there um but I would absolutely play it again and and this
52:53
the thing when you go oh I rank luras and if any games that end up towards the bottom of that of that list doesn't mean
53:00
it's bad at all they're all great games so I'm really glad I played it shush a
53:05
um I'm really really glad I got to play it's like the final um big box Eagle Griffin um yeah big box game I think
53:13
I've played Haven play yeah so now looks really nice though doesn't it table it's
53:18
a it's a lovely aesthetic I know you're you're a bit torn I like it what sold me
53:23
was the clean look cuz it's got graphic design next it's so of course it's got graphic design but it's a nice clean
53:29
simple look and I like the I feel like the design is one of the cleanest yeah
53:34
um agree with that which for me yeah I design reminds me of Galactic cruise I
53:40
know it's because of both but that's he's he's obviously done you know a lot
53:46
more and those two seem the most similar board layout wise yeah and as I said in
53:51
the previous episode I really like Galactic cruise and I think it's because it reminds me of that once you get get
53:56
your brain around the fact that what you're really trying to do is commission Arts cheap pump up the the reputation of
54:05
those artists and then sell it off for good money and what everyone else is trying to do in between that is trying
54:10
to work out who's going to get pumped up their reputation the most and buy that art and and then you need to do the
54:16
weird auction bit which I think is probably the bit that stands out to one side cuz the idea of selling and displaying art and this artist thing all
54:22
feels quite self-contained and then you've got this weird end of game auction thing that maybe doesn't quite
54:28
you looked into yeah which I looked into I thought I hadn't achieved like two of
54:34
my things on my the quests on my card and then it was just like oh an Al happens you did the most over here so
54:39
you get first pick and I was like that's the exact thing I need I'll tell you that one there you go there's like 30 or
54:45
40 points right there yeah so I think I think that's the most abstract part but I think like Galactic Cruise everything
54:51
else makes sense how you get onto that wheel of spinning sort of what can I buy first what does it cost which is most
54:58
efficient I think is a little bit harder than some other games but I think the the flow and how the theme fits in is
55:04
probably on that level with Galactic cruise and probably the smoothest of the leera games to me at least it makes
55:10
sense it does make sense and I quite like the push and the pull of um custom
55:16
uh customers what viewers and oh yeah mean brown and white brown and white
55:23
collectors and was it investors investors and something else influen
55:29
General people it was influencers something influencers yeah it was influencers instagrammers yeah instagrammers and that that I really
55:35
like that little mechanic it's such a little thing to in there to put in there but um it's very
55:41
uner I can't really think of any game where he's gone got a bit more of a push and pull where some another player
55:47
influences influences you directly like that he's got other cuz it's ultimately an area of control to some extent cuz
55:53
what you're trying to do is spend those tickets to pull the people towards you you yeah and then lock them in and then
55:58
there's things that take it away from you and that's what you're trying to do and there are inv inventors new one
56:04
coming out in it's being delivered as we speak that's that one has a similar
56:10
aspect to gallerist yeah with it's me pools but I can't think of anything any
56:15
of his other games that have that weather machine has the area control bit on that left hand side with the robots
56:21
and all that kind stuff yeah but it's it doesn't have like I can't directly influence your
56:27
your robot you spent there whereas it had a nice thing where sometimes someone would use a ticket to pull their brown
56:33
one into within just the lobby of their G of their gallery and then someone else just moves it out and you're like that's
56:39
just screwed my whole time there um but yeah it's a nice it's a nice thing you don't see in a lot of the other larders
56:45
IE it added a little bit more um of a competitive nature but you couldn't do it to screw someone over because usually
56:51
you'll be losing out as well so it was more of just added a little bit of um
56:56
variety or challenge that you then had to work around which was quite nice yeah
57:01
I think for me it's the theera weirdly that I struggled to grasp I was really
57:07
so I didn't think it'd be your favorite by long shot and I think I got that right but I was really surprised how
57:13
much you struggled to get the concept I don't know why that sounds really horrible but you know I was genuinely
57:19
expecting you to see that Loop like Dave did quite quickly and then you just were staring at the board going what am I
57:25
supposed to to be doing and I was like buying art discovering art anything to do with art will do right now I couldn't
57:32
I think I left it too late and then I I just couldn't see how to get on the bloody ladder and I was like well
57:39
everything's just out my price range now cuz you guys are commissioned and and pumped up the values on certain things
57:45
I'm just I can't just I just couldn't see I like what what the f am I supposed to do and I think you nudged me and went
57:52
like just go and do that thing and then I got on the wheel and then it was fine I was like okay started to ride around
57:57
it and you know that wasn't two turns da that was probably about eight nine turns in no but I I do understand that will it
58:04
was a little bit more it had more parts to it there were a lot more actions you
58:09
could do and I think that's why the will had a lot more kind of spokes to have to turn or to to have to like kind of
58:17
navigate before you then got it turning and then you're like oh okay this is Flowing now and once it did it flowed
58:23
quite nicely yeah but it's cool i' abs abely Play It Again good um anytime
58:29
Happy Days yeah I'm Keen I was you know when sometimes it's been so long since that first play that you really loved
58:35
that you're like did I really love it is it is it going to hold up is it going to be like going back and watching old TV
58:40
shows sort of thing part the hype train or whatever yeah anything like that and
58:45
actually I really enjoyed that second playthrough I think more than my first one and we say we did get a couple of
58:51
Parts wrong on it and but I still enjoyed that puzzle a lot and I was like yes this is I had my right opinion the
58:57
first time around all that meant it was Davey didn't win cuz it wasn't legal it's true so rematch have have a rematch
59:06
fine any day any day bring on Bring It On cool uh so then I think you guys
Senjutsu: Battle for Japan
59:14
ended up playing um paladins we did um so which is a game I've wanted to play
59:20
for ages but Adrian will only play a three player so I this time was
59:27
into the void of other friends oh what did you do we played sjsu ah the Samurai
59:35
jeweling game Samurai game yeah so it is kind of a skirmish game but with a
59:40
little bit of it's not really programming but it kind of is because you have initiative
59:47
on your card and usually you've got a C you've got a card that will either have
59:52
movement and attack or sometimes a utility move on there you have to be in
59:58
a certain stance you've got a little sheet where your stance can change there's only one card depending on who
1:00:04
you are everyone has one card which will change the stance um where you can move
1:00:09
that about and then you get different effects of the card the difficulty comes in in the fact
1:00:15
that when you place it initiative is all over the place you usually someone is the fastest character but then there's
1:00:22
abilities which can be faster people will move you around so you someone will move you and then you
1:00:29
do your movement and attack and you end up just going completely the wrong way or the wrong direction which is why it
1:00:35
feels like the programming game even though mhm it's only one card um yeah it
1:00:41
was it was it's a fun game and if you're into that type of game I think you
1:00:46
really enjoy it but I don't think Taz tber or Rob really enjoyed the programming aspect of
1:00:53
it um no I think Rob had to escape for toilet oh yeah Rob yeah he played he played two cards and
1:01:00
then [Laughter] went had to run upstairs i' got to leave
1:01:06
boys into the bridal Suite you went and destroyed it and I I really want to play
1:01:12
again I think it might actually be better game two player CU we ended up playing three player in the end you're right it was me um Taz and T we did have
1:01:20
fun with it and there were really fun moments but then it's also an elimination game so one person gets it's
1:01:26
out so one one would probably be better CU you reset and off you go again um
1:01:32
definitely want to get it to the table especially I've been watching Shogun recently so it's got that Vibe it's got that Vibe yeah um and I think yeah I
1:01:41
would enjoy it more on on a one-on-one and someone who maybe enjoys that that game that type of game a bit more but
1:01:48
yeah I've played it um at Expo but only a demo so I kind of had like a nice demo
1:01:54
run through so I want to set up played a full game of it I really enjoyed it um it's weirdly I'm going to compare it to
1:02:00
X-Wing and I hate X-Wing um you enjoyed X-Wing when you first played I did so it
1:02:06
might be that it goes down thex X-Wing came with the best units and the best stuff on the board and destroyed
1:02:12
everyone and then everyone went de eyes anymore I don't like it don't um but it
1:02:17
has that kind of same element as you say the the the the positioning and where you're facing is so important because
1:02:24
you can swipe your swords left and right and if people on the different side you go damn and people can knock you and
1:02:30
spin you around and all that kind of stuff so I found it quite an interesting mechanically to to play um but yeah I'd
1:02:36
definitely be up for some matches of it but again I doubt we'll play it because no one in the group has it no I'm no
1:02:42
one's really going to probably go out and buy it in fairness um I nearly backed it you did I remember you saying
1:02:48
this I was so close to back in it and then I thought I don't need another like hex batt kind of thing
1:02:56
so cuz like I like Nima hex which is nothing like it but it looks quite similar cuz it's hexes that you're kind
1:03:02
of programming who's attacking in what order so I nearly backed it and it's got looks beautiful it's got great board
1:03:08
presents and yeah I I didn't look into it any more than nearly backing it and then deciding not to but yeah when I saw
1:03:14
it at the games Expo like you I was like oh quite fancy giving that a go but yeah
1:03:20
fun it is good fun and I think if you're into that game and you've got someone else you can play with is also into that
1:03:26
game you're going to have some very tight memorable games with lots of stories kind of attached to it um so it
1:03:34
is worth a pickup but I don't think I would get the plays out of it and two
1:03:39
player games for me I know you can do four player as I said I think it is a better two-player game and and that was
1:03:45
a lucky duck game right yeah so it was bought by Natalie yeah one of the Reps for Lucky Duck games and I think if
1:03:52
you're if you're active on Facebook or anything like that you probably noticed that feels like she's at every event and
1:03:57
she's local to us in the southwest so she's definitely at most of the events we go to and she seems to always turn up
1:04:03
with a p of Lucky up games to show off and yeah I should say that she did a great teach um she yeah it was taught
1:04:11
very well lot of infus on there you can tell she obviously likes playing ball games enjoys what she does so yeah big
1:04:17
thank you for that and she sold she sold was it Cosmo so I played this the other day as
Cosmoctopus
1:04:23
well and I didn't play it but I know Becky curly Taz and Tambo played this so
1:04:28
I can actually talk about it because well in fact did you want to talk about paladins first no you
1:04:35
goctopus lucky territory so cosm octopus it's got kind of a theme of cultist
1:04:41
summoning the cosm octopus into their their little area and you have like a
1:04:46
little cos Cosmic kind of counter and it's got spaces for little tentacles
1:04:52
yeah so the point of the game it's a little engine builder where you've to build up um enough resources to to buy
1:04:59
Tentacles from certain cards and get eight tentacles um funny enough that's
1:05:06
what you need to cosm octopus cosm octopus yeah so you have different types
1:05:11
of cards you've got um black cards which are like your engine cards um you got red cards which are like instance so
1:05:17
they have like a oneoff effect um you have uh yellow cards which are more kind
1:05:22
of Market conversions so if you get one of some type of resource you get more um
1:05:27
and then you've got uh is it green or blue cards which are um quests or like
1:05:34
goals you have to then fill up it's got some nice little rules in there you can't have more than eight of one
1:05:39
resource and there's these um big resour like big resource dumps sitting there which you can only get one of which are
1:05:45
13 so you can't get more than eight but on your turn you can but at the end of the turn you have to just discard down
1:05:52
so you've kind of got little goals you want to get which have two tentacles as well um you then have in the middle an
1:06:00
octopus with um a grid of tiles which are the action tiles and you move the
1:06:06
octopus and do the thing you can move the octopus another space if you pay a resource to do a different thing and
1:06:13
there's lots of like little cards when you play them and pay for it will move the octopus and you get the stuff and
1:06:19
you kind of like a you're bastard you've moved the octopus to the opposite end I need to get the octopus at the other end
1:06:25
so can do that res I'm going to have to spend a resource oh now I can't afford that it's a very basic resource
1:06:31
conversion but it's got a nice little engine and it's quite fun to play um yeah it's got that little worker
1:06:37
placement but very very like kind of scaled back work placement with the
1:06:42
octopus moving around doing said things you're playing the cards it's a real nice introductory engine build I think
1:06:50
okay it's real nice and that was one of the main things Taz wanted it for as well cuz he's trying to get some
1:06:56
bought it yeah he bought it and his son's really enjoying it good so awesome his son now playing June Uprising with
1:07:03
us so level up yeah good on him yeah when he's when he's focused on the game for
1:07:09
the first hour and a half he does it really well and then it gets to the starts teing over to the second it's
1:07:16
suddenly off the chair and running around and basically it's hard you know
1:07:21
he's he's quite young the how uh like 11 12 yeah so keeping the focus on the ball
1:07:27
game for 2 hours is tough is tough yeah tough for adults yeah exactly that so um
1:07:35
it's a good game it's a if you want kind of like a lightweight engine builder I'd say it's a little bit lighter than
1:07:42
furnace but it kind of sits onto that whole Resource Management um obviously this is completely different mechanical
1:07:48
wise but kind of difficulty weirdly I've got I know it probably is nowhere near
1:07:55
near this game but I'm getting Gizmo's Vibes of of engine building that level
1:08:01
of of of kind of game and weight which is like more on the entry less combo base but definitely definitely that you
1:08:06
can do combos in it they they can happen you can do a load of stuff Taz at one point was doing a load of things but he
1:08:12
ended up not having that many tentacles you're just like I've just been building an engine over here and that's it whereas you obviously need the end goal
1:08:19
yeah yeah exactly the front part nice nice go on Adrian you talk about paladins it's your game my game managed
Paladins of the West Kingdom
1:08:26
to get paladins I did I I mainly just wanted to shame curlyy cuz he's been talking about having paladins in his
1:08:31
collection for years but two three years yeah and a it keeps putting events up for it they get mysteriously cancelled
1:08:38
and all that lot so I thought I'll show them up but you are right it was like how many people I'm
1:08:45
happy to show you paladins but it's got such a long downtime between turns I really don't want to play it at four
1:08:51
player so we felt like we'd organized it all and then it unorganized itself and
1:08:57
then we were starting to organize it again and then eventually JP just went no come on you me and curly will play
1:09:02
three player and everyone else just have to work out for themselves and then that doesn't sound like
1:09:08
me and then like I think we left Becky out who ended up just sorting like she
1:09:13
played little game to herself or something she she was 3D modeling was Igloo for that Igloo pop game pop game
1:09:20
which is pass me and said they've left me out true it's true yeah they left me
1:09:27
out as well on the last one so that's what we do yeah yeah it was another game that I hadn't played for a year yeah and
1:09:35
yet it felt like it'd be more recent and I was really like gunning to play this game again so I was like yeah I can
1:09:41
teach it and then pretty much read the rule book out it felt like but did a good job from the teach it was it was
1:09:46
good f it wasn't too crazy was it but it it did feel like you know when you think to yourself I remember this game perfectly and then you go to explain
1:09:53
like the third bit in like a 20 step Pro and you're like now let me look at the rule book quickly i' forgotten this bit
1:09:59
here what I remember from the teach was it was very structured it all made sense like in terms of what everything did
1:10:05
yeah you nailed that and there is a bit of on this like if you're using this function you look at this exactly same
1:10:12
part of the board but you're looking at this number instead of this number so there's there's quite a bit of that but
1:10:18
I had great fun again and curly came across a outstanding combo that just seemed to absolutely rake in the points
1:10:25
it was was like oh every time every time we're about to score so um paladins the West kingdom is Garfield game it's on
1:10:32
the heavier side of what the games he' done certainly up until South tigis where he's gone they've gone really
1:10:38
heavy with South everyone get that go but what paladins or South TIG both fair
1:10:43
enough yeah paladins I really enjoyed Paladin paladins yeah I've heard good things about I know um you and Mark were
1:10:50
talking about it not like s yeah and there was a lot of people that haven't liked it but from the general consensus
1:10:56
online actually is is pretty good it seems to really side topic so Thomas on
1:11:02
um board game Revolution without saying of people suddenly started going off Garfield like I'm not feeling it and it
1:11:08
felt like a 50/50 split down the middle of people going like wayf farers and Scholars are my favorite ever and people
1:11:15
going they've completely lost B like there's no midweight in this series like there has been in all the other Series
1:11:21
this is all heavyweight sort of thing but anyway um paladins is is from The
1:11:26
Architects of or from the same series as Architects so the idea of that you're
1:11:32
kind of uh doing a bit of resource Gathering but you also you've got the
1:11:38
whole bad side of things like you know the what's it called in Architects where
1:11:43
you go down yeah the black market and all thatal got similar things where you can
1:11:50
get bonuses by turning a any meeple into a wild meeple but you take take this
1:11:56
card that if you get to the Inquisition where the money runs out then bad things happen you get debt and all that lot
1:12:02
what curly had was a card that basically said every time I get to this stage I get to throw some of the cards away and
1:12:07
then if I haven't got any cards I get a load of victory points and you're like well hold on a second so he was getting
1:12:14
he was raking it in but he was doing well it's got that engine buildy bit where you're trying to build so most of
1:12:21
the actions need three workers but you can do another action which means you only need two workers and they have to
1:12:26
be specific colors and and then so you can get it right down to one worker if you want to but at the same time like
1:12:35
the main is it six actions each of them give you a little bit of points and they each separately move you up a track but
1:12:41
they interlock massively so you can't really do all of one but you can't do it
1:12:46
all evenly you've kind of got to decide how you get them all up to a certain point and then really push ahead with
1:12:52
the other tracks as well and it's it's like a little bit of kind of worker placement mixed with some engine
1:12:59
building and I think the key bit that drives it is the actual Paladin deck itself so you draw at the beginning of
1:13:05
every turn you draw three cards you pick one to play that turn you pick one to put on the top of your deck I.E you're
1:13:11
going to get it next turn and you're putting one to the bottom which means you'll eventually see it but it won't be for a few turns and I think that turns a
1:13:19
game that could be just kind of a complex little interlocking puzzle into this great idea of you can sometimes you
1:13:25
get a hand of three and you're like I definitely want that next turn cuz I'm going to go after that or that's going to be free for me or whatever it is
1:13:31
haven't quite got the resources for it this turn but I can set up for it next turn and then you're trying to play the
1:13:37
one for this turn as well and it's just I don't know it's for me it's just really nice combo say the downtime
1:13:43
between turns is quite heavy so I would recommend you stick to two or three players personally yeah um and there is
1:13:50
like a lot of small but interlocking bits that you kind of have to teach there's like
1:13:55
maybe 10 or 12 different bits you have to teach none of them are massively complicated but they all interlock and
1:14:01
you kind of have to see a little bit of the puzzle to start with but yeah I really enjoyed that play through again
1:14:06
yeah I I really enjoyed it actually even though probably at the end of the game you might have thought I didn't um
1:14:12
because I I that was the point in the convention where I just it hit me I got really tired and I just needed a break
1:14:19
yeah and I was like I'll be back in like half hour I I just need to get out of the noise yeah um but in terms of the
1:14:26
game yeah I I actually preferred it to Architects and West Kingdom yeah I think it's they got a lot more going on like
1:14:32
you said the interlocking the puzzle element um and I really like the fact you got the colored Mees that you have
1:14:38
to try and draft at the beginning of the round so you get the right mix of the right colors to do the right action so
1:14:43
there's a lot of thinking involved and um yeah it it was great I did absolutely [ __ ] you did but at the end I did wonder
1:14:52
how I did wonder how much you liked the game at the end you going oh I've really enjoyed this and then you know when your
1:14:57
face doesn't match the words coming out of it sort of thing and I was like oh okay someone keep you up all night is
1:15:04
that why you didn't galleries take a little bit longer to sink in know and uh
1:15:09
paladins didn't click cuz someone kept you up all night didn't they sweet sweet nothing's a me blessing no no it's a
1:15:15
really good game it's um it's uh it's an interest it's quite unique I think in what it does that kind of takes us to
The Saturday Night Event Dinner
1:15:21
the uh the the the event dinner yeah the event dinner so they've done it every year it's a nice little it's the second
1:15:28
time it's the second year you're still fact am I you're still factual where's
1:15:34
the LIE where's the LIE there's no lie here but this time Joel was our quiz
1:15:40
Master he was and props to him he did a very good quiz he did yeah wrong in
1:15:46
occasion but for the most part he was uh he no pandemic gate there pic there was
1:15:52
just and again there's like little bits like a fellow and pic and questions like that where he was slightly off but he
1:15:57
asked something in the realm of I was working out like 120 to 150 questions I worked out as between the AI pictures
1:16:06
and all that lot and if you get two or three wrong like and not massively wrong just kind of there's bits and like
1:16:13
there's other alternate rules or whatever for different versions then I I still consider that a massive win
1:16:18
because I think think we would have got that far into a quiz without making mistakes they they did a lot of work on
1:16:24
that to be fair to them there was another round as well that they just they chopped off they yeah he chopped
1:16:29
off cuz it was just getting too late he said there was another round that they could have done which I was enjoying it I could have done another up around but
1:16:35
it was suddenly like what half 10 11 and it did go on for a while yeah like the
1:16:42
by the time we got pudding I was kind of like I am already knackered I want to go to bed at this point but it was really
1:16:48
good I really enjoyed it yeah it was a great chance just to the AI round we had
1:16:56
should we call them discussions heated discussions over which was the right one um and you could see because basically
1:17:02
what he done is put the the name of a game in say please design me some AI art that matches this game and he said you
1:17:09
know each one took several like attempts to get good art but most of them were to
1:17:16
the point where really there was only one correct answer but had the opportunity to have a couple of
1:17:22
different ones in there as well and so you know we're arguing over is this the Dark Tower or Fury of Dracula or
1:17:31
whatever else had FR Frost Punk it's just a black Tower in the middle of a
1:17:36
frozen Landscaping which one is it I had great fun doing it was really that was that
1:17:42
was my favorite round I think Strangely I enjoyed the rest of the rounds and the questions but that just inited a lot of
1:17:49
conversation and a lot of um thought into what it could be it was just good
1:17:55
fun good I think you had to have a a good base knowledge of board gaming to
1:18:01
even a standard chance half of that stuff so I mean we're quite fortunate that we do but I know the Taz blessing
1:18:07
it was like I have no idea I'm just leaning on you guys I'm just going to drink my beer and crack off shouting
1:18:16
each other it's is this get life trying to convince you a game that you've never played or
1:18:22
seen before Tobago was on there and you're like but it can't possibly be this game I've never seen heard heard
1:18:28
possibly do that are you sure cuz it's got all of the bits on the cover here
1:18:33
yeah you had to convince me by showing me on board game game oh yeah it's got the uh the EAS we' WR it we'd written it
1:18:39
down but at that point I was like I'm going to show you how on the nose this picture is what there's a game I've not played
1:18:46
how dare you how dare you but no it's a great quiz Joel did excellent and uh I can't believe I forgot his Dicky bow you
1:18:52
did I've bought it it's at home I've still got red Dicky bow at home so I bought him a dick we made a little deal
1:18:58
on full board where if I bought him a red Dicky bow he would do the quiz in it nice and for you forgot it mate you
1:19:06
forgot it but there we go there's always next year but we didn't win we didn't no last year we won five points absolute
1:19:13
fix but we didn't win but yeah the team that won was the Deon de dice podcast
1:19:20
team yeah you know just we just won it on record that we think it's a bit dodgy Joel that's all we're saying but yeah we
1:19:28
had that we had the hi cou round is that c is that the one we did all for yeah I
1:19:34
think was the most obscure ones cuz some of them could have been multiple but yeah um was bad yeah again and then we
1:19:40
had um the music round and babyy um no no one's going to know that
1:19:47
reference but but us but us we spoke about in the podcast last year well proba one yeah we did think we if you
1:19:56
know you know if you know you know if you don't check it out check out ggon um
1:20:02
2022 yeah I think it's that year yeah it was yeah mhm um and then we had like
1:20:07
general knowledge rounds where it was the quickest if you he gave out or general knowledge ground and then there
1:20:13
was one where he gave out clues in order of kind of difficulty and the earlier you got it the more points you got yeah
1:20:19
um which is great fun as well yeah yeah he did a really good job no he did a great job and the food was lovely as
1:20:25
well to accompany it yeah nice free course me with a moose
1:20:30
Bo I enjoyed my moose Bo enjoy my moose Bo yeah I always do enjoy a moose Bo
1:20:35
dinner just to get the appetite wet we yeah we a moose Bo yeah it's like a
1:20:41
little um a little pot cheese thing in a Breck one yeah oh yeah see there you go
1:20:48
Mo forgot cuz I didn't order it it just turned up thinking it forgot about it
1:20:54
about 2 seconds worth of pleasure that wasn't it which is good so and I think
1:21:00
that's what makes it unique about this this convention is that there was that event dinner and you know there's well I
1:21:06
don't know how many people were there 70 yeah maybe not even that I don't know
1:21:11
but between 50 and 70 ni 20 again it's got in you've got six or seven tables
1:21:18
like being at a wedding and you all having an event dinner talking about ball games and stuff and it's just quite nice it's a bit different yeah it's it's
1:21:24
different with a load of people who have the same interest and same Hobby and we're doing a ball game about the hobby
1:21:29
that we love so if you like ball games and you probably do if you listen to this podcast then we'd recommend it
1:21:36
definitely check it out no one was in any way competitive at all no no
1:21:42
harmless fun it was super chill at all times uh no judges calls or berting Joel
1:21:50
for things or anything or berting me cuz I got one question wrong I know the one
1:21:57
thing more than one question more one question but I still I still M we
1:22:02
already gave you [ __ ] about the one question I still maintain that I got more way more because it was about pandemic that's the reason why yeah
1:22:10
can't got it wrong mate yeah it's cuz I wasn't wrong you had someone else bought up the
1:22:16
same point three people no it's not that yeah yeah bless you bless you but I
1:22:22
remember the question it was uh starting player starting playing the ru that was one of the rounds yeah how do you decide
1:22:27
to start play all the funky games that decide to start play that was quite funny it was normally if I read a rule
1:22:32
like that I'll go just randomize it and instantly forget that it's a quirky rule that they've put in they do on purpose
1:22:39
yeah we we all ignore it don't we really cuz it's just like who has the biggest left
1:22:46
toe which game's that sorry my left toe my left toe don't twist it yeah that
1:22:52
would make sense is it's not is all stuff like that isn't it it's
1:22:58
all ridiculous and they must have an in joke the developers and what ridiculous thing can we make for this fair so we
Imperium: Horizons
1:23:06
finished EV dinner and then um we had time for probably another game we just snuck in a late game Adrian you said by
1:23:13
now I'm tired I went to bed I was happy with that we played um Imperium yeah
1:23:20
which I was like oh this is you know a nice light game of Imperium to finish day off and it was probably one of the
1:23:27
most fun games of Imperium I actually had um and I you know I love it I talk about it a lot on the podcast but it's
1:23:34
quite nice to to play it for player I don't actually recommend it for player massively because same same sort of
1:23:42
thing with with paladins it's downtime and there's a lot going on and if you built a nice little engine you're
1:23:47
comboing left right center you know it just takes a while before it kind of comes around but weirdly or equally
1:23:54
because the game is quite heavy you are planning so it's not like I'm just sitting waiting to do what I need to do
1:24:00
you are literally constantly thinking do that this so it's not the end of the world and I think it flowed pretty well
1:24:06
we had tambo's first game and tazza's first game yeah you we played before
1:24:11
Essen um and Dave's like I'll put Taz and Tambo on the uh starter nations from
1:24:19
the classics box and they I can't remember who they played as Romans and or per I can't remember Taz played the
1:24:26
people I played carthaginians carthaginians um
1:24:31
and I'm un sure who t t was like a war was he War one I think he might be Romans in yeah and uh and then Dave went
1:24:39
N I want to pick one from the horizons box he was looking through which ones are the worst stars um standard standard
1:24:45
he went I'll play the Martians he nice easy faction which they're not I've never played them I said well you're on
1:24:51
your own mate cuz I can't help you with them whatsoever anyway in a positive score is that bad was it yeah well you
1:24:58
basically you have to play them completely differently to everyone else they start off with their good cards but
1:25:04
you start off with VPS as well but these VPS unless you get rid of your unless
1:25:10
you get rid of all the VPS they've got like a time bomb and it would explode and basically just keep giving you um
1:25:17
what's the bad card unrest which are just minus VPS so you have to get rid of
1:25:22
all the VPS to flip the card and then then earn and then basically you become native and you become one with Earth and
1:25:29
then you have to get them all back again but you've got a lot of V cards in your deck right but these VP cards in your
1:25:35
deck also get you VPS because they got VPS in your deck so and you don't want
1:25:41
them early because they're you get rid of them by giving your Tech out and sharing it with the other nations but
1:25:46
you don't want to give too much your Tech out I did a really [ __ ] job that I gave have everything no no I gave my
1:25:53
tech out he took it used it once then bend it I gave my other teex to Taz who which would basically would have slowed
1:25:59
the game down but he just never used it I wanted to slow the game down cuz I want to get rid of more VPS but he just never used it ever and I was just like
1:26:07
use my tech I want to get rid of um so it was it was a hard engine you
1:26:13
had to plug you really had to like pull the cord it was like trying to start the lawn but when it then got going you're
1:26:19
like woo mopping up VPS but there was only two turns left yeah so but I think end up with like 20 which wasn't
1:26:25
actually too bad in the end cuz I had worked from theor I earned like 40 something VPS but I had to obviously get
1:26:33
rid of 20 did they get that side so it they were good fun they were very different to the the previous one I
1:26:39
played not standard and I know where I went wrong and that's quite nice to see in the game as you I know where I went
1:26:45
wrong I know excuse me I know what I should have done and I know when I should have like suddenly started
1:26:51
pushing on the breaks I was also playing them a little bit wrong in the fact that I didn't realize I could spend some of
1:26:57
my VPS as a resource you spend your progress tokens as materials or population every time I did I get in
1:27:03
unrest but there's a couple of times where I could have Bend off unrest but I had nothing to bend off so I was just
1:27:10
like oh okay fine whereas I should have spent the VPS getting the unrest bend it off right okay um so that would have I
1:27:16
think I would have given me an extra couple of turns which would have obviously put me you know I would have
1:27:21
had the engine going a lot quicker and the points going so I know where I went wrong really enjoyed it who you played another
1:27:28
complex faction yeah yes I was playing the the Mayes uh are quite similar as thex from from the Legends box and the
1:27:35
mines from The Horizon's expansion and they they're quite crazy in that they
1:27:42
work um with these Stone MK cars that they are basically resources that you fuel into your Tableau and they I think
1:27:49
by the end of the the game I must have had a I don't know about 20 cards in that Tableau just
1:27:54
comboing nonsense um which I thoroughly enjoyed um but yeah know that's the
1:28:01
thing with this game is the the the nations are just so varied and different
1:28:07
now there's 30 of them to to play and I'm working my way through them I've not played them all yet but I'm I'm getting close um I want to have mastered any of
1:28:15
them uh some of them I'm I'm better than than others but it's just yeah just the
1:28:21
variety and when you play It's like a different bloody game he plays the Martians different game he play you know
1:28:27
he plays the utopians again completely different what you're trying to do all all kind of meshing together with that
1:28:33
same rule set um and but yeah I really enjoyed that four player yeah to the
1:28:38
point where I actually you know what I'd play that again as a four um whereas normally I would try and keep it as a
1:28:43
two yeah um or solo cuz I play a lot of it solo as you know so but yeah I think
1:28:50
I will do an Imperium night at some point in it's also crazy how much it can change cuz obviously the market you got
1:28:56
different markets you put in different cards which is going to change that core deck that you're playing with a game so
1:29:03
that adds more variety in the Mi as well there's three Commons Decks that I've got now and then obviously you got the
1:29:09
trade Roots which we played with we just threw it all in didn't we um and uh yes
1:29:15
all all sorts of nonsense going on it's great fun yeah it was good fun yeah yeah I really enjoy that game then I went to
1:29:21
bed I just say that I don't think I went to bed oh you were good that night yeah well I I mean that was like half two oh
1:29:27
yeah it was late wasn't it yeah yeah yeah it was late imagine if I played another game I would have been hanging
1:29:34
on the Sunday it was you're right it was really late yeah Off 2 three something like that anyway so there go leads to
1:29:40
the Sunday breakfast breast another fry up another fry up great start yeah double fry up thinking if I had another
1:29:47
fry up again on the third day it's Carnage it's too much too much you can you can always squeeze and toast it
1:29:53
would was another day yeah yeah speak yourselves English every day all day day
1:29:59
it gets to the point where I feel evil yeah Fair yeah I would do it every day but I don't think my digestion yeah it's
1:30:06
probably not good for you from that point of view but yeah from a from a taste bud perspective definely oh yeah
1:30:11
it's gorgeous is it yeah so here we go we uh Sunday what do we all we I already
1:30:17
played one game only play one game brass L year we got to the table me Joel and Taz and really enjoyed it
Brass: Lancashire
1:30:24
obiously a lot of brass anyway but not I thought I'd play in Langer before but I hadn't I think I've just watched a lot
1:30:30
of videos on it and decided on brass because it obviously plays very similar you've got a little bit slight variation
1:30:37
in the fact that you kind of got ports instead of um well instead of your trade
1:30:43
rout you get with your markets yeah you've got ports which you have to send
1:30:48
your well do the trade action with where you flip the tile I'm not going to explain brass because sure most people
1:30:54
played it very unless you want me to explain it no no
1:31:00
exactly yeah uh and there's still the tightness there it was actually a really
1:31:05
tight game and I can see why maybe some people prefer it than brass brass is Birmingham I keep saying brass brass
1:31:12
Birmingham prefer brass Lancashire is the fact that it did feel like a tighter game that we were kind of more confined
1:31:19
to these spots and Joel opened up the top just at the right right time for me
1:31:24
to be able to get some coal up to the top and basically complete my set and
1:31:30
have a nice Wombo Combo of points right at the end which he then swore about culy just didn't see it right at the end
1:31:37
there but I mean he would have had to know had that certain card to do that as well so it was all a mix of a factor so
1:31:45
it was a very tightnit real kind of competitive game which we all really
1:31:51
enjoyed but I still prefer B Bur I like the beer aspect and I think the biggest
1:31:57
thing if B if Lancer had as good of a um
1:32:03
tech board um with your buildings and everything as brass Birmingham because the Birmingham one feels a little bit
1:32:08
more balanced of how you go through the buildings what buildings have been off a couple more choices because you've got
1:32:14
the pottery as well whereas in um laner
1:32:19
you've just kind of got the shipyard and which you just trade with just another place to trade with or you've got your
1:32:26
boats and your boats as soon as you build them they flip you get points for them which takes away that element with
1:32:33
Pottery you still have to trade it so you still got to work it into your trade rout which I think is a tighter aspect
1:32:39
and it's a little bit kind of easier to to for people to kind of put spanner in the works of you planning that and being
1:32:46
like Oh well I'm going to take this over here instead or take that call from there Etc so the board seemed Tighter and
1:32:55
better but the actual building layout wasn't as um well engineered so I think
1:33:01
that's why Birmingham sits higher in my opinion well Birmingham is basically version two right so anash is the
1:33:08
original one and then um roxley came in with their designers and play testers and all that lot and said let's smooth
1:33:15
this out make this a little less mean a little less tight sort of improve that puzzle and that's why you've got brass
1:33:21
Birmingham but I can totally understand why you've got the two camps cuz Some people prefer a mea game that's a bit
1:33:27
more sort of specialized and requires those multiple playthroughs and really and and really getting into it and some
1:33:32
people prefer a game that's sort of just as complex but perhaps not quite as cut
1:33:37
for you still can drink someone else's beer and really annoy someone but at the end of the day it's that it's a slightly
1:33:44
more open puzzle with a few more options because that's why that's what they've designed it to do right yeah I I just I
1:33:51
really want a game where they mix LAN board with the engineered side of the brass Birmingham they get they're
1:33:57
bringing one out oh they bringing one out brass ton BR I was waiting I was
1:34:03
like which name which place is you going to name I expected him to name somewhere
1:34:08
up north like where he's from brass Grantham yeah brass gram you mean the East Midlands no oh sorry where are we
1:34:15
right now we're in the southwest so where where about is Grandam to us is is
1:34:20
the East Midland it's north it's north it's north I think the listeners will testify that I'm from the East mid look
1:34:26
it's like the Game of Thrones thing all right where the wall was North to everyone yeah and then it was basically
1:34:32
anything beyond that to the wildlings north was you know yeah if you haven't guessed I'm from the East Midlands
1:34:38
originally so that's wild I'll kind of defend it even though I moved to the Southwest um so I'll only defend it to a
1:34:45
point and then everyone's like yeah but you moved here and I'm like yeah shut up uh so yeah he put on his daps and got
1:34:52
down here though don't don't start on the daps you just alienated 99% of the
1:34:59
podcast listeners talking about daps so I think it was the first meal where we were talking about this and I was like
1:35:04
do you know that daps has actually done Lop athletic plim souls and everyone looked so disappointed to find out what
1:35:11
DS actually meant cuz it's like oh it has got the word plim soul in it then yeah yeah pretty much yeah so it's a
1:35:17
blim Soul right yeah good no they're pumps um Carry On anyway
War of the Ring The Card Game
1:35:24
so while we were brassing it up you guys were playing Lord of the Rings card game
1:35:30
War of the Ring card game what war of the Ring that's it which I think me and Adrian had very polar opposite
1:35:35
experiences of if I who was winning uh me um I say me me and curly yeah so so
1:35:42
War of the ring uh the car game is a pretty much an abstracted version of the war of the Ring the board game where you
1:35:49
kind of work um one side is the three people's Good Guys Hobbits and all of that jazz the other team is the the URS
1:35:57
and San saon and all the nasty twis basically yeah um the the card game you
1:36:03
can play as two three or four player we play the four player which is team um which you wouldn't play the board game
1:36:10
as a team game anyway it's the same thing as Rebellion right uh but actually I quite I'm on the I enjoyed it Camp um
1:36:18
but then I felt we were playing as the the good guys me and curly and it felt
1:36:24
like things were going our way a little bit more than maybe on the bad guys Camp which adri was I'm bloody frustrated I
1:36:29
can't do anything and I can't see how we would win do you know why that is did we play it wrong cuz we missed a load of
1:36:35
rules so we played it once felt we did yes got Absolut like it was like three
1:36:40
rounds and good one by a landslide it wasn't even fun that game it wasn't even fun it was like right let's have a look
1:36:46
at the rules oh okay a bunch of rules we've missed we then played it the second time and I'll admit I got sry cuz
1:36:51
I just genuinely couldn't see how evil was supposed to win yeah the game and
1:36:57
curly delighted in this cuz that's the way curly is with some of these things he was looking all smug all the way through of oh it's just that you're not
1:37:04
good enough so I wound up drove home went straight on the internet and was
1:37:10
like I'm reading this rule book again oh we miss a load of rules and I went I went on BGG and they were like I don't
1:37:17
forget this Ru cuz it's a key component to Shadow wins that we missed what was
1:37:22
it so the one that we really missed was when you reinvoke a Battleground yeah
1:37:28
you don't count any Shields oh so you're supposed to pull all of the good guy Battlegrounds back
1:37:34
into play and fight over them when the opp CU so I suppose we should teach a
1:37:40
bit more about the game really but I don't have a clue what we talk about so there's kind of two main things you've got Battlegrounds and kind of the plots
1:37:47
so as well as having completely asymmetric Decks that feel very different um so we divided up into like
1:37:55
s and San basically and you divided up into elves and humans and Hobbits and
1:38:00
something else whatever magical people something like that um and you've got
1:38:07
the plot which is designed to give you like a story it kind of as you push it on things get tougher for the good guys
1:38:15
yeah um and easier for the bad guys to go but and then you've got the other side which is Battlegrounds which is places you're fighting over yeah and the
1:38:23
are pulled up these are alternated so the plots kind of work through they're randomized but they work through in a
1:38:29
number order you just get one out like there's three different first stages and three number so you just pick one of
1:38:35
those at random but for the most part this they start off easier for the good guys the Battlegrounds are pretty much
1:38:41
just a big old stack of mixed um cards that come out however and and so you
1:38:48
fight over one and you kind of influence the other yeah so plots you influence
1:38:53
um and Battlegrounds you fight over and they're both treated slightly different
1:38:59
so the the advantage seems to go to the Battlegrounds for the bad guys so if
1:39:05
they've got anyone and again I think we got this rule wrong because I definitely ditched people I shouldn't have which is
1:39:10
anyone that's left over from the Battleground doesn't die it they come
1:39:16
back to you or go into your recycle pile or whatever and then anything in the plot all the evil guys always die but
1:39:23
any who's not being combed on the good side recycles which I think again we were recycling all of the good guys
1:39:29
right so all these little things and then there's so what the good guys are trying to do is Advance the plot as
1:39:35
quick as possible while they've got the advantage and they've got this kind of mechanic that I don't think we fully
1:39:40
understood cuz we started trying to push the plot like duplicate the plot cards
1:39:46
when you couldn't duplicate them and stuff like that so there was a bit of confusion there and then on the Battleground side of things what evil is
1:39:52
supposed to do is wait until they're about to have Superior numbers and then pull in these Battlegrounds which the
1:39:59
ones that are typically easy to defend for the good guys are worth more points so you're supposed to kind of lose them
1:40:04
I think from what I could make out from like reading online you're supposed to lose the good Battlegrounds wait for the
1:40:10
good guys to have it in their Victory pile and then pull them back in when they're then not counted as
1:40:16
defended which I said multiple times I don't understand what I'm supposed to do with these Battlegrounds cuz all of my
1:40:21
mechanics are about pulling these Battlegrounds back but you're just going to win them again yeah when in fact you're not because they come out with so
1:40:28
I'm not the biggest fan of asymmetric card games and stuff like with lots of text on cards and all that kind of stuff
1:40:35
anyway and then to have two games where actually we played both of them quite
1:40:40
considerably wrong like the realle book's not the greatest but I don't I think it's just the design of the game
1:40:46
anyways got lots of little nibbly bits in it that I just didn't enjoy um but
1:40:52
yeah I it felt to me more that okay it's clearly balanc more Balan because online
1:40:58
people were saying it's balanced but the fact that we kept missing so many rules and I don't want to blow our own horn
1:41:05
here but we're fairly Advanced Gamers I'd like to say I'd like to say we understand quite complex games fairly
1:41:11
quickly yeah so it felt like well if we if we didn't get it all usually
1:41:16
someone's learned the rues set first usually one of us has put the effort in there beforehand no usually yeah I want
1:41:23
a record it wasn't my game no no um it wasn't Rob's game and it wasn't Adrian's
1:41:29
game so throwing under the bus no I don't think to be fair as curly
1:41:36
I don't think he's played it a Lota wasn't it second think second ever game and he played with Rob a long time
1:41:43
ago so it's might might have just been one of those things that have not been cemented in um but I I I really enjoyed
1:41:50
it I think I could see the the kind of game in it um and I quite like that it
1:41:55
was a team game for that one personally I quite like the the fact that you had
1:42:01
half of the story in your decks and they've got their half and and it kind of thematically makes sense and and you
1:42:06
kind of want to have that table talk and but the other players listening so you have to kind of you can't do it secretly
1:42:13
and go look look what's going on here you have to kind of be open about a lot of stuff and um yeah I want to play it
1:42:20
again I would like to play as a shadow play it properly yeah all the rules play all the rules do it right and and just
1:42:26
see how it goes yeah I'll be intrigued I like those kind of card games and the a
1:42:31
lot of I've heard a lot of Whispers and rumors along that it actually plays really well for a player which war the
1:42:37
ring the original no one ever said that don't do it so I think I think that's
1:42:43
the round up of games that I've got yeah the last game I played and then uh we we bid the the curly Zur as they were
1:42:49
talking into their CV and uh off we went off we went home shag wagon yeah
1:42:56
okay cuz you and Rob were in there oh okay yeah I don't remember that but that's that's all cool by me driving the
1:43:03
four poster bed home do miss that four poster
TURN 3 - Final thoughts on Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
1:43:10
[Music] bed so yeah any kind of closing comments
1:43:17
any closing thoughts I thought the food was great the location was lovely I had to walk around the ground a couple of
1:43:23
times which I don't think you guys did but no again for dog walkers perfect cuz of dog friendly and all that kind of did
1:43:29
I walk around are you taking the P you did I walk around the no someone wheed
1:43:34
me around it maybe but no I I think I was the only one who explored any of the grounds the the rooms were really nicely
1:43:41
done I think again it's in a lovely location the one problem I had is going
1:43:46
there it rained it snowed they'd closed three roads and I was forced onto this
1:43:53
horrible rickety back road with so many potholes and pumping the brakes
1:43:59
obviously yeah those discs are burning smoking Fire coming out the back doing
1:44:04
40° down and then the next thing you know You' pulled a uturn you're doing 40° back up again sent Hill back up
1:44:10
again this Spring's going kill me honestly when I got there I felt
1:44:15
frazzled and when I got back I felt frazzled for having doing that journey and that's nothing that the hotel can
1:44:21
help but it was kind windy to get there it was kind of like oh I'm done I'm glad
1:44:26
there is a less windy road when it's a little bit further out you have to drive out and then you go to it's like a Ring
1:44:33
Road Main Road and then drive around but yeah otherwise I thought it was great grounds great place great I was going to
1:44:39
say culture then great environment great sort of at is a good they do have a great
1:44:45
culture there as well because of so Matt has encouraged a nice environment there
1:44:50
always for welcome it's quite homely in some aspect isn't it it's quite nice um
1:44:57
it was nice arriving and then remembering us from last year and you
1:45:02
know a few winks and a few nods about late night drinking and rum um even to the point where I think I ordered a
1:45:09
kraken on the Saturday night and uh I think it's his wife on the bar and and
1:45:15
she said oh see she must had a flashback from last year when Kraken Saturday
1:45:21
night ball game we H what's going on here is there going to be any trouble this time no no it's all good it's all
1:45:27
good I promise so again it's just that nice feeling isn't it of of community and uh and you're right they they
1:45:34
develop that really really nice environment so welcoming great to get
1:45:39
yeah definitely enjoyed it it's just such a small event isn't it you got to get in there and get your tickets as
1:45:44
soon as they're available they went quickly as well they and I can't imagine them being able to really easily expand
1:45:51
any more than the numbers they've got tree house maybe maybe that looked rickety like it's obviously solid cuz it
1:45:59
stood there for years but there's like support beams coming off at weird angles it looked like Weasley's house well the
1:46:05
weather was so different to the year before the year before we were baking do you remember how hot it was the year
1:46:10
before no I remember how February like we I wish I short I was thinking God
1:46:17
it's really it's a warm weekend in February nice where this year was
1:46:23
obviously normal February weather February February weather but it's it's
1:46:29
a nice location it's a beautiful place yeah yeah I mean we we just want to say a big thank you to Matt and the fox and
1:46:35
H Country Hotel we want to say big thank you to Kristoff from me's corner so make sure you kind of follow them both and if
1:46:41
you're interested about the convention definitely you know keep keep in touch with them follow them on social media we
1:46:46
we'll link all their details in the um the show notes of this episode as well and if you ever down this way or even if
1:46:53
you're not any your fancy a nice Bard gaming weekend away a lovely part of the world in the Southwest check it out cuz
1:47:01
it's great it's great fun very yeah we we're pleased to have done an episode around it and hopefully kind of bring
1:47:07
bring the events to life so I think that draws us to a a natural close right
TURN 4 - The Final Turn
1:47:12
gentlemen yeah yeah yeah it is late it is late and we need to go to sleep um
1:47:18
thank thanks everybody for listening uh to the episode you can catch all of our details in the show notes and as always
1:47:25
we appreciate your support um which if you want to kind of help us develop the show and then support the show in
1:47:32
further we have coffee of which we can uh link all the details again in the show notes um for those that continue to
1:47:38
supports we thank you massively it makes a a huge difference to us and what we do
1:47:43
so we'll be back again on the next episode next time for our new main episode and uh until then whose turn is
1:47:50
it chaps the dog's turn honey
1:48:03
[Applause] honey

TURN 1 - Player Count
TURN 2 - The Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
Dog friendly atmosphere
Dune Imperium Uprising
Point City & Tussi Mussie
Furnace
Ticket to Ride Europe
Merlin
Dice Forge
In the Hall of the Mountain King
A brief aside on JP & Robs loveshack
Viking See-saw
The Gallerist
Senjutsu: Battle for Japan
Cosmoctopus
Paladins of the West Kingdom
The Saturday Night Event Dinner
Imperium: Horizons
Brass: Lancashire
War of the Ring The Card Game
TURN 3 - Final thoughts on Devon Board Game Weekend 2024
TURN 4 - The Final Turn

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