TURN 1 - Player Count
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[Music]
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hello and welcome to whose turn is it Anyway a podcast all about our gaming group and of course the board games that we play I Am Adrian your outraged first
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player for my last of my my episodes and with me I have the apoplectic
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JP and the mildly mythed dapsy hello nice nice in this episode we shall
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be talking about our board game rants so we'll be having a good old rant about all those things that we find frustrating or annoying in the board
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game industry sounds good yeah yeah ready forward to this you know really
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grinds my gears well I've called it crunching your cubes crunching cuz you can't call it grind my gears cuz it
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sounds too much like Peter Griffin yes yeah so gone with crunching my cubes you know what really crunches my cubes
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really crunches my cubes you board games um at this point I actually put I was going to do the disclaimer later on but
Public Service Announcement
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I I feel like this might be a slightly swear episode so I to say you're going to put a disclaimer on this yeah I don't
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know what the [ __ ] you're talking about so my two my two disclaimers are we're not we we we've never shied away from
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saying OD swear word but we're not normally too swear we might find that you we up the swear this episode so
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might need to be consideration if you've got kids that you don't mind normally listening to the odd one um and the other thing is that all views expressed
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no um basically that this is a bit of fun and that don't take it to seriously yeah because we're having these might be
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genuine things we've got concerns with but we're probably amping up a little bit there are bigger things to worry
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about the world than than than cards and chits so don't come after us with your pitchforks and all that kind of stuff
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because we won't care but that's JP doesn't give a [ __ ]
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[Laughter] I'll do it actually though I will though
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love us love us but that's a little way off yet yeah we've we've got a few more sections to go but first how are we all
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doing apart from being outraged and angry Furious but but mildly mannered
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and all right generally in between why are you Furious well I'm ready for the for the main event I'm really calm about
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it okay yeah for now for now you get on your soap box don't don't don't I'm
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already I'm already feeling it bubble yeah inside of me Bubble bubbling bubbling it's
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bubbling up it's bubbling up bubbling hot it's bub it's bubbling up like it's like a ragy fire that's about to like burst nice like it's getting harder and
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harder like every moment I speak I don't know what it is but right obvious so yeah no I'm doing all right
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been a nice January nice you know yeah normally January is are sad and all right Alan Partridge
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sad but they generally I I quite like januaries these days because there's
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just cool things to look forward to now yeah but it's used to be quite like depressing work back to work from
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Christmas weather's [ __ ] it's cold everyone's skin usual stuff but it's
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also February now so it's behind us exactly exactly so but no but I I don't
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mind January January was fun nice loving it I don't mind it don't mind it I like my job so it's you know it's not so bad
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is it but it's um is the cold I don't do well my house is freezing cuz it's 500
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years old I can't heat the damn thing does matter what you do it costs me a fortune I got nothing
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left he's there with his plugin USB warming gloves and I'm that guy his
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slank kit I got them like for $5.99 at my local car wash anyway should we get on to some
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board game I feel like we
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
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as always now is that time where we talk about you and me and all the good things and the bad things that we have seen as
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we talk about hex let's talk about hex baby let's talk about you and
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me so JP hello let's talk about your hex yes my hex has been um pretty much
JP - Orléans
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trying out one of the latest hotness um o on come out in 2014 orans o on o on
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have you bought it no no no the curries have got it so the curries have had it
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for w eight months something like that one i' like to try try yeah it's like
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get get a game of it up it's like yeah we'll do right and then after consistent
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nagging we we've managed to to get Becky to to put the game up so yeah we managed to play this week and um yeah for those
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that don't know what oron or orans are uh French town you know I've driven past
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oron before have you that's exciting isn't it that is exciting I didn't see it though so I can't compare it to the board game um but really it's a bag
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building beig euro is the only I can kind of describe it so it's kind of like
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B building quacks ass B building back building but nothing quite like quacks
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so you kind of start with uh four workers right of different colors I'm
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not going to name what they are cuz I can't remember but there's like a black gray blue and brown God knows and they
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all like farmers and do different things and and each round you got 18 rounds in
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this game you think Christ 18 rounds but like initially the game Zips because really all you're doing is drawing four
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workers out your bag and then putting them into your your player board which has um kind of different actions on
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there that needs a different variety of different color workers so you might need a farmer a boatsman and a knight in
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order to to do a certain thing so a bit like paladins where it's like well to this action you need three of those
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specific colored workers in order to do that action very similar to paladins in the way it works 100% so the difference
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is is like but you're drawing these things out of of a bag so you don't quite know what you're getting and you have a market at the bottom of your
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player Board of eight slots so you the max you can ever kind of store in that market is eight workers um so initially
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you're starting off with a like a a bag pull of of four and you kind of have either four drawers out the bag or you
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can pull back workers that you've allocated already to spaces that you might just want to you know put
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somewhere else so there are ways of leveling this up so there's like a central board which has a load of tracks
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on it yes tracks euros and tracks and they all kind of do different things so
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if you're doing a an action on your board that says I want a farmer then you move up the track you're going to get a
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resource of like cheese or wheat or some of generic Euro resource that you can
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find and uh and the unique thing about this farmer track is if you're the the one that's the highest on there you're
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going to get a drip feed of uh one coin each round and if you're the lowest you
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have to pay it so that's nice so it's kind of like a little push and pull on you don't you need Farmers but they're
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not the best yeah but you you want to kind of keep ahead of the the game otherwise you'll end up just bleeding
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money um so you got those and then you got some other ones um you've got uh so
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other kind of workers and trying to remember what they do but the the brown ones are like innovators and they
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you you kind of get cogs um when you you basically buy another kind of brown worker and you get Cog and that goes on
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your player board and covers one of the spaces up so it makes the actions cheaper so it makes it a bit more
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efficient to run youve got like um kind of black workers that will uh get you
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some extra tiles that can kind of attach to your player board give you some more action options that can do some cool
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things they're a bit more efficient than your base like the blue ones will give you um I think money so you when you
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move up you get money and that's always handy to to have cuz why not money's VPS at the end of the game as well um and
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you got like Knights which are the the red workers and if you go up there that increases your your bag draw uh number
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so you go from four to 5 to six to seven Etc and then you got the um the Grays which are like Scholars and they help
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you move up this development track which sits at the bottom of the board and basically development track will give you money it'll increase your multiplier
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for VP scoring at the end and that's pretty much what it does so and also
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you've got this little board where Allon and all the other um towns are with lots of roads and and rivers connecting
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different ways so one of the actions is you can actually move your it's like a a meeple that you've got a massive meeple
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and you can move it across the roads collecting up resources as you go and you can build Guild Halls on each of the
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the town spaces and um yeah and you you can kind of move around and do different
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things so the VP scoring here is quite simple is the number of Guild Halls that you've got and you can collect these
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little um civilians or or villagers and they're on the tracks if you get there first you'll collect them so it's kind
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of like Guild Halls plus those villagers um Times by the multiplier on your development track is kind of your main
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source of VPS but each resource is a VP money's VPS and so on and so forth but
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the game scales like I say he starts really small you got four workers you're done in seconds move on obviously as you
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buy more workers they're going into the bag you're drawing them out and then suddenly you've got I don't know 10 15
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then it really starts to get crunchy as it kind of goes on and you're really watching what other people do as well
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because if they're you've draw that and where you going to put your work because if you do that that's going to screw me
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and I'm going to do this so so yeah I really enjoyed it it was um the the events that kind of come out you get to
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see a tile at the start of the rounds it will say right you are going to get one coin for every Guild Hall on the map
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like quacks where it's like here's your bonus at the start of round or here's your scoring opportunity it doesn't resolve until the end so you get chance
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to deal with it or go I don't really care about that who you know who who gives a [ __ ] um so yeah you kind of can
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work around it but yeah I beigy midweight Euro fun it's one I've been
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intrigued by for quite a while and I nearly bought it myself and then yeah unfortunately I missed out on that one but I need to play it because it's one
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that I've been intrigued by was there was there any expansions with that cuz they've had like four or five expansions I think the Curly's own a couple of them
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they've got the uh Invasion expansion oh we didn't play we just played base okay it was just base you were s listing a
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few boards and I thought oh does that well I think it was Bas so you know correct me from wrongo no that's
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definitely from there because there is another board I didn't go into it but you can kind of get rid of workers from
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your bag um by putting them onto this Central board and when you kind of fill this up with the different worker types
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you'll get um villagers that's another way of getting villagers as well and also gets rid of some of the chaff out
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of your bag if you're looking for certain colors or or mixes or whatever but no I I I think with bass I think you
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probably play it four five six times and go yeah after a while and that's probably where the expansion start
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adding a lot of meat and uh and and different things in there but I have heard I can't remember what it's called
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was one called Intrigue and something um trade is an INT I think that adds a lot uh to the game from what I hear yeah
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wasn't there like a plague one recently or something the pl doctors uh which I think came out what last year couple
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years ago wasn't long ago no so um I really enjoyed it really enjoyed it it kind of sits in that nice mid midweight
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spot like your coin bras and your lorenzos and your this so it's kind of like that kind of vibe and I'm like yeah
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I could dig that nice it it it came out the last year before the UK games Expo
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went into NEC Hall one yeah so it was still in Hilton it still in the Hilton when that came out and I passed on it I
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I and I often thought about it thought I really need to give that a go yeah so I re it would be it was kind of like for
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me that was when it when it came out I was like totally in my my UA stage yeah
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uh and I thought this could be the next good thing I could really enjoy and it was it was that one and then there was an uh another game um it was the
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colonists you heard of the colonists Y and I chose the colonists over oron and
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it's very rare you hear the colonists being spoken about these days and it's very kind of old school and I didn't
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overly get on with it when I had it and I should have gone Dron really um but it's yeah one on my r that I
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should try it's just nice to go back to an older game and give it a go you know and there's so many games like that that
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I've missed out on or or just haven't had the chance to play yeah that's another one and I would just yeah I
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think it's just really cool to go back to a game that's now 11 years old and just give it a will and it's like yeah
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there's a reason why this was popular yeah you know so doesn't have to be about new hotness all the time no no it
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can be about something that's old especially if not discovered it but it's new to me that's just it it's new to you that's just it that's just it I find
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that I find that quite hard to to to like remind myself of that yeah always like up for the new hotness but now
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nowadays I tend to to play whatever exactly if it's if it's survived in like the b top 2 300 whatever it is somewhere
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in there if it survived in fact I think it's in the top 100 if it if it survived that long at that spot it normally
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indicates that even though it's old it's worth going back to there's some games that just age like milk right but and
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they sort of you can feel their age when you play them but if it stays that high up on the list normally it's a pretty
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good indicator that it's kind of going to survive amongst all the latest hotness yeah yeah
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and the other good thing is I won yay oh Fe the cures love that sweet victory
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loved it nice nice Dan what have you been up to I have um I played Lots over
Dan - Shackleton Base
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over Christmas lots and lots well not Christmas specifically but over December um and I haven't sort of played too much
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since then but the one that kind of stand out for me was Shackleton bass um JP kindly taught me shackelton Bas um a
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few weeks back and um I loved it thought it was great it's basically m in space
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so if you've seen Merve or youve checked MV out it's the same designer I quite liked MV uh although I find it very hard
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to get to the table um but Shackleton base I think was a bit more accessible and I think the theme were um came
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across more strong in it um so what space
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space uh so yeah I mean you're building you're building a colony on on on the moon um terraforming Moon um but it's
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not okay it's not it's really not no it was really really good you're building a base um on uh on the moon but what was
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the real standout point of that game was the corporations was that box of corporations that you get so that every
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game pretty much is is is um is different every game is different because of that of that change of corpse
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how many's in the box at like seven or eight seven which is mad it's great so like you know you bring out three each
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game and it makes every single game different um I say that was probably mid
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to higher in terms of difficulty and complexity I would say that's that's mid to high range um but I really really
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enjoyed it um and the components were really nice and pretty definitely feel that an Etsy moment will probably be
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going quite nicely to get rid of the um the little domes that you can change up and change them for plastic ones make them look pretty yeah um but all in all
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I thought it was really really good um I quite like the fact that you're having to pay other people to use different
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kind of Lanes on the board which is quite nice different mechanics that you don't often see again you saw it in MV but um I thought it sha better 31
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Shackleton um and um the next one I want to try that was kind of this well last
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year's hotness was set but I'm glad to play Shackleton first and really enjoyed it and I'd like doing a cop your yeah
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yes what corpse did we paid you remember there was one that you doing um
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it was was it the the touristy one uh timus tours yeah the touring the tourist one there was that one there was one
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where you had the impending doom in the middle of the Moon Skywatch Skywatch and then there was one other but I can't
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remember think it was Moon mining which one of the the basic ones it might have been yeah yeah I mean we played OB quite
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a few weeks ago now I was trying hard to remember but all I know is I definitely enjoyed it and definitely want to play it again cuz I really really I did enjoy
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it it great um but um yeah I'd like to try more corpse um to me it's it's a
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sort of game that would be easily expandable you can imagine releasing a whole another box of cops and off you go again yeah there's another seven yeah
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and now nothing wrong with that I quite like that um you know especially if you like the game if you want more of it
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then you hear some more there a lot of fans doing their own that I've seen so that fanmade corpse that people are really putting a lot of effort into and
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trying out but again it lends itself to that it's like well off you go off you go make your own yeah see what see what
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happens you know yeah there's a few other games that I think that probably would that I like that like void was a bit like that I think void fall
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can add extra things to it I think possibly found maybe found maybe even done it for that I don't know but um but
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yeah Shackleton love that more more please more pleas more please nice
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Adrian what about you I have recently played manfa um so a newish game M no oh it's
Adrian - Men-Nefer
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it's the old name for Memphis in Egypt is it yes didn't know that so it's
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Egyptian game by luden NOA um and I believe the previous designer for Boku
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oh yeah I think it is I think it is um I haven't played Boku so I don't know how it Compares and I had a lot of fun with it
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uh what it really it's a it's what it is it's a point salad game ultimately I
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think the big hook that a lot of people probably quite enjoy the idea of because
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and speaking to people it's mostly because they've watched moonight rather than no ancient Egyptian culture Y which
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is that um there's a track across the top one with the heart for your player and one with the feather and what you're
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trying to do is cross them over so that because in the afterlife if your heart was lighter than a feather it meant you were good and you could go on to the
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good afterlife um in ancient Egyptian culture and to be fair I knew it before
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but I certainly as soon as someone said that I even I went I like Moonlight the second you said that to me that just reminds me of arnova second second you
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tell me that they cross over crossover yeah and at the end of each era the further apart they are you get minus
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points at the end of each era if they've crossed over you gain positive points um and I think that's probably the hook
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that everyone initially looks at but for me the smart bit is each era you get
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three types of action you get to do each action exactly three times so you get nine actions in the game of these three
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different types and the first action is you place
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your worker down in the left hand side of one of these five sort of work placement areas and you'll have take get
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to action tiles in a second you'll have an action tile Associated to that worker you get to use that action TI and do
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what it says on it like it'll be one of the there's loads of areas around the board that you kind of interact with it reminded me a little bit of federation
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in that as you kind of got a key puzzle and then there's like a lot of little bits around the edge that you're doing um
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and so you place the worker down if there are other people on the left hand side of this worker placement spot
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you'll pay a number of fish based on how many are there so if there's one other person in that in that area you'll pay
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one fish if there's two or more you'll pay three fish if there's three or more you'll pay five
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fish and then you just do the little action card kind of that you're placing them there is really the setup for the next action so the next action is you
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move your worker from the left hand side of that space to the right hand side of the space and exactly the same if there
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are other workers on the right hand side of the space you're going to pay a number of fish equal to how many people
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are there based on that sort 1 35 when you do that what you're then doing is really doing the action worker spots so
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you're moving your Scarab along the track which increases the power of the action of the work placement space so
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like there's starting to build sphinxes and you can build higher level sphinxes or there's starting to build pyramids and you can build bigger like more
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pyramid blocks or um what's the other on like sarcophagy you can go to the sort of the better sarcophagy area um and so
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you're kind of building up each time you go there you move your Scarab to sort of the next more powerful space
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and then the final part but cuz I'm going to come back to those two in a minute cuz I think that's a real Crux of the game the final part is then you buy
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from the shop a new action tile to replace one of the spots cuz when the turn ends all your workers are going to
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come back to the you got three workers they're going to come back to the spot and you're going to assign them each to one of these action tiles which is the
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little one you do it when you first place out the worker and like a usual shop that's got an increasing cost the
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the closer to the deck or the stack it is um and when you buy the action you also get I'm going to call them a mini
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action to go with it that you get to do there and then so you're kind of weighing up the action tile that you want for
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next turn versus the mini action you want right now MH the core Crux of why I
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think this works really well is let's say you want to place one of
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your workers onto the left hand side it's called the sun's side of one of these spaces you might want to beat someone
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there and you're willing pay a fish or so to get there to before somebody else gets there cuz you know you'll get to
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move it to the right hand side before they do cuz of course the way the turn comes around or you might be holding off
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your turn because there's three three people have got their workers there and you're waiting for them to move to the
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moonside because it'll cost you less fish yeah so you can kind of really push
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people into a a subpar move and then again it's exactly the same if it's starting to build up you might really
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want to grab like this action P but you're willing to miss it in order to
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move to the Moon side because then that forces other players to have to F pay fish in order to do it because you're
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already on that side yeah and there's a real nice sort of I can push people into
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doing subpar moves in that sort of worker placement way of not blocking it but it's going to cost you more yeah and
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I found that part of the puzzle really entertaining the rest of it is all the usual sort of Point salad stuff like oh
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I'm if I buy the action card that's got a little symbol on it oh I get an extra point for matching that the next symbol
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I need and you've got papiri that you're getting together you're building them up and then that gets to move your feather and heart closer or you'll go up the
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Obelisk track or all the rest of it is kind of just generic Euro stuff yeah the
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usual sort of well you can put your um what's it called your permission of kofu on this spot and then that means for
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every two of these at the end I'll get one per permission I've got there all the usual kind of I'll go here I'll get
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benefits or I'll get resources or I'll push the heart and feather close together I think that's already standard
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Affair it is this Sun to Moon side that really heightens it and it is because
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it's a point salad and there's plenty of symbols is a bit bitty and I learned it I I sort of did from the rule book I was
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teaching from the rule book in the fact of okay well let's have a oh let's explain the next bit three minute
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explanation right now I need to do the next bit three which is not my favorite way sort of to teach a game but and it
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took it felt like it took forever to a set up that game and B teach it but I think once you're used to it you'll enjoy the puzzle so much more some of
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the iconography was a bit weird like there's a priestess track where the further you go in to make your offering
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um to the gods the better the outcome so you'll have like a you have like an offerings thing that you start building
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it's like a little sort of pyramid shape and the the higher the offering is on your personal little pyramid the more of
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the bonuses you get um which is a nice sort of touch I think but you're kind of trying to get your priestess as closest
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to the God as possible inside the temple before you make your offering and the symbol for move your
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Priestess is a little Priestess sort of with empty hands the symbol for move
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your Priestess and then make an offering is exactly the same Priestess with a little basket in her hands and it was
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just there's a couple of little bits like that that's like the symbols are maybe a little bit you could have probably put a little bit of different
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symbology in there but not enough I only made the mistake once where I was I thought I was getting something slightly
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different out of that action um but yeah really enjoyed it really thought I don't think it'll be for everyone but I think
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if you like that sort of Point salad Euro just go up a few tracks and gain a
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few bonuses from doing sort of micro turns I think you'll really enjoy this
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because it's got that Sun to Moon side that just makes something a bit different out of it nice yeah played it
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two- player um it has like the it has filler workers that that move to certain spots
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um just to kind of make it a bit more of a three player game but I think at three or four players at two player you could
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really I was going down two very specific tracks and the other player was really going down the other two tracks
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that I wasn't going for cuz then you spend less fish cuz you're not kind of getting in each other's way I think at three and four player you're really
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going to mesh with each other um and really kind of yeah it's I think it's
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going to make it a bit those those pretend workers do kind of make a bit of a oh I could do this this turn and then
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that means I'm not this era and then that means I'm not paying the extra fish blah blah blah so you kind of do have
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that in there but I think at three or four player that that oh I'll move I'll put my worker down now and beat them to it or I'll move to the Moon Moon side I
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didn't want to but I'll have to I think all those decisions will get a bit crunchy and a bit meteor yeah they're usually more interesting cuz you you
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know you're playing a player and you're trying to understand where they're going and what they're trying to do whereas yeah usually the filler is just there I
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just put these in these spots and you're like oh okay weirdly I think my one main
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negative is that the the pyramid bits you build sit on this weird board that's
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got like a corner it's designed to sit on the corner of the board all right next to the pyramids like an l-shape
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thing is it yeah but it's it's got sort of squiggly but yeah it's kind of an l-shape and it has to sit there because
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like otherwise it looks really awkward like off to the side because of the way they've shaped it to fit into the corner
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of the board and then you stack on it these like the really nice chunky wooden bits of pyramid but because they're
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pyramid shaped They Don't Really stack very well cuz the top is thinner than the bottom so you're trying to stack
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four of these on top of each other and they the second someone nudges the table they all fall over and there's because
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they've got symbols on top of them there's an order to them yeah that you've kind of pre- shuffled in basically so you're like oh do you
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remember what order that was well we're not supposed to know the order so oh that would annoy me so that's probably
26:51
my one gripe but again 10 seconds to 3D print something I just wish that that
26:56
that part is easy you'll buy s confetti it's the actual shape of the board that annoyed me more than anything this weird thing that sticks out on a corner yeah
27:02
and it has to sit on that corner where a player's probably sitting yes yeah cuz they normally sit on the corners of the
27:07
board yeah so it's like really awkward placement but the I thought the considering the style of game it is I
27:14
thought the board design was nice um nice mix of functionality versus sort of
27:19
good looks um Aesthetics um and I liked the style of
27:24
artwork and all that lot on it so yeah big thumbs up for me really enjoyed it to try out H same yes I've been Paul L
27:31
me a copy and I've been sat on it like a SM sort of just just sort of oh I do
27:36
want to play this but I hadn't been able to get to the table for various reasons so now I have and I'm glad I
TURN 3 - Main Event: Do you know what really crunches my cubes?
27:44
[Music]
27:53
did and now we're on to the main topic I'm going to put the the spoil the
27:58
spoiler I'm going to put the advisory warning again this might get a bit swear warning please take what we're about to
28:03
say with a pinch of salt please try not to get offended cuz that's not our intention we're just having a bit of fun
28:10
and just getting we got plenty of frustrations about things and we're just trying to get them off our chest let off some steam right that's what this is
28:16
this is ranty time rant rant let's rant let's do it so I'll I'll kick us off go
Player aids
28:22
on and um and then we'll go from there so so did you know what really crunches my cubes what crunches your cubes Adrian
28:29
player AIDS I don't know why Publishers think it's appropriate to have a five player game
28:35
or six player game and only put three or four of the player Aid cards in their box as if somehow we're all going to
28:41
share player AIDS that's got all the symbology you need for the game on it this reminds me of being at school one
28:47
between two fingers on lips what fingers on lips fingers I've
28:52
been regressed fingers on lips no that yeah I'm with you it's annoying you've got wait it's there's a few things that
28:59
annoy me a you know your player count when you create the game and you know that everyone is likely to need a player
29:04
Aid on their first playthrough MH you've got more space in your box than the average tin of quality streets and yet
29:11
you so you have space in the Box it's not like you've got everything sort of just crammed in and you can't you can absolutely fit that number of player
29:17
AIDS into your box for the game yeah I find that I think that that when you go
29:22
through a box that doesn't have the correct number that you look you look at the Ru book and go am I missing one yeah
29:30
have I have I been have I been missed have I missed yeah it's odd on top of that you then have CU I've seen it
29:37
before Oh but you've got all of it in the back of on we put it on the back of the rule book so youve got it all there rather than giving you nice like Taro
29:44
card sized oh so one between four then yeah not only that but I have to pass it
29:49
around every greasy finger Cheeto eating player at the table and hope that the Staples stand up to being passed around
29:56
you're not going to wreck my [ __ ] rule book all because or because you can't be bothered
30:01
to print out a few extra pie pieces of tarot card that cost you 10 20p and put
30:06
it in the Box really it won't even cost that not in mass production it would cost a minuscule amount you know a
30:12
couple of P if that if that and then so one of the Prime examples for me was
30:18
Primal oh right so Primal doesn't even fit in a CX Cube the box is that big it's [ __ ]
30:24
massive that's another rant that's another rant that's fine but there are
30:29
other games that annoy me because they've deliberately not fitted it to the size of ca cu but mhm prim's got a
30:35
massive box and if you've got all the expansions it won't even probably fit into three cax cubes in total even if you take a separator out or whatever so
30:42
you've got all that space they give each player a little handy card to tell them what all the key wordss mean for their
30:48
Play account and all that kind of stuff and then the turn round that tells you exactly what you need to play in turn
30:53
order there's one taros sized card that you share between all of you and when you first first play it you all need to
30:59
know it kind of inside out and it's hard to learn it's like a 12-step process so everyone wants to see it you've got a
31:05
box that massive and yet and you printed out a thousand cards because that game has so many cards forgive my ignorance
31:12
um because I don't know much about Prim I have seen it so I know what it looks like I know how big it is yeah it's massive is it Co-op yeah yeah so I find
31:20
that if a game is Co-op normally not always cuz I don't want to go down the kind of alpha gamer road but one person
31:27
would prend to inverted Comm GM it and would need that player raid and not
31:32
anybody else so much yeah but they've still got to tell you all right now on your turn you've got to do this then
31:38
you've got to roll up all your cards and then do this and if you printed another one out for each of them they could just
31:43
see it and you'd learn it a lot quicker than someone having to tell you and they say they've printed a thousand player cards already just print four more it's
31:51
inexcusable do you know what's even more inexcusable though when a publisher actually has bothered to do that
31:58
someone teaches you the game and you go at the end of the game you know what they been
32:04
handy some player raids oh yeah just left them in the
32:09
box like thanks oh why would you why would you why would you do that have you ever been in that experience yeah what
32:15
why would you why it it annoyed me so much because everyone was like there's a lot of symbology in this game could even
32:22
tell you what the game was I just remember the specific experience again there's a lot of symbols in this it' have been really nice to have a player raid oh yeah there theyve put them in
32:29
the box but I we I know the game so I can just teach it to you that doesn't matter I could still have had the that
32:35
would have that I would I would have driven me nuts that if they're there use that's why they're there it's because
32:40
the publisher understands that the game is very icon heavy which is why they've made them in the first place so yeah I
32:46
feel a little bit better now yeah yeah little bit better that you got that off your chest yeah I think so Dan what
Crowdfunding
32:52
crunches your cubes do you know what really crunches my cubes Adrien kick St
32:59
oh oh he drives me nuts that's
33:04
it over that's it that's it no kickstar I mean look we could talk about different topics of Kickstarter I think
33:11
Kickstarter probably have its own episode because there's so much you can kind of cover with Kickstarter and I am
33:18
not I'm not someone who is A noice on Kickstarter I think I've probably backed
33:23
well over 50 games on Kickstarter since I started with the hobby um and some do
33:30
it like some Publishers will do it better than others which is fine uh and
33:35
some will end up having you know stumbling blocks along the way again that's fine these things happen and when
33:41
you invest in a game you know that from the second you invest in the game the
33:46
worst possible thing that can possibly happen with Kickstarter is if you don't get your fulfillment yeah if you two
33:51
ever had that not yet no but I've not backed any Ponzi schemes on Kickstarter
33:58
I I I I have I have I have I have backed in what I
34:04
thought was good intentions yeah to a UK based uh gaming comp yeah yeah UK based
34:09
gaming company and for only to be shafted now I'm not going to mention the name of the of the of the company uh the
34:15
company no longer exists well it kind of does it um another company um uh not
34:23
bought them out but there was there there was some yeah acquired the games rights
34:28
uh H and um I I'm quite I got quite a good relationship with the person who did did the acquisition uh and I speak
34:35
to this person regularly because he used to help me with the marathon back along uh and they told me why they acquired it
34:40
is because they wanted to help um the original game designer out and they wanted to help the original backers out
34:48
but basically this person was full of false promises had a game it said it was going to be delivered then run into a
34:54
bunch of issues and a bunch of problems uh and um eventually the game arrived
34:59
but it arrived with so many errors so I to the so I did get a fulfillment it was
35:05
but the game was full was so many errors and also it said that it was EU friendly this is been then the UK was still part
35:11
of the EU it was EU friendly but I was hit with custom charges and it was a lot
35:18
of custom charges that's really annoying that is really so so therefore the person who is running this kick
35:24
Kickstarter campaign is just not being transparent enough you're going to get tumbling blocks you get that you get it all the time but this one really just
35:31
irritated me Beyond end is the fact that now I now have to spend 50 on a game
35:36
that actually isn't even complete and is full of errors and it's a complete waste of time and then and then what happens
35:42
then after that is a lot of these fulfillment companies or a lot of these people that put a game out if they're not very experienced or they're not very
35:48
good as they go dark y yeah yeah I mean I just don't communicate do anything don't communicate I've seen it with
35:54
different different campaigns I think um uh Metal Gear Solid had a Kickstarter campaign it's now been fulfilled it's
36:00
now been done and dusted by another company who acquired it um but when that originally came out it went dark and and
36:05
they lost all the money but there's nothing worse than putting in your money your hard-earned money that you go in you know you're earning every day into a
36:12
Kickstarter campaign for it then to not be fulfilled I so I thought I'd watch my friend learn this lesson on my behalf
36:17
you know I'll learn off of you and all this kind of stuff so they backed AP back in the day one of the very first big name kickstarters that was
36:24
recognized as not being fulfilled and I thought oh right okay so I've learned my lesson with that and I knew that night
36:31
models who make the Batman game and all that L have not the best track record generally with customer service I also
36:39
knew they had the rights to Harry Potter so the second they did a quiddit game I knew I was going to back it and I knew I
36:45
literally walked in with my eyes open because I knew they were going to [ __ ] it up somehow genuinely knew that was so
36:51
they cancelled the first one because they didn't scale the Miniatures to the same size as the Harry Potter game they
36:56
didn't say this right but they were like we've heard your feedback and a lot of the feedback was the scale and on the
37:03
new on the new page it said it was going to be scaled to match the Harry Potter Miniatures game scale yeah so you could
37:08
use them so you could use the models interchangeably if you wanted to Mak sense to to move one from one to the other you could absolutely even if it
37:15
wasn't supported by rules so after a year of delay the kickstarter lands it's in the original
37:21
scale so they had no intentions whatsoever of completing that
37:26
Kickstarter to to the new scale clearly had no but you know what the answer is it's longer
37:33
brooms just n 6,000 it's just but there's no
37:39
accountability on Kickstarter right no we talked about this in the very early days about one of earliest one I'd like
37:44
to revisit it because I don't think we quite did it justice but Kickstarter offers a lot of potential and a lot of
37:50
potentially good things and is a great advertising tool but because it has no accountability whatsoever any of the
37:57
crowd fing I was going to say we should say crowdfunding cuz kickstar and game found and in certain true you mean I
38:04
mean I mean Crow kickstarts the OG go go or whatever it was calledo all of those kind of things
38:11
unfortunately because of the way they're set up have no accountability built into them and I totally agree with you I think they I think they're a hive of
38:18
scum and villainy yeah I I I agree and you know it and how many how many scams
38:24
have been put up on these crowdfunding sites that are only just there to take your money you know thousands and thousands and thousands and it's a real
38:30
shame um but what can you do you you know you you're there signing up to it and you're there signing on the dotted
38:35
line in hope that you get get the product but there are other things that annoy me with with crowdfunding is the
38:41
fact that you know they'll put out something that could be from a strong IP or could be from a from a publisher that
38:46
you really like and go here's this new thing it's so shiny it's amazing oh my
38:51
God it's amazing I'm going to back this delivery two years yeah you what so I'm
38:57
to pre-order a game and spend you know 1002 200 on a game that I'm not going to
39:02
see for two years for me you know someone who used to earn quite a lot of
39:09
money who now doesn't earn a lot of money MH either way when I did and when I didn't it stings that hurts I just
39:17
don't I just don't like it it's just I mean I understand why they have to do it because they have to raise the money obviously to then pay for the project I
39:23
get all that but it's an all it's a tall ask for me I think I think you know it's it's having to commit to that
39:30
funding before you've even seen any any product the big bit that makes me chuckle is it'll be like rrp1 we've got
39:37
it at 80 quid and you're like well I used to get suckered by that all the time and then you'll see it in retail at
39:43
60 quid on launch day and you're like Al so I paid more I paid more for like three it three extra promo cards to make
39:50
it a whole thing for you and yet I could have waited and got it in retail cheaper yeah oh you've had to pay import fees on
39:56
top so so it's just it's just false economy y it's it's false economy it is [ __ ] that when when you do see it
40:03
cheaper it happens so regularly it used to not happen as much and now unless
40:08
there's a really good promo or something like that or an exclusive in there yeah
40:14
quite often I'm like you know why am I back why would I back this because
40:19
you're going to probably publish it anyway plenty of other people are probably backing it I can actually wait and find out if it's a delivered if B
40:26
it's a good game and see I'll probably get cheaper if not the same price and earlier yeah well you say that that's
40:31
the thing that annoys me the most yeah how dare you how dare you do that I'm going to back this game so that I can
40:38
help fund it for you and then you're going to release it to retail before I get my or yeah or at a convention which
40:44
annoys the hell out of me before I get my copy that's disgusting that annoys
40:49
the hell out of me it's it's even worse when so like I'm going to give props to
40:54
Sinister Fish Games cuz they did it with moon but they went out to all the backers and said look we're probably
41:00
going to be in this position if you all hold your hands up and say I'm not happy with it we'll probably stop it but it's
41:07
a potential for us to make a lot of extra money and keep producing games and all that lot that we don't think we can miss out on please give us the feedback
41:14
and you're like it's probably going to happen anyway and I'm probably still not going to get my copy for two months after it's been done but at least you
41:20
were communicated about it the number the number of times that I've just seen as you say not even that that's what's
41:27
going to happen or they just the day before they put out now oh by the way this will be available you'll get yours in a couple of weeks it's just a respect
41:35
thing not Respec your backers like yep yeah so it's rather than you did this or
41:41
you didn't do that it's just respect your backers and communicate to them it's rude it's rude they've made this
41:46
thing possible yeah so without them it wouldn't even be a thing I feel better now though ranty I've I've got so many
41:54
points on this but I think it's best at this point that we move on CU otherwise we could could just do a Kickstarter rent um so good topic well well chosen
42:01
thank you Adrian you know what crunches my cubes what crunches your cubes JP [ __ ] board game components o but more
Poor quality boards
42:10
specifically the board right so you you you get a game you're excited to play
42:16
the game you're setting it up you put the main you know uh the main board into
42:22
the middle of the table unfold it all out and half it looks like a [ __ ]
42:27
Mountain cuz it just won't stay flat and no matter what you do to this thing you know you're like should I bend it
42:33
backwards a bit trying to get a bit of pressure to flatten out it does not stay flat and it relies on the weight of
42:39
components of a lot of components to weigh the board down to keep it flat and it pisses me off do you have any
42:45
specifics yes and I'm going to rag on leader games a little bit because it's
42:50
mainly their games I've had this experience with so I had it with roots root yeah root never quite the board
42:55
never quite got level and I've got it with arcs the board on the left side it
43:01
it kind of goes up on the score track so you got to like move your your little Cube on the the VPS and it goes up the
43:07
mountain and it goes down the mountain and then it carries on it's just annoying it's like come on use a thicker
43:15
grade of cardboard or or whatever just make this thing flat and I've tried to flatten it you know you got the tips of
43:20
like put the heavy stuff on it for 70 million years and it will flatten out who wants who wants to do that just do
43:27
and I suppose it kind of links into warping as well I know warping is your
43:32
favorite je player boards all slowly rising at the S they like [ __ ] bananas don't know you can just kind of
43:38
push the ends and they're like we Weebles wobble um but they never fall down no but this oh and it yeah but it's
43:45
mainly on the main board it really like annoys me because it's the central focus of the thing I can probably forgive it
43:50
in certain cases um but yeah in the central board it's like you you're interacting with this thing all over and
43:56
then some times your [ __ ] goes under the board because it's raised up so you got your player board just starts to like
44:04
now yeah starts to migrate and goes and hides underneath the main board what the oh yeah it does it drives me nuts and
44:10
it's just the silly thing but I just think come on you can do better by many
44:15
companies you can do better than this I don't like it when cards overlap the board to a point where you have to have
44:20
them kind of hanging on the edge yeah like specifically Tryon does that yes
44:26
overing the cards that drives me insane why have you got overlapping just have them on the side yeah just have them on
44:31
the side just take away that have little slots you say they're there just put it on the side of the the board yeah so
44:36
then but then if you got a problem with your board then they're not going to stay they're not going to stay there stop stop oh i' I've moved sorry I've
44:43
moved around I've moved over now and that yeah that would annoy me it's yeah little thing pisses me off don't like it
44:50
do better I've had it where meeples have slowly gone down the mountain as you call it like you put it on there and
44:56
then slowly liing the board sort of slowly Rises up at the fold and then it's like you're just like oh have to
45:03
keep putting that right at the very top again just ah do you know the game by rapoff the Rampage or Terror in meeple
45:09
city oh yes imagine if that board did that just have all the mles on all on the edges of the boards terrible is it
45:17
yeah it's a good game that for kids good game good game game nice quick rant now
Inserts that are just s**t
45:22
my second rant is also going to be fairly quick mine is and I've had this rant a couple of smaller versions of it
45:29
on the show before but it's board game inserts the T
45:36
[ __ ] spe you're about to you're about to open the snake pit for me in JP I can
45:41
see CU I know that this pisses me off I know it pisses him off yeah and I'm going to I'm going to probably just
45:47
extend this but the original my original reason for this is not accommodating
45:52
sleeved cards yeah because you know that what one in four one in five of your players is probably going to sleeve the
45:58
game if they want to keep hold of it and then you've not bothered to put a space
46:04
in big enough for sleeve cards it's not it's not difficult you've not like chiseled it out of marble or anything
46:10
like that you have CAD designed it and rather than waiting the extra 10 seconds
46:15
to just pull the cube out on your CAD design a little bit more you [ __ ] off to the pub or something like that right
46:21
youve there's no there's no other good excuse again you you're board game box
46:27
has more space in it than the average pack of McCoy right so you've got plenty of wasted air in this box you have
46:34
enough space to put that in there and I had this rant online shockingly I ranted
46:40
online um you did I did couple of years ago and several people came back and
46:46
went Al but if you allow the the the the
46:51
Gap that you put the cards in to be bigger for sleeve cards then that means that my cards rattle around in the Box
46:58
more and I'm going to damage my cards more no you're not and if you're that
47:04
bothered about a little bit of extra damage get a baggie you're probably the kind of person who would sleeve cards in
47:10
the first place so this is it's not a bad a good point this is probably you
47:15
know this is probably right for you anyway or and someone said oh well it means that there's two much space CU cuz
47:21
sleeve cards are thicker they're not just wider but they're thicker exactly well they can create two spaces and then
47:27
if you you've then got one space unused and if I've got sleeve card I can use the two spaces up it works absolutely
47:34
fine and Trust Me 3 mm down the side is not going to make any difference to your
47:40
your unsleeved stack is this is this when you tell me you don't actually sleeve your games at
47:45
all no I do most of them but yeah but either way it's not it's really not
47:51
difficult I know I reckon I know why it is is because they will have put like they're looking at their list of components and it's like um 5 50 mm
48:00
stack of 69 by 7 whatever oh I just put that Gap in the thing you've just not
48:06
thought about it for 30 seconds and instead of instead of thinking about it I've now got to throw your entire insert
48:13
out and fund what I think is an entire mini mini industry I'm sure that half of
48:18
the printed inserts and foam inserts are purely because like people don't do that
48:25
producers don't do it publishers don't do it and then people feel the need to go and buy something that does
48:31
accommodates sleeve cards but there's a whole raft of [ __ ] insert problems you've got oh there's so many you've got
48:38
ones where they clearly haven't thought about actually how the game plays and so they've separated the components out so
48:43
that they've designed them that pisses me off not to be put away easily but just oh I just need to store this many
48:49
it's exactly the same problem I've got 22 like 20 millim by 30 millimet chips
48:54
I'll just make a spot like like that big you could have separated them up into what they need to be so I could easily SE put them out but no you're going to
49:00
make me put them all in like a space or something jumble it all up and everything you've got ones that you
49:06
clearly had an expansion but then didn't leave space for an expansion box even though you've left a corner of your
49:12
insert with your [ __ ] logo on you could have used
49:17
that so true you could have used that space as empty space just put an empty like bit of foam in there or an empty
49:23
bit of bit of plastic and then when your expansion comes out can use that bit for the expansion it's just I genuinely
49:30
think Publishers are trying to wind me up when they make some of these inserts I don't think their intention is to
49:35
design a good insert I think it's just to wind me up because they make so many clearly obvious mistakes where if they
49:42
thought about it for more than 30 seconds they would have designed it that or they played the game or if they had played the game at all in any way shape
49:48
or form mhm it's just there's second editions where they know they've got an expansion for the second edition because
49:54
they had the first edition with the expansion and printing the second edition with the expansion and then they haven't designed the insert to
50:00
accommodate the expansion even though there's tons of
50:06
space I think I'm just going to leave it there right you to Li down I'm just you want to leave it there but
50:13
I'm I'm still there I'm still there what do we do what do we do with the nucleum
50:19
insert I'm built mine yet but I've heard no no no not the not the F of space one the one that the game comes with oh yeah
50:25
the uh the the cardboard teeth what a load of [ __ ] crap that was I tried to
50:33
put it together twice you like you've add me once fall me once shame on you
50:38
fall me twice no no no that I I I went the wife was standing there the wife was
50:44
standing there I did it I got into such a point yeah this this could work now I'm going to get the next piece slide
50:49
that in no no no it's falling apart and I took it I picked it up and I chucked it in the bin and the wife like what you
50:55
doing what you doing I'm like you don't understand you don't get it this is a pile of [ __ ] I tried to use I actually
51:02
had it built cuz first I went right how do you build this there's no instructions no like okay here's a load
51:09
of cardboard Tey bits of cardboard right great How does it go together who who knows then finally found someone online
51:16
figured it out copied them managed to get it in the box and put all the components in and in In fairness it did
51:24
hold things together until obviously the thing slightly raises up and Ne it goes
51:29
underneath it and then you're [ __ ] so and then I I kind of lived with it for about two plays and I thought I just
51:35
[ __ ] this go about the bags as soon as it raises up like West life I'm pissed off it's going it's going it's going
51:41
I've had it he was Flying Without Wings he was that ring I was Furious I
51:47
honestly I went from not to rage in about [ __ ] 10 minutes this thing I was driving me saying that is the wor
51:52
that's probably the worst insert I've ever seen in any I think he's going to
51:58
mention am I've got it lined up so you know your board game inser is bad when I
52:03
look at it and go I'd rather have the baron Park insert this that's just as bad I've seen
52:09
that one the three bits yeah it's just it's just two bits e even worse is the fact that those two bits don't actually
52:15
fit then all the components in you have to kind of squid the the the cardboard as side a bit to get the larger components in
52:23
it what's the point I would rather that cuz you can see that they put 3 seconds
52:28
of effort into it and you're like you know what fine it came on the punch board it took you 3 seconds to think
52:33
about fine at least you didn't spend any brain cells or any depleted any Oxygen out of the atmosphere thinking about
52:39
that one like at least if you're expect if you're if you've thought about it and it's still crap what have you done like
52:48
what are you doing so Dan I'd like to rant about Stone me games but Dan aren't
Falling out of love with Stonemaier Games
52:53
they your favorite no they're not my favorite what your favorite I'm not go I'm not going
52:59
to go into the the conversations I've had with Jamie stagmire on on social media that's for another day um but I
53:07
mean I don't I don't mean any ill illness to anybody that works for stone
53:13
meire games but I find that I'm at this point now in the hobby now where they're just a bit
53:19
[ __ ] they're just they're just a bit [ __ ] any punches they're just a bit [ __ ] now for me of course for me I mean I
53:27
look at I look at their catalog of games and um you know when I first started in the hobby you're looking at vulture when
53:33
vulture first came out it was you know it was a gaming sensation it was fantastic it's like oh my God it's wine
53:38
making no you know no one's made a game about wine making before and um you know if you're not talk talking about you know venos not you know not you know you
53:46
you just to dig a Little Deeper to find that one out but um but even in V culture wasn't their first it was U um
53:52
Euphoria was their first uh and and it did very very well I wasn't a big fan of it at the time didn't spend much on
53:58
attention at looking at it but did when Vota started coming out and then when side came out um I just thought oh wow
54:05
this is this is fantastic but the games aren't aging very well they're not they're just not aging very well and
54:12
then one person on social media put on the fact that that um each of their games as I mentioned this to you before
54:18
each each one of their games is played because of the way that Jamie stagmire wants you to play them uh and that is
54:25
stuck with me I've had I was I was told that and I've read something about it uh about about two years ago and since then
54:32
I've just gone oh they're right they're just right like for example tapestry the
54:37
tracks play the game wingspan the birds play the game not you the birds play the
54:43
game and the more I play these games I'm just thinking do you know what I I just
54:48
I feel that I'm not really getting getting a good gaming experience anymore I don't get me wrong I played a lot of
54:54
wingspan a lot of wingspan but it's right if you deal a hand of cards of birds that are just [ __ ] especially at
55:02
the start [ __ ] [ __ ] Birds you're going to have a [ __ ] time it's just a [ __ ] time you know and there's so many birds
55:09
in that deck if you could get a bunch of Base game stuff that's just a very that's very vanilla you're just not going to have a great a great time
55:15
tapestry as a base addition and I've said this before on the Pod is just very Bland you have to add all the expansions
55:22
to it but it costs more money here's my next rant they it's just a cash machine
55:27
it's just a print machine so you know if you're playing with Scythe I went all in
55:33
I went all in and Scythe came out but since then they released expansion upon expansion which is fine what about the
55:38
big empty box don't get me started on the big that's it it's the big box it's the big box it drove me insane and this
55:46
is what I argue with him on social media about is the fact that you end up having to pay 50 plus postage for a box 4 A box
55:57
that came with three little boxes inside that were [ __ ] you know flimsiest cboard
56:03
flim cardboard as you wouldn't believe and it barely hold a [ __ ] Sky remote these were awful it was terrible and and
56:10
that was meant to be that was meant to be there to hold everything I since then 3D printed an insert of my own which is
56:17
perfect and lovely it's great but before if you don't have that with just those three boxes and trying to store
56:23
everything in there it is awful and they over the top but they knew they knew
56:28
they knew that people would just buy it anyway same with the vulture box like
56:34
you said flimsy plastic like pile of crap people still bought it I bought it I've got it yeah you you it's just it's
56:41
just a cash machine of course you always have the choice don't have to buy it
56:46
it's not if you don't want to spend the money that's great but they know they know that you need to spend the money
56:52
because if you have scythe and about 50 gazillion boxes is you don't want to do that you want to put it all in the one
56:59
box so it stores nicely on a CX and you can get it all out with ease so they know they just know um wingspan now this
57:09
is I suppose a kind of a hot topic of conversation about wingspan as we recording certainly yeah let's bring out
57:14
more birds great okay so we brought out more birds but what should we do now let's bring out more birds okay great
57:19
what about should we more more birds I get more birds yay oh wait should we do some more birds well we could but let's
57:26
have a think let's not do birds let's do another thing but still call it span
57:33
dragon dragons yay let's call it worm span so all the people that don't understand the uh the the word worm when
57:40
it comes to dragon can get confused my wife was one of those people why they calling it worm it doesn't involve worms
57:45
you don't know love you don't know worm span let's bring out that and it's just it's just more of the same but it's
57:52
still the it's still the stone meire cash machine and people will end up buying it if you play the two together
57:57
some people say well this one's better than the other this one's better than this they're basically the same with a tiny bit of tiny bit of change there's
58:04
not a lot of change and then [ __ ] it let's bring out fin span and let's have some fishy fish some fishy fish yeah
58:12
let's a fishy fish and just keep milking it and milking it milk now look I'm ranting other people can go well you
58:18
ain't going to buy it no you're right I Ain got to buy it I haven't got to buy it but when was the last time that stone
58:24
my gangs brought out something that caught my eye that was actually looking like it was going to be really really
58:30
good maybe it's my own taste maybe it's just me you you know what I think it is
58:35
I went through the same journey I just think I feel like I've outgrown them yeah I feel that I feel that a lot about
58:41
different games and a bit different types of gam s arrogant no doesn't it no it doesn't is it is it weird that I think that since Red Rising or maybe
58:48
even pendulum I think they've been aiming at a different audience than when they started they've shifted haven't
58:54
they they have shifted yeah they have shifted that's a company decision then that's fair enough but I think there is
58:59
there was a notable once sort of sidethe was done and they had had Euphoria you'd
59:05
had vulture and you'd had sythe that I don't feel like they came out with anything of the same ilk now
59:11
maybe they just ran out of ideas or didn't find the right designers for that they started very strong very strong and
59:17
then they sort of went well you know what Let's do let's do these sort of weird themes
59:23
like stamp collecting and and bird watching and stuff like that and let's make them a lighter game that you can
59:30
kind of Market to your gr not not your gr but to sort of newer Gamers or Gamers
59:36
that aren't tra like those we've all talked about before the Trope of the fantasy gamer yeah of the PE person who
59:43
wants to play like Dungeons and dragonesque games right there's a general move away from that but I think
59:50
I think Stone Meers made a real specific effort to be like let's get in a theme that appeals to or doesn't offend or
59:57
doesn't put off as many people as possible and then put a sort of a light midweight game into it St meire I I
1:00:03
still do love you for for the memories that you've created me at the start of my gaming love and journey but now come
1:00:10
on let's buck the [ __ ] up now come on come on you do sound like an ex I I'm just I've got this mental picture it's
1:00:16
not you it's me I've got this mental picture of you cutting out all of the like all of the pictures with Jamie in
1:00:21
that you've got of him and sort burning him in a bin
1:00:27
I enjoy they taught me so many lessons as a person and with that JP take us
The expectation vs reality on board game days
1:00:32
home take us to the m yeah my mine my little Cube cruncher is more on a now
1:00:39
kind of personal intimate level after dark well not that intimate
1:00:46
no we don't sleep with the games we don't sleep with the games no it's about and this is probably you do sleep with
1:00:52
the game slept with one Ironwood you slept with Ironwood s with Ironwood once so no my my one is more around game
1:01:00
days you see why why would game days piss you off and normally the game days are fun and they're full of joy and
1:01:07
happiness and laughter and great experiences but the reality of game days
1:01:13
sometimes and this isn't all the time is that in your head what you have is an expectation of a game day and then the
1:01:19
reality of the game day is different right so and it's usually because in
1:01:25
your head you're like right I really want to play the X Y and Zed and something else you get yeah really fancy
1:01:31
doing that that's that's my plan I've got my plan and you think right we're going to do this we'll have so many
1:01:37
people come yeah we come man eight people come man yeah cool we'll have two games on and then either people don't
1:01:42
come around or people got don't want to play that I want to play something else and then you
1:01:47
end up in this situation sometimes where you got like five players and then you're like bollocks cuz now I can't
1:01:53
play what I want The Sweet Spot is the four four and and then you feel bad because you got five people then you
1:01:59
can't really like leave people out so you end up playing party games do you know what when you go from four to five
1:02:05
the second I go from five from four to five I go heavy crunchy Euro oh stone
1:02:11
m because a St would be a five or sometimes if you play wingspan a seven
1:02:17
don't play wingspan seven players I'm done but for me you go from five sorry go from four to five and it's like heavy
1:02:24
crunchy Euro yeah one it one it want to play that's what I want a my whole day to be about and now we're playing love
1:02:29
letter and it's like it's not what I wanted guys it's not what I wanted and I
1:02:35
don't mind like games at all I don't mind party games at all but I don't want to play them all day because I get bored
1:02:40
but then do it split the group if you had five split them into a two and a three I know but then this is what JP's
1:02:46
trying to do so he's put up his game day it's a selfish thing and he's put in
1:02:51
there and I I now realize why you've put in there this table is going to be playing these specific games cuz it's my
1:02:58
game day there will be another table available you can play whatever you want to play and I was like fine I that's
1:03:05
quite pushy for a JP but I now realize the past couple of experiences that you've had it's it's because of that and
1:03:12
it's like well you know what and it does sound a bit selfish and and I'm not
1:03:17
making any apologies for it um because I want to play these games man you know
1:03:23
and if other people want to play their games and half of games go for it right and I'm all for it and I find that if
1:03:28
you don't like put I'm going say an itinerary but if you don't have a plan
1:03:33
you end up turning up and everyone wants to play their own stuff anyway naturally
1:03:38
course of course why wouldn't you but if you've only got one table some of you are going to lose out and some of you
1:03:43
are going to go and going wish I played my [ __ ] while than your [ __ ] that I didn't enjoy especially if you're hosting yeah and it's like and it's just
1:03:51
and you know I've got the luxury of running multiple tables so it's like well we can run three tables here in my
1:03:56
house great I'll play what I want on here and you got a table over there if you want to play you know Bar B over
1:04:02
there you can play that I'm with you completely and I would do exactly the same and I even do it on my games nights
1:04:08
so on my games nights you know you see my schedule I go right I put this G this game up this G up this G up this G up
1:04:14
who's coming because they're my games it's my it's my it's my home so I'm
1:04:19
hosting so I'm going to choose the game and also my time is extremely limited you're a family man like myself you know
1:04:24
we got kids we got wife we got stuff to do we're busy people so I'm going to play the games that I want to play at
1:04:30
particular times I can I can play them if you want to go and play whatever game go and sort out on someone else's house that's fine nothing wrong with that yeah
1:04:36
I'm with you my my first sort of gaming group did that they'd have two tables going they' tell you everything that was on what times were're expecting them to
1:04:43
be on to and told you all you had to learn every single game before you turned up cuz it was the tight deadlines and it was like you have to learn all
1:04:49
the games you want to play so you sign up for the games there's a sign up sheet you sign up for the games that you want off these two tables and if there's a
1:04:55
half hour Gap then so be it go get yourself a coffee or rum and coke or whatever you want to spill over someone else's game and you have to learn your
1:05:02
own game you have to learn every game that you're turning up to no questions asked and at the first it's quite like
1:05:08
intimidating and I was quite but once you get into a rhythm with it it's actually really good and I agree I would
1:05:13
say I'm not so bothered about the full day being planned in but I would like to know two-thirds of what I'm playing
1:05:19
before I turn up ideally if I don't then then fine whatever but certainly if you're hosting I'd be like I want to I
1:05:25
am definitely putting in 2/3 of my gaming day yeah and you can go it can go either way with that I used to do an
1:05:31
itinerary for the day and and it can add a bit more pressure than maybe you want
1:05:37
sometimes so it's like right we're going to do this we're going to play this and I think it's going to be about 3 hours and it's not the first one the first one
1:05:43
I remember coming around to it's like oh it's 2: a.m. we're still playing Nemesis and it's just like I've forgot how long
1:05:48
this game is and we did terraforming mils in my head I thought I'd have it nailed in 2 and a half hours I know 4 hours in we're still playing it and he's
1:05:55
like right well it's gone to co now and so it's kind of like I I like to like
1:06:00
have a a sub collection of my collection right that is what I want to play prioritize it and just hit it as much as
1:06:06
I can and like you said Adrian let people know this is what I'm thinking of playing so then you got a choice so you
1:06:13
can go I really want to get in on that game your second game Cool good to know
1:06:18
or actually I don't I'm not interested in any of your [ __ ] JP I don't want to play it that's fine I don't mind what
1:06:23
games have you play three lots of lisbo yeah [ __ ] yeah but but if not table B go
1:06:28
and play go and off you know play and I've got no I don't mind what anyone plays at all I've got no no preference
1:06:33
but no I think the thing that just pisses me off and I don't it really pisses me off it's just a bit like it's
1:06:40
just when you you've got the thing in your mind and then you end up in that awkward situation of well you've got a
1:06:47
group of five people some of them don't do heavy games some of them only play light and you just don't have like the
1:06:54
options that will work for that particular group at the time is limited so you end up just going to the the
1:07:00
basic basic [ __ ] I can't be bothered like to do it's not what I signed up for
1:07:05
in my head and my expectations have been ruined and it's ruined my day that's
1:07:11
mine plenty more but uh oh yeah I was trying to thin down the list from quite a lengthy list of rant so maybe we'll do
1:07:17
this again at some point but maybe for now that's us we've we've ranted for a bit and um yeah again if this wasn't few
1:07:24
cuz it was a bit sort of fullon and a bit swear then back to our usual stuff
1:07:30
stuff for the next episode yeah back to our usual can I do car Cal I'm not sure if I can do Cal no you can't do flacid
1:07:36
that's for no no can't dod you say right so I wasn't sure nice nice normal
1:07:42
service will be resuming shortly please stand by but hopefully some of you got kick out of this at least so there we go
1:07:50
yeah it's good fun I've enjoyed that got some you feel cleansed like a
1:07:55
25% like a coffee enema
TURN 4 - Receive, Sleeve or Leave
1:08:01
[Music]
1:08:10
nice so on to our next section which we're calling receive sleeve or leave in this we put to you three games
1:08:17
one of which you would be happy to receive you might not buy it yourself but you be happy to receive it play a few games of it maybe pass it on sleeve
1:08:24
is so that it stays on the shelf and you probably want to protect it and love it and guard it with your life so therefore
1:08:29
you might sleeve the game and leave is leave it on the Shelf cuz whatever so I'll give you three of the games and um
1:08:36
you will decide whether you're going to receive sleeve or leave and which ones they are now I've got I've themed it a little bit because it's not too far away
1:08:43
but it is Valentine's Day soon it is so I have three games for you all about
1:08:48
love and courtship a that's what we need after a rant isn't it sorry I just I
1:08:54
just threw up in my mouth so our three games are Love Letter Y fog
1:09:01
of love y or Obsession W cuz that I've not played it
1:09:07
but my understanding is that that is all about sort of courtship and that sort of uh it's downt Abby Abby sort of trying
1:09:15
to make the best status you can out of out of your it's only made out of cardboard it's downtown shabby but yeah
1:09:20
yeah fair enough yeah nice what did there yeah it's very good nice so there are three games what are people thinking
1:09:26
what are they receiving what are they sleeving and what are they leaving I'm going to go straight in fog
1:09:32
of Love comeer off thought you might say I've played it yeah have you yeah I
1:09:37
played it with Ian wit um how was that for you at UK games Expo we had a demo
1:09:45
yeah and he was like should we give it a go I like oh whatever yeah and you know i' happy to sit down at that point so we
1:09:52
had to go and then yeah we weirdly got into it cuz you you can't help but get into it
1:09:58
and it's kind of strange cuz you're role playing a partner marri couple married couple and necessarily getting to know
1:10:05
each other and through your stages of the relationships and you're trying to work out all the emotions and and it just it was a very weird hour um of me
1:10:13
looking into Ian's eyes and him looking into my eyes and going well
1:10:19
yeah anyway I don't ever want to play it again so that can be left in the bin
1:10:27
over there don't even respect it just get don't even respect it over there um
1:10:33
which leaves what love letter and Obsession so I would uh let's say
1:10:38
receive Love Letter yep because it's good y I've got a copy it's well worn
1:10:46
it's like I can already tell the handmade I can already tell by the corner just you see it and I still play
1:10:53
it cuz they need sleeping then they need sleep do need sleeve in but it's kind of you know but you're going to receive it
1:10:58
but I'll receive it but Obsession I thought you know what I'm going to sleeve it I've heard good things yeah I've heard really good things about
1:11:04
Obsession never played it which is an odd Choice yes because it could be the wrong choice for me but I think I'm up
1:11:11
for it I'm up for it and it looks cool it's a it's a you know different theme I like my weird themes for me doesn't it
1:11:18
tell you something about the other two when you're like the game I've never played is the one I'm going to I like
1:11:24
love love letter great game it's uh but it's that I like playing it for about half an hour and then I'm like I'm done
1:11:30
with it now for tonight thanks and I'm kind of going to follow a suit I think so I'm going to sleeve Obsession having
1:11:36
never played it having watched a play through and thought I reckon that's going to be pretty cool I reckon I'd get
1:11:42
I reckon I'd enjoy the game of that um fog of Love is what I'm receiving oh
1:11:49
because I enjoyed fog of love for what it was a bit like you someone who I knew
1:11:54
well but wasn't romantically connected with I played the game and I had an
1:12:00
absolute blast cuz occasionally you get a bit too into it roleplaying it you left me in that car park that time as
1:12:06
well you and now you're doing this to me now yeah but you said you like Danel
1:12:13
yeah well there's one that's like do you want to try a bit of a bit of something s in public or something like that and
1:12:19
it's like well my character wouldn't really like that and then lumpy pumpy and then yeah how's your father and then
1:12:24
later on it's like oh um you've cheated on them and had a baby or something like that or an unexpected pregnancy that
1:12:31
escalated quickly yeah like a little bit later on and you're like I bet you that was in public I bet that's
1:12:38
why I couldn't give it to you so now you've gone and had it with someone in public haven't you because they they
1:12:43
gave you what you wanted sort of thing you kind of deliberately put a bit of extra sort of Source on that's not the
1:12:48
right time to use no no I put a bit of sauce on [Laughter]
1:12:54
it so and I would be up for playing a few more games of of fog of love I bought it I sold it cuz I just didn't
1:13:00
the the people I would play it's a two-player game right and the people I would play it with two player weren't particularly taken by it but I was quite
1:13:06
enjoying having a bit of a laugh with this game and sort of seeing where it went and then love letter just does
1:13:12
nothing it's it's not a game it's an activity like what are you I just I know
1:13:17
there's plenty of people in this group that love love letter and and fair enough but I just can't imagine what I
1:13:24
can't understand understand what you're getting out of it that you couldn't fill your time with a different game for 20 minutes with so yeah love letter stays
1:13:31
on the Shelf fair enough fair enough Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan I'm still
1:13:38
here hey um I think mine is the same as yours JP it's exactly the same so I've
1:13:45
actually owned all three of these games oh have you oh you I have uh so love letter um I would receive I've had
1:13:54
plenty of games of Love Letter Y I've enjoyed it I would say that it is a game not quite an activity only because if
1:14:01
you've ever played the game concept yes again by repos that's not a game that's an activity flux it all sits in the same
1:14:09
just I'm doing something that fills 15 minutes correct yeah that's not that's definitely an activity for me I there's
1:14:14
a little bit more to it in Love Letter not much but a little bit and I've played plenty of hands of it and I don't mind it so yeah I would happily receive
1:14:21
that and it comes in a nice little lovely little red bag it's nice uh um leave fog of Love Now fog of love I
1:14:29
backed on Kickstarter oh really I did yeah uh it was one of my 50 OD titles that I backed now I backed it not
1:14:36
knowing as much information as I thought I did thinking that oh me and the wife could play this then I got it and I
1:14:43
thought me and the wife cannot play this game at all talk about opening all Old
1:14:48
Wounds again this is not going to work no this is not going to be fun I this is no absolutely not so I sold it uh so
1:14:55
definitely leave for that reason uh and then uh lastly Obsession I have owned it
1:15:02
I popped all the components and enjoyed it a playthrough of it by looking at a video of it and I read the rule book
1:15:09
ready to play it but I never got it to the table and I sold it um but I think I
1:15:15
think I did I think I did a mistake I think I should have kept it and therefore yeah I would have I just leave it I think it's it people say it's meant
1:15:21
to be really really good I've seen playthroughs of it it does look like it'd be quite good I reckon you could roleplay it quite quite well as well yes
1:15:28
Mrs hav yes and I and I think that'd be great fun to do so yeah definitely sleeve that bad boy yeah there you go so
1:15:35
yeah so for Valentine's Day if you want to ditch the sex dice or whatever they are that tells you what you got to do uh
1:15:42
you could play Obsession instead my face on the floor yeah
1:15:47
yeah like a sick eightball yeah is it is yeah magic eightball am I
1:15:54
getting any tonight yeah no don't count on it don't think so
1:16:00
[Music]
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up
1:16:08
no so our next bit our penultimate turn my penultimate turn of this three as
1:16:14
well is um is what we looking forward to JP what are you looking forward to
1:16:20
mine's not actually board game related mine is like holiday related because I
1:16:25
am going snowboarding you are I am about that
1:16:31
yeah I'm going to be in the pene is that something you put on chips yes
1:16:37
panes had my panes In the Pines on my knees if you don't know it's the mountain range between Spain and France
1:16:44
nice and Andora basically go to and to Andora yeah yeah um and it's the first time all the family are going away uh
1:16:52
the kids have been learning to snowboard so last last Christmas um not the Wham song but you know
1:16:58
literally two Christmases ago the kids are snowboarding lessons so throughout um 2024 they've been doing all their
1:17:05
learning and falling over a lot we've been to the hospital we've done we've done it all it's all good though um and
1:17:11
we managed to yeah get them to recreational standards so they can turn they can stop they can you know be safe
1:17:18
so we feel quite prepared now for this holiday and there's always a bit of oh [ __ ] are we are we are they going to be
1:17:25
like you have you got your passport sorted yes we're all good passport sorted I mentioned good
1:17:32
I'm going either way I'm going I'm going in um but no I I love snowboarding for
1:17:38
me is an activity it's probably one of my favorite things to do pure escapism you know mountains a massive playground
1:17:45
I just absolutely love it so yeah I just can't wait we got four days on the slope
1:17:50
and uh I'm just looking forward to getting back on the mountains again just reenacting SSX tricky yeah oh yeah yeah
1:17:55
yeah woo love that game triple yeah triple bonus 720 or whatever good G love
1:18:02
that game have a great time oh I will again i' wait do you need some to look after your
1:18:08
board games while you gone no okay just check it if you want to borrow anything Rusty going snowboarding too no he's not
1:18:15
he's going to his grandma a see you Grandma see you Grandma you can look after him bless n can't wait this should
1:18:22
be fun nice how about you guys Dan what are you looking for to um I um have a
1:18:28
game of nucleum just around the corner and I've just played it but I love it so more of that um and as I was telling you
1:18:34
before we went on on on air um
1:18:40
batro batro I'm going to check this out just it's honestly it's the new obsession it's the new tetras it is
1:18:46
amazing is a Rog like deck building game about poker where you're playing poker
1:18:52
hands and you're trying to improve hands with Jokers and leveling them up and it
1:18:58
is insanely addictive I it's it looks dull I've been I've been putting off for
1:19:04
weeks cuz going no this is a load of rubbish this looks like an8 bit game that you'd find on the mega drive it looks terrible no no no no no um and
1:19:13
then I went do you know what let's see what all the fuss is about and I'm 20 hours in yeah and six hours later we
1:19:19
looked up yeah yeah it's it's it's one of those games where you pull away from the game and you've got like square eyes
1:19:24
and because you've been sat there so long but it's so addictive cuz you're trying to build up these Combos and the
1:19:29
noises that it makes when you make these combos it sounds like a like a fruit machine going off you know but it's it's just therapeutic basic but very clever
1:19:37
and and just really really fun you can get it on any format get it on phone get it on um tablet get it on Console PC I'm
1:19:45
playing on PC um and it's just it's just fun and there Lots there lots of for a
1:19:50
little game that's like 65 megab bits um it's just so there so many hours worth
1:19:55
of content on that game um it's basic but it's fun I strongly recommend buying
1:20:00
it it's great I'm trying to now work out should I get it on my phone or should I get it on my laptop both I might buy it
1:20:08
on my phone yeah um I got an iPad Pro and it probably look nice quite nice on on the sofa playing it um but I'm it's
1:20:15
not often that I it's not often I get stopped by a really basic game I'm a massive Tetris fan always have been my
1:20:22
whole life um I love Tetris so much um I was so passionate when Tetris effect
1:20:27
came out oh my God this is like this is my thing and I sat there for hours and hours and hours just playing with blocks
1:20:33
I just love it I love it um and then now this this other games come it's so simple it's nothing like Tetris but it's
1:20:39
just simple like Tetris and it's just it's just so streamlined and this could be the new one more go one more go it's
1:20:45
a bit like that yeah very much so thly recommend fair enough Adrian mine's not
1:20:50
a board game either how bad's that so that's fine doesn't have to be does it well no but we've just had three lots of
1:20:56
basically not a board game that we're looking forward to so I am going to be playing some board games I think though
1:21:01
the the overriding thing that's coming up in my life is a my first game of
1:21:06
Warhammer 40K in I want to say about 10 years maybe maybe not quite that long
1:21:13
maybe like six years or something that um I agreed last year to sign up to a
1:21:19
doubles tournament for 40K agreed an army that we were both going to play and then
1:21:26
my uh my counterpart my doubles partner decided he didn't want to do his army
1:21:32
anymore and we neither of us are very fast painters if I'm honest and he had a
1:21:39
army ready to go so he's like I'm just going to use that one and the doubles tourn you don't have to have themed
1:21:44
armies but I kind of didn't want to just put what I'd previously agreed because it didn't sort of thematically make
1:21:50
sense in my head so um I bought a load of trinities playing jeene Steeler cult for those who kind of Follow that thing
1:21:56
um I've bought a load of tyranids and I'm now on the race and I mean it is a race I'm really close to the line to get
1:22:03
all these tyranid models painted up as quick as possible how many um it's not
1:22:09
I've actually been a bit cheaty and I've not gone Mass troops but I think I probably should have because I think it would have been quicker because I
1:22:15
wouldn't have cared about them as much so I've got oh let so for those who care
1:22:21
listen up I have a death leaper a neuro
1:22:27
thrope seven zon throes two liors nine
1:22:33
Von Ryan's leapers and a non Emissary which the non Emissary is the big big
1:22:40
model but 22 23 models then yeah about that that's quite a lot to paint how long have you got to paint them um as we
1:22:47
record as this goes out I've got a week left as we record what's that four weeks
1:22:53
three and a half weeks long um so I've done the bulk of the nine Von Ryan are
1:22:58
you airbrushing or you stand uping I'm doing partial airbrush and then the rest is I'm I'm not doing so normally I do
1:23:05
loads of like Edge highlighting and and a bit more stuff to it battle ready but not much more yeah so I'm doing I'm
1:23:10
using lots of contrasts and then like slight reh highlighting and stuff like that but I'm deliberately cheating um so
1:23:18
I've matched the colors to his Jean dealer cult so that they look a bit more thematic and I'm I'm matching some of
1:23:24
the basing it contrast it's it's chea not really it's just speed painting is it it is just speed painting but it's
1:23:29
one of those where normally if I was not on the race to a tournament I would absolutely be going
1:23:36
back through and just adding Edge highlights to everything to the point where it take me way too long and then I wouldn't completely Army because that's my standard Mo when it comes to pain I'm
1:23:43
the same I'm the same I like I like to paint but it's the time see I don't really enjoy painting I enjoy the
1:23:49
finished effect and I enjoy test models you you should not you would not believe the collection of test models where I've
1:23:55
painted one model perfectly and then gone that's not getting repeated a thousand times um so yeah so I'm really
1:24:01
looking forward to the tournament I want to get some games in really looking forward to that I've I told myself this year I was going to play a lot more um
1:24:09
of that ilk basically of um tabletop War Games I've got so much in the back catalog of of kind of pile of Shame well
1:24:17
that's it that's the end of our episode thank you very much for listening as always we appreciate it we appreciate
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:24:23
any comments on social media or directly to our email as well we get a few of those occasionally please send them
1:24:28
through we always love that kind of stuff we have our coffee supporters so
1:24:35
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1:24:40
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1:24:47
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1:24:54
and then they'll select three from among them and so they really help shape the show as well so thank you very much for
1:25:00
that speaking of a new run of first player tambo's going to be taking over from me so he's got three great episodes
1:25:07
lined up really looking forward to them so yes handing over to Tambo now thank you very much and the question just
1:25:14
is whose turn is it Anyway