Whose Turn Is It Anyway?

Episode 69: Boldly going where we've been before...probably

Loaded Dice Gaming Group Episode 69

It's your turn...to click here to send us your comments on the show

It's a new episode and a new first player, welcome back Tambo taking the first player token.  Tambo takes us on a voyage around board games containing one of his favourite mechanisms...exploration.

FIRST PLAYER: Tambo
OTHER PLAYERS: JP, Rob & Davey

In this episode you'll learn:
- that Tambo has gone full pirate in EOS: Island of Angels by King Racoon Games
- how JP and the gang got on with their playthrough of Arcs: The Blighted Reach by Leder Games
- Rob is frightened of the sea but loves a bit of Endeavor: Deep Sea by Burnt Island Games
- whether he can just have one more run at Slay the Spire: The Board Game by Contention Games
- all about the groups experience with exploration within games and it's various different mechanisms

LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW
N/A

EPISODE CHAPTERS

0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count

1:35 - TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex

1:50 - JP - Arcs: The Blighted Reach

14:02 - Rob - Endeavor: Deep Sea

20:22 - Davey - Slay the Spire: The Board Game

26:44 - Tambo - EOS Island of Angels

34:02 - TURN 3 - Main Event: Boldly going where we've been before...probably

34:27 - Flipping face down tiles to explore

44:54 - Module board exploration

47:09 - Resource based exploration

49:05 - Narrative driven exploration

53:02 - Other forms of exploration in games

1:02:57 - TURN 4 - Receive, Sleeve or Leave

1:09:03 - TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up

1:15:08 - TURN 6 - The Final Turn

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0:00
[Music]
0:17
welcome to who T at anyway a podcast all about our board game Shenanigans I'm Tambo your first player and I am joined
0:25
by JP hello Rob Dog hello and Davey like
0:32
a '90s group it's been a while it has been a while yeah nice yeah nice what's
0:37
been a while since I've been on has it yeah oh okay yeah it's been a long time Essen ESS yeah but I was like that was
0:43
like a side piece that was my side quest wasn't it Dave's side piece I've heard this before I've got
0:50
flashback of Davey's side piece and I can't remember if it's something we've ever recorded or it was just something
0:56
in the bloopers or just or something you think about just something you 100% need to clarify this just in case Gemma
1:04
listens she ain't listen what do you mean I don't even know I don't know where this has come from I don't maybe I've said it before I don't know maybe
1:11
I'm repeating myself now I like it but it has been a while it has been a while yeah welcome Stone s think Stone Sour
1:18
wasn't a '90s rock band it's been a while I have no idea it no no idea no no
1:23
fine all good on today's episode we're going to be talking about exploration mechanic and and all on different kind
1:29
of the ball games nice yeah basically that's what today's episode's going to cover cool
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
1:43
man all right then let's move on to let's talk about hack so what have we all been playing this week let's start
1:49
with JP I mean I had to look through my plays on my app and go right how many
JP - Arcs: The Blighted Reach
1:55
games have I played in the last time I recorded an episode it's actually loads
2:01
which is cool and I'm like [ __ ] which one do I pick to think about and I'm going to bring up a game that I probably
2:06
meant to mention last episode and completely forgot to mention it cuz I got sidetracked and and talked about ear
2:12
on I think um so I'm going to talk about arcs the blighted Reach campaign because
2:17
we finished it now yes we finished it what a roller coaster ride that was hell of a roller coaster and three of on this
2:24
podcast were part of that so I thought it's actually quite good not me not you rob no no not your thing who won it
2:32
though I was going to win everyone I would have won it won it yeah we did I did there's a
2:38
little caveat that we had a bit of a time uh pressure on the last game and we
2:43
had to end it early before the game was finished but it was quite clearly that it wasn't going mine or Davey's way very
2:50
clear so that's why Davey left no I'm joking stormed out we had to leave and
2:55
then we just kind of said look we'll call it and we kind of de facto worked it out and said it's most likely to have
3:00
gone into tambo's favor but anyway we weren't winning at were we were nowhere near like I had a load of points but it
3:07
didn't matter it didn't matter let me let me clarify so I'm not going to go into the base game marks I've covered it before um and uh yeah go and check it
3:15
out base game marks it's fun it's weird it's wacky so the blighted Reach campaign is obviously a separate box um
3:22
you can buy it it actually kind of doubles as a a storage solution for the campaign and the base game which is
3:28
quite nice I think good they've done that so you end up buying an expansion which is bigger than the base game box and throw the base game box away move
3:36
everything into the big box and it's all good it's not big big but it's bigger than it um the the the base game so the
3:43
the campaign's broken down into a three act structure which is one of the reasons why I was like I'll give it a go
3:49
because you've heard me talk about Campaign games and I said I'm never doing them again and I've obious
3:54
obviously backtracked and I've done this but I think it's like a mini campaign though isn't it yeah it's like it's not
4:00
three games like that's accessible I can do three games I'll play three games of arcs any day so I thought you know what
4:05
let's do it so learning the rule set for this thing was like Jesus Christ um
4:11
because it it it kind of adds another game on top of the game so any way I can kind of explain it like in terms of the
4:16
rules depth and what's going on the differen is that you've got uh like a neutral fraction called the Empire very
4:24
originally named and these purple kind of ships and pieces are on the board and you all begin as Regent of the Empire so
4:31
you're all like the they're Lackey and one of you is like a first Regent who has the responsibility of holding on to
4:37
the treasury and throughout the game there are different things that happen where you get to kind of lay tribute or
4:43
get tribute from your other region players and then you got to hold on to these resources and hopefully no one's
4:48
going to raid you and you lose them because you will be severely punished by the Empire so you've kind of got this thing going on um as well as uh this
4:55
stuff called blight as per the name of the expansion you got this blight that's all on the I can only describe them as
5:01
fuzzy mushroom alien things right with teeth with teeth they look a bit weird and and they're just there you can fight
5:07
them and and cleanse the the kind of Galaxy but the the cool thing about the game is you start off with uh a bunch of
5:16
factions that you kind of dish out you draw two and you pick one and they're called Fates in this game and you got
5:21
three types of Fates you got a Fates B Fates and C Fates so you start the game in out one with an a fate and I had the
5:29
founder and my kind of job was to establish a commonwealth within this
5:35
this galaxy so my first job was I needed to get out of this Regency thing I need
5:40
to become an outlaw and do my own thing set my own uh jiggery pokery what's it
5:46
and and I think dve you were like religious the first game how was it religious and you were like getting all
5:52
of these extra action cards that you were trying to seed into the the main deck which was quite fun and and and
5:58
interesting and ambo I was initiative person I had to try and get the initiative all the time that's it go
6:04
first so but there's these aat all do different things and the difference now is that they're giving you an objective
6:10
so you kind of normal base game arcs you're just getting power you just want the most power and then you win whereas
6:17
this is like you've got to get power power is important but if you don't fulfill your objective then you're
6:23
basically going to lose power for every objective um points that you haven't scored so you can get into a situation
6:31
where you can in game one get yourself into minus victory points which none of us did but some of us were really close
6:38
and um and yeah and then you play the game and you got all this stuff going on
6:43
and I think the first time you play this it's quite it's a lot going on right there's just so much going on in your
6:48
brain thinking I'm trying to play arcs but the game's twisting it things around but when you kind of finish the game and
6:56
you finish act one and you're right you move on to act two so if you failed your mission if you failed your objectives
7:02
then you get handed to beef Fates so it's kind of like well done but you know
7:08
consolation prize here's two B Fates choose one and off you go if you fulfilled your mission you can keep the
7:14
same fate and progress it to the next ACT or you can choose basically blind
7:20
one B fate that you're just going to get um so it gives you a little degree of choice and what I really like about the
7:27
game and the campaign is that it it gives the players that maybe not doing so well it gives them a bit of a catchup
7:33
mechanism in the game so even if you crash and burn then you're still in and it's
7:39
that's the thing that I found it's quite hard for people when they're first entering the campaign to get their heads
7:45
around because naturally you're doing rubbish you get disheartened and you go
7:50
but true Arc style it's like yeah it doesn't really matter really it doesn't really matter and then the same thing happens with act two get to the end of
7:57
act two you fail that you get sea Fates now the sea Fates are mental that's all
8:04
I can say they're mental because as opposed to this perfectly sane game that you play that you don't you don't need
8:10
to worry about power you need all you need to win the game is one power right
8:15
which you likely would have had from previous games and you just got to fulfill your mission once you fulfilled
8:21
it you win at the end of that chapter and that's it so knowing that we had two sea Fates in the final me and Davy were
8:28
not sea fats that you were a b that carried on to the the Pirates just so
8:34
something you've missed as well is the stuff that you put in so with like the religious people I put in a load of
8:40
cards yes when I changed that still stays in the game yes which is quite nice rep playability wise cuz it just
8:46
changes the whole the law premise the laws stay in the game that's right yeah
8:51
but yeah I am I changed to some Pirates I went I I went from some religious P
8:57
people to yeah to some Pirates Who are just basically being quite knobby and robbing a lot of people that's weird it
9:03
doesn't sound like you right up his play style right you're right yeah that's really important that there's a persistence to the game State and the
9:10
ball state with the laws that you're putting in cuz you have a little booklet and you put law cards in and every
9:16
faction brings and twists the rules up um and they stay so even if you change
9:21
Fates they're staying they they're there so the game that you have by the end of act three is this kind of weird unique
9:27
game state that probably you'll not see again ever no that's unless you really
9:32
recreated every decision Point um along the way but it's very rare that would happen because you might win you might
9:38
lose um but for me that's what I find really interesting with it I think it's
9:44
really cleverly done like how how they've pulled this together it is like a science experiment and it's like well
9:50
which which concoction should we add into this um game today and like put a
9:55
bit of test tube A and B and throw it up and see what kind of Blends together and see what you end up with it's kind of it
10:02
reminds me of an older design mechanism or technique like the games from the '90s you Twilight Imperium all of that
10:09
kind of stuff where basically there was a bit more free form and and we don't
10:14
mind if this chaos happens it's fine it kind of reminded me of of that with you know Co Cosmic is it Cosmic encounters
10:22
as well that kind of absolute Randomness but there is a bit more structure to the game there's obviously more modern mean
10:29
mechanics that come into it but I went from really loving it to hating it to really loving it and the fact that it's
10:36
invoking emotion you know from me it means it's a good game right yeah so I I am looking
10:43
forward to playing it again I think yeah it's it's a game just like base game ARS
10:48
it's a game you kind of have to have the right mindset going in to play it like
10:54
you need to know I just forget what you know about games and leave it at the door and just go with an open mind and
11:00
open experience and just go along with the roller coaster yeah just take a seat see what happens and even if you've
11:07
you're doing [ __ ] don't worry about it yeah I think you're right it's one of those games that really interesting the
11:13
fact that is like when you said oh you could just get a c fate and then just win it at the end you think what's the point of doing a three Mission campaign
11:21
you think what's the point if you can just change class and win but then like you say all the different laws that go in that game and the whole story of the
11:26
whole game changes it made it really interesting really good fun yeah yeah
11:32
you know C Fates are supposed to be powerful right they're supposed to be like you you can't ignore them if you
11:37
ignore them you're going to lose right so you and it's a real push and pull as a nonse fate and I know me and Dave were
11:44
like how do we work together cuz like if we don't even work together we can't stop them and it's actually in our
11:50
interest as a pirate and a Founder to join forces a little bit to try and like
11:56
hold the dam cuz all you guys have to do is hold your points and you won I think if do it one less I think it was if
12:02
there was only one SE fate in it probably would have been more manageable but where there was two and where you
12:09
you guys were kind of like tambo's missions of the blight kind of comboed
12:14
with what you wanted anyway JP as well which made it quite difficult to manage in a lot of aspects just meant that we
12:21
were kind of fighting against the rising tied so but it was still enjoyable I
12:26
enjoyed the third one more than the second one but the second one I think came in with the wrong mindset as you were saying I came in like I was playing
12:33
some you know um 3x or something yeah exactly you romped it didn't you cuz you
12:39
went really high on points and you romped the second game didn't yeah I did yeah we yeah strangely but what a unique
12:44
way of like keeping it fresh games like that become stale quite quickly and you
12:52
kind of have to space them apart how often you play it like eclipse is that for me I probably play Eclipse once a
12:58
year where I'm actually happy to play it but what a unique way of kind of tweaking a game like you know
13:05
the longevity that that comes with you've made me want to play arcs again it's kind of like you don't know what
13:11
you're going to get yeah in this boxer tricks and that for me is just like yeah I I I can't wait to sit down next and go
13:18
what the hell is going to happen yeah what's the difference going to be yeah how how is this going to unfold this time that's what I'm looking forward to
13:23
yeah me too I saw I play the campaign again for that reason yeah so yeah I'd recommend it I think if you love arcs
13:29
it's it's probably an no-brainer but it it is a different game to the base game it's not like an expansion that adds a
13:36
few modules here and there it fundamentally changes this game yeah I think I might prefer it to the base game
13:43
yeah it just adds that little twist to it which makes it so that I don't care
13:49
about winning I'm just here to play and see what unfolds which is quite nice Definitely play the base game first though yes yeah yeah yeah definitely at
13:55
least once before you hit the campaign yeah it does say that in the rle book it does but listen to it it it makes sense
14:01
but anyway that was me nice Rob cool well I kind of stumbled across a game
Rob - Endeavor: Deep Sea
14:07
dav's mentioned briefly and uh you you purchased it right yeah yeah after
14:13
playing it in Essen I hate the sea you hate the sea hate the that's a hell of a claim it's full of you hate the it done
14:20
to you it's full of stuff that like might eat you it's it's terrifying you hate most of the planet you hate the
14:26
outside you watch draws first or something yeah yeah ever since as a kid so um wait wait no can I just dive into
14:32
this a little bit more in no my da my children have your children yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and
14:39
the Sharks and stuff out there no it's good I'm good I'm good on land I'm good where I'm where I'm designed to be yeah but hate it's a very different word to I
14:45
don't like the sea it's like do you like when you walk past give it a little kick yeah every time I spit in it every every
14:52
body of water I see I just walk by and like um but I love I love nature I love
14:58
you know everybody loves the documentaries and stuff that they've seen ever since they were drain to see I'd not drain it but just I me I I
15:04
respect it I have no place in it do you know what I mean I'm where I'm designed to be I'm on land drinking a sixpack and
15:10
chucking the can container in Rob it's okay to cre habitat for for crabs it's okay you scared say you're scared of the
15:16
SE it's yeah it freaks me out I don't it freaks me out I don't like it anyway so when when you said about this game I was
15:22
a bit like oh yeah that sounds that sounds like a like a fun way to spend an afternoon and then we played it and I'm
15:29
talking about Endeavor deep sea and oh my God what a game I I can live I I've
15:34
discovered everything in the ocean now I don't need to worry about actually going to it right but the complex puzzle of
15:40
that and we played so we played it a five player um and it's a procedural
15:46
exploration game and it's you know you dive down the deeper levels that you go to so you have to kind of upgrade your
15:52
sub to be able to go to the deeper levels and when I say upgrade it you just need to unlock the ability to go
15:57
deeper it's not like you're chucking Parts onto your sub but you're exploring
16:02
you're you're you know trying to beat people to to the kind of resources that you want um and I for me I I did
16:10
terribly at it I came last and I loved it I would happily play I would have happily played that game all day yeah I
16:16
I love the the artwork the style of it the the puzzle at five players it was tight wasn't it there was basically
16:22
nothing left at the end of the game um unless you'd have gotten to that very bottom level and even then it was still
16:29
I don't think there was a lot and for me I absolutely loved it to the point where I have been looking at buying it since
16:35
since we played it even though you know on my own it would probably be quite a different experience but I loved it I
16:42
love the artwork I love the style um the Simplicity of it but the complexity at the same time it was simple to play but
16:49
kind of the the rush to be the first to get these get to get everything that you want oh it was brilliant I loved it
16:55
absolutely love it it builds up nicely so the very first round you have like a worker and you you have your captain and
17:03
you get one worker and when you play an action you put a disc on and when you put that disc on it kind of blocks that
17:09
worker but early on it means you're only getting two actions maybe three if you upgrade CU you can flip them and get
17:14
that disc back and do another one but it basically means you're unlocking more workers you go along but you're only
17:21
everyone's only getting one extra which means the first first time you're probably getting two or three actions next time you might get three or four or
17:28
three or two actions and it just builds up so at the end you're getting a lot of actions but the complexity there's more
17:36
stuff to explore there more stuff to do so it slowly builds up which is quite a nice way of doing it I think and the procedural rate in which it grows is
17:44
quite for me I get quite overwhelmed by some games and that was a really nice
17:49
progression rate it was like oh okay now I've got enough to do this let's go and see what this does and for me as a kind
17:56
of exploring the game it I I loved it to the point where our last round JP went
18:02
to the swimming pool swam changed came back and we're still on our last turn to
18:08
show you the rate in which it grew especially at five players obviously it took a lot you know it took a while to get through but um but no I absolutely
18:15
loved it so yeah Endeavor deep sea for me it was absolutely fantastic there only one thing to say based on that is
18:22
what's long hard and full of seaman JP a submarine Oh I thought it was JP as well
18:31
I'll just say say with with that game I really enjoyed the fact that anything you did on that game you got rewarded
18:36
it's you did something and you're always getting something and it's like a little combo going it doesn't matter what you did it just felt like you were doing
18:42
something yeah it's really good good and it's simple very good yeah it's it's kind of Midway isn't it even if you're
18:48
just sear in F Nar you're going to get three things and you're like wow cool could be random but it's to play and I played the demo when we was at Essen I
18:54
really enjoyed it but I haven't played a full game yet no one day yeah yeah
18:59
not my typical sort of game but I loved it absolutely loved it yeah I also like
19:04
the how the camp it's like a campaign game in creations and the fact that you still you can do it there's some co-op
19:10
modes but you do the same same campaign missions but these missions dictate the
19:16
end game scoring and kind of how it plays out and they each have a different kind of it's like a DNA chart but you
19:24
want you basically put um hex's out which give you certain benefits and
19:30
those are all different for each one as well so that's why I did so poorly I paid no attention to the end game I I'm
19:36
exploring the ocean I'm gone like I completely forgot there was end game scoring until you said right yeah let's
19:42
do this I I thought we were just doing it for fun I loved it absolutely loved it in all honesty the very first one it
19:48
rewards you for doing what you're doing because you're learning the game but because I've played that one two or
19:54
three times I was like I'm going to put one of the later campaigns in I think it was campaign three or mission three or
20:00
something I've only I've played the first one like three times the second one twice and then done the third one
20:05
once now but I was just I was wanted to play a different one than the first one where it's cool that rewards you for
20:11
doing these certain things but sometimes it's nice to have a bit more of a um def definite goal but maybe it's not for you
20:17
guys cuz you're learning the game so it's one of those I loved it absolutely loved it yeah con Davey what you been up
Davey - Slay the Spire: The Board Game
20:24
to uh so yeah I've played a couple of games we had a nice marathon of age of
20:30
innovation but I won't talk about that we played about four games of it me and Marcus in two days in two
20:37
days it's is such a good game but I'm going to talk about slay the Spy which is also a really good game um so got
20:45
this over gridon um and I've played it loads of times since then um but
20:53
somehow they made it better than the computer game normally when you have a ball game
20:58
adaptation of a computer game it doesn't usually go there's some that are good but a lot
21:06
of them they've just seemed to I mean I guess it's because the developers worked hand inand with the ball game company so
21:13
the developers contention games um did a really good job of keeping it true to
21:20
the computer game but adding a little bit more like they've they've ironed out some of the not issues but some of the
21:26
more difficult aspect of the computer game so so explain to slay Spire us
21:32
noobs what you do is you start off with a starter deck uh you have a set amount
21:37
of Health um which is different I think the yes it's like between nine and well
21:42
seven and 10 depending on what class you are um you have energy and the energy
21:48
will basically have to every time you play a card you have to spend an energy depending on the card it could be free
21:53
it could have a it could be one could be two could be three um something will cost more and have an x com cost Etc you
22:02
play your cards until you have no energy left or until you can't play any more cards um and then you have to You'll
22:07
basically get enemies that you have to attack and these enemies will have different effects um you'll roll a dice
22:13
so that sometimes they'll do different attacks which is quite a clean way of determining what you roll the dice once
22:19
and it'll apply for all of them and but two of the same enemy type usually will
22:24
sometimes still have different attack combinations of on dice so they're still doing different things at least so
22:30
they've done that quite well um and you have to kill the enemies once you've
22:35
killed all the enemies you'll get rewards depending on what's listed on the enemy and then there's also it's
22:41
like a Rog like grid where you have a little Boot and you move up that up that you'll have events you'll have shop you
22:48
have lots of different things you can do as you go up and you kind of you'll see your route ahead of you and you can choose the best route of what you want
22:54
to do which can be very different each time we play you know sometimes you'll be like oh I've got four events in a row
23:00
and then a shop at the end let's try and do that so when you defeat your enemies you generally get a card so your deck
23:06
will start with 10 cards and and then you have a knee how blasing which will change what you get but generally it's
23:12
10 cards you go to the shop you go to event you kill monsters you'll get more cards those cards can be upgraded
23:19
because theyve got two sides so as a standard they give you sleeves which obviously you can't see through so you can flip the cards which when you first
23:25
get the game don't take it around someone's house go oh yeah we'll play this open it up and you're like oh we
23:30
got to sleeve as we go and there is nothing in there but cards and it's a big box but um it's all
23:38
sleeve now so we got there in the end just just play it five times and just sleeve as you go it's fine um but yeah
23:46
that's got of the game and then at the end you fight a big boss I was going to say what's the end part you go for a boss you fight a big boss and then the
23:52
bosses you RAR the dice at the start and it's like different bosses but you you also unlock different versions of bosses
23:59
and stuff as you go along which is quite cool it's not really like it's not deck building per se right but it's like you
24:07
constructing your deck as you go through limited options as as come to you and it
24:13
but it it's quite it's very satisfying when you get a build and you're like this is cool and it pops and I think
24:20
you'll dig it too I know you've not played the digital version cuz I was I was apprehensive and I played it last
24:25
weekend and I was like I bet it is it is it as good as the digital version and I
24:31
agree it's better yeah I agree it's better I had a whale of a time um and yeah I played Ironclad it's just my
24:38
standard tanky hit hard blocky character and it was just great fun yeah so yeah
24:43
to play it again they've just got the co-op aspect done really nicely where you have like a lane and you only attack
24:49
your lane um no the lane only attacks you unless they've got have an ability
24:54
which can attack everyone but then you can attack other people's Lanes so if you've got enough block you can suddenly
25:00
maybe help with someone else's and you do have to discuss what's going on cuz you will die otherwise that that is the
25:06
new puzzle isn't it how best to CH how best to tackle the challenge of this round it's not even the fight it's it's
25:14
what do we need to do now to do this as efficiently as possible yeah and it works really well CU you kind of work
25:20
out your combo say how much damage you can do and how much you can split it into so you're like oh I can actually do
25:26
20 damage but it's in three lots of five where should I deal with this it means you don't have to talk anyone through
25:32
your own combo what's going on which would take ages cuz if you took time you just work out your best combo what you can do with your cards what and then you
25:39
go who needs this where's this and you just discuss what damage you're dealing and it just works really well and yeah
25:47
you unlock stuff as you go along just like the computer game where you unlock more cards there's room in the Box for
25:53
an expansion CU let's face it they're probably going to when Slayer SP 2 comes out which is I think Penn for this year
25:59
they're probably going to you know release an expansion and some more stuff for the ball game because why wouldn't they they'd be stupid not to and if they
26:05
don't then I was going say you're stupid but you're not but please do yeah exactly uh it's
26:12
just a great game uh at first when I saw it up there I thought that's too expensive for just some cards I'm not
26:19
going to buy that and I remember curle got it and I went oh I get it now I want it I'm going to get it so can't wait to
26:27
play that that' be awesome yeah I'll bring it along for the the next convention we're at yeah nice I was like please don't be good please don't be
26:33
good please don't be good I I don't need it I've got the digital copy please don't be good and it's brilliant I damn
26:42
it it was so good it blew my mind fair enough about you too right so I recently
Tambo - EOS Island of Angels
26:48
played it was my last game when we did the full ball game weekend it was um iOS
26:54
Angels or island of angels sorry iOS island of angels um this is a pirate Fantasy game and who
27:02
need to say more it is awesome soon as he Joel I play with Joel CLA my brother and as soon as Joel put on the table thought I really like this game and I'm
27:09
going to like it um so basically it's iOS is an island which was covered by a mythical mist and then it gets C so the
27:15
Mist disappears and all the battle Angels which were guarding it all turned to stone so and all these Great Big Sea
27:22
demons around the island and these new mythical places turned up they're all all cursed and the reason what you had
27:27
to do is so your mission as the Pirates is to say around this island and um free
27:33
the battle Angels so they can help you fight the the big sea creatures so that was what the goal is and it just just
27:38
that just sounds cool to me so already so it's basically a a worker place I say worker placement you've got your ship on
27:45
the side bit like Endeavor and you got your like your whole Crews like these four meatballs basically five meatballs
27:50
and you literally put them from them from your ship onto your board for your crew so you you know you got your captain you got your first mate you've
27:56
got your Treasurer and then you've got it's an exploration person or something some something like that and then you
28:02
literally just put the the the meatball onto your board whever you want to do and you just do that action and it's
28:08
that simple so you either put on the captain to move the ship one space or you or you do the the treasure which gives you just gold income and then you
28:14
and that's it really and it's quite easy quick turns which is nice and then you do your secondary action on the bottom of the board which is similar to the the
28:21
the first actions but not quite as powerful but everyone gets to do one secondary action afterwards and then
28:26
that's it that's that's all you do on your turn or you can do the uh um the chronicle action which is when you want
28:31
to release an angel or you want to or visit or fight a big sea monster and so
28:39
um but it's not really fighting in it it's more like cursed so you get cursed a lot so every time you sail across the
28:45
SE these curse point so you've got a little the annoying part about the game is there like little saw on top which is
28:50
very it doesn't connect very well so it's quite kind of moves easily so if
28:56
it's if your ball is slightly bent it's really hard the jels was slightly whipped and we're trying to connect this little saw at the top to the levels you
29:02
want to go at but it was quite annoying but um so you got a a power which is your sword fighting bar or you got your
29:09
curse so when your power goes to zero you flip your your the the tile and then
29:14
you get curs so then your curse goes up so when you're getting your power back in your curse goes down and then you
29:20
flip it so on the on the streak if you go cursed and the top is all where all your bad stuff happens so your [ __ ] becomes one less movement or if you get
29:26
really badly cursed but if you get your power up you get good stuff you you know you get quol of stuff so that's just the
29:33
combat so you have to have a certain amount of power to kill a Monster yeah yeah but you um but you need to unlock
29:40
an angel to help you because you have to get the to the stone Angel token which you spend to out to cost of fighting the
29:47
monster um it's really good I mean the angels are really powerful you can either do it take the one off reward so
29:54
you get loads of VPS for it or you can take the ability that the angel gives you for through the whole game which is quite cool um so it's it's a bit of a
30:02
what you want to do sort of thing so that that's a good point of it the other thing is you can upgrade your ship and
30:08
you get different ships which give you cool abilities you can do the upgrade action you can you can upgrade your crew
30:14
so you can have three upgrades under each crew which so and these just give you ongoing abilities and one off reward
30:20
sometimes and when you do something you get something else for it it just it just starts comboing really really well really really fast um and
30:28
um what else you can do you can you can obviously promote your crew so you rank them up which gives makes their ability
30:34
stronger or you can influence your crew which is another little block that you move up your table which gives you just one off quick cool rewards um the
30:42
scoring mechanism is really cool as well cuz you always have your free random cards that give you first person to get
30:47
15 influence all the races all those sort of things to go for um each card you play from your hand you do have four
30:53
cards in your hand and every time you play a card which gives you cool stuff you're going to get three P for every card you played as well so that's really
31:00
cool so everything you're doing is huge points and no matter what you do you're going to get points and in the end it's
31:06
all like a massive add up and it's just like wow that really really good fun I quite enjoyed it I mean the artwork is
31:12
fantastic I I did see the artwork when you were playing I was like that was a very pretty game it just looks cool it
31:17
reminded me of um The Immortals Phoenix Rising Game it
31:23
reminded me of that art style where everything everything just looked really clean really really crisp you know
31:29
that's kind of theme as well isn't it is that kind of theme mythology yeah I saw
31:35
it on the table as I walk past oh what's this cuz I've never heard of this game I'll be honest this Joel bought it the
31:41
year before yeah he did yeah and I think he kick started it and I think he just got it when we went to talk the year
31:47
before um so when he pulled it out I like oh you playing this again but that's that's the only time I've ever
31:52
seen that he said he never really got to the table and the convent he never been able to so it looks it looks
31:58
find it I think she enjoyed it buto this is tickal Joel Joel thought CLA had the one ship that he had the Kraken so she
32:05
was actually controlling two things so she had the Kraken monster and her normal ship and Joel thought that was quite easy one of the easy ones to do
32:11
well mine was like all I had to do I just start off with three power I can't go less that was my ability that's
32:16
simple not controlling two more so CL wasy have to think about it and yeah so the Kraken had to take a lot of cursing
32:24
to fight once it's really interesting but yeah she she seemed to enjoy it did really well um she was winning a lot of
32:29
the game and then unfortunately Chris my brother won it and I won afterwards cuz we not passed but throughout the game
32:34
she was doing really well Jo came last but I tend to go last when I teach games game you focus more on about other
32:41
people I think he more trying to really do well and stuff smashed us at Endeavor so you know things are R exactly but um
32:49
yeah no definitely good it's one of those games it's five players but I think if once you know what you're doing
32:54
you just literally do two actions and it's quick and that's why I like liked about it and then yeah the amount of
33:00
stuff you the tblo gets going it's just good fun really good fun and the theme was awesome you bought this right yeah I
33:06
bought it I can say cuz I've seen bought halfway through the game did you yeah halfway through I'm having it I'm having
33:11
it that's a sign of a game that you know enjoy a game you I'm going to buy this right now yeah I mean I know my family
33:17
will play as well cuz it's quite simple it's it's maximum midweight not even that proberly okay oh really it looked
33:23
it looked heavier it looked heavier once you a symbology Thing Once you got the symbologies down yeah it's easy it's
33:28
really easy yeah yeah yeah cool yeah I know it was really good fun really
33:34
enjoyed it the only thing I didn't like with the artwork was the map looked quite messy from a distance but I really
33:39
like the player boards and everything else yeah the map's not really messy it just looks messy because every there's these purple the curses it's like every
33:46
time you go across a curse you only get two curses and there's all different numbers across the whole board yeah and then you can cleanse it as an action so
33:52
every time you cleanse one of those spots you get VPS so it's up to you what you do all right so there we go that's all what we've been playing this last
33:59
few weeks so let's move on to the main [Music]
TURN 3 - Main Event: Boldly going where we've been before...probably
34:11
topic on the main topic we're going to be taking a deep dive into exploration well I say deep dive a small dive into
34:17
exploration in ball games and all the well I got a few different kind of mechanics and I just going to talk about
34:22
you guys what you think of them and what they bring to games and some games that got them basically nice all right so
Flipping face down tiles to explore
34:28
we're going to go with the main first exploration mechanic is the tile flipping mechanic tile flip tile flip um
34:35
so this I think is my favorite mechanic obviously I think it's the one that gives the most to a exploration game in
34:42
my opinion MH um it's just the randomity of it and the replayability of flipping tiles um so do anyone know of a good
34:50
game then well a good game or just ones that have their it I mean the one that just jumped into
34:58
my mind is uh Eclipse that's just one um I'm actually I'm kind of going off
35:05
Eclipse you are I yeah I'm on I'm definitely on a downward trajectory on an eclipse there's only one good
35:10
mechanic in eclipse and that's the building the ship yeah but we're talking about exploration exploration
35:16
exploration wise you need ships to explore exploration wise it does what it does um in the fact that you know you
35:23
got a hex and you got I want to go over there what is it and it gives you that little H but in Eclipse it actually
35:29
gives you that it's it's the hope it's the buildup of Hope and then to watch it die on
35:35
someone's face when they flip it over that is the best part of a clipse I I need a Commerce Planet I haven't got one
35:43
I've got this i' got I got three enemies and I've got no way of dealing with them great but it it it does like like most
35:49
kind of for I say most but like a few Forex style games it just gives you that
35:55
that kind of true exploration that fog of War I'm I'm inching out my Empire and I'm
36:01
trying to understand find out what's going on so it does that it's a huge part of eclipse the expression part yeah
36:07
oh yeah I think the biggest makes or breaks your game yeah I think there was an OP um race that has it that you can
36:13
choose two Towes and a big one I think that's huge in that game yeah massive
36:18
also is does feel like you are exploring the unknown because you genuinely are like please be good please be good please be good a crap I feel like every
36:24
race should have that power and they should have a different Power in all honesty yeah that's what negative it
36:32
doesn't feel like a true Galaxy because when you explore you don't know what you're getting that's the whole point I
36:38
don't think that that car that um that should exist the fact that you can choose your title what do you mean
36:45
there's weird aliens in it it's not like True To Nature it's a board game no but for that that's part of the game is the
36:51
exploration right you don't know what you're getting but I I think there's too many negative experiences that can be had from just going compl random though
36:58
but it's I'm thinking about player experience rather than just the I I just think it's funny for everyone cuz it
37:04
does it shits on everyone it's well you say that but then someone could get a good tile so they're having a good
37:09
experience you're having a bad experience yeah but then you do what you do complain about it and then go yeah
37:15
and and then go in go in and shoot them and Nick all their stuff no but you can't really do that in Eclipse you then
37:21
have to have the right Tech come out there just too many for me there's too many variables why I don't like it yeah so do we do we know a good game that has
37:28
good balance to exploration then I do okay Endeavor and well actually
37:35
you so yeah I do know one Civ newon okay we had an absolute blast playing that
37:41
ction Builder Kingdom Builder um and we we had a really good
37:46
time playing it mainly because Davey attacked JP so JB had to retaliate and
37:52
that was it for the next hour and a half three hours and then they both complained that curle won it was like
37:57
you've literally been fighting each other for an hour not watching what Curly's doing and Curly's just going
38:03
around snuffling up all the stuff and and doing really well and to hear you two laughing about fighting in this game
38:11
really made it for me I thought it was fantastic so yeah Cy Dawn similar tile mechanic um and that can mess your game
38:19
up because the the the movement was done on the terrain type right so you had to make sure that you had a certain amount
38:24
of movement point to be able to get across the tile
38:30
but Waits can do so you it kind of forced
38:36
you forced everyone not to necessarily stop what they wanted to do but to
38:41
potentially prioritize a little bit better um so yeah for me I don't typically like games like that but I
38:47
really enjoyed that mainly because of you two bitching and moaning about each other so you were complaining about
38:52
Davey attacking you standard then you'd attack Davey and Davey would complaining you attacked him and this just went back
38:58
and forth like a game of tennis for an hour like as a spectator fabulous that's why I tried to say we don't need to it's
39:03
cuz I just needed one spot that's I think that's what it was and then JP was like for my honor and my family and then
39:10
that was it from then on you you have broken honor yeah and I don't care if my civilization Falls to
39:16
ruin you shall be dead to me yeah yeah that's it you pissed me off mate you in
39:21
my book told you you get in my book and that's it you can't move but was just the fact that you were both about the
39:28
same thing but when it was being done to you you didn't give a [ __ ] when you were doing it to the other person it was it was hilarious yeah we have short memory
39:34
similar um similar tile flip mechanic maybe not quite as punishing for the overall game cuz there were other ways
39:40
around stuff but for me that that that's the better version of that mechanic so you go off exploring to flip the tile
39:46
basically to expand your Empire basically yeah except the tile is kind of a weird uh collection of hexagons in
39:54
a in a very specific shape so it kind of works but yeah you can Orient it around
39:59
and and fix in so yeah but it's yeah you're right it's less punishing like oh no I've got this one yeah it hinders me
40:07
it doesn't necessarily set me back a lot do you know what I mean might set me back a couple of turns but there's other things to do until I can get to that
40:13
point so what other examples have we got yeah um I've got one of the ogs whether
40:18
you call this expiration or not is another thing cuz kazon really that is pulling Tes from a bag flipping them and
40:25
placing them would you call that expiration or not I wouldn't in
40:31
this but that's because it's kind of yeah and unless you're saying that
40:37
these are already like face down no that's a different mechanics oh it's got one for later yeah there you go so this
40:43
is just literally flipping tiles it because that's what you do in kazon right and you place tiles and you are
40:48
expanding the region by kind of exploring right cuz you're finding new bits through a castle or finding bits
40:54
that go out yeah but you're not really you are exploring oh yeah you're not someone who exploring it's a great game
41:00
I love Kass and it's fantastic I always play it it's the old classic but we don't really talk about it so I thought maybe I'll mention it just as a what do
41:07
people other people think yeah cuz I don't think it is expiration really but it is that mechanic right yeah yeah I
41:14
would say yeah feels more tile laying doesn't it than more but you do find cool things on the tile and as you put
41:20
especially you've got expansions um and then the other one's Nemesis H see
41:25
that's different what that's a different module board exploration so you've already got your board laid out so
41:30
you've already placed it out so this is just plainly putting Tes but it doesn't have to be tiles it could be cards could
41:36
be cards yeah so I I Arkham Horror is a really good one I think because I played recently funny enough go into it again
41:43
um so that's always that's really expiration you got your town laid out and then you're playing cards and then
41:48
flipping dep depends on the scenario as well because there is a real sense of exploration in that game that you don't
41:54
necessarily get in mansions and I don't know know why cuzz they're the same but Arkham Horror the
42:00
card game you do feel like you are exploring because you're kind of thinking please don't be bad please don't be bad and then it isn't and
42:07
you're like oh thank you but then when you really need it to be it's something bad happens that like messes up your
42:13
whole game but no it does feel like you are exploring not in regard like a galaxy expanding exploration you are
42:20
exploring like a location like a town like a school like a like there's one University right and
42:26
there's one and it does feel like you are exploring that location which makes it feel really
42:32
cool yeah I thought Aron was a quite a good exploration ones um obviously Mansions is a very good one that's tar
42:38
flipping um yeah so anyone else I mean I played under our sun which is a new one
42:43
I played recently I will mention again I won't go too deep but that's really exploration and that's again can be very punishing or it can be go really well um
42:51
we've played it recently with chrisy and we we played it once and we we died but then we played it again and we did
42:57
really well but it's that random of dav's on about it's it's just that flipping a tile then you got to have the
43:02
movement points the action points to move onto the tile and then it's it's all about that but it's it's it feels
43:07
like it's a very safe mechanic that a lot of games employ for either you know
43:13
Forex or I'm a dude on a place going to move around like Fallout does it the
43:20
same sort of thing right you go you flip a tiw and you go so it kind of gives you
43:25
that little little rush shove all this the unknown isn't it it's always a bit of an unknown until you learn all the
43:31
tiles and then you literally search in you play the numbers yeah yeah um but yeah so I kind of like it but then I can
43:39
quickly go off that mechanic in the same it has it limits doesn't it once a limit
43:45
you've seen those tiles and then you can you just keep seeing them over and over so it's over there now while over here
43:51
in some ways they could always negate it by just having symbols on it and then those symbols represent different things for each different scenario would be a
43:58
good way of doing it so that when you pull it it's like oh it's a circle in this scenario that means that circle is
44:04
this sure it's not as clean we're definitely playing that wrong you mean
44:09
it's that mechanic it be like oh when I learn to play it I'm in this so now it means that and then but it means that
44:15
you could keep it going rather than have a limited uh supply of them it's just
44:21
theorizing anyway um clanks very good classic kums yeah yeah that's huge I
44:27
mean there's no bad I mean well it improves Clank experience makes it a
44:33
better game for sure cuz that's the thing with base Clank is you got your map and it's fun for you know five plays
44:40
six plays and then you kind of get bored of it they release new maps there's more maps and more map you buy more maps and
44:45
I've probably got six of them yeah um but cacs at least just mixes the puzzle up every time yep so yeah yeah it's
44:53
always a good classic all right guys so we'll just move on to another one then so like I just said said module board exp exploration so you've already got
Module board exploration
44:59
your board on the table and you got tiles so you flip them but you've already got your base board so you know where you're going I mean Nemesis is the
45:05
great example of that one yeah um is it Civ Lucian the one where you play the
45:10
the massive one the one you played I can't remember the name of it yeah where thetion Evolution yeah so they've got tites and it's all board laid out that
45:17
was a good exploration one that was really fun yeah I had the birth rocks and they like the
45:23
yeah you help you spawn more Jiggy the Jiggy Jiggy Rock a five in a two yeah
45:29
yeah a five in a two procreation what about heroes I know we we we only played it once didn't we her was of M magic y
45:36
you're right does that exact thing yeah which also Mage Knight yeah yeah I
45:43
haven't played M yet but that looked like yours M Knight is really good I love it I thought that was T is it actually based out is it then you bought
45:51
or is it tile flipping no major Knight is more exploration but it explores from a cone outwards yes
45:58
is fing you go to the edge and go next one next one yeah but you are picking tiles but then theoretically you don't
46:05
you don't choose you just kind of put them out big one is Gloom Haven that's always laid out for you in a way Gloom
46:11
Haven's got a set map though that's yeah random it's not random at all yeah I
46:16
suppose not when you flip it it's the same thing not even modu like it's flip it you kind of know you it's more fog of
46:23
War but you kind of it's really laid out you can play laid out and you go for a door then you open up yeah that's how I
46:29
used to play not how the base rules want you to play no I know the frost Havens can't stop that it but yeah it's it's
46:35
more of a fog of war in my eyes cuz it is in the book it's set that way that tile doesn't matter cuz even with a lot
46:43
of the other ones when you set a tile down when you flip it something else could happen they usually variables
46:48
still like Nemesis Etc whereas they've kind of set those Maps out to be a
46:54
certain way I think yeah I'm struggling to think one yeah quite hard I know there are loads I bet
47:00
there's loads well listeners if you think of any let us know cuz we obviously struggling on that one probably have played loads we just can't think of them off the head brain fart we
47:08
always go back to it um we'll go to another one which I think is a resource based exploration
Resource based exploration
47:15
now this is why going into areas that you need to specifically spend resources yeah to get into that area oh spend
47:21
resources or just a cost to go into an exploration area so um
47:28
yeah like everel was one of them I think isn't it you spend resources in a point I play for ages yeah you got that but
47:35
like that we mentioned void forall whilst thematically you probably don't need to
47:42
spend a resource to enter a hex you do you do CU you're spending fuel something
47:47
spending energy usually yeah you're spending energy to move ships you need to
47:53
deterministically probably beat the void born that are in that Hax you need to basically set yourself up to be able to
47:59
even move into a a heck big one so it's kind of like maybe not in the same vein
48:05
as to you know thematically I need to have so much energy to get into there because it's hilly or if it's there if
48:10
it's a the mountains or whatever yeah it's it's I in fact I think I now kind
48:16
of get it so perseverance perseverance when you go on an adventure right that's the expiration for good one yeah very
48:23
good one yeah really good and anac with one of the modules as well is where you do the whole you go on a mission which
48:31
kind of cross Pion new Earth I yeah yeah yeah um so that's that kind of
48:36
expiration kind of makes sense isn't it cuz you're send them off for an adventure you're then pulling a card which means you're doing a mission and
48:43
usually have to spend something on that mission so that's that kind of expiration right the perseverance is
48:48
like you need to have a set amount of soldiers of certain types to go on it so that's exactly what you're spending your
48:54
solders and there are resources in the game in yeah that's perfect one I for about that yeah yeah that's my um does
49:02
anyone have any other kind of exploration they can think of cuz I always think of for there's always
Narrative driven exploration
49:07
one you got a story driven exploration yeah narrative narrative yeah so anyone
49:12
the good game for that I know one straight away that we played descent yeah but that's also a tire one as
49:18
well again I think I think this is a different type of expiration I think this is fog of War which is like a
49:23
different timee where you when your character anyway we'll go into this in a second but we'll we we do narrative
49:29
right now so storytelling Narrative of an exploration so yes descent is definitely one I would have said um
49:35
Mansions again yeah Mansions very story driven because Imperial salt okay not
49:40
played it so descent yeah Star Wars with Star Wars um I I is Vanguard was a very
49:48
good Destro different one yes yeah yeah is Fang always narrative first half of that game was
49:54
amazing yeah then all about the first half of that game was literally it Ed edge of your SE
50:01
stuff yeah before the grind before the grind yeah I always remember listening to all the story on that and then then
50:08
it's when you obviously decide what plan to go on then you decide where to go after that don't you but it's always very story driven yeah yeah I wish they
50:14
kept up that momentum right to the end oh yeah it would have kept me playing yeah for sure yeah yeah I still I still
50:21
respect it like there's a lot of effort g into that and uh yeah first opening
50:27
piece it's like oh this is this is like something I've not played anything like this um but you know you probably got
50:35
other games I've not played them like games like Tain and Grail um again these are all awaken Realms games but they
50:42
they tend to do a lot of narrative based uh exploration so what tained Grail does
50:47
that I know which is quite cool is the game will progress through a a variety
50:54
of chapters now in your game if if you go west to a I don't know an area or a
50:59
village um in in the first playthrough by chapter 2 this thing might happen this event might happen um and let's say
51:06
you replay the game and you don't go that way then that event's still happening over there at that time just
51:11
whether you're there to experience it or not is is a thing so you might end up coming back to this Village and this
51:17
you're in now in the aftermath of whatever happened which is quite cool it's kind of like that's a narrative
51:22
driven style uh and it kind of links with the exploration because it's you have to be in the right place I want say
51:28
right place right time but if you are there at the right time you're experiencing a different part of that world and story rather than just going
51:35
this Village just waits for you until you discover it and then the event happens it's kind of like it's going to happen just like it would in time so I
51:41
thought that was quite cool um as a as an idea yeah yeah yeah Kingdom Death
51:47
monster okay yeah that that does narrative expiration really well um it's
51:53
similar it's boss battler it's one of the OG boss Battlers for war games um
51:58
but it's just so Savage it literally is just Relentless like you'll get
52:04
narrative expiration in the sense of it will give you these choices you pick these choices then you have to deal with
52:10
the aftermath of these choices and you end up put different Cards into the deck depending on what choices you make like
52:15
one of them will be you've had everyone starving you've had some deaths are you going to bury your dead or you going to
52:21
eat your dead and then you have to kind of goes down that narrative which is a
52:26
similar thing to um Frost punk as I thinking exactly the same thing when you was talking FR a good Bo one yeah well
52:35
yeah yeah you're right it's it's a bit of everything there isn't it everything also modular because within your
52:41
scenario it's you know you know the layout you just don't know what resources are going to pop up but the narrative absolutely brings in which is
52:49
this has happened you've got to deal with this consequence of a thing it's like oh my God how are we going to
52:55
survive I've never enjoyed get my ass kicked so much by a game before need to play it again we play that yeah it's
Other forms of exploration in games
53:02
really good okay fair enough so anyone got any else Explorations fog of War
53:07
okay so I'm I'm thinking you've got so undaunted kind of has a fog of
53:13
War um you have to kind of work your way through it and you kind you only explore
53:21
things that you move close to and then you can see them right I like in real
53:26
life but descent descent does the same descent 3.0 I think yeah so you'll get
53:33
to a point and then you'll reveal the tile Beyond and then things on that tile but also there one of the scenarios that
53:41
we did and I think it was one of our early ones and we were playing as a four where you went you had to climb a castle
53:47
Yeah so rather than sprawling out the the exploration actually went up so you
53:53
went up like four stor this one I think you might you I think it was one when you couldn't make it I think you played
53:58
it t didn't you I think so when we got to the top and there was a ghost and it ended up King the Army yeah so you
54:04
actually instead of going outwards you went upwards and it was actually really cool cuz we had to fight our way to the
54:09
top of the castle while there was an Army coming behind us so we're kind of sandwiched in so it was a real like
54:15
right we've got space move on ahead as quickly as possible so yeah and and that was every time we went up a floor new
54:22
stuff happened new stuff came out so so yeah that that kind of you said of war that you don't really see it until you
54:28
get there that was really cool yeah to do that that was that was a lot of fun
54:33
um so yeah expiration in that game is done really well I really like the there's just objects around and you can
54:41
basically try and interact with a lot of these different objects and different stuff will happen cuz it's partly app
54:48
driven as well so we had a whole scenario where the actual TS it's like middle aay collapsed on us isn't it yeah so you took the P pillars away and it
54:54
fell down so that's that attical yeah yeah I think I played that one I do remember you were
55:01
that was the Bandit Hideout and yeah we're basically s he out right Lads and just smashes out the pillars and just
55:07
fall into a pit and you're like oh no really clever what they do using the 3D sprace and yeah they do it really well
55:14
in that game have you completed it yet no oh we want to play that Saturday the second one's out now second
55:22
one's been out for a long time yeah third one will be out cuz I do love that game I thought you had the second one is
55:27
that the okay expansion expansion so we're playing act one there's now act
55:33
two oh okay so it's an expans a massive Dragon okay massive Dragon yeah okay so
55:39
yeah but no it does it really really well where it's you don't you kind of know what you you know you know the area
55:45
that you're in you don't necessarily know what's in that area part wants to play Old descent as well CU I love
55:50
rolling those dice they was quite cool yeah those dice were cool swap it for um primal you could do not you probably
55:59
have to pay a little bit extra towards Primal but so unreasonable yeah at least 550 that's 5 50 but yeah I mean yeah you
56:06
could do I see if uh yeah it's not fog of War but go back to TI yeah right so
56:13
naturally think tii doesn't have exploration other than what they added in the expansion which is is like you go
56:19
to a place and reveal a card and get stuff what I'm actually thinking is actually the bit before the game and
56:24
actually you could say thematically your little Scouts are exploring your your kind of corners of of the Galaxy
56:30
the way that you're drafting those tiles and you're setting the Galaxy up which let's face it is the game before the
56:37
game right which is bastard you discovered it even though thematically
56:43
i' I've discovered a supernova and it happens to be right near your sector and you discover something happens to be
56:48
near mine but it's kind of got that weird exploration kind of factor sets it
56:55
up as as you go um even though we don't ever really play it like that it's more you for got this
57:00
um but I just thought I throw it in it's something that's a bit different um but yeah there's that one yeah I mean I'm
57:07
out of all kind of different kind of unless you guys can think of any I can think of games that a bit different yeah
57:14
that explore um and imperium's one okay cuz I mean
57:21
imperion is a deck builder but you are if you think about it thematically what you're doing you like the Romans and
57:27
you're acquiring regions and you're exploring regions which are just cards that you put in and throughout the
57:33
course of the game you are getting a sense of exploration and growth and uh development and all of those kind of
57:40
things so it's kind of like you're exploring the lands through the cards you get but also exploring your own
57:46
abilities which is very deep yeah but not probably not what you meant um but
57:52
yeah but it is not something you would probably associate with exploration but it's it is there exploring everyone's
57:59
psyche that sits at the table as you play a game watching some people have mental breakdown a bit of expiration
58:06
going on they get to a deeper level now yeah what he's on about unconscious mind
58:12
yeah I thought that was as well um Gloom of kill for okay that's a kind of
58:18
exploration in regard to you're going to a place and then stuff happens yeah it's
58:24
more travel I suppose OS an exploration but there is a real sense of traveling around this this land that's slowly
58:32
becoming cursed unless you do your thing um namely killing and robbing stuff yeah
58:38
which is again I mean who doesn't love that um but yeah so there's that um similar to kind of Arkham Horror the the
58:46
you know the map is the cards rather than a map as such and that that varies
58:51
every play yeah so yeah that that kind of traveling exploring
58:57
theme yeah you've kind of got games that have exploration you know trigger warning too many bones um where you have
59:05
a series of cards which are your scenarios and you have decisions that will Fork you left or right depending on
59:12
where you go and and weirdly too many bones has always G always kind of given me that we talked about earli that slay
59:18
the Spire progression path as you go up the the ladder as it were and you you go
59:24
left to this thing we go right to that thing and it's essentially the same thing it's just done through cards it's like here's here's the choice what do
59:30
you want to do now do you want to do a b or c and a might be a battle B might be some weird dice flicking game or C might
59:37
be keep your eyes open as long as you can I don't know um but again you're you're traveling and you're exploring
59:43
the land towards the boss which is again makes it all different every time yeah yeah they took that from Gloom Haven I
59:49
think CU you used to have those events when you went out to the place
59:56
hate those Road events oh do you yeah there was always [ __ ] though Wen they oh right yeah but I still enjoy them as a
1:00:02
concept I don't think we ever did one where something good came of it yeah yeah do you want to do this or do that
1:00:07
doesn't matter it's bad you know start on half health or a third Health well love the fact they put two in which are
1:00:13
exactly the same to that cuz one of them is always just like oh you come across a deer in the in the forest and you're
1:00:20
like oh do you stop and Slaughter the deer and basically take it for food or do you ignore it and then one of them is
1:00:27
like you Slaughter the sacred deer and now you're cursed and then and and then
1:00:33
the's like do nothing and then the other one is you s l of the de now you're well fed and it's good but you obviously
1:00:39
don't know if it's the bad or good one so you're just like um so I understand why they've done it because it means you
1:00:44
play it again you can't you're never 100% sure of what to choose but we kind
1:00:50
of hous ruled it we used to draw two of those events cuz we enjoyed the event bit between the the out and doing the oh
1:00:57
really the mission so much that we like drawing two of them and it may have broke the game but we enjoyed it
1:01:02
whatever yeah exactly house ruling house rules and at the end of the day why else do we play games if not to enjoy
1:01:08
ourselves it's not like something that necessarily broke the game there seem to be so many of them you wouldn't have seen them all anyway and it was probably
1:01:14
for replays which we weren't going to replay I actually house walls have more of a problem in Euro games than I do for
1:01:20
narrative based exploration cuz at the end of the day like yeah it's will it break it I doubt it it probably just
1:01:28
adds a bit more fun fact seeing more than you probably should have cuz it's takes away some of the replayability but
1:01:33
it's such a long game you're not going to see all of it anyway they don't have the time to play it again but in a euro
1:01:39
it's like you've just messed with a formula in XL it's just going to fall over it's so anyway JP's no XL Champion so
1:01:48
you should need the Exel Championship Excel Championship yeah where they all run out
1:01:54
and it's got It's like it's it's like esport esport yeah Excel championships 2025 the commentator is the best thing
1:02:01
like he's basically just did this calculation and moved a box and the gu's like oh my god did you just see that oh
1:02:08
he's done it look how small just done a v look up oh my God that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen yeah it's
1:02:14
weird but I'm kind of digging it I think they get like 50 Quid this the winner
1:02:20
they get a free license of Office 365 well done EXL champion
1:02:27
ships okay so I think that's kind of had a little bit of a dive into exploration in games um they are my typ favorite
1:02:33
types I think exploration games in my personal opinion yeah yeah I know you Dave the exploration thing in games I
1:02:39
like yeah yeah definitely I I love it as well I think yeah it always wins it in a game for me yeah it's done well and yeah
1:02:47
there's so many games that do it but some do it better than others right but if it's done well you can really just put yourself in that world sense of
1:02:54
going on in adventure absolutely yeah yeah [Music]
TURN 4 - Receive, Sleeve or Leave
1:03:06
definitely right so we're now on to the uh receive sleeve or seve segment say
1:03:13
that really quickly when you're trun it's difficult 10 times in a row yeah right so the three games I have chosen I
1:03:19
kept the exploration kind of thing so we got Nemesis M OB Clank
1:03:27
catacombs or Eclipse oh so you already know where I can we
1:03:34
burn them all really do you like any of them no I don't that's easy right I know
1:03:39
I thought you might be D straight in mine and done so receive Nemesis yeah
1:03:45
okay um sleeve would be Clank yeah and leave Eclipse can [ __ ]
1:03:54
off oh well the are so I thought David would actually find that quite easy okay I would sleeve Clank I would
1:04:03
receive eclipse and I would leave Nemesis in a
1:04:08
dark dark hole far below the Earth's surface you don't like it do you I can't stand it I think it's Nemesis Rob huh it
1:04:15
is you know what Nemesis means um no I get why it's a good game I I I get why
1:04:21
people it's not a bad game at all it's just it's not it's not my game I've seen you play loads though I've played it
1:04:26
three or four times I've given it I wanted to like it I really really did seems like your type of game other than
1:04:32
the I guess and but you play it fully C you've never done that no no one has I have why yeah see I think it will lose
1:04:40
its Edge do you think it's a good game Co-op um honly yeah honestly I like a
1:04:45
challenging game I like challenging games it's hard that's why I like it's Co-op yeah I don't know I just think cuz
1:04:51
you've got to fill two objectives each of you got to fill both your objectives but you can help each other objectives all the time but you got to do the whole
1:04:57
thing before you leave the ship see I love I love Clank caroms I really do like that game so
1:05:03
yeah I leave that and quite happily play a Clips like I said but once maybe twice a year yeah Nemesis just makes me feel
1:05:10
uncomfortable the whole time I play it I'm uncomfortable which is probably the the
1:05:16
point of it right yes and that for me is why I don't like watch horror films it's
1:05:22
the tension it's not it's not what's going on it's that tension building and the game does it incredibly well so I
1:05:28
know it's a good game but it's just not for me that's what I think it would miss I would miss in a c version of it is the
1:05:35
tension of you don't quite know what everyone's up to and you quite like
1:05:41
setting the destination for earth when you need to go to Mars and it's set to Venus like what like CU you said it to
1:05:49
the the last time I played it you needed to go to Earth and you set it to the wrong destination I often do that which
1:05:55
it's hilarious I often get that I had one card that was something to do with
1:06:01
an egg Queen's Egg and I couldn't remember if I had to pick the egg up and do something with it or I had to take it
1:06:07
with me I can't remember but I got it wrong I readded the card wrong and I would have won yeah but I just read it
1:06:12
wrong I went you idiot was that when you were escaped everything did yeah when
1:06:18
your real smug prick for 45 minutes and then you went oh no no I'm in an escape
1:06:23
pod and I've not done it properly ah I think you had to carry it with you and you destroyed it right I did something
1:06:29
stupid and I thought I did what I needed to no I know what it was you had to research it you had to put it destroyed it
1:06:35
something you carried it he didn't he didn't put it through the laboratory he didn't get the weakness off it he
1:06:41
supposed to reveal the weakness from it yeah I put it in the escap fair fair enough you have it with you you could have got someone else to research right
1:06:48
yeah that's what I thought but that's why that game so good is cuz you talk about the times that nobody else playing
1:06:54
that game would experience and it does it very very well I think this is tough for me because I had Nemesis and now I
1:07:03
don't right I've got Clank and I'm like it's all
1:07:09
right and Eclipse I'm going off so it's like where do I land so I'm going to say
1:07:14
leave Eclipse cuz I think probably in my mind and heart of hearts that is probably going to leave my collection
1:07:20
soon um so tambo's like rubbing his little hands cuz I know he'll probably want that
1:07:26
um so it's then receive or I probably would sleeve weirdly Nemesis even though
1:07:32
I have sold it and again I've sold it not because I think it's bad I just feel
1:07:37
like I've had my my time with that game we've copies in the group well right T's
1:07:43
got it right so if T says's got it K is he no I don't think I think it's just
1:07:48
Dan's got it that's right so if you ever feel like I need to scratch the old Nemesis itch onot will will have it so I
1:07:55
think that was one of the main reasons why I got I think I enjoyed aftermath more is it aftermath or lock down lock
1:08:00
or lockdown that's it yeah I like the mechanics in lockdown more yeah but the
1:08:06
theme of the original is better so it's kind of like I it's weird but that game
1:08:12
is thematic right so it really really carries through so yeah so I'd sleeve Nemesis and I'd receive Clank because
1:08:21
I'd be happy to receive it or Clank cacs but yeah I think that's where I'll go
1:08:26
that's fair yeah is what it is so I love all these games this is really hard for me yeah so I'm going to sleeve Nemesis I
1:08:32
will receive a Clips I love eclips what for me you realiz why I brought this up
1:08:38
now right and then nicely yeah thank you and then I'll um yeah I'll leave Clank I
1:08:43
played it loads now and I like Clank I love it but if I had to leave one had to be Clank I think I those three wrong
1:08:49
choice wrong choice choice it's my it's my episode made it's the right choice that was a good one actually cuz that
1:08:56
made me think Davey was on it he knew I thought Davey would when I chose those I had to think about that so that was a
1:09:02
good [Music]
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up
1:09:11
one right let's move on to the penultimate turn so what's everyone coming up this week or in the future
1:09:18
jpizzle anything exciting um we've got a few things coming up Haven we we've got
1:09:24
um was it North ball game weekends coming up which should be good fun um
1:09:29
and ultimately like I think I'm just looking forward to getting back into
1:09:35
blood Bowl to be honest that's kind of my me little thing at the minute so I
1:09:40
had had a game recently with my brother and we' not played that since 1989 when we were kids when we had the
1:09:48
the very old you know red and blue plastic bits that came in so uh yeah he's got a second season which is the
1:09:55
2020 Ru set or the latest rule set so yeah and I've been getting into a bit of
1:10:00
blood ball fre on the old Xbox and playing that with my son he's been learning it as well and he's been really
1:10:06
enjoying it like you know proper playing this for like two three hours with me
1:10:12
and yeah he won his first match yesterday and uh so that was quite nice that's the Thunder Valley Green skins
1:10:18
the Black Hawk team nice and yeah he just likes the the big Orcs And just smash anything what you do is it yeah
1:10:25
yeah so yeah just I'm just enjoying playing around that silly game where you can't pick a ball up properly because of
1:10:30
a dice roll you know so that's that's kind of been my thing I can't think of anything else that's going on I've play
1:10:35
so many games recently my brain's mush to be honest it's just soup uh yeah we've booked in an
1:10:42
impromptu T many bones game on Saturday very nice so I know we talk about that
1:10:47
game a lot but I actually hadn't played it for a very long time um and then we kind of got out quite late at the 12h
1:10:54
hour ball game event and uh loved it so me and Chris failed the final boss so we've got to
1:11:02
redo over it and I think Dave might be joining us as well so should should be good fun maybe hopefully JP looks looks
1:11:09
nicely upon this this gaming and blesses it with a couple of characters that I don't own blesses it with his bones yes
1:11:17
you can have my bones anytime then then that'll be you know it should be good fun so um give you pick it patches uh
1:11:25
tantrum or Boomer which one do you want thanks mate although two Boomers I think would break the game I one Boomer breaks
1:11:33
the game yes having two would be quite good fun but yeah if we don't mind like you know pinching a Carr there or two um
1:11:40
then then yeah so too many bones nice for me good stuff B so cardboard wise
1:11:48
it's quite hard I've been I've been spending too much time in my tech dungeon um just upgraded my PC so I've
1:11:57
spent a lot of time playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 at the moment and monster
1:12:04
huntter worlds comes out soon so I probably won't get much ball game in if
1:12:11
I was going to play anything um it's probably going to be Primal um but that's going to be an announcement coming up so i' got to love love a bit
1:12:19
of Primal but yeah Monster Hunter wild so I'm going to be slaying lots of lots of monsters really really playing Primal
1:12:26
and playing mon the hunter wild so yeah cool yeah sounds good yeah sounds good
1:12:32
I've been upgrading my basically PC room so that I've got like a theme running throughout it and just bought a nice
1:12:40
desk mat that goes along with a ducky 31 Pro keyboard and just been doing loads
1:12:47
of tech upgrade nerd [ __ ] fair enough yeah yeah nerding it's the same nerd [ __ ] it's
1:12:54
just different topics yeah it's just just another column isn't it is just a different column just
1:12:59
another hobby for me to have yeah but it's still it's just another Rabbit Hole together to gemma's dismay yeah could
1:13:06
another [ __ ] hobby yeah yeah yeah to be fair you did sell one hobby to fun the other I have yeah I've sold all my
1:13:12
Warhammer pretty much but Gemma has had so gemma's had to do it because I I
1:13:18
started getting it out and going like oh yeah how look how cool this oh yeah I think I might keep this and it's like no
1:13:25
I was like I think you're going to have to go through it J and I'll tell you what army because as soon as I get an army out I'm like oh I should play this
1:13:31
Army I haven't played it in [ __ ] in like a year and a bit or something so I just need to get rid of it but as soon as I
1:13:37
start doing it I'm like oh yeah yeah I could finish to this I won't I won't finish paying and it and I won't finish
1:13:43
the Army but my mind starts going oh yeah I like these for a reason I start looking at the rules online and see if
1:13:49
they got new rules set so it's like no so jma's had to kind of but I've paid
1:13:54
her to do it she's got a percentage cut yeah she's been getting a sell's commission for it so there you go nice I
1:14:02
just can bring myself to do it I don't have the The Willpower it seems J I might have to come around and
1:14:08
and sell some of my B gam I wonder where that was going mate she's good at selling stuff like
1:14:14
she might need to come around and have a look at my game collection because I can't seem to let go of any of them yeah yeah I send it around that's fine
1:14:24
well over to you how about how about you what you get up to uh not much really
1:14:29
I've got iOS on Friday with Cur and Becky hopefully that still goes and I'm going to play again with the family on
1:14:35
Sunday so I'm looking forward to that that' be good in a row are you bringing the chocolates or um are you putting the romantic music on in the background I'll
1:14:41
put the romantic music on the background it's Valentine's Day they're playing so yeah I no the chocolate the healthy
1:14:46
eating or something they are yeah so I don't want to do that I be mean I might have some chocolates yeah you could have
1:14:53
have and a domino yeah just waed it chocol yeah now that's it yeah that's it
1:15:00
for me so I'm looking forward to that and then obviously next podcast recording for me episode so yeah there we go back in the saddle back in the
1:15:07
saddle so if you enjoyed the episode please like And subscribe and view our podcast and we asked to share podcast at
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:15:13
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help shape our future please visit our page on coffee or if you want to get in contact with us all the details are on
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1:15:29
[Music]

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