TURN 1 - Player Count
0:00
Whose turn is it anyways excited to announce the Devon board game weekend at the Fox and Hounds Hotel in Edgesford
0:05
near Exat. This event begins on Friday the 17th of October to Sunday the 19th of October. For more details on how to
0:12
get tickets, follow the link in our show notes and we'll love to get a game with you there.
0:18
[Music]
0:36
Welcome to Who's Turn It Anyway podcast where we talk about all sorts of board gaming shenanigans and invite you into
0:42
our gaming groups. And on this episode we have got Adrian. Hello Davey. Hi.
0:47
And Dan. Yeah. Yeah. Yell. Thanks Dan. Uh I thought you about to announce a horse. And in the inside lane we have I would
0:55
do if I had any energy pal but I haven't. Why you got no energy J? Well that's a mention on a previous
1:01
episode probably the last one. You reckon I said I'll again no I just said I' going away for work to
1:08
the US of A. I've done it and I'm now back from the US of A and very tired cuz
1:15
literally what two or three days ago I got home. So, I'm in that kind of weird jet laggy funk, but I'm here recording
1:23
an episode. It's a good look. Yeah. There we go. Good luck. But now, it's good fun. Um, we Yeah, for those who don't know or
1:29
cannot remember, have not listened to the previous episode. Um, we went to
1:34
Memphis, me and Rob, and uh I just want to give a big shout out to Zack from 901 Games who looked after us on a Sunday
1:42
afternoon, which was great. Went to a board game cafe/shop kind of place and played some games.
1:48
played a bit of Carcasson, which is Rob never played Carcasson. It's mad. This is madness. It's madness, but now he has. So, we
1:54
played that bit of Seven Wonders Jewel and then a bit of Kim Fire Del cuz Rob's obsessed with it.
1:59
Nice. Absolutely obsessed with How did you find him? Yeah, it's good. Yeah, nice. Yeah, nice light,
2:04
fun little game, which Yeah, it's it's strangely a bit more Euro than it is dungeon crawler, I
2:10
think, cuz you got to crunch numbers in a lot of sense. Like, I'll do that and add that and then Oh, there's a bit of pushy luck in it, which
2:15
you can go let's go for it. and then swear when it doesn't work. Yeah. But yeah, no, it was good fun. Cool.
2:21
Yeah. Nice to play some games and all that kind of stuff. It's good to be back. But how about you boys? You doing all right?
2:27
I moved house. You did move house. How's that going? It's going pretty well, actually. It was
2:32
Yeah, it was, I think, smoother than I expected it to go for the most part. And most of the parts of the house work when
2:38
I turned up. So, it's always a bonus. Always a always a good thing. So, very little repair I had to do. So, yeah. So,
2:44
just getting in, moving boxes from one room to another, unpacking a few of them, and then moving them back to
2:49
another room again. So, I've just got this constantly moving set of boxes around the room.
2:55
Um, yeah, you can't fill one wall, otherwise
3:01
they will disappear. So, it's like So, yeah. So, that's that's what I've
3:07
been doing. I measured up the table I've ordered. Yeah, it's a tad squeeze. It's a tight. Yeah, but it'll make it
3:13
work. It'll make it work. It'll be fine. So, I've got just over two foot down the side of each of the sides of the table, so I reckon most
3:19
people can get in. So, I'm hoping that'll be Well, I don't know about everyone else, but my my letter box is a bit empty from
3:25
any kind of invites to a kind of housewarming gaming day. But you have you got yours yet?
3:30
No. No. About you, David? You got yours yet? I got a text. Yeah, cuz I live in the 20 21st century, but
3:35
Okay. Right. I'm an 80s kid. '8s kid. Handwritten letter. Handwritten letter. Yeah. With a stamp. with a wax seal.
3:42
My my carrier pigeons are all on other missions at the moment. All right. When that
3:47
that would be the best thing if a pigeon arrived at my door then. How can anyone say no to that?
3:53
Yeah, it would be an owl if Oh, yeah. It's true. He' send his owl. Yes, that is very true.
3:58
But there we go. No. Cool. Well done. So, yeah. All good in sorting it out. And your computer set up already.
4:04
Priorities. Computer's set up. I've started unboxing games, but I haven't quite finished it yet. And I need to sort of now change my
4:12
callax billy bookcase layout to fit games in still. Nice. So yeah, that's me. That's how I've
4:18
been. Nice. All good fun. Nice. Any notable events happening with you two?
4:24
Nope. No, no, no, no, no. That's just lots of work
4:31
unfortunately for me. I say unfortunately, I love my job, but um desperate to try and get more things to the table, but also desperate for a bit
4:37
of a rest. I think I mean I need a bit of a rest. Rest is good. Rest is good. Um and I don't eat
4:43
anymore. So if you've seen pictures of me, I've lost three and a half stone in weight. Dan is half the man he once was.
4:49
Yeah. Yeah. You're looking good. Thanks, man. I feel sexy. You do. Yeah. I mean, I I have to wear my glasses at all times, though, because if
4:54
I don't, I look like a thumb. Uh so uh just just so you know, that's what I'm doing is I don't even need a
5:01
prescription. Me and Adrian are the two fingers. Do we
5:07
She didn't complain. Let's Let's Let's um Yeah, why not? Yeah, why not?
5:15
Together, we'll make a fist. And on that bomb. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. I missed I
5:22
missed streaming the other day from some random projectile uh chunderering. Chendering, which wasn't nice, but And I
5:29
took the day off, which is always worse cuz then you're ill on your day off. You're like, "Ah, why?" Oh, so you took the day off to do the
5:34
stream and then you were ill. And then I was ill. Oh, that sucks. It really sucked. Sucks. So, um cuz you want to take your sick days from
5:40
when you're healthy, right? Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I mean I mean your holiday.
5:46
Yeah. But um Yeah. So I had holiday and then Yeah. I was just ill. So And I missed
5:52
the stream, but it looked good. It was Forbidden Stars and then Talisman for Paul's birthday.
5:58
He did a week of streaming stuff for his birthday. That's Paul Groen for those realized Mr. Gaming Rules.
6:04
Mr. Gaming Rules. But other than that, went to went to a nice free market today and went street. So yeah, buying new clothes cuz I've
6:11
also lost lots of weight. So I've had to Congratulations, man. Yeah, I've had to buy a new wardrobe cuz
6:16
you kind of try and last the current wardrobe out as long as possible, but then when it starts looking like a bed
6:22
sheet and goes, "Cool, we've lost you in there." You start thinking, "Yeah, I should probably get a new wardrobe now."
6:27
Yeah. Yeah. But I find I can't eat as much as I used to. If I do, I feel like Al from Al's Toy Barn in in 2 seconds if I do.
6:33
The fact that I look like him doesn't help. But if I if I eat like, you know, if I go anywhere near a burger, then
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
6:39
that's it. I'm done for like two days. I can't It's not It's No, it's not great. No. No. There we go. Here we go.
6:44
Nice. Nice intro, everyone. That's pretty good. Pretty good. But let's talk about some games and stuff, shall we?
Davey - Dune Imperium - Bloodlines
6:50
Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. [Music]
7:01
And now it's time to talk about Hex where we're going to talk about all of our gaming stuff. So Dave, I'm going to
7:07
come to you cuz you got something exciting. Uh so I apparently Yeah. Yeah.
7:14
What have I played? Oh yeah, last night I played the new Dune Uprising. Well,
7:19
you can play with Dune Imperium as well expansion Bloodlines. So, Bloodlines
7:25
adds in um Sardakar uh agents that you can hire and have command abilities. It
7:31
adds new techiles. Um adds some new cards. Um and it adds some new actual um
7:39
not factions but characters that you can play. Okay. More more characters. Just more characters, which some of them
7:44
are really interesting. So, more stuff. More stuff. And they they seem quite balanced. So, um, as an example, I had,
7:51
um, I can't remember the names for the life love of me. Doris had Doris. Yeah. Doris, the tech
7:57
tech lady. Um, and at the start, I get to pick a tech from each of the three
8:02
piles from the bottom and I get to pick one and put it in my reserve and then it's one cheaper from wherever I want it. Um, and then her
8:09
signate ring is you can ditch a tech and get a um, intrigue card and draw a card.
8:17
Nice. which is really cool. It was like about buying cheap tech and getting lots of tech and kind of building that up. Uh
8:24
and then uh the other ones we had on the table, one which was completely different which was something to do with
8:29
like the way the um what are the navigation cards called?
8:38
They're not in Uprising, but they're in the original. But for this character, you actually use them. I forget what they're called, but basically you go to
8:43
any space and you you replace a lot of their deck, the jump one there, the hyperspace, hyperspace,
8:50
I think it's probably called hyperspace. Um, with that card. So, at the start,
8:56
you've got loads of different options where you can go. So, that that kind of gives you, you know, you can pretty much
9:01
rush the influence if you wanted to start with. Um, so that was quite cool. Um, and then there was a trash a card,
9:09
get one coin where every time you trash a card, you get a coin. And then if you play the signate ring, you got to trash a card.
9:14
Fold space. Fold space. There. There you go. That's how my brain works, right? It's a long long-term fetch request.
9:21
You'll get there in the end. Yeah. Um, well done. So, yeah, it's really cool. So, this
9:26
Cassada car agents, you when you go to their spaces, you can hire them for uh two salari. Um, and then
9:33
you when you hire the commander, it goes to your barracks and then you can go you basically go and take a tile which has
9:40
four keywords on. You can't have two of the same. I think they're all the same, but four are out and you pick it up and
9:45
when he's in battle, you activate or once a car's out in battle, you activate all of them in front of you. Okay. So,
9:52
if you only have one other time, you might want to keep in your barracks until you get a couple more and then start putting them out. Um, and then at
9:58
any time on your turn, you can pay to use Salari and if they've they've been killed in battle, you can put them back
10:04
out into your barracks and then put them out into battle with where you are. So, it's an actual troop you can start
10:09
paying in. So, Salari is a lot more important. Sometimes even with Uprising,
10:15
you had more options of what you could do with Salari, but it it kind of starts to teeter out and
10:21
then spice becomes more important. Whereas with this, it kind of keeps it a bit more relevant, which is quite nice.
10:27
So yeah, it felt nice and balanced. Um it's I think it's an auto include
10:33
really. Um it doesn't add too much to it. It just So if you're already playing with the tech stuff, it just adds more
10:39
tech. So more you know yeah better variety. So all it does is I mean the
10:44
deck now I mean we had we had to half it because the otherwise it was just like towering above the board. Yeah. It's
10:50
like terraforming. So we're just like keep half the deck over here. We never even saw that over half of the deck. But we saw some new combos and we saw some
10:57
new stuff cuz we we pretty much always play with the three expansions now. So,
11:03
isn't Bloodlines standalone as well or can you You can you can play it stand alone with the original game. Yeah. So, any
11:10
uprising or the base is a standalone base game. I lost track of it. They got so much stuff for it.
11:16
Yeah, they have. It's getting mad. Yeah. Yeah. Um and then we played a two-player. So, we played a three player, then played a
11:21
two-player. And the two-player is actually quite good because you use I don't know if everyone's ever played it,
11:27
but you use the rival and the rival card. Um and there's an app for it as well. I think it's made your life easier. So much better.
11:33
Use the app. If you're going to do it, use the app. But um it actually is very little maintenance
11:39
and it it does add um contention into the game so that the
11:45
board's not just open. You can do what you want for a two-player. So it works really well. It wouldn't work two player. No, I don't think it' just be too open.
11:52
You just both do whatever you want and then you win that battle. I'll win the next one. Yeah. Yeah. It just wouldn't work.
11:58
So yeah, it was cool. I really enjoyed it. I forget how much I I enjoy that game every time I sit down and play it.
12:03
Yeah, it's been a while for me. Yeah. And I think having new leaders adds just enough of spin, right? Cuz
12:10
you've kind of I started to think, well, I'm going to go for more techiles than I normally would do because I can now
12:16
I'll buy it. I get a cool effect off it. If the effect's useless for me, I'm just going to bin it and I get to intrigue and I get to draw a card. And
12:23
yeah, the only downside was I could only do it when the signets rings out. So you still have to keep your deck pretty thin
12:28
to be able to go through it. But I enjoyed it. It was really good. It's close game. I think the first one was
12:34
like one point in it. Yeah. Um I think Taz won in the end. Even though I was like I had like cuz we
12:40
played the long game. I had like 10 points on just before the on the penultimate turn. And then it took me a
Adrian: Catch the Snitch
12:47
long time to be able to just edge over for those last points because I was doing a lot of influence, right? So I I
12:52
wasn't really in the battles and I pushed all of that set victory points up. Yeah, really
12:57
good. Nice. Sounds good. Cool. Thanks, Davey. Adrian, you mate?
13:02
I've played loads. It's been really good considering I moved house in that time. Um, I've played a lot of board games
13:08
recently and a lot of newish ones as well. Um, and most of them were better than Talisman fifth edition. So, that's a
13:14
good start. Um, well, that's that's a hope for them. Isn't that most of them? Yeah. So, um I to be fair, I'd had a
13:20
laugh with Talisman, but it wasn't the game's reason why I had a laugh. It was because people around the table were
13:25
funny. So, um, what I thought I would then talk about is at the end of the
13:30
last episode I was on, I said, I'm looking I'm interested to play Harry Potter Catch the Snitch.
13:35
Yeah. Because I didn't know whether I'd like it or not, and I didn't know whether I wanted to sell it or not. So, I wanted to get it played before bringing and
13:42
buys came up and stuff like that. So, I got that to the table. It's fine.
13:48
Did you catch snitch? Did you catch it? I did catch the snitch. So obviously set in Harry Potter world and it's a
13:56
two-player cuz that's what Quidditch is basically. It's a game of Quidditch. So it's two players, two teams sort of
14:03
facing off each against each other. Sort of basketball ice hockeyes I guess. Um
14:08
you've got the three sort of onfield types of players. So you've got chasers
14:13
who move the ball that they want to get into the goal. You've got um beaters who are trying to hit the bloodjger to knock
14:20
other people off and to get in people's way and stuff like that. And then you've got a keeper who guards the posts. And then you got the snitch around the edge
14:26
of the board. Now the rule book is trash. Straight
14:31
trash to the point where there are points in there that I had to regularly refer to online because it would be like
14:39
um I can't think what it was now. There was a term that you used on the snitch track which we'll talk about in a second
14:44
and then the same and that's roll dice and get the result for that. If it has a number after it, you don't roll that
14:50
many more dice or anything like that. You just move that many spaces on the track. But it doesn't tell you that anywhere.
14:55
It just tells you what the thing without the number after it does in the rule book. See, of course, ages of trying to
15:01
like rolling two sets of dice feels too much. Rolling an extra two dice feels like a could be a lot. So, and then
15:07
eventually having to go on BG and there's just like threads of all these. What does this number mean? And not just that, of literally every
15:13
rules thing, there was a question for it felt like. So, Night Models, never been
15:18
particularly enamored with their production or anything like that. So, was kind of expecting a little bit, but it is a dreadful rule book. The bit in
15:26
the middle where you're kind of playing the actual sort of Quidditch, passing the ball around and bludgers and all
15:31
that kind of stuff is mostly really solid. Everyone has stats and they will do various things like pass the ball,
15:37
shoot, um move, evade, that kind of thing, dodge, bludger, hit bludger, that kind of thing. And you get different
15:43
colored dice and some of them are better on um actions and some are better on reactions.
15:49
So like it kind of goes in strength upwards for actions and then those dice are
15:54
bad the other way around for reactions. So there's kind of stuff in there and you build a deck of cards and each
16:01
person plays a card face down and when they turn it over it has three blocks at the top with either one or two symb zero
16:08
one or two symbols in each block. So block one I might have two symbols someone else might have zero. They're
16:14
going to get zero actions on that turn. I'll get two on mine. So I get to do two actions. Then we'll play the second
16:20
block and the second block might have one each for instance on it at which point we'll both get an action each. And
16:26
then the third block, you know, the first player's already had their three actions because you typically only get
16:31
three actions. So they'll have zero and the person who had zero the first time round will get two actions. But these cards are all quite different. So you
16:37
kind of play them. You can then kind of play I'd call them kicker cards. They had a specific name and they add like
16:43
extra things to that top card, sort of extra abilities or whatever. And in a campaign you get gold gallions and you
16:50
can spend them on better players or better cards and all that stuff was actually pretty good. really solid.
16:56
There is a a shooting mechanic in there that is, I think, relatively pointless.
17:01
So, in Quidditch, there are three hoops that you pass the quaffle through. Shoot the quaffle through.
17:07
Before you do that, you have the three cards for left, middle, and right things. And you're supposed to kind of
17:13
play a weird bluffing game. There's not really a game. You've always got three cards.
17:18
So, it's just both of you kind of pick one. There's not really much of a bluff you can do with it. There's no like I
17:24
can't manipulate your hand or anything. It's just rock paper scissors basically.
17:29
And of course, if the keeper guesses right, then they get a bonus, I think it is. Or if they guess wrong, they get minuses or something like that. And then
17:35
you roll the dice to shoot and all that kind of stuff. While that is happening, every time you shoot, it's worth points, but points
17:42
aren't really worth anything in the game. The only way to actually win the game is to catch the snitch on this track.
17:48
The points That's not Quidditch, though. No, but what the points themselves add tempo. So when
17:55
you get three of these when you get when you score three goals or you get three successful there's various things you can do to gain tempo. When you get three
18:02
of these things you then get to draw a card from the snitch deck or whatever it's called and it will have a symbol on
18:09
the top of it and then different options. You can either play it straight away without anything else. You get the
18:14
top option. It's the worst one. You can pair it with another card of one of
18:20
these types. So, I can keep it instead of playing it. And then the next time I draw one, I'll get another symbol on the
18:25
top. And if they're different symbols, I can play it and I'll get the second option. If they're the same symbol, I'll
18:31
get the bottom option, which is the best for this catch the snitch track.
18:38
On this track, all that's happening is you are moving the snitch down the track or you are moving the chasers up the
18:43
track. The track goes around the board, but it basically is just down and up. You can do various things like moving
18:48
the opponent back or putting flags down, which will mean you move forward or back. But how good you are in the game
18:55
really only adds to your tempo, which means you're just more likely to draw cards. So, if you get a good set of
19:00
symbols in a row that all match up, you will win with less cards, having done less cards, even if you score more
19:06
goals. And there is a kind of rough correlation, but it's such a let down to the end of the game because the game is
19:12
normally won by someone going because at the end of each turn as well, you get to draw a card as well as tempo. The game is normally won by someone turning over
19:19
and going, "Oh yeah, I can move forward three spaces. There you go. Catch caught a snitch on one." Yeah, it's a bit like the films though.
19:26
It's just like they do a lot of work. People in the center are doing all the goals and stuff and then Harry just gets
19:32
a snitch and it's over. Well, it is a hero making sport, isn't it? That's the whole point of it is a hero major. That was all [ __ ] wasn't it?
19:38
Yeah. But and that's how it feel like. Like it was such a I've never sort of watched two people like watch. I wasn't really
19:44
watching myself, but my opponent and me both kind of went. It sounds to me like it's one of those games that I play in an afternoon cuz
19:50
you'd ask me to play it and then I would play it. I would likely likely lose and then go, "Well, I'm not going to get
19:55
that afternoon back." That's what it sounds like. So I sold it, right? So it's not not the
20:01
biggest spoiler alert not the biggest surprise. Um, and like each of the teams, you get the four house teams. They all have different play styles.
20:07
Then there's national teams, which there are a couple of players for, but for the most part, it's just kind of a build
20:13
your own deck kind of thing from what I can make out. And then that you can put spectators in as extra modules. And there's all sorts
20:19
of funky things they've added in there. And when they were kickstarting it the
20:25
second time cuz they had unfulfilled promises in the first one, then did the second one and un still didn't fulfill
20:32
half the promises they made. But anyway, slightly less better about that now I've sold it on. Topical.
20:37
Yeah. Um the the catch the snitch was done right at the end of the game. So you played so
20:42
many rounds and then it was just whoever got the furthest up the snitch track and everyone went, "Well, that sounds really anticlimactic cuz you're playing a whole
20:49
game and then just at the end." So they found this way to incorporate it in between rounds and it's still like
20:56
really anticlimactic. I feel like this should be like a rare thing that happens that can win you the game instead. So you sound like you've
21:02
got a good game there and then instead now and again you might have like a a chance of catching a snitch. And
21:07
sometimes it will happen even though you're losing you caught the snitch and you win. At least that would be better. It's like oh it's a rare thing that can
21:13
happen and if it does happen you win rather than oh yeah it's the only way to win. That's the only way to win.
21:18
Yeah, it makes the rest of the game feel pointless. But I mean, in the Harry Potter universe, the only way to end the game is Catch the Snitch.
21:24
I know, but it built it into that, but they've just they've just made such an anticlimactic finish to what I think was
21:31
actually a really solid game. It wasn't it wasn't going to blow anyone's world away or anything like that. But if you're a Harry Potter fan, you wanted to
21:37
play Quidditch, that middle bit worked. When you sold it, did you sold it? Did you sell it to someone who didn't receive their pledge? No, I think
21:43
everyone did receive their pledge to be fair, but it was one of those where I stuck it on with some stretch cuz I had the stretch goals and all that lot and
21:49
stuck it on and thought hopefully it'll go and it did. Um I'm not surprised it went based on what it is. Yeah. It's just it's a such a shame
21:56
because I feel like there's something they could have done with a couple of these rules, written it into a good rule
JP: Nucleum - Energy Research Institue
22:02
book, and it would have been a decent game. The way it goes, mate. But yeah, so I sold it. But it was I'm
22:08
glad I played it cuz I could see some potential in it, but I knew that I would never get that back on the table again.
22:14
So before my trip, I uh jumped on to Gaming Rules and played uh Nucleium's
22:20
newest expansion, which is Energy Research Institute, I think, or EI, the one that's not been released yet.
22:27
Not yet, but it's soon to be. By the time this comes out, it probably will have been released.
22:32
Yes. Kind of this monthish, I think. Yeah. Um yeah. Um, Nucleium. I'm not going to explain what it is. We've talked about
22:38
it plenty. I love it. Dan's pretty much one of his favorite games, isn't it? I love it. He loves it.
22:44
He loves it. Um, but yeah, now the Energy Research Institute expansion
22:49
uh offers, it's pretty straightforward as an expansion. It offers eight new experiments. That's all it does. An
22:55
experiment in the game, for those that don't know, is your your kind of playable character asymmetric abilities.
23:02
That's kind of what they are. And then they've kind of humanized them recently. So rather than going you're experiment B
23:07
which wow I'm B. What are you? I'm C and you're D. Um they've kind of given them
23:13
names like you're the banker or you're this or you're that and D. Um so it kind of helps understand what they are and
23:20
they've given all uh abilities patronon abilities now which is quite nice. Um so now we have experiments G to god knows
23:28
another eight of them and uh yeah and they are quite wacky. Can you play it with the base game only?
23:34
So, not with the other two expansions, like Australia and then the the political one after that.
23:39
Yeah, I think you can. There might be one or two. It's similar to the June thing. There might be one or two that will lean into some of the other
23:45
mechanics. Uh I I can't remember remember them all off the top of my head, but um but yeah,
23:50
I think you can. Yeah. Was a politics one multiplayer or was that I thought that was a solo one or the court of progress?
23:56
Yeah. It just had a solo. So, the court of progress had two more
24:01
experiments in one. you had to play with quart of progress and one you didn't. ENF I've got it. I've just not played it
24:07
yet. Yeah. Um but then the others Yeah. It's all all just kind of they thought how can we
24:13
make these like really like mad and I saw your picture with the one with the two two tracks of experiments on that
24:19
looked awesome. Yeah. So you got the twins. They're the twins. Um so the twins instead of having eight uh uh kind of research tiles that
24:26
you normally have, you have 16. That's awesome. So you get two sides and and when you kind of capture sorry when
24:33
you gain uh research like normally you'd have to research a level one two or three tech you actually get research
24:39
tokens instead. So you can store them up and then research when you want to. That's cool.
24:44
So any time. Yeah. So you can bank a level three early if you just with that experiment was that with
24:50
just with that experiment. So they're a little bit different. Um but it does make it harder cuz they're um level
24:56
three cuz they got two level threes that usually are an endame scoring one at the bottom.
25:01
One will kind of counteract the other one a little bit. So you you know one will say you can score really well off
25:06
the left one but it'll probably degrade the right one a bit. Okay. So it's not like you can get double bubble and everything. So you really got
25:13
to um yeah I think the rhythm of that that experiment is completely different from what I saw played. But you know what? I
25:19
was in my own little mind palace when I was doing mine. When I played, I played the urbanist and
25:25
the urbanist um switches four of your buildings into new buildings with parks.
25:30
So you have like um houses and factories with parks on instead. And and it comes with it's it's like a similar tile to
25:37
the one you get in Australia where you you place a tile, do the uh the boat action, and then you put another one on top. It's got one of those but for
25:44
urbanize. So you can kind of um do the urbanize action which is then place a building and then do something else. So
25:50
that was quite cool. So, it's kind of interacting with those parks and yeah, getting extra money when you build them
25:55
or have them on the board and all that kind of stuff. I think Paul played the miner. Uh, so we had an extra turbine
26:01
and mine and it's kind of extension so you get five rather than four extensions on the board
26:06
uh on your playerboard. Yeah. Kind of sits at the bottom. Um, and it's cheap. So, if you can get that one built early,
26:12
it's cheap on workers and it's given you a lot of benefits and stuff. and he play when if you watch the stream he played
26:18
and got his um level three like the the the purple
26:24
contracts which normally you get at the end or or near the end game. He got it in like turn four. Wow.
26:29
And he just locked it down cuz it was literally have four turbines. Oh yeah.
26:35
So he's got five and one of them is cheaper like you know. So he just really is locked in. It's the fastest I've seen
26:40
anyone get the purple contract done. Like Jesus. Yeah, but that's kind of the expansion. It's
26:46
just given you more asymmetry um in the game, which is always welcome.
26:51
I feel like that game needed it as well. Definitely needed it. Yeah, I think if if you with the court of progress, the
26:58
fact that one of them is locked to that expansion, I mean, fine, but you've only really got five if you
27:04
buy that expansion. So yeah, I think if you want a bit more variety, even if you just had base nucleium
27:09
and this expansion, there's a hell of a lot of of variety that's just injecting into
27:14
your game. So if you just wanted to get those two, you're going to have a lot of fun. Nice. Um definitely get it when it comes out
27:21
cuz that's my street. Yeah, there's there's an interesting one in there around the espionage um kind of
27:27
spy where you actually have a spy token that kind of goes around the cities and you interact with that. Don't know how
27:33
that works, but it looked cool. Yeah. So, yeah, they've really thought, how do we make this different? Nice. Rather than is a slightly different
27:40
power. Yeah. Than the other one, because the base four are kind of not say they're similar, but they are kind of similar.
27:47
Yeah, they are. There's nuances different. Each one has like a strategy you kind of want to hone down on, but those
27:52
strategies are kind of core core principles of the game, aren't they? So, but these are like wacky.
27:59
Yeah. Nice. Do that with it. Go. Good luck. I imagine after that expansion, it'll then be another map and then it'll be a big box.
28:05
More than likely the big box is going to come in it. Oh, it need it needs it. It's desperate for it now. There's so much content, so
Dan: Agricola
28:10
much stuff. I'm all for it. It's great. But I really enjoyed it. I've got it on pre-order.
28:15
Nice. Um cuz why the hell not? That that's uh Nucleium. I like it. It's cool.
28:22
I love it. How about you, Dan? Um I have been playing the new hotness. New
28:30
the new hotness. Oh yeah. Farming simulator. Um you have no my friend. No my friend. Uh a
28:36
gricola. Close. Very close. Farm farmer simulator 1600s.
28:42
Um I I bought a gricola like years ago in like its third or fourth edition. I think when it first announced any
28:48
meeples and not just counters that were for their animals. Uh and loved it. Thought it was great. Uh bought an endless amount of
28:54
expansions for it and then I sold it cuz it's not I'm not getting this to the table. I sold it and then I went, "Why did I sell that? That was really stupid.
29:01
Let's buy the subpar version of the special edition, a Gula 15, uh, because it's got a really
29:09
lovely insert." It doesn't. Uh, and it and and it's really awesome. It's not. Um, does it need cellar taping? Yes, it
29:15
does. Uh, which I did. Uh, first thing I did. Um, and play it again. And yes, it's been revised and it's a little
29:22
different, but not much. Like, they've renamed some of the places on the board and they've redone the cards. You know,
29:27
it's it's a little bit more balanced. Is it still cutthroat as hell? Yes. You know, it it is for me is the granddaddy
29:34
of of worker placement. Mhm. Oh. Oh, you you wanted the you wanted the wood. Oh, you Oh, you didn't you
29:40
didn't get the wood. Oh, it's Oh, and it screwed your whole strategy for three turns. Oh, that's a [ __ ] isn't it? Oh, well.
29:48
And that's how it is. And that's why I love it. I love it because it's just that cutthroat. Um, I don't have many
29:53
games that are that cutthroat anymore since Food Chain Magnate because it's so cutthroat that you can't get that to the table anymore. So, I sold that.
30:00
I love a bit of food chain magnet. So do I. But I know that JP hates it. I love it. I love it. He hates it. But I I
30:06
do miss food chain magnet. I just can't get it to the table cuz it's just it's just so cutthroat. So a griilla, it is cutthroat, but there are ways of
30:12
recovering. If you've been under a rock for forever and not seen a gricola, then it is just like farming in the 1600s
30:19
kind of style. Um, place a worker down, take take resources, build a farm, get points. That that's that is it. Um, and
30:26
make sure you feed your family because otherwise they get begging tokens and they can't eat those because they're cardboard. Uh, and and also if you want
30:33
to make make food, make sure you buy a fireplace or an oven, otherwise you're screwed. Uh, which Civera went, "No, no,
30:38
no, you don't need that now." I'm like, "What?" Uh, but no, agricula is the original. Major improvements.
30:44
Major improvements. Yes, those red tile tiles now. They're tiles now, not cards. Did you keep Did you keep the the frame?
30:50
Did you not? Yeah, I kept the frame. Just checking cuz some people didn't. Yeah, but it pisses me off cuz when I take it out, it all falls out the frame.
30:56
I have to put them back in the frame. Yeah, that very honestly that that addition is shocking.
31:02
It's awful. Have you done like a spiced up set
31:08
that without taking too long on the podcast? No, I [ __ ] didn't. Uh, and the reason being is because the artwork,
31:14
Clemens France, I love you, by the way, because your original artwork is amazing. I love that game and I love the way that it looks, but the new artwork
31:21
is atrocious. I don't like it. I cannot stand it. I think it's awful. I've looked at the pictures. I've looked
31:26
at the meeples. I've looked at the cards. I've looked at the stuff. It's too serious. I just don't like it. It is
31:32
too serious. I like I love Clemens France and I've loved a lot of his games with a lot of his artwork because
31:38
UA used him a lot on a lot of his titles. Gates of Longyang. Um, I'm not sure. I think Lahav might I think Lahav
31:43
is also one of them as well. Cavern Yeah, I know Fields of Ara, I think
31:49
might have been somebody else, but um I just don't like it. I just don't like it. It is too serious and I don't
31:55
understand how it's made an awful lot of money on game found. I just don't I don't get it.
32:01
Looks like a modern game rather than something from the 80s. That's a fair point, but that's but that brings part
32:09
of its charm and that's why I like it for way the way that it looks. And I I saw this I thought, "Oh, this
32:15
this is interesting." And then I'm like, "No, I know they are doing another one which is a zombie style version of it,
32:21
which I would be intrigued to look at just to see what they do with it." And I'm, you know, it might it might get my
32:26
wallet. I don't know. But the standard edition with the abundance of expansions and add-ons that they've added for it to
32:32
go all in is crazy amounts of money for me. It's not for me. Plants versus zombies is going to be
32:38
like the theme of it, right? Yeah. Vegetables versus zombies. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, mate. Who? Who knows?
32:44
Family starves and now they're all zombies. But I'm up for having a look. But I'll be intrigued at what they do with it.
32:49
Yeah, but for now, give me the original or if I have to the 15th edition because
32:55
I've never been excited uh as much in a board game as as playing a card that has ladder on it and it's like, oh, it's
33:02
giving me an ability ladder or or I've got a plow. I've got a plow. I can do [ __ ]
33:08
What does it let you do? Plow one field. Oh yeah, cuz that game is tight as balls and anything you can get is just
33:13
And I like I like that it's tight. The same as like White Castle. White Castle's tight and I like that those kind of tight games. So, I'm all over it
33:20
and and it's one to not forget about cuz it's it's old and it's still there and it's for me it still holds up. I get why
33:26
people don't like it. Oh, 100%. Um it's Marmite as hell. But then I but you know, Civera like irons out some of the cutthroatess and I
33:33
can see why people prefer a gria to like and also the other way around. There we go. So there's the hotness of a
TURN 3 - Main Event: Unpunched gems
33:39
gricula. So that that one's flown under the radar and that's going to lead onto the Oh, well done Davey. See what he did
33:46
there? Yeah. Well, let let's Oh, you stole my pun. Bye. Next segment.
33:53
[Music]
34:02
And now it's time for our main segment where we're going to talk about Unpunched Gems. So, all of the games
34:07
that have kind of flown under the radar, maybe not as been as popular as as
34:13
others, but this is quite a subjective episode. We were literally talking about this before we hit record. And and I
34:18
think we've all got different angles of attack. So, it may be worth talking about our angles of attack first so that
34:24
everyone who's listening kind of gets why we probably put certain games into the mix. Um, so for me, I've kind of
34:31
thought about it from a um from our group standpoint. Um, so I haven't
34:36
looked at any technical data unlike some. Um, and uh, I've just thought about games that maybe that our group
34:44
hasn't had the opportunity to to play or maybe because they've been released and just forgotten about in the sands of
34:51
time, you know. So, those are the kind of things that I've that's how I've approached it. But Adrian, let's go to
34:56
you cuz I know you've done it completely. Yeah. Throwing absolute shade at me. Not shade. I' I've actually put effort into your episode for our listeners and
35:04
you're the one throwing shade at me. I don't know how this has worked. There's no shade. I like the fact that you've done it properly. Yeah. I thought I would try a slightly
35:10
different approach cuz I was thinking what happens if they're new listeners and they don't know all of our back catalog of episodes, which if not, shame
35:17
on you. But it's fair enough. Um because just because we've played
35:23
something or we've not does not mean that it's not a popular game. We've said on episodes before that, oh, I've never
35:30
heard of something doing this before. And then someone else in our own group has gone, oh, but there's this game and this game.
35:36
And when you look, they're like in the top sort of 2,000 games on BG or something. Something you would do. Yeah, I might have done that contest.
35:42
Um, but people have done it to me as well. So, I'm not wholly to blame for that kind of culture we've got. So,
35:50
so I basically looked at kind of anything that was lower than 3,000 on BG
35:56
that I still felt hadn't had a sort of a it wasn't like a second edition or anything that that hadn't had a lot of
36:02
sort of general chat about it. And I ignored most games. There are a couple
36:07
of games, most games that are kind of under a year, year and a half old because often they're still climbing the charts. So like Apex Legends is under
36:14
3,000 at this point. Most people have only had it a couple of months probably. It's new. Ignore that. So,
36:22
that's kind of the way I went about it because I was trying to I was trying to work out I had that sort of this will be
36:28
an easy episode and then went no it won't be. So, I end up doing a bit of research and there was someone on a
36:33
podcast on a YouTube channel who said, "I think this is an like a hidden gem
36:40
and it was BGG rank 149." And I thought, there's no way if it's 149th game that
36:47
for 90% of like the sort of M like people really in the hobby, yeah, there's no way it's probably an unsung
36:53
What was the game? I can't remember off the top of my head, but I remember looking at being like it's about 140 145 something around
36:58
there. And I was like, well project that's probably not for most people. It's probably not a hidden hidden gem,
37:05
but for them just cuz you Yeah, for you. Fair enough. And and so that's why I think it's good that we've talked about this cuz
37:10
this is my concern as looking at my list cuz going I'm thinking these might be unpunched gems, but people might be going.
37:16
Yeah, but I've played them. Yeah. My 50 my 50sized group will play it. I'm like, okay.
37:21
I mean, you ask any group, you're going to get a different set of answers as well. So I think that's the point.
37:26
Anyway, David, how did you approach it? So, I did it for a group. Okay. Mine's Yeah, mine's more kind of
37:32
the lazy way. It's It's kind of It was just It was so hard that I'm lazy.
37:41
So, there will be someone here that probably are popular, right, on my list anyway. They probably will be popular
37:46
outside. And it's more It's probably actually in some ways I've played them a lot with other
37:53
groups, but with our group, we haven't and we don't talk about them. So in our group they're under the radar in
37:59
that sense. So it is kind of different in that way. Okay, cool. So lazy almost up.
38:08
How about you? So what did you do Dan? Uh I basically poured a cup of go [ __ ] yourself.
38:13
Got AI to write all my list. Chat GPT. No, no, not at all. Not at all.
38:18
I did ask AI. Yeah. And it said root and I was like a [ __ ] off. Everyone is on
38:23
root. [ __ ] sake. This is what I mean. There's a good chance ignore ignore AI doesn't know what it's
38:29
talking about. Go on. So, I looked at games I've been gaming a little while. You see, I looked at games
38:35
where I have possibly played them like once or not at all and my group has, but
38:41
since kind of joining you guys, I know like looking at that little list that you may have played one of them and
38:46
maybe like none of the rest. But some of these are like these are kind of old school. Like I say I say old school.
38:51
They're going to be like no they're no um younger than like 2007
38:57
but you know they're the games from the last 20 years but you likelihood is you you may have heard of them but you
39:03
probably haven't played them. Yeah. And with the caveat that chances are I'm going to say one and people are going to
39:08
go oh we play that all the time you know and it like you said it's subjective. We're not going to probably agree with each other as well which is kind of
39:13
makes this episode a bit interesting. I'll agree with you and and Adrian but probably not David. Probably fair enough. I'm used to it.
39:19
Yeah, I I meant I meant about this topic. All right. Sorry. Oh, in general. All right.
39:24
So, there we go. So, that's kind of how we all approach this thing. So, I'm just going to throw it up. So, Adrian, I'm coming to you first, mate. So, we're
Suna Valo
39:31
just going to talk about games. We're going to talk about the games that we feel have flown flown under the radar that are our unpunched gems and why.
39:39
So, yeah, let's go with it. Let's just flow in. Let's just see how it goes. Yeah. So, my one actually is breaking
39:45
one of my rules straight away, but it's the only one I've broken, which is um it's released within the
39:51
last year or so. Okay. Do we need to guess this now? Is this is this what leading up to? Right.
39:57
No. Give us some more clues. It's a two-player game. Oh.
40:02
By game builder. Oh, yes. Savalu. Savival.
40:08
Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I have played it. So, Savalo, I think, is a fantastic game and
40:14
it just seemed to get actually no hype. Agreed. And it I personally think it's cuz it's
40:20
a tied to Plantono, which was a very specific type of game. And I think Planterno would have put people some
40:26
people who would like Sonalu off of that. So, if you like if you like Plant Nubo, fair enough. It wasn't for me
40:32
personally, but loads of people seem to love it. I like it. I almost didn't play it because JP went there's this game made
40:38
by the guys from Plantanubo who have made a two-player game and I was like
40:43
however I think it's a fantastic game that I think is out of print already at
40:48
this point. It's you cannot get an English copy of this game at all
40:54
at the current recording time of this podcast and I think it's not avail.
41:01
I think it's because it's getting um a localization through someone. I cannot remember who it is, but someone else cuz
41:08
Plantubo has only just got its localization for the UK. So, I think it will follow, but
41:13
it'll probably be a year or two, but I didn't see much coverage leading up to Essen last year on this. I haven't
41:19
seen much coverage since Essen. Um, and I think it two-player games tend to fall
41:25
into like heavy sort of Twilight Struggle or like GMT style games or very
41:34
simple or sort of very streamlined sort of light midweights. I would say most a
41:40
lot of two players fall into one of those two categories. And I think Savalo does a great job of actually doing that
41:45
mid maybe just above midweight sort of Eurogame feel at two players. And so,
41:51
yeah, I just think that's one that that needs a lot of love. And again, it is relatively new out, so one maybe when
41:57
other printings come out. But I was surprised the lack of media coverage this one got as well, both before and
42:03
after Essen. And I I was so impressed with it. So again, if you've listened to this
42:08
podcast, if you listen to our episode on Essen, we talked we sort of gave it a lot of credit then, but I still think it's flown under the
42:15
radar for a lot of people. And um I think it's one worth checking out. Either whether you get a foreign copy
Conquest of Nerath
42:20
imported or whether you get wait for printing and get that one. Yeah. But that's that was the one of the first
42:27
ones that came to my mind when we talked about this topic. Okay. So I think that's fair. I think it's a valid one. Good start, Adrian. Thank you.
42:33
Thank you, Davey. So I think I've spoken about this or mentioned it before. Um and it is
42:40
Conquest of Narath. So this is kind of the tagline for it on
42:45
BG is Axis and allies the B but with dragons, right? So fantasy.
42:51
It's fantasy based. It's set in Nafa which is D and D based. Right. Right. Um and then you kind of have uh four
42:59
factions. Um and you can basically do two on two or have um one on one, but we
43:06
only ever did it two on two and it was always epic battles. And for a high
43:12
fantasy war game, it seemed to work really well. And it's probably very dated now if you ever went back to it.
43:19
But for me, when we played it a lot, it had
43:24
all these newer mechanics or newer game mechanics of you had cards of abilities, your units all had abilities. Even
43:30
though you had the similar units that were out, you it had very basic kind of uh conquest is
43:37
your main goal. you've got to take over, you got to kill them, you've got points you have to take and etc, etc. But I
43:45
don't know, for me it was a great war game and it brought enough sprinkling of
43:51
new to hold up now if you played it. So I think in our group it would have to be
43:57
a day game. It's a long old game, you know, it's and it's only a four player
44:04
as well, but maybe we'll probably play it quicker now as well because we're all used to board games and every, you know,
44:09
we're all a bit we're just more experienced, right, with board games. So, I think it would be a lot quicker now. And I think it would be one to it'd
44:15
be a fun one to get to the table if you can get a copy of it. So, I think that's flown under the radar within our group,
44:21
especially one the the people within our group who like war games as well.
44:26
I think that'd be a good one to get to the table. So yeah, that's mine. Conquest of Narath. I've never never
The Manhatten Project
44:31
heard of it. So there you go. Yeah, it's a it's an old older school one from D and D, isn't it? But it's um
44:37
Yeah, it's one that to be honest with you, I didn't look at a lot if I'm honest. So it's fair. Yep. It's one of mine. Fair play. What
44:43
about you, Dan? Um the one I'm going to mention is actually had um it's had one expansion,
44:50
I think. Maybe even two expansions. I know I definitely had one, but it's also had um a a sequel
44:58
made and a couple of what I would call inverted commas spin-off games under the same title, but with another title added
45:04
on underneath. But the original game, I don't think gets talked about anywhere near enough, doesn't get mentioned, and
45:11
doesn't get didn't I don't think it received the um the love that it should have done when it was released. And that
45:17
is the Manhattan Project. Okay. Okay. So, the Manhattan Project came out in what I think it was 2010,
45:25
2011, something like that. Um, and it is, as the title states, it's about building the atomic bomb. Um, it has
45:32
what I would call some outofdate mechanics in it where it's got some take that mechanics where you're launching bombs at other uh uh at opponents and
45:39
there and you're trying to get kind of um fighters to defend those bombs that are going off. But essentially, you're
45:44
it's a worker placement game. So for me in terms of my worker placement journey, a grica came first as we spoke about
45:50
earlier and then I go, well actually I really like worker placement. What do I go to next and no one had heard of this
45:55
game um when I bought it? And I looked at it on a shelf uh in Forbidden Planet in Bristol and I went, "Oh, this sounds
46:02
good. Oh, wait. It's worker placement. Okay, I'll get it. Let's talk about my friends. Have you heard of this game?" No. No. No. No. You never see the
46:09
original at any con. You never see the original at any expo or or anybody playing it or even talking about it. You
46:15
go on Facebook, no one is playing this game and you see pictures of it. Don't see it at all. So essentially, it is
46:21
it's one of the first games that I think used the mechanic where you either place a worker or you return all workers. It
46:27
was one of the first. Um I think was it Brandon Tibbitz was the person who made this game, I believe.
46:32
I have no idea. Uh Brandon Tibbitz, but you get you're getting basically like general workers, but you can also have specialist workers
46:37
that give you better buffs on on the actions that you're taking on this board. uh you're you're gaining uranium,
46:43
you're and you're trying to fulfill contracts. If you had to compare it to something now that does get talked about, so you know, maybe that's a a
46:50
punched gem, you'd probably say that it was quite like viticulture. Okay.
46:55
Um so if you had to put a skin on, it would be it would be like viticulture and in terms of its weight. Um but with
47:02
the added mechanic that you either lay on workers or you return them and you're taking basically you're not wasting, but you're using a turn to bring them all
47:08
back. Um it's light to midweight um Euro style worker placement game that doesn't
47:15
get talked about anywhere near like at all. I haven't seen it around anywhere for ages, but it has had a sequel. It
47:21
has had a uh the midnight uh minutes to midnight um version of that board game as well. And it's had um a a little card
47:29
game of it as well. So, it's had plenty of plenty of attention, but the original doesn't get talked
47:34
about at all. I I think if you watch a lot of I think it's Dice Tower where they talk about it a fair bit but if I I
47:40
think if you outside of that circle I think you're right it kind of had a flash in a pan sort of
47:45
thing didn't it and then yeah there's a few channels that talk about it a little bit but other than that there's not
47:51
I think the struggle to find a copy now there's not a lot out there for it content wise sort of thing no it came up with an you had an
47:57
expansion where you had world leaders and added world leaders to the expansion but like similar to to Nucle while
48:02
rather than experiment a you added a face to what you were Yeah. Um, and that made it a little bit more
Sidereal Confluence
48:07
interesting, but didn't add much. Um, and then I sold my copy cuz I couldn't get it to the table and it was didn't
48:13
have enough interest in I think the theme possibly, but um, but yeah, doesn't get spoken about enough.
48:18
Manhattan Project. Well, I haven't just watched Oppenheimr recently. Nice. That's kind of appealing. Yeah.
48:23
Nice. Okay. Well, I've got one that I've not played, so this is a bit of a weird one. Oh, yeah. So, I don't know if it counts, but
48:29
I'm saying it anyway. Do you reckon we've played it? Uh, don't know if you have, but it's um a game
48:34
called Cidurial Confluence. No. Yeah. Have you played it? No. But heard about it yet. It's I mean, I've just looked at the BGG
48:40
rank, so going you know, it's 387. Thought that's actually a lot higher than I thought it would be. Yeah.
48:45
Um, it got a lot of love at one point. It might be because Shut Up and Sit Down did a thing on it way back, but it Yeah,
48:53
the You got him. You got him. Oh, you Oh, you did it. Oh, can't believe you said it. No, the
49:00
the guys there, they they did a a video on it. God, eight years ago. I don't know when it was. It's been out for a
49:06
long time. Um, from what I know of it, and for the people that have played it,
49:12
really enjoy it and it's really unique and I think this is what uh appeals to me with this game and I really want to
49:18
try it. It's Space Fiend. Tick. Space. You You play an alien race. Tick.
49:25
Right. Um, but it's just a massive resource trading engine building game.
49:32
Okay. So, you're kind of like you play your alien race. You're sitting around a table. I think you play up to a high player count and you've got these uh
49:40
particular kind of actions and and you know, processing factories or whatever that's producing a certain kind of
49:46
resource. And you have a massive simultaneous bartering trading phase in
49:52
the game where you're like you'll get up from your chair and I'll go around to your side of the table Dave and go right
49:58
if you give me uh give me two of your your open up your trench coat and be what you want. I need those two cubes that you've
50:05
got now. What do you need? It's like well I need Okay. And you start doing wheeling dealing dellboy style trades.
50:10
Wouldn't talk to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bit like Terry tips and you like hold that for JP. people
50:16
like Adrian, right? If you give me that, then I can do that and do that. I just thought it's it's just something that I don't see much in in um board games
50:24
anymore. Like it reminds me of like Mega Civ or something. Yeah. Yeah. Took me straight to Mega You
50:29
mentioned that everyone's up and it's like, "Right, let's sort this out." And um and yeah, and I think you can kind of then build
50:35
out your your kind of empire so you end up with more complex uh resource conversion chains and things like that.
50:41
So, it's probably what it looks like. It's like it's got that furnaceesque aspect to it, but with space, aliens,
50:47
and lots of trading. And I I really want to play and it's had a second edition fairly recent, maybe 2 3 4 years ago,
50:55
which has sexed up the artwork a little bit. Okay, nice. And and I keep looking at it and I just
51:00
think maybe this needs a go, you know? Maybe we should go back to the old and give it a will. Who knows whether it
51:07
would like it or not, but yeah, just feels like if it's that high, but from our group's point of view, I
It's a Balloon
51:14
don't know anyone who's played it other than maybe some off uh chance. Um I think Craig in in your group.
51:20
Yeah. Has got it. All right. So, that might be out in just thinking out loud. That's me. That's my little
51:27
entry. So, let's keep going around. What have you got in your bag of unpunched gems, Adrian? Oh, well, some people when
51:32
they see mine might ask, "Is it a bird?" Some might ask, "Is it a plane?"
51:39
Actually, it's a balloon. Okay. So, the game is called It's a Balloon. Oh, okay. Never heard of that.
51:45
Yeah. And this is it's a party game that I feel would sort of sit okay with like
51:50
a Just One or So, Clover Crowd and all that kind of stuff. Comes in the same size box as those. and one person you
51:57
get you've got like a grid in front of you that's got different um little symbols and shapes on it and someone
52:04
will get a thing that says okay make a forklift and so someone has to describe
52:11
them drawing the forklift on this board with little symbols on it
52:17
so they might go right I'll go around the hammer and then I'll go up to the star and across to the moon and then
52:23
back down two of the square cuz there's like a little grid on it back around two of the squares and then back across to the H. And that's how they're kind of
52:29
explaining it. And everyone else around the table who can't see their board is trying to copy it. And then when they
52:35
think they've worked out what it is they're drawing, they grab there's like a the first, second, and third place.
52:40
They'll grab like the first place. So there's sometimes a bit of a I think I'm nearly there. You watch someone get like
52:46
they're really looking like they're getting it. I'm just going to go for it. Of course, if you've got it wrong, yeah, then you've lost the points sort of
52:51
thing. But if you've got it right, then you get the points. you get bonus ones for doing it quicker and it's just a blast. It's
52:56
that sounds awesome. It's one of those where I'm surprised because you know you got like fake artist goes to New York which is all
53:01
bluffing and all that kind of stuff. But it's just a fun party game of just guess what I'm drawing but it's not like a
53:08
it's not like a pictionary kind of thing. It's just I don't know. I found it more entertaining, more kind of it's
53:16
funny when you see everyone's different drawings. It's like that whole sort of draw a robot and someone explains like where to put squares in that badly. It's
53:22
kind of that how many times has this been done, you know, but it sounds it's just fun and I it it's it's rated
53:31
actually quite well, but has no ratings basically, which I think shows how it didn't really get off the ground. And
53:36
yet I think it's a fun party game. And if you are dragging out those wavelengths, those just ones, those kind
53:42
of games, I can't imagine a scenario where lots of people wouldn't also go,
Wiz War
53:47
oh, and this if it was in their collection. But I just don't think many people got it. Yeah. Yeah. Like I didn't know it was a
53:52
thing until someone showed me at a grid. Yeah. Um and I had a blast with it. I thought it was it just did something simple but
54:00
made it fun. Yeah. So my one is on trend for games I kind of used to play which people
54:07
probably have played a lot of this. Um and this is more of a casual style game but Whiz War I don't know whether
54:13
anyone's a massive classic. You've gone old school now. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it probably is a
54:19
classic, but I would want to get it to the table again and get it to the table more. I don't see anyone playing it at conventions anymore.
54:25
I didn't love it back then, I'll be honest. It's it's it's a jeweler. It's probably really unbalanced, but I've really
54:31
enjoyed playing it every time cuz it's a little bit silly, right? And you build the board out and then you play cards as
54:37
a battler and Yeah. People like, but we're going to play Whiz on Yeah. Yeah. But there there's
54:43
this wonderful thing called out called Dominion. This is Come and play this. This is better. No, no, no. Whiz. No,
54:48
no. Play Dominion. Honestly, just play it. But Whiz's got a physical board that you move around, right?
54:53
So [ __ ] talisman, but I'm not picking it up. No, but this you It's like It's not
54:58
playing dominion, though. No. No. So, you're still having the card battling aspect, but you've got capture
55:04
the flag style mechanic in there where you have to go to their base and capture something and bring it back. He loves it. I can tell.
55:10
I really enjoy I played it. I've heard of it. Fantasy Fly, right? Uh, no. Didn't Fantasy Fly do it
55:16
originally or maybe it's not on Hill. Two seconds. Let me grab this. Am I thinking of completely different
55:22
game? No, it is Fantasy Fly games. The one that I know a lot of people
55:27
played instead of Whiz War was Frag. Okay. Which was like Unreal Tournament the board game but had lots of division and
55:34
like long division and stuff like roll 20 dice, count them up and then divide this number by five. Um and yet Yeah.
55:41
So, and people used it to teach their kids math a lot. I saw that quite a bit. So, but it seemed to overtake in my
55:48
local groups, it sort of overtook Whiz being pret, right? So, you kind of you
55:53
have you have a field of magic you can pick which you get a deck of. Um, there's like a labyrinth that gets put
55:59
down where your bases and then tiles you kind of explore. I can't remember where you explore them or whether they're already face up. Can't remember that
56:05
bit. But and then you go out and you if it we used to play a lot three player because if one person's going for their
56:11
flag, someone might come for your flag. You've now got to defend from two aspects and it added a little bit more
56:17
of variety than a four player we found. Um and yeah, we uh we really enjoyed it
56:23
and I for me that's I know you're now saying it's really popular elsewhere, but in our group no one plays it, right?
56:29
And then I've not seen I think I saw I saw Paul had it and I was like, "Oh, I remember that game." But when's the last
56:36
time anyone got that to the table? And what other game can you compare it to to that would take its place?
56:41
It's like competitive hero quest. Yeah. Says by Hero Quest, but fine. It's
56:48
if that's what you're going to say. If this was a time machine episode, I'd be go all over Whizwarm. I don't know. It holds it holds a good
56:54
place in my heart and I think it's under the radar within our group and the rest of the world. No one no one really plays
57:00
it anymore. So get it to the table. It's the evolution of taste. How your how your taste evolves and changing board games.
Clash of Cultures
57:06
You would be going you'd be going back 15 years in not in not just your time machine but in taste.
57:12
Yeah. But I would struggle her press has come back out and people were loving it somehow. I think those people are crazy.
57:18
Yeah. It's not it's just not for me. It's just not for me. Yeah. Go on then Dan. What have you got? Um I this this comes with a story this
57:26
one. So as as everything I say comes with a little story. So with this game,
57:32
right, the game that trumped this one Yeah. was um Sidmise Civilization,
57:38
the 2010 version, the FFG version. So I sold the game that I'm going to talk
57:43
about because the Civ game came out and because I was,
57:48
"Oh my god, it's Siv and I'm playing the video game." it went, "This is going to be better." Um, but it's one that gets
57:54
forgotten about. Um, it was originally made by Zman. I don't know if it still is now, and they also brought out a
57:59
second edition, which I still don't think got a lot of love or gets a lot of love now. And that is Clash of Cultures.
58:05
Okay. Okay. So, if you don't want to play Sid My Civilization, the board
58:10
game, especially if you don't want to play a New Dawn, uh the latest one that came out, which I didn't like, then
58:15
Clash of Cultures was basically a a a good crunchy tossup between Civ and um
58:24
Through the Ages. So, um if you like a lot of plastic on your biscuit, then
58:31
join this club because Clash of Cultures was it. It had like so many different pieces of plastic and where you had like
58:37
a your city you'd see your city evolve and build as you built it. So it would start off with one kind of like round
58:43
piece but then you'd add little extra kind of um pieces onto the side of the city to kind of see it expand which is
58:50
really back then it was really quite cool. Um but is it's definitely a a civilization game through the ages where
58:56
you're building up your city other people are doing that you're attacking each other and you have a board which is basically a tech tree. Yeah,
59:01
it was a a crunchy Civilization game. Um, it's I really liked it, but
59:08
Civilization kind of kind of trumped it for me because, you know, it was it was Civ and I was playing the video game. I
59:13
thought, well, there's no point having both, so I'm just going to get this one. Um, and well, I had both, but I'm only
59:18
going to keep this one and not keep Clash of Cultures, but it has been remade fairly recently. I think it's quite expensive though again because
59:24
there's so much plastic that's in the in the box, but it's like like at 90 quid if you want to go and buy it. Um, it is
59:30
on the heavier side while Civilization was heavy but probably not as heavy. Um,
59:37
but I don't see that being played anywhere. Not even the second edition that came out in the last few years.
59:44
Clash of Cultures, it's Yeah. 2012 old school. But if you like Civ games, then
Underwater Cities
59:49
then give it a whiz. Yeah. Yeah. Whiz. Give it a whiz. I think Whiz Kids might actually be the one that actually remade it. I don't think it's Zman. Um, but
59:56
yeah, I I like I like Civ games, but I'm to like um so yeah, Clash of Cultures.
1:00:02
Yeah. Okay, so my one ranks 50.
1:00:09
Bear with me. Bear with me. Like how Dan was giving me [ __ ] about my one, right? What's going on with this
1:00:15
one? I think if I think of an unpunched gem, to me this fits because to me it is.
1:00:21
And it's Underwater Cities, right? Oh, because you've played it. I have played it.
1:00:26
Okay. I'm not saying I haven't played. Oh, I thought you were saying you hadn't played it. No, but the reason why it came out
1:00:32
I I completely without even going into a I'm not saying it didn't get the buzz. It got the buzz at the time and then just quickly just bugger fizzled out
1:00:38
for me like so and obviously it's going strong. It's 50 on the the BGG rank, but
1:00:44
I don't like our group just didn't get the the air time with that game till recently. Yeah.
1:00:50
Till we played it. You've got a copy of it. I had it and sold it cuz I couldn't get the buzz for it. Couldn't get anyone
1:00:55
interested in playing it. I've bloody enjoyed it when I played. I thought I can see why it got the buzz. I can see why it's got this is not great
1:01:02
though. But yeah, the first edition's awful. Well, the also the expansion adds the dual layer boards that you want and
1:01:07
stuff like that. So, which is now like rocking horseshit cuz you cannot get hold of it at all.
1:01:13
Doesn't the second edition of the game come with a dual layer board? No. No. Cuz the first one definitely didn't. No, the second doesn't. So, the second
1:01:19
came with better domes that didn't crack instantly before I can make out. But it's still a thin bit of card for the
1:01:25
base. And then in the expansion, you get dual layer boards and some different ones as well. Some different board types
1:01:31
as well, but cannot get I've been looking for this game. I've been trying to wait for someone to sell it secondhand cheap or cannot get it
1:01:38
anywhere because there was two publishers that did it. They're bringing back Yeah. So, you got Delicious Games, which is Sushi's own
1:01:44
company. Yeah. And then there was one before that that I can't remember, but apparent they're bringing out a new
1:01:50
addition, a new expansion. New expansions. And I'm hoping that that will bring a reprint of the second the first
1:01:56
expansion as well cuz some anything just so I can get my hands on those dual layer boards cuz I'm
1:02:02
not always the biggest fan of that. But it's so needed in this game. It just slides around. It reminds you of terraforming. It's
1:02:09
worse than terraforming. first that you got. But no, for me it was um a game I've been he kind of came out, it disappeared,
1:02:16
moved on, played other things and it's like I should always try that. I should in my back of my mind should try that. I should try that and then until the
1:02:23
opportunity came recently and we tried and yeah, it's good. It's a great show. Really, really great show. Really like it. I like the the
1:02:28
fact that you've got the the kind of action spaces that are colorcoded to the cards that you've got and you're like,
1:02:34
do I do this with the action or do I do this with the card and and just it's simple
1:02:39
in terms of its um its design and and and how and what you're supposed to do, but there's crunch to it in terms of how
1:02:45
to optimize it and how to get the best out of it. And uh yeah, I loved it. I thought it was a great game. Um happy to
1:02:51
play it anytime. So yeah, for me it just feels like one even though I know it isn't. And this is what we're talking about, isn't it? Is the But
Come Together
1:02:58
it's it's all about perspective and observation bias and all those kind of things will will make some games in your
1:03:04
top. There'll be people who are like, I've never heard of this game. It's in a BG top 100, top 200, whatever. So
1:03:09
yeah. So back out of the BGG top 30,000 again for me then um in what I think might be
1:03:15
overlooked. So I played this on a gaming rule stream. Thought this is good. I don't
1:03:21
know that it blows me away, but I think it's a solid game that's going to find a bit of time. Um, and people are going to
1:03:27
sort of find it a bit funny as well. It's come together. Yeah. The hippie one.
1:03:33
The hippie one. So, it's all about It's sort of like a Glastonbury festival sort of thing, and it's all sort of in those
1:03:38
70s like neon colors and everything. And it's Is it the video game? No. No. It's Chili Fox.
1:03:45
Sure. I've seen pictures of it, but not sure. But it's and it's a worker placement where some spots need like you got a
1:03:52
stack of workers. Some spots need one, some need two, some some need three sort of thing. And
1:03:57
basically when an area gets filled, if I remember correctly, then activates the area and everyone gets their results for
1:04:02
going there. So some people it might not activate for a little while or you might not get full activation out of it. And
1:04:08
and you're trying to fill a stage up with different acts to get different workers and stuff like that. And all of
1:04:14
the acts have sort of hippie but board game themed titles. So there's
1:04:20
like the Dixits and uh what was the other one I saw earlier when I was looking this up?
1:04:26
The Cerial Confluences. Yeah, there's there's like Mary Kybo and
1:04:31
stuff like that that are all kind of on there and just I thought that would entice a load of
1:04:36
like nerdy people who'd find this funny as well. And it just seemed to get nothing. And again, I don't think it was
1:04:42
I don't think it was groundbreaking or anything like that. I just think it was a solid game that got no time at all. I
1:04:49
enjoyed my playthrough of it and I thought it was just really solid and did
1:04:54
the job and I had a laugh and everyone sort of oh what band did you get? Oh yeah, that one that's quite f you know some of them sometimes you look at it
1:05:00
and you're like what's that supposed to say? Oh now I get it. It's funny sort of thing. Little puns. Yeah, little puns.
1:05:06
And it just didn't I don't know it just didn't seem to go anywhere or do anything. And yet I thought it was it
1:05:11
reminded me it reminds me interestingly because it's a similar theme of the draft and write records Yeah. style of sort of you're going
1:05:18
along tracks and trying to uncover things and tick things off and
1:05:23
like up in that top leftand corner of the draft and write records where you're sort of going along a track and trying to get bonuses for sort of getting so
1:05:29
far along it. So, there was loads of bits that I found in other popular games, but just and I do think it might
1:05:36
be the box art and some of those components looked very um
1:05:42
yeah, just quite basic like the the printed artwork on it was just it was that trying to be over stylistically
1:05:48
cartoonized sort of thing. And I do think there might have been some production bits that held it back, but
1:05:54
yeah, I'm surprised it didn't get the love. I mean, it looks like a Beatles cover. It does,
1:05:59
which is probably the the the star they've gone with the album cover, like Sergeant Pepper's band or whatever.
1:06:05
Yeah. All of that. And I thought that would attract a certain audience and festival goers as, you know, there's a bit of quite a bit of crossover for
1:06:11
board gamers and festival goers and I thought this might attract people and just just didn't. It's a good choice cuz I completely
1:06:16
forgot that game existed. Yeah. And this was it. I was I was I was looking back through every game I'd played
Moonrakers
1:06:22
over 3,000 sort of thing and went, I had a lot of fun with that game. I've rated it okay. you know, again, I gave it like
1:06:28
a seven or something, so it's not too bad at all. Um, and yeah, just nothing. Fair enough.
1:06:34
Anyway, so for me, um, and I think there's a pro there's probably a reason why this has slightly flown under the radar is cuz
1:06:40
it's a very niche game. And I think it's going to be um polarizing for a lot of
1:06:47
people. And it's Moon Rakers. Uh, so this game is a card game where you are trying to upgrade your ship. Um,
1:06:54
I I kind I don't know the full objective of the game, but I kind of know what the game's about. Um, you have missions that
1:07:01
are put out and to usually complete this mission, you have to have someone else
1:07:06
help you on the table. It's not co-op, it's competitive. There's only be one winner and you've got to basically negotiate
1:07:12
with the other person about what they're going to get from this card, what you're going to do to be able to do this mission, and then use those bits to
1:07:20
upgrade your ship. And I think there's also a trade phase. So, it's it's got a lot of player interaction in it for a
1:07:26
game which is also got Euro style elements on it. And I think that's the
1:07:31
reason why it's been polarizing for some people. Um, but for me, it's kind of flown under the radar. I think it was
1:07:38
released in 2020. Um, and I saw a lot of buzz online
1:07:45
about it, but I heard no one talking about it outside of had a lot of PR. I remember I remember
1:07:51
you just saw on socials. Didn't it have printing issues or something like didn't it go out I thought it went out of print early or
1:07:56
something like that. I can't remember now. Maybe. Um but yeah, I I'm sure there was something where people couldn't get hold
1:08:03
of it again and shortly after release and stuff. I know they did a reprint as well where they did like there's now like a big box
1:08:09
version of it where they've got even more stuff. They did a couple of versions of like a retail version and a super kickstart
1:08:14
the Titan version. I remember that. Yeah. And it looks really nice and I think um Yes. I had a lot of Yeah, a lot
1:08:20
of PR um all over Facebook and I think the is it IV studio?
1:08:25
I think it is. They they do a lot of PR on on Facebook and lots Yeah. I'm always seeing their
1:08:31
their stuff come up online. Well, their realm of reckoning is their latest one. I keep seeing Yeah. Yes. Yes.
1:08:37
Constantly faced. Um and I think that I think I think PR can only work to some certain degree
1:08:43
because if the game isn't everyone's cup of tea, then it's just it's just going to go flat in the pan. But then I' I've
1:08:49
owned about that game for ages. Never played it, but it always looks to me like this could be interesting and and
1:08:55
it's a decent theme and I nearly bought it one expo year. Just didn't
1:09:00
I did the same thing. I very nearly bought it. I looked at it and went, "Oh." And then I just kept thinking, "Who am I going to play this with? Who's
1:09:07
going to enjoy this?" I was thinking that, too. Yeah. Because anyone that has played it, the people that bought it are probably going
1:09:13
to be the people that like the game. So there's going to be very skewed metrics on to who likes this game anyway.
1:09:20
So yeah, I I I do want to I probably will get it at some point just to play it and then might end up moving on.
1:09:26
Yeah, there you go. Got people to play it. But people do rate it from what I gather. Some people, you know, that I've
1:09:34
spoken with and who have played it said, "Yeah, it's pretty cool." And I've seen people playing it. I remember when it came back in stock,
1:09:39
there was quite a bit of a let's go out and grab it sort of thing. So yeah, I think it is it is known of. It's just as
1:09:44
you say in our group specifically, it's barren. No one's no one's picked it up. And I think it is
Paperback
1:09:50
because it has, you know, it's like deal with the devil. It's that kind of player interaction not
1:09:56
everyone's going to enjoy. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, Dan. Hello. What else you got?
1:10:02
Word games, right? Word games. Scrabble. Everyone goes to Scrabble for a word game cuz they just love that itch for
1:10:08
that triple word score, don't they? Not Not me. Not really. Not anymore. I mean, if you know, if Aunt Sally wanted to
1:10:14
play it, fine. I might have a game. But one game that doesn't get spoken enough when you really want to kind of scratch
1:10:20
a word and you want your family to join you because all they want to do is play that bastard Scrabble is paperback.
1:10:28
Paperback is fantastic. It's a great word game and it's a deck builder and I love deck builders.
1:10:35
Um, I went from Star Realms and went I like Star Realms. It's it's the original
1:10:41
Star Realms. None of the extra add-on crap. The original Star Wars that came in a little box. Lovely. Still got it. Two-player game. Cracking game. Okay,
1:10:48
where can I go now? That's a word game. Oh, sorry. Where can I go now? That's that's a deck builder. That might be a little bit more intricate.
1:10:54
Oh, paper people are saying paperback. Paperback. Looked at it. Paperback. It is just you're collecting letters to
1:11:01
make words. No one plays it. Not that I can see.
1:11:06
It's had other iterations. I think hardback was the next one on from paperback. But if you really want a good
1:11:12
game that you can get around the table that no one kind of really plays anymore, but you also want to get out of
1:11:17
the Scrabble, you know, ways of life when it comes to word games, paperback, people don't talk about it. It's great.
1:11:23
It's a great little game. Yeah. I don't I don't love word games. So, it's one of those where that's also that's also a thing. A lot
1:11:29
of people either you love word games or you hate them. My wife, she can't stand them. She thinks she can't spell. You
1:11:34
can love I love you. You can spell, but she won't play word games at all. But
1:11:39
paperback, fantastic game. Yeah, it's it's where I ended up going for cuz Paperback and Letter Jam weren't far
1:11:45
apart and Letter Jam was the one that someone showed me and I was like, "Okay, I can kind of get on board with this." Tried
1:11:51
it a little bit, it was fine sort of thing. There's a little theme there with paperback as well when you play there's a little it's a slight not it's not it's
1:11:57
not world ending, but it's a little bit of a theme to it. Um, and there's a sense of purpose when you're building these these letters and these words out.
1:12:04
Um, but doesn't get spoken anywhere near enough as it should. I keep seeing the paperback uh adventures.
1:12:10
Yes. Different volumes where you you have like don't know if they're like superheroes or their characters
1:12:15
possibly. Yeah. I think their decks are slightly different. Yeah. I haven't gone any further than they go
New Angeles
1:12:20
with the original but I again I sold my coffee powers games is it? Yeah. Same as Fugitive and
1:12:26
Yep. Yeah. Yep. Exactly the same. Good little small box games they do. Yeah. Yeah. I had Future didn't like it but no
1:12:32
but paperback. Yeah. It was fantastic. Good choice. Good choice. The last game I've got is is going to be polarizing
1:12:39
for many that have either tried it or haven't tried it. But I do think it's a gem. And
1:12:45
don't you dare say too many bones. It's not Too Many Bones. No one could have heard of that. No one's heard of it.
1:12:51
No one's heard of that. No, it's it's New Angel. Okay. Yeah. Because it's it's something that Fantasy
1:12:57
Fight just released and then that was it. It just literally released
1:13:03
completely under the radar. I think it's rank 1500, which I was surprised it's even that high to be honest in in the um
1:13:11
in Board Game Geek, but yeah, set in the Android universe. I've talked about it on the pod. I'm not going to go into the
1:13:16
detail about it, but it's very much um negotiation, the the board game u
1:13:22
playing the CEOs of of futuristic corporations and being a dick to each other. And that's pretty much what that
1:13:29
game is all about. Remember it was when it was released and I looked at it and went, "Oh, I'm not sure." And then I didn't
1:13:35
bother committing to it cuz I was really up for anything that was FFG made after TI came out. I was like, let's get
1:13:42
everything that's FFG. And I went on a little bit of an FFG spree. Yeah. And I remember when that came out and I went, do you know what? I'm going to pass on that. Don't know if it's my cup
1:13:48
of tea. And that was it. It's I'm glad I've got it cuz I don't think you can get hold of it very easily
1:13:54
now. Um I wonder if the timing was around when they're about to lose the license or get rid of the license anyway. So it was
1:14:01
probably just them trying to well just push it out, right? There was a couple. There was a couple that they brought. I wasn't that was another one called something frame.
1:14:07
Oh, main frame. Main frame. That was another one. You got Android the board game which was dreadful.
1:14:13
The original but I still want to play it. How weird is that? You're solving a crime
1:14:18
and the crime gets solved depending upon what you So the murderer changes or whatever it is. The person who's done it
1:14:24
wrong changes depending upon what you play. Yeah. So there's no right answer. You're
1:14:30
solving a game and it's just you get to an answer and that is shaped by what you've done.
1:14:36
But it's cool. So there's no fix. There's no actual like it's not like a sort of Cludo thing where it's like, "Oh, it's these are
1:14:41
people in the envelope." No. No. It's the weirdest thing ever. I'd still want to play it
1:14:47
cuz it' be janky as hell. It starts off. It sounds a bit like Detroit New
1:14:52
Yeah. Um what's it what's the Detroit New Angel? Whatever it's called. No, Detroit. The
1:14:58
the one the the video game. The video game. Fantastic. Quantic Dream. That's what it sounds like the theme
1:15:03
wise. And then it's like, "Oh, no." That's it. Detroit become human. Become human. Yeah. That's what I Yeah.
1:15:10
It's one of the first games I remember actually seeing fan-made patches for on board gamegeeek
1:15:16
because everyone was like, "This is ridiculous. Broken. We have all fixed it in different ways."
1:15:21
I remember seeing like three different patches for that game. And again, Android is now practically ancient sort
1:15:26
of thing on the on the new board game scale. And I it was the first time I remember seeing like homemade patches
1:15:32
for games because I remember looking it up and going, "We can't have played it right." And everyone going, "No, no, no. This is just the dreadful way that
1:15:38
Android works." It's when people when you talk to people and and they go, "Oh, I played Android Netrunn. It was fantastic." I went, "Did you play the original Android?" And
1:15:43
they're like, "No, what's that?" You tell them, they're like, "I didn't know that even existed." Yeah. Yeah. It's like they took the It's a good job. I think lot I think if
1:15:50
people played Android and then Netrunner Netrunner wouldn't exist cuz people would have played Android and then be like
1:15:55
but the theme of it is great like the Android theme is is is
1:16:01
awesome. So if you kind of like that that cyberpunk futuristic dystopia kind
1:16:06
of vibe then that's kind of the jam. But yeah, Android board game you can't get hold of it anyway. If you can it'll be
1:16:13
expensive probably don't do it. I only sold mine like 6 years ago, 5 years ago. Original Android. Yeah,
1:16:19
I had a copy of it in my shop cuz I used to run an online retailer um for board games and that I have one in my shop.
1:16:24
Guess the rating of it. Well, Android. Yeah, it's a 6.7. That's not necessarily great.
1:16:30
It's quite high though, isn't it? I expected to be a lot old rankings, I suppose
1:16:36
of nearly four. Oh, it's again, it's a terrible rule book with lots of random rules in it and
1:16:42
and had a weird ruler that you kind of flew around. Anyway, that's not the game I'm talking about. I'm just intrigued.
1:16:48
This this is not the the unpunched gem. It's New Angel's which is the android universe. And yeah, so the reason why
1:16:55
it's polarizing is if you don't like negotiation, avoid this at all costs. If you do not like confrontation in in that
1:17:02
fact where you're probably arguing with another player to get what you want, don't play this game. It's not going to
1:17:07
bring out the You need the right group. you need the right group of people who are willing to
1:17:12
enter into it with the spirit it needs and then leave
1:17:18
with each other. Yeah. Leave with everyone smiling and and hugging at the end of it. But I I I love it.
1:17:23
You do have to be mean to each other. That's you. That's like the point of the game. You have to be. You have to be cuz one of you is potentially uh a dick
1:17:30
in the game as well, which last time I played it, I was the dick and it was brilliant. And I and I was just waiting for the
1:17:35
opportune moment to screw everyone and I did it and it felt amazing cuz they all just swore at me and I was like and I
1:17:42
won and it was great. Um but yeah, I think it is it is a gem of a game. It's one that people don't
1:17:48
talk about ever. Um but yeah, appreciate if you don't like that style, don't don't play it. and avoid it at all costs
1:17:54
cuz it's not going to sway you into it. Um, you know, if you don't like negotiation, playing that is not going
1:18:00
to make you like negotiation games at all. Um, but if you like that kind of jam, I recommend it. It's good.
1:18:06
It It doesn't shy away from what it is. No, it Yeah, it leans into it
1:18:13
fullheartedly. It's like, right, this is a negotiation game. You're going to argue and someone's going to leave
1:18:19
feeling pretty annoyed by it, but you're going to enjoy it while you do it. If you enjoy this, if you like that, like the emotion that
1:18:25
it brings out of you. But yeah, there we go. Hope that's going to kind of been a bit interesting. Some
1:18:31
different corners of our psyche in terms of some games that have come out um either flew under the radar for our
1:18:37
group or generally in uh general terms. I wish I hadn't given myself all of these games have been like in the BGG
1:18:43
top 10,000 apart from mine. Oh, I could have listed loads of good games that I don't think people have
TURN 4 - Receive, Sleeve or Leave
1:18:48
talked about. No, but I'm glad you did it properly. Thanks.
1:18:54
One of us had to. Mine was an afterthought. But there we go. Hope you enjoyed us
1:18:59
talking about some unpublished gems. Let's go on to the next segment.
1:19:13
Okay, it's time for some receive, leave, and leave. And I've been taking notes of the little uh unpunch gems that you've
1:19:19
been uh mentioning. So, you've been doing this on the fly? I've been doing this on the fly section on the fly. I've been completely caught out and I've
1:19:25
not prepared. So, I've just picked three of the games. Like the rest of this episode, he's done it on the fly. Yes.
1:19:30
Jet lag. Dwight, leave me alone. Um I've actually picked um on the fly home.
1:19:36
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Nice. No, I didn't even do that. I was asleep. Slept. I slept.
1:19:41
I picked three games that I thought out of all the ones we discussed that kind of go together as best as they could,
1:19:48
which is they don't, but you're having them anyway. So, it's Underwater Cities, it's Moon Rakers,
1:19:54
and it's come together. So, I thought I'll throw those three in. I wouldn't say they're similar at all,
1:19:59
but they're kind of weight probably similarish. Um, but there we go. They're the three I'm I'm picking.
1:20:05
Yeah. Yeah, cuz there I wasn't prepared. I'm going to sugar coat it. So, yeah.
1:20:10
Anyone want to go? Yeah, I'll go first. I'm going to sleeve come the Beatles game come Together.
1:20:15
Okay. Yeah, cuz it's I bet it's dirty. So, um and then Oh, wow.
1:20:21
Polyamorous. But anyway, I'm not going to go there. Right. So, I'm going to I'm going to I I will sleeve come Together.
1:20:27
Okay. Um just because it sounds quite interesting and a little bit different to what I normally have. So, I'll sleeve
1:20:34
that. Okay. Um, I will receive Moon Raker because I don't want to buy the big box.
1:20:40
And as we went over, there's a reason why a lot of us don't want to buy it. So, I'll receive it. Expensive. Yeah. Yeah.
1:20:45
Um, and I will leave. Um, I forgotten what the Underwater City. I like Underwater City.
1:20:51
Yeah. I was I was like, he's not going to leave. I'm going to leave underwater cities because Adrian's going to get it and
1:20:57
I'll play Adrian's copy. Fair enough. Cuz I've I've already I've left Underwater Cities before. So, fair play.
1:21:02
Goodbye. All right. Anyone else? Yeah, I'll go next. So, I will sleeve
1:21:09
Underwater Cities. It's a banger of a game at BGG top 50. Loads of people have heard of it.
1:21:17
It's a gem. Under the radar, not my radar. No. No.
1:21:22
Completely slipped under my radar. True. So, I'm going to sleep that. Then I'm going to receive Come Together
1:21:29
because I did enjoy playing that and I would happily give it another go. And then Moon Rakers is deliberately
1:21:34
polarizing and I think I would the reason why I didn't really look at it or pick it up or anything is because it's it's the wrong side of I'm on the wrong
1:21:42
side of that sort of polarization. I think definitely. So I don't think you would enjoy it either. So So it's going to get left.
1:21:48
Makes sense. I think I'm exactly the same as you. Although I'm interested in in Moonrakers,
1:21:54
I still haven't bought it. I still haven't got it. I still haven't committed. So if you're going to commit, Davey, then I'll just come around yours.
1:22:00
There you go. So, um, it's not how this game works. Imagine that can't happen, Dan.
1:22:06
If that can't happen, I I'll still leave it. But Underwater Cities is a banger that no one's ever heard of. So, we
1:22:13
we'll we'll sleeve that provided we can get the expansion and get the second the boards because it needs it.
1:22:20
Uh, come together sounds interesting. And if someone wanted to give me a copy, I like, "Yeah, let's go for that." Um, and yeah, Moonrakers. in there.
1:22:26
We're basically doing this game of like shag, marry, avoid. And it's like, well, I'll shag her cuz I know you're going to
1:22:31
marry her. So, I can't see her every week. So, come together
1:22:37
right now. So, that's So, I'll shag her cuz I'll see her every week. That's fine. I like
1:22:42
her as a person as well, but you're marrying her. So, so I'll still get to see her.
1:22:48
Fair enough. Fair enough. That's how we're playing this game right now. It's not It's not how it's meant to be
1:22:54
played, but there we go. Um, sharing is caring. It is caring. Yeah. I I would
1:23:00
leave Come Together cuz it does not interest me. I don't know what it is.
1:23:05
The look of it, it's not interesting me. I would play it cuz I play anything and it might sway me if I played it.
1:23:11
But at the moment, I'm like, nah. For whatever reason, which is probably why it's flying under
1:23:16
the radar. Again, it's a solid game. And if moon ra I think out of this selection if moon
1:23:21
raker is going to be more your thing I can totally understand. Yeah I've got more interest in moon
1:23:26
rakers than have that. So moon rakers I would receive and I would sleeve underwater cities cuz no one's heard of
1:23:32
it. And I stand by I stand by it.
1:23:37
It will be rare soon. It's going to be rare. No one bought a copy. No one knows what No one knows what it is and I stand by
1:23:43
it. So there we go. Just a blip on the radar there. It's just a little blip blip. Little blip in the sea. There we go. Yeah.
1:23:49
Do you know why I bought it and then sold it? I bought it because it reminded me of Bioshock.
1:23:55
Oh yeah. Then I sold it because I couldn't get it to the table and it is nothing like Bioshock. It's nothing like Bioshock. Game board
1:24:01
game like Bioshock would be cool though. Uh they have one but it's not great. Age of Columbia.
1:24:07
That's the infinite one. It is. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay, but it's very it's dated for what it is and it's
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up
1:24:13
But just one with that theme rather than one that directly ties into the IP would be cool. I agree. And I would be all over it like
1:24:20
[ __ ] on Velcro. Yep. [Music]
1:24:33
Okay. So, we are now at our penultimate turn. So, we're nearly there, guys. This this for those that don't know with this
1:24:39
particular group of of recording artists, it's it's always a fun record because we have more in the bloopers
1:24:45
than we do in the actual talking about. Yeah, sure. Um, so what are you all looking forward to,
1:24:51
guys? What's coming up? Go on, Dan. Uh, I by the time this episode comes
1:24:56
out, I would have been and come back from Germany. I'm going to Munich.
1:25:03
Nice. Uh, in 4 days. Um, I'm hoping to see if I can
1:25:08
try and go to a German board game store. So, I can say that I've been to a German board game store. There's plenty of them.
1:25:13
There's plenty of them. Um, as the uh as the Germans love board gaming. Um, so it will be beige on the outside so
1:25:19
you'll know which one it is. We'll have cubes. Have cubes. Yeah. Ports of Essen.
1:25:25
Um, I'm all over it. Yeah. Can't wait. Looking forward to it. Really looking forward to it. Haven't been abroad for nearly a decade, so I can't wait to go.
1:25:31
Nice. Um, and also, um, since watching Clarkson's Farm,
1:25:37
I wonder I wondered if this was going to come. It's got to come. I've been playing Farming Simulator and I actually
1:25:43
really enjoy it. A gripple of the video game. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I actually really like it. Like, oh, that combine's
1:25:48
really cool. What um livestock you tend? Not yet. I've started in my inf.
1:25:55
We've we've planted some rape seed and we've planted some barley for some oil. I've been lying my fields
1:26:00
and that's about as far as I've gone. I don't play this game. I had cows. I sold them. I'm like, "No, it's too complicated. You got to preheat
1:26:06
the oven before you stick in the turkey." Right. So, that's what I've So, that's what I've done. I thought it start with the
1:26:12
fields. Uh, and I'm really enjoying it on my shiny new OLED panel that I bought. I guess it's kind of cathartic, right?
1:26:19
It's just chill. It's just real chill. It's like I'm just sat here holding W and chewing on his bit bit of bit of wheat
1:26:26
out his mouth. What I've got is I've got one of my small children to go underneath my chair and kind of bob it up and down a little bit so it adds
1:26:32
extra immersion. No, son. No. Is that with the worzles on in the
1:26:38
background? Oh, yeah. What? If anyone goes for a [ __ ] leave the door open so I can smell it.
1:26:46
4D. Brilliant. Brilliant. Amazing.
1:26:51
Farming simulator in Germany. That's what I'm doing. David, what are you up to? because you can't top that.
1:26:56
No, I can't top that. But, um, I will be playing The Old King's Crown. That's coming up. Oh, I want to try that.
1:27:02
So, we're looking forward to that. Have you got Yeah. Yeah. So, that's what I'm looking forward to.
1:27:09
Yeah, that's pretty much it. So, now I can't top and But it's pretty close though.
1:27:14
Germany. Yeah, I'm I'm excited. The last game we played of it was the prototype
1:27:19
expert. Yeah. Yeah. Um, no, this is one that they they gave us a prototype. So, we Oh, yes. played the prototype um and
1:27:26
really enjoyed it then. That was a real good laugh. So looking forward to getting the the full version down.
1:27:31
See how it's changed. Yeah, cuz a lot's been added up. The artwork for it is just phenomenal.
1:27:37
Phenomenal. I assume it's full. Uh this is Yeah, I'm playing that.
1:27:42
Yeah. About you, Adrian. I have two campaign games currently sort
1:27:48
of set up for the next couple of weekends. So Pandemic Legacy Season Z. So, just
1:27:53
completed July today and then that was great fun. Again, it's hard to talk about these games when
1:28:00
there's so many spoilers in there, but even from game one of season zero, I
1:28:05
thought this is going to be something cool and interesting. And having watched how season 1 shaped, I was just more and
1:28:12
more intrigued by what was going to happen in season zero. And so far, it's living up to that hype. And I'm in July, so I've got a few months left to go. And
1:28:19
season 1 went crazy at the end. So, I'm hoping that happens with season zero as well. It all goes a bit. Um, the bit I
1:28:26
didn't like in season 1 was where it's like, well, if you haven't done some of these things, then that's all right.
1:28:32
Yeah. At certain point in it, and I won't say when, but it kind of did that towards the end of the campaign. I'm hoping it's
1:28:38
not going to do that in season zero as well. So, if it does, please don't tell me because I'll be disappointed. But,
1:28:43
yeah, save my disappointment for later. So, got that and then got primal.
1:28:48
Yeah. With another group as well. So played it with a friend. They did not enjoy Primal two-player. They played the hammer
1:28:54
person, Thor or whatever his name is and didn't really enjoy it. Didn't get on with the hammer like the style.
1:29:00
What's his original? What's his name? Thor eggg or something original. Yeah. So
1:29:06
So Thor with EG on the end. Yeah. Yeah. So with a hammer. But the hammer isn't as
1:29:12
offensive, I think, as people think it will be. It's it's more support item how it starts. You can building it into
1:29:19
offensive which I did and which has actually been really bad because all of us Yeah. So all for the play through
1:29:25
with Paul all of us went really offensive and we've started losing a lot now. So I've started going back to the
1:29:31
support side of things. So just game two and I'm already finding that like we went all offensive and I
1:29:37
was like some of us are going to have to go defensive but everyone's just looking at each other kind of going well it won't be me sort of thing. So I'm but
1:29:42
I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes. We got a fourplayer game of it. We got through the prologue start which was
1:29:48
good and now we're on to sort of other monsters which I hadn't seen before which is I'm really looking forward to
1:29:53
that. Yeah. So, and I've got the gun. Nice. The bow gun. Yeah. Yeah. The bow gun.
1:29:59
That's cool. The We've got the reload mechanic. Reload mechanic. It's very cool. I like it. Uh you can do some cool things with that deck as well.
1:30:05
I found it's very interesting. I think the two expansion ones they brought out were a little bit
1:30:11
Well, the dual blades was like absolutely insanely busted. I think. Um, but they have FAQed that.
1:30:17
Oh, okay. Yeah. Um, if anyone likes the sound of Primal, then you can always check out the live stream that we do every
1:30:23
Fortnite for gaming rules as well. Check out the show notes. We'll put a link in. There we go.
1:30:28
And you can potentially win a copy. And you can potentially win a copy, which I mean this it's a big old game,
1:30:34
so it's you're winning a lot from it cuz I think it's the it's the full deluxe edition as well. So, yeah. Nice. It's a lot of boxes.
1:30:41
It's a lot of boxes and a lot of gameplay, but good. is such a good game. I didn't even get the monster expansions. I just got the fifth player
1:30:47
and some extra bits. And even that, there's plenty in there to keep you going. You can play two whole campaigns
1:30:52
and almost not repeat a monster. Nice. Cool.
1:30:58
What about you, JP? Yeah. Well, I've got too many bones coming up, haven't I? Oh, you have? With you, Adrian. And with you, David.
1:31:04
Yes. And with Becky. And with Becky. So, I'm looking forward to this cuz it's been nearly two, I think maybe three
1:31:10
years since I last played Too Many Bones. I'm looking forward to it because it's with you guys and I haven't played the game with you guys
1:31:16
for eight like two years. Um but yeah, normally when I play it, it's with the
1:31:22
similar people for whatever reason. Um so it's quite nice to just mix that up and Davey will pick the the most
1:31:28
complicated nonsense character he can get his hands on. I already know who I want to play. Oh, who you playing? I want to play um uh Riffle.
1:31:35
Riffle, the poker deck. Yeah, you'll enjoy Riffle. Yeah, cuz that was the Yeah, that's been like the newest one
1:31:40
from when I last played. I think he's he's the only one that's kind of been added. Well, I've got all the Unbreakable gear
1:31:46
play. There's another five in there, mate. There you go. It's a choice. Yeah. So, yeah. No, I'm looking forward to it.
1:31:52
It should be good fun. I might play unbreakable. Okay. Um play with that map cuz I've not done
1:31:57
that for a while. Um so, yeah, adds a little bit of subterranean. The last time I played was on a raft so
1:32:03
Yeah, that's undertoe. So, yeah, I'll do unbreakable. where you played on the pig, didn't you?
1:32:09
Yeah. To ride ride the pig. Pigillo. That was That was the one I last played
1:32:14
as well. So, that shows you how long it is since we played. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll uh Yeah. I'll let you have a a look through the
1:32:20
gear locks you want to play beforehand. All million of them. I should have played with that stair
1:32:25
with the stick. Does anyone know that? Anyone seen that? The pigs. I live in a different [ __ ]
1:32:31
bar. You live in meme world. So, in in America, they do a pig they show where you show off your pigs. I
1:32:36
know. Yeah. And they tap the pig in the line. Walking in line. Eyesight with the They have to keep
1:32:42
basically um you have to stare down the judge and you have to tap the pig. You get some very scary look scary
1:32:48
looking people just ushering a pig round like a like a pig there. But yeah, blime me that's a
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:32:56
that's a D world.
1:33:01
So no, I'm looking forward to a bit of a TMBB. It's going to be good fun. Um, so yeah, I think we're there, aren't we?
1:33:06
Still not playing it. Oh, we better get on board. I should I should play at least once. You should play it.
1:33:11
I should. Thank you for bearing with me with my jet lag. Um, it's always good to talk about some games that are very popular,
1:33:17
apparently. Um, so there we go. Uh, thank you all for listening. It's been great to have you along for the show.
1:33:23
Uh, if you enjoyed the show, please uh like, subscribe, and do all of that lovely stuff that makes us feel warm and
1:33:28
fuzzy. And, uh, share with your gaming group, family, friends, all that lovely stuff. Um, if you want to support the
1:33:34
show, we're on coffee and uh we love it when you can support the show. It keeps this engine going and uh we can't thank
1:33:41
anybody enough that uh for those that do. And uh yeah, you're all awesome. We love you. We love you. Um but other than that, all
1:33:48
that's left to say is whose turn is anyway.
1:33:54
[Music]