TURN 1 - Player Count
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Whose turn is it anyways excited to announce the Devon board game weekend at the Fox and Hounds Hotel in Edgesford
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near Exat. This event begins on Friday the 17th of October to Sunday the 19th of October. For more details on how to
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get tickets, follow the link in our show notes and we'll love to get a game with you there.
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[Music]
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Hello and welcome to Whose Turn Is It Anyway, a podcast all about our board game group and of course the board games that we play. I am Adrian, your first
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player. And today with me, I have the nearby JP. Hello. The a little too close, Tambo.
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Hello. And practically on my lap is Curly as always. In today's episode, we are
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going to be talking about Space Invaders. that are two games that invade each other's space a little bit too much. Much like Curly Sat on my lap.
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Well, get off him, Curly. He's trying to do a podcast. He's invading me at the moment. Oh, that's an image we don't want.
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I like it. Loving the energy. So, with that terrifying mental image aside,
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how are we all doing, JP? How are you doing? No, I'm very tired. I'm just going to put it right out there. Um, I've just
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come back from holidays. Um, and a horrific uh car ferry from Calala to do
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in the early hours of the night, which is my my voice is a little lower than normal. Um, but I'm doing right. Holiday
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was brilliant. Played lots of games. Um, notably Slay the Spire. Managed to
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complete act three in the board game version for the first time, which was me, Rob, and my son Josh. And
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we had a great time. I also completed V three in my holiday. High five T. Yeah, there we go. It's It's a good feeling
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cuz I'm crap at the board game version. I don't know why. I don't like the digital one. I can do it. No problem. But this one, I don't know
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what that's different. Act two is just awful. Who was the final boss? Um, what was it? It was the time snail.
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That's the one I completed. Yeah, maybe he's the easy one. Yeah, maybe in the in the digital version. That's
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basically a death. Yeah, really. Well, the slug time one. Well, we've done the hardest one then.
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You play 13 cards and stops you 13. So, yeah. And if you play 10, then it means you can only play three and then it'll
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hit you for like 60 and you're dead. Thanks. But it was good to do it. And we've finally unlocked most of the stuff. And
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now we're like basically got the ascension tree, should we call it, or the ladder to to go down new cards and
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stuff. Yeah, I'm looking forward to just now putting the ascension modes in and seeing where it goes, you know? So,
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yeah, it was good fun. Nice. And and Tamber, you also went on holiday and played loads more board games than JP did. Yeah. Loads and loads and loads.
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Um thousands. No, not thousand. Thousand. Wow. You were busy too. Yeah. I would go through all of them,
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but God, we at least did 20 different games we played. That's a lot. That is a lot. How long have you away for?
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Uh two weeks. Oh man. In a house. So if you weren't doing the swimming pool, we playing games basically. And I'm lucky to have
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families who enjoy playing pool games. So Was this Tam Con? Tam Con? Yeah. That sounds a bit bad actually. Tam.
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I like it. We're keeping it. marketing team might have another look at that.
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Yeah. No, very good. Yeah. Curly, how's you? Yeah, good. Thanks, mate. Yeah. After that, after that, I feel
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like there's not much else I can say. So, that's it. No, I I I definitely can't, you know, be that. No. So, should we go on to the next
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section? I think we should. Happy days.
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
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So, this is the part of the show where we talk about you and me and all the good things and the bad things that have been as we talk about Hex.
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I forgot he did this. I did. I forgot he did this little little thing. Yeah. Well done.
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It's too too cheesy. He looks really really proud of that. He is proud of it. Hey, it's been
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You shouldn't be. It was in the It was in the first ever episode, I think it was. And he did it for three years. He's been doing it. It was awful then, too. Three years he's
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been doing that. Well done. Keeping tradition. Yeah. Too right. Yeah. So, Curly, you may not like cheese, but
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what board games have you been liking and playing recently? Um, well, I've been playing a lot of Too
Kerley: Too Many Bones & Ark Nova 3Dition
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Many Bones with Becky cuz she's bought her copy. Yay. Um, a couple of weeks ago, so we've
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we've got that to the table a few times. Um, Becky's done it solo once as well, but she found that quite punishing,
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which is definitely true. Even two players hard much harder. Um but yeah,
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been enjoying that. Yeah, been damn good fun. Been playing bit of transforming Mars, bit of Art Nova as per usual. But
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yeah, there you go. So So should we talk about the Ark Noa bit we talked about in our little group chat
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and the 3D premium bits. Everyone knows your love for Ark Nova. Well, the the part of the problem is
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I've got with it is that we already own half of the like our version Etsy versions of the 3D bits anyway. It would
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be nice to have, but I do think it's expensive for what you get out of it, especially what we would get, which is
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basically a slightly better, probably more conclusive version of something we've already got. Um, so for the price
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point, I think it's too much for me. And and I don't think it will add very much to my experience of the game. It would
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just be a completionist buy, which although historically,
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I've I've done it. I think I'm trying to move away from that side of it. Collecting for collecting's sake I'm
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trying to move away from. So, um, you know, we've we've still got folded space inserts that we haven't used yet and put
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together. We've still got all sorts of bits and bobs like that I've ordered on the side and not actually needed. Um, so
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yeah, that that's my opinion on it. I'm sure it's decent for anyone who's ordered it. I'm sure they'll enjoy it, but it's just I think not for me.
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Is it just extra 3D tiles then? Yeah, basically our acrylic acrylic.
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They look really nice. I'll give it if if the production value comes out even close to kind of the pictures that
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they've shown. I think actually it looks really great. And I think because of the nature of Arc Nova, we talked about it before casters
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burgundy like it obscures the board where you need to see the numbers on the board and stuff like that. And I don't think the 3D tiles work there, whereas I
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agree the price point is quite high, but I think it's not going to it's not going to make your game harder to see. I don't
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think. Oh, I agree with that. So, I think the quality of the pieces and that I think actually makes it does make it ideal for the 3D version.
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Yeah, I I think you're right. It's just the price point versus what what you get I'm I'm pushing back against. Yeah. No, that's fair. I think that's
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because there's no gameplay content, right? Apart from one promo promo card, I see. I say sometimes they're for extra
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map. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's like another map pack thrown in. Might well,
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they're doing acrylic and metal tokens and all that lot, aren't they? which I think you were talking about.
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Maybe. Yeah. Well, it's Christmas or someone's birthday coming up.
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Well, it's already been my birthday, so I'm sure that I meant for Becky. It was Becky's birthday two weeks before mine.
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By the time this comes out, Christmas is coming. Christmas 2027.
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Yeah. No, I don't know. We We've had a chat about it and we're probably not going to
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bother. Very sensible. Fair enough. But you know, hey, look, we might just get a bit flush one month and
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then it's done in it, you know. Yeah. Late pledge. Yeah. I It's a big old window for you to hold
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out all that willpower. Yeah. Yeah. We'll wait and see. But at the moment, that's how we're feeling. Fair.
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Makes sense. Fair. Good. Tambo. Yes. What have you been playing recently?
Tambo: Bomb Busters
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So, playing lots of games. Lots and lots and lots. Um, but um, Hopper Muckus, it's it's a great game, but I've actually figured out I'm actually really
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[ __ ] at it. You beat me with it. I haven't won a game since.
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I've only I think I've only played it twice. I did know that. You remember the brown? I can't remember the name of the the class, but they got an owl. It's got two
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health and it moves around like and it's just rubbish. I can't remember. Yeah, honestly, it's the ones with the
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club on the on the tokens. The emotions. Oh, wow. I remembered. But yeah, um yeah, played that, played
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Terraform Mars, played heat, played um Sangri Sang the the stained glass window
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one. Sangra sagrada. That was a very popular one in the house. I couldn't work out if you're going for
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Santorini or Sigrada. I was like, I think it's going to be one of these two. Always drinking. Yeah, sangria.
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Always just drinking sangria and plenty more. But yeah, and stay inspired and all the sorts. So, it was really good holiday. Um but the one that
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standed out the most was um Bomb Busters. My brother bought it. We bought it when we went to um Expo, Game Expo.
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We actually sat down and tried it and the guy who showed us didn't really explain the rules probably in my opinion. It wasn't didn't sell it to me
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and my brother actually decided to get it and actually when we played in the house it was really really good. So you these cute little rabbits. I
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don't think it's got anything to do with anything. I think they're rabbits. They look like little rabbits. They got pointy ears on the cards.
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But um so basically what you got to do you got you got to find complete all
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your numbers before you find the red wire or if you snip the red wire you die or you lose all your lives you die. Basically the bomb goes off. So you got
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four sets of 1 to 12 on these little I say like rumby cup tokens but a lot thinner like smaller cards. You got
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little stands. You throw them all in the middle, shuffle them up and you draw. It's not like rummy cup at all. I'm just
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I'm just an example of the little tokens. Good. I'm watching curly wretch. I hate rummy. It's nothing like there's no math involved. Um, so you got like 1
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to 12, four sets of 1 to 12 basically and you all shuffle them up and you big out 11 each or depending on players you
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got it's two to five player and then you um yeah 11 each and then you got the red wires which consist of 1 to 12 but it's
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1.5 2.5 3.5 okay between the numbers. So that's all the red wires. So you just
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shuffle one in and someone's going to have the red wire. This is just mission one basically. This is the standard setup.
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And then so all you do you do if you're left you're the lowest number to your highest number to your right. You've got to put them in number numerical order.
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You must do that in your set and you keep them hidden from everyone else. And you can't talk too much with the game. All you can say
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is point at the number and say, so if I said to say agent had it opposite me and
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said, is that a three? And you point to the one, you want it to be a three. You think it's a three and a go, yes. And so what you do, you you reveal it in front
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of your stand and then you've revealed two of the threes. If you get it wrong,
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you lose a life. Okay? And then you got a life per how many players you have. So
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if you it's it's very at the beginning it's quite punishing. It's hard to get your head around. Once you get your head around it's really great fun. Um and
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obviously you got your four sets of every number. So once you got the four sets you've completed it. Um so yeah you got to do it before
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anyone finds the red wire. So it's co-op like you're trying Oh you're trying to diffuse a bomb basically all together trying to work
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together but you can't talk too much. Okay. And then you got um a special card that everyone gets to use once um which
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is I can't remember what it's called but it's basically you get one option you can say two numbers. I I I'll choose two
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of the tokens and say is that a two? Those two are two. And if you say none of them are two, you lose your life. But
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if it is one of them is a two, you you put it down the front. But if you get it wrong and use life, there's a um the
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other person that you asked with a number puts a little number from the pile of the boat and puts it in front so
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people know it's what number it is. There's kind of a tell. So it helps. Oh, okay. I was going to say, how would
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you know like what the left hand number also at the beginning of the game? You also everyone chooses one um to put in
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front. So you have you pick one number you can actually reveal, right? Okay. And you put it there and so it helps
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people to find out where they kind of stand because you could have one to six, six being your highest number in the
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whole set. Yeah. So if you put six at the end, you know, actually he's got no more than a six, 12 being highest.
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So that makes sense. I was like I don't know where you'd start without leaving losing like two or three lives. It reminds me like mind sweeper where
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you just randomly click in anywhere to open up the board and go I'm all right. I'm all right. Um, yeah, and that's
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that. And you got these cool cards in the middle that give you special abilities as well. So, they have numbers on top, two, three, four, five. And if
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you've got the first pair of that number, you activate the card. And any point during your turn, you can ask the captain who's the first player basically
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if can they use this ability. And it's something like sometimes you get a little, you could one, for example, you can do a triple detector. That's what
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they're called, detector cards. Um, and then you can say three. Are those three or number or something big?
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It gives you or an extra life. Yeah, something like that. Or you can say put like an equal sign up front. So you put
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it in front of the the numbers and you say these two in your thing are both the same number or non-equal. So it gives
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clues basically you help give clues for the whole whole thing. Um so there's a chance you'll have more I was thinking like if you'd have your own
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set of four but you just mix up the four sets. So there's multiples of each number potentially on each person. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You can um so you
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either do the whole thing sounds a bit bad but you can do a thing called self cut which means if you've got the first two say a pair of ones have already been
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revealed and you've got the other two ones you can do an action which says you self cut. So your turn is basically I'll reveal these two ones cuz they're in my
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Right. Okay. And you're searching for pairs. Yeah. If you got all four of the same number, you can selfish straight away. So you can just say all four go down.
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Basically, that's very unlikely you're going to get that, but you can do that. Um yeah, it's really good fun. There are
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60 missions in this. So there's like six boxes in there. So you got your first 10 missions you do, then you unlock a box,
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and it gives you different modules to different new rules. New rules, new things, twists, and I
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don't want to spoil anyone who's got it, so I won't tell the first boss, but it's really good. Yeah. really good fun. Um, you also have
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yellow wires when that's the extra bit in the first box anyway. So, it's not getting any giveaway. So, when you get further in, you get these yellow wires
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into or you don't have to get the same number, but you've got to say, have you got a yellow? If you think someone's got the early yellow, then they can reveal
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it. But yeah, so it gets harder. So, sometimes you have three red wires that
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go in and you know what all three red numbers are, but then you only pick one of them. So, you randomly shuffle one of them and
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put them one of them into the shoe and then you put it on the table. So, you know, you think there's three red wires, but there isn't. There's only officially one, so that's how it evolves and gets
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better and harder. I know it isn't this type of game, but it kind of gives me the same feelings as
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like um a cooperative trick taken game, something where you're trying to work together, but you can't tell everyone
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what the hell you've got, but you're kind of trying to do stuff in a way that helps the team get
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Well, even like the mind and stuff like that, isn't it? All of those kind of cooperative limited communication. It's
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good for this episode because it's exactly what it is, right? is sitting in that similar bucket of of games where you're like, well, all these things are
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limited communication, teamwork, trying to guess what people have. If you ever play a bit of advice, this
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is good advice. Always do the most obvious. So, if you know someone's got a two cuz they got that little token in front of it and you got two, just do it.
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Yeah. Just do the most obvious first and then it kind of makes it a little bit easier. But yeah, it's really good fun. Yeah.
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Nice. I think I'd have to see it. Yeah. It might come to um VidCon, so I'll make
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him bring it. It's good. This only takes like 20 minutes. It's done. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good.
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Yeah. Really enjoyed it. That's family favorite. Bomb misters. Nice JP.
JP: The Anarchy
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Yeah. I uh a few weeks ago um I kept seeing some kind of videos and people
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keep talking about a particular game that I had no interested in whatsoever.
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And then I started to see it and I was like just look does look quite interesting. So this is um the anarchy.
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Yeah. which is I'll call it a roll and right. You don't roll anything. Um so it's a it's a flip and right or
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something and right kind of style game uh on steroids is what I'll call it. Um
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it's a sequel design uh of Hrien's Wall. Yeah. Not Adrien's Wall, but Hrien's Wall.
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Adrien's. Um and both of them are good. Both walls are good. Yeah. And it's uh by Well, I've got
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Renegade production, but it's Garfield Games. It's Garfield Games, but Renegade have got local production.
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That's probably why they're on the box. Um, and it's uh I there's a whole history lesson in the book around 11th
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century. There's a period of time called the anarchy where I think a certain king
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basically uh stepped onto the throne and basically the whole country went not really not happy with this and uh lots
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of rioting and and pillaging of of castles and stuff. History lesson over. Hope you learned something. That was
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really good. Um, but generally you are kind of playing
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um where you've got your own keep and it's basically constantly being invaded
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uh over five rounds and you get in these cards where sometimes uh depending on
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the round, you can kind of see what the invaders are going to do, which side they're going to attack your castle and
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and therefore what you need to, you know, put your defenses into or what tactics you need to do to fend off the
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the bastards as it were. So, um and then sometimes in certain rounds those cards
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are face down so you get an idea. You don't quite know if it's going to be the north side or the the south side or
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whatever. So, then you kind of have to kind of play around with that. So, that's kind of driving you to to kind of build up um yeah, your your defenses.
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But what I will say is when you get your sheets, your big thick pad of a million sheets, uh which actually makes the box
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really heavy and you think, "God, there's a lot of stuff in here." No, it's mainly this massive pad and you tear off two sheets double-sided and put
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them side by side and then you look at it and go, "But where do I start with this Excel spreadsheet?" Um cuz it's it
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is overwhelming when you first look at Adrian's Adrian's wall was exactly the same. Yeah, it's like you look at go, okay, uh
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what do I do? Where do I start? And you get a load of resources in the game. You get a load of people. We get uh surfs
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and patrons and blacksmiths and and soldiers and knights and things like that. All different colored meatballs
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and you get some resources and and bread and whatever. And and you basically
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you're just spending them go, "Right, I'm going to spend such and such to do a certain thing." And you tick off a box
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or you circle or whatever and off you go. And and it's just like a sandbox.
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It's like doesn't hold your hand. Go and play. Go and take some stuff off. and you're like, "Okay." Um, so your first
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game is a bit like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. You're pushing those buttons, thinking, uh, I can't really
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see how this all links together. But then by the time you've done your first go, you're like, I get it. Cuz you kind
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of then start to see some of the pans. You kind of go, I should have invested in that track cuz that's going to give
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me this. And D. So there's a lot of comboing, uh, chaining stuff going on. Um, it's just actually a lot of fun. So,
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you feel like you're you're just in this real mind palace um by yourself. It is multiplayer.
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But is it? But is it though? It's not. It's it's multiplayer solitaire. And I bought it mainly for solo. So, I don't
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mind personally if it's um you know, that kind of experience. I think the only interaction I can see in the game
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is that you can uh help your opponents and you get a b benefit for doing it.
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That's it. Other than that, you're doing stuff yourself. Um, but yeah, it's it's cool cuz the little castle you get,
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you've got uh some pieces uh which are like little dice for your gate, your
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moat. The walls are like uh cuboid rectangular pieces that you can level up and build your walls. And the towers are
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like little cylinders. So when you've done it, it actually looks like a cool little castle and you can kind of see it
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grow and grow and grow and and get better and better. And uh yeah, I really
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enjoy this game. I've played it like three times. I suck at it still. I still can't get over 60 VPs, which is really
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frustrating me. I'm I'm going to do it one day. Um uh so I'm I'm by no means
19:40
any good at it, but I I'm I'm enjoying the experience it's giving me, which is I want 90 minutes,
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you know, an hour to 90 minutes of just crunchy Excel
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solo just, you know, brain activated doing something. Um cuz the problem I
19:58
have with roll or something and right games, I get bored with them very easily cuz they're they're not
20:05
always fulfilling for me cuz I like a heavier game, right? Um now the downside to that is the time,
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isn't it? It's how much time do you want to invest in this kind of play a normal board game, but it feels like a a proper
20:18
board game. You're just scratching stuff off and with a pencil. Um, and it's just got that kind of mid to I'd say slightly
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heavier than mid weight complexity kind of wrapped into it in a in a nice I'm scratching stuff off and
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getting stuff kind of vibe. And uh um so yeah, that the kind of whole kind of board or or bits of paper is kind of
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split into various different sections. You've got your kind of left side which is mainly around your defenses. So all
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your walls, your your your gates, your uh towers and all those kind of things. You've got your tactics that you can
20:51
invest in. So, if you want to get like hot oil, um, uh, arrows for your ballista and all those different things
20:58
that you can kind of help to fend off the the the boogers that are coming to to your gates. Um, and and then you kind
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of got these main kind of core tracks at the bottom, which is like might and bravery and all that kind of stuff. And
21:11
that's mainly where your VPs are going to get measured. So, you want to kind of build in in those. And you're going to get stuff that you know um the the
21:19
further up those tracks you get and you got like a whole tech tree as well kind of there. Okay,
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which is which is basically you need to invest in uh ways cuz what I haven't mentioned is that you can go off
21:29
invading other castles. Um so you need uh ladders and you need battery rams and you need all this kind
21:35
of medieval tech um to to be able to go off and and invade others so it could
21:40
build up your might and and bravery and all that kind of stuff. Um, so you kind of got all that and then there's a whole
21:47
bit where you spend money and you can get like loads of blacksmiths and different people as well. You can just kind of invest the money which is also
21:53
where the tech tree is kind of fed from. That's just the left sheet. Uh the the right sheet has got all of these
21:59
different leadership tracks where you've got uh kind of a governance um area
22:04
where you can build buildings like your mint and keeps and stuff like that and they're going to give you different bonuses. You got a warfare area. You can
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build, you know, your ramp parts. That's how you unlock your tactics uh for your castle. Um there's a whole religious bit
22:19
where you can build little churches. And it goes on and on. But my favorite thing
22:24
about it is the entertainment track which is at the kind of bottom. And it
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all revolves around this deck that you get. Every player has this small deck of cards and there's like these little mini
22:34
games that you get to play off this this single deck of cards. So if you're going to enter into a tournament because you
22:41
know trying to keep your castle defended is you know people start losing morale
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and that generally is a thing you do jousting to keep it and you want to get joy back into people's lives to cancel off the the the
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morale which is like you know people keep coming invading and killing everyone. Let's hold a tournament. Let's
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have fun. Um, and basically depending on the game that you're kind of playing, you you joust thinging, you you you're
23:05
drawing these cards and each card has, I don't know, six or seven sections to it. So, it depends on what kind of game
23:11
you're playing. Um, so, for example, with the tournament, he's got like a three spaces where you got a lance, a
23:18
shield, and a blank space. Draw one for you and one for the opponent, which is like just a random opponent. And if you
23:25
joust a space on their card, you win. If you joust a defense on their card, then
23:30
you tie, etc., etc., and you go three times. If you're still alive or you've won, then you get some bonuses. And
23:36
there's just little kind of quirky things like that I quite enjoy. It's like that too many bones thing, isn't it? We're doing a game except for
23:42
now you can do a little weird mini game and then you can go back to the main game. Then you go back to the main game. You can kind of, you know, do some sort of
23:48
pushy look elements in there as well. And so you don't have to do all of that, but it's quite fun. Um, but yeah, I I
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surprised me actually how much uh it gives. I had my eye on this from like the
23:59
second they announced this because I really well I enjoyed After the Empire,
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which is exactly the same thing. It's build up a castle with cool 3D parts because they're going
24:10
to get invaded from different sides and you need to do your Eurogamey thing to make the castle as good as possible. The
24:17
problem was was that the worker placement bit in the middle was just dross for me. I thought it was really
24:22
plain and boring. Um, thanks whoever bought it at the bringer. I hope you're enjoying it. Another one off the shelf.
24:29
But the actual concept of of having a castle that you're going to defend and build up and kind of, you know, they had
24:35
two different types of troops. Some required food, some were mercenaries, they required gold. All those kind of things was really cool. And when the
24:41
anacrony when the anacrony when the anarchy was then announced, I was like, "This is amazing. This is going to be brilliant." And then it was Garfield
24:48
Games. Great. I love Paladins. Ezra came out recently that's had great reviews like I've watched some playthroughs of
24:53
that looks like that's fantastic and then it was like and then literally about a week after I saw it I saw the
24:59
tagline sequel to Hrien's Wall and I thought no that's not for me like I'm the opposite to you I like my rolling
25:04
rights to be sharp and snappy and and they'll feel a bit sy but I'm only going to play it for 10 15 20 minutes and then
25:10
I'm going to move on with my life sort of thing and the idea of putting all of that out and playing as you say like a solo game
25:17
with other people on massive roll and right was a such a shame cuz I was
25:22
really hoping that someone would take that after the Empire Recipe and turn it into a board game where
25:29
there was a bit more contention for resources or something like that. So, I'm glad you're enjoying it cuz it
25:35
was my like enthusiasm nosedived after like one week and I was just like a it's
25:40
such a shame for me personally, but I'm glad that you've you found a bit of love for it. Yeah, I knew that going in. Like I
25:47
wouldn't ever play this multiplayer. I wouldn't put up a game event for it. I just don't see the point. Like, you
25:52
know, you play your game curly over there. I've got no influence over it. You just scratch off. Are you done your scratching off bits? Yeah, great. Um,
25:58
like it I'd rather just do my own thing and that's just my solo experience. I just don't see any personally value for
26:06
playing that with other people. I'd play something else. That actually means I can, you know, dick you over. Curly.
26:12
Sounds like a similar thing to playing War of the Ring with three or four players kind of thing. Yeah. just doesn't add anything to the
26:18
experience. No, no, you just play it how it's intended to play, which is fine. So, yeah, but that's it. I enjoyed it. I
26:24
recommend if you like that kind of thing. If you want a good crunchy puzzle for 90 minutes and get lost in and then
26:30
go, why didn't I do so well? Then, yeah, go for that. Go for that. Give it a whirl.
Adrian: Tiny Epic Pirates
26:37
What about you? So, recently I played Tiny Epic Pirates
26:43
R. It was one that had caught my eye as being not all of the tiny epics unlike
26:49
Tambo, not all the tiny epics kind of intrigue me um in the same way that I think they do for Tambo, but it was one
26:55
of those where Pirates genuinely did. I sort of looked at it and thought that I reckon this could add something a bit
27:01
different that I haven't seen in other games. And with Tiny Epic Pirates, you
27:06
are a pirate. And the winner Yeah. The winner is the first person to bury three
27:12
lots of treasure on this map basically. And again, it's tiny pix. It's a tiny
27:18
little um box and you place out their oversized cards into a grid of 4x4.
27:23
Yeah, 4x4. And that makes up the map. So, it's going to be different every time, but there's quite a lot of
27:30
similarity on all of like there's a few bits and pieces that will change things, which I'll talk about in a second. But, you're going to have this 4x4 map, and
27:38
your pirate ship is going to carry some cargo, and it's going to trade it in for money, or you're going to go looting and
27:44
raiding. You're going to upgrade your crew and stuff like that, and you're going to become a legend by attacking other pirate ships and and bits and
27:50
pieces, which makes your cort of your all your abilities slightly better. And
27:56
then once you've got 12 or 13 gold, you will go and bury it somewhere. And you're going to do that three times. The
28:02
first person to do that wins. If it's a tie, then it is the I think it's the most legendary pirate wins if I remember
28:07
correctly. And the kind of your little personal bit is kind of the intriguing bit that caught me on this, I guess, is
28:14
that it's a randle where you can go around as far as you want, but you have to put down your little meeples to fill
28:20
up the spaces you want to skip over. And that rdle is completely random each
28:26
time. So the top spot is the same. It's fixed. And then all the rest of the actions are on a different part of this
28:32
rdle. So all four of us will probably shuffle up these actions and put them out on the rdle different to each other.
28:39
So it means that I might be more efficient with attacking people because the order they come out in. You might be
28:44
more efficient in plundering or some one of these other things. And so, and then
28:50
when you get all the way around the rondle, stuff happens. And so, it kind of intrigued me this
28:56
idea of having to use your crew to move around or you can move off of the rondle
29:01
onto other spaces, which means your ship moves better or fires better and stuff like that. But moving around this rondle
29:07
seemed like a cool idea when it was different each time. And I thought, I'm sure there's some imbalance in the order
29:13
in which it comes out. There's potentially that. But either way, this will be an interesting experience to try. Now, your little ship can move so
29:19
many spaces, and as I say, there's a number of things you can do. You can upgrade crew, and I'll talk about that in a little second. Um, and you can the
29:27
main other things are you can go and attack a merchant vessel, which you'll
29:33
steal their loot. you can tack another pirate ship which will give you which will increase your legendary status um
29:40
and will make their ship they'll have like um a downside by they have to move
29:45
all their crew into kind of a like a uh a used crew box for for lack of a better
29:51
word and then you can move it out later. Um, and then the other thing I say apart from burying stuff is you can uh
29:59
plunder. I can't think what the other thing but you can sell your stuff at market as well and that's a rotate. So
30:04
as soon as someone sells an item that goes to the bottom that becomes the least valuable thing and everything else moves up a step. So there's kind of a
30:11
if two of you are carting rum everywhere, one of you get will get to it first and then the other one's rum is almost worthless sort of thing. So
30:17
there's a little bit of push pull on that and it lasts a fair amount of time. I
30:23
think we took about an hour and a half play through with a bit of a teach at the start. And for the most part, it's
30:28
all kind of good fun. So you're going to upgrade your crew. When you attack someone, you roll some dice and you get a hit for every number that's the same
30:35
across the top of your crew, including your leader. Um, so you can build heavily into all of my crew have ones at
30:41
the top of them. And if I roll some ones, you're dead. Yeah. Yeah, but if I roll anything else, probably
30:46
not. You'll probably escape and I'll take the damage and or you can go one crew's got a one
30:54
and a two, the other's got a three and a four, the other's got a five and a six, and then whatever you get, you'll get a hit on and you can boost it up and and
30:59
bits and pieces and the trading bit works out. And say attacking these merchant ships that go across the board and back. They've kind of pre sort of
31:07
AIed to head towards one side of the board and back. All of that is great. the bit and again
31:13
I played two players so maybe in three or four player it will get better but I felt no need to attack another player so
31:20
it doesn't give you gold you can't take their goods or anything what it does do
31:25
is it increases your legend track which means you'll get your boat will get a bit faster or or stuff or you know um
31:33
you'll shoot a bit better with cannons and all that no matter regardless of crew and it will shake their crew and put them into the box. The thing with
31:40
that is is that it's really easy to put your crew back in place. There's so many different ways to do it. Certain crew,
31:46
so a lot of the crew will have an action where it says if you do this action, you get to do this secondary action or a
31:52
secondary ability. So there's and because you can get so many crew so quickly. Quite often there's one which is like if you take an
31:59
action, you immediately get to move all of your crew around. So, because I don't get any goods which
32:05
I could sell or any gold, I felt no need to attack any other player, which kind of felt like it took away from the point
32:12
of being a pirate. Pirate. Yeah, that's one of the cool things about being a pirate, right? Like, so there the other bits were all
32:19
fine, but and this rondell thing worked. And so when you get to the end of it, all of the when you get around the RDL,
32:24
all of the um the ships you're going to raid move towards the other side. And
32:30
the other thing is that the navy ship comes after you and it will come after you faster and I think more attack
32:37
if the more treasure you've buried because your infamy has gone up that you've managed to bury so much treasure.
32:43
And there is a bit of a fun bit of kind of kiting this because you can't attack the navy like so trying to cart this
32:50
navy ship closer to your enemies but where it can't quite get you. Yeah. In trying to push them away from what
32:55
they might want to try and get. Um, but there's there's no re there's no
33:01
real it didn't feel like there's any real loss to losing any of your not losing your crew. You don't lose it, but your your mele crew for them going in
33:08
their little box because they could come back so quickly and they felt no need to attack another pirate.
33:14
And so it felt a little bit I don't know whether it was too delicately balanced
33:19
or they were just afraid that I think if you could take goods off other crew off
33:24
of other pirate ships it might be a bit too much cuz you would gain a good and they would lose a good and it might cause a bit too much disparity. So I
33:30
don't know if it's too much of a gentle balance or whatever there but it felt like it was a bit toothless like it just didn't have the for what I was expecting
33:38
from a pirate game. It just didn't quite have the that sort of meanness to it that I was
33:44
kind of expecting, especially when it's kind of sold on the box of attack other pirates and all that kind of stuff. And there's again maybe a three or four
33:50
player cuz there's only limited number of spots. Every every card on it will have like three things that you can do.
33:56
One of which is a cove, which means you can hide out from the navy and they can't attack you if you're in a cove. Um, but it's things like you can trade
34:03
here or you can buy things here or you can upgrade crew here. all those kind of
34:08
I don't know not upgrade but or or you can bury 12 gold worth of treasure here or whatever. So all the cards have
34:14
something on them. So if all the coes are over one side of the map it does kind of cause a weird skew cuz it's harder to run away from
34:20
the navy. So there are is bits and pieces in that board that make it a bit different. But it just felt like it was
34:28
a bit plain for pirate game if I'm honest. There was I will play it a couple more times most likely before I
34:34
hand it off just to probably try it at three or four player but it didn't it didn't have the tiny
34:39
epic dinosaurs or tiny epic galaxy sort of yes this is really hitting what I want it to well if you don't like it I think we
34:46
know someone who really likes tiny epic games don't we don't te oh yeah you know I'll try to try it
34:51
first yeah that's yeah again there is something there but it's just I was expecting a bit more I was hoping for a
34:57
bit more having to attack other players or or when getting attacked would feel really harsh cuz it's pirate ship and
35:04
normally if you got attacked you're pretty much done for. This is like no I might lose half a turn it feels like out
35:10
of it. It's not the end of the world. It's not the end of the world sort of thing. So yeah. So there's just a couple of bits that I felt
35:16
again potentially if you if you amp those things up I've got a funny feeling you you'd it'd be too mean and it might
35:22
be too imbalanced. But who knows? I had fun with it. Yeah. But not enough.
35:27
Not enough. Who knows? Maybe Dead Reckoning is more your vibe. I don't know. I don't know. I've never played it.
35:33
No, I've not. But it always intrigued me. I'm not normally a pirates person, but I thought ah it's it was going fairly
35:39
cheap and it's a tiny epic and they're normally worth a try at least. So cool.
35:45
Happy days. Nice. Right, let's move on to the main section then.
TURN 3 - Main Event: Space Invaders
35:50
[Music]
36:00
So in this section I thought we would discuss some games that kind of fill the same slot on the board game shelf as it
36:07
were. So, I think there's quite a few. We've already talked about sort of potential bits pieces this episode where
36:14
games quite often they'll come out and either they literally wholesale steal large amounts of mechanics off each
36:20
other or they just feel the same for some reason. Yeah. And so they compete for your time and
36:27
your space and your money. So, I thought let's have a chat about that.
36:32
Sounds cool. Happy days. Yeah. So, if I kick off first. Go for it.
Invasion 1: Furnance & It's a Wonderful World
36:38
And then hopefully you guys will kind of get the gist. What we'll do is we'll we'll introduce the two games very briefly, why we think they sit in the
36:44
same space and have a quick discussion about them. Let's do it. So my first one, my first set is going
36:50
to be Furnace and It's a Wonderful World.
36:56
Both games that are played over four rounds. Both games that are fairly
37:02
quick. both games that are engine buildery in their nature where every
37:09
turn it's you you've got more stuff to do and more things and both of which are resource conversion ultimately you are
37:15
converting you are gaining resources to convert them into points in one way or the other. I think where the difference
37:22
lies is that it's a wonderful world is more of a seven wonders style drafting
37:28
experience where you are drafting and then you kind of play your cards down and then you turn
37:34
those resources into those cards going into your engine or they'll be worth victory points which go into your engine. And the other unique bit with it
37:41
is that as you go along the line of resources, you can use those resources to then
37:48
finish cards which might interact with the next step on each turn. And I think that's the unique twist there. With
37:54
Furnace, the big unique twist is the bidding mechanic in the center. That's not the same. So I think the the two
38:00
reasons why I feel like they compete well so they I feel like they compete for the reasons I sort of said at the
38:05
start but I think they're core differences really is the bidding versus the drafting
38:12
and so yeah I feel like I am constantly sort of wanting every time I want to
38:19
play one of those I am sort of well am I going to show it to wonderful world off or furnace off and I've started to get to know some people
38:26
have sort of said they were like one over the other But I think they both inhabit that sort
38:31
of same hour engine
38:38
space. Yeah. And I really like both of them. They're both on my shelves still. Um for me, I
38:44
think one of the things that is different is that I really like the It's a Wonderful World expansion,
38:50
whereas I think the Furnace expansion, which is loads of modules, detracts from the game rather than adds
38:57
to it. personally, but if you just played Furnace on its own and if you played it Wonder either on its own or
39:02
with expansion, I think they're both for me very comparable. Have any of you played either of them?
39:08
Yes, both of them. Both of them. Yeah, both of them. Yeah. Only once each other. Yeah, I've only played Funus. I say
39:14
recently as well. So, what's your what's your thoughts on that sort of comparison? Do you think they're Do you feel like they're in the
39:20
same space? Yeah, I do. I I understand why you you've put them together. Even though I
39:25
say mechanically they there's there's elements, but I'd say that they they feel different, but they still they
39:33
still have that kind of same vibe. Yeah. That it gives you. So, I can completely understand why you've put those together. I mean, for me personally,
39:40
Furnace edges it. Yeah. Um because I still I still play that game and go, damn. Like, that's an hour.
39:48
I've wow my head just just gone for an hour and and I can't believe it's just
39:54
been an hour sometimes. I think it's uh yeah, it does something special for 60
39:59
minutes of of game. So, yeah, Furnace wins. Would kick it out the other one. Yeah,
40:06
I'd agree with most of that. It's comparable for sure. Um I'm the opposite though. I actually probably marginally
40:12
prefer It's a Wonderful World, but diversive. I like this. It that's got I think more to do with
40:17
because I was thinking about it. Why do I prefer it? I don't I think I much prefer the aesthetic or the theme.
40:24
Um I don't like like 19th century no beige
40:29
industrial revolution. It it doesn't affect things massively but it it definitely doesn't add to it
40:35
for sure. So and I feel like it's a wonderful world did. I thought it was quite colorful and quite nice on the
40:40
table. I think the theme is paper thin but it's a fun theme more the aesthetic I would
40:46
say for me. Um, yeah, it's more more appealing. But yeah, I think game-wise, I don't think there's very
40:51
much difference as far as what is the better game. Um, but yeah, probably lean towards It's Wonderful World.
40:57
Nice. I I think I did lean towards It's a Wonderful World and then I played 250
41:02
250 games of the base game on BGA cuz I can I can literally play it in like four or five minutes some games if
41:08
people don't take too long cuz everyone's drafting simultaneously and all that kind of stuff. So, it's kind of
41:14
it's kind of quick. And now I have to play with the expansion and I get frustrated sometimes when I for cuz I'm
41:20
in a pattern now. All right, I'm starting off with this. I know I need to do this, this, this, this, this. Yeah. And the expansion throws it out. So I
41:27
then get a little bit annoyed that it's different. So it's a Wonderful World has that. As say Furnace, the last three
41:34
games I've played have have had a module from the expansion in and I don't like any of them. So, I feel like I need to
41:40
kind of refresh my pallet for Furnace by just playing a base game and starting again. But, they're both I've rated
41:47
them, I think, both nine out of 10 on BGG. So, they're both like real top of the shop games for me, but definitely
41:54
feel like they compete for time and space. If I didn't have one of them, I would certainly just play the other one
41:59
more because of it. It's fair. It's a good start. So, makes sense.
Invasion 2: Dice Throne & Kapow!
42:04
T me, right? I'm gonna go with you. um not quite so complicated games, but um there's two
42:10
that are very similar that I got. So I go with uh dice two dice battling games that are in my shelf, which is Dice
42:16
Thrones and you got Kapow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean similaritywise they are
42:22
literally one v one or I mean you can do 2v2 even with Kapow. You can with the
42:27
stuff I've got. Um so yeah, you're rolling hitting. Um there's two major different kind of mechanics which you
42:33
got um obviously dice you got your deck building a little going on where we say deck building you're drawing them from a
42:38
card deck to get other stuff going on and costing and kapal you're building your own dice basically to make it more
42:43
powerful to the um yeah I think they're two very similar games um I've never since I bought Kapal
42:50
I've never played dice runes since if someone says they want to have a little bit I just don't see that I think
42:55
Kapal's got that just the the the building your own dice to your character Uh, I think it's just much more fun than
43:03
than dice stones and rolling and just trying to get cards that you really want. They upgrade cards that you might not ever see. Yeah.
43:08
Yeah. I just I think they're two very similar games. And I've Yeah. Kapow for
43:14
me. I'm not sure any of you played Kapow. I know Adrian has. I haven't played it. I'd like to cuz it's got that dice forge
43:21
clicky clacky put stuff into a dice kind of I say mechanic but fun factor. Um,
43:27
but I've never had the opportunity to play Kapow. Uh, having played Dice Rain, I'd always choose the other one.
43:35
Um, because I'm not a big fan of Dice Rain. I can't tell you why I'm not a big fan. I just don't know. There's just
43:40
something about it. I just Did you play it one v one? Yeah, cuz I remember we played it in a four player. And even I wasn't that impressed
43:46
with We played the four player, don't do it. Played a three player, even worse. Don't do it. I think I sat out for that game for 20
43:52
minutes watching you and Davey finish each other off, you know what I mean? And uh I have
43:59
played one v one. It's all right. Yeah, it's just for me it's not doing anything
44:05
new or exciting. Um whereas at least Kapow's seems to be like oh dice, build
44:11
dice, do stuff. Cool. It's not just that, but it's the hidden mechanics. Yeah, it's the hidden. You put the dice on the on the areas of your board
44:17
to say well because you roll them and then it's like right I can do this this and this. Okay. And then reveal
44:23
and then pow pow trip punch punch punch kick kick kick. Oh, that's cool. But also each character has reasons why they
44:28
might do certain things. So one character might have I'll block all damage if I just use this these two dice or this one dice that. So it's like well
44:35
am I if he rolls if he rolls that I'm kind of scuppered.
44:40
So do I put everything in attack and he might just blank it for one or for one
44:46
dice or do I do other cool stuff build up my engine and if he uses it he might have wasted it cuz it's like once per
44:52
like a battle or something like that. So is that like simultaneous then? So you and your opponent are rolling,
44:57
figuring that out and then reveal and see what happens. That's that's already more exciting. The first player, first player gets the
45:04
first attack basically. Yeah. And if at the end of the round, if you're the highest defense, the highest defense gets the first player.
45:10
So you got to think you really need the first player cuz you really hit first next time. So you're both equal health at the end.
45:15
You got to think, right, I got to get the first hit in and then the other players got high defense. It's really good in that sense. Yeah.
45:22
Um it's definitely all simultaneously. That's what makes it better. Dice Thrones isn't simultaneous, is it? So Dice Throne looks more polished. It does
45:29
as a game. Much more polished. Like Kapow has that for me. Kapow has that it's trying to do 80s cheesy comic, but
45:34
it actually just feels like basement drawing comic kind of thing, but I still mechanically
45:41
it's so much better to me. So yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I think Dice for just went um
45:46
balls deep in the thematics, didn't they? Yeah. Uh dice thrown. Dice thrown. um just you
45:53
know the whole Marvel they got Marvel in on it didn't they as well and a few other bits and bobs but yeah that's the
45:58
way they went with it but I think as a as a game Adrian's quite right yeah that's the first example for me
46:04
nice that has it taken the space you still got both I still got both but it actually has
46:10
Yeah I've never touched dice so there you go JP yeah so I've got um one of my
Invasion 3: Star Trek Captains Chair vs Imperium
46:19
favorite well couple of games which is Imperium and Star Trek Captain's Chair.
46:25
Reason why they are fighting for the same space is because they're both designed and based around the same system. Um although they're not
46:32
literally clones of each other, so they are different. Um, so Imperium came out
46:38
first set civilization style um theme where you can pick Romans, you can pick
46:44
the the Kelts, you can pick pretty much up to now 30 uh nations that can do all
46:51
sorts of weird and wacky stuff like Mars and stuff in there. Oh, Martians are in there. Yeah, Martians. Uh, oh god, all sorts. The
46:58
cultists. Uh there's just so much now in that game and it still is genuinely a
47:05
joy for me to to kind of play and explore these nations and and work out
47:10
that that cerebral cortex of mine to see if I can actually bloody get anywhere
47:15
with that game. Uh, and then this thing, Star Trek Captain's Chair, came out and
47:21
got announced, I know, what was it, last year, whatever. And I was like, what's this? And I thought, well, it's just
47:28
going to be a clone, isn't it? And actually, when I I got my hands on it and started to play it, it's like, no,
47:33
it's not just a clone. It's It is its own thing. And I find that
47:39
it's cleaner as a system now. like the the way it it it works is not less
47:46
complicated. If anything, I think it's probably more complex in certain aspects in terms of the decision path. It's
47:52
giving you the choices, you know, which four or five things you want to do on the card you're playing or interacting
47:57
with. Do you want to play that into your tableau and then activate other things on that card? Like it it is just a whole
48:05
nest of of choice which for me I I really love. I relish in that. I go, "Ah, what do I do?" It's just so cool.
48:11
and it's Star Trek, right? Which is a theme I enjoy. Um, and it just does
48:17
things in a cleaner way that like even the end scoring, right? The thing I I love Imperium to death and then I get to
48:24
the end and go, "Right, I'm exhausted." And now we've got to score this thing and I I got to score this thing because
48:30
it is a faf. Um because the way you you've got your tableau and some nations are I don't know you look at the the
48:37
board state and Curly you'll know this you you've got I don't know 20 30 cards out there half of them have got
48:44
depending on conditional endame uh points if this is happening or that's happening count this do this and you
48:50
just go oh where do I start with this and then uh Star Trek Captain Ch just does it in such a clean way and you can
48:56
score within under you know 2 minutes and you're done whereas the other one you're still in and I have to use apps
49:03
to help me because it's just um so for me they're not I own both and I'm happy
49:09
at the minute to own both and the reason why I think Imperium's still in my collection is because there's 30 nations
49:15
to play around with and Captain's Chair's not had any expansions yet yet. Uh so Captain Shar's got six
49:21
captains. So it's I thought you going to say six expansions. I was like is this an exclusive that we've heard of? No. Well, they've announced box two.
49:28
Yeah. Six more captains. and they've announced another expansion um to kind of go alongside box one and two, which is
49:34
three more captains. So, there's nine more captains on the way. Um all been announced, all in um board game news and
49:42
all that kind of stuff. And and that's cool cuz I can totally see Captain's
49:47
Chair leveling up the the amount of choice and and options. And then one day, cuz you know, shelf space is
49:54
limited. Y I'm going to have to make a choice. Mhm. It will it will win. So, Captain's Chair
50:00
is two-player only. He's two player only. Whereas Imperium is four player. Four player only. Not only? No, that's
50:06
wrong. It's one to four players. Yeah. Does that Does that pay any
50:12
I think it's a two-player anyway. Yes, that's I think I think Curley's right. I I have played four player Imperium and I
50:19
have enjoyed it. Three and four player. Yeah, I have enjoyed it, but I have to be and we played at a convention. It was
50:25
late one evening. That's the game you played, too, right? Fox and Hounds. Yeah. Fox and we I
50:30
really enjoyed that game because I think everyone was in a kind of relaxed it doesn't matter how long it takes kind of
50:35
vibe. Yeah. And if everyone's in that vibe, it doesn't matter cuz we're all there. We're not going anywhere. We haven't got anywhere to be. And and it
50:42
works. But if you're playing on a a regular evening when you got work the next day, cuz Imperium is not a quick
50:48
game. Even at two player, it's not a fast game. Um add two more players in there, especially if people don't know
50:55
the game. It's a lot of waiting around. There is there's not a lot you can do. So Curly is right. It sings better at
51:02
two. It's faster at two. So therefore, it's not such a consideration. So therefore, it's kind of like that. So then it comes down to which theme sings
51:09
to you more. Do you like the Civilization style theme or do you like Star Trek? Even if you don't like Star
51:15
Trek mechanically, Captain's Chair is a tighter experience. It's a a cleaner
51:21
experience. And um it's still worth a go if you like sci-fi in general.
51:27
I was going to say I don't I don't know much about Star Trek. So I I watched all of NextG and then pretty much nothing
51:33
else of Star Trek. But I will have captains then that I will know. Yeah. Because I know NextG.
51:39
Yeah. Yeah. Picard and others that will come.
51:45
Nearly nearly just in case. Not soon. So yeah, at the minute I've got the shelf space.
51:51
It's fine, but one day I can totally see me having to make that choice and I think Captain's Chair will edge it.
51:56
Nice. There we go. Curly. Curly. Yeah. Tell us about your competing games.
Invasion 4: Eclipse & Twilight Imperium (4 Player)
52:02
Yeah, there's loads to choose from and I didn't know which way to go cuz like are they too similar like mechanically and
52:07
everything else, but I decided on in the end an interesting talking point mainly actually because of JP. Um and and we'll
52:14
see if if my prediction is correct in a minute. Um, so I've picked Eclipse and
52:19
now to make it a bit closer, I've gone for TI four player.
52:25
Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. All right. So, ju just to kind of throw in both together. He's gone very specific. Four player on
52:31
both. I I I I think they're two different games when you make them higher player counts. Um, just purely because of the
52:38
timing really. Um, but I think Twilight Imperium
52:43
4 I've played at four player a few times now and you can get it done
52:50
in four to 5 hours almost like in normal board game territory rather than a super
52:55
epic 6 7 8 9 10 11 hours which is what it is at 6 to eight players. So um yeah
53:03
so fighting them off against each other they both feel very similar. They got that sort of hex tile. You sort of go
53:10
around expanding your little empire, gaining new resources, new planets, and
53:15
you know, exploring the universe essentially. Um, going for v victory points in multiple different ways. Um,
53:22
of course, there are plenty of um differences between the two, same as with any other um any other games that
53:29
weren't made by the same people essentially. Um, but yeah, just interested to get people's take on what
53:34
what one they think is the better game. I think I've
53:40
flip-fpped with it. So, what I mean by that is I think there was a point where I'd got a little bit
53:47
of fatigue with Twilight Imperium. Yeah, I remember that. too many too many epic games dragged on too long and it
53:53
kind of felt like I I think I had two or three games in a row where where I felt like JP felt Do you remember that one
54:00
Twilight Imperium where you just got absolutely hammered and you like checked out about a third of the way through? I don't know what you're talking about.
54:06
Yeah, I think we all do, mate. Yeah. Was I playing the Mahack Jean Saucers by any chance?
54:12
I think so. Where you had to be aggressive and it didn't work out for you or something? No. Yeah. So that that that's so there was
54:18
there was a point, but then when I discovered the four player, I've kind of fallen back in love with it a little bit
54:24
more. Um, and the expansions helped with that and, you know, having the right people at the table and all those kind
54:30
of things. Um, and with Eclipse, although I'm interested to hear JP's opinion, I still really love that game.
54:38
Um, I love the exploration. I find that more interesting. I think it's more of a
54:46
This is going to sound stupid because Twilight Imperium is as well, but it's a little bit more of a an action dice
54:53
chucky random kind of game than Twilight Imperium is, but a lot of people I think would actually say that Twilight
54:59
Imperium. I think I think TI is the more random dice chucky of I think because of the exploration
55:04
element, mate. I completely disagree the randomness of it. You build your own dice, don't you? Cuz you build your own ships and eclipse.
55:10
Yeah. Yeah, there is that. I mean, hey, look, you can you can analyze it in any different way. feels a little bit more a
55:15
merry trash versus grand strategy. Um, so yeah, I'm it's still really close,
55:21
but I'd say Twilight Imperium takes it this time at the moment. Um, and I'm interested in everyone's opinion, but I
55:28
will I want to I predict JP's as well, but I'm going to listen to it before I Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've Well, the
55:36
answer is I I've gone through this battle, right? I put them both in a room. I've
55:42
had them both in a room on my shelf and only one of them remains cuz T's got one of them. Right. So, Eclipse is the one
55:49
that lost out for me. And and it's not like I don't like Eclipse. I still play
55:55
Eclipse today. I've got no problem with Eclipse. I got to the point after 30 plus games of Eclipse
56:01
that it tell for me it tells the same story. I go through the same arc with
56:07
that game. Um, and you could probably argue the same with TI if I'm being honest. But I don't know. I just felt
56:14
like with Eclipse, it's round one explore a lot. Round two, uh, maybe
56:20
fight an ancient, you know, round three upgrade this, round four, D, and
56:25
inevitably get to round seven or eight, and then we'll have a big fight between each other over the space egg. And and
56:31
it's just the same kind of thing. And I feel like, and again, it depends on your play
56:37
style. And maybe it's just me not playing uh in a different way, but it
56:42
just I don't know. I just got to the point it's just the same thing again and and it happened a few times and I just
56:49
think I'm maybe done with it, you know, and that's okay. So T went, I'll have it cuz you love it, don't you? Um and
56:55
that's that's cool. Uh whereas TI, I agree with you. the four player has been really really it's injected some new
57:02
energy into the game whereas you know I love I mean we played a seven player once and it was brilliant. I really
57:09
enjoyed our seven player and yours curly um a year or two ago whenever we did it. It was a really good game, but my god,
57:16
when you you you leave that game, you're off. I'm going to say you were [ __ ] right? You were exhausted, not only cuz
57:24
you're setting up, you play for that long, you tear it down and you get home and you're like, see you next year.
57:30
Whereas actually a four player, you you feel like you got more energy to play that game more often. Um, and I'd
57:36
happily play a four four player like eight times in a year without me getting fatigue over it. And because there's so
57:42
much variety in in TI in the factions, I don't know how many there are now. I can't remember. There's a lot.
57:48
God, loads. Yeah. 25, 30, I don't know, something like that with the expansion. And oh yeah, shout
57:53
out to Thunder Edge, right? New new TI expansion been announced recently. Makes you gain 300 pound yet before you
57:59
bought them. You know it's happening, baby. Um I know I've spoken to two people who own it who were like, "No,
58:04
I'm doing it. I love it." The the base with the expansion was enough. Happy with that. Another £100
58:12
for what is essentially a new mode and a couple of new races. Yeah. Is maybe a bit much.
58:19
It It is. It is. But the fact that the completionist in you need Yeah, the completionist in you will will
58:24
probably get it. But it's a game I can I can't see me ever getting rid of ever that game. That will
58:32
stay with me forever because until fifth edition comes out until until fifth edition. Then I'll be very annoyed. I've already gone through
58:38
third to fourth in literally a month or something and that pissed me off at the time, but I did it. That's a bit different though, is it?
58:43
You've had your fun out of four. Oh, four had a money's worth for sure. But three barely hit your shelf.
58:49
Three. Yeah, three was one or two games. Four like two weeks later or something. Brilliant.
58:54
Uh but it is what it is. But no, I I think TI will be forever in that collection. I can't see me selling it.
59:00
just it's for me it's it's it's unique enough in its own category that it just
59:05
sits there and stays there and even if I only play it once a year it's fine no problem. Nice.
Invasion 5: Great Western Trail vs Lacromosa
59:11
Okay, that's my opinion. So my second pick and I think people are going to think this is a stretch but
59:16
hopefully as I explain it people will think it's less of a stretch is Great Western Trail versus Lacrimosa.
59:24
Oh okay. I thought he was going to say like New Zealand versus base. So again,
59:29
I was trying to stay away from the really close. I was trying not to go, "Oh, terraforming Mars or Terraforming Mars Aries expedition, that kind of
59:35
thing." Yeah. So I was trying to stay Pandemic versus Pandemic Iberia. I was trying to stay away from that. So
59:41
So Great Western Trail and Lacrosa are both midweight euros. They're both
59:48
really beige to look at. Even with the jazzed up second edition Great Western Trail, they are both brown boards. But
59:54
they both have deck building in them. So in Lacrimosi, you are never building a
1:00:00
deck in the sense of it never gets bigger, but you are swapping cards in and out. Yeah. And
1:00:06
both of them affect your resources and your actions. I think Lacroo does it
1:00:13
more prominently, but Great Western Trail, you can build the buildings that affect green cattle or whatever more or
1:00:18
like rely on that or you can build it so you stop at those points more. And so I think it both games affect your
1:00:25
resources and your um and your sort of scoring and and and actions as well.
1:00:33
Both of them have upgrading board mechanics. So one Lacrimosa you'll get
1:00:38
like the things at the bottom of the musical sheet which will give you one-off bonuses but also will give you
1:00:43
bonuses for doing certain types of actions. Whereas Great Western Trail is okay well I've unlocked this. I can do
1:00:50
this action twice when I visit the cogs or I'll gain plus one movement. So you you're gaining on both
1:00:58
like both of them have a board that upgrades as you go and then both of them
1:01:06
kind of have a I don't know how best to describe it but
1:01:11
both of them have multiple paths that you are going to go down one of them
1:01:17
heavily. Yeah. Now the the main difference apart from the fact that one's about Mozart
1:01:22
being dead and finishing his legacy and the other's about hering cattle which is quite a big difference from theme
1:01:27
thematic point of view. Um the the big difference is that one's a
1:01:33
rondelle which you and there is some similarities here. So one's a rondelle
1:01:38
ultimately that you will put obstructions in the way or you're going to pick your own buildings which you're
1:01:43
going to only visit and it kind of fashions how people react and don't react on that
1:01:50
front. The other is a bit of area control which you don't have at all in Great Western Trail. But the other bit
1:01:56
is really driving this carriage around and you can affect other people by going
1:02:01
one direction when they want to go in the other. And so I think they both have a similar um kind of push and pull
1:02:08
mechanic onto how you can affect other people and the way they want to go. The area control means that some people
1:02:14
won't want to go down certain routes of of kind of uh
1:02:20
unlocking certain things that will give them a bonus on that chromosa side. So I
1:02:26
think one is ultimately going to kick the other out. and they're they've got similar things, but they're not the same
1:02:32
game, but they are ultimately competing for that that mid midweight Euro space.
1:02:41
I suppose personal thoughts are that I've got two groups and I reckon I
1:02:47
will struggle to get Lacrimosa to this group cuz you're all great Western Trail dieards.
1:02:53
Oh, I quite like Lacros. I know you did, but generally I think it's a harder sell to this group. I think my other group, Great Western
1:02:58
Trail, is a harder sell for, but I think they both fill a very similar place and they're both games I really enjoy. Great
1:03:05
Western Trail has the expansion that you can add on to it. And ultimately, if you then wanted to, you could buy New Zealand, but I think Great Western Trail
1:03:11
with expansion does a similar enough job. Anyway, I think I think there's more to New
1:03:18
Zealand, but I think Great Western teaching someone, you can't teach I don't I wouldn't want to teach someone
1:03:23
New Zealand straight from the off. I'd want to teach them great western trail base and then add an expansion rather
1:03:29
than I think there's a little bit too much going on that elevates it into that upper mid compared to great western
1:03:35
trail base or lacrimosa and I'm really undecided. I genuinely don't know which way I want to go. I think I like the
1:03:41
base conceit of Lacrimosa with the tucking cards above and below um to give you your actions and then to decide what
1:03:48
resources you'll generate at the end of round. But I think I prefer the board state of Lac of of Great Western Trail
1:03:54
with that Rondell and selling when you get to the end. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know who's
1:04:01
played Lacrosse in our group apart from JP. Not I haven't. Have you girly?
1:04:07
No, I haven't. I mean, the theme couldn't interest me less, which is probably the reason why I haven't played
1:04:13
it, but I know that shouldn't be an answer, but it it is. Oh, yeah. It absolutely will be.
1:04:18
Yeah. But I I love Grey Western Trail, but it's difficult for me to get into this discussion without having played both. So,
1:04:24
yeah, I've played both. Um, and
1:04:30
theme side, I think mechanically I prefer Lacamosa, but then I haven't played it for two
1:04:37
years. Yeah, I played like three times back to back, four times back to back and then kind of didn't play it for a little
1:04:42
while. Yeah. And the production on it is really good and it's it feels like a nice experience playing that game from
1:04:48
memory. Yeah, I think it is really tough because I think the the deck curation is really
1:04:55
important in both. But I feel like it more directly is impacted on Lacrimosa
1:05:00
side whereas the I think the player upgrade and the scoring at the end of how you of the
1:05:06
buildings you build. So say some buildings you'll want to have more of certain type of cattle which means you'll try and build your stuff that way
1:05:13
potentially. I think that has ultimately more effect as well. Yeah.
1:05:19
Like to how you build buildings. And I think you've got a little bit more scope in Great Western Trail to how you go
1:05:25
which way. But yeah, I don't know that I have an answer for this. I really don't. But
1:05:31
they are definitely competing for space. The more I look at it, the more I'm like it's going to be one of these two. One of them will win out and the other one
1:05:37
will go. Yeah. But I don't know which one it is. I genuinely don't like
1:05:43
with with Furnace and It's a Wonderful World. I think It's a Wonderful World would eventually win.
1:05:48
But it' be really close and I'd probably keep both on the shelf for a while. I feel like Lacrosse or Great Western Trail. One of them is going to win out.
1:05:53
Yeah. And it's going to go, but I don't know which one. Fair.
1:05:58
Nice. Time will tell. Time will tell. T second set. Um, I've been trying to think.
Invasion 6: Zombicide 2nd Edition vs Marvel Zombies
1:06:05
You're probably not going to like me, Adrian, because it's not quite as diversity, but I'm going to go with and you guys probably haven't played them,
1:06:11
so I'm going to go with the keep going the zombie side era. So, I'm going to go with zombie sides. Generally, I'm going
1:06:16
to say the second edition just just for that. Uhhuh. Okay. And I'm going to go with Zombie Side, Marvel Zombie Side.
1:06:22
A Marvel Zombies. As a Marvel Zombies. So, you either play as the fighters or you play as the zombies. Yeah. Now, I've got I haven't got the
1:06:28
second edition, but I've got Zombie Side of Vade, which is like Alien Zombies, which is just good. Um, and that's in space, and I've got
1:06:34
Marvel Zombie Side now. And they're very obviously very similar. You
1:06:40
fight off hordes of zombies, but you're not fighting hordes of zombies. You're fighting off hordes of um what I Oh,
1:06:45
shields. Shield agents. Basically, you are the Marvel Heroes as zombies, and you're trying to eat
1:06:50
the the the shield agents. So, it's the same thing. You're rolling load of dice, pushing like your dice. Um, the
1:06:57
difference I suppose you find on weapons in zombie side to find out get more dice and get cooler weapons, which is a cool
1:07:02
thing, right? I like that. Um, and the puzzle side of it, it's not that puzzly,
1:07:08
it it's kind of you know what to do. You just got to find weapons and then you get yourself in position to kill zombies
1:07:13
and might do your objectives. But the Marvel zombies that just that hunger mechanic makes the game a bit more
1:07:19
puzzly for me and I actually really enjoy that. And that's um so every time you go up a
1:07:24
hunger and then you you get more dice and more hunger you got you've only got two abilities basically. You got one
1:07:30
that you can eat and you got your other say that I'm got some missiles. That's the only two you can do. Um and you
1:07:36
don't have choices of that which seems like it's that bit boring but it's actually really not. It's quite interesting. Um so yeah, the more hungry
1:07:43
you get, the more dice you are to your original ability basically. So you want to be hungry to get more dice so you get
1:07:48
more hits, but then you're pushing yourself to get to the top. And then if you go to the top of your hunger, you're ravenous and all you can do is devour.
1:07:55
So you can either move and devour one person. You can only roll as many dice as you like. You are on four five dice
1:08:00
normally when you're ravenous. But if you get one hit, you only eat one person. That's a whole action done and it's kind of punishing. Um, so you got
1:08:06
to really time yourself really well on that situation and I think it makes it such a different game. Um, but I do love all the zombie sides.
1:08:12
I mean, I say the second edition because the second edition when you have the roll out, you had um the break mechanic into your guns, that's also very good.
1:08:19
So, you have the red dice and you can roll more hits, but you got the chance of breaking your weapon. So, you lose your weapon. That also that just one
1:08:24
mechanic makes it awesome as well. Yeah. So, that's why I've chosen those two cuz normal zombie sites you don't get that.
1:08:31
Um, but yeah, they're both on my shelf and I again, if I had to get rid of one, I wouldn't know which one to do because
1:08:36
I do enjoy both of them, but I think the Marvel one because of the hunger mechanic, it just makes it such a great
1:08:42
fun game, much more better cuz it's more of a puzzle. People like, you know, I know it's a pushy luck rolly dice game and
1:08:47
people say that's what you do in Zombie Side, but when the Marvel one, you have to think about it. You really do. You have to think as a team and actually
1:08:53
figure out when you're going to be and if you're getting too hungry, you got to make sure that person goes first cuz he's got to eat to otherwise you're just
1:08:59
going to get overwhelmed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. and the abomination side of it and you get the heroes come in and that's a
1:09:04
bit different in Marvel as well. Some of them are easy to kill, some of them are really hard, but I think that's better. Normally you just have to have a molotov
1:09:10
or something and kill him a high thing like it's completely different. They got like Spider-Man's got four health. Um,
1:09:18
you know, doctor Strange has got three health, but he has actually he's a spawn point basically. So when he comes in,
1:09:23
you got another spawn point going in, which is cool, but he's only got three health. So you can actually kill him quite easily, but you got to get to him and it's it's just much better. Cool.
Invasion 7: Taverns of Tiefenthal & Cubitos
1:09:31
So, for me, I I've been thinking as you guys have been talking and I've actually gone off list now. These other ones on
1:09:36
my list and I've decided to abandon them. Um, and it's kind of like a manager to of actually three games.
1:09:43
What? That wasn't in the I know. So, didn't say you were allowed a third one. I'm just kind of going off script. Um,
1:09:50
but I'll briefly talk about one and then move on to the two. Okay. Which is then allowed, right? Uh, so the
1:09:56
three games that are I feel are kind of within the same feeling that I get when
1:10:04
I play them is Quacks, Kitos, and Taverns of Tooth and F. Two of them are
1:10:10
designed by the same person, which is Quacks and Taverns. Kabitos has a very much a similar vibe
1:10:16
to Quacks in the fact that you're doing a similar thing. You're building a bag or you're building a
1:10:21
collection of dice, right? Um, so for me, Kabitos won out and Quacks because I own
1:10:29
Kabitos and we've had fun with as a family and then introduced Taverns into the mix. Again, not the same game
1:10:37
mechanically. They're they're very different, but they just they they give me the same familyfriendly
1:10:44
experience um that the others do. So, I just naturally pull them into the same
1:10:49
category, which is kind of weird, but it does. It's basically how I film. Um, so now I've got Kabitos and I've got
1:10:56
Taverns battling each other for for space. Taverns has been winning out a
1:11:02
lot lately. Um, mainly because of its modular nature. For me, just playing
1:11:08
Bass Taverns is fine, and I'd play Bass Taverns any day, but I'd rather have the
1:11:14
modules in. I'd rather put, you know, the reputation track in or the the
1:11:19
drafting cards at the start or or, you know, I'd just add a bit more the schnaps. You got to have the schnaps.
1:11:24
Like, at least get the schnaps in. Um, the guest book and then with the open doors expansion, which I still haven't
1:11:30
played yet. Um, with the wine and and guest house and all that kind of stuff. So I think Tamata Teeth and Fo wins out
1:11:40
because of its variability. Whereas Kabitos, you've got the four tracks, you
1:11:45
got your dice, you've got an expansion for it that nobody nobody can ever get their hands on it. I'll still look this
1:11:51
expansion got released two years ago. Foul Play can't get hold of it. Don't know why. Just I think they released it
1:11:58
in America and then that's it. So Well, you were over there recently. You could look over.
1:12:03
I looked. I looked I thought I'm going to try and find it. But I think the expansion just gives you more tracks and
1:12:09
two more dice colors. And my problem with Kabitos and I think it's an
1:12:14
excellent game. I think if you got um you know family and you want that kind of quite fun game of just racing around
1:12:22
the track and collecting loads of dice, little cute dice that you just throw together. It it is it's great fun and
1:12:28
I'll play it any day. But I kind of feel like Kabitos needs that. I think we talked about this before, but it needs
1:12:33
that edge. It needs a bit of like knobbery, like Mario Kart Knobbery that you can mess with other players a little
1:12:40
bit more. I think that's kind of why it it's losing out to Taverns. I'm not
1:12:45
saying Taverns has got knobbery, but it's just a different modular nature. I
1:12:50
just enjoy building my pub and enjoy running my pub and getting money and and beer and guests and and doing that kind
Invasion 8: Too Many Bones vs Elder Scrolls BOTSE
1:12:56
of stuff. So Curly, your final. Well, my one's going to be a little bit weird and I'm picking this one. Well,
1:13:02
no, I'm loving these games at the moment, but also cuz I think JP's the opposite to me, which I think is quite
1:13:08
interesting, is um Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era and JP
1:13:14
Cloud Spy. No, too many bones. Yeah, quite right. Um yeah, so I've been
1:13:20
playing uh obviously I bought mine at the UK GE, uh Elder Scrolls, the UK GE.
1:13:25
Um, absolutely loving it. Playing through with Rob, learning the rules. Um, having a really interesting
1:13:33
narrative experience with it. Like literally getting into it, feeling my character. I feel like my character is
1:13:39
actually kind of got a personality and like I'm actually playing through a campaign like a computer game. And it's
1:13:45
the first board game experience I've had like that where I felt a bit more attached. Probably no, the original game
1:13:50
we played, Gloom Haven, would probably count as that as well. Um, but getting really into the narrative side of it,
1:13:55
feeling my character. Um, you know, we just picked up a side quest and I've um
1:14:01
I've I'm running at the moment with two classes just because that's what the card said. And so now I'm playing as a
1:14:07
bard as well and kind of getting to learn that. And that was really good fun. I'm probably going to ditch my original class and go with the bard one
1:14:13
now cuz it was so much fun. Um, brave Robin Brain. It was just it's just
1:14:19
it's it's really interesting, really fun. You know, I would say we've not quite we've not perfected the game yet.
1:14:26
We're still way slower than we should be and everything else, but we're kind of learning the game together and just chilling out and doing it and not
1:14:31
worrying about time. If we don't finish it, no problem. We'll put it away and yeah, you know, so I'm having a really interesting experience. But I mean, it
1:14:38
wasn't even a close fight until recently cuz I have been enjoying Too Many Bones a lot more. like um for me I've never
1:14:44
really got into too many bones as far as I find it fun but I've never really got into the narrative and I still think
1:14:50
that that's definitely where old scrolls has got the strength um because mechanically they're very similar and I
1:14:57
can see some advantages in in Too Many Bones mechanically um
1:15:04
I still maintain that I think too and this is where it falls down for me I think too many bones is a little bit
1:15:09
broken at single player and two player if If I'm honest, I I think it's too difficult for a for a you know, even if
1:15:15
you start on the easiest setting, it's still very tough if you go on the wrong um what what the enemies called in that
1:15:21
again? Baddies. I know. What? No, the um the big bad tyrants. Tyrants. Yeah. If you pick the wrong
1:15:27
tyrant, it can be really punishing. Like I think Becky played a game the other day where she played the tyrant. It's
1:15:33
not not knocking you by the way, but the tyrant you recommended and the opening fight she had to restart
1:15:39
like six times because it's got that one ability break and she just couldn't
1:15:45
couldn't get through it because of the character she'd chosen was patches and she just couldn't defeat the two level
1:15:51
one mobs that both had break cuz it ruins your attack and that's all you start off with really. So, I do think
1:15:58
there are I think Elder Scrolls for me is a better balanced game and better
1:16:03
narrative game, but I've really come to appreciate Too Many Bones more than I had done previously. That's for sure.
1:16:08
Um, but yeah, and I think you've got the exact opposite opinion of that more than likely, I think. So, I'd be interested
1:16:15
to hear your take. But yeah, I I don't think without Becky being in the house, I don't think I would have both, which is why it's interesting. Yeah, I'm
1:16:22
surprised that you've got Bones because when we played last with Becky,
1:16:28
I Yeah, I was surprised that she went off and went, "Oh, yeah, I've just ordered it." All right, okay. Yeah, she
1:16:33
loved it. Yeah, which is which is cool um for for Becky to get that experience of Bones. But yeah, I agree. I I
1:16:40
I've made no kind of surprises about it. I prefer Bones. Uh, I think when I was
1:16:46
playing Elder Scrolls, um, you know, over the over the past whatever how many sessions we did, we
1:16:52
did a run through with Rob as a free player and obviously I've been following it since
1:16:58
inception. Um, and you know, the IP for me it's the IP. I think it could be it's
1:17:05
just generic fantasy. Um, it could be any franchise slapped on and I don't
1:17:12
think I care. Like now if it had an IP I cared about, I'd probably feel very different about it. But I get why Elder
1:17:18
Scrolls for you. He likes freaking Elder Scrolls. Like I've had so much, you know, hours poured into probably Skyrim and all
1:17:25
these other areas. And Rob Rob loves a generic dungeon crawler. He does love a a generic dungeon
1:17:31
crawler. Now for me, Bones takes the piss out of itself. its whole it knows it's in this generic
1:17:39
fantasy world and it constantly just takes the piss out of itself the fact that it's in this world and everything is just like stupid and not serious and
1:17:48
it's just weird and and quirky and I like it for that. Um but I think if I'm going to distill it down to to why I
1:17:55
like it better I like it as that oneshot nature. Um I just like the fact I'm going to start that game and I'm going to get to
1:18:01
the end. going to be freaking epic and hopefully we'll have a good time or we might fail but hopefully the journey has
1:18:07
been fun but it's done then and I can pack it away and go that was fun and then maybe I'll build the character
1:18:13
different next time I play that character or whatever. Now, Elder Scores gives you the same thing, but it's just
1:18:18
drawn out a lot longer, right? So, you get a slower burn, shall we say, because you get three game sessions to get to
1:18:25
the end, right? And it's just getting into the Is each game session like six hours?
1:18:32
Yes. Yeah. So, it's the same length as a Too Many Bones campaign, but three back, right? Okay.
1:18:37
So, it's like three Too Many Bones games and then you're done. I prefer that. Literally prefer that.
1:18:44
Like nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it's it's a personal preference thing. 100%. It's not a game's fault. The game's
1:18:50
designed that way. And actually, I think Elder Elder Scrolls as a game is fantastic. Like, don't get me wrong, I
1:18:58
prefer Bones, but that's just me. But is a fantastic game and if you haven't played it, you should absolutely give it
1:19:03
a go. Um because mechanically it's sound. I do agree with you. I think it's better balanced. I think they've learned a lot through Bones. They've tweaked the
1:19:09
system. They've done a lot to to to make it work. But yeah, it might be because I
1:19:15
spent a fortune on Bones. That's might be why I prefer it. But no, I just I just like the the package that it gives
1:19:21
you and um yeah, and the experience and the fact it's like a one and done and
1:19:26
it's like, yep, that was fun. Done. Move on with my life. Do something else. But then that's me in campaign games though,
1:19:32
isn't it? Yeah, that's true. So short attention span. I yeah I haven't played Elder Scrolls
1:19:39
but so the Too Many Bones games we played recently which kind of I did the same as Becky just I didn't pull the
1:19:46
trigger on it was I looked it up and I thought I do like Too Many Bones and then my
1:19:51
first thought was I will never play my own copy of it. Yeah, because I have so many other legacy
1:19:57
games and Epic games and all that lot that I've play on a regular basis, you know, like even like Primal and Apex
1:20:04
Legends and all that lot that I was like, I can't see when I'm going to get a 6-hour game of Too Many Bones in. And
1:20:09
so, I actually started looking at Elder Scrolls and didn't really get much further than just starting to have a look. But what I was hoping you were
1:20:15
going to say was, oh, it turns out it's five threehour campaigns or something
1:20:20
like that cuz then I could have got into it more. That's how we do it. Oh, right. Okay. So, we literally we don't play three
1:20:27
sessions. It's two and you can do that, right? Yeah, exactly. So, the only thing that I
1:20:32
would say is there is a save mechanic in there that works really well. For me,
1:20:38
the biggest obstacle to scroll, similar to Frost Gloom Haven, is a setup. So, I'm leaving it set up all the time and
1:20:45
we can jump straight in and we're good to go in 10 minutes. That is a big advantage. And we do do it in five, six
1:20:51
smaller 3-hour sessions. Yeah. See, that feels more appealing to me and my lifestyle sort of situation
1:20:57
cuz I love Too Many Bones. And we played again recently and I was like, I want to play this like every couple of months.
1:21:03
But it's finding 6 hours, 7 hours on a Saturday or Sunday cuz that doesn't feel like a game you want to put down and
1:21:08
pick back up again. Like that doesn't feel like we'll split this over two or three sessions. You want to get it done.
1:21:14
Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I'd like to play it like that. Like let's do two hours tonight and then we'll do two hours the next
1:21:19
week. No, cuz I'd forget what the hell I'm doing with it. Elder Scrolls does now feel like more
1:21:25
probably like the game I would end up getting for that nature cuz if it's doing a similar thing, but I can split
1:21:30
it up cuz I don't mind the campaign thing. It's just that it adds to the like ever growing list of campaigns I
1:21:37
need to play. Yeah. But I'm going to get to my campaigns eventually. the chance of sitting down
1:21:43
for six, seven hours at a time is just tough. Lower probably than getting in the next
1:21:50
campaign game. So, yeah. Interesting. There we go. So, that's our that's our Space Invader section finished.
1:21:57
Hopefully, um giving you a bit of food for thought on things. And I'm sure you've got similar games in your collection where or maybe not in your
1:22:03
collection, but just similar games that feel like they they hold the same vibe or the same audience. Um, and if you do,
1:22:10
please let us know. Um, we always like a bit interaction on the socials, so please let us know what your two Space
1:22:16
Invader games are. Poo poo.
TURN 4 - Receive, Sleeve, or Leave
1:22:27
[Music] So, we are now on to receive, leave, or leave. And this is likely the last one
1:22:34
as we're hoping to introduce a new a new uh topic to fill this space in the next
1:22:40
episode. Oh, watch this space. So, watch the space for that. Listen to the space. So, true.
1:22:47
You don't watch. Well, you can watch us on YouTube. But you just watch a logo. You just watch a logo while you're listening to it. Still watching. Um so
1:22:56
the three games which we are going to receive sleeve or leave are captain's
1:23:01
chair lacrimosa and Marvel zombies.
1:23:08
Oh easy it go on then JP sleeve captain's chair.
1:23:14
Yeah. No brainer. I'll receive lacrimosa. Nice is fun. And I'm done with zombie side. So that's
1:23:21
bye. Yeah. Even with a new mechanic. Even with a new mechan, I'm done with it. I've enjoyed Zombie Side. I've had
1:23:27
my time with it. I played Second Edition. I played the campaign with Washington uh DZ. I enjoyed that. That
1:23:35
was quite cool. And played those 10 sessions and I I'm done with this now and it's time to move forward.
1:23:42
Nice. So happy to leave it. Sorry, Tate. No, you're right. But that's just where I'm at. And C,
1:23:48
come on. It's captain's show. I was always getting sleeved, wasn't it, for me? Yes. So
1:23:53
done. Go on then. T, what are you thinking? Sleeve Marvel's zombie side.
1:24:00
I receive captain's chair and I've not played the other one. So yeah, that's fair. That's fine. It's also very It's very beige. You have
1:24:06
to really want to be to fair. I would never buy cam ship if I got given it. I'd be well happy. Yeah, fair enough.
1:24:11
Yeah. So that's definitely the options for me.
1:24:16
Um that's difficult for me again, but I think I would sleeve captain's chair.
1:24:23
I'm really torn for the other two actually because because that theme art
1:24:28
dead Moz art being shipped around Europe as or whatever is but I get it's not what actually happens
1:24:34
in the game but it always makes me feel cuz you move that little there's a so there's a picture of Mozart that you move around the board and it's supposed
1:24:40
to be you touring with like his wife his wife and and friends sort of
1:24:47
telling stories of how awesome Mo was and playing and all this stuff but because you just moved this little
1:24:52
Mozart thing around. It feels like you're just carting Mozart's body around Europe. Look, he's dead.
1:24:58
Yeah. Anyway, sorry. Give me a resource. I I suspect it might be one of those games that I really don't want to try,
1:25:05
but I would actually enjoy if I did. I reckon it's that. So I I I'm really torn
1:25:10
because Zombie Side I've played once and it was one of three times I got really
1:25:16
badly alpha game to the point of me actually saying something just being like if you want to take my turn you
1:25:21
[ __ ] carry on mate kind of do you know what I mean? That doesn't sound like you. No it doesn't sound like me at all does it? No. Um, yeah. So, I'm a little bit
1:25:28
torn with it cuz I wouldn't mind giving it another go. And I'm not against the idea of that a merry trash kind of I
1:25:35
don't know, kind of like tower defense slowly upgrade kind of mechanic kind of game. I do quite like my games
1:25:42
relatively simple and dice chucky sometimes when I'm in the mood. Um,
1:25:48
and the lazy part of me says that that might be Yeah, I don't know. I'm really torn, but I'm gonna go for
1:25:56
receive zombie side. Yes. Well done.
1:26:04
Just because the theme is like the worst possible theme for me. Yeah, it's to be it didn't capture me at first and then we played that game on
1:26:11
the stream with Paul and actually it's quite good. I actually really enjoyed it. Hey, don't get me wrong, I thought
1:26:16
Wingspan was the worst theme that I've ever flipping heard of and I took the piss out for it already went played it went, "Yeah, this is really good.
1:26:23
So, I'm I'm open to it being good, but I really am not getting that edge to play. Yeah, but you got to sign up to a game
1:26:29
event and I can't see you doing it because the theme it's going to be a convention thing to be honest. That's what it's going to be.
1:26:35
We're going to have to kind of sneak attack you. It's like, right, just sit here, Curly. Like, what what's going on?
1:26:40
Oh, not this Mozart again. You're not leaving. We just color the Mozart picture in with
1:26:45
ginger hair and we call it simply red. He doesn't red. You don't know who Simply Red is,
1:26:50
do you? Well, the band. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it that ginger guy? What's he called? Big Huck.
1:26:56
Oh my god. You've learned something. What songs did he sing? I got no idea.
1:27:01
We've got him. We've got him. I genuinely don't know, but I vaguely remember. I am sleosa.
1:27:09
Yeah, I'm really torn because for the similar reason is that
1:27:16
I think I will enjoy Captain's Chair, but every time I go to look at it, I
1:27:21
think I probably would be rather playing something else than Captain's Chair.
1:27:27
And there is a space in everyone's life for dice chuckers, even though I'm not
1:27:33
particularly fond of them generally. And I think the Marvel Zombies thing does call to me more,
1:27:39
but I think Captain's chair will probably win it out cuz I think while I'm playing it, I'll probably think I'm not like even if I'm not enjoying it
1:27:45
that much, I'll probably feel like I'll have pushed some buttons and that. Yeah. So, yeah. So, I'm definitely sleeping
1:27:51
and then I think just receiving Captain's Chair over Marvel Zombies.
1:27:56
Happy birthday. Yeah. Oh, okay. Thanks. It's a good birthday present to get,
1:28:01
isn't it? Well, yeah, depends. It's No, it is. Trust me, it's good.
1:28:08
Do it. So, there we go. The final receive, sleeve, or leave. What's going to be next? We'll see.
1:28:15
We'll see. And now on to the penultimate turn.
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up?
1:28:20
[Music]
1:28:28
So, Curly, what are you looking forward to? Well, I'm hoping this screws JP. Uh, I'm
1:28:35
looking forward to Fate of the Fellowship. Nice. Which is coming up very soon. Looking forward to giving that a try.
1:28:41
That's Thursday. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. Look looking forward. Is it this Thursday? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh crap. So, I haven't even learned it yet to be
1:28:48
honest, but Mark didn't put me off. Mod Monk gave us a bit of a review of that one and said it's getting some good reviews.
1:28:53
Yeah. So, I'm really interesting to sort of give it a bit of a go. Is it fully? Yeah. fully fully co-op based. So yeah,
1:28:59
so I'm hoping to kind of learn it together kind of thing, but I'll watch some videos and I would recommend that
1:29:05
we all probably do that to be honest. But um yeah, just cuz I think it's going to be
1:29:10
for a learning game, it might be slightly longer, but so I'm really looking forward to it cuz the theme is
1:29:16
obviously perfect. Couldn't be any better. The fact that I like a similar kind of pandemic, but itch for it kind
1:29:22
of be a bit more complicated, which is kind of where it's aimed at. Um, and the fact that it's fully co-op as well, and
1:29:28
I know that no one I'm playing with are [ __ ] so it's kind of just all works out perfectly. So, I think I'm really
1:29:33
gonna enjoy it. Depends on my mood. Yeah. Well, depends on. Yeah, but your assholeness is usually whether you take
1:29:38
the piss or not. Not not alpha gaming. Oh, no. I would never alpha game. No. No. So, yeah. So, I'm really looking forward
1:29:44
to that. Um, so yeah, I'd love to hear how that goes cuz it is one that I don't need to buy this cuz I
1:29:50
own so many pandemic systems, but I do like Lord of the Rings and it does look good. So I'm keen to see what you say.
1:29:57
Yeah. Yeah, I'll give you a shout with it. It'd be interesting to see whether it's cuz I really like the World of Warcraft pandemic version. Um, played
1:30:04
that with you actually and I think we both of the opinion that it's a really good version, but it was very pandemicy.
1:30:10
This one's been kind of sold as a a pandemic adjacent almost.
1:30:16
Not not pandemic really, but um with feeling a bit like a pandemic. So yeah.
1:30:22
So I'm interested to see how different it is. Yeah. Cuz I like the Star Wars pandemic and that is the same where it feels
1:30:29
enough like pandemic but not like pandemic all at the same time. So I'm hoping that Fate the Fellowship is that
1:30:34
like one up from that. Nice. Yeah. I'm intrigued to see what it's about. It's not something I'm like being
1:30:40
honest like excited about because pandemic is pandemic and Lord of the Rings is fun.
1:30:46
But that's a terrible statement and it but it's just how I feel. But then I quite like going to games where I'm like
1:30:52
I'm like n cuz I was the same with ano right even though it's got no relation but ano 1800 I was like this is going to
1:30:58
be a bit dry and and I played it's [ __ ] brilliant. Sausages. Absolutely.
1:31:04
Just like this game is amazing and I love that when a game can just really like spin you and just that was
1:31:12
awesome. So, let's see. Let's see what happens. Yeah, JP. Yeah, this week. Um, yeah, I thought I'd
1:31:19
have a relaxing time after holiday and play loads of board games again. Hey. Um, now I'm looking forward to playing
1:31:25
Apex again. Apex Legends uh tomorrow. Not tomorrow. Tuesday. Better not be tomorrow.
1:31:30
Not tomorrow. I don't know where I am. Um, but yeah, it's uh we we got a game in just before I went away and this is
1:31:37
kind of like a follow-up with different different group apart from Adrian who's stepping in again I believe. Y
1:31:42
um and last time you played we played with some different legends. So there's a base four legends that you
1:31:49
they're not even the base four anymore cuz there's six, isn't there in the uh the Yes. the way they changed it. But as me and
1:31:55
Adrian played this thing two years ago, there was four base level. Well, you could still get the box with four.
1:32:02
I think they actually redid it so that it always came with six. Yeah, they changed. Anyway, so basically
1:32:07
four of the six base legends we played multiple times and then last we just did the proper draft and went, "Hey, go for
1:32:13
it." And we saw some I mean, we play some rules wrong, which we've learned. And that's the thing I'm finding with
1:32:18
with Apex is it's taking a few games to hone in on some of the the rules and timings of things, but it's just fine
1:32:25
because we're learning it and you know um and we go, "God, that's broken." That's because we're playing it wrong. Yeah.
1:32:30
Uh, but it's all good. When we played, we I played Mirage last time. He was fun. He has like holograms that you you
1:32:37
basically turn on. You turn yourself into three versions of yourself and they all run around just
1:32:43
um and you were Octane, right? That time you were just some weird nutter jumping around doing god knows what, healing
1:32:49
yourself whilst getting hurt. Moved so much across that board repeatedly. Flew around the board like an absolute
1:32:56
insane person shooting and and stuff. And uh Davey played Revenant. Um which
1:33:01
is one of the characters that we we didn't play fully right with the shadow mechanic. And um who was the other one?
1:33:09
Who else played? Rob, wasn't it? Rob played Loba. Loba. The Black Market. Black Market just constantly picking up
1:33:16
gear. And yeah, respected to that. They played well. Um and it was closer than I thought it
1:33:22
was going to be because I think we felt me and Adrian on the same team. We thought we'd Yeah, this is a bit one-sided
1:33:29
and probably more thanks to Adrian than me. He was uh just jumping around doing what he could do.
1:33:35
I don't know. But anyway, either way, we we it got quite close to the end and it was just a good fun game
1:33:40
again. Yeah, another good fun um set of matches. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to this one.
1:33:45
Again, we'll do a full legend draft, see what happens, and probably get some more rules wrong. Sorry, mate. I know Tamo's
1:33:52
Tambbo's got his lip out. Um, he's missed out again, I think. Was it work
1:33:57
again? Yeah, it's working. Another one we'll be putting in. I will I will prioritize you, pal. Thanks.
1:34:03
So, we'll uh let's regroup on some dates cuz I think you would You played the demo, haven't you?
1:34:08
Oh, yeah. I play it twice. Oh, have you? Yeah, I played two demos. I played it last. We went to um Expo this year.
1:34:14
We did say I mean when we played it last Adrian, we'll get a um six player. We need to get a six player in, I think.
1:34:20
Yeah, we'll get six player in or or we'll do a day where we just get two copies set up and we can just
1:34:25
Yeah. rotate and rotate around two copies in the group. Yeah, we'll do something like that. I'm looking forward to that. It's good fun.
1:34:32
T um I'm actually looking forward to I've had the tracking number for my company heroes.
1:34:38
Hooray. Wow. It hasn't arrived yet at the point, but they've given me the tracking number. So, Oh, that must be like a few weeks away
1:34:44
then. It's about about four weeks or something like that. But I'm not holding my breath. How many years? 2023. 2023 I ordered it fifth. That's
1:34:52
not bad. I thought it was longer than that. No, no, it's only two years. It's cuz it's a second printing and you'd think they'd have everything
1:34:57
sorted from the first printing, right? So, you think I I thought it would be quicker because
1:35:03
it was a second printing, but I thought it was longer. I thought it was like a 4 year wait or something. No, I just looked at when I pledged it.
1:35:10
It was 2023. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, that's I look forward to and Retaliation's not far
1:35:16
away with Nemesis. Yeah, of course. Looking forward to trying that. Yeah, that's not too far away either. Company of Heroes on it.
1:35:22
Company of Heroes is great. I've played it before and I really enjoyed it and I'm annoyed cuz I kept telling myself I
1:35:27
was going to back it and I kept talking myself about how much it cost and yet I think cuz it's World War II
1:35:33
miniatures on a board. I I feel like I really should have backed it. So, I'm looking forward to cuz four players
1:35:38
pretty good in that as well. Yeah, I bought the Russian so we can play with more players as well. So, I bought the people.
1:35:44
Nice. Not seen anything about it. So, let me know if you think I'd like it. Yeah, it's a strategic game. It's a, you know,
1:35:51
tactical game, which I'm rubbish at. So, I'm learning. It's been years since I've now learned I'm not good at those
1:35:58
games. I'm better tactical than I'm strategic. That's what I've learned. I'm I'm Give give me a situation to try and think at
1:36:04
that moment and I'll I'll do my best. But when it's grand and it lasts for an hour or plus, I'm like, I'm crap at
1:36:11
that. I go shiny over there. Shiny. It does do a good job of sort of um doing
1:36:16
that RTS thing of okay, well, I'm going to buy this unit and put it on now and kind of those kind of things. So, it's Command and Conquer.
1:36:23
Well, it's Company of Heroes. Yeah, the computer game. Yeah. Yeah. I've never played it.
1:36:29
Command and Conquer. Same thing. Yeah, it's kind of Adrian. It's kind of got that vibe.
1:36:34
Thanks. With a shade. Yeah. Owned. Boom.
1:36:40
What about you, Pal? I really don't know. the I saying before we started recording that the next few
1:36:46
weeks are really quite fullon for me like between work and nice holiday which
1:36:52
I'm looking forward to few days away which will be nice um hoping to play the next round of
1:36:58
primal the awakening which would be good and Hamburg has been sat unplayed on the
1:37:04
shelf for two years nearly Stephen Feld and I keep pulling out the rule book
1:37:11
starting to read it and being a bit like, okay, but I think I'm going to enjoy the game.
1:37:17
Yeah. So, I think I just need to get over it. So, I keep telling myself I'm going to play Hamburg soon.
1:37:22
Um, and I'll report back on that cuz Burgundy's like
1:37:28
drawn top two games of all time for me. So, while I don't know if it's going to hit those heights, I'm hoping it gets a lot
1:37:34
of love. So, I'm hoping it works out. I'm sure it will. Just do it. just make
1:37:41
it happen. Yeah. Again, it's one of those It's one of those Yeah. where it's sat on the shelf staring at me and I've gone, I'm
1:37:48
going to enjoy playing that and every time I start to learn it, I'm just not in the mood to learn a new game. Mhm. So, it just doesn't get learned. But
1:37:54
there we go. Cool. That's us. That's us. Thank you very much everyone for
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:38:00
listening. We have been the Who's Turn It Anyway podcast. As always, we love to hear from you through various of our
1:38:06
socials. They're all in the show notes below. Please take a look and reach out. Um, we love interacting with you guys.
1:38:14
If you do have a few pennies and you like what you hear from us, you can throw us those pennies via coffee, which
1:38:20
is our crowdfunding platform. It helps us do loads of things. Um, recently we used it to buy more equipment for the UK
1:38:28
GE to help us do more recordings there and hopefully you felt that this time round. So, we'll continue to use it for
1:38:35
things like that. Anyway, that's been us. Thank you for listening. Till next
1:38:40
time. Whose turn is it anyway? There we are.