
Whose Turn Is It Anyway?
Whose Turn Is It Anyway is a board gaming podcast which invites you into our gaming group. With a rotating first player you can be sure we’re bringing you variety in everything tabletop and board gaming.
Whose Turn Is It Anyway?
Episode 84 - Add-ons and let-downs
It's your turn...to click here to send us your comments on the show
Becky's back with a bang as an age old topic rears it's head after her turmoil of will we, won't we on the latest Ark Nova 3Dition crowdfunding campaign.
FIRST PLAYER: Becky
OTHER PLAYERS: JP, Kerley & Adrian
In this episode you'll learn:
- that JP finally managed to preview Terraria thanks to Paperfort Games and gives his first impressions
- that Kerley likes it oldschool in Chinatown by ZMan Games
- Adrian finally managed to get his first of the City Collection series of Hamburg by Queen Games
- that Becky has found a dudes on a map game she enjoys in Wroth by Chip Theory Games
- about the positives and negatives of expansion / upgrade content for board games and our thoughts on this.
LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW
N/A
EPISODE CHAPTERS
0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count
2:08 - TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
2:26 - JP - Terraria
11:53 - Kerley - Chinatown
17:10 - Adrian - Hamburg
27:37 - Becky - Wroth
33:32 - TURN 3 - Main Event: Add-Ons and Let-Downs
35:42 - Is it morally right for games to be released knowing expansions are already planned?
40:56 - What games have been ruined by expansions?
52:25 - Expansion that make the base game better
57:08 - Which games do we think would be incomplete without it's expansion?
1:01:43 - What's the most extravagant blinging we've done for our games?
1:07:02 - If you had to ban expansions for content or upgrades which would it be?
1:11:35 - TURN 4 - Connect Four
1:15:27 - TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up?
1:20:08 - TURN 6 - The Final Turn
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TURN 1 - Player Count
0:00
[Music]
0:17
Welcome to Whose Turn is Anyway, a board gaming podcast where we welcome you into our gaming group while we talk about all
0:22
the bits of cardboard and minis we've played with recently. I'm Becky, the current first player, and today I'm
0:27
joined by Adrien. Hello, Curly. Hi, everyone. And JP. Oh, yeah.
0:33
So, before we get into our episode, which will feature discussions on expansions and upgrades to your games,
0:38
how are we all? Super duper. Thanks for asking. Beautiful. Thank you.
0:44
I'm good, too. Wow. We've got a whole house full of you sounded. Do you want to tell your voice?
0:49
I'm good, too. Great. My name's Adrian. Nothing exciting. I didn't realize this was the lightning
0:54
round. That was all. I was expecting a bit more conversation. No, I'm all good. Also, I've been doing 4
1:02
days of manual handling training training and you know what? It was actually really good. It could sound
1:08
No, I know. I was thinking this is going to be drier than a desert flip-flop, but actually it was really good. I really
1:14
enjoyed it. What you were going to say then? Heavy editing on that. Um, no, it's fine.
1:19
I've only ever said desert flip-flop. I don't know what you're talking about. That's fine. But every time you say manual handling, I just imagine Curly
1:25
going, "I've got something you can handle." Did you have you said this when she said, "I've been doing manual handling."
1:32
No, he's missed out, isn't it? What the hell is wrong with you? I've said similar. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. Yeah. Sorry. It's not called manual
1:38
handling anyway. It's called safer moving and handling. No, I prefer manual handling. No, there's no You shouldn't be manually handling. You should be observing
1:45
safely. Yeah. Uh delegating the manual handling to someone else. It was really good. How about this? Let's negotiate. I did
1:51
talk about being able to handle my boxes earlier on. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. This has gone
1:58
off script. I like it. But we all good then. Yeah, we're good. Back to the script. Back to the script.
2:03
All good. So, we're all fine and let's get on with the show.
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
2:16
The first round is let's talk about Hex. I'm not going to do the Adrian song, which is always a disappointment, but we
2:21
can look forward to it when Adrian does it again, can't we? So, this is where we share what we've been getting to our tables.
JP - Terraria
2:27
JP, let's start with you. What's been rearing its lovely head?
2:32
Don't know where that went. JP. Yeah, apparently me. Um, it's not a physical table that this thing has
2:40
appeared on. It's a virtual table. Okay. In the form of tabletop simulator. Oh,
2:46
so I was basically roll back UK Games Expo episode. My one regret of that
2:52
whole experience was that I've been eyeing up a demo of a demo of Terraria,
2:58
right? The board game. And I've been trying to get on and have a look. And every time I went back, it's always busy. It's always
3:04
busy. Like for the whole three days, I just couldn't do it. And we spoke with uh Matt at the press event from Paper
3:11
Fork Games. And uh so he basically gives us a kind of an overview and the spiel of the game which is why I was quite excited to to try it out. It didn't
3:18
happen. However, fast forward to now. And uh basically I dropped him an email and said basically a little so story
3:24
saying I never got to play the game and I really want to play it. And and to be fair, he replied and went, "No problems.
3:30
I got you. Let's jump on a TTS mod and and I'll run you through it." And I thought, "Let's do it." So we did that.
3:37
And uh for those that don't know what Terraria is, I don't know if you guys have heard of the video board game. Yeah. Sorry, the video
3:42
game. Yeah, it's kind of like Minecraft 2D. Um, it's probably nothing like I've
3:48
never played it, so I can't really compare it massively, but you you know, you do dig in and you craft weapons and
3:53
and tools and things. Um, and yeah, you kind of build stuff and there's these monsters all over the place that you
4:00
have to kind of like kill and get stuff and level up and and then these at times
4:06
these big bosses come and just wreck havoc and you're like, "Ah, [ __ ] What do you do?" that does sound exactly like
4:11
Minecraft. It's like that, but it's it's kind of 2D, but it's it's got a massive following um on the old video game side.
4:18
So, anyway, they've done a board game version and um and pretty much it's it's
4:25
all driven by um kind of cards. So, you kind of get a hand of cards out of your
4:30
deck and on your cards will have these little green circles which depict action points that you will have. So, your
4:35
drawings, your hand, you'll get action points of which you can move around the map and uh dig and attack and do all
4:42
those kind of lovely things. And um and we play just a quick two player, so some
4:47
of the cards allow you to uh kind of assist other players and give them some extra actions and you can rest and heal
4:53
up and all those kind of things. But it's true sandbox. It's like he he basically laid down the rules and went,
4:58
"This is how it kind of works. What do you want to do?" And you're like, "I don't know. Um I'll go over there and chop that tree down." Okay, is this what
5:05
you do? Cool. Got some wood. Lovely. And then there's like some green slime
5:10
things. Okay, I'm going to have that. So, I went and tried to have that. Failed miserably. And uh tried it again.
5:16
Failed miserably. I'm not very good at fighting. And um and yeah, basically the the map
5:22
is is kind of how do you explain it? But it's it's basically a row uh five rows
5:28
of of cards and each three columns of cards are a biome. So you start like a
5:34
forest biome and if you go all the way to the left or right, you'll probably go desert or jungle or whatever. So you can
5:39
kind of go left or right at ground level or you can start digging down and and start basically going wherever the hell you want, farming all sorts of cool
5:46
stuff in in the depths and finding skeletons and and things like that. And it works really well like for for a
5:54
board game that has a complete 2D nature. And you know, gravity works how
6:00
you would expect gravity to work. If you dig down, there's a hole, what's going to happen? You're just going to fall like wee all the way down to to your
6:07
probably death. Um unless there cobwebs to kind of soften the the landing. Cobwebs often do that. I think
6:13
they do. Yeah, if they're strong enough. Yes, that's true. In this game, they are. Um but you can kind of craft ropes and
6:19
and platforms to kind of help you descend if it's a big cavern as as such. So, there's some really cool bits about
6:25
the game that I really really enjoyed. So um for the the kind of main physical game which obviously I didn't experience
6:31
but you have your like character boards and there you have all your resource that you're tracking in terms of
6:36
different um things like you know copper and diamonds and uh wood and all that
6:42
kind of stuff which you craft with which is all kind of usual standard stuff but you have your like little player area which is your character. So when you
6:48
kind of craft better armor or or equipment you literally have these perspects cards and they can kind of overlay and they obviously have like the
6:55
little armor on there. So when you overlay them, they literally look like they got all their little cool stuff on them. So I really really appreciate kind
7:02
of how that works. That was cool. The other thing is that you kind of have NPCs that you unlock throughout the game
7:08
as well. So when you um uh basically unlock those, you can kind of get access to a card market and you can then buy
7:16
extra cards using money that you kind of acquire in the game uh for your deck. So you can then kind of get a better better
7:23
deck and uh you can have a better engine for for doing stuff and like you know digging and moving and fighting and all those kind of things. Um so yeah, so
7:30
that's all quite cool. So yeah, you got usual things in there like treasure chests and you can get loot and
7:35
equipment and bombs and all sorts of kind of fun stuff. But this game like really pops. Like if you saw um anyone
7:42
that was there at Expo and saw the physical kind of prototype copies that they had um and they have a you know
7:48
obviously on a big big playmat, this thing really pops like you can't really unnotice it. It's like, wow, what is
7:54
this like explosion of color um that's going on there? And with all the cards there that's laid out as you explore
8:00
from, you know, your your grid, as I mentioned earlier, it really like builds this world um this 2D world and and
8:07
really brings it to life. And, you know, when speaking to Matt about some of the artwork cuz obviously the the game is
8:13
pixelated. It's like pixel art and they had to kind of go through a whole um kind of reimagining of the design for
8:19
the board game cuz they felt like they didn't want to go pixel. had to go in a different direction. Um, but had to
8:24
still be faithful and still be recognizable as Terraria. So, yeah, they've done a really good job and I had
8:30
loads of fun with this. Um, probably more than I was expecting just because it's it's complete sandbox. It's like
8:36
off you go and you've got these objectives um on these different cards and they're variable in the game um
8:42
which is like it starts off really easy. It's like chop a tree down. I can do that. No problem. Done. And then you get
8:50
to the next card and it's like it progressively builds and builds and builds until you kind of fulfill um
8:56
various different types of objectives as a team. And then it gets to a point where a boss appears just like the video
9:02
game. So we had King Slime who's this massive bloody slime thing that appears.
9:08
And by this point I'd equipped and crafted a really awesome bow. And I
9:14
could just like line of sight and bow [ __ ] from from afar. And it was just like [ __ ]
9:19
Yeah, [ __ ] That's the technical. That's the technical word for it. And basically had all the cool dice cuz
9:25
they're upgraded and rather than the the the kind of crappy D4 that you start with, which is, you know, it's always
9:30
like miss starts to get up to D6s and and and D8s or whatever. And uh yeah, I
9:36
was just hitting like a a bad boy with a bow and uh and it was really good. And
9:42
um yeah, it it's really cool. I I don't know how else to to kind of explain it. It's just lightweight just
9:50
Yeah. I'd say it's light lightweight but there's a lot going on with it at the same time. Um and I think it's just like
9:58
like probably like the video games your imagination. It's like it's open and
10:03
some people might like that like the fact I really dig the fact that a game doesn't kind of guard rail you in.
10:09
Um but some people might go I just generally don't know where I'm supposed to go. But I suppose that's what these objective cards, they call them chains,
10:17
uh, in the game. That's what they're for, to kind of guide you to certain direction. Now, we didn't I haven't played the full game, so I had like a
10:23
preview cuz I'd probably be on TTS for for a long time. Um, and bless Matt, he
10:29
uh, you know, he's got a job to do and he spent some time with me. Um, but
10:34
hopefully in the future we'll get a a full game uh, coming up. So, I'll give, you know, a proper full game experience
10:41
on it in in physical form as well. Um, so yeah, watch this space on it. But
10:47
yeah, I think it's one to watch if you like that kind of Minecraftesque survival
10:53
kind of game. It's it's a lot of fun. Like they've done a really good job with it.
10:58
I do like a bit of like card flipping exploration type. Oh yeah, it's got that and it's
11:04
different every time. I just I like that. It's just not Oh, I'm going down here. What's down here? Oo, diamonds,
11:09
you know, and then you you getting the uh the craft book out and you know, kind of that's a lot what I like about Clank as
11:14
well, you know, with the hacker flipping over. Yeah. So, it's but yeah, it's Terraria. It's definitely one to watch. Paper four
11:21
games. Cool. I did think it'd be a U game when we sort of saw it at Expo and I could see why you're excited about it. The second
11:28
you were like, you can do anything. I was like, here we go. JP fell in love instantly. But definitely check them out. I think
11:34
they can late pledge it now. um cuz it's going through it's had its Kickstarter campaign. Um but yeah, the the
11:39
production copies are uh they're showing off. They look really neat for for what you get in there. But yeah,
11:45
one to look out, but it's a preview. I've not played the whole game, so I can't really give you my full opinion on it, but I had a lot
11:51
of fun for what I played. So yeah, nice. Curly, what have you been getting to the table? As if I didn't know. I
Kerley - Chinatown
11:57
lived at the same house as you and see the table. Um well, yeah, I've been really busy with gaming lately, actually. would have
12:03
been um good to get back a little bit more back into it which is nice. Um so I think I had a state where I had like
12:08
five nights in a row were you know gaming every single every single night or day. Yeah, it was um yeah that was a
12:15
lot just the way this the way it ran out. But it was good fun though. It was good fun. Why I didn't have time to make manual
12:21
handling puns is because you were too busy playing board games. Yeah. That's what it was. Yeah, this is it. Sorry about that. Only thing on manual handling is
12:28
meeples. Yes, exactly. Yeah, you don't need to worry about getting close to the load for that, do you?
12:33
Nice. Yeah. Anyway, um yeah, but so yeah, so I've played a few different games, but most uh mostly
12:40
golden oldies, I would say, like you know, the classics that we always play, so we won't talk about that, but um
12:46
yeah, went down to the um Taunt board game group uh meeting in the Holiday Inn
12:53
um in Taton and they meet every Friday um between 4 and 6:00 in the evening
12:59
till late. Um apparently they finish playing 3:00 in the morning. Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, they were saying.
13:05
Um, but yeah, turned up to that. A few of us turned up and it was really good fun. Met a few new people and um played
13:12
a couple of new games, but the one that I wanted to pick out was Chinatown. Um, which was Jamie's copy. So, um, yeah,
13:19
really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed having everyone at the table. Met some new people. And Chinatown, I thought was
13:25
actually a really good, fairly simple game, but just really good fun about negotiation. Uh, the idea of that game
13:31
is that you essentially have this almost like puzzle type board, but hold your horses. Like it's not a puzzle game
13:37
really, hence why I liked it. Um the idea is you've got say uh 90 tiles
13:42
spaced out around this board and you each get um dealt five cards at the
13:48
start and it gets less as the game goes on and you have to and they've got five numbers on them between one and however
13:54
many it was, you know, and you've got to pick two of them that maybe fit together or maybe three of them depending how
13:59
many you got dealt and you've got to pick the ones that you want. So you want the ones that are close together in order to then start to build your shops
14:05
and different things on it. Um, and the idea is is that you pick the three or
14:11
the two later on that you want to keep and then you get dealt a bunch of shops that say, I don't know, like a
14:16
restaurant is five or like a factory is six and you've got to get four, five, I think it goes from three to six. Um,
14:24
adjacent um tiles. All right. Um, the idea of
14:29
that being is you're going to get more money if you get it complete, but you do get some money whilst you're working on
14:35
it. So yeah, it's just an art of like, you know, it's a reminded me, and this is going to sound bad, all right, whatever way I say it, but it reminded
14:42
me a little bit of like Monopoly in a way, you know, when you're like bargaining with someone like, oh, I really need that, you know, um I know
14:48
Oxford Street to complete my set. I'll give you, you know, this one and this one which complete yours and I'll throw in 100. And you know, the idea is you're
14:55
negotiating with all the other people on the table to try and get the cards that you want and the shops that you want and
15:01
you're kind of like doing all these dodgy deals and the the VP is money and you're just kind of like, "Oh, I'll
15:07
throw you 10 grand if you and and this restaurant if you give me plot number 72 or something that I need to finish my
15:14
factory or whatever." Um, and yeah, just really good fun. It just really works. Really basic. and you end up like taking
15:21
cards that you know someone else wants just so that you can make a good deal with them that you've noticed that they've got something that you've got,
15:26
you know. Um so yeah, just a really interesting fun game and um yeah, really enjoyed it.
15:33
Nice. So definitely recommend it for those who like negotiation type games. It is a bit apparently they were saying it is a
15:39
little bit like Marmite. Some people hate it. Like I could imagine Rob [ __ ] hating that game. Well, you got
15:46
to know the value of what you've got in your hand, and you've got to be brave enough to go and like either hold your
15:52
horses or go out to someone and get them to give you the value of what you've got while trying to not
15:58
give away too much sort of thing at the same time. And that's a quite a hard for some gamers, including
16:04
myself. I think that's quite a hard balance is trying to work out exactly what the value of each property is worth
16:10
and then holding your horses in order to to hold out for what you want for the
16:15
price you want. You have to be comfortable saying no to people you don't know which I'm not going to be good at that
16:20
game. But I can imagine that's not the kind of game that Rob would want to play because it's a bit confrontational and same with
16:26
me. Exactly. It was it I will say it was super friendly. Everyone had a right good laugh and there wasn't anything serious
16:32
going on. Like when there was negotiation going down, it was all really really friendly. So if I was like, "No, no way." Then it was it was
16:39
absolutely fine. No problem. But I think you definitely have to approach it with the right mentality. And if you've got
16:44
one person in there who doesn't, I think that could ruin a game quite happily. Yeah. Someone who's a bit too pushy and taking
16:50
it too seriously and the rest of you not it would not work. Yeah. That's it. And just get nasty about it like go on fine then, you know,
16:55
I won't flipping have that. That completed my bloody set and all this kind of stuff. If you got someone like that, it's like game over straight away.
17:01
Yeah, fair enough. But they were really sort of friendly and welcoming, weren't they at strongly recommend heading down there
17:07
and uh meeting some new folks. Yeah, go and say hello. Adrian, what have you been playing?
Adrian - Hamburg
17:12
I have played Hamburg recently, which I think I said a few episodes ago, I am determined to play Hamburg and I have
17:18
now played it. It's the first game in the City collection of the sort of reprint of what Sepheld has done. And
17:24
since Castles of Burgundy sort of made its way right to the top of my sort of top 10,
17:30
I've been intrigued to try some of this city collection. I know I haven't. We tried Merlin
17:36
year ago or so ago, which I quite enjoyed and I bought Hamburg over a year ago
17:41
and just it just hasn't haven't got it to the table. So yeah, thoroughly enjoyed it. The idea
17:47
is that you are representing a mayor for the city of Hamburg that is however many
17:55
hundreds of years ago that they're sort of rebuilding or doing whatever they're doing there. And you have five colors of
18:04
different cards. Um, and each color well like there's like meeples and dice
18:09
related to each of them. And at the start of the game, you roll the dice and
18:15
if any of those colors are a five or six, the matching catastrophe to that
18:22
color. So all these colors kind of do different things, but like one or if there's a five or six, you'll increase
18:28
the catastrophe level by one. And if you get that three times in a row, then a
18:33
catastrophe happens. They're quite big. It's things like throw away all your money or ditch all of your meeples that you've been collecting through the game
18:39
and stuff like that. destroy a building and you don't you might build seven or eight of them in a game. It's not it's
18:45
quite severe. If it's a one or a two, then you add up
18:51
all the ones and twos and that becomes an action in the sort of first phase, which is that you can move your mayor up
18:58
a step, but you have to pay the amount equal to the value of number of ones and twos. So, if there's a one and two twos,
19:04
you'd pay five coins and your mayor can move up a step. And that's just victory points at the end of the game. the further they are up on this track, the
19:11
better. But at the start of a turn, you draw any of these cards you like from the five different color decks. And
19:17
that's you can literally be like, I'll take five pink cards from the deck or you can spread it out. It generally is better to spread it out. And then you'll
19:24
roll those dice and you use these cards in about seven different ways. So they're a real multi-use card. So you
19:31
can, for instance, discard a card to get the dice worth of coins. And this is why
19:36
I'm saying it's good to sometimes cuz if one dice rolled a six and all the rest rolled ones,
19:42
if someone had the the a card that was worth the value of the six dice, then
19:47
you get to take you get to discard that card as one of your actions and take six coins. If you only had the ones that
19:52
rolled ones and twos, you're not going to really want to discard that, but you will need money throughout the game. So, it's kind of
19:58
picking the right things for you, but also trying to spread it a little bit in case the dice don't come up in your
20:04
favor. kind of sounds a bit like almost like betting and you're trying to kind of have a a broad spectrum.
20:09
Yes, it can be. There's certain bits of it which are definitely sometimes it's like worth going down right well I'll need and I'll talk about it in a little
20:15
bit in a second but be like I really need gray or something for this or it
20:20
could be well I'll get a bit of everything and then I've got lots more options generally but it may not go down the route I want to. So as I say you
20:26
either discard the card or play the card for a number of different things. So, you can um discard a card and build part
20:32
of the city wall or you can discard a card and get meeples equal to that card color.
20:38
Um, and I'm going to forget some of the various different bits you can do. Um or the two sort of other big things that
20:45
you can do is you can discard a mele of that color to build um like a I can't
20:53
think what it's called to build like a a building ground for a card a building to
20:58
be built on top of. And then the other action is you pay the money and you build a thing on top of the building
21:06
ground you've put down which is building ground is just a card face down and then the building on top is face up. And the
21:11
buildings will do various different things. They'll either instantly give you rewards or they'll build an engine. So it might be in turn one gain a worker
21:18
of this color or in sorry in turn in phase one get a a a mele of this color or get some
21:25
coins or get a victory point or something like that. It could be in round three in phase three which is the
21:31
the main action round where you're doing this discarding cards. It might be as well as doing that, you can discard a
21:38
pink mele and it will allow you to do this action for cheaper or for free or
21:43
something like that. And so you're kind of building up, it's very much like a Stephen Feld game. You're doing a little
21:49
bit of everything. You're not really going to go fully down one channel of doing just one thing, but you'll kind of
21:54
I'll build a bit of the wall and then that will get me some points that way and it'll get me bonuses every time I build a bit of the wall. or I'll build a
22:00
few structures which allow me to do I had a bit of an engine when I played which was at the beginning of every turn
22:06
I got a gray worker and then I could spend a gray worker in the next phase to then do things for cheaper.
22:13
Mhm. So I constantly had this little intake of gray workers that I was immediately spending in the next phase to then like
22:19
I can't think I think I was building wall sections for cheaper and stuff like that. And that lasts for a number of
22:26
rounds. I think it's eight eight turns it lasts for in total. So each turn is four actions. Um
22:33
and you do it one at a time. So everyone will get a round of actions. Then you
22:39
you change you move it along so it then shows the next round. And you'll do that four times. And then there's eight turns
22:46
during those turns. One of the sort of fascinating things is that whatever
22:52
number the black dice rolls, you will add um a clergy member which is
22:58
the black meeples onto the spot matching that number and that will increase all
23:04
buildings of that color. So the number will relate to a color basically. There is a slight minutia with zoos and parks
23:10
but don't need to get into that I don't think. Um you will then so if it rolled a one you might go okay it's now pink. So all
23:17
pink for every clergy that's in that area the end of the game all pink cards
23:23
are worth one extra victory point. So to start off with in the first two or three rounds you'll get a feeling of okay well
23:28
brown's got a couple on and blue might have one on or whatever it is. Is blue a color? I can't think now. But whatever
23:34
the orange orange is a color definitely a color. I didn't know if it was a card color. I
23:39
can't remember if it's sounds like so you got like a sort of market manipulation kind of a thing. You can't you can't manipulate it yourself
23:46
really. There are a couple of cards that allow you to move that's turns one around, but once they're set for the
23:51
round, they're there. So all like if on the first round if you don't manipulate it in that round
23:57
from from that time onwards at the end of the game cuz you don't really score points much in the turn, most of the
24:03
points done at the end of the game. At the end of the game, every brown building will be worth one more point than it already is.
24:08
Yeah. And so it's this fascinating thing of every card has about seven uses and at
24:15
the same time you're trying to get the card buildings to match what these point these extra points are coming in as as
24:21
well as building an engine. And it's very Feldian in that way of of it. It's
24:26
kind of making you do a little bit of everything and giving you loads of options to do it, but some options are better than others because of the dice
24:32
that you roll and because of the way the clergy come out and because of the hazards as I say. So, if you have to
24:38
ditch all your money, there is an action that you discard a card and you move the tracker back one so you can prevent
24:44
certain disasters from happening and stuff like that. So, there's loads of random bits and pieces like that. And I
24:49
thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle. The one bit I'm not sure about is someone found
24:54
an absolutely dirty combo in like the second round, which meant that every
25:00
time in between rounds there's like a majority thing. So if you are if you are
25:06
leading in one of these areas, you get to turn over a little marker to say at the end of the game, you'll score four extra victory points. But every time he
25:13
got to do that, he got to take one mele of every color, which is quite powerful. And then
25:20
once per round, he could spend not spend one of the cards, but he could use the action on a card. You put a little lock
25:25
thing to say that you've used it to get five coins and a victory point for every
25:32
mele of each color. Of every mele, one of each. So if you had if you had three
25:37
of each color, you'd get 15 coins, which is a ridiculous amount of money, and three victory points. And every time he
25:43
was ahead on something, he got one of each color. He got one of each color. So fueling it.
25:49
It was just con literally by turn three, I was like, I'm done. And okay, it was only a two-player game, but it was one
25:55
of those where it was like, okay, is this a filthy card combo that only
26:02
comes up once in a while? Is it going to happen more than once? If you're playing with more players, is it more of a
26:07
thing, less of a thing? I don't know. So, I feel like I need to play a little bit more for that. But, I thoroughly
26:12
enjoyed the game. There's expansions already printed on the board that you're supposed to play with that we didn't. There's about five expansions and
26:19
apparently it's quite common to throw two or three of them like the little modules like that you automatically sort
26:24
of caverns of teeth out kind of. Yeah, kind of. So it's like do you want to play with the stock market and the stock market is super simple. Do you
26:30
want to play with there is something to do with the clergy and the way that works. So the bonuses
26:36
um when they come out it changes like each action very slightly depending upon
26:41
where so there's loads of those kind of little modules. Really enjoyed it. need more plays to see whether or not broken
26:47
combos are going to be a thing or not because we only got like a third of the way through all the decks and we found a
26:53
broken combo very early in the game. Um, and I'm just really I now want to try
26:58
Amsterdam. So Amsterdam's the second one and gets lorded a little bit gets a little bit more praise than than Hamburg.
27:04
Um, but I'm now intrigued to do that because I do think that I'm just a Feld fan at this point. Sounds like sounds like it's your jam.
27:10
Yeah. My only question is is there a Hamburger module? No, there should be.
27:16
They've missed a trick if they have. Yeah, then they've missed a trick. Yeah. No. Damn you. Well, that bring back memories of that
27:21
flipping game you ate. What was it about? Food chain magnet. Food chain magnet. All right. I ate.
27:27
Oh, I thought you said you ate. Oh, you mean hate? Hate. Yes. Yes.
27:32
The pale white game of boringness. Let's not talk about it and move on.
Becky - Wroth
27:38
So, the game I have played recently that I want to talk about is a game called Roth, which was played around here with
27:45
uh me, JP, Curly, and who else played? With Rob Dog. So, the game is like an
27:52
assault to your eyes. It is super bright, neon. It's really great. It I can imagine if you were playing this in
27:59
a conventional or a crowded space, people would come over and look at it because it's like, "Oh, what is that? What is going on?" In traditional chip
28:05
theory style, you can really tell it's made by them because it's got like the embroidered kind of edges of their
28:11
neoprene uh mats. The artwork is fantastic. Really, really liked that.
28:17
Um, basically it is a kind of dudes on a map game. I don't like dudes on a map
28:22
game, but I really liked this. When I say dudes on a map, there's basically eight segments to this map. It's not
28:27
particularly difficult. one in each corner and like a a ring like a dart board in the middle with not that many
28:33
sections. So, the whole point is you've got asymmetric abilities where you're trying
28:38
to get your your people to either dominate or um control certain areas of
28:46
of the map to win you VP. The first to 30 VP ends the game and then you might
28:51
be the winner or you know you're allowed to go around one more time so you might not win. Um, you've got kind of dice in
28:58
the way that chip theory got dice where you you're sort of rolling. You're not It's not really a luck thing because
29:04
these dice have got varying different things like pick up a crystal, do an attack, move two people, whatever.
29:10
So, it's all always good stuff. Um, and then you can choose to bring your like super big workers out, which are little
29:17
dice that you pay for using these crystals that you can get in various few different ways. And basically, combat is really simple.
29:26
It cancel, you know, one one attack kills one person. Like it's you've got to roll for kind of. No, there's no kind
29:32
of oh, can I do if you've got a person you attack, you're going to kill one. That's that's the end of that. So there's lots of twoing and throwing.
29:39
So you've got loads of people on your map, then someone attacks you and you got hardly any. It's it kind of really
29:44
cycles around. Rob's faction had a really really good ability where he was able to bring like his little guys back
29:50
from like not from the dead, but from the discard pile where you can't normally do that. Mhm.
29:56
And it was a it was a pretty close game. The both both the games we had, the scoring at the end was quite close. And
30:01
I think that's often the mark of a good game. It shows that someone hasn't absolutely run off with it.
30:08
I ran off with it. What are you talking about? Maybe the second game there was a bit more of a difference. But
30:13
yeah, but I felt it was like a moral like stupendous victory. Oh, okay. Right. So Curley's taking the
30:18
moral victory. Fine. But actually quite curly. But actually on the scores the numbers weren't very different. But morally yes.
30:24
I'm sure Curley definitely was victory. Worked all the parts. Morally Curley wins all the games he plays. Yeah.
30:31
The problem is according to the score I don't. Well, yeah. And I guess depends. Are you looking for the moral victory or the
30:36
numbers? I'm going to stick with numbers for this one. So, I was kind of leading quite a long way and then in that traditional way,
30:43
you've kind of sped all your goodness out and then you got nothing left. You put That's a quote for the ages, isn't it?
30:48
Yeah. Yeah. We'll put that on the side of the box. Yeah. All my goodness out. Well, then you got no people and that's
30:54
it. The trouble is with that game is like most games that are a race is that if you stick your neck out too quick,
31:01
everyone just lops it off. That's what happened to me. Yeah, that's what happened to me. Not having it.
31:07
So yeah, you can't kind of get a lead super early because people will just
31:12
just nerf you straight away. So yeah, you need to kind of do a sneaky sneaky I'm getting points here, but not
31:18
too many all of a sudden. Oh, look, there we go. I've won. Yeah. So, it's it was really good
31:23
because you got so many different factions in Roth. I think you could play this game quite a lot before you even
31:29
start to get bored. Um, and then I think every game's going to change because it's going to depend on how people play.
31:35
So, I can see having quite a lot of replay-ability. It's really quick as well. I really want to give this one a go.
31:40
Like yourself, I'm not always the biggest fan of dudes on a map. Sometimes they work. Most of the times I don't think they do personally, but um for me,
31:48
but this is one that every time you guys play and talk about it, I'm like, "Yeah, it was good. I want to get to the table
31:53
again." The only game I can compare it to, and that's because it's the only real game that I've played, Dude on the map, is Inish is
31:59
I don't know that it's actually very like Inish at all other than you're not bringing out lots of people and attack
32:04
is very simple, like you one attack equals one death of the other person. Like, it's not a partial thing or a dice
32:11
roll. So, I really like that because it means that combat isn't complicated and you can you can sort of know what the
32:19
state of the board's going to be, which is quite nice. I think for me it's it's the fact that it's just quick.
32:25
Yeah, super quick. Snappy and and you know, it's all based on that kind of dice pool and you know,
32:31
sometimes you're like, I'm looking for that and you're like, you're not getting that. But there's always that you spend two dice to do the Exodus action which
32:36
means then you can do this like mass exodus thing. So, there's always a way around it. But um yeah, it's the fact
32:43
you can just like get a game done in an hour. It it does seem like they've designed a really good convention game cuz the box
32:49
doesn't seem massive. Box is small. Time is small. Set up in a minute.
32:54
Set up quick. Teach I'm being told is pretty good. Waterproof cuz it's myof. It's what you want at convention
33:00
or the beer. Yeah. Cuz it's theory. It's it's nice, you know, nice quality pieces and
33:06
neoprene mats and your cards are not made of your traditional like cardboard cards. So, yeah,
33:13
being ROM proof is quite useful. I think ROM proof is useful around Dave. Yeah, for sure.
33:18
I forgot all about that incident. So, yeah, Roth definitely you were too pissed. I was very pissed.
33:23
Roth definitely definitely giving it a go. Really, really enjoyable game. I'm glad you enjoyed it. For someone that doesn't like dudes on map or that kind of game, I had a really
33:30
good time with it. Yeah, good. On to the main event then [Music]
TURN 3 - Main Event: Add-Ons and Let-Downs
33:41
expansions and upgrades. Then we have done previous episodes all about expansions. Episode 23 for upgrades back
33:47
in March 2023 and episode 7 I think it was in June 2022 for upgrades. So we've
33:53
talked about this quite a bit. So this whole episode idea came about because of Ark Nova. So, whoever's playing the
34:00
whose turn is anyway drinking game at home. Yes. Take a drink cuz I've just said Arknova. Ark Nova.
34:06
So, Arknova has just had a 3D edition sort of version on crowdfunding.
34:11
Has it? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you'd heard of heard of it. Yeah. Did anyone back it?
34:16
No. No. Well, and I think calling it an expansion is a bit of a misnomer because there is very minimal content. In fact,
34:24
there's an arcade. There's one card and one little model, but it does have very, very swanky upgraded pieces. 3D
34:30
enclosures, new game boards, card sleeves, metal money tokens, the whole shebango.
34:36
We've got new maps as well, dear. Let's not forget we already have both the map packs, don't we? So, just Yeah,
34:42
it's what the kids call a glow up. It is a glow up. You're absolutely right, J. Sound like I'm hip. I'm hip. I'm hip.
34:50
I'm with it. No, but you sound like you know the the parliaments are very good. I know the parliament, but it doesn't
34:56
make me cooler. So, when Curly and I first heard about this, we were like auto backing this.
35:02
It's like, yeah, definitely 100% got to be done. Then we saw the price point and we were like, "Oh, that's a bit that's a bit
35:08
pricey and there's no new content, so maybe we won't do it." No, no, no. Please see an episode 3 months ago. Just
35:14
went, "No, no." Well, then we're definitely not doing it. And I'm not kidding. We must have flip-flopped from no to yes and back
35:20
again about I don't know about four times. So I just want to point out I'm not trying to sell this 3D edition to
35:25
anyone and the crowdfunding's finished so it's too late anyway. But what I'm really interested in is what sort of
35:31
helped us make that decision. So we went no to yes. I mean you could argue that what made us make that decision was we
35:36
were really really jetlagged from going back on holiday and we just pulled the trigger. How they get but yeah but
Is it morally right for games to be released knowing expansions are already planned?
35:43
so it's not really an expansion. I mean, it is an upgrade for bits, but it's completely and utterly unnecessary. And
35:50
it made me kind of start thinking about expansions and sort of the not the morality exactly, but when you bring out
35:56
a new game, when a when a board game designer brings out a new game, is it really kind of morally right for them to
36:03
bring out this game when they know there's already an expansion planned? It's like, well,
36:09
is there any good to that? Should they just wait until they've done the expansion? Is it good that you can learn
36:14
an easier game and then add it on? I don't know. It's an interesting discussion. You know
36:20
what that I don't mind if there's one plan. You know what really hacks me off is when they sell an expansion with the
36:27
actual game itself when you're kickstarting it. It's like, yeah, you can have the game or or it'll be another £100 if you buy these three expansions
36:34
that can come with it. It's like, [ __ ] off. That that then should be together, shouldn't it? If you're selling it at
36:39
the same time, it's not an expansion. I guess you could argue it's it's an optional difference so you don't have to
36:44
play with them. I like it. So Primal was the perfect example for me. So I back Primal just with the base
36:51
version and with one expansion that I wanted and I've left all the others on the shelf or didn't back them rather and
36:57
I can't see myself needing those expansions, but it's there if you want them. And if you're going to use that a
37:03
lot, then it's already pre-done. Yeah, I guess. I mean, expansion King
37:08
JP, what is your feeling about expansions and things? Yeah, they're all right, aren't they? Well, yes, I know you're going to say
37:14
that, but what do you think they should? I know. Why do you want expansions? Is it because you want the variety? That's
37:21
what I think you like. No, the there's multiple elements for me and it really depends on the type of
37:27
game it is. So, the completionist in me. Yeah. See, I I have that and that's when
37:34
I when they I know that they're manipulating me now. problematic at best. Um, so you go down the bones line.
37:42
I I feel I've gone so far I have to complete it. You're pot committed and it's like, well, I'm already 60% in.
37:47
What's another 40%. That turns out a lot of money. But yeah, so there's there's that element which
37:53
obviously gives you the variety and other stuff. But yeah, I think as I got a little wiser in
37:59
my years, um, I'm not as mad on them as I used to be. I think when I was uh kind
38:04
of earlier on in the hobby when I wanted everything uh I would just auto buy expansions for the sake of it
38:12
before you'd even played the base before I'd even play the base game a lot of the time. Um and I am better. I'm not
38:18
saying I I am I I've got out of it but I am better at that. Maybe because I'm
38:23
playing the base game quicker and therefore then I I I kind of buy it. I think for me it's just yeah it's more
38:29
completionist. So, it's kind of like, yeah, it'll be better with it, won't it?
38:34
Obviously, that's my problem with the whole Kickstarters offering loads of expansions, I think, is taking advantage
38:40
of completionist, but also FOMO kind of scenario. I just think it's just taking advantage of it. If you can be like
38:47
Adrian and just be like, don't Adrien,
38:52
he's very logical. But yeah, exactly. But like, you can just go, no, I'll have the base game and I fancy that one. I'm not bothered about
38:58
the other six. I'll leave them be. Then it wouldn't be an issue for me. But I'm a bit like JP. If I see something, I'm
39:04
probably going to have it. I want it. That is like, you know, my biggest problem. I've backed four Kickstarters
39:10
or game fans in the last month and they've all been like additions to or, you know, known franchises and it's my
39:18
yeah, my weakness. E one of my I suppose gripes to some extent is when you don't know if a game
39:24
is going to make it to retail or they deliberately feels like they deliberately obscure if it's going to make it to retail or what their plans
39:31
exclusive plans for the future are and they're kind of you know big companies you know it's going to go to retail and you can
39:36
make the decision on whether the deluxe components are worth it or not especially some of the smaller studios they may not know if it's going to make
39:44
it to retail and I feel like well I I kind of need it all because if It's not
39:49
going to go to retail. It might be my favorite game ever and it's my only chance to get it. It's my only chance. And there was a
39:55
moment with Primal where I thought, I can't imagine them putting this out there
40:02
into retail very much because of the size of the box and all these miniatures and all that lot. Do I need to back it
40:07
all? Now, I did exactly the same with Catch the Snitch cuz I thought I bet you that would and then at the last minute
40:12
changed my mind and kind of glad I did that. I then ditched all the add-ons off the back of that. And I think there is
40:18
that feeling of is this going to make it to retail? If it's if I think it's not and I'm really invested in the game, I
40:25
have to back everything because otherwise I might miss out. Whereas some games, you know, because
40:30
the the publisher repeatedly puts things to retail where sometimes I'm completely
40:36
put off by the Kickstarter in the first place cuz I think I'll just get retail. But quite often I'm definitely put off
40:41
of a lot of the expansion add-ons. Some of the bling add-ons, no, get them while I've got the opportunity. But the
40:46
expansion ones especially, don't need it until I've played it once and then probably it's available in retail.
40:52
I can do that. That's kind of my my way of thinking that. So, what is a game? Have we got any in
What games have been ruined by expansions?
40:58
mind that have absolutely ruined the base game adding the expansion? Can anyone think of any of those?
41:05
Yeah. Go on. What's your game? Lorenzo. Oh, okay. Um, so Lorenzo Magnico, it's base game.
41:14
It's got an expansion, Houses of the Renaissance. Nothing wrong with that. [ __ ] brilliant. Always play with Houses of Renaissance cuz that again
41:20
adds variety, adds asymmetry. No problem with that. It's And whether
41:26
you call it an expansion or not, it's uh an additional set of cards. It's called
41:32
the Pathy Conspiracy, and you it comes in the big box now. So, if you get the big box of Lorenzo, which
41:38
I think is the only kind of version you can get, it's in there. But it's a module, but it isn't it is an expansion.
41:44
Um, and what it does, it adds nobiness to the game, which But you normally like that.
41:49
I know. But it in theory, you're like, "Oh, that's quite cool." Because you can build like a thieves guild and then when
41:55
you run that particular building, you can steal [ __ ] off people and and Yeah.
42:01
And it's all good. But we we played at um the North Deon Fox and Hounds. Yeah.
42:06
Weekender. Yeah. Last whenever it was. And it's probably my least favorite game of Lorenzo I've ever played. And I think
42:13
it's because of what it created at the game table. It just created a lot of negative. There's a lot of butt hurt.
42:19
A lot of horribleness that in that game I was all right. Yeah.
42:24
Yeah. Cuz you were the one causing the but you profited from it. But it wasn't the fact that like you were doing well at it
42:31
or anything like that. It just it was the um you know I'm an emotional vampire right at the table. So, if
42:38
everyone's not having a good time, I'm going to sink real fast. I'm just going to be like, "This is great." And loads
42:43
of people just weren't having a good time with it. It just destroyed that game for me. And that's if I'm going to be honest,
42:49
it kind of knackered my weekend cuz I was like, I'm done with gaming for for the moment. So,
42:54
especially if one of your really really up there favorite games and you've had a really bad experience with that's going to almost like it's like opening a
43:00
packet of crisp and you think it's going to be salt and vinegar and it turns out it's I don't know, just vinegar. It's just it's just raw
43:07
vinegar. It's not crisp at all. It's actually a packet of Yeah. And I think And I think just when you kind of dissect why and I think it's
43:13
just it's trying to add more interaction to the game, but it's not positive at all. It's all negative.
43:20
And actually that game doesn't need any negative interaction. It should be around your efficiency. And the
43:25
knobbybiness really comes from I stole that card before you did, which is part of the game, like you know. Um, and
43:31
that's okay because that's just about racing and and getting your economy to a point where you can get it. But yeah, it
43:37
completely got to the point where I immediately removed those cards. So, you would never play with them again? Never playing with them again. They're
43:42
done. We even tried to talk you down. We're like, just remove one of the cards and he's like, "No, I'm getting rid of the
43:48
whole the whole extra set of cards." Yeah. Because I'm a point, oh yeah, that one card is imbalance. How the [ __ ] do
43:54
we know? Like, what qualifies us to say that one card is imbalanced against the other? So, I'm like, you know what? I
43:59
didn't enjoy that. that's coming out. Yeah. Um then I will play Lorenzo
44:04
because if that's the experience it created for me, it's put me right up. Put I don't think I've played it since.
44:10
But as you say, the base game though, we've had loads of We've had quite a few fun games of it.
44:15
99% of my games of Lorenzo have been great. It's just that one. So knowing that you can ex expel
44:21
expulsion, that'll always go down as my favorite game.
44:27
The game that broke JP. It wasn't. No, it wasn't JP. I I broke Adrien, Marcus, and Davey in one go. I'm
44:33
happy with that. That's like record. That's like That's like not a three-pointer. That's like, you know, throw from the other the other end of
44:39
the basketball court in one card like three people's engines for a whole game.
44:45
And it was like beauty. I think that's interesting though, isn't it? Because the game designers obviously
44:51
know that's what it's going to cause. They might not know. That's the problem is you might not have play tested it
44:57
enough to know it's going to happen. Maybe I know we like to think as game designers and game publishers as the
45:02
almighties, the all knowings, but the chances are that that might have only seen a play three or four times and no
45:07
one fed back. It wasn't the the reality was this. But just to give guy you guys a bit of an understanding of what
45:13
happened. I was able to do something really knobbyby that was probably only designed to be able to be afforded a couple of
45:19
times a game. But what I did was I was able to mitigate that by creating a
45:24
different engine that basically paid it off. I could do it every single time without
45:30
an issue at all without even costing myself anything. And it just wasn't the original design of the card.
45:36
And I loved it. These guys felt like it broke it. Yeah, it did break it a little bit.
45:41
So that's interesting. Is it Adrian? I think you had a what other game? Yeah, Furnace was the one where the
45:46
expansion really took away from the game. So loved Furnace. Um I know Rob's fallen in love with it as well and
45:52
playing solo and all that. Hangs on about it all the time. Yeah. So absolutely loved it. I bought
45:58
the mat and then I thought, you know what, I might as well buy the expansion because the expansion is a modular sort
46:04
of expansion. So it's got some extra got generally some extra cards. It's got three or four extra modules you can
46:09
chuck in and a better solo mode. Um, and all of that as well as a fifth player and all of that sounds great, but having
46:16
played all but one module, I don't like any of them. and to the point where
46:22
adding them in, adding the extra cards in without really adding too many modules in just to get the five players.
46:29
I found a really negative experience where every game I've played with the ex any of the modules, I've kind of ended
46:36
it and gone, no, I just didn't didn't enjoy that at all. So, but I've 3D printed an insert to fit
46:42
it all in with the mats and all that kind of stuff. Got to keep it now. Well, it feels like weird. It feels it
46:48
feels hard to kind of separate it out. So yeah, I feel like I'm kind of almost
46:54
stuck with it as a set, but I have I've now found a way to kind
47:00
of separate off the expansion bits cuz before some of those cards were mixed in and it was hard to separate them out. So I've had to go through and almost
47:07
redo the how I had it set up in order to make it easy just to play
47:12
the base game. And if people ask what those extra bits are in the box, I say, "Oh, we won't worry. I don't bother about it now
47:17
because I solo mode." Yeah. Yeah, I genuinely had such a bad experience with with all the modules I
47:22
played and I just was like, I don't want to play the last one cuz I can't imagine that's going to add anything.
47:28
Yeah, that can be a real pain with expansions, can't it? If you're trying to then sort of retroactively take them back out
47:33
because you want to teach someone the basic version or whatever, that can be
47:38
just time consuming and make you probably not want to play the game in the first place. And sometimes expansions include fixes.
47:45
Yeah. and then you don't want to remove it or you'll have to just chuck it in the bin or sell it knowing that whole bits of it
47:52
are missing or the originals are put in the box instead or whatever make it not a great Well, let's face it, like the Face
47:58
Origin expansion is a big patch. Yeah. Like the whole expansion just feels like it's like we're just patching the whole
48:04
game. So, you would never play base. You just play this new version of it. But that's okay. furnace they re they re
48:11
designed not redesigned but they kind of clarified one of the base starting cards in a way that I don't think was
48:17
originally sort of written correctly. Yeah. So I can't remove it because then I
48:23
would have to give someone the the the the asymmetric power that it came in the base game.
48:28
Yeah. So it's weird. But having having played the the expansion of Furnace recently cuz Rob
48:34
Yeah. brought it out and he just threw it all in. Oh, all of it. Yeah. Yeah. We We were
48:41
playing a game with our wives and I said, "You sure you want to do this, Rob?" And I think he had that thing, I've already mixed it.
48:47
It's not It's not separating. And he's like, "Oh, do I sit here and decant everything out?" And he didn't. Um, and I played it. I didn't He didn't
48:54
hate it like you, but I didn't feel it added anything more
48:59
than the base game. I felt like, okay, bit extra bits, but it's just more to explain was what I
49:05
found every time. with adding nothing. It didn't. Yeah, it didn't feel like I added anything. Yeah, it wasn't. Yeah,
49:11
agreed. Mine is um weird one because I've never
49:16
actually played it, but I think that's why it's a poor expansion because I I
49:22
just know what it's going to do to the game. And I think Adrian, you've had the same thing. Baron Park. Yeah, Baron Park on its own. Really great
49:29
simple little game. I've owned Baron Park, Bad News Bears, whatever expansion
49:35
it's called. Bad news is a great name. Yeah. Which basically has like monorails and something.
49:40
It didn't I I stupidly took it out of the shrink when I bought it to look at it. I put the little monorail bits
49:46
together and never touched it because what I like about Baron Park is the simplicity of
49:52
it. I don't want that to be more complicated because it's a really really good entry-level game for people
49:59
that's super super simple. I don't want it to be more complicated. That takes away from the whole point of the game
50:04
for me. So, I've just never bothered with it. And I guess maybe if you've played Baron Park with say your kids
50:11
and you want to kind of see if they can handle a bit more complexity, maybe that's a great use for it. But that is
50:17
never what Baron Park was for me. Baron Park was always a a game that I could play with non- gamers. It's kind of inoffensive. Just
50:23
cute little bears on the Tetris pieces. Great. I don't want monails and extra
50:29
things to have to deal with because I don't want to teach them that. If I wanted to teach them a more complicated game, quite frankly, I'd get a better
50:35
game that's that's specifically more complicated, not just a easy game that's spicy. Yeah. It's like taking Patchwork and
50:41
then going as an expansion that turns it into a Larda. I I don't want that. I I'll go and play. I don't know what I want. It's not what
50:47
it's for. Yeah. I love that idea, but I want I want that expansion. I just want to see it. I want to see what they could do with
50:53
it. Here you go, Val. Off you go. What can you do with this? Yeah, I've had a little think and come up with
50:58
one as well. And it's going to be a little bit controversial. Oh, it sounds like it's going to be one of my games then.
51:03
It is one of your games. Which one? Which one? Game of Thrones. Yeah, I don't like the other dragons
51:09
expansion. Just don't like it. It It makes Game of Thrones into a game that I don't want it to be.
51:14
Yeah. So, for an example, with Game of Thrones, it's all about backstabbing and screwing everyone over as much as possible. Whereas that game, in order to
51:21
not let the dragon win, who are super powerful, you need to be a little bit working together or at least to be able
51:28
to let one or two factions kind of poke away at the dragon otherwise you have free reign and that level of cooperation
51:34
is not Game of Thrones for me. I I agree to a point to a point
51:39
because some of that expansion I think is needed. I do really like the extra houses. Yeah,
51:45
the vassel states. Absolutely. But but I will say the main extra board cuz I did think about that. The SOS board for me
51:53
is not does not add anything and actually takes away is a different game. Yeah, absolutely. And it's not one that
51:58
I particularly enjoy. Although I haven't played as the dragons yet, so I I still when I win with them, I might change my
52:04
No, I genuinely won't. Like even if I do. That's an interesting point because what you've just said there that the vassels
52:11
I've never played this game, so I'm talking totally out of a position of not knowing anything about it really. You
52:16
just sort of said it made the base better with the vessels. So, it makes the base game better, but you found that
52:22
it actually a lot of the expansion changed the game. Can we think of any other expansions that actually make the base better? And that's probably going
Expansion that make the base game better
52:29
to involve patching a little bit, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, the one I mentioned there, the Norwegian's expansion, Feast Roaden.
52:36
Yeah. Definitely. That's just a patch, isn't it? It's I I mean I've probably done it a disservice there, but it's probably ball in the
52:41
patch, but it has made the base game better because it said, you know, that board with all of the 36 actions on it.
52:48
Yeah, throw that one away. We've done a whole new board like literally in the way that the the way it's broken down
52:54
and it's more modular so that if you got a different player count, you can flip a section of it over rather than having
53:00
this whole board that you have to to flip. So, it's more balanced out. And uh
53:05
cuz there I think there was a problem with whaling. Uh not in general, just in in the B.
53:11
We're fine with whales in general. I think you'll find there is a problem with whaling in general. Well, yeah, you're right. Cuz we don't
53:17
we don't we want to preserve the whales. Yes, please. But yeah, but there's also a problem with whaling in in the game. I think it
53:22
was a bit imbalanced or something. So, so yeah, I think that has leveled that game out and and they've added some
53:29
little sprinkly bits in which just go, "Yeah, that kind of makes sense." But it's not overwhelming as an expansion. I
53:35
found it's just it's leveled out some of the kinks and and it's made it a more all round better
53:40
game. Five of us played one of my favorite basic upgrades to a game the other day.
53:46
Played Vita Culture. Yes. Oh yeah, we did. So did not get the memo.
53:51
No. No. I missed that one. [ __ ] It's my favorite game. Oh no. Looks like you've blushed. I still cannot work out why Becky
53:58
doesn't like that game. I wish I did like it. I don't get it. I just don't get it. It is exactly up street. I don't know what's going on.
54:04
Well, anyway, go on. So, the original um
54:10
what are they called? Like I know them as the spring and autumn decks, but they're now called something else.
54:15
Oh, the summer and winter. Are they summer and winter? Yeah, they're visitors. The visitor decks. The original ones
54:20
were dre all over the place. So you could get so you could almost just play the game
54:26
trying to play these cards, visit cards and get loads of points off them and not really worry about wine making at all
54:32
and it felt very counterintuitive. So they bought out an expansion I think it was new Rosenberg expansion, wasn't it?
54:38
Or was I can't remember. I know I know one of them was by Uber deck. That might be what the Ryan Valley makes
54:45
sense. Yeah. But anyway, one of them upgrades the those visitor decks, so
54:51
they're aimed at making wine making easier and not just scoring
54:57
points randomly for other things. And so it does kind of focus the game back into
55:03
what it should have been about in the first place and not what competitive gamers have kind of turned into with the base
55:10
version. So, I think that's one of my more favorite ones, which is just a patch basically.
55:16
Yeah. To do you want to play it more probably as originally intended. Here's the patch for that.
55:21
More euro. Yeah. More sort of more in the theme, keeping to the theme of what you've signed up for.
55:27
Definitely. Well, I've definitely got one. Um, and it is kind of a patch on top, but you'll
55:33
see what I mean. It's a little bit more complicated than that. June Imperium. So, we're doing Imperium. Although the
55:39
first expansion does kind of do exactly what you said, which is basically replace some tiles, like overlay some of
55:45
the actual thing. It just I'm not saying it fixes it. It just makes it more interesting. Um, for an example, you
55:52
know, it's not just money anymore. You've got the whole trading thing going up on the little I forget what track they called. It's been a while since I
55:57
played actually. I need to get that in. But like the the trading track, was it the um It's to do with um
56:04
the mining guild or the trans. Yeah. and you're going up and it just makes it a really interesting little,
56:10
you know, the space up there are really good. You've got, you know, anyway, it adds loads to the game without doing too
56:16
much. It just adds like overlays with a couple of modules, some more interesting spaces and it just makes the whole game
56:21
better. Um, patching it. And I will say as well, like later on they they they do
56:26
other expansions that kind of do the same and then they replace a whole bloody board with a with a new game. Why have you gotten rid of one of my
56:32
favorite games and oh, wait there. This one's even better. you know, so it it just and I I there are probably plenty
56:39
of examples, but I've never seen a game have an expansion that is basically almost identical to the original game,
56:46
but just better. It still annoys me. Yeah, but it annoys me that it is better.
56:51
But it annoys me that they had to do it because I've just done that in the freaking first place. But no,
56:56
but it is better, isn't it? It is better. Uprising for me is better than Bass June. I I think for me the
57:02
point is Uprising is a new game, but it is kind of a patch of the old game, isn't it? And that's kind of why it's
57:07
the answer to that one. Yeah. So, which games do you think would be incomplete without their like essential
Which games do we think would be incomplete without it's expansion?
57:13
expansions like you just said? Sounds like Dune Uprising fits in that category. Absolutely.
57:18
I think I wouldn't play. No. Yeah. I was I would
57:25
Yeah. And I think it's because I've only ever played it like that. If I'd have played the other kind without that,
57:30
maybe it'd be a different game. It's actually true. It is better way. It's a better game. And I I can't
57:35
imagine why you would play it without. I know Adrian can't imagine why you would play it. End of sentence.
57:42
It's one of JP's favorites. I don't know what Adrian's. I was going to say I always get Adrian would say, but JP I think actually hates
57:47
this game more than me. He's just not very vocal about it. I'm not I don't hate it. I just I'm so done with it.
57:53
I'm going to use a different example then. I think Wingspan with the Oiana expansion should have been how Wingspan
57:59
always was because that use of the nectar to act as a wild resource
58:04
just makes it so much more pleasurable. Like you're still doing exactly the same thing. You're still collecting your
58:10
birds. You're still putting them out in the right area. You know, you're still playing exactly the same game. Doesn't change it in fundamentals at all.
58:16
Yeah. It just makes that whole sort of struggle to get a particular kind of
58:22
food. You're also rewarded for playing the nectar because you get points for it. So, it's like a double little bonus.
58:28
I totally agree. Yeah. And I I think I might try and teach bass wingspan, but I I don't think
58:34
it's going to take you much more brain power to play Wingspan with Osiana because it's you know that symbol means
58:41
anything. But don't let it don't let it leave still be on your on your little thing when you finish the rounds cuz it goes
58:47
away. It goes off cuz it's nectar. So it goes rotten, which it doesn't in real life, but whatever cuz sugar doesn't go
58:54
off, right? But fine, anybody can get that. Oh yeah, that little wiggly worm. Yeah, that's a worm. Well, actually nect
58:59
can be as well. Oh yeah, cool. It's totally simple. Doesn't add any more complexity, but makes it a whole lot
59:04
better. Yeah, loads of examples of that though. We talked about Vitty culture. I will not play it without Tuskanyany. I won't
59:11
just won't do it. Don't make me don't do it. Two-player. I did not enjoy my two-player game of Tuskany.
59:17
I don't rarely play. But it's one of those where I did enjoy our game with five player with it, but two player I
59:22
did not enjoy that game with Tuskany. But and it's like, you know, it's a bit like Terraforming Mars. Would you ever play
59:27
without Prelude? No, you would not. I wouldn't play with about at least three of these really three of them.
59:33
But, you know, I did play bass TM about two years ago.
59:38
Even on the the base uh player mats didn't have the dual layer or anything. This is disgusting.
59:44
I was playing my brother's copy and said, "Oh, let's have a game." I just forgot he What game is he? What even is that?
59:49
Where's the 3D printed tiles? Oh, no. I spent an hour and a half just getting going. And I was like, God, this
59:56
is so slow. Took forever. And they're like, "Oh yeah, I'm used to prelude. It just like jump starts everything."
1:00:02
I don't think I could do it without the trading anymore. Well, the colon is Yeah. Yeah. There we go. But there's I can't
1:00:08
think of like really one coin example. Just so many that I think just fix it
1:00:14
enough that that's the new level of the game. I wouldn't go below it. Yeah. Um, and you could argue like some some
1:00:20
expansions when they've done well, which are probably some of these patching ones is that there's not really any extra to
1:00:26
teach it with it in than without it in. Um, but that's not true for all of them obviously. Some of them are a bit mad.
1:00:33
The one that I thought of bizarrely is Carcasson cuz people play without the river.
1:00:39
Yeah. I I've only played Carcasson one time ever in my life. The river is in every copy now. like you
1:00:45
cannot buy it without the river. It's a mini expansion that I've never Well,
1:00:50
apparently you and Rob, JP and Rob played it without the river and it's the first time I've heard of anyone playing
1:00:56
that game without the river because it just sets up the game so nicely compared to if you play with the road start. It
1:01:03
just doesn't do anything. So, I can't imagine playing that game without the river. But, it comes in the base box and
1:01:10
is labeled as a mini expansion. And most some versions of it, the rules pretty much start you on playing the river.
1:01:18
Yeah. So, it's not really an expansion at all then, is it? But it is in all of them, I think, pretty much labeled as a mini expansion
1:01:24
and yet I can't imagine playing it without apart from on the computer cuz the computer version you
1:01:31
have to pay. I think that's why when I play the digital carcasson, it's always been
1:01:36
without it. And then when Rob wanted to play, I just play the one I know.
1:01:41
Yeah, makes sense. Okay, blinging then. What's the funniest or most ridiculous upgrady type thing
What's the most extravagant blinging we've done for our games?
1:01:48
that you've bought? We already know ours. Well, yeah, like metal coins or custom inserts. What's the most
1:01:54
My favorite of JP's. Go on. What's your favorite of JP's? It might be JP's favorite as well. What is it?
1:02:00
Too many bones. What? What figures? Oh, the metal figures. No, but that doesn't count. I didn't buy
1:02:05
them. In your face. I'm not criticizing you. I think they're awesome. There was some was playing with
1:02:12
them on Saturday. It was a present, wasn't it? It was a present, my wife. And I think that is almost the the
1:02:18
nicest way you can have an upgrade if you couldn't quite justify buying it yourself, but it's something you really
1:02:24
like and then someone gets you like the the swanky good. Yeah.
1:02:30
The thing you can't justify buying for yourself because they're always multiple times the cost of the game quite frankly,
1:02:36
aren't they? Yeah. I got the trove chest. She bought me the tro chester about I don't know how many Christmases ago and then she
1:02:42
got me the the metal figures. I mean she asked me what I wanted they would be nice
1:02:47
but yeah I didn't buy them for but that's a great present isn't it because you would never think oh I it's a really good idea to spend over 100
1:02:53
quid on that pointless thing but every time you play that game like oh that's brilliant isn't it? But I tell you what I did buy for
1:02:59
myself. So obviously I've gone in with this Cloud Spire latest expansion. I have bought the cloud box. Oh, is it
1:03:07
like just basically it's basically a trove chest slightly smaller like two/3 of a calac.
1:03:12
You just love chip theory. Don't I just You know what? I thought s it. It'll just complete it. Package it all up neatly.
1:03:18
It'll look really good with dust. A film of dust across the top of it. Hey, I've actually had some games this
1:03:24
year, so I'm happy. All right then, Adrian. Somebody who doesn't like blinging up his stuff or what's what's the best thing for you?
1:03:31
The one that really stands out in my mind is actually board game adjacent. And it wasn't an expansion, it was a
1:03:36
stretch goal. So the A Song of Ice and Fire miniature game, which is a rank
1:03:41
like it's a like a Warhammer fantasy style sort of um file and rank game
1:03:46
where you sort of push blocks of of troops into each. Yeah. All of that kind of stuff. And the one of the early
1:03:53
stretch goals was to place the first player token, which is a two maybe 3 in
1:03:59
circle cardboard thing with a throne on it into a 20 cm tall by like 15 maybe 20
1:04:08
cm wide version of the throne or the iron throne. Yeah. But not the one from the TV. The
1:04:14
one from the book where like it's just made of swords. It's just made a swords and it's supposed to be like five people high like in the real in the
1:04:21
books. It's supposed to be really tall. So, they made this in like a plastic thing as a stretch goal for this. And
1:04:28
you're supposed to hand it to move the first player token round. It's the most
1:04:33
ridiculous thing that I don't think I ever saw anybody use. I love it. So, that was the first thing that came
1:04:40
with that game. And then the second thing that came with that game was like um it was a unit that you could play and
1:04:45
just sat on the side of the board, but you could take it in a list. And what it said was if you won the game, you could
1:04:51
tell the story of how you won in any way you wanted cuz victory like history is
1:04:58
written by the victor. And therefore, if you took this zero point character that you just got for backing it, you could
1:05:05
tell the story of your victory in any way you wanted. And I was like, sort of a thing. Yeah. fishing everything.
1:05:11
Yeah. And I was like, you know what? Those two are the most ridiculous things I've ever seen put in a game. As saying,
1:05:16
not quite a board game, but a Jason. Did you buy it? Well, it was a stretch goal that came with it. If you backed if you backed it
1:05:22
a Kickstarter, you got these two things. Yes. So, yes, I did get them, but they're the
1:05:27
most ridiculous like things ever. And it's normally I like the sound of that to be honest.
1:05:33
And they're hilarious. And you you show people them and you're like, "This is my first player token." And then it goes back in the box never to be seen again.
1:05:40
But quite often I'll find when I look at things and I think what they've done is they've up they've upgraded the first
1:05:46
player marker into something ridiculous that serves no purpose. That's 99% of
1:05:52
the time when people sort of talk about ridiculous add-ons or stretch goals. It's normally the upgraded first player
1:05:57
marker cuz they're nearly always silly and unneeded. Um but that one is
1:06:03
the worst. Yeah. Sort of. I never painted mine, but
1:06:09
again, it's a dry brush away from being done. It's spray it silver and then dry brush it and ink it and you've got it
1:06:15
painted as well. So, it is ridiculous, but you know what I always had a soft spot
1:06:21
for is your metal dice that you had for Hot Plow. Yeah, they are nice. They are really nice feeling.
1:06:26
Yeah, that was another present. So, I don't buy them. Were they the kind of dice where you roll them and they go conk as you roll
1:06:32
them? They will damage wood. You're not going to you're not going to play on your table though, are you're fine cuz we can
1:06:37
use the dice tower or the the dice trays and keep them in there and then they're fine. But if they if they're rolled with
1:06:43
some force, they're just going to etch straight into wood and stay there. Yeah. Like shurik an arrow head or something.
1:06:49
Played a game of D and D with someone who had metal dice and they used to have to like put always make sure it rolled perfectly on top of the their D and D
1:06:56
book. Yeah. And when you looked at it, by the time they finished the campaign, the D and D book just had loads of dents in the top
1:07:01
of it. All right. Hard question now. If you had to ban expansions forever or upgrades
If you had to ban expansions for content or upgrades which would it be?
1:07:08
forever, which one are you keeping? So, expansions or upgrades?
1:07:15
You can't have both. You can either expand your games that you've got. Oh, it's easy. Or you can buy easy. Go on, JP. What you going for?
1:07:22
Get rid of upgrades. I know you're going to say get rid of upgrades. I want variety. Yeah, probably. Probably get rid of
1:07:28
upgrades. I was ing and aaring them because I do believe that a lot of base games are actually very usable and people just add in expansions because
1:07:34
they feel they need to. Adrian, who you looking at? Hey,
1:07:40
hey, but I do think ultimately I'd rather have more gameplay than more bling.
1:07:45
Yeah. Um, so far in the other camp, it's unbelievable. I like a game that's basic because I
1:07:51
feel like I can get my head around it when you then add things that make it Yeah, I am just a bit thick. You're
1:07:57
right. I didn't say anything. I know. It was It was the nonverbal communication you just did. But you're
1:08:04
right. I like I like kind of we we play first of all problem again. We play too
1:08:09
many games. So, I like playing the same game a lot. So, I can really feel like I get it. Then you start messing about
1:08:16
with it by adding an expansion. Oh, now this does this thing. Now that what you thought you knew, this is now this. And
1:08:21
you're like, "Oh, I just figured it out. Give me shiny bits every time." Oh, yeah.
1:08:27
popular was it? Not the Art Nova expansion did not go down well in the Becky household. No, I don't like Marine Animals. I'm not
1:08:34
interested and I've played that game so many times on BGG. I don't really care about Marina, but I'm I'm coming to
1:08:40
terms with it now because I've played it more and that's what I need in order to be happy with the game. I need the
1:08:46
repetition because I'm a bit thick. So, so I don't
1:08:51
want to keep changing up what things do because I don't like I don't like change. I like it to be how it is. But
1:08:57
if I can have a shinier token, shine them bits up every time. Shine me up, baby.
1:09:03
Shine my bits up every time. Yep. Yeah. So, that about wraps it up, I think.
1:09:09
Okay. Unless anybody else can think of any other things. But we're here all night. It's an interesting topic. I think it's
1:09:15
just one you can always explore, right? And just so many facets on why we we do it and why we expand.
1:09:21
I was just trying to justify myself the ridiculous you were this this episode is really
1:09:27
just all about your because it's because we'd said absolutely not then absolutely yes then
1:09:33
absolutely not. And I just with the same people how did we do those and we'd absolutely convinced ourselves that we
1:09:39
were picking the right one. I haven't quite had I haven't quite had buyers remorse yet,
1:09:44
but I played Octnova on computer the other day and had an absolute I turned the computer off. She had a right old
1:09:50
I had a right old I just was rage quit. I did not I did not enjoy the game. I was like f this. I don't even want to
1:09:56
play. Stupid not even playing it and I thought I've just spent cancel the Kickstarter. No, no, don't. But yeah, it's the same
1:10:04
game, right? So I guess I'm just not as interested in playing it on the computer. solo game,
1:10:10
you know. Can I speculate what it might be sometime? If you say hormones, I might have to murder you.
1:10:17
Not going to say that. I mean, you know, it might be that, but I think, guys, I think it is that
1:10:23
it is. No, I was going to say before you were so incredibly rude. Um, no, I was going
1:10:29
to say I think what it is is sometimes in Art Nova, you can make a little mistake with it and it's super easy to undo in in the
1:10:36
real game. On that, you can undo it. Yeah. Like it's like um Becky accidentally put an animal into a four
1:10:42
enclosure instead of a two and it ruined our game. Yeah. And you can undo that. Yeah. And in real life you
1:10:48
Okay, you know what? I didn't mean to do that. It's the same. I hadn't even finished my turn. But it wouldn't let it's like why
1:10:54
is that saying occupied? It's not I put in I've got a four leopard to put in there. Oh my god, it's got a [ __ ] parrot in
1:11:00
it. What is going and I couldn't I couldn't undo it. And I just thought my whole I've been working up to this. I've
1:11:06
been building up. I'd made sure I'd got animals to level five so I could play two animals through your game. And then I couldn't. Yeah. And I was
1:11:12
like, "F this. I ain't playing." To be fair, I've been to zoos where they've said there's an animal in an enclosure and a massive enclosure and
1:11:18
you're like, "Clearly not. They've emptied this out." That was my zoo. You were expecting to
1:11:24
see a leopard and you saw a parrot. Like the opening scenes in Jurassic Park, right, where they're going around and they can't see any dinosaurs and
1:11:29
that's going on. I think that's enough about expansions and blinging up your games, I think. So, on to the next section.
TURN 4 - Connect Four
1:11:45
So, on to our next segment which is called Connect Four bought to us by Adrian a couple of weeks ago and we are
1:11:51
drawing from a real life deck. There we go. Of cards which on all of them have a
1:11:57
board game component or mechanic, something in those genre for example. and we're going to pick four of them.
1:12:03
And we have to basically try to get a game that ideally has all those four components or three or as near as we can
1:12:10
get. So our components today are combat. Oo,
1:12:15
deck or bag building. Nice. Fantasy and miniatures.
1:12:20
I'm in. I got it already. Wow. Wow. So, if you want to play along at
1:12:25
home, your four components are combat, deck, or bag building,
1:12:31
fantasy, and miniatures. I You might say it's a three and a half out of four. Okay.
1:12:36
I am picky, so I have three and a half. I know you are, but I'm going to go June
1:12:42
Imperium. It's got combat. Definitely got combat. It's got deck building in it. It's got miniatures in it.
1:12:47
100%. Fantasy is the one I'm quibbling. June is fantasy. Fantasy. I don't give
1:12:52
you a half a point. Miniatures are for the deluxe expansion. And of course JP's got that one.
1:12:58
I'm not even convinced they really qualify as miniatures. They are they are little people.
1:13:04
The little the the ones you win for getting majority or whatever up a certain track. They are.
1:13:10
What about your little little guys that do the combat? Little minis. Agents and troops in the deluxe
1:13:16
expansion. I I grant you it's not the base in the deluxe are minis.
1:13:22
Go on. Well, someone like to challenge it. I think it's pretty good. I think it's pretty good. And the worms in The Rising are
1:13:29
miniatures. Yeah, they absolutely are. I I think he's nailed it. I hate to say it
1:13:35
cuz I JP doesn't normally win at things. So, here
1:13:42
audio waves. Yes, it is fantasy. It's not set on the real world, is it? It's not orcs and
1:13:47
goblins, but it's No, but then if it's like June's a weird universe for that because it's fantasy
1:13:53
because you think sci-fi, which it is. Yeah, but it's got magic involved, but it's also bit fantasy, isn't it?
1:13:59
It's a bit weird that you've got the Beness with their whole fantasy elements. They do call it that
1:14:05
fantasy. I think JP has nailed it. That's the one that came to me straight away when you
1:14:11
guess you could say something like what about Lord of the Rings Journey to Middle Earth.
1:14:17
You're not really deck building though. Building but it is got miniatures and it is fantasy and there is combat in it. So
1:14:23
yeah, but better than my Quacks Aquedlinburg which is just a bag builder with fantasy
1:14:28
setting in it. Quack doctors. Yeah, cuz you're making potions cuz that's not an that's not an actual
1:14:35
thing, is it? Okay. Oh, what about Clank Catacombs? That was my initial thought, but I'm not
1:14:42
sure about the miniature stuff. Definitely fantasy. Oh, there's little meeples. They're little They count. We have to go cuz it's a solid three.
1:14:49
It's a solid three. Is it bag building? Cuz you're back building as a group, aren't you? Building your Okay, fair enough.
1:14:56
Oh, slay the spire. So, you're building between rounds. You're making so it's not like a deck
1:15:02
building like Dominion, but you are building the deck as you go. Miniatures. There's miniatures for the
1:15:08
four people. Combat. You're doing combat all the time and it is in a fantasy realm. Yeah. Oh, I think that was a pretty
1:15:13
successful better than our previous attempts. Yeah. So, we'd love to hear from you guys if you've thought of any better
1:15:19
ones or any ones that are more specific than that. Please let us know on the old
1:15:25
socials. Nice. [Music]
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up?
1:15:35
Now it is time for our penultimate turn. What have we got coming up on the horizon? What board games are sitting
1:15:40
there in potential ready for us to play? Curley, take it away. You know what? It's going a little bit
1:15:46
quiet coming up soon. Actually, I don't have very much. We're going away at the weekend to my friend Becky and Hans.
1:15:53
We'll definitely be gaming there. We'll be gaming there a lot, but we haven't really decided what we're doing. So, I'm looking forward to going. The
1:15:59
only game I've decided I'm definitely taking is Orlon. I think they'd like that. Yeah. So,
1:16:04
Orleans. Orleans. Yeah. Sorry, mate. Yeah. Sorry. Or um Yeah. So, we're definitely going
1:16:10
shakes his head. I haven't really decided what else I want to take yet. Maybe Clank they might like. Maybe.
1:16:15
We play Clank with them before. I think I think they would like it. Yeah. And I think maybe even maybe one of their children might like Clank. I think
1:16:20
Yeah, possibly. But so, yeah. So, I am really So, I can't really say I'm looking forward because I don't know what I'm actually going to play yet. Um
1:16:26
but yeah, generically looking forward to going. Um of course coming up on the horizon, we
1:16:32
have the Fox and Hounds Devon board game event at the sort of middle of October.
1:16:38
So if you've already got tickets for that, fantastic. Can't wait to see you there. I think the tickets have already sold now, haven't they? Yeah, Curly's
1:16:45
nodding his head. So I'm afraid if you haven't managed to snap all your tickets, I'm afraid they are all sold
1:16:50
out. Please don't try and attend without your tickets cuz we'll have to turn you away. And that's really, really, really sad. We don't want have to do that. But
1:16:57
for all of those that coming, can't wait to see you there. JP, what's on your horizons? I think I mentioned last time Essen, so
1:17:03
I think that's still true, so I won't bang on about it. Um I think just looking at the games calendar and what's
1:17:09
coming up. We've got a quite exciting um six player of Apex Legends on the
1:17:15
horizon, but that's that's a way off yet. So I think that's like November. Um, and yeah, I think we've got a little
1:17:22
games day around Rob's house that's coming up. I think he's looking to to do a few few games. He'll probably want to
1:17:29
push furnace. I'm just warning you all. I've already, but I'm just saying he will. U, but no,
1:17:34
I I think the other thing I looking forward to is Nucleium game.
1:17:40
Oh, yes. Cuz the latest expansion has arrived. Expansions already, aren't they? Again, talking about expansion. Um, it
1:17:46
does what I like have an expansion, which is more variety. So, it's the Energy Research Institute and gives you
1:17:51
eight more experiments to play with. So, looking forward to just trying a few of those out and see how they twist the
1:17:57
game up cuz some of them are quite mad. So, yeah. So, I'm looking forward to that. But yeah, Adrian, how about you?
1:18:02
Well, I've already talked about Tiangia, which we talked about last episode, but that is just around the corner now. So,
1:18:09
yes, we've had another recording between now and then that I wasn't expecting. So, that's definitely still on the horizon. Otherwise, I've got a couple of
1:18:16
weekends or days planned, but I don't know what I'm playing. So, I will be playing games, but I really don't know
1:18:22
what the plan is for that. I have uh started reassembling my hobby desk for
1:18:28
all my Warhammer Mch painting and stuff like that. I don't Yeah, that's it really. I haven't got anything solid
1:18:34
really in the diary apart from apart from uh game with Mark Monk. Open Gaming.
1:18:39
We got to mention him apparently. I think we're on sponsorship or something with him. Sorry. Okay. Hi, Mark.
1:18:44
Hi, Mark. We We mentioned him three times last episode. Oh, did we? Oh, we need to beat that.
1:18:49
Well, we have. We just said three times. So, there we go then. We're on We're on target. Yeah. Four times this episode.
1:18:55
And what am I looking forward to? Well, I'm definitely going to try and get more games in the calendar. I have started my
1:19:01
list of of what I want to play. Still want to play some of the ones I haven't managed to get to the table yet, including uh Power Vacuum. Really want
1:19:09
to play that. Parks. So, I might need to find a day when Adrian's free so he can teach us how to play. I'll bring the second editional.
1:19:15
Save me the teach. No, I don't want to play with your new second edition. I want to play with the [ __ ] edition that you sold me.
1:19:21
It's much prettier. And that's why I like it. So, yeah, I want to play those things. So, yeah, got
1:19:26
some dates to get in the diary. Dates to get in the diary. So, I just got a little bit of a shout out. Um, I've emailed Contention Games
1:19:34
about Slay the Spire. Oh, yeah. The sleeves were starting to come away. They were starting to really wind me up.
1:19:40
Uh, I emailed them and told them that I wasn't very happy about it and they're sending me 500 brand new sleeves from a
1:19:46
different batch that is not defective. So, shout out to them. Good customer service and sorting me out with some new
1:19:52
sleeves. Nice. It's going to be a pain in the bum to resleve it. But it really is like not They are peeling off pretty bad.
1:19:58
Oh, they're really bad. All right. Well, if mine starts doing that, I'll I'll know where to come. Yeah. Give a shout. They were super super good. No,
1:20:03
I meant you. You got 500. Oh, I need them all, mate. Fair enough.
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:20:08
So, I think that just about wraps us up for this week. Uh, thanks again as always for everyone who is listening.
1:20:16
Uh, thank you especially to our lovely coffee supporters who donate us their
1:20:21
pennies to mean we can upgrade our kit. So, thanks to all our coffee supporters for using word of mouth to get our
1:20:27
podcast name out there. We don't do any other advertising. So, we really rely on you guys. If that is the only thing you
1:20:33
can do to support us podcast people, that is perfect for us. We do have a
1:20:38
Discord channel. Um I don't know anything about Discord other than it's a thing that keeps popping up every now
1:20:43
and again when someone comments and I maybe sometimes reply. Yeah. So that's kind of a a where a place where anyone
1:20:49
that wants to come and say hi can come and have a chat. Um we have a few of our designer friends that are also on there.
1:20:55
So that's really lovely. As always, we're on all of the socials. So please reach out to us wherever you can. So as
1:21:01
always everyone, thanks again for listening. And whose turn is it anyway? Yeah.
1:21:10
[Music]