TURN 1 - Player Count
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Hello and welcome to Whose Turn It Anyway, a board gaming podcast where we invite you to join our gaming group and
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talk about all things cardboard and meatballs. Uh, thank you to Becky for her run and passing the torch to me. I'm
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Rob. I'm your first player and I am sat with Curly. Hello. And JP.
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Hello. How are we doing, guys? I'm just in awe and shock because when's the last time you were a
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first player, Rob? Uh, I want it on record. Listeners, tell me exactly even though you can't cuz you're
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listening to this not in real time and I've just realized it as I've said it, but it's been a while, right? It was a long time ago. It was the
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infamous episode where we left the um window open. Really? World Cup at Davies. I think it
0:58
was a It was either World Cup or Euros cuz we watched the England we watched England game and then we recorded afterwards and we it was
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2022. It was so hard. It's got to be Yeah. So, I haven't been first player since then. It's taken me this long to
1:10
come up with three topics that I'd like to talk about within within World Gaming. He's a slow burner, guys.
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I'm I'm consistent. Yeah, you are. I am consistent. And uh and yeah, so I figured it was time for me to talk talk
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about what I want to talk about. Talking about what everybody else wants to talk about. You excited, Curly?
1:30
Yeah. Yeah. He doesn't sound excited. Tell tell the listeners why you're not excited today. I'm not excited because I've spent all
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day receiving a lecture 143 PowerPoint slides on fire precaution management.
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I'm done. I'm I'm tapped out. My brain is dribbling out my ear by the time And this is why a hobby is great because if
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it was fire precaution management in a board game Euro with cubes, we'd be all over it, wouldn't we? Yeah, probably. But
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and that does sound like the next essence hotness, doesn't it? Is it fire precaution? I think you could
2:02
easily imagine it, couldn't you? Like getting out a safe like exit room and like a fire happens and you know
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got to like mitigate it. Yeah. Yeah. And like whoa, is it arson? No, it's just badly managed property.
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Yeah. Waste management exercises. Toast has been left in too long. That's what we've been talking about daisy chaining and yeah
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nice and people don't say sorry people say that um we don't come up with any good old day good good ideas and we taught
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nonsense this is it we should pat it immediately 100% this is it the new hotness of Essen 2026
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and with that should we move on we probably should
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
2:46
uh Mr. Curly, I'm going to come to you first. I like calling you Mr. Curly for some reason. I don't That's good, mate. My official title.
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I don't know why. It's about time you showed me some respect. Is you are overdue,
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but I like Mr. Curington as well, and I have no idea why. So, Mr. Curlington, what have you been up to?
Kerley - Dungeons & Dragons
3:03
Well, I've been up to quite a few things actually, so I could um list off a bunch. Most of them, as everyone already
3:09
knows, are my old classics that I'm not going to trot out again and again and again. Hey, behave yourself. You
3:14
Is it Barova? Yes, I've played Bart Bova. Barova. Barba has been played. Has it been bar for performing bars?
3:20
No, actually. No. Uh, well, funny enough, I haven't played Art Nova on BG for a little while. BGA, sorry.
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And um we went up to London to see um Hercules the musical.
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We we played it on the way on the train back. It was quite good. But anyway, that's what what not what I
3:38
was going to talk about. Um, oh yeah, I was just going to talk uh about D and D that we did. First time in years that
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I've played D and D. Um, and yeah, we did that uh four or five days ago. Yeah, and I had a lot of
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fun. Really good. Uh, yes, it was it was Halloween cuz yeah, the trick-or-treaters coming
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around and everything. So, yeah. No, it was really good fun. Had a um a blast. Stew was really good DM. Really enjoyed
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that. Um, yeah, it was just nice to have a more I don't know. I don't really play that many social games, so it was nice
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to have something where we could just chill and just chat and have It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I was there as
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well. So, but yeah, I'm playing like a a Goliath Berserker. I was actually going to try something different this time, but Stu
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talked me around into just going for a maniac who's like 9 foot tall. It just reminds me of like either of um
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Grog, which I named him after, or um like the God of War. What's his name?
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Oh, don't know. Kattos. Yeah, that's it. So, that's what I had in my head when I was thinking
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this 9 foot bold kind of Goliath guy who's Yeah. got like 20 strength and
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well nailed struggle to get through doors. Behave. Reception check. Oh, hit my head.
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Ow. Ow. Stu did a brilliant job and there was at one point where he literally made
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everyone at the table jump. Quite. We knew we knew it was coming cuz it was it was it wasn't a horror theme,
5:02
but there were like horror elements. All right. And there was a bit where like he just started talking like really
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softly and quietly a bang. It was a [ __ ] Everyone knew it was coming. But he
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still did it. And it was it was brilliant. We had an absolute blast. It was like a a mansions of madness
5:19
kind of exploration of a of a manor. A man. That's cool. And it it was really
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Resident Evil. Yeah. It's like an abandoned manor on an island, you know, and you're trying to
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investigate what happened and stuff like that. It was really interesting. Nice. But yeah. So, we're meant to be doing a one shot, but it like went over
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just cuz everyone's messing about. We're having a good time. We're going to do it over Saw two. Yeah. It's a half shot with the other
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half coming. Yeah. Yeah. So, when the little girl ghost turned up, Becky was like, "Nope, no, I'm out."
5:48
And porcelain dolls. So, what were the characters then? So, you were like this berserker, Goliath Berserker.
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Yeah. Well, we decided little and large. So, my other mate, um, Duncan was playing a little dwarven Berserker. He's
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basically the same, but he's like 3 foot tall to my 9 foot. So, like a tactic. Yeah,
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apart from he's way angrier than me apparently. Oh, right. I like to try and intimidate everyone and he just runs around like this little
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flipping ball of hatred. He was playing a character that he thinks he's really intelligent, but his intelligence stat is in the minus.
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Yeah. So, he thinks he's really clever. He's like, I've got this, lad. No, you don't. You don't. Stop it.
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It was very funny. It was very funny. Nice. You You leaned heavily into your intimidation stat, didn't you?
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Yeah, very heavily. when we talking to a little old um like B&B owner.
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Let me intimidate. I was just hackling. I was just hackling. Rooms for free, right? Yeah. But then the worst thing the worst
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thing is I was like surely I could just do an intimidation check here. He was like, "All right, roll it." I rolled 20, didn't I? First of all, like, "Oh, well,
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I'm going to have to I got my five gold discount. That's all I'm telling." Yeah. Yeah. It worked out well.
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Yeah. Looked at her funny and got one. I I always play like a melee tank sort
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of character like support character. So this time I went for a ranger. It was I was half elf.
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No, it was a wood elf. A wood elf ranger. Yeah. Um which was a lot of fun cuz I'm used
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to having one attack and typically it missing. So to have multiple attacks um from distance was was really cool. It
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was really nice. So uh we had we had an absolute blast playing it was great fun cuz cuz it was a one shot. We started on
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level five. Yeah. You started with abilities that you can get a little bit more to play with and and things like that. So, so yeah, it was uh
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it was a lot of fun. Sounds good. I'll tell you the other characters as well because you did ask. Um Becky
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played a cat rogue. I can't remember. Taxi. So it reminded me of uh I don't
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want to pronounce it. Kajit Kajit Kajit. Kajit from Elder Scrolls.
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Um yeah, Catwoman basically. And she she enjoyed that. And uh Katherine Duncan's
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wife and Becky's best friend played like an a demon elemental.
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Tling. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so that was really interesting. Thought that was pretty cool having a
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nice like Carlac from Boulders Gate. Yeah. Is that too Yes. But she was a bard. Oh, okay. So we were trying We were
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trying to make her sing when she was actually like doing stuff in the game. She was having none of it. Nope.
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Nope. Uh, so that was a lot of fun. Just imagine it. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine me singing. But it was very tense and very um
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Yeah. Like very kind of cuz we knew it was a bad place, but it it was fun. It was great.
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You know what though? I think cuz D and D is not my thing, right? But I do enjoy
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Boulders's Gate. So I actually because I've been playing Boulders's Gate or have well in the past and I have enjoyed
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it. I probably think there is a part of D and D that I would enjoy if it's the
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right kind of environment. And I've not had like Stuart I've heard is a great DM. So I' I'd be intrigued to maybe do a
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one shot with him one day. Stu's fantastic. And not right now. He's busy. Yeah, he's busy doing everybody else's
8:54
exactly in the future. But I I think D and D is kind of like movies. Everybody enjoys movies. You
8:59
just kind of like different ones. And some people like it super serious and and kind of very
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minmax their characters and rule heavy and and kind of thematically kind of think every decision. And then you got
9:12
other people who just enjoy just hanging out with each other and just and and and yeah, the D and D is kind of
9:18
the the kind of focus for, you know, to just for conversation and everything else is going on. So yeah, if if if
9:25
anyone's on the fence of trying it, I 100% just just try it and and see how you get on cuz it's usually a lot of fun
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and a bit of nonsense and quite funny. Well, we've well my we've been going through Stranger Things with
9:38
my family and my son has just finished season 4. Eddie's his favorite character, right? By far.
9:44
Of course. Quite rightly so. He's freaking awesome. Um, and for his Christmas, he won't
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listen to this, so we're fine. For his Christmas present, um, we've got him Eddie's last campaign Dn D box.
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Oh, cool. Um, which has kind of 80s style. Everything's kind of set in the 80s.
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Like the character [ __ ] everything's kind of themed around it was like Eddie's last campaign. So yeah, we've
10:10
got that that arrived well today. And uh yeah, I'm looking forward to him exploring it cuz he's been quite
10:16
interested in starting D and D or doing D and D. I'm not quite sure he knows the ins and outs of it. Um but you know, if
10:23
he wants to explore it, why not? And apparently it's a good start. It's a good way of getting people into it.
10:29
So yeah. So, I'll let you know how that goes uh in the in the future. Little bit of trivia for you. I've had
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Eddie Mson's Final Last Stand where he plays like the Metallica song.
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Master of Puppets. Master of Puppets. Yeah. Um downloaded on my phone ever since it came out cuz I love it so much.
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It's just amazing. It's so good. That that last episode on season 4
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is some some of the best television. I I think it's the most enjoyable and
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climactic end to a run that I've experienced in TV. Like typically even like really good series like Game of
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Thrones kind of the end was a bit sour. Yeah. And and Yeah. But there's just no
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there's nothing of that in straight. It's just be interesting to see cuz the next one's the last one, isn't it? Yes. So would be interesting to see how they
11:15
Don't mess it up. Yeah. Don't mess it up. I mean, it's too late now cuz it's been produced and ready to come out.
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They've got a consistency of writers and actors and stuff. So, they've got a good chance of not [ __ ] up basically.
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Anyway, but I would just add before we move on, I absolutely agree with what you say. I'm getting a lot more out of D
11:31
and D cuz I've been playing Bcape now that I understand a little bit about the mechanics of it. It's a lot more
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accessible in general. It's helped me understand what it is more even though I kind of knew what it was,
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but I never knew the intricacies of the the system. Yeah. Um, but Boulders Gate 3 just basically gives you here's the system
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and go do what go do whatever you want. Do we want which is quite scary to begin with, right? It's quite it can be quite
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overwhelming and too open, isn't it? Yeah. But watch a couple videos and yeah, I've just repurchased Boulders Skate 3. So,
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um, cuz I had it on Xbox and I've got it on PC. So, I'm starting to play again as well. So, yeah, very much.
JP - Thunder Road Vendetta
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JP, what have you been up to? Well, lots of things. Played lots of games. um as you know not long back from
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Essen. Um I still haven't got many of the the tiles that I picked up to the table enough to talk about them
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properly. We've done like demos of them which you can hear on the the previous episodes. But so I'm going to talk about
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a game I played before I went away and it was your games day Rob that you had not long back and we managed to finally
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get a full fullyfledged game of Thunder Road Vendetta. Uh because Joel from
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Devon Dice podcast popped along and he he's the one that owns the copy and I was like right I'm seizing this
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opportunity to get a proper game of this because we tried it at Gridcon last year played about 20% of the game cuz we were
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probably [ __ ] about and there was eight of us and there was eight of us and it just took forever and then Joel was trying to figure the rules out. It
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was just one of those not quite cohesive games, you know. Fast forward, he's
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back. He knows the rules. We're in. We're playing. So, for those that don't know what I'm talking about, Thunder Road Vendetta is a remake of an old game
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which has roll and move uh mechanics. Don't hate me. Um, and it's made or published by Restoration Games, and they
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they're pretty much the ones that take the old titles, sex them up a bit for the modern market and make them a bit
13:26
more playable, should we say. So really, if you think Mad Max, that's pretty much
13:31
what this game is. It's like Mad Max, and it's set on a a series of boards that kind of run um together in parallel
13:39
and simulate the road. And as you kind of get towards the end of the one, it acts like a conveyor belt where you put
13:45
a new tile out and everything slides back. The one at the end will disappear. If you're on it, tough [ __ ] You're out.
13:50
You're dead. So, and you're kind of racing along uh this this path and it's got obstacles, oil slicks, uh big
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[ __ ] rocks, pits, pits, and and just all sorts of nonsense and stuff there. And and each tile has
14:07
like a a card or an event which is going to give you a rule around that tile. So,
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it could be like this one's icy, so you know, if you're skidding around, you're going to skid in places maybe where you
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don't want to, or this one has a lot of wind. um whatever it might be. And and
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really you typically you will pick um uh a faction or or a person and I think
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this is part of the expansion the chop shop um upgrade where you pick a character and has a some sort of
14:36
ability. Mine was like uh basically like it like to go on fire then there's no
14:42
penalty for being on fire which is cool cuz normally there is. Yeah. It gives you extra speed but at the risk of
14:48
blowing up. Who would have thought cars racing and being on fire was a bad thing or a risky thing. So you kind of get your character and
14:54
then you have a small, medium, and large car look like little micro machines. Very cool. Very like tactile and toy and
15:01
uh and off you go. You roll four dice and you assign the dice to the to the cars as an action. So I'll if I roll a
15:08
four, I'll put it on my little car and I move it four spaces. You have to move it the four spaces. So you can either go
15:15
forward or you can shunt left or right because they're kind of on um it's not a grid but it's like a staggered grid if
15:21
that makes sense. So um yeah, you're kind of moving it along and then someone else has a go and they go, "Ah, I think
15:28
I'll ram you." And this is where the fun bit is because if someone basically crashes into you or you purposely do it,
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you'll end your movement or sometimes you have nowhere to go and you have to so you just have to ram someone. The car
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sits on top of the other car and then you roll the clash dice. Um, which is
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basically you roll that with the direction die and then the the die that has the the cars on it. It will
15:52
determine which of the cars is going to be yeah affected by the clash. It's likely this going to be the bottom and
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not always. Um, and then the direction will basically say you're going to be moved in one of the six directions around the
16:04
space. So what happens in this game is if you're all a tight pack, which is usually the beginning, you cause a chain
16:11
reaction of [ __ ] So you would hit the car at the back, that hits the one on the front, that hits another one,
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that hits another one, then smashes something else into a rock, causing problems and and death. Um, but
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after you get through all of that nonsense on the first tile, you your guns become active and then you can
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start shooting the other players and you start rolling dice for that and uh and
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then you get your helicopters which you can start putting out which helicopters can start shooting and just literally put them out. Very cute. the little
16:40
rotors spin and everything and you can put them there and and really it's kind of like um as soon as there's an
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elimination so as soon as someone has died the finish line appears and first
16:55
to cross it wins or be the last one standing. It's as simple as that. But it is fun
17:03
and stupid and it's kind of that old school game that you can just sit there
17:10
and not worry about too much. Don't take it seriously. It's a beer and pretzels game. Definitely pretzels game. And we had it where
17:17
Martin was playing and he uh took one of the expansion which was a bunch of motorbikes. Yes. We have four bikes, didn't he?
17:23
Yeah. Four or five bikes something like that. Yeah, I think it was more wasn't it? Yeah. And they were weak as piss. because of the motorbikes
17:29
and somebody somebody's driving a truck. Yeah. And there's a big truck as well. Um but quite funny at the end there's a
17:36
ramp and we thought, wouldn't it be cool to finish the game, Martin, if you hit the ramp? Cuz when you hit the ramp, you
17:42
roll the ramp dice and you can move one, two, three, or four spaces, commonly two or three. And he had to get a four to
17:49
jump over this rock and then land on the finish line. He crashed and burned on the first time. Literally killed one of his bikes, but
17:56
he had to go for it. Uh but he did win the game in the end and uh yeah it's just it's fun I think. Would I buy it?
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Probably not. Um mainly because it's a lot of money for what game it is but
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it's nicely produced. I think Joel had the chrome edition which is basically the deluxified
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shaded as well. I think was just really nice. Um but would I play it?
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Yeah, anytime. I'd play at conventions. Um because it's just that thing where at the end of a night you can sit down and
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go I don't have to think you know I just want to participate in a game of of of silly nonsense and laugh
18:33
when you know Rob careers his car off the road and dies. Technically I rammed you. I came off
18:40
worse in the exchange and moved back a space but then it hit one of Joel's cars and then bounced me off of his car into
18:46
an oil slick and then into a into a rock and it blew up. So me being aggressive ended up in my car exploding
18:53
which we rejoiced and laughed. So yeah. Uhhuh. But yeah, it was very good. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, that's the game. I don't know
18:59
how else to explain it. It's fun. Play it. It is great. Yeah, I had a great time. It was a lot of fun.
Rob - Kreel Manor
19:05
There we go. What about you, Rob? Well, I recently I've been on bit of a hall or nothing run. So, I played Gloom
19:12
Killfor, which I've talked about before and thoroughly loved, but I I was having a look at some of the other games. So,
19:18
I've managed to pick up Creole Mana and I bought it with all the expansions because I really wanted to play as the
19:23
necromancer. Um, similar thing to what we discussed about D and D actually. Uh, it's the
19:29
exploration of a of a mana and all the grounds and the secrets that it holds. Um, and it's episodic. It's a um
19:38
campaign. Mhm. So, you kind of get, you know, you start off with a basic character and kind of upgrade and and as you go through. Um, I
19:44
only played the first chapter because learning the rules, you know, kind of getting things wrong. And there's one
19:50
thing I love about what he puts in all of his rule books is you're going to get some rules wrong. Don't worry about it.
19:56
Just don't let it ruin the experience of the game, which I I think that's that's like a really nice touch. You know, it's
20:02
like, you know, you're going to get it wrong the first couple of times you play it. Don't worry about it. Just go have fun. Works for you as well.
20:09
Bendy McBenderson. It 100% works for me because I I think they're more like guidelines.
20:16
So, yeah. So, I got I got it to the table, learned the game, and very similar to if you've ever played Alien
20:21
Legendary. Alien Legendary, I think the old school. Yeah, the deck builder legendary series.
20:27
Yeah. So, um still want to play that game. similar to that um in regard that you've got stuff
20:33
coming down the pipe. So you can you can kind of take time to investigate what's coming, but typically once starts once
20:40
stuff starts coming, you can't investigate any further. So then it's just like I know I've got an enemy to do, but
20:46
there's nothing I can do about it. So um so yeah, thoroughly enjoyed it. Very thematic, very the I mean the artwork in
20:51
all of all of his games is just absolutely beautiful. Um, and the way the cards work, um,
20:58
you know, the just the way it all fits together, it it kind of it can be a little bit overwhelming at the beginning, but actually you play a
21:04
couple rounds, I get it. Like it it makes perfect sense. Um, so very much looking forward to to getting that to
21:10
the table. I have actually ordered a gaming table. He has, people finally pulled the
21:16
trigger. So, I'm kind of hoping that now I can leave games like that set up and I don't have to pack them away and and
21:22
kind of, you know, I can leave them set up for a while. Uh, very similar to what we did with Elder Scrolls, just kind of leave it set up underneath
21:28
and and then kind of it is nice just come back to it as and when. So, so yeah, I think I'll be getting that to the table a lot more when I don't have
21:35
to kind of pack it away at the end of every session. So, especially with a campaign game, like it's just it's just easier, right?
21:40
Yeah. So, um, so yeah. So, I've been playing uh Creel Mana, which um thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed so far.
21:46
I'm looking forward to playing it a little bit more. I like the idea of that more than Gloom because it again it's that are you in a
21:53
mana. It's more localized. It's like it's that gives me a Resident Evil one
21:58
vibes, right? Which is you got to figure out what the hell you're doing in this weird place rather than being this grand
22:04
adventure. Quite like it when it's zoomed in a bit, you know? So that's what that's what kind of
22:10
intrigued me to be honest because you've got Gloom of Killilforth, Shadow of Killfor, and uh Call of Killfor. So
22:17
there's a pirate theme, the Pirates of Kill For which actually looks quite cool. Uh I mean, don't get me wrong, all the games
22:22
look quite cool, but I I went fantasy cuz that speaks to me a little bit more. But for me to buy Call of Killfor, it's
22:29
it's not going to add that much to what I already have. Resin of the same game, right? It kind of is. They There is different
22:36
There is differences in them. Um, and some people actually do the all of um, kill forth.
22:42
All right. Where they put all of it in. Cool. And and yeah, and it's massive. It's really epic, which uh I'd love to do one
22:49
day. But um but yeah, so Krill felt very different. So I didn't I didn't get that kind of guilty
22:55
um guilty feeling when I when I kind of put the order in. So but no, thoroughly enjoyed it. So very much looking forward
23:01
to kind of playing giving it a whole kind of campaign run through. I'd love to give it a go. I am intrigued
23:06
by it. I, you know, mechanically like to see what it it does in comparison and uh
23:11
yeah, I'll have to give it a go one day. So, let's move on to our main topic.
TURN 3 - Main Event: Playing with yourself
23:25
So, it's time for the main segment, which I creatively have titled playing with yourself. Take read into that while
23:32
you will. Um, but I'd like to talk to you guys about kind of the the rise and
23:38
the quality of of what's available now when it comes to solo gaming. Mhm. It was something that that kind of
23:44
back in the day I would never have dreamt of playing a board game over watching a movie or or over playing my
23:50
Xbox or or kind of um you know kind of playing a board game was our social
23:57
gathering that the reason we we were playing board games was to see people face to face and kind of have that
24:02
interaction. But now I if a game comes with a solo mode, it almost makes it a
24:08
possibility purchase for me cuz I know that, you know, everybody's busy, everybody's got things going on and and
24:15
especially like campaign games, if you know it's going to be an event, but you know, you can you can just kind of play
24:21
it on your own and you can um take at your own pace, I I think for me that adds such a value. It adds such a
24:27
different lens to to the purchase that it almost
24:33
makes it more makes it more viable for me. Um
24:39
ju just because it means that I I potentially will get that value for money. You know I've bought expensive
24:45
games where kind of you know they're campaign but they're a minimum of two players and trying to get people you know like I say things happen in life.
24:51
You know interest drops off in games. you know, people's circumstances change when and there's kind of nothing worse
24:57
than getting halfway through a campaign and then stopping. Been there. Yeah, we've done quite a few games. And
25:04
I, you know, the fact that if a solo mode has it, it's almost like, oh, that's that's now a possibility. So, um,
25:11
the reason I've invited you, Mr. Curlington is because I know that you've come very close to solo playing a few
25:19
times where to the fact where you've potentially bought games that you planned to solo play.
25:24
I think you you you very nearly said you've come close to playing with yourself.
25:30
I've come more than come more than close. This is what went through my head.
25:36
Are we talking about board gaming? Yes, we are solo gaming. So, I know that you've you like I say, you've flirted
Kerley's flirtation with solo gaming
25:41
with the idea of solo board gaming for a while, but yet to pull the trigger.
25:48
I Yeah, I have. I think I am open to it
25:54
more than I ever was. Yeah, cuz two years ago you were like, "Fuck, no."
25:59
Three years ago. Yeah, probably. You were flat out. No, I did. I'll tell you the the one the one
26:05
that brought me into it was Art Nova obviously cuz I I loved it so much that I just wanted to get the itch when no
26:10
one else was around really. So I just I did that I did the base mode before the
26:16
the bar the Aro bar before that was released. I I played the the normal version that was
26:21
fine. That's actually it played very similar to the actual game. So that that was fine. Um,
26:28
two games have kind of tempted me into it when I've played the multiplayer and I know they'll play well one player. Um,
26:35
one was Elder Scrolls Betrayal of the second second era and I played that with you
26:43
Rob. We did. Yes. I fell in love with it as everyone did. Um, but I didn't want to spend £450
26:51
on my own copy. So that led me to buy Hoppla Marcus which I opened the box
26:57
went [ __ ] that put it back in again and now I'm selling it. Um so
27:05
about you well I remember seeing your face let's rewind. I remember seeing your Facebook post of going, "Oh, I'm
27:12
interested in in Hoplamockers Victorium and I saw on the board game trading and chat and I went, "Is he all right?" And
27:20
I had to message you, didn't I? I said, "You do know it's a solo game, right?" And you're like, "Yeah, yeah, f quite fancy." Oh, fair enough. Cuz I thought
27:26
you were buying the remastered, the skirmish player versus player one. So I was like, "Oh, that that probably the
27:33
biggest surprise in board gaming for me is when you messaged to say, I'm interested in buying your Hoplo."
27:39
You were right. Yeah, I was right. But but I was kind of sad cuz I think, "Oh, maybe you should have
27:44
tried it." Because it's a great game. It was too big a too big an entry, I
27:51
think, for me. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. It's just like if someone would have taken me to one side, taught it to me, blah blah blah. Yeah, I know. But if
28:00
someone would have done all of that and I'd have been Yeah. Well, no. Um, but no, the idea was was to use my
28:07
gaming table, leave it out, all that kind of stuff and run through it. But the reality is I just wanted Elder
28:12
Scrolls and it was just like, yeah, I'm so glad I'm so glad you bought it.
28:18
It was just making me like, yeah, it was just trying to scratch a n it was never
28:23
going to scratch to be honest. Um, the idea was better than the reality. respect. Yeah. And I just I would have always
28:30
been like I could be playing Elder Scrolls right now. You know what I mean? So it was just a cheaper way of doing
28:36
that basically. So instead I just went to the UK G and blew 450 quid on. You did you went all in, didn't you?
28:42
I was so proud of you that day. I so proud. You're so proud you helped him carry it back to the Uber.
28:47
Well, somebody had to. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of stuff. It's heavy. Yeah. The lead crate.
28:53
It really was. But no, it and and it's well worth it and I'm loving it. But I'm enjoying it
28:59
multiplayer at the moment. So I haven't I haven't if like I think me and me and Rob to me to relearn it a bit, Rob to
29:06
get a bit more familiar with it. We played a a campaign. I don't know about you, May, but I loved it. Oh, I loved it. I thought it was
29:12
fantastic. I thought it was brilliant. Just me and him. I think we're going to Well, I'm going to start playing with Tambo soon.
29:17
Um Rob, I think you're going to join, but there was a question mark. I hope so. Yeah, my my diary is filling
29:23
up with unfortunately other things. So it's and again it's one of those games
29:28
that you need three big sessions if you're going to do it fast.
29:33
So to try and get three people together is is kind of you're almost better off going to two and knowing that you can
29:40
get it done than potentially having to wait for three. So I just need to see
29:45
how viable it is for me. I'd love to. Don't get me wrong. I'd absolutely love to. Yeah. I'd love to. I'm a pain in the ass
29:51
to schedule around. But but playing with you is what led me to the decision to purchase a gaming table.
29:57
So the fact I mean how how I mean it's still there now, right? When did we set it up? June.
30:03
Yeah. So but the fact that you could leave it set up for that long and just come back to it, you know, and I went on holiday,
30:10
you went on holiday, and we come back and everything is still in its place. We kind of had to relearn what was going on a little bit, but it didn't take too
30:17
long at all. And like you said, like we played it for like three or four hours, and then you were like, "Right, I think I'm done." I was like, "Cool. we we'll
30:22
figure out a night in the week. And being able to break it up like that, you know, you know, having a being able to
30:28
do it in an evening for like a couple of hours and then come back to it later, whereas I couldn't do that on my table.
30:35
So yeah, that kind of gave me the kick in the ass to go and buy one to be honest. Yeah. And as well, what I liked about it is because it didn't take any setup time
30:42
or any breakdown time. You felt like you didn't have to rush it. Like for example, I if we we played a couple of
30:48
hours and we were chinwagging for a half hour beforehand and an hour afterwards, but we done the we done the couple of
30:53
hours, but we don't have to worry about like, well, it's taken an hour to set up and it's going to take an hour to break down. It doesn't matter how long we play
30:59
for. We we play until we're like, yeah, let's do something else now or chat for a bit, you know? So, there's just a bit less pressure on
31:06
there. Um, but anyway, the point is is because the main advantage that I can
31:11
see, and you guys can tell me different in a second, the main advantage for me from an the outside point of view to
31:17
solo gaming is the fact that you can play what you like when you like, learn rules, all that kind of stuff. Well, at
31:23
the moment, Elder Scrolls, the people are so keen to play it that I'm not struggling to play it when I like what I
31:29
like. You know, also that game because of the amount of options you've got to play, I think if you never play it solo,
31:37
potentially you're missing you'll never you'll never play all the possibilities of that game. M there's so many scenarios and so many
31:45
character classes and so many races in that game that you know if there was no solo option for example I think it would
31:52
be even if you never play it solo the fact that you can play it solo you know
31:57
it's nice knowing that yes you've invested a lot of money in it but potentially if you really want to you can get that money out of it
32:04
whereas if you're waiting on three or four people for example you're not really going to get the opportunity to
32:10
to kind of experience it So that's what I mean by, you know, if if a game comes
32:15
with a solo option, even if you don't use that option, for me it is a, you know, it makes that
32:21
purchase a little bit easier. Yeah. And the other game, just to move on briefly, is Slay the Spire.
32:28
Yeah. I love that game so much. And I don't think really single player really takes anything away from it.
32:33
No, it's still it's still great. I loved four player mind. I liked that a lot more than I thought I would.
32:38
Four player. We did get on with it though, didn't we? We did kind of smashed it all hands and like literally
32:43
everyone's just taking their turns and moving stuff off the board and yeah, it was Oh, it's fantastic. So, we
32:50
did all three three acts one after the other. One after another. But yeah, so you know, Slay the Spire is the other one
32:55
that made me think, yeah, I like this enough to play it solo. But I've really got to love something to want to play solo, to be honest. So
33:02
the only reason I haven't purchased it is cuz we do have what four potentially five copies of it in in the gaming group
33:08
and to get it again seems a bit overkill but I I very much you can buy any time left the same
33:14
thing. So yeah I got it cuz it's a game Josh would play. He literally it's short enough in
33:20
acts that you can like play for an hour and and he's not bored and then you can go cool we'll do act
33:27
two later we'll do it tomorrow and you can just put it away and it's like the setup is minimal. the pack away is
33:32
minimal. So, it it helps. But, but yeah, I have played that solo as well. It's
33:37
it's it's good. The only thing I would like out of that game more is more solo relics to help. You just get one, don't
33:45
you? Which is I can't remember what it is, but it just helps with the diary while we get something else. But yeah, that's the only thing would be good to
33:52
get more variety. But anyway, that's more about Slay the Spy, which that could be an episode on it.
33:58
Possibly. Possibly. So, the reason I asked you on this episode as well, JP, is because
JP's deep delve into solo gaming
34:04
I didn't know solo gaming was really a thing until you told me how many times
34:09
you played Bones in in lockdown. Now, I I think kind of co kickstarted the
34:16
kind of solo gaming when we couldn't get together. I mean, for me, for me, that's when I started the solo
34:22
game. Yeah, for me definitely. Um because like if we if we hearken back to to like why
34:28
we play board games. I remember I talked about this god with Brendan McCascal
34:34
from Open Hour Studios with the episode with him ages ago and it's like as a kid
34:40
when growing up with a Super Nintendo or SNES and the the when they released the
34:45
multitaper extension because you normally have two controllers in only they had the
34:51
multitap four player Bomberman, right? And you got four of you, like me and my brother and two mates playing Bomberman
34:57
together in the same room, probably sat on the floor in a bedroom in some 1990s
35:02
house, a 14inch screen and yeah, the tiniest screen CRT kind of
35:08
screen that you could possibly see, but playing the shared experience at the same time blowing the crap out of each
35:14
other in Bomber Man was some of the best memories that I've had as a kid growing up. Right. And and for me, board gaming
35:22
channels that that kind of couch co-op, well, not couch co-op, but couch kind of play, but around a table. And it's the
35:29
same premise. So, when COVID hit, we didn't have it. It's like, we can't have it now. That's gone away for a bit. You
35:35
know, bar, carport, Eclipse Games in Curley's uh
35:40
house outside area. Um, which we talked about before. And randomly, Ion
35:46
Ike on. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, like the it's a weird time where we're just kind of playing like I
35:53
wanted to scratch the itch and I don't think I'd not long had too many bones. I think I got it the October before it all
36:00
went wrong. Um and so I just ended up just milling that game because like well
36:06
what else am I going to do? I can't work. I can't do this. I can't do that. So I just literally had the uh basically
36:12
put it on the table and uh just kept playing it and playing it and playing until I got kind of like I'm done with this. I think I played it 20 30 times
36:19
during, you know, 6 months or something. It's all I did. It was brilliant. Um,
36:26
and I did the same thing with Scythe. I got back into Scythe and then learned the solo um the Ultima and I was like,
36:33
"This is really clever." And, you know, I got the app uh Scythe kick app for it. So, it manages multiple Ultima bots. Had
36:41
all the cards and learned how that work. And I actually started to like enjoy the process of learning ultimas and and I
36:49
thought this is so clever how they've they've mimicked a player, the interaction of a player and and D and
36:55
then I ended up getting an Acrony and an Acrony hit and they had the Kronos bar and I thought, you know what, I'm going
37:00
to give that a go. Why not? I've got the time. And that Jesus that's again that levels this thing up and it's like, wow,
37:07
this is a this is a solo. But what I found as I've kind of gone further and
37:13
co's gone and then we've allowed to play games with each other is the games that
37:18
the heavy games that have a lot of setup time I don't tend to want to solo as much. I
37:25
sometimes get the itch, right? Sometimes go Voidful Voidful because Voidful Solo is
37:32
fantastic, right? I I bloody love Voidfall Solo. It's it's such a good
37:37
game. Um, but the the barrier to it is the setup.
37:43
The barrier is to go, got to set this thing up and be bothered. And I'm finding that more and more the the
37:49
barrier of getting a game to the table is the amount um of effort required to set it up and
37:55
then, you know, not get to the point where go, nah, I can't bothered. Do you know what I mean? So, I'm finding now
38:02
that the things that scratch my my kind of uh itch for for solo gaming are games I can get to the table quickly. So, you
38:09
know, games like so when Imperium came that was like that blew my mind in how
38:15
the game worked anyway, but the fact the solo mode was fantastic and the setup is
38:21
it's not that bad. You know, it's not about the length of the game. I don't mind if the game takes two hours doesn't
38:27
bother me because if I'm in my puzzle, I'm I'm I'm in there. But if the setup's relatively quick and that payoff is is
38:34
fast for for that return, I'm all over it. So that's kind of why Imperium Captain's Chair and recently playing um
38:42
Deckers, which we picked up from Messen, still it scratches that similar itch where I'm in the puzzle. I'm I'm
38:47
thinking and I'm I'm escaped and and away we go. And to your point, Curley, I
38:53
think, you know, one of the reasons why I do game is you can do it when you want, whenever. You're not bounded by
39:00
time. And often it's mood. Mhm. So, I don't know how I'm going to feel on a week next Tuesday. I haven't got a
39:06
clue. And we obviously plan our game nights. So, I want to play such and such in two weeks time cuz that'll be a good
39:12
idea. And you get to that Tuesday, you're like, I'm not quite up for this as I was two
39:17
weeks ago, you know? But with solo, it doesn't matter, does it? because you can get to that Tuesday and go I really want
39:23
to play void for I'm in the mood for I'm I'm got the you know the the impetus to put this to the table
39:29
whereas sometimes you you don't I quite like the off the cuffness of it you know see I'm the exact opposite
39:36
not that that's not a good point that's you all over right the problem is that I've got is that I very rarely want to do anything
39:43
spontaneous I just can't be asked genuinely cannot be asked so like board gaming I would never board game if it if
39:49
it was almost always impetuous. I would spontaneous, sorry. I would barely ever do it.
39:56
The the thing is what keeps me going is that I love it when I'm there. And the fact that I've agreed to do it
40:01
means that I will go cuz I'm just that type of person that doesn't like letting people down. So I go, have a great time, keep going
40:08
back and I remember that and I put myself in and it's a continuous cycle. This is why I don't say it's not because
40:13
I don't like the it's just getting round to it when I I'd rather just sit there in my pants and play Slay the Spire on
40:19
the PC. Do you know what I mean? I laugh cuz I saw him in his pants literally yesterday. Yeah.
40:24
When he ran down the stairs. Yeah. Yeah. You You guys were 5 minutes early. Why wouldn't I be in my pants for God's
40:30
sake? It's like, you know, you be You had a go at me for being early.
40:37
I was just I was just surprised. Yeah. to the piss that you were early cuz it rarely happens.
40:42
Yeah. Yeah. But no, so I I think that that I've literally got the exact opposite problem, but that's just probably our
40:49
personalities. I am a lazy [ __ ] git. I love how you're so honest with that.
40:55
It's cool. Yeah, but I think in ways I am, but I just think my mood shifts
41:03
around a lot. And then if I've got the time, so if I'm on like a Sunday and we
41:09
don't plan to do anything as a family and suddenly I've got the whole day to myself, rare, but sometimes it happens.
41:14
I'm like, you know, and Shell's watching Coronation Street, boring. And the kids
41:21
don't want to do anything or they're out with their mates or whatever. And I'm like, huh, I've got like four or five
41:28
hours that I can do stuff. And then I start the mind starts going, "What can I do?" I'm like, fancy a bit of that. And
41:35
sometimes I go around this indecision. It's like going on Netflix. Which film should I watch, right?
41:41
And I stand in my uh in front of my collection. I'm looking at games and waiting for inspiration. And then
41:46
sometimes I'm there for an hour like just pick something, man. And then sometimes I go, "Nah, I can't bothered."
41:52
But then when I do get I find the more I solo game, the more I want to solo game, if that makes sense.
Using solo modes to help learn games for multiplayer sessions
41:59
cuz sometimes the the the thought of setting up a game, it's just like, oh, or the thought of learning a new game,
42:04
it's just Yeah. Oh, really can't be asked. And then when when you if there is a
42:10
solo mode to learn a game, to set it up, to um again, it's another positive point
42:15
for me that I can learn the game, I can [ __ ] it up on my own. I'm not wasting anybody's time if they've taken their
42:21
time out of their evening to come and spend it with me play a board game and I get it completely wrong because everyone's, you know, kind of expecting
42:28
me to know it. And again, that we've we've done episodes on that before about potentially learning it yourself or
42:33
watching a video or whatever. But if you typically if you're hosting a game night, then you're kind of not expected,
42:39
but you're it's kind of an unwritten rule that you kind of know more about it than everybody else to to a degree. Yeah. Unless it's agreed
42:45
upon beforehand. Yeah. Um, so the fact that I can get it out and I can play it completely wrong, but
42:51
just get a feel for it and just kind of, oh, I got that bit wrong. I know for the future
42:56
and and and that's kind of for me is the perfect way of learning the game. Yeah, I find I had this literally happen
43:03
recently when I um got recall out the box because we got a couple of games of
43:09
recall coming up and obviously I need to learn it uh get ready for it. So I had a
43:15
look and he said, "Oh yeah, it's one to to four players. Cool. That means there's a solo mode in there." And then
43:22
I looked in the and the solo mode was pretty much a beat your own score solo.
43:27
And a little part of me was like, but then I thought, actually, to learn the game, that's perfect because I don't have to run a bot. I can just learn the
43:36
game, play the game, go through the motions, get to the end, and go, "Right, I get it. I know what this is trying to do. I know how the interactions kind of
43:42
work." not from a strategy point of view, but just mechanically. Um, so actually that worked well, but
43:48
would I play that solo? No, because it doesn't doesn't give me enough out of
43:54
it. And then the opposite one was forestry, another lesson purchase that I
44:00
picked up. I fancy just trying that run through the motions that does have a bot and and I thought cool. But then I was
44:07
trying to learn the bot whilst trying to play the game and and you end up with this sometimes you're just too
44:14
distracted trying to learn what the bot's doing and you don't even know what the hell you're doing. It's the same thing when you're teaching it to somebody else and you're kind of
44:20
concentrating on their game rather than your own. Yeah. And then I kind of just ended up having a subpar game which then didn't
44:26
make me feel great either. So, but at least I get a feel for the game. So, both modes kind of got me to where I
44:32
needed to get to. Very different paths. Um, but for me, yeah, I I think a solo
44:38
mode's got to to do something. And I quite like it when a game you play the
44:44
game multiplayer, it's one way, and if you play it solo, it's kind of slightly different. So, a feast for Odin is a
44:50
great example of this where if you play solo, you play with two uh colored sets
44:56
of meeples, like you know, red or yellow. And and it's quite simple, but
45:01
it works really well, which is whatever you play out in round one with the red on the spaces stays there. So, in round
45:06
two, you can't go there. So, then you have to work around where you're going
45:12
an alternate round like somebody else would like someone else. It's simple. there's
45:17
no bot to run because you're kind of getting in your own way. So, there's another puzzle in there
45:23
which is how can I get to what I want without having to always go first for the same spot. I have to kind of play it
45:29
differently. And also with that game, I'm not sure it's official or not, but they have on BG um like a solo kind of
45:37
campaign. So you can kind of play a scenario where it says actually block these spaces off and there's a little
45:43
story of why you can't go um you know whailing or whatever and and off you go
45:48
and you're like oh I've got to learn how to play this game in a completely different direction I'm used to and
45:54
that'll never work and it does work and you go ah I didn't even know there was a way. So you get to start to explore
45:59
different corners of the game that you probably wouldn't have even picked up and I thought that's really clever. Um,
46:06
but again, such a simple thing, but it it it does it in a nice way. Um, but
46:12
then you kind of go to the real complex bots and where it does simulate you running a person. Now, if you know the
46:17
game really well, they're fantastic because then you know what you're doing, you know what strategies you want to to
46:22
employ. Um, and once you know that how to run the bot, then you've got a real good contention between you and it to
46:29
try and, you know, simulate it. But there's an overhead to that, isn't there? cognitive and and you know
46:35
everything else. So I think it's largely what puts me off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean I'm much more
46:40
inclined to do like a beat your own score solo game. Yeah. Which is what was right. The original.
46:45
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is probably I might have even enjoyed it more than although that's got an amazing reputation for but you know I don't
46:52
know. But I won't talk too much about it. But I
46:58
love So there is a solo part to what I do. I do a lot of PC gaming, right?
47:04
Yeah. And and that scratches my itch enough in order to fend off the want to do solo
47:09
gaming. I think without that, I would have already ended up doing it. Yeah. I think for me, video gaming for me has
47:16
dropped off quite a lot. So, for me, it's I don't want to sit and watch TV all evening. There wasn't
47:22
really a game that I wanted to play as well. So, I was like, I've got all this I've invested all this money in these
47:28
games. Why don't I just start playing them? So, for me, it's same thing. I was more likely to jump on my Xbox
47:35
um or PC now um and play a game because there wasn't really anything that grabbed me at the moment and because my
47:42
my gaming time has been cut down quite a lot. Getting into a game kind of seemed pointless because I knew
47:47
I wouldn't get that much time to play it. So, I was like, well, I can I can play a video game. Sorry, I can play a board game and know that it's
47:53
done within that 3 hours. I feel like I've I've been entertained, but I feel like I I have I'm not beholden to put 40
48:01
hours into it or or however long to get even that long to get good at a game cuz I'm old and slow.
48:07
Like, you know, it's not like you can just pick them up and play them like you used to. Um, so yeah, for me that's kind of led to to me trying solo gaming. But
48:15
also, like you said, I think something like Captain's Chair where you've got a
48:21
solo mode to learn it, where it's very the pressurees off, you it's about you learning the character and the mechanics
48:27
of that character. Then when you get to a level where you're actually comfortable with that character and you
48:32
kind of know what you're doing, that's when you bring the bot out. And the bot is fantastic.
48:38
So, the solo mode for that game, I honestly there there are times in the day where I think about that game
48:44
completely unbidden and it just pops into my mind and I'm like, "Oh, I could really want to play it now." Yeah, it's all right, ain't it?
48:52
Like one of my favorite games ever. But again, and and it allows you to scratch that itch if nobody else is
48:58
available. Um, I think Curly, you know, my love for Furnace.
49:04
I adore that game. I've talked about that game a lot with you guys and I know that you don't particularly like it and
49:09
I know that JP likes it, but because of the amount I talk about it, it's going down. Yeah, it's like not
49:17
fairness again. So, I bought the expansion for that so I could play it solo thinking, well, you know, I it's kind of one of those games
49:24
where people in our gamer group either really enjoy it or really don't enjoy it. I wouldn't say they hate it, but they just, you know, it's
49:30
Yeah, I absolutely don't hate it. It's just I'm not that bothered. Exactly. So, for me, I'm like, well, I'm
49:35
not going to put up a game night to, you know, it's brilliant when we've got a couple of games, you know, when when we've got that couple of hours in a day
49:41
to to kind of fill whatever. Um, so I'll buy the expansion and play it solo. And the solo mode,
49:49
it it doesn't add what I hoped it would cuz you spend your time stopping other people, you know, stopping the bots from
49:56
doing that because if you leave them to run rampant, they will they will win. Um, so you're kind of concentrating on
50:02
trying to stop them rather than do your own. Like I say, if I want to play the game, it scratches the itch. It really,
50:08
but that is unfortunately all it does. Yeah, I'd much prefer play it with other people because that's where the
50:14
enjoyment of that game is. But if I'm got a couple of hours free and I think, do you know what? I really want to play Furnace, it it does give me that option
50:22
and and kind of knowing that again that knowing that led me to get the
50:28
expansion. Yeah. No, that's fair. So, you've got kind of solo modes that kind of enhance a game, solo modes that
50:34
kind of add something different to a game, and then you've got solo modes that allow you to learn a game.
50:40
Um, and it's kind of, you know, what you're in the what you're in the mood for. If you think, I just want to learn this and then I'm going to play it with
50:46
everybody else, then great. But if you're kind of learning it to play on your own, sorry, if the solo
50:52
mode is there for you to play on your own, cuz we had this discussion this morning about Earthborne Rangers. Yes, I was going to come on to this.
How solo play aligns nicely to campaign style games
50:58
Yeah. Sorry if I'm going to jump on the gun a little bit, but um looks like a really interesting game.
51:04
Looks right up my street. Have I got any time to play it with you? No.
51:10
And that's the problem. A big campaign game that if you're solely reliant on other
51:16
people joining you is it's it's it's doable. It's just a bit awkward, isn't it? Yeah. And this is kind of the point I
51:23
was going to make is like, you know, my my thoughts about campaign games in general is I've gone
51:30
off them. Not because I think I don't like them. I actually love the idea of a campaign game. Why wouldn't I? Like one
51:36
of my favorite games of all time, Full Stop generally, is Final Fantasy 7 right
51:43
back in 1997 or whenever that came out. I played that game for I don't know 100
51:49
hours, 100 plus hours. So, it's in there, but it's just like trying to
51:55
replicate that big RPG, that big experience where multi sessions and
52:01
doing this that other with people and just the mechanics of life getting in the way, it doesn't happen or I start to
52:07
wayne from it. So, when we did the ISS Vanguard started that fantastic, this is
52:13
brilliant. This is nothing. I've not played anything like this. Then it start to wan Gloom Haven. this
52:20
is brilliant. Start run two campaigns of it at the same time. Mistake, don't do that. Um, start to Wayne off. And I
52:28
think it's just it's a combination of things, but you're right. Earthborn Rangers is the is the experiment for me.
52:37
So, for those that don't know, Earthborn Rangers is a is a card game. It kind of plays like Arkham Horror Living card
52:43
game in that respect, but the theme could be completely worlds apart. It's literally starts off quite whimsical.
52:50
You you're in this futuristic uh post uh kind of apocalyptic state, but where
52:56
nature has literally overtaken everything. So, it's not like, oh, it's all doom and gloom. It's actually really lush and green cuz humans have been like
53:03
underground for for centuries and you are these rangers there to kind of protect the the world. And the first
53:10
thing you've got to do in this game is deliver some biscuits to the neighboring town, right? This is how whimsical it is. and and it's all through carplay and
53:17
you're trying to get through obstacles of you know a bloody thicket that you know a bushy finy bush that's in the way
53:23
and you've got to try and get and it sounds mad but when you play it it's like that's quite cool. Um, and it it
53:29
plays in a complete open sandbox world. So, you kind of go, it's obviously got a little, you know, day one, two, this is
53:35
kind of how the mechanics work, but then after that it's like here's a map, go you want and you can literally I'm going
53:41
to go over there and you add these cards together and off you go. And there's something about the game and I like I
53:46
fancy just exploring this on my own and which means if I get the the mood I can
53:51
just bust it out play a few days put it put it away and and it's on my time when I want when I have that Sunday free for
53:58
4 hours s it I'm going to do it but as soon as I start thinking right I've got to schedule that in I've got to think
54:05
are you free or are you free and I know it's a 30-day campaign as such you
54:11
probably place multiple days in one session But still, that's probably a 10 15 sessions. It's hard work. I mean, me
54:16
and you, Rob, we're playing uh in the middle of an undaunted Stalingrad campaign. I love this game.
54:22
So do I. I love it. I mean, it it's war. It's Stalingrad, right? So, the the theme of
54:28
it is like, oh god, it's like Russians versus Nazis. This is Germans. Uh, sorry, Germans. Um, but we're we're
54:34
ahead of it. We got to get into this mode of attacking and it's it's it's terrible. We're blowing crap up. We've
54:40
got our soldiers all dead. But as soon as you play the game, I love it. Yeah. It's like, "Oh, this is so good how it
54:46
works and the deck building and but every time I'm like I look at that box, I'm like, when are we playing that again
54:52
next?" And the last time we played it was on holiday cuz I thought, "Right, we'll bring it." And we did play like two or three sessions. We did.
54:58
But it's a weird one. It's like I want to finish it. I think it's more the theme. Yeah, maybe that's the problem. It's depressing as
55:04
hell. It really is depressing as hell. when you see like your leveled at sniper just you lose him you're like oh no now I'm
55:11
going to get some guy with a pitchfork but it's that thing we've got to find I don't know eight more sessions more
55:17
evenings to finish it and I'm like when we could be playing other things
55:23
could be playing other things so yeah I I think campaign games so this is an experiment if I play this and it kind of
55:29
works and I don't get bored of it cuz that's the thing I might play four five times and going I can't bother it
55:35
anymore then I'll think no maybe it's my interest in campaigns and long drawn RPGs is dead. Maybe I'll just hit an age
55:42
where I just can't be bothered anymore, which is sad because I think it's still in there. That, you know, teenager with
55:49
Cloud in Midgard with his buster sword kicking ass are still in there cuz
55:55
he's just tired. He's just tired from life and uh a bit beaten up.
56:00
Oh, but it's sad. It's so sad. Uh but yeah, the Earthborne Rangers is my
56:06
little test. So I'll let you know how it goes. So you got to a little bit like that with Frost Haven, didn't you? Like getting all four of us around the table,
56:12
setting up the game, you know, kind of it just became bit of a pain with the campaign sort of side of it, you know,
56:17
knowing full well that we're potentially going to be playing this game for a year. I think that says a lot about me, a lot
56:23
about me, I would say, just purely because Gloom Haven was was fine. Frost Haven's just too much. I'm not
56:30
interested in that level of complication with like setup time, breakdown time,
56:35
and like learning it in between. Um, it was just it was just more than I'm
56:40
willing to give. Quality game, but I'll wait for it to come out on Steam. Yeah, it's already out, but it's going through
56:46
uh alpha and beta at the moment. Exactly. You're going to lap it when it's there. It's going to manage it all for you. Fantastic.
56:51
Yeah. And I'll I'll learn how it all works and everything else, but [ __ ] me. I mean, we had we had sessions. We had sessions to
56:59
learn it. Yeah. We literally teach like I come around and we'll just spend a couple of hours going through how this flipping city
57:06
actions work and all that kind of stuff. And even then we were like I'm still not 100% sure. Yeah. Should we go and kill some things?
57:12
Let's go. Yeah. It definitely took away from the enjoyment. So yeah, cuz you can play that solo, right?
57:18
Gloom. So So Gloom Haven, you have to Yeah, two. Yeah, that's right. You have to
57:24
hand it. Yeah, I'm running through a Gloom Haven. um campaign at the moment on the PC.
57:30
Nice. I keep meaning to do this. I've got it. I've actually I've got it as well. Hey, honestly, I'm up for it anyway.
57:36
We should do it. I've got it. It's It's really good. I'm playing as uh the Scoundrel and the uh Mine Thief at
57:42
the moment. Yeah, we should do it cuz I tried the solo cuz the the setup as well. The setup can be a massive
57:48
especially with like big dungeon crawlers that I like. Typically, the setup is a nightmare, which what we
57:55
experienced in Frost Haven. So, I tried the VR version of solo board gaming. So,
58:00
I downloaded Deio and gave it a go. And again, it scratched an itch, but just
58:06
not as much, you know? So, so I think there are there are games that are perfect for solo.
58:11
Um, and there are games that have that crossover where they're good at both and then you've got other games that are
58:17
just solely better when there's other people at the table. And again, it's different for everyone, right? Yes. And I think that's the beauty of it
58:24
is not one person's solo mode is another person's solo mode. So I can enjoy this and someone else to play and go really
58:31
really you find that interesting. Yeah, I do. And or if you've got genuine multiple
58:37
personality disorder. Yeah. And you can play hidden movement games on your own. That would be that would be quite different.
58:42
It'd be quite cool to to be able to play like a four player by yourself but not knowing what the other players are doing
58:47
but it's you. There we go. That would be amazing. That would be cool. Yeah. Like player two. That would be cool. Like severance in the mind, isn't it?
58:54
But you might actually win a game if you played like that. I might. Well, yeah. Like, you know, one of the
59:00
players I would win. Hey, I'm amazing at games. Yeah. Just a four-way draw.
59:06
Yeah. And everyone loses. Damn it. How did this happen? It's what made me laugh
59:11
when Rob says that I played a solo game of Furnace. I lost and came third. Yeah, I did. The B the bots utterly destroyed
59:18
me. Two bots, right? I was going to say, yeah, the two bots and like that's where I learned that if you don't if you don't
59:24
constantly just try and stop them from doing their thing, then that you just get your ass kicked regardless of what
59:29
you do. So, yeah. So, I played a solo game and came third. Well, mate, and I will say I'm taking a
59:36
piss. JP's quite good at games and he wins plenty. You know what's more annoying is when he does a lap around
59:41
the table when he wins. Yeah, you're a bad You're a bad winner. Yeah, I'm a bad loser. You're a bad winner. It doesn't happen as often as you think
59:47
it does. I think you do well. Well, do all right. Okay. May maybe you don't like win all
59:53
the time, but you do well. Oh, yeah. I don't usually sit at the back of the pack, but
59:58
No. But yeah, it depends on the game. Sometimes I'm all right. So, Curly, what would it take to get you
1:00:04
into solo gaming? What kind of what expansion to a game or or kind of revamp
1:00:11
to a game where you think actually, do you know what? This is I'm I'm just going to sit down and and play with
1:00:17
myself. Honestly, we've already covered it. So, beyond like some sort of do you remember we did the episode on would you
1:00:23
want a board game butler sort of thing or you know so board game butler that would that would be fine. So I fancied
1:00:29
it and I went ding aling and this butler came along and said, "Yes, Curly, what can I do for you sir Curlington, what
1:00:35
can I do for you?" And I'd say, "Go and set me up, Slay the Spire, and I'll go and play some solo in a moment." And
1:00:41
that that would do it because that that for me is is PC gaming at that point. You know what I mean? Just sit there and
1:00:47
do it. Um, but beyond that silly nonsense,
1:00:52
um, is it's already come as close as I thought. I never thought it would be as close as it is with Slay the Spire and
1:00:57
Elder Scrolls cuz you're so terrible. I think if if either of if if people stopped playing either of those, I would
1:01:03
continue playing solo. Yeah. That that would give you the push cuz cuz you need to scratch that. Yeah.
1:01:09
Yeah. Yeah. Like if if Tambber didn't fancy it, no one else wanted Elder Scrolls, I would play on my own. No problem. Mhm.
1:01:15
It's only I haven't started. In fact, I would have done a solo already. If it wasn't for the fact that it's so much
1:01:21
easier to leave it set up. Yeah. In it in whatever just one campaign at a time. Otherwise, I would have started
1:01:27
already. Yeah, you can. I did it with hours to try and learn the game and you kind of have to do the same mat, the same, you
1:01:34
know, not the same. It defeats the point of having it all set. You don't have to, but it's faf. It's again, it's just easier. So,
1:01:40
yeah. Yeah, if you're packing the game away and every time it's different, then you'd like, okay, I could just pull it
1:01:45
out for one and done or something and then put it back and remember what everyone's safe states were. But
1:01:51
but yeah, it's I get it. I think when you're in a session, you're in a session and you're kind of locked to it. I don't
1:01:58
think I guess what I would say is I cannot see a future where I would play a traditional board
1:02:06
game solo regularly. Maybe it will happen. But like an art Nova, that was a
1:02:13
oneoff, but or like a tracer or or an anacrony. My favorite games,
1:02:18
I just wouldn't I wouldn't play them. What if we got power cut? I mean, how long are we talking for days? What, mate? I'd read a book. Like I literally
1:02:26
I love I love reading. The thing is I've got so many hobbies that I never really
1:02:31
struggle for things to do. So board gaming is something that I love doing, but I also love spending time with my
1:02:36
friends. And those two two tick two boxes at once. Yeah, you can two stones with one bird.
1:02:42
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Only Chad Norris can do that. Yeah, exactly. Um but yeah, so because I
1:02:50
love computer gaming and because I love um reading and I love, you know, all
1:02:55
these different things, I'm just like board gaming is where it is. Do you know what I mean?
1:03:00
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's at that point where it kind of serves your needs in that regard. Yeah. It doesn't need to be something
1:03:07
that I want to do on my own because I've got other things for that. I found lately that when I solo game, I
1:03:13
played two games of The Witcher and and
1:03:18
then the lads came over to play Too Many Bones. And I played The Witcher for a
1:03:24
good 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon and I did not feel guilty about it. No.
1:03:30
Yeah, if I was sat there on the PC for four hours, I'd feel guilty for not spending time
1:03:35
with my family. Even though it's the same scenario in my head, I don't know why, but if I'm
1:03:42
playing on the PC for that long, I get husband guilt, I suppose you could kind
1:03:47
of call it, that I I it feels like it's it feels like a
1:03:53
time that could be not wasted time, but it could be better spent. Whereas when I'm playing a board game, I don't get
1:03:59
that feeling at all. I think that might be more as you're aging maybe.
1:04:06
Yeah. Yeah. Because I found the same. But that might have led me to to to solo game a little bit more because I don't I
1:04:11
still play the PC. Yeah. Same. But it's when I know everybody else is kind of doing their thing, you know.
1:04:19
Yeah. And I I don't have this because he's not guilty about anything. He's not You don't feel guilty, too.
1:04:24
This man has never felt guilty about I don't have kids. I don't have kids. No. So, yeah. No, that's fair. But yeah, like
1:04:30
when the girls come out and see me playing a game, they leave me alone. Whereas, if I was sat there on the PC,
1:04:36
they'd be asking me to do stuff. Yeah. So, yeah. I don't know. Like I said, it's about fulfillment. It's about what
The fulfilment factor has to be worth the payoff
1:04:42
it's doing um to to give you, you know, the the payoff for the time, you know,
1:04:47
and the reward. So obviously when you're sitting playing The Witcher for 4 hours,
1:04:52
those are a magical and amazing four hours well spent on a Saturday. Fantastic. Like I feel this is pretty
1:04:59
good. I've enjoyed myself. And what form of entertainment lasts freaking 4 hours? There's not many like
1:05:05
you say video games, but maybe because it's locked into a digital world where you're staring at a screen
1:05:10
for 4 hours. Yeah. And now you're looking at a physical presence or something where actually you can just go and grab a cup
1:05:16
of coffee or whatever and then come back and then do this and it's it's more relaxed. There's less pressure. If you
1:05:21
want to pause it, you can just stop playing for a bit, jump back to it, you know, it's kind of on your time a little bit
1:05:28
more. Um whereas some video games, I know you can pause them, but like it I don't
1:05:34
know. It's just like getting a dopamine hit. Play it more. Yeah. I don't know.
1:05:39
I I think with me I I've kind of got to the point with video games where I play them, but I like the short ones. I like
1:05:46
something, you know, what was the game I played recently? Is it Firewatch? Something like that where you you're
1:05:52
basically in a watchtowwer and it's a first person and it's just some weird stuff happens. But a game lasts like 8
1:05:57
hours. Perfect for me. So I can kind of play it through, get the story and go that was cool done,
1:06:03
finished and don't have to worry about it. But yeah, it's just long drawn out games. Even though like I was playing uh
1:06:09
Claire obscure. Yes. And fantastic game and I'm like I would
1:06:14
like 30 year old Yeah. 30 years ago I would have lap this this up. This would
1:06:20
this is amazing but just think I don't have the time for this. I ain't got the inclination anymore.
1:06:26
I find it's done the big games that I play now. The big video games are typically games that I've played before. Yeah.
1:06:31
Skyrim, Fallout, you know, stuff that I know I haven't got really I can just go and do things. cuz I don't get sucked
1:06:36
into it. But so for you to then say tomorrow,
1:06:43
what would it take for you to stop playing board games solo? What's the reverse of of kind of Curies
1:06:49
that what would it take to get him into it? What would it take to kind of knock you out of wanting to play solo games?
1:06:57
I think when they stop scratching that cerebral itch
1:07:02
to be honest and and again certain games do it for me solo than others.
1:07:08
Um but yeah either the the the setup of them that takes too long for me to get
1:07:14
that that payoff then I probably won't bother. But it's a tough one. Um I think my solo
1:07:22
journey has been I don't do it. I did a lot of it. I soloed everything because I
1:07:28
had to at that point. And then I kind of learned what I do and don't like with solo games and what it means. And then
1:07:34
I've kind of got into a groove where I like these ones like this and I don't like these ones like that.
1:07:40
And so yeah, it's difficult to answer that. I think it just depends. It just depends
1:07:47
on the type of game. That's fair. You know, it's like for me again, Imperium, Captain's Chair, if I I
1:07:54
don't play that with anyone else ever again, I wouldn't be upset. Yeah. I wouldn't be upset, honestly. And
1:07:59
that's it's kind of sad, right? But I would play Captain Chair with anyone. But if for whatever reason no one wanted
1:08:05
to play and everyone's moved on with their life and I just had that game for me, I'd still be happy. I still wouldn't get rid of it. It's
1:08:12
like it's good enough as a puzzle and what's in that box, it still hits good.
1:08:19
Um, and the same with Imperium. Now, you know, Imperium versus Captain's Chair, that's a thing that will happen for
1:08:26
sure. Two sides of the same coin. It will happen. I They'll fight for their shelf space at some point, but the minute they're both coexisting um
1:08:33
peacefully. They're both firmly roo. And that's probably because I need to finish the Imperium decks.
1:08:38
Yeah. And I'm three away, no, two away from finishing all of them. Uh, when I say finish, I mean play them once. Could
1:08:45
they been be good at them? Because that's going to take years. So, yeah. Anyway, that's kind of the point as well, though, isn't it? You invest all this
1:08:51
money in it and knowing that you can get that money back. I know it sounds weird, but your math on um Too Many Bones.
1:09:00
Yeah. Is that I've played it 100 times. Yes. I've spent a lot of money on it, but yeah,
1:09:05
I've got my value out of it. you know, it's becoming nearly £8 a play now, which is nice, you know.
1:09:11
See, that's board game math right there. In all honesty, that is the one thing
1:09:16
that really tempts me to play solo is getting better value out of my games. Yeah, I can't see it happening, but
1:09:22
that's the one thing I'm like, it would be really good for that. So, I think we've covered kind of solo board gaming, all elements, the pros,
1:09:29
the cons, and you know, I guess ultimately it's kind of down to the individual,
1:09:35
right? It's kind of down to the games you like playing and kind of what you want to want to do. But the fact that it's now become a viable option, I think
1:09:42
is where the change where I've noticed the change for me. The the ability to be able to do it and
1:09:48
games cater more for it. Um cuz we haven't even talked about solely only board games.
1:09:54
Yeah. Yeah. Final Girl, 20 Strong, Unstoppable was another one caught my
1:10:00
eye on that one. So yeah, there's there's a few now that, you know, it's kind of it's become enough of a enough
1:10:06
of a a kind of demand that, you know, board game companies are, you know,
1:10:11
paying attention and and the fact that they're, you know, specifically designing mechanics around the solo play is for me, it's only a good thing.
1:10:18
It's a good thing. Um, the only time where I don't think it's a good thing is where they throw it in just because we
1:10:26
think a solo mobile sell is better and actually it's a bit lackluster and and it really shouldn't be there which
1:10:32
happens a lot. Um, but I think there's a massive market um for for solo gaming in
1:10:37
general and a massive corner of our hobby or bigger than a corner uh are
1:10:43
solo gamers and maybe because people don't have gaming groups and this is their only avenue to play. or don't want
1:10:49
to or don't want I don't want to deal with all of that [ __ ] Um, and that's absolutely fine. And I always kind of
1:10:55
come to this point when we talk solo game because I think it's really important because there is sometimes a a
1:11:01
line of, you know, people who solo game that aren't real gamers and all of that,
1:11:07
which pisses me off. Anyway, and you know, everyone's a welcome in this hobby, whether you play on your own or
1:11:14
if you play with people. Who gives a [ __ ] Like, you're playing a game. have fun. That's what matters. Um, so I have
1:11:20
to go on my little soap box cuz there might be people listening go games, not for real game as well. Tough crap.
1:11:27
And on that note, I'll end the uh the main section.
TURN 4 - Connect Four
1:11:39
So, moving on to the uh gaming segment of our board game podcast. When we invite our listeners to play along with
1:11:45
us, it's Connect Four. It's very aptly named. It is. So, it's not the connect four where we put
1:11:51
the counters at the top and get four in a row. It is not that. I like to think we we put a K in there to make it
1:11:56
cooler, but then I've realized to avoid being sued. And to avoid being sued. However, haven't done that in the show notes. So,
1:12:03
it is connect four, but four is spelled four, not the number four. Different. Did you know that Chuck Norris can win
1:12:08
connect four in three moves? Cuz he's just amazing. I bet he can't do this cuz this can be hard this game.
1:12:15
It can be. So, our four words are Go on then. What we got? Resource management.
1:12:21
Okay, I'm going to do a JP as well and set the board up so he has to read it upside down. It's fine. I can read upside down.
1:12:27
Deck or bag building. Okay. Dice, animals.
1:12:33
This should be easy, shouldn't it? It should be a deck or bag builder. Resource management. Dice and animals. That's
1:12:40
That's a lot of flipping mechanisms. That's That's pretty much most Uve Rosenberg games, right? without the deck
1:12:45
and bag building that I can remember cuz animals, dice, and resource
1:12:51
management is pretty much every farming game ever.
1:12:57
But I'm trying to think that now. Now I have to think of a title. Can we can we confer or is are we playing solo or we playing team?
1:13:04
Just blur ideas out. Right. Okay. Cuz a feast for Odin has dice in it for whaling and stuff
1:13:10
like that. It has animals in it cuz it's UV. Uh, and resource management. Yes. Has loads of resource management. Deck
1:13:17
and bag building. No, it doesn't. So, there's definitely three. Connect three. What about Clank?
1:13:24
Clank. What's the resource management in Clank? Uh, the amount of money that you want to purchase cards with.
1:13:32
It's tenuous at best. I appreciate that. But, but it is a connection. Yeah, it's tenuous. You got the deck, you got the bag
1:13:37
building, the collective bag. You got the bag building with a the clank going in. Animals. A dragon.
1:13:43
The um There's a cat in it. There is. And there's a monkey.
1:13:48
Yeah, it's a robot monkey, though. Oh, monkey bot, isn't it? Yeah, monkey bot. The cat is the clank cat, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
1:13:53
Is there dice in it? No, I don't think there is.
1:13:58
So, that's that's piss. It could be. I mean, we could put a dice in it. Yeah, I think we should. And then I
1:14:04
won't. Like I said, I'm all about bending the rules. Yeah. Uh, what else? Well, economic
1:14:09
games, deck, bad building. Are there any animals in June Imperium? I mean, there are worms, right?
1:14:16
Yes. I think we deck and bag builders. There aren't that many.
1:14:21
What about Oon? Animals. Don't know. You know it better than I.
1:14:27
Is there one on the cover? Is there a donkey in it or something? No.
1:14:32
No. I'm thinking I can't think of anything. Possibly not. Just thinking of a bag. Technically, I think when you go by a
1:14:38
road, you do it by cart and there's probably a picture of a horse. But again, tenuous. But I think really tenuous, like beyond
1:14:44
tenuous gossamer. Yeah, I can only get three out of four. It's
1:14:50
annoying. I can only get three out of four. Other deck builders. All the deck builders.
1:14:56
Actually, I'm No, I've got it. Go on. I've got it. Imperium
1:15:05
as resource management. Are the animals in Imperium? There are animals in Imperium. You have to play with certain nations.
1:15:11
I mean, it's not a you call mine. Oh, hey, there's a literally a card in
1:15:18
there that says elephants in one of them. I can't remember who, but there's definitely elephants in one.
1:15:24
I mean, it's fair to say the barrel. And actually there are cards that have poor
1:15:29
icons in locations which are relevant to animals being there.
1:15:35
Which animal is what which animal is this paw print attached to?
1:15:41
Uh basically a generic animals that reside there and and actually if
1:15:47
you play the Inuit they have uh like sled dogs. So there's actually if you
1:15:53
think about it there's quite a lot of animals in all the different decks. Well, if you're listening guys, um, then
1:15:58
please let us know if you can smell the [ __ ] through the speakers because it's better than yours. It stinks here. It's terrible.
1:16:04
It has animals. It has resources. It's a deck builder. As close as any of us and it has dice if you play solo,
1:16:11
but only if you play solo, which kind of dice ties into the episode. The dice don't exist. This is me stretching.
1:16:18
It's It's probably a three and a half at best. A connect three and a half, but it's probably the best one I can think I
1:16:24
I can't think of any that go with all of those. Yeah, there definitely will be though. That seems like an obvious four as well.
1:16:31
Maybe it's too obvious that it's just too hard to think. Yeah. What about um the other Viking
1:16:39
game that we've played? What? Champions and Midgard. Yeah, definitely has dice. Definitely got animals cuz you got to
1:16:45
have sheep. Deck building. What? Sheep. Sheep. Is that sheep? You got to get meat. Yeah, you got to get meat.
1:16:51
Where does meat come from? Are you classing meat as an animal or a resource? Both.
1:16:58
Is it an animal dead still an animal? This is philosophical, right? But is it?
1:17:05
Are we classing an animal that is alive? No. Or is a pork chop an animal? You were talking about the picture of an
1:17:10
animal. I mean, but it's an animal. It's a picture. It's an animal in the game. What's the
1:17:16
definition? It says animals. Okay. Well, there are kind of a monsters definition. They they defined as animal.
1:17:22
Nah, I'm pretty sure. Nah, it's mythical, isn't it? Mythical animal. A mythical creature.
1:17:28
Mythical animal. I have no idea. I blame Adrian. He wrote these cards. If that's a good rule for life. If in
1:17:35
doubt, blame Adrian. Well, uh, for anybody playing along, please let us know in our Discord if
1:17:40
you've come up with anything different or if you've managed to nail all four because well, you're better than us. And if
1:17:46
you're not in our Discord and you want to be, please check out our links on our socials and all that stuff. You can find
1:17:51
our links to join the Discord and come and join in the fun because there's a lot of fun in there, right?
1:17:57
It's becoming a really really nice thing, isn't it? Everybody's kind of conversing and and chatting and most of
1:18:02
it's nonsense, which kind of fits in well with the podcast to be honest with you. So, exactly. It fits us. It's a nice to have a little community
1:18:09
of like-minded souls. Who's Turners? We have a little let's talk about Hex channel and they talk about the games they're playing. They're
1:18:15
attending some conventions that we don't like Midcon and others and it's quite nice to learn about other things going
1:18:21
on in the UK. So yeah, the Scottish one. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Loads of things that we think, oh, maybe we should
1:18:27
attend. So Bob put loads of stuff on there, didn't he? About Tabletop Scotland. He did. Yeah. It's tempting me to go, to be
1:18:32
honest. And it's in Edinburgh, so it's a win-win in Edinburgh. I'd like to go to Edinburgh.
1:18:38
So Bob, we could all go up on the Sleeper. I could probably get a discount. Let's do it. Yeah, that'll be good.
1:18:44
I'm in. 75% off. I think I'm in. I said to do this and he was like, "Why would I want to spend 8 hours on a
1:18:50
train?" Because you're not getting 75% off tickets. Let's do this.
1:18:55
And he's doing the sleeper. You didn't mention the sleeper. He mentions the sleeper. And I'm like, that makes sense. I get to sleep.
1:19:00
And that's been connect four with a K. It doesn't have a K.
1:19:05
It does now.
TURN 5 - The Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Next?
1:19:16
So, now we move on to our penultimate term where we get to talk about the things we got coming up and things we're
1:19:22
excited about. Doesn't necessarily have to be board game related. I mean, it would be better if it is, but um so, so
1:19:29
JP, I'll come to you first. What are you uh what have you got in the in the tunnel? So, I did a thing
1:19:36
recently. And on a social post somewhere, it's on BG. There's a thread um which said,
1:19:44
"This game is a masterpiece and it's
1:19:49
underrated, doesn't get talked about enough, and blah blah blah." So, I read this post and it completely reminded me
1:19:55
of this game that I completely forgot about to its post like credit, which is like explaining why this game was so
1:20:02
awesome and d and the game I'm talking about is uh Defense of Proon 3,
1:20:07
right? Okay. This sounds like a TV series in the 80s. It does. And I think it's on purpose.
1:20:13
And the reason why I'm intrigued by this and and cuz I know Mr. Turtzy, it's his
1:20:18
design. He's talked about it on the podcast that me and Curley did with him way back last year. And I completely
1:20:25
forgot about this conversation and and basically this this game was his love letter to war games.
1:20:32
Okay. And it's like he's done a urication of of a war game where you
1:20:37
have uh basically a space conflict and and a ground conflict happening simultaneously
1:20:43
where it's a 2v2 where you're playing aliens versus humans, but not 2v2 like
1:20:51
Star Wars Rebellion where you've got like it's really just a one v one, but
1:20:56
they've split the role. It's it's a proper 2v2 where you've got enough meat on things going on on your own role that
1:21:02
you playing two-handed would be a nightmare. So, you know, and and what
1:21:07
also intrigues me is that each of these factions are asymmetrical. So, that's not the same kind of game. The card
1:21:14
system that you're playing is very different from your your admiral in space versus the the ground forces. And
1:21:20
I don't know, it it's kind of like it I'm really excited to try this. and we've got a game at Gridcon booked with
1:21:27
uh Martin um who he said, "Oh, I've got a copy." And I said, "Cool, book it. We're going
1:21:33
to play it." Um spoiler, Gridcon's already finished and I would have already played it by the time we recorded, but doesn't matter. Uh but
1:21:40
I've also bought it cuz I just saw it. Just bought it. So, I don't know if this
1:21:45
game's any good for me. I don't know if I'm going to enjoy it, but just something about it is different. And I'm kind of wanting that that Star Wars
1:21:53
Rebelliones kind of feel. Uh that kind of war game feel, but I'm intrigued to
1:21:59
see how Mr. Tootszie has done it and how it all works together and actually is
1:22:04
this a 2v2 game that's going to work really well and give you enough to do
1:22:11
and but still kind of be in communication with your your partner cuz you know if you're like the alien
1:22:16
overlords in space you want to be bombarding the planet right and but you
1:22:21
don't want to be bombarding sections of the planet or the hemisphere of the planet where your little alien general
1:22:26
commander on the ground is wants to move in certain areas. So, yeah, you've got to kind of keep in in communication, but
1:22:33
obviously you communicate. You're open with your opponents. They they can hear on the radio chatter and all that. I
1:22:38
don't know. Something about it. It's it's one that flew under the radar massively. Um it looks cool. Looks fun.
1:22:46
I want to give it a go. Sounds very intriguing. Yeah. Instantly, I'm thinking the multiplayer mode on
1:22:52
Mass Effect 3. Yeah. where what you're doing over here has an impact over here and kind of when
1:22:58
things are going well over here they can potentially go quite bad over here. So if somebody's doing really well in space
1:23:04
their forces might be actually doing really poorly on the ground. So but it's all done on like Euro VS as
1:23:10
well. So it's like you can kind of visually see what's going on. Um but yeah I'm intrigued to to see it. I've
1:23:16
bought it on a whim. I'm gonna try a gridcom, which means I'll get to learn it because this the the teacher, this is
1:23:23
an investment for every person who wants to play it. Like David says, when you
1:23:28
basically teach this game, you're handing everyone their own rule book. Yeah. And you read it for 20 minutes and then
1:23:34
you play and it's like that's going to require some Also, it's going to be hard to call
1:23:39
people out on [ __ ] Oh no, my faction. My faction can do this. But there there are videos online now
1:23:44
which makes this a lot easier. It's literally watch this 15-minute segment of your faction and you could and
1:23:50
there's the rule book for your reference. So, I think once we get the the Gridcon game done and if I I mean it could go
1:23:56
either two ways, right? I could go this is not for me and then suddenly my copy will disappear without a trace or this
1:24:02
is freaking awesome. Europa Universalist. Yeah. And I want to play it more and then I will be seeing who wants in and
1:24:09
having this grand skirmish battle of space and ground. But
1:24:14
does it have a solo mode? It does have a It's David Ty. That's amazing. I was joking. You can play as the humans against the
1:24:21
the alien bots, even on your own, which must be headache. Uh I don't know, some hell of
1:24:27
a game. But yeah, it's got solo scenarios and stuff in it. So, we'll see. More on that later. I'm going to
1:24:33
talk about that on the Gridcon episode for sure. Uh if we get the game and I will talk about more if we still play it.
1:24:38
Nice. Yeah, sounds very interesting. Yeah. You said about it the other I was like, "That sounds really cool." Mr. Currington, what have you got coming
1:24:45
up in the near future? Um, I got a few things coming up actually, so I wasn't really sure what to talk about, but um, I had a little
1:24:52
look and I guess I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to it, but I'm more intrigued by it, I suppose, with Company of Heroes. Is it second edition with T?
1:24:59
He's asked me to kind of like, would you mind running through this with me? I've I've got it from Kickstarter, I guess.
1:25:05
Yeah. Yeah, he backed it. He ever backed. Yeah. And it's arrived. And do you fancy learning it with me? So yeah, we're
1:25:11
going to do that tomorrow night. Ah, cool. Oh, also when I realized it was tomorrow night cuz Davey picked up his his terrain pack.
1:25:17
He did. I think it's tomorrow night. Yeah. And he was so happy on Sunday when he when he had it in his hand. You'd see him like, you know,
1:25:24
he he'd just pick it up and start looking at it in between turns and put it back down and then carry on playing too many modes. So I know he's really
1:25:29
excited to play this. So um so yeah, it sounds like you're going to have a great laugh. Sounds like really good fun.
1:25:35
Yeah, I hope so. Reviewed well. I think it's doing well. So yeah, I think you'd enjoy it. if you like the theme of World War II.
1:25:42
Yeah. I mean, honestly, doesn't really get me. Okay. Um, but I'm a bit of a fan of
1:25:50
playing other people's stuff just cuz they want to play it kind of thing. Um, because I would like people to play
1:25:56
stuff with me even though it's not maybe their first choice. Yeah. So, yeah. So, um, one of that has been
1:26:02
battering people about. So, yeah, sounds good. There's how it goes. Yeah, I will. Um, but yeah, honorable
1:26:08
mention to looking forward to playing Recall over the weekend. Um, yeah, and Hot, we're starting the
1:26:15
campaign of that next week, aren't we? Campaign. Is there a campaign thing? We're just doing a We're doing a a
1:26:21
clash. Oh, okay. I thought it was a campaign. No, no, I've got the expansion. What did I read about it then? The expansion just adds another map,
1:26:29
another two scenario maps in and we just fight each other, mate. One's got boats in it and one's got a prison. Well,
1:26:35
looking forward to it anyway. Yeah, there's actually two spaces free cuz I can we can run two games simultaneously.
1:26:42
So, but it's only me and you doing it at the minute. Oh, only me and you? Yeah. Oh, I kind of Okay. Well, cool.
1:26:47
Just attack each other and I'll You'll probably kick me ass you do at that game. Oh, I've only played it once. I think no
1:26:53
twice. Yes. No score draw. So, it's my episode, so I'm going to cheat a little bit and talk about two
1:27:00
things that I'd like to discuss. There's no rule on this section. I know, but I just highlight my episode. Um, we
1:27:07
know I owed a few, right? Leave me. Um, so
1:27:12
I'm really looking forward to playing a game that I never thought I'd ever really like, but I bloody love it. Uh,
1:27:19
that's Nucle on Thursday. We've got Nucleium with which expansion?
1:27:24
We're playing with Australia, Matt, and the Energy Research Institute
1:27:30
expansion, which just adds a load more experiments. Yeah, that was my first the first big complex game that I played and
1:27:38
I always quite like going back to it. So, it was the game where you absolutely destroyed us at GR cuz everybody left
1:27:44
you alone and you were down in the corner just don't mind me. Don't mind me. I'm going to get all the VPs.
1:27:49
I had no idea that this area had the most VPs. Oh, no. That that game was just lucky cuz I
1:27:55
played it again next time and just completely made it. It was funny. It was just the way you were like, "Oh, I didn't even realize
1:28:00
they were the most VPs on the map." Wow. No problem. That's all right cuz that guy who who we played who uh thought he was blatantly
1:28:06
going to win and I just accidentally whooped him accidentally on purpose. It was funny.
1:28:13
Uh but no, great game. So very much looking forward to playing that again. Um and Czech Games Edition sent us
1:28:20
through the expansion for Galaxy Trucker. Yes, the Do What expansion. So I've read it up and I kind of read up
1:28:27
on the rules and looking forward to playing that. So, we're going to try and get to that to the table either this weekend or potentially next week. So, to
1:28:33
give that a go. So, I love Galaxy Trucker. Silly nonsense and just fantastic. So,
1:28:40
very much looking forward to seeing the silliness that comes with it because if you manage to pull this stuff off,
1:28:46
you're going to get a lot of EPs. The chances of you pulling this stuff off are very, very slim. So, it's going to
1:28:52
be high risk, high reward. It's going to be very much um yeah, just just nonsense.
1:28:57
Adding more nonsense to a already nonsense game is right up my street. So, I'm very much looking forward to trying
1:29:03
it out. It is fun. So, um so yeah, that's me. So, we uh as our panama turn ends, we enter our final
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:29:09
turn uh where we total up victory points and uh see that Curley's won.
1:29:15
Yeah, standard. Yeah. Yeah, he snuck it in. Snuck in the victory at the end there. Why did I win?
1:29:21
We don't know. If anyone wins a solo game, it should be JP. Surely it definitely ain't going to be me at a solo game.
1:29:28
True. Um, but yeah, just like to say thank you for joining us. Uh, if you'd like to support us, we do have a coffee
1:29:34
uh crowdfunding. So, if we would like to chuck us a couple of quid, uh, it's it's really helped us to improve the quality
1:29:40
of the pod and we're always very very grateful. Um, we do we mentioned earlier, but we do also have the
1:29:45
Discord. So, if you'd like to come and speak to us, if you'd like to come and join in, the shenanigans and the nonsense of our gaming group, then
1:29:50
please, please feel free cuz uh yeah, it's going really, really well. All the info of that uh and where to find us uh
1:29:56
will be in the show notes listed. Um but other than that, I'd just like to say, whose turn is it anyway?
1:30:03
Still yours, baby. I'm pretty sure I've said that in a solo game as well.