Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 9: El Paso deep dive
17 Plays2 days ago
Steve and Shane have both been playing the new Great Western Trail game, El Paso. Does Shane's hatred of all former GWT games continue? And can Steve feel like he is making good decisions for once in a GWT game?
Huge thanks to VR Distribution for providing us each with a copy to play.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Western Tone
00:00:10
Speaker
Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl. We don't talk shit for an hour at all. Come on. Yeah, it's usually an hour and 20. You're right.
00:00:27
Speaker
ah Hello, everybody out there in podcast land. It's Mate Let's Play again with Steve and Shane. How are you, Shane? Good morning, Steve. I'm great. Thank you. On a lovely Saturday morning. It is, yes. And I absolutely remembered that it was on this morning. I totally didn't forget. You did well. Come in come in late.
00:00:46
Speaker
So my apologies for my tardiness, but we're here now. So let's ah let's let's move on. Yeah, well, ah i've grabbed I've grabbed my coffee, so I'm ready to go. And hopefully you've grabbed your water. Yes, how exciting.
00:00:58
Speaker
oh so But before we... um I mentioned anything I've been doing.
Shane's Game Day Adventures
00:01:03
Speaker
You had a game day yesterday, so I'll let you elaborate on how good that was. Yeah, did. I did. And it was a game day, a local game day out at Kalinga and um kicked off from 1 o'clock and went till late.
00:01:17
Speaker
I didn't stay late. I was there till about 7-ish. and But it was good, fun day. There would have been about probably 30 to 40 people at the game day. Yeah. and And, you know, just always good people that come along to those days. And um it's been my first game day that I've gone to for quite a while now, so it was nice to see a few people and friendly faces that I haven't seen for a while. um And we just got set straight up, so myself, Ingrid, and Shane.
00:01:45
Speaker
And found a little spot in the corner, chucked the game mat out. We already knew what we were playing, and so first game off the of the rank was Castles of Burgundy.
00:01:56
Speaker
um and with the Vineyard Expansion for the first time. I've never played it with Vineyard Expansion. um And we roped in Stu, who's doing the BrizzCon.
00:02:07
Speaker
and He hadn't played it for a while, but so the saw the blinged out version getting set up um and you know couldn't help himself. he said So we invited him to jump in, so we had a full four. um And the Vineyard Expansion I didn't do it once.
00:02:23
Speaker
yeahre right Yeah, right. Not once. Everyone's smashing it out, buying grapes and um building their little pathway of grapes. I did none of it.
00:02:34
Speaker
I got to the last round. I looked and went, I've done no grapes at all. um I bet you it was your idea to play it too. No, no. It was actually Shane's. was Shane's idea. i' I've never played the Vineyard Expansion. Shane said, it's the only way to play it now. It was...
00:02:51
Speaker
adding that to it. so i don't know if you've played it before. um I've also only played it once and um I didn't touch, i touched it a little bit, but Shannon went all over it and she absolutely killed us. Like it was, I'll just try and bring it up. So she won on 310. And like i scored was points behind her in second.
00:03:17
Speaker
yeah So, yeah, obviously there's some good by leading into the into the grapes. i am There's definitely some good because I got trounced as well. And my score wasn't, I think my score was around 214 or something like that.
00:03:34
Speaker
So, you know, not a slashy score. That's respectable yeah. Right? And um did none of the vineyard expansion. Next thing you know, the three that were doing the vineyard expansion just went straight past me. I was dead last on 214. Yeah, yeah.
00:03:46
Speaker
You know, and then I think the winning score was 246 or it was a ridiculous number, right? And so I'm thinking, okay, well, I've got to obviously lean into this a little bit and because, you know, there were some big points getting scored just from those grapes.
Humor and Game Misinterpretations
00:04:05
Speaker
um But enjoyable game and, you know, I didn't get out the blinged out minis of all the pigs and the goats and cows. um all I did was just use the deskta standard tiles for that it was just a little bit too much to actually take to a game day as three boxes because you know that's that's pretty technically another game that can fit in the bag um but it was very enjoyable everyone loved it and Stu was taking photos of all their
00:04:39
Speaker
the blinged out bits that i had because he's going to upgrade his kit a little bit more. And ah then we moved on to a funny moment though in the game. It's hilarious.
00:04:51
Speaker
Ingrid's sitting there and she's, she said, I need, I need some more horses.
00:04:58
Speaker
We're like, where are the horses? Yeah. What extension are we missing? There's no horses in this game. it was the goats It was the goats that she was collecting, but she thought the goats were horses. and So we called goat horses from then on.
00:05:12
Speaker
and But there was a moment there where I was just completely ah in inner turmoil.
00:05:22
Speaker
She had a pathway of goats, four of them. So quite a good score. Yeah. There's one set of goats left on the table. Yeah.
00:05:33
Speaker
And I had the ability to get it. And i just I'm sitting there and it's come around to my turn and Ingrid's like, friendship's on the line here.
00:05:44
Speaker
And you know me, normally I would just jump over that. Yeah, I'm surprised there was even a point of contention here. It's like you bought the goats, move on. what's No, and I didn't.
00:05:59
Speaker
I held off. Held off. Ingrid bought it. got a massive score, plus got the five. You know, if you can get in the whole lot in that in that section. and So, you know, lo and behold,
Game Decisions and Trajan
00:06:13
Speaker
Ingrid and I... Did that TI4 game teach you nothing?
00:06:16
Speaker
Well, no, that's exactly right. The TI4 again, all over again. Ingrid killed us, but, I mean, it made no difference. She was going to kill us anyway with just the grapes that they had. The grape schools were just ridiculous.
00:06:27
Speaker
I think it was... No, it was Shane that won. Shane that won that game. Anyway... um They both went heavy on the grapes. But another funny moment was I grabbed a yellow monastery tile, which gave me three points for every one of my points. You know, when you when you complete ah red or complete green, and you get the five, six, seven points.
00:06:53
Speaker
So I had three of those at seven points. But so did Shane. And lo and behold, if he actually had that tile, we worked out in the end. Sorry, it was Ingrid that won. If he had that tile, because he wanted it desperately and I got it, and um you could feel it, you could see the pain in his face.
00:07:09
Speaker
It was good. And um he if he actually had that tile, would have been a drawn game with Ingrid. Yeah, right. yeah But then, don't worry, he got me back in the next game. and say um Next game we played was Trajan again. Yep.
00:07:29
Speaker
And by Stefan Feld. So it was real Stefan Feld game day, really. Yeah, yeah. Again, there's no theme in this game. It looks ugly. But the rondelle mechanism, the... um yeah You call it the rondelle, but it's that man-carlo mechanism.
00:07:45
Speaker
Makes it a bit of fun. I went for a different strategy. you Didn't do much military at all. Did a heap of building of tiles, a heap of shipping to get cards and place cards out. um
00:07:57
Speaker
But was saying to... Saying to you and the guys in the game, it's it's a very individual game. So you kind of like just head down looking at your own board and you're not looking at what everyone else is doing, which is stupid because once again, Ingrid amassed this massive pile of tiles that gave her something like ridiculous. It was like 80 points worth of at the end of the game.
00:08:24
Speaker
And again, I think her score was 282 points.
00:08:30
Speaker
ah maybe but knows and It was around that, it was a huge score. So I think next time i play that game, I need to pay a bit more attention to what's going on around me.
00:08:43
Speaker
ah But Shane did get me back. i was I was amassing a few tiles on the side and I needed one more tile to get to doubling my score at 20 points for this one section.
00:08:55
Speaker
And out he came. He took it. He took i said ah there's There's the nine-point turnaround. I made a bit a chuckle. um But ah't good that's a good game. I don't mind it. and So I will look at playing it again, but I want to play it really taking note of what everyone else is doing around me because, yeah.
00:09:13
Speaker
and And Shane didn't even see that the tiles getting amassed on the side. We just looked all over at one point and then just went, how did you get all those tiles? She's just sitting there We're just ignoring her move because we're ah you're all concentrating on what your move is doing. You're all trying to,
00:09:25
Speaker
And going to where are you're going to land. And and because because you're concentrating so much on that, you're you're just not looking at what anyone else is doing. So, rookie error.
Exploring Nantinaki
00:09:39
Speaker
Yankee. Then finally, finally, we played Nantinaki. So I got it back to the collection. Ingrid asked if I could bring it.
00:09:50
Speaker
And so I did. We took it there. and We pulled in another player as well. So we had four player and anti-knocking. God, it was fun. It was so much fun. We were laughing our heads off throughout the whole game because it's it's so mean.
00:10:04
Speaker
Yeah. This new player we wrote we roped in and... did She only just arrived and we said, look, we've a spare spot, jump in with us. Never played Nantinarkin before. i said, look, it's very easy to teach. i did a quick teach.
00:10:17
Speaker
I said, but after the first round, you'll get it. You'll get exactly what we're doing. um So as you know, in Nantinarkin or Unk Morpok, you pull a card, that's your endgame card.
00:10:27
Speaker
You are trying to get like either area control, you're trying to get um the the most trouble markers on the board or you're trying to empty the deck, whatever it might be. That's your secret end game condition.
00:10:39
Speaker
So you're trying to play to that strategy throughout the whole game. And so throughout the whole game, everyone's trying to guess who's doing what. And um like it's so much fun. You get so much banter going back and forth.
00:10:51
Speaker
But my first move in the game... i played a dick card, a real asshole card on this new person that's just coming. Very nice. Yeah, welcome. yeah Welcome. You're part of the team.
00:11:03
Speaker
And she loved it. She was really good. and um But then got me back straight away in her first move, killed off one of my agents and um took money off me as well. And but it you know that's when the laughter started. Yeah.
00:11:17
Speaker
And honestly, it didn't stop. We were having a ball with this game. um So, you know, it's one of those experience games, you know, the when when you play something like that where everyone's having fun and and being and being really mean.
00:11:30
Speaker
um But it got down to an ultimate. It was pretty much everyone's last turn. And everyone had the win condition ready to go, set up.
00:11:43
Speaker
But lo and behold, luck falls on Shane. he empties the deck up because we we knew if we can empty the deck, the new person wasn't going to win not but to win. Whatever happens, make sure the new person doesn't win. Yeah, that's right.
00:12:01
Speaker
And then Ingrid, ingrid had she had the eight trouble marks on the board. But Ingrid's sit there. You're meant to keep quiet. be can sit She's counting the trouble markers really loud throughout the whole game. So you knew which one she was going for.
00:12:14
Speaker
So you just kept removing trouble markers and you'd see her face. um But then um the end game condition. So once, if no one has the, as soon as the deck runs out, that's the end of the game.
00:12:28
Speaker
ah As soon as someone can't feel their hand back to five. And um so you've got to Shane. Shane could play cards, right?
00:12:40
Speaker
But there was no cards out there to be picked up, which means he can't get back to five. Instead, he just throws down his card, which he had the Sherlock Holmes card, which is to clear the deck.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah, right. And so he won the game. God, it was cool. It was really cool. um um I made an error because i had I had area control, so I was trying to go for area control.
00:13:04
Speaker
um And at one point, I had area control in four areas, but I needed to remove one trouble marker out of one of my areas to get the full area control, and I would have had four.
00:13:16
Speaker
Yeah. In my mind, i was reading I needed five. i was reading the rules for a three-player So for the whole game, I'm trying to get five, and I only needed four. All you had to do was remove a trouble marker in your home. Correct.
00:13:30
Speaker
That was so good. I've got to play that all Ark Mawpock again because I really enjoyed it. I've only played it once and that was with you. I really enjoyed that that sort of, you know, you're you're faking what you're trying to do and you're trying to try to not make it obvious but you need to obviously do some things towards what you're trying to aim towards.
00:13:49
Speaker
I really liked it. Yeah, it's ah such a great game. And look, it's nicer looking than Ark Mawpock because you've got actual minis that you're putting out on board. um And...
00:14:02
Speaker
But to the banter you get from the game is brilliant. And the the new but the new person we had playing with us um actually asked, are are you looking at moving this on by any chance?
00:14:12
Speaker
And said, no, but there is a Kickstarter up at the moment and you can get the expansion as well. Oh, sorry, GameFound. But I'm just waiting for the pledge manager to open because I will be buying the expansion for it now. decided I'm going to get the Cthulhu expansion ah now that I've got it back in the collection. And then then I've got three versions I can play, whatever one I want to bring out and play on a game day.
00:14:32
Speaker
Makes sense. That was it. That was my game night. Three pretty cool games. Sounds like a good day. yeah It was a good day. A lot games too. It's not like a lot of game days, which is not a problem, but a lot of game days you said tend to play a lot of small games, you know larger number sort of card game sort of thing. So it's nice to hear just got three solid games out.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, three good games played with, you know, at many points, full play accounts and all great people that we played with as well. Really good fun. Yeah, nice. Enjoyable. Well,
Steve's Catan Experience
00:15:06
Speaker
I had a bit of an experience like yesterday playing ah game that I haven't played for maybe six years.
00:15:14
Speaker
And I played it once six years ago and went, eh, not for me. And i I've got another copy of it back in my collection thanks to VR Distribution. um And that's Catan.
00:15:28
Speaker
So it was really interesting. So played a full play account. I think it's full play account at four, isn't it? I'm pretty sure it is. Yeah. So you can get I think you can get a fifth player expansion. Fifth and sixth expansion. Yeah. yeah So we played it at full play account and look throughout the game, probably in the first half of the game, I'm like, you know what? This is a lot better than I remember it.
00:15:50
Speaker
I was actually enjoying myself. I was getting resources, putting down little houses and, there roads everywhere and whatnot. Yeah, worked out a way to trade for but with the maritime trade for better value and all this sort of stuff. It all sort of came back.
00:16:04
Speaker
It's a pretty basic game, so there's not a lot to get your head around if you haven't played it for a while. And then i then the mid-to-end game started, and I remembered why I didn't love the game, and that was because, especially at a four-player game, it it the winner is the person who gets the 10 points first.
00:16:23
Speaker
Okay.
00:16:25
Speaker
Once everyone's on about five or six points, it becomes exceedingly difficult to get more points because there's not as many spots to build buildings or there's not as many spots to build your road out. So there's like you get points if you've got the longest road. Well, that's really hard to do once, you know, you've been blocked either way, right?
00:16:46
Speaker
So it it' it changes from being a game to see how many victory points you can get. to being a game where you want to make sure that no one else can score points. So you're literally just, everyone's just blocking everybody else.
00:16:57
Speaker
And it just hits this floor where it takes ages to sort of get to the end game. And i found I found that a bit long and tedious where I think maybe at a lower player count, it wouldn't be as bad and it'd be a bit quicker. But I just, like my comment was, does does it usually take this long?
00:17:17
Speaker
And the response from people who'd played it before was, it well, sometimes. Sometimes it just does. It's, you know, sometimes people can run away with it because people aren't paying attention to what they're doing. But generally, in a four-player game, it can drag out a little bit like this. And I'm like, right, okay. So that so it was was kind of the mechanisms and and what you're actually trying to do in the game That's fine. Like, it's quite an enjoyable little game. I can see why so many people just play this game because it offers a fair bit of strategy for not a lot of head burn, I guess, brain burn.
00:17:50
Speaker
But just that lull from the mid game to the end game, where you're just like, you're just getting angry because you're like, oh, okay, well, if I can do that, oh, no, you've blocked me there. Okay, great. All right. Well, I'll do, oh, no, you've blocked me there. Oh, you've stolen.
00:18:04
Speaker
That's the other thing too with the, don't know how much you know about Catan, but you basically, okay, so you roll a dice, every every every hex on the board has a number. You roll two dice, whatever that combination is, the tiles that have that value produce resources. So if you own a, what do they call settlement or you own a city,
00:18:25
Speaker
surrounding that tile, you'll gain resources, one for a settlement, two for city. And then you use those resources to build roads, cities and settlements. So it's basically just a way – so you want to get your place your settlements and cities in good spots where you're going to maximise.
00:18:42
Speaker
So like getting them on an eight or a six is really good because they're going be rolled more often than a two or a 12 That sort of thing. um so that's all well and good, but there's no seven on the board.
00:18:54
Speaker
And whenever a seven whenever a seven is rolled, the robber moves. And if you roll the seven, you choose where the robber goes, and then you get to steal one resource from a player where you've moved the robber to who's got like an adjacent house or city, settlement or city.
00:19:11
Speaker
And I don't know why, because I never felt like i was in a strong position, but I swear to God, every time anyone moved the rubber, was the one losing the stuff. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, am I missing something? Am i not playing the game right where I, I, I,
00:19:27
Speaker
it's obvious you should be taking stuff from me. So I was constantly getting like, all right, next turn, I've got all the resources I need. And then it comes to my next turn. I'm like, nope, I'm one short because the damn robber moved and stamo stole something from me. So it seemed even longer for me to get anything done because I felt like that kept happening. And that could have just been me not realizing what's happening to everybody else, but it just felt like it continually happened.
00:19:48
Speaker
um So, yeah, it was, I don't know how to sort of, when we talk about our scale of, you know, where it sits. i I'd have to put it in the not for everyone and probably not for me ah because I i mean, I want to play it again. It's a silly thing. I want to play it again. I want to play it it three um just to have that extra space out on the board to potentially play the part of the game that I liked for longer and play the part of the game that I didn't like for less.
00:20:20
Speaker
ah Yeah, four players just seemed too tight. nothing changes from what i can tell so in a three-player game there's still the same amount of tiles um there's still the same endpoint condition at 10 points so i can't imagine it's long because you've got more space i could be wrong but i'll yeah i'm going to try it out at three and uh i'll get back to you on that one but at the moment Yeah, it was one of those things where initially I was like, you know what, I've i've been a bit harsh on this game. This is this is quite enjoyable. And then and I'm like, oh well, this end. Like, I don't care about winning. I haven't cared about winning for the last half an hour. Can someone just win?
00:20:56
Speaker
and And I wasn't the only one feeling that frustration. really? It was definitely. How long to go for? Oh, just over two hours. God. No, thanks. And and and like it got to the point where were saying to the person who was one point away from winning, like, what do you need? Like, what can we give you to end this game? So, yeah, I'd like to see it play shorter. I don't, gosh, i'd like five fifth and sixth player expansion,
00:21:23
Speaker
it'd want to add a hell of a lot of tiles because that sounds like murder to me. So, but then again, you know, when you speak to people who've played this game, they never play a base game. They always play it with this expansion or that expansion or whatever else. So maybe in those circumstances, it's better, but just base game, which is all I've played.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah. I'm staying away from a high play account and I'll give it, I'll give it another crack because I like it was part of what I enjoyed, but overall it wasn't something that is, asking for my attention any anymore than maybe one more play and we'll see how we go well it's you know given that they run world championships of this game it's it's you know it's obviously very popular um it's not for me that i've never never played it never wanted to play it but to me and knowing that no thanks um i wonder if you could if there's any variance out there if there's any expansions out there where
00:22:19
Speaker
you pay extra resources to remove a road, for example, or something like that, and then you place your own road down. Yeah, right, yeah. Potentially that might speed it up and turn it into a bit more of a main game, which would be better.
00:22:32
Speaker
um It also could be the placement of the tiles. like Maybe we just had a bad layout because ore is something you need to get to upgrade your your settlements to cities. You need three ore.
00:22:43
Speaker
Well, our three ore tiles were on two, three, and four. So they rarely got rolled. So no one had ore. Okay. So you had to trade for ore, and that means you've got to have heaps of other resources.
00:22:56
Speaker
So maybe if there was a better placement of tiles and everything was a bit more easily accessible, maybe it would have gone quicker. But maybe, yeah, it could have just been an ah in isolation, just ah like a poor setup for ah for a game potentially.
00:23:09
Speaker
um But, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Well done. Well done playing it. I think I've got, I've got, think a couple of copies to give away for the BrizzCon game day from VR. So, and there's a new one in there. It's called Catan engineers, I think.
00:23:25
Speaker
Okay. I don't know what that one's about. Yeah. No idea. But, uh, thanks to VR for providing it. I wouldn't, I don't think I would have ever gotten it back to the table. Like it's, I wouldn't require someone else to say, Hey, would you like to play Catan? And I don't know what the way answer it would have been. Yes. Uh,
00:23:42
Speaker
but But I thought, oh, no, I'll give it a go. It's been a while. And, yeah, like, yeah, for the most part, was enjoyable. like If I gave it a ranking out of 10 right it would probably come in at about a five or six, purely just if it then from the start to the mid-game would probably be an eight. It was was like was really enjoyable.
00:23:57
Speaker
And then the rest of it kind of spoiled it, yeah. Ah, well, I'm sure you've got a local community you can donate the ballgame to down the track. Yeah, well, we'll see. like it the Other people enjoyed it more than me, I think, except for one of them.
00:24:12
Speaker
um So, you know, it might be a game that does get played here and there. So we'll see. Yeah, cool.
00:24:20
Speaker
But aside of that, I haven't really played much other than the game that we're going to speak about a bit later, which is El Paso. We're going to do a bit of a deep dive into that. Aside of that, there's not much else that's been hitting the table since our last episode.
00:24:33
Speaker
No, I tend to play some games today, though. So... For our next episode, I should have a few more games to talk about. But, you know, I'm having a few, you know, it's been a good time off for me. I've taken 10 days off and I've capitalised on playing some board games, which has been good. Yeah.
00:24:49
Speaker
I'm catching up with some mates.
00:24:52
Speaker
What better thing to ask for? Anything in the news, mate, that you're, I know we touched on some stuff the other day, but anything else that you've seen around, any Kickstarters or GameFounds? it's It's hard because it's it's such a dominating conversation around the tariffs. it's hard to think of things that have been talked about that aren't tariffs.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah But, you know, in some good news, I got an update on the Lithia Kickstarter this morning, and that's all going according to plan. It's not going to affect Australia.
00:25:22
Speaker
They haven't decided on how it's going to affect the US yet. So, I mean, that's a good sign that nothing bad is happening there, thankfully. And I think that's that's part of it at the moment. It's very much a hope that everything, every Kickstarter that you've got running runs properly.
00:25:39
Speaker
I did get a response from CMON. So I was a little bit concerned when I cancelled the CMON Kickstarter that they hadn't updated for a while. And they yeah there was there's rumours circling about what what was going to happen there. And they have since announced that, unfortunately, they've had to let off a few people because they're no longer...
00:26:00
Speaker
doing any new campaigns until all of their current campaigns are closing, uh, finished. So it does mean that they would probably have delivered. They're probably going to deliver season five of Cthulhu Death May Die, but I've still, um, left it as a, uh, put in for a refund and they've gotten back to me and they're processing the refund. So, uh, I wasn't expecting that. I was kind of looking at it going, well, worst case scenario, I don't have to pay any more money where it now is that I'm going to get all the money that I paid back. So,
00:26:30
Speaker
I'm pretty thankful for that, which has been nice. But aside of news like news in general, I don't really have much else to chat chat about. um I'm abstaining from crowdfunding, so I'll pass it over to you if you've got anything ah bit of interest.
00:26:44
Speaker
Well, I do actually. there's a um There's a game ending in seven minutes and 44 seconds.
Game Investments and Industry Insights
00:26:52
Speaker
so Sorry to all our listeners. um Dragons of Etchingstone, which which you pretty much play in your hand. i am I was tossing up whether or not to back it or not. um and Because as you know, I've got 20 strong, which is just I love.
00:27:13
Speaker
It's brilliant. and um So I watched a playthrough of this, and it looks really fascinating how they how they work. So basically your cards never leave your hand. You're just constantly filling your hand up with cards.
00:27:26
Speaker
um However, we've got seven minutes and four seconds to back it if I'm deciding to back it or not. um But, you know, in typical... This is like live, you know? know, I know. Live back its request. This is great.
00:27:38
Speaker
So it's... um the The pledge is 48 bucks. That's a lot of money for... And then you're going to have look up postage on that, which postage wouldn't be too much for a set cards.
00:27:52
Speaker
um but It's $48. I don't know.
00:27:59
Speaker
They're all PVC cards, so you never have to sleeve them. So you know the quality is going to be really good. And you get the two expansions with it, so the base game plus two expansions.
00:28:10
Speaker
um Oh, no, it's three expansions. Oh, no, there's only two. This is really live. um No, not going to it.
00:28:22
Speaker
I'm not going to... I'll ask you what you get in six minutes. Yeah, 18 cards is not going happen. That's a lot of money for an 18-card game. yeah Yeah. Yeah. When you look at Buttonshy games, they they're certainly not not up at that price.
00:28:37
Speaker
So... Yeah, no. Going to give it a miss, but sorry, everyone. If you do, it you know, they'll obviously be, you know, they'll open up the pledge manager down the track, so might we had to get in there.
00:28:49
Speaker
But they've extended it by an extra three hours. Mind you, it's still done a half a mil.
00:28:55
Speaker
It's not bad, especially in the current climate. That's pretty good. Yeah. um Any other bit of news? I did listen to ah Five Games for Doomsday, which they're doing a bit of a run on designers coming on and talking about how the tariffs are affecting them.
00:29:12
Speaker
And, um, so recommend that podcast. um You would have heard it in my top 10, uh, you know, of of recent weeks. I've talked about it, but, um, Ben's talking to, last, the last episode, which was overnight last night was, uh, Dr. Steve Finn.
00:29:32
Speaker
So Biblios fame. Um, And then previously, the episode before that, who was talking to Jamie Stegmaier. And Jamie, it was a really good episode.
00:29:43
Speaker
I've actually listened to it twice, once because i fell asleep. ah The second time, though, ah Jamie's talking about how it's affecting you know the companies themselves. and He's talked about, you know he did talk touch on the the letter that's been sent to the president and the class action that you know he has done.
00:30:04
Speaker
Well, it's not a class action. He's joined a bunch of people. um and But the way he was explaining it how it's affecting Stonemaier games was really good. So I totally recommend if anyone wants a little bit more info on it.
00:30:17
Speaker
And if they are a bit worried about backing anything or buying anything from the US or coming from the US, Jamie explains it pretty well. So I'm not going to go into it. Just jump in and have a listen.
00:30:30
Speaker
it's it's For some reason, a lot of people dislike Jamie Stonemeyer and Stonemeyer Games. like There's almost this, I think I've mentioned it before, where I liken it to Apple.
00:30:42
Speaker
People just either love or hate Apple and that's it. And because of the way he presents his stuff, it is very clean and it is very, you know, and and everything is everything is on the cards. He'll tell you how much money his company is making, where they're spending it.
00:30:55
Speaker
yeah what they're doing it's very very transparent and he's as you mentioned he's done this lawsuit and there's been people just calling him out for it saying how dare you bring politics um you know into into your business and he's like i didn't bring politics into my business like i'd love to not talk about politics but fact the fact matter is politics are ruining my business so what do you want me to do stand by and just let it happen or actually actively try and do something and because he is so transparent if he was going to do something like he's done He would talk about it.
00:31:25
Speaker
yeah That's just how he has always been. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is a surprise. And you've got you gotta to commend him for it because he has no – he's not a publicly traded company. He has no reason, no no actual, like, the mandate that he has to do it.
00:31:41
Speaker
It's just something that he's chosen to do, to be open about his company. and And and he he really was. he He broke it right down to just the cost of a box. in America is more than what he can make the whole game for in China.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah. And he he he's built a really good relationship with a Canadian ah company that they use a Chinese company to to make all their parts, right? so he So that that then he used an example, but you know, to make a game, let's say it cost me $10 to make one game and I order 250,000 copies of that one game.
00:32:19
Speaker
um to bring it into America, it's going to cost me another $14.50. So it's going to cost me more to bring it into the States than it is to make the whole game. Yeah.
00:32:30
Speaker
It was excellent. In that Patterson Games update about Lithia, they did talk about tariffs and about questions that people have asked. and one of the questions people asked was, why don't you just get it shipped to Canada and then have it distributed from Canada? So therefore, you're only paying Canada's tariffs if there's any.
00:32:49
Speaker
And they're like, no, it's about the origin. So he's he said he said, like, while we joke about bootlegging in games like Distilled, I don't want to actually become a bootlegger for board games.
00:33:02
Speaker
No, so it's good podcast. Recommend jumping on and listening to that one. And Jamie's impressive. like um but i own I own a few Stonemire games, but as of late, I haven haven't bought anything. and I think my last Stonemire game was Libertalia, one I bought...
00:33:19
Speaker
name ah But was a really impressive podcast to listen to.
Great Western Trail El Paso Discussion
00:33:26
Speaker
Well, if there's no other news, we'll get to our deep dive into Great Western Trail, El Paso.
00:33:36
Speaker
Well, my daddy left home when I was three and he didn't leave much. Tomorrow and me, just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
00:33:45
Speaker
Now, I don't blame him because he run and hit, but the meanest thing that he ever did was before he left, he went and named me Sue.
00:33:56
Speaker
Well, he must have thought that it was quite a joke and it got a lot of laughs from lots of folks. Seems I had to fight my whole life. Yes, down in the West Texas.
00:34:07
Speaker
This is interesting. So, before we i think before we get started on what our thoughts were on the game itself, Obviously, this is the fourth Great Western Trail game. So what gay what what Great Western Trail games have you played in the past? I know your answer already. but And what were what were your opinions on those ones if you've if you've played most?
00:34:28
Speaker
Yeah, I've played ah the original and I've played Argentina. And I hated them both. Like, with a passion. ah um It's that game where I'm just, yeah, what do need to do?
00:34:42
Speaker
Do this. Yeah, okay, do that. Bang, bang, bang. And even when I'm playing it on BGA, I'm just pressing buttons. Yeah, right. However, within my group, I'm the only one that hates it.
00:34:53
Speaker
So within my Thursday night group, um the way part lie apparently Pastor Nick teaches it really, really well. And I said, okay, well, and know, I'm willing to give it a shot.
00:35:06
Speaker
and I've always been willing to give it a shot with past Nick and everyone teaching us. But every time it comes to, oh, should we play Great Western Trail? I'm just like, no, I'm not in the mood. I'm not in the mood for a shit game.
00:35:18
Speaker
An apology for swearing, but I wasn't. ah Well, I played Great Western Trail and Great Western Trail New Zealand before this. And Great Western Trail, the first time I played it, I...
00:35:30
Speaker
I don't know whether I was doing something wrong or whether I, it just made sense because it was the only time I'd really been taught it at a table. I smashed it and I had a hit my train was all the way around the board and I was earning victory points every time I visited the station. And I thought, all right, this isn't too bad.
00:35:47
Speaker
And then every time I played it since then, i I've just had this feeling of, ah, I'm doing really well. And then at the end I've i've lost by 70. Like I just, it doesn't, you talk about seeing the matrix. I don't see the matrix. I don't understand what is a better strategy over another. Sometimes I'll try and go hard in cattle. Sometimes I'll go hard in buildings.
00:36:07
Speaker
Sometimes I'll just go hard in getting the train around. And and every time I'm like, yeah, or I'll mix it up and do all a bit of everything. And it seems like whatever I do, I'm missing something because I don't understand how to be competitive in that game.
00:36:19
Speaker
And I don't care about wins and losses, but playing a game that you're continually getting beaten by 40 or 50 means you're doing something wrong somewhere. So it never it didn't really hit for me, but um I always thought there's a good game in there somewhere. So I've tried to go back and relearn it and like figure out what I'm doing wrong. And it's still just, I still just miss.
00:36:40
Speaker
So, but Great Western Trail New Zealand actually quite liked um because it took away a couple of the things that Great Western Trail had that, yeah like in Great Western Trail, it's a balance of, you needed to have your train far enough along so that you could place out one of your discs at a certain rate and that disc rate um was directly linked back to your ah cattle strength.
00:37:04
Speaker
So if you didn't have your cattle strength high, were going to have to pay extra money to place. You weren't going to be to place a disc out as far as your train anyway, because you didn't have enough cattle. But then if you had enough cattle and you weren't far enough on the train, you could pay money, but then you start the next round with no money. And it's just too many things to balance just to be able to get a disc out at when you when you hit um but you hitting those games at the top.
00:37:26
Speaker
Southern city. I can't remember. It's not El Paso. And, and then, and New Zealand gets rid of that. You've still, you've got some, you're basically going out and you're delivering them to islands and, and it's, it's a different way of doing it, but it makes more sense. So I quite like New Zealand's version over, over um I would play great Western trail, New Zealand again. I don't really want to play great Western trail again. So I'm a bit different to you. I don't hate great Western trail. I just,
00:37:54
Speaker
don't understand it, and I think Great Western Trail New Zealand is a superior game. So, ah yeah, that's our pre-opinions. Yeah, well, hard everyone's everyone's telling me that I should have a City the Big Shelters moment with this game, which and for those that don't know me, City the Big Shelters, I hated that game and now it's my number one game.
00:38:13
Speaker
But ah can't I can't see that. haven't been able to see that even though it looks like I think I have played Great Western Trail three times and and each time hated it.
00:38:25
Speaker
I think it goes again, like a little bit like Catan. full play account. It just seems to never end. Yeah. And I've been at game days where other people are playing it and like, there's a, there's a mixture of frustration between one person who's like, when will this game end?
00:38:41
Speaker
So they're getting distracted and doing other things because they're bored out of their brain. and then someone else at the table who's loving it, and they're getting pissed off at the person who keeps getting distracted. And it's just like, it's this is never going to work.
00:38:53
Speaker
So, the yes. So, obviously, El Paso is a shorter, more broken down version of Great Western Trail. And, well, I'm sure you've got some opinions on it, but I think yeah think given that you are an absolute hater of Great Western Trail, we've got to start with you.
00:39:12
Speaker
Okay. Well, I've played it now. even on BGA, I've played a couple of games on BGA and I've played it at least seven times.
00:39:25
Speaker
I've played the solo variant three times and there and I've played four live games of it. um And the the rules, simple to ti learn.
00:39:39
Speaker
um There's a good how to play, especially the solo variant, um uh, on YouTube, um, gaming rules, uh, guy, he does a good solo play of it.
00:39:51
Speaker
Um, and so I watched the solo play. So actually played it solo before I played it live with other people. And, um, so I went to, ah played Sue completely.
00:40:06
Speaker
She smashed me in the first game suited. Um, and, uh, um I realised I made a rules mistake in it, completely made a rules mistake in it. So then the next game, still beat me, but only just by five.
00:40:20
Speaker
And I was playing on a medium difficulty. um Mind you, I had country and western playing in the background. This is when I was in a moment I was saying about Johnny Cash, the boy named Sue. So I reckon that's an Easter egg.
00:40:33
Speaker
It has to be an Easter egg. It's the boy named Sue in the game ah with Johnny Cash, a bit of a reference to Johnny Cash. But... um ah And then I played it live with Ingrid and Shane and um so taught them the game.
00:40:48
Speaker
ah And we were three player. We were done in about just over an hour. And Shane liked it.
00:40:59
Speaker
Ingrid said, I'll never want to play that game again. And um and and myself, I liked it. I liked it. Yeah. Okay. There you And then we played it again with Pastor Nick and Phil at a game night at his house.
00:41:18
Speaker
um We all liked it. um So Pastor Nick said this is a game that he would use to teach his wife Great Western Trail. Yeah, yeah, I got that kind of feeling too.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, and it's a bit of a stepping stone sort of game. Yeah, and and feel Phil sort thought the same thing. He liked it too and – I liked a lot of the mechanics in the game. um Myself, I like the simplicity of it and the fact that it it really does kind of explain each action or each spot that you can go to.
00:41:53
Speaker
And i learned the iconography as well, which is very similar to Grey Western Trail, I believe. So it was a lot easier to learn what each of the um icons mean and what they do.
00:42:05
Speaker
um And then... me you know Whether you go building, whether you go cattle, um learning, okay, you need to shred shred your hand before you get to El Paso ah so that you can have the most ah points or most cash that you can earn from selling your cattle. and then But also too, knowing what bonus tiles you can pick up throughout the game that are going to help you even when you get to El Paso.
00:42:32
Speaker
I think there's that El Paso card elba has her bonus token which allows you to combine two of the same number. um So um I really, really liked the game.
00:42:46
Speaker
It's good to the point where I ended up 3D printing bits for it. Yeah. thought you must have liked it because I'm like, no one would go to that effort for a game they didn't enjoy.
00:42:57
Speaker
Well, we can we can talk about the components that come with the game a bit later maybe. Yeah, that's a good point. and But the actual game itself, has now inspired me to one next, you know, in the next Thursday night game night, I want Nick to teach me Great Western Trail.
00:43:16
Speaker
Whether it be whatever version he wants to teach me, not Argentina. I've just not heard good things about that one. so um But we really enjoyed it. we The three-player we had at Nick's house took just on an hour, um and ah Nick crushed us in that game.
00:43:36
Speaker
And Nick sees the matrix in those types of games pretty quick. um But, you know, it can be quite mean as well. So it's knowing where to place your tiles down when you are doing the building.
00:43:49
Speaker
So whilst it might cost you an extra three bucks to put down that tile they're generally the best spots to put your tiles. Yeah, because people have to count it as a move. and Correct. Yeah. yeah Yeah, and then, you know, they can't get anything, jump you know, jumping on your tile neither.
00:44:02
Speaker
have to do an auxiliary action only. So... It's a nice way of you know absorbing some of the moves and slowing slowing the game down a little bit. um But no, El Paso is a game I like um and it's going to get me then to yeah hopefully i'll understand Great Western and Trail a little bit more.
00:44:23
Speaker
So I think my my overall opinion though is that ah El Paso is a game which will open the Great Western Trail
00:44:35
Speaker
set of games up to more more of an audience i really think yeah i reckon the game will open it up to more more of an audience of people to play the game and then that will lead on to them graduating up into great listen trial yeah it's interesting one i i i kind of agree but i also wonder whether it will i i I quite liked it. I played played a few times. We've actually got it set up on the table downstairs to play today, so we'll get another go of it. But played it with Helen and Raphael, played with just Raphael, played it solo, and played a couple of times on BGA, so similar to you, a bit of a cross-section.
00:45:13
Speaker
I didn't like the solo mode. um I found it too random um as far as ah point scoring goes because Sue scores everything, and sometimes...
00:45:26
Speaker
her action will just be to take the top scoring bonus or objective card. And that's like five points every time or four points, you know, because that's what she's getting. And then, um yeah, everything just seems to score for her. Because she's a cheat.
00:45:43
Speaker
Yeah. but and And I'm like, okay. I feel like if you were to win the solo mode, you would need to have luck on your side, not not necessarily skill. I could be wrong because I'm not very, you know, I feel like if you were to increase, if you were going to stay at the same skill level, you'd probably get a point where you can win maybe more often than you lose.
00:46:03
Speaker
But that's, I played it with one of the B cards in. So that's like, there's three B cards. So there's one, zero, one, two, or three. So played the second level of difficulty. And I thought, again, i thought I played a really good game and I think I lost by like 9 or 11 or something like that.
00:46:19
Speaker
But it was one of those moments where I'm like, okay, but I don't know how I'm going to make up that. And I also thought that I got a bit lucky because um when she draws that card that allows her to do whatever one of the three actions she's highest in, yes yeah I was lucky because she was just highest in the trains, which didn't actually give her much of a benefit.
00:46:42
Speaker
But if she was highest in the in in the Station Master, so she was, she because it always does the highest one, so she was just getting an extra objective tile because the other two don't affect her, right? But then if you look at the cattle, for example, if she was high in cattle, every time that card gets pulled, she's getting eight points.
00:46:59
Speaker
Yeah. Because she's always going to get the top ah cow because the her cards don't disappear like our cards do. Oh, no. The way that works is that let's let's say she's highest in, it's not the top cow, it's It's the highest of – so let's say she's got three cowboys, right, and the rest she's only got two of.
00:47:21
Speaker
She'll only get a three cowboy card, so that's not that's not your top card. Yeah. But if she's got four cowboys, which she'll generally have. Yeah, she'll get eight.
00:47:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So if I got a bit lucky that she sort of just maxed out in – in um station managers first. So that was the action that she was doing more regularly, where that was in Cowboys, it would have just been just handing out eight points every time she draws the card with the three on them or the or the herding action. that's just And I'm like, wow, that that could get out of hand real quick. And you don't really have any control over that. So I didn't like it because I felt like it was – so so dependent on the draw of that the um of her deck and not something that I could control, I guess.
00:48:08
Speaker
but And that was after I played it a couple of times, three times solo. And i felt that way each time. One time I got thrashed, but the other two ga times were pretty close, but they were definitely losses.
00:48:19
Speaker
And again, I didn't feel like I could do anything to stop that. So i still haven't won in solo. But yeah, that was but my opinion. is that I thought it was a pretty weak solo. um But The game itself is quite the opposite. I really like what they've taken out of Great Western Trail and and and what they've kept in.
00:48:36
Speaker
ah It makes more sense. It's less ah time-consuming in general. Like you talk about being a stepping stone game. I played this with Helen and Raf and it was enough time for them.
00:48:48
Speaker
yeah If I pulled out Great Western Trail and set it up, they'd be like, nah, this is, it's going to take too much. So it was, it was a good, it was a nice little, you know one hour, like you said, one hour, one 20 max kind of game. Uh, but the things that I liked that they kept with the, uh,
00:49:03
Speaker
The building strengths, although you are right, there is one tile that seems it's almost almost too strong. Yeah, it's pretty powerful. But avoiding that, the rest of them are good because there's a tile that does something similar, but you've got to it's like a level five, so you've got to you got to work towards getting that.
00:49:18
Speaker
um But I did like the idea that you can chain things together. There was one time where at one point where I could ah had four movement so I could basically get almost around the whole board because I could get to where the...
00:49:31
Speaker
the station master was that if you have four station masters you get two extra movement which could then move you to the tile that gave you three extra movement which you could move you to el paso it was just like this is crazy to think that you can almost go all the way around the board in one turn yeah uh which was kind of fun to try and organize um but it just made everything more simple i think that's probably the big thing for me okay if you want i i love the idea that you have to spend your workers when you do something say yes it's yeah it just makes it discard pile That's right. so And it makes sense. They're off rustling cattle. Then they're going to have a break and go to the pub and a beer and they'll come back yeah tomorrow.
00:50:06
Speaker
I like that better than in the original where um you are you're not really consuming those workers unless you're putting them in stations. that They're always there. So this kind of stops, this nerfs someone having a runaway strategy, I guess.
00:50:21
Speaker
okay which I thought was quite cool. But, yeah, overall, I'll definitely play it again. Like I said, it's currently set up on the table this morning ah to to have another run, and we've switched a few of the tiles, including those 2A tiles. We switched them to 2B.
00:50:34
Speaker
Yes. And a few are few of the other tiles over just to see what it's like with different tiles. But, um yeah, that's but my opinion is that it's quite a good game. And the 2A tile, just grab a black texture and just turn it into a slash.
00:50:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. and which is what I've done for that tile, so it can still stay in the game. um And how'd you go shredding your cards? Yeah, i that was one part I always liked about the other game was trying to get a different cow. So exchange tokens are super easy to get, which is good because I chew through them like they're biscuits.
00:51:11
Speaker
ah So that idea of being able to draw a card and throw out something from your hand And then obviously, like you mentioned, getting those El Paso bonus tiles so you can count um duplicates as individual cards.
00:51:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, it was, yeah you felt like you, like the game we played last night, yesterday, I really felt like I had hampered myself because I, when I went to El Paso, I didn't quite have enough to get something 10 or higher where everyone, like because I think it was the second or third time around where everyone else did.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I felt like, oh, that's a major disadvantage to me because, you know, they're going to have extra cards in their hands or extra movement whatever else. um And that is really, yeah, and it's really manageable because certificates are easy to get and the the um exchange tokens are really easy to get.
00:52:02
Speaker
Where, again, in the main game, was a lot, I felt, ah could it could be just because I'm not very good at it, but I felt like it was a lot more difficult to get hold of exchange tokens rather to do things like that. So I feel like it makes the hard things easier. and And you talked about your, um how you went in the games last, the last game we played, Helen and I tied on 78 points.
00:52:25
Speaker
Oh, wow. ah So she won on a that was the game that I thought I'd ruined it because I didn't get um the thing, but we actually got the same score and she won because she had more money at the end of the game. Raphael was on about 64. And the game before that, Raph won like 94 to 88 or something. So pretty close games.
00:52:44
Speaker
um Yeah. So it's it's got a lot of good there. And has Raph or Helen played Great Western Trail before? Raph's played New Zealand. Yeah. That's it. i Neither of them played the original.
00:52:57
Speaker
No, that's good. so it's ah The components in the game, though, that's the end of letdown. You'd have to go there. I can't believe it. Like, honestly, I can't believe it.
00:53:09
Speaker
They've got this humongous ah cowboy, cowgirl, we want to call it, the massive meeple, and then punch-outs for all the other tokens. It's like, really? You couldn't have made that meeple half the size and used the same wood that you used for that for a couple of disks and cubes?
00:53:27
Speaker
I think it's because they they're shaped like 3D disks and cubes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think that they were trying to go down more of the environmental route. hence with the the cloth board, which is nice, the cloth board's nice. yeah yeah um And that looks good. And I think instead of, you know, in saying they've gone down the environmental route, that that cow meeple is so huge, it certainly could have been half that and they could have cut the rest of the wood up to make the other components.
00:53:53
Speaker
um But the flat bits to cardboard in the game, I instantly went, I've got to start 3D printing. So i did. i Because they went all environmentally conscious, you burned plastic for four hours.
00:54:13
Speaker
It was somewhat environmental, mate. I do have solar. So I did print off some cows. So the cows now represent the small round discs that you place out.
00:54:27
Speaker
And I 3D printed a cowboy hat. which represents your certificate marker. And 3D printed, what else did I print? There was something else that was already printed as well.
00:54:42
Speaker
Can't remember the now. um
00:54:46
Speaker
Oh, no, that's going to bug me. So I'm going to get the game out. um And it's much, much better playing with the plastic bits than the cardboard. the buildings? Claiming the buildings? Something for the buildings? Buildings, yeah. 3D printed houses, buildings.
00:55:01
Speaker
So when you put that down. But then I also did 3D print a full box insert as well for for the whole lot. Oh, those cardboard boxes.
00:55:13
Speaker
the It was actually when i was setting the games, like we talked about the environmental thing because I said the same thing too. I'm like, these are all going to end up in bags. Yeah. Because those cardboard boxes, like, yeah, they they look nice, but then they're not easy to open. No. So we ripped to the top of one in our second play, and I'm like, well, that's it. They're done.
00:55:29
Speaker
Like, I understand that it's more environmentally conscious to use paper over plastic, but it's still not environmentally conscious to use paper. Like you're chopping down trees for these components. don't know.
00:55:40
Speaker
I don't want to get into an environmental discussion because and and I'm not across that enough, but I felt like the components and the the the the cardboard that they put in there to use for the components didn't work well enough so that everyone would eventually use baggies anyway.
00:55:59
Speaker
And not to mention that in our humidity here in Queensland, those little bits of cardboard are going to end up, you know, last in two seconds. They'll start bending, they'll start warping and,
00:56:10
Speaker
um ah To the point, I actually even 3D printed napkin rings for the game map. thats So that's all held by him.
00:56:19
Speaker
You got all out. I went all out. And um I am going to be teaching this at BrisCon um because thanks to VR, we have a copy to give away at BrisCon of El Paso. So for any of our listeners that want to jump on and learn the game and give me 90 minutes of their time at BrisCon, please.
00:56:39
Speaker
you'll go into the draw to win a copy. The other thing I do recommend to do with the game is jump into the rule book and there's a little QR code which takes you to a little bit more information rule book and it's an appendix and I printed that off and it basically explains every single tile in the game.
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, we had that up. that That's probably another thing I'd say, which I thought was a detriment to the game, was that it was missing that in the printed run. Yeah. you needed it Even just the back page of the rulebook needed to have something to to make you understand what all the tiles did, but also things like in the solo mode, it wasn't explicitly explained anywhere that when Sue does an action that she gets rid of her workers or not.
00:57:23
Speaker
I had to Google that. No, she doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. And she does it. That's right. But I had to Google that because it doesn't explicitly state that. And considering it says set up like a two-player game with these exceptions, and it doesn't mention that, you would assume that some people would expect that they that she does get rid of those cards.
00:57:39
Speaker
Yeah. but then she's got no way of getting them back. So that was kind of like, I'm like, no, she can't get rid of them because otherwise where are they going? They're not coming back to a hand at all. um And that's what I did a bit of Googling and found out. now that's ah So there was there was a few, I feel like there was a few missteps in the production, obviously the quality of some of the components, but then, yeah, just the rule book could have been a bit more informative without being adding too much chunk to it at all. Like, you know, a page, a one page, ah like you said, the appendix is there, which is great, but, you know, even the appendix,
00:58:10
Speaker
ah it had a problem It has a problem, and that is that the first thing the appendix mentions is that there's an error with 2A tile. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then underneath it shows the 2A tile without the error being fixed.
00:58:21
Speaker
Without the error being fixed. And it also says here, we are very sorry that these errors have been made in the published game. Yeah. yeah Which is it's good. It's good that they've addressed it. I'm fine with that. But then to have that sentence and then below that have the tile with the error not being fixed.
00:58:37
Speaker
It's like, what are you doing? So I don't know whether it was rushed towards the end maybe. um umm I'm not quite sure, but it seemed like it was such a clean game. i thought The gameplay itself was clean.
00:58:48
Speaker
I love the map, like you said. ah The cards are all fine. And then all of a sudden they went, oh, crap, what about but about the components? And um we'll just we'll just chuck a rule book together. That's what it kind of felt like a bit.
00:58:58
Speaker
Yeah, let's let's quickly put together an appendix that's outside of the rule book. Yeah. But... Good game. Enjoy it. um I might even try and get it to the table today as well. i've got the family home, so we'll see if I can try and convince them to have a game of this. And that that'll tell us what we really think, because Lauren will probably get bored with the first three minutes of me going teach. I already know what Lauren thinks about that game. No.
00:59:25
Speaker
Not happening. What was the game we were playing at your house, and I tried to say, oh maybe you play this game, and I'm sure it had cowboys in it. And I mentioned what it was and she just went, oh, no.
00:59:39
Speaker
um Oh, what was that? I can't remember now. No, she's not not into those games. But um thank you to to VR. And I'm pretty sure El Paso iss out now in most game stores. Yeah. I believe um here in Australia. and it's very well priced.
00:59:57
Speaker
So it's not as expensive as Great Western Trail. um So reckonham um I personally feel if you've If you've never played Great Western Trail before but have been interested in playing Great Western Trail, go and buy this.
01:00:12
Speaker
because Yeah, and I'd still recommend playing Great Western Trail, ah full edition, even if you played El Paso and you like it. yeah Try and play a game of Great Western Trail first before you buy that too because it is a significant jump in not so much complexity but...
01:00:29
Speaker
just in decision space and length of game that you might not might not love it. But this is definitely, I think this is a really, really good um adaptation. it's it's It makes me want to play it.
01:00:40
Speaker
Yeah. um It makes me want to play it too. So it's changed my tune a little and I'm looking forward to Pastor Nick teaching me the Gravis and Trail game.
01:00:51
Speaker
um And thanks to Nick. Phil, Ingrid and Shane for playtesting game with me. And thanks to the boy named Sue for kicking my ass every time I play the solo.
01:01:04
Speaker
Well, yeah, Raph and Heidi, Raph and Helen both enjoyed it. Raph was happy to play it straight away after his first play and Helen needed a break because she doesn't like sitting at the table for long periods of time.
01:01:15
Speaker
But she said, well, leave it set up and we'll play it later to tonight, which we did. So, yeah, that's glowing recommendations from those two as well. So, yeah Good one. Thanks, mate. Oh, good. Well, I think that'll end us finishing. Oh, we'll just quickly touch on what we're planning on playing in the next week, um if there's anything that's jumping out. Obviously, we we mentioned El Paso, but I'm going to mention a Kickstarter that came in while I was away, and I am super keen for this. And I'm i'm assuming it's good because it's kind of been number one on the hotness or around that for a while.
01:01:47
Speaker
It's not any anymore, but it's it's it's still in the top 10 of hotness, and that's Deep Regrets. so i saw that at the game day yesterday. Yeah, okay, because it looks fun. and And I backed this purely on the strength of the video that they did on their Kickstarter campaign, which was hilarious.
01:02:06
Speaker
And it's just, it ah and I've unpunched it, I've got it all set up, and I'm like, this looks like it's going to be a hoot. So very keen to check out Deep Regrets, a game about, what do they call it? a um It's a fishing game.
01:02:22
Speaker
ah this There's a tagline, which I think An unfortunate fishing game. So, yes. Very good. You're capturing these different creatures and they make you more and more insane because you choose to eat them and then you're faced with the existential crisis of eating these crazy things that send you more and more insane. Okay. Hence deep regrets.
01:02:42
Speaker
So to Ingrid, Ingrid actually mentioned there was – so that's obviously the game that Steve mentioned. to Ingrid was talking to me yesterday about, oh, there's some deep game that you guys were talking about in the podcast. She thought it was me, but no, it was Steve.
01:02:59
Speaker
So you had mentioned the deep regrets prior to me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because we did see it yesterday. We did see it. and It was out. I don't know what I'm going to play, mate, to be honest with you.
01:03:10
Speaker
Depends who I can get to the table. I'm keen to learn, don't know, I'm pretty sure it's got a solo mode, it does, yeah. Blood of the Northmen. So culturedix game that I've got here.
01:03:22
Speaker
Cool. I wouldn't mind trying to learn that. And I wouldn't mind trying to get acquired to the table with maybe the family. So, because I think that'd be a good game for the family to play. um I do have a little ah funny little anecdote maybe to finish on.
01:03:37
Speaker
absolutely So friends of ours from Bemiga, David and Suzanne, they gave us a lift to the airport when we flew out at the start of the holidays. They were staying local and they' they're board game nuts. they' They're awesome.
01:03:48
Speaker
um And, yeah, So I said to them, oh, well, as payment for giving us little the airport, um you've got my clicker for my house. You can go and borrow any games you want while I'm away. And they said, oh, thanks, but we probably won't.
01:04:01
Speaker
And then Suzanne said to Helen on the first day back at school, because she's a teacher as well, said to Helen that um she was and was so bored, which is sounds like a bad way to start this conversation, but she said she was so bored that she started listening to our podcast.
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:19
Speaker
So we'll take it. Hey, we don't care how you get here, as so long as you get here. um And she heard me talking about a Rapa mine, which I had been talking about a fair bit lately. And they were like, oh, you know what? We'll go and we'll go and get a Rapa mine and play that. That sounds like a fun, quick little two-player game.
01:04:35
Speaker
And so they come around. They pick up the box and they're like, geez, the box is a bit lighter than I expected. They get it home, they open up, and, then of course, there's no components in it because it's in one my two boxes that I took to get.
01:04:49
Speaker
So my apologies to David and Suzanne. Feel free to borrow any time from now on to have a go over that. But, yeah, thank you for listening, even though you probably aren't now because you're back at school and probably not bored. Not bored, yeah.
01:05:01
Speaker
i whatever it gets us to listen to podcasts, I listen to podcasts as I go to sleep. So I have podcasts when you need to sleep at night time. All right, mate.
01:05:13
Speaker
All right. Well, have great weekend. Yep. And we'll catch up on the next episode. See you, everyone. Bye.