Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 19: Games, new version of a classic party game and the 2018 challenge
37 Plays16 days ago
Shane and Steve have had a full plate recently, which has led to a long hiatus. The good news is, a lot of games were played during that time. Hear them chat about big, small and all games in between. There's even a horror story in there.
Steve has gone a bit nuts on Kickstarter, and there's a bit of other news, including our standard Garphil games mention.
Finally, we sew it all up with there results from the 2017 BGG challenge and get straight into our 2018.
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello
Return and Catch-up
00:00:15
Speaker
there and welcome to Mate Let's Play. It's been a bit of a hiatus, but we're both back. are you doing, Shane? It's been a very long time, actually. I'm doing very well, thank you. Very well, and thank you for making the time today for us to be able to get together and chat about all things board gaming. Oh, it's been now there's bit there was play there was at timem There was a weekend where I was down in Brisbane, and then there was the school holidays, and I was driving back from Brisbane Bemiga, which is not a short trip.
00:00:44
Speaker
and then, you know, work and craziness. So yes, it's been, reckon it's been over a month since we've last had
Brisbane Board Gaming Experience
00:00:50
Speaker
a chat. It has been a long while and I wish I could say I've had a month's worth of games that I've been playing, but similar to you, man I've been flat out busy with work. So there's been very little time for gaming, so.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny. i had When I was down in Brisbane, I actually had a game a day of gaming with ah a whole bunch of people, which was really cool. um And then it was also like it was a bit dry for those, yeah because my my kids have come back, so we played a lot of those slow, small, part ah shorter, smaller party party games. But in recent times, in the last sort of week or so, <unk>ve actually played some bigger, more, like newer games to me, at least anyway. So I do have some stuff to talk about, but you'd think over a four-week period, there'd be like this huge list, but not quite.
2017 Rankings Review and 2018 Plans
00:01:35
Speaker
No, no, but I have ah do have some games to talk about today, so which will be good, which will be good, really good. And, you know, we've also got to touch base on the 2017 result. I've done my calculations. I'm sure you were doing yours busily this morning too.
00:01:50
Speaker
Yes. 2018 as well. Yeah, 2018. Again, i know we keep saying it, but what a year. What a year. Yep. What a year. Very interesting year too.
00:02:02
Speaker
And I know, i'm pretty sure, whoever wins the dice roll is definitely going to for one game. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I imagine. On the dice roll.
00:02:14
Speaker
But we'll get to that later on in the show. So before we do that, I've got a bit to talk about with Kickstarter as well, which is unlike me, but yes, and well we'll get to that later in the show. But before we get to that, let's talk about some games.
Recent Board Game Nights
00:02:28
Speaker
So what have you been playing since what? August. Since August. So since since August, I've had ah couple of game nights and... um where we we finished off our long play of Hansa de Tonica with Lucky Phil and Pastor Nick.
00:02:48
Speaker
um And good game. Really enjoyed that game. ah Every time I played it, I did a did something different, totally different strategy. um and But it was good.
00:03:02
Speaker
Very good. I get thumped every time but by Phil and Nick. Actually, I find it quite funny. Those two are just at each other constantly on every single move they do.
00:03:13
Speaker
And I'm sitting back just laughing. um But we did launch into a new game um last Thursday. and And that was Darwin's Journey.
00:03:27
Speaker
Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah, it was good. I'm not going to rave too much about it because I want to play it for a few more times before I actually review it. um But worker placement and looks you've got to try and get an engine building going, which I didn't even get anywhere near going.
00:03:41
Speaker
But again, Nick and Phil, they got theirs going and they were at it. was hilarious. um But... You were doing something else? was just sitting back laughing watching it all happen. Then it gets around to my turn and going to get back, make my bag.
00:03:56
Speaker
And um I did enjoy the game, I must admit. I was very hesitant in first playing it because I was just like, eh, it just looks dry and boring to me.
00:04:07
Speaker
However, there was a lot going on in the game. And, you know, there's... yeah know it was us ah My first play, I'm playing on BGA as well. I really don't know what I'm doing on BGA either.
00:04:21
Speaker
So I'm really going to review the review it and give you my opinion of it i reckon in a few weeks time once i've played it a few more times um it is our game of the month so we will be playing it when we do get together on a first night so what we do is we we just immerse ourselves in our game we don't play anything else but that game so we can learn it and you know uh somewhat master it um but have you played darwin's gin no i haven't no
00:04:51
Speaker
But I've only heard good things too. Like that it's one of those ones where I wasn't really that interested when I so first heard of it, but then people that like games that I like, like it. So then maybe I should.
00:05:03
Speaker
but Yeah. Yeah. It's, you'd like it because there's a lot going on and there's, a lot of things that you can do trigger something else in the game as well. So, you know, you are exploring the Galapagos Islands and you're trying to uncover, you know, the animals as they do and discover animals.
00:05:26
Speaker
And... But it's the mechanics itself. um You're trying to earn different colored tokens that help you go further along the maps and increase your ability in certain skill sets as well.
00:05:42
Speaker
And of course, you've got end game goals that you've got to try and achieve.
00:05:46
Speaker
But you would like it. It kind of... There's a bit of TO in it. and Okay. There's no dice or anything like that. it's But it is a little bit TO. and The way that the worker placement, how you've got to map out the worker placement to trigger this to get this.
00:06:04
Speaker
And then you've kind of got to work a few moves ahead.
00:06:08
Speaker
But like any type of game like this, it does take me a few plays before i find a pathway for it. So...
00:06:18
Speaker
I like it so far, mate. So I'm looking forward to my next play, which probably won't be for about a month because all my Thursdays are booked because I travel with work. Okay.
00:06:29
Speaker
But anyway, that's it. Darwin's Journey. Nice one. Yeah, I definitely want to give that one a go at some point.
Galactic Cruise Review
00:06:36
Speaker
ah One game that I have been wanting to try for a while, i a friend of mine who lives up here had ah has a copy of it and they were going away for the holidays who were looking after their dog.
00:06:46
Speaker
So I said, well, as payment for looking after your dog, I want to borrow that game, which they were more than happy to oblige. And that game was Galactic Cruise. yeah Now, as you know, umm not the biggest Vital Lacerda fan. This isn't a Vital Lacerda game, but it is very often compared to Lacerda games, not not just in the type of game it is, but also the the production looks very Eagle Griffin games slash Vital Lacerda game.
00:07:15
Speaker
ah So i was happy to borrow it, not buy it, because I wondered whether this would be something that Helen would want to play or whether even I'd want to play. ah And so Galactic Cruise is a game where you're essentially building a cruise ship ah to attract guests to travel on ah to outer space. So imagine booking making a, like, you know, I've i've talked a lot about cruises on this podcast, but you can literally make one with a board game convention if you wish.
00:07:47
Speaker
or roller coasters or, you know, maybe a tanning salon or a shopping mall or depending on the three types of people. So you've got people that are interested in just relaxing and and having drinks, people who are interested in adventure and people who are interested in like family activities.
00:08:03
Speaker
So you're trying to build a ship to correlate with the guests that you're going to take on that ship. And the more they correlate, the more points you'll score per cruise. And you can have multiple cruises going at once. And there's... um What I like about this game ah in in comparison Lucerta games, and it's that I don't like Lucerta games. I really like Kanban EV. I really like a Escape Plan.
00:08:26
Speaker
um i'm I'm very interested to see what I think of Speakeasy when it arrives. um But the other ones, and even to an extent, the the two that I mentioned, they all ah have a lot of mechanisms.
00:08:39
Speaker
And you're you're you're working towards something, but there are many, many steps. And in some Los Angeles games, that annoys me because I so i wonder whether they're necessary.
00:08:50
Speaker
I wonder whether they need to be there or is it just here to add an extra couple of points in wait on BGG? Like, that that is the juice worth the squeeze, I guess? um Well...
00:09:01
Speaker
This takes that sort of star, that sort of weight of game, but makes every decision both positive, impactful and impactful. So whenever you take a worker and place an action, you first thing you get to do two actions.
00:09:16
Speaker
And secondly, there's no, like a little bit like Le Havre, there's no bad action. Every action is and interesting turn. Every action gets you something, gets you towards your goal. ah So whether it is, know, you start advertising a cruise.
00:09:30
Speaker
So then you, and then maybe then you can attract, know, ah guests and those guests if you attract them um via your advertising they will give you benefits but if you don't do that you can still take guests but you don't get anything for them until they're on your cruise you don't they're not promoting your cruise to other people they're not doing what i do to you shane continue's going to sign you about was going to say is there a board game cruise where you're constantly saying i'm trying to get shane on here for this guest yes Yeah, um or maybe you've got maybe you're going to make your system better because you're going to do some tech upgrades or maybe you're going to, ah you know, organize your your food and your fuel and yeah and your um oxygen, which you need, obviously, for a galactic cruise.
00:10:12
Speaker
So, like, the the game, it's really funny because everyone compares this to Lusata Games and I literally just did that. But the game that it reminds me of the most is Viticulture.
00:10:24
Speaker
Oh, okay. um And not for the mechanics, not for, um you know, the weight of the game or anything, but for that reason that when you play Viticulture, everyone is doing the same thing and it's just about who can do it more efficiently than everybody else.
00:10:38
Speaker
And that's what this game is. It's very much you need to do all of these things so that you can send off a ship. um a cruise and then you need to do these things again so you can send off a cruise which is like viticulture where you need to do these things in a row and has be on this order in order to sell your wine at the end now it's definitely more in depth than viticulture but it gave me those feels ah which when you consider that I've said that it's like it's like a lucerta but it's um it's less convoluted and it's like viticulture then turns out I really like this game like it's an absolute belter of a game
00:11:14
Speaker
uh so much so that i played it with helen and she loved it too um and i said to her because there's a kickstarter open at the moment for it and i said to her i said do you like it enough for me to back it and she's like yeah i do i definitely play this again i'm like awesome and then i went on to the kickstarter there's a couple of expansions so i watched a couple of reviews on the expansions and there was one i'm like oh actually i don't want that expansion um So I was like, well, if I do the Kickstarter, it's basically all in or bits and pieces that works out about the same. So I'm either going all in or I'm not.
00:11:46
Speaker
So I thought, well, maybe maybe there's a store that just has this available. So I jumped on Board Game Oracle. One store in Australia had it. Mind Games Victoria. um So instead of kickstarting it, I just bought the game.
00:11:59
Speaker
um And bizarrely enough, we bought the game on a Wednesday morning, ah Tuesday night, like right late at night on a Tuesday night. I got a shipping notification on Wednesday morning and it arrived in Bemiga on the Friday.
00:12:13
Speaker
Oh, wow. Nothing gets here in two days. Like nothing at all. Like I think it legitimately used space travel to get here. So shout out to Mind Games Victoria because they pack they packed it express for no reason. I didn't pay for that. But yeah,
00:12:29
Speaker
because the game arrived, we still got we we only gave the other one back like two days ago. So we had two copies of Galactic Cruise here for a while. But no, it's a really good game, and and we played it I played it a few times since. And it it it took a good three quarters of the game to really have it start to make sense and go, okay, yeah I've done these things wrong. i can I can see the error of my ways in these areas.
00:12:53
Speaker
um But once it sings... it really becomes one of those games where you don't have to reach for the rule book. You don't have to, um like, you're making decisions based off the better of two good things rather than, um yeah, it's just, there's so much like even little things like you've only started with two workers and you can hire new workers and, you know, in a worker placement game, workers are pretty keen, pretty keen.
00:13:22
Speaker
So, but they cost 12 bucks and money is not easy to find, but, Both of them have a different thing where once you've done this other thing enough, they become cheaper. So every time you move remove a tile from an area, this this thing becomes $3 cheaper. So eventually it'd be free.
00:13:39
Speaker
But if you wait until that point, the game's nearly over before you get it. And on the other one, you've got to put these cogs out when you upgrade tech. And the more of those you get done, the cheaper this other one gets.
00:13:49
Speaker
But again, if you wait until it's too cheap, there's no point getting the worker because the game's nearly over. So you've got to kind of measure, weigh up that decision of, do I want to spend big and have the extra worker now or do I want to wait until it's cheaper but it might not be as impactful?
00:14:04
Speaker
I love choices like that because yeah like they're both good. You either have money and no workers or you have workers and no money. um But you've got you've got to make – you're continually sitting there going, is now the right time?
00:14:15
Speaker
yeah Or maybe I should leave it till later. And, yeah, yeah it's great it's it's really good. um I would definitely recommend it it. I would definitely, for a first play, I think two players would be a good number to play it at. I think – for like it took us probably about three and a half hours at two players that's straight out of the box learning the game know assessing the rule book after that we got it down to about two hours maybe a little bit longer two to two and a half uh but yeah just just a cracking game so uh very keen to play more of that but that's uh yeah a very long review but yeah galactic cruise definitely worth checking out think that is um
00:14:54
Speaker
I just went on to Board Game Oracle to see if I could get copy. And you bastard, you got the last copy. and like Oh, did I? Oh, wow. There you go. There is a place called 3D Level Up that have got it.
00:15:07
Speaker
I have no idea who they are. so ah but they're They're reputable. they um They do a lot of like um they bulk buy Kickstarters and then resell them. So you but yeah you might you might not be lost there.
00:15:21
Speaker
i'll I'll have a look at that. i might It sounded really good, mate. I've seen it a lot. think even at one of the game days I went to, they had it for sale. I didn't end up buying it. I ended up buying Vantage.
00:15:33
Speaker
um and But that intrigues me now. Yeah. yeah Because i'm I'm going to say, look you know we in our game group, we all say, look, someone's got it. Someone owns it.
00:15:46
Speaker
You're too far away. I need to it for us. Well, you mentioned your Thursday game where you have one game and play it. Like, it would sing if you had the same group of players playing it every week for a period of time. Because the game, like, I've played it maybe five times now.
00:16:07
Speaker
because it's also on BGA, which is crazy, but i've've I've managed to have a couple of games on BGA. And they're the only games that I've actually changed the layout. It's a bit like TO in that sense where there's a board where everything has its place, but then you can modify it by putting out the same same actions, but they get jumbled up. and and right like So they've got like a base version, which is a great way to learn it.
00:16:29
Speaker
And then you've got the ways you can modify it. Well, I still haven't used any of those modifying tiles on my copy. I've just played the base map. And because there's still so much there. But if you're playing in a regular group, then that change of the board layout and the change of what the special workers do and all that sort of stuff, you'd really it really start to get that. Like it'd really change the game for you. Where for me, like the the games I'm playing with those changes are the ones that I'm playing on BGA. And I'm really just going...
00:16:58
Speaker
I'm not, yeah because it's on BGA, you don't really get that same synergy feel that you do when it's in front of you. So, um yeah, if if if I had a game group that wanted to play this regularly, then it would be yeah it'd be the one I'd be recommending for sure.
00:17:12
Speaker
Oh, good. and because we haven't even caught up since you were down in Brisbane, did we? We haven't done a podcast in sense. So technically I've got a stack of games I should have been talking about that I played at the ballgame barbecue game day. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
00:17:28
Speaker
It was it was that was a good day. We got got there about lunchtime and I've got remember the games we played now, but so they started, first up game they started setting up was Luthier and I was like, nah, I just can't can't sit here for hours and play that. I need to um ah go off and play something else. But um I did end up playing Steam Power.
00:17:57
Speaker
with a group of us. We played at full player count. We got out my blinged out set. Cause bloody hell, I said, I wasn't going to bring many games to the game day.
00:18:09
Speaker
ah ended up with a full bag weighing a ton. I caught the train into the city and walked to the game day event. Like by the time I got, and it was a pretty warm day. By the time I got there, I was buggered, got off my back.
00:18:23
Speaker
Um, I'm trying to remember the first game we played. i can't remember it now. Oh, it's gone. Obviously memorable. but It would have been a good game.
Sausage Sizzle Family Fun
00:18:34
Speaker
um But we played Steam Power a bit later on. ah We got to this point where we thought we broke the game. No one could win. No one could buy any resources.
00:18:46
Speaker
All the resources were spent. No one could fulfill contracts. I'm like, we've just broken it. Phil and I thinking, shit, we've broken game. There's no way we can win this. We forgot the rule that you can actually spend five coin to get any resource you want from the supply.
00:19:01
Speaker
ah i didn't know that rule. yeah So we forgot that rule. So here's me messaging Martin saying broke your frank and you Stop breaking my games. I'm like, no, oops.
00:19:12
Speaker
We're dickheads. We, uh, we forgot the the rule of you can spend five to get any resource. So if we had that going, we would have probably ended the game. was ah I was rich. I had coin coming out everywhere. Um, but we really liked steam power.
00:19:26
Speaker
Um, going play it again, with the group that were playing with. So it was me, Ingrid Shane, uh, and, uh, a few others as well. So, um, ended up buying vantage.
00:19:39
Speaker
Um, and, uh, from the, um, um, yeah, pulls this part so I can, it doesn't look like I forgot their name.
00:19:51
Speaker
Uh, more than meeples. Yeah. So I bought, uh, Vantage from more than meeples. It's great guys. Those two guys are and totally that store, you know, they, they do so well, um, in convincing me to buy the whole lot of Vantage. I only did I buy the ball game.
00:20:07
Speaker
I bought, the dual layer player boards that go with it. i bought the upgraded coins. I bought the upgraded um tokens in the game as well. So you can imagine, right?
00:20:20
Speaker
I took a game to give to Ingrid and Shane, Pergola. So they got Pergola, got rid of that. and Pergola. Yeah, Pergola. I refuse.
00:20:32
Speaker
I refuse. So I got rid of that. Then I add Vantage into my backpack. That thing weighs up. They're not the same size games.
00:20:45
Speaker
No, no, no. So here I'm thinking I've reduced my weight of my games. No, no, I didn't. I just doubled. I actually tripled down on the weight. And um that thing has got like something like 1,300 cards in it.
00:20:59
Speaker
And I bought all the expansions. So... stupid muggins me then come close to, I think, just about 10 o'clock, walking back to the train station.
00:21:10
Speaker
On Riverfire night. Yeah, on Riverfire night. My bag weighed a ton. Like, literally, when I got off the train, I went to throw my bag on my back. I think the conductor was scared that was going to fall on the tracks because the bag weighed ton.
00:21:23
Speaker
It just set me a bit wobbly. um But, jeez, it was... So I'm looking forward to playing. i haven't played it yet. I've watched heaps of play-through videos of it. So I'm really looking forward to playing it. um We played this mass that would have been about...
00:21:40
Speaker
12, 14 people playing this game i'm going to talk about now It's called Sausage Sizzle. I don't think, have mentioned it before in another previous podcast? I think you played it at PlayCon maybe? PlayCon, yeah, yeah.
00:21:51
Speaker
So it's by Incus and Marcus Brand and art by Eno Tool. It's all about Australian animals and it's just dice rolling. It's Yahtzee. So you're rolling dice and you've got alligator, echidna, kangaroo, snake and platypus and a crocker.
00:22:12
Speaker
And so rolling dice and then so then you've got to, so let's say you roll dice you get two platypus. So you put those platypus dice in front of those. So you're going for platypus. You keep rolling your dice, but you're always going to take one dice away.
00:22:26
Speaker
The trick is though, they've got the dice, there's four dice that have got animals on it. then there's four number dice. So whatever those numbers you roll, if you get two platypus and you roll all fives, it's two times five is ten points, right?
00:22:42
Speaker
Then you flip flip the platypus over. You cannot go for platypus for us the of So it goes over six rounds. So once you've got all your animals out and you score all your points, then you tell your points, the high score wins.
00:22:56
Speaker
It is very simple. But the thing is, the trick to it is you might be rolling and you roll a five and you're going for fives. you've still got three more dice to roll that have got numbers on it. You roll them, you roll a two or two twos and a one.
00:23:11
Speaker
So you have to take that. You have to take the two. So now that two times five becomes two times two. Yeah, right. Yeah. Right. And so then you roll again and you might roll a sausage.
00:23:21
Speaker
A sausage is a one. But the fun part of the game is you are,
00:23:31
Speaker
You can decide early on. Let's say if you roll the dice and you get three alligators and two sausages come out. All right, so you put your three alligators in. You've still got one animal die and you've still got two more of the number die to roll.
00:23:47
Speaker
then you roll again. You're going for sausages. So you want to try and get four sausages. Ah, right. But if you don't, then they're, yeah. Yeah, but if you don't, it's only worth one point.
00:23:58
Speaker
But if you're going for four sausages and you get four sausages out, and let's say, for example, you get four of your animals out, it's four times seven. Right, yep.
00:24:10
Speaker
right, so you you you can completely max out your points. So when people go in for sausages, as soon as you know you're going for sausages, every dice roll, everyone's just going, sausage, sausage, sausage. So you can imagine a play con.
00:24:25
Speaker
16 people around a table playing multiple games of this game going, sausage. The whole place were just laughing at it because we just yelling out, sausage, sausage. It was good.
00:24:36
Speaker
And so um came I bought a copy. i saw it at Vault Games. So, you know, I went in there, their usual spiel, and ended up buying it.
00:24:54
Speaker
And came home and one day during the week, Max comes out and Max goes, oh, dad, you want to play a game? but Flawed me, absolutely floored me. I said, are you okay?
00:25:07
Speaker
What do you mean? He said, I just want to play a game. I said, yeah, but are you okay? Are you all right? Is there something going on? Dad, I actually want to play a game with you. yeah Anyway, so we ended up playing sausage chisel.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, cool. He loved it. We played it three times. Like we finished it, he goes, can we go again? And I said, yeah, of course can. then finished again, we go again?
00:25:30
Speaker
It's a quick game, 15 minutes, you're done.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yesterday, he comes out of his room and I said, can we and play that sausage chisel game? I said, yeah, okay, let's do it. And then Lauren joined us.
00:25:47
Speaker
second So then Lauren learned it. We played two games of sausage chisel again yesterday. Max, he said, Dad, I really like this game. This is a good, fun game, nice and quick. And he said it reminded him of King of Tokyo.
00:26:00
Speaker
It's just that dice rolling. ah yeah But you're not beating each other up. I said it's bit like Yahtzee. I tried to explain it to Yahtzee for Lauren, so Lauren could pick it up quick, which she did. It's a very easy game to pick up.
00:26:12
Speaker
um So then I thought, okay, end of that game. Let's review it. Out of 10, what would you give it? Max was 8. i I was seven and Lauren three.
00:26:29
Speaker
I was about to like, when you said that she played it a couple of times, like this sounds like a game that Lauren would not like, but, uh, yeah, that's, there you go. She was a three. Um, but you know what?
00:26:41
Speaker
It's good. Um, my other son, Josh came out a bit later and I'll talk about another game in a minute. And, um, He actually wanted to play it after we played this other game we played a couple of times. He said, oh, can we play this sausage sizzle game that Max was talking about?
00:26:57
Speaker
ah And at that point in time, we had to go off and do something else. So like we're going to get that game to the table today the with the two boys. We're going play sausage sizzle and potentially have a sausage sizzle or the barbecue for the game tonight.
00:27:10
Speaker
Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. and that's That's awesome. Well, um on that same day, i was i was actually down in Brisbane on the same day. i couldn't go to board game barbecue game day, but I got invited to, and I guess, and like a mutual friend's place.
00:27:28
Speaker
So ah Aos James, who I'm not sure whether you're for familiar with Aos, but he's quite ah been been in the board game hobby for many years. And he and I have a lot of friends that are the same.
00:27:41
Speaker
people but he and I had never met in person um he's spent a lot of time in conventions and ah couple overseas so he's met a few of the folks that I've met when I've been lucky enough to do that as well and just and a year about a year and a half ago i just I sent him a message just going hey mate like we should probably catch up like we seem to have the same friends we seem to play the same games like next time I'm next time i'm in South Queensland we should catch up for a game day anyway i turn up to brisbane on the friday night i i put up a random post about how i'm you know back in brisbane picture of the train going back at into the city and um he rings me on so he messaged me and says can i give you a buzz at like 7 a.m m on saturday morning um i was i'd planned the whole day to go and catch up with my sister and he rings me he's like we're having a game day
00:28:29
Speaker
do you want to come up? And I'm like, ah look, i've I've already got plans. And he's like, well, it's we're doing ah we're doing this big game day up here at my house. I live up at, kind remember where it was, somewhere in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
00:28:42
Speaker
He sent me a few photos of his game room. And I'm like, you know what? I'm here for a few days. so I can catch up with my sister tomorrow. I'll see if she's okay to move. So I'll run with sister. She's like, yeah, fine. and So I jumped on the train and two hour train ride up to the Sunshine Coast into the middle of the woods.
00:28:59
Speaker
picked up by a random guy that I haven't met before take it to his house. I'm like, Oh, this could be my last day. Or you can hear the banjo playing. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
00:29:11
Speaker
But no, it was awesome. Aos is awesome. the The other people that were there too, there was three others um and um three. Yeah, his son and another a couple of people from their game group. And we had the most awesome day. We started off playing In the Year of the Dragon.
00:29:27
Speaker
So old school game. The first time I played that, it was really good. um And we then we really just played, I think we played Smartphone. Oh, yeah, we had a great game of Smartphone. Actually, i won't talk about that game. or i I'm building up to the game i'm going to talk about.
00:29:41
Speaker
But I will say that I came second in Smartphone and the final scores were 210, 209, 208. And then and then a few but a few behind that. so like, that was that was on that was second competitiveity it was a game Yeah. um But the game, and then we yeah then we just played a whole bunch of little party games. um And two of them really stood out to the point where I have been scouring the earth to find these bloody games.
00:30:07
Speaker
And stupid me, I found it in Mind Games Brisbane, but it was 50 bucks. And I'm like, far out, that's a lot of money for an oink game. So like almost out of principle, I didn't buy it.
00:30:18
Speaker
um And then I found the other game at Pop Culture for like 70 bucks. And I'm like, that's also ridiculous for a party game. But the two games are Caution Science. Have you ever played Caution Science?
00:30:30
Speaker
No, no. Okay, I'll get to that one in a second. And Dropoulter. Have you ever played Dropoulter? No. Okay. So well that was the order we played him in. So I'll do a quick review of both. They're both insane.
00:30:42
Speaker
um So Caution Signs is like a short-form version of Terraforming Mars, Telestrations. Very different. um So Telestrations, one of the greatest party games, but really needs eight people.
00:30:58
Speaker
So it doesn't get played as often as it should. ah So Caution Signs, what you do is you get given a half of a caution, like half of a, you know, ah an orange caution sign, like those diamond-shaped caution signs. Yeah.
00:31:11
Speaker
You get a top half and a bottom half. The top half will be some sort of describing thing, like it might be, um you know, um disorganized.
00:31:22
Speaker
And then the bottom half will be some sort of living thing, like disorganized ferret. And you've got to, you basically, you look at what you've got and then you have 20 seconds to draw that, right?
00:31:34
Speaker
And then like ah So Clover, what you do is you put your two caution signs in the middle and you put an additional, everyone puts their caution signs middle. Then you put an additional two caution signs from top and bottom and from the deck that haven't been used.
00:31:49
Speaker
You mix them all together and the person whose turn it is has to determine what all the drawings are. um It's ridiculous fun. Like, firstly, 20 second timer on drawing is like, just promotes absolute insanity. Like if you're trying to draw, what do say, a disorganized ferret, how do you draw a disorganized ferret in 20 seconds?
00:32:11
Speaker
like and have someone else be able to determine that that's definitely a ferret. And it's disorganised. Yes. And this is the game that taught me that the difference between how I draw things is if it's an animal, it's a large circle and a small circle with four legs under it, and if it's a huge if and it's horizontal.
00:32:30
Speaker
And if it's a human, it's a large small circle and a small circle with two legs and two arms, but it's vertical. Otherwise, they're exactly the same. LAUGHTER So I'm not a very good drawer.
00:32:41
Speaker
so But it was just absolute hysterics. it was I haven't laughed that hard at a game probably since, geez, that that that game of So Clover I played way back at a board game barbecue game day where we were wearing masks so no one could see facial expressions and it made the game so much better to the point where I would recommend playing So Clover with face masks um going forward. but anyway.
00:33:05
Speaker
Just whale of a time. Can't find a bloody game. Doesn't doesn't exist anywhere. um But the second game was even more stupid um and just a great... It was our last game we played. So it was a great finisher to a game day.
00:33:19
Speaker
And it's Dro Poulter. So it's an oink game. it You can buy it for 50 bucks if you want, um if if I convince you. ah So what it is, is everyone has a bunch of things in their hand. You have like a ah some square shape thing. You have a ring. You have i can't remember what else, but it was like five different shaped things that you hold in your hand.
00:33:42
Speaker
um And what you're trying to do is gain bells for reasons. um And how it works is someone flips over the top card and it'll have either two, three or four of these objects that you're holding in your hand.
00:33:55
Speaker
You have to, with only the one hand, remove those items from your hand and nothing else. And the first person to successfully do that grabs this token and their reward is a bell.
00:34:07
Speaker
And the first person the five bells wins. Except the bells go in your hand as well. And if you drop a bell, then you lose that point. So they're victory points, but if you drop them, you lose them. They're gone. So you're like you're trying to play fast because it's a speed game, but also trying to jumble all these things in your hand, which is not easy.
00:34:27
Speaker
And then all of your victory points that you're desperately trying to hold on to are also in your hand. So... The first game, we ended up, the winner ended up being the person who ran the most bells when we ran out of cards because no one could get to five bells.
00:34:40
Speaker
Like the the the bells were dropping everywhere and you can hear them in your hand. it probably doesn't sound that great. But my God, it was just, it was ridiculous fun. um And I think that's probably like as as the last game you play on a game day, that's just what you want. You don't want to play Galactic Cruise.
00:34:58
Speaker
You want to play something that everyone just has a laugh, in hysterics and oh man it it just ticked all those boxes so droop halter caution signs um i will buy them even if they are 50 bucks i'll buy them the next time i see them so just saying well worth checking it too little party good games has got it for 38 dollars in stock in stock ah The whole game is $39.95. Games Empire, $39.99. Must have delivered again because no one had it when I looked last week.
00:35:36
Speaker
Game Traders at Chermie, $39.99. thirty nine ninety nine Which one talking about? Dropoulter? Dropoulter. like Okay. All right. that I'm jumping on right now because that was not the case.
00:35:48
Speaker
Oh, my God. Everyone's got it in stock. ah Excellent. All right. and Good to know. um i'll just see where the caution signs is so that has come in stock because i want caution signs i checked that as well mate um no okay it was still uh still um pop culture had it for 59.99 yeah and other people sold it for like 35 bucks when they had it but um yeah it would have been so good with the kids because i've had the kids up for the last two and a half weeks It would have been the game of the holidays if we had
00:36:22
Speaker
um And because Drow Poulter is a little oink game, I'm planning on getting it before we go away on holidays at Christmas and taking it with me. so Yeah, I like oink games. They're good. They're quick. They're easy. Fun to learn.
00:36:33
Speaker
All right. I might get well one as well. Seems like party games are a bit of a theme in my house that the family likes. Yeah, yeah. They work so well. And the best thing about them, as you pointed out with Lauren playing Sausage Tizzle twice, is that even if people don't like them, they'll still jump in because it's only 10, 15 minutes. Like, you know, it's not the end of the world.
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. Well, might as well talk about another party game while we're on that thing. Sure. And it is a review copy that we um did get from Asmodee.
Review Copies from Asmodee
00:37:10
Speaker
So thanks to Asmodee. We appreciate it. the review copies coming our way. And we've got, I've actually they've given me three review copies of games. There's game called Swipey, which is a card game.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah. More aimed at the younger kids. Star Wars Super Teams. Oh, yeah. Seven plus. So I'm not going to review those two. um I'm actually going to get um Andy and his son to play the Star Wars Super Teams and they're going to review it for us.
00:37:38
Speaker
so And then the swipey, I'm giving that to um Pastor Nick's family for them to review it because it's more of a family card party game. So they're going to review those two games for us. But I'm going to review the second game.
00:37:52
Speaker
And it's not really a review because this game's been out for a while, but there's a revised copy of it now. And we played it. Lauren wanted to play it directly after we played Sausage Shizzle with Max.
00:38:05
Speaker
So we played three player game of the new review copy of Just One.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yep. And let's face it, it's been out since 2018. um And the review copy, it's ingenious.
00:38:28
Speaker
That's what I'm going to It is ingenious. I don't know if you've seen it yet. I've seen it, and I'm assuming you're talking about the pencils? Yes. How good are the pencils? Get rid of whiteboard markers. I don't want to see another whiteboard marker in a bloody game.
00:38:43
Speaker
I want these erasable pencils from now on. Yeah, brilliant. The only downside is they do draw all over the insert on the box, but that's okay. We can deal with that. Oh, yeah, no, who cares?
00:38:57
Speaker
Well, you keep them in that little box, though. Oh, well, see, I didn't. That was my mistake. Oh, no, no, you keep them in the little pencil box. um And it is – I'm glad you thought the same thing because it's just a stun. So we're bringing out – know, they've got the nice plastic colours.
00:39:13
Speaker
of the standees that you write on. And then I'm expecting to pull out a whiteboard marker to write on these plastic standees. And it's a pencil. I'm like, there's no way.
00:39:24
Speaker
And then it's perfectly clear. It's not, and it comes off easy. They give you the wipers, to take it off. Yes, your fingers are bit black. sharpen them if they get blunt. like It's so good.
00:39:35
Speaker
right So for board game designers out there, bloody piss off the whiteboard markers and get erasable pencils. I agree. Look, there's not much to this game, right?
00:39:47
Speaker
So there's not much to review. However, what what a great upgrade. Yeah. Brilliant upgrade. Yeah, because I got a copy as well from Asmodee, and i was like like, I love Just One. I play it all the time. Like, it's one of our family go-to games when everyone's home.
00:40:03
Speaker
And so i was like, but what can you possibly change in that game to make it interesting enough to, oh okay, the pencils. it just i It's essentially Just One. I mean, obviously, they're different words on the cards, so it's refreshing, I guess, but...
00:40:18
Speaker
Yeah, and i didn't I couldn't imagine what it would bring that would make me go, ooh, and it did. So, yeah. Well, I've never played the original Just One. does the yeah The original Just One, does that come with the standees still, the coloured standees?
00:40:31
Speaker
ah No, it's white standees with multi-coloured ah whiteboard markers. Whiteboard markers, yeah. But, ah you know, the coloured standees look good, you know, and you've got to match them with the coloured pencils that you're using.
00:40:45
Speaker
So Lauren's played it on BGA with us as a group, and she's enjoyed it. So she said, can we play this? And I said, yes, of course we can. So Max, myself, and Lauren, yeah we all played it.
00:40:58
Speaker
Max loved it. Lauren said, can we play again? and Yep, no worries at all. Let's get Josh to join us. So Josh came out, and we ended up playing it three times. Our best school was nine.
00:41:13
Speaker
um and Josh loved it like it's a family game it really is yeah and Josh wanted to play it again he said can we go again and he wanted to play that again and Sausage Sizzle and Max can we play again and Lauren said no got something to do and they both both looked at her and went aren't we more important than what you've got something to do
00:41:41
Speaker
and yeah kids it was it was It was funny. It was perfect, right? Anyway, they want to play it today again, so we will be playing it. So on that same theme of rating it out of 10, I asked them all to rate this game out of 10.
00:42:00
Speaker
Four 10 out of 10s. Wow. There you go. They love it. They've even said, you know, they'd love to take this to their friend's house when they're having, because a couple of their friends have game nights.
00:42:11
Speaker
And so they'd like to take this to the game nights. Sausage sizzle, maybe not, but just one, definitely. ah And, you know, it even and even got a bit rude at one point. So, um you know, the the word was blow.
00:42:27
Speaker
yeah. Yeah. all And Lauren didn't get it. She didn't get it. I think she, no, did she eventually get it?
00:42:39
Speaker
She eventually got it, yes. But what was even funnier, it's like this it was lucky like her first, second go of it. And the the the word was art.
00:42:53
Speaker
So we had museum, canvas, art,
00:43:01
Speaker
painting and something else. There was another, thought four words that could spell out art for her. She goes, Mona Lisa?
00:43:14
Speaker
So I would just said, Lauren, how the fuck is that a word? One word, yes. We just lost it. we mostly All of us were laughing our heads off. She goes, why, why? Because as soon as you say she goes, well can I take it back? I said, no, that's your word.
00:43:28
Speaker
You're That's your two words. at is anyway My favorite thing about teaching people how to play just one is that they always ask a question. Like, can I put down two words? I'm like, no, the game's called just one.
00:43:40
Speaker
So you can just put one word down and the answer will be just one word. And like, it's so, you just keep saying the game title out, but then invariably someone will guess a two word thing. Yeah. You're like, Hmm.
00:43:51
Speaker
Yes. It was it's hilarious. We, we did, we did Max, he almost fell off his chair.
00:43:59
Speaker
In laughter. and yeah So thank you very much, Asmodee. This game is brilliant. I can't wait to share this at Ball Game Days and and blow everyone's mind around the Erasable Pencils because they are a game-changer.
00:44:15
Speaker
it's um What it did for me, which it's so funny, umve I've mentioned on this podcast before and any other podcast is that my two older kids aren't really into games and Raf is into games.
00:44:26
Speaker
um But my kids being away at boarding school ah this year, they've learnt the benefits of being able to play games, even if it's just card games, just the past time. So my son has been playing a lot of hearts and a lot of poker and my daughter has been playing a lot of trio. I gave her a copy a copy of trio his last year.
00:44:44
Speaker
um And so getting that copy of Just One from Asmodee meant that my old, taddy copy of Just One has now gone back with the kids to boarding school, um as has my additional copy of Flip 7 and my additional copy of Skull.
00:45:02
Speaker
So now they've got like those little games that you just out with friends. and And on top of that, with Seb playing Hearts, that opens up the world of trick-taking that I can eventually get him into. And he loves the game now because it's poker. So that's been that's been really cool. So thank you, Asmodee, for...
00:45:19
Speaker
allowing me to extend out the hobby to the entire boarding cohort uh yeah boarding school that's gonna then you're building up their little board game library yeah yeah um and things in rings i i don't know if i've told you but i i always had things in rings and i ordered a promo when i ordered an all play uh kickstarter and they sent me the whole game and not the promo i'm like oh so i gave them the extra copy of things and rings as well so uh yeah that's uh um I do have to talk about one thing before we go on to the next thing, and it's not a good thing.
00:45:50
Speaker
This is a board game horror night story. and ah You reminded me of it when you were talking about the game day where they you walk past Lucia. So I have that, and I got it on the Kickstarter.
00:46:04
Speaker
Didn't get the super fancy version. I just got the pretty fancy version. So I don't have the the dice tower. That's a piano anyway. So I'm setting it all up for my first game.
00:46:15
Speaker
I'm going through everything, reading through. It's a big game to set up first time and I'm reading the rules and I'm trying to understand it. And I'm like, all right, I think I've got this. And, like the whole, it's a huge table. holeg Like it's a massive table. hole and um yeah I put out all the cards I put out. all There's many different types of cards. It's all out on the desk, all out on the table.
00:46:36
Speaker
Even the stuff I'm not using is out on the table on sides. And I'm literally about to take my first turn of the game. And I knock.
00:46:47
Speaker
a large glass of soft drink i over the entire effing game. Like the whole glass, full coverage.
00:47:00
Speaker
And I, like my kids are watching TV and I'm just like, I've jumped up and I'm saying some unsavory words. um And I'm like, how help, help, help. And they're like, everyone's running with towels and we're toweling shit down. And um it was... all zero right It was like there was like the cardboard um like the cardboard player, one of them was like this, like it was like this is gone.
00:47:26
Speaker
um So we we sat, we put the dehumidifiers all around the table. We laid everything out to dry. Like the main board was lifting, like the the print was lifting off the board.
00:47:41
Speaker
And I'm like, are you effing kidding me? And came down the next morning and look, there's some permanent damage done, but it's it is playable. um The thing is, i was so heartbroken by it that I haven't actually played it.
00:47:55
Speaker
I just, I haven't gone back to setting it up again because that was such an ordeal. um And if I play it again, like I will play it again, but it's like one of those things I saidellala said to Alice, the problem is if I don't like it, I can't even sell it now. It's basically trash.
00:48:10
Speaker
so i'm sure i'll like it because i love distilled and it's made by the same folks but i just oh man it was that was not a good day that was not oh that's devastating you would you know i did post about it on facebook um and i know you're not on facebook so you wouldn't have heard the story so um but yeah and i got a lot of people who were just like there was it was almost one of those things you like you know when something when when you talk to board gamers they're so passionate about their board games that I put it up and I expected some people to be having a dig at me and and and it wasn't. It was like I'd lost a dog or something. Like people were sad for me.
00:48:48
Speaker
They are.
00:48:51
Speaker
I was like, I'm like far out. And the only people that were sort of making jokes were that my non-board gamer friends because they don't they don't understand the connection you have. Where are my board gaming people like, oh, that's so sad. Are you okay?
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
we yeah I said you dialed triple zero, mate. Call triple zero! Well, what it has done, which I have been in the hobby for many years, and I have always been a bit flippant with rules around food and drink. I'm like, you know what? They're games.
00:49:24
Speaker
Now we have a rule. We've got four little side tables that sit on the corner of the tables off the table um that that now house all the food and drink, or mostly drink. We don't really have food at the table, but yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
So lessons were learned, changes were made. All what you do is you make everyone drink from a sippy cup. yeah Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Anyway. ah No, mate. I'm sorry to hear that. That is devastating.
00:49:52
Speaker
Yeah. And loose. yeah Like it couldn't have been like the different Avalier or something or too many bones where it wouldn't have made a liquor difference. Yeah, yeah, like some crappy game that I don't even like. But no, it had to be a game that was humongous, many different components.
00:50:07
Speaker
Even the little wand, you know, the yeah like they send you the what do you call it, like the the um conductor's wand thing? it's this Yeah, <unk>mp is yeah, yeah it needs it needs to see a doctor. But anyway...
00:50:29
Speaker
ah On that unsavoury note, we'll move over to, I guess, the
00:50:44
Speaker
Well, okay. So I've got a bit to talk about here, but I'll i'll be i'll be quick because this episode's going quite long. But I'll throw to you first. Do you have anything news or Kickstarter related? Yeah, just quick one.
00:50:56
Speaker
ah yeah just quick one It's a long while since we've mentioned the old Garfield games on our show, um Secret Societies by Sam McDonald.
00:51:08
Speaker
um Came out during the week and I must admit when I first looked at i was like, eh, don't know. Didn't really jump at me. But then I watched the Shaman Sam playthrough and I was like, actually, mind it.
00:51:23
Speaker
quite good. Yeah. um Yeah. if you want to have a look at it up on Kickstarter, Garfield Games do a YouTube playthrough that goes just over an hour. um But yeah, a lot of back and forth, auction mechanic.
00:51:39
Speaker
and
00:51:42
Speaker
Bit of push your luck, bluffing, a lot of bluffing. And yeah. It was interesting. I watched the reveal, like the, the first big reveal of the game.
00:51:54
Speaker
And I was a bit the same. I'm like, you know, I kind of went in thinking it was going to be like a game of espionage. But then when it was just an auction game about political control, I'm like, oh, that's not really going to grab me. And then they talked a lot about it. And to be honest, the artwork looks a bit bland. I'm assuming that's going to maybe change. but um But then again, I thought it looked a bit smartphone-y, which, you know. Yes, that's what it reminded me of, smartphone.
00:52:21
Speaker
Yeah. um So I was like, yeah, I wasn't too keen. And then, but then it was, um it was actually their description of the game that I went, oh no, they're not taking this too seriously.
00:52:35
Speaker
ah in In my mind, I was like, they've made this, you know, Garfield game, which are quite in-depth and whatever else, about this bizarre situation where there's this weird auction to run the won't run the world, run the galaxies whatever.
00:52:49
Speaker
yeah But no, it's... it's It's a good game, but it is, it's just tongue in cheek fun. Like it it's not, it's not what I thought it was. And that's me putting my, this is another Garfield game hat on, but it's not. So ah yeah, i'm I'm intrigued. I might might actually watch the playthrough because i haven't actually seen it being played, but I, cause I was originally, like, nah, I'm not going to back this, but then I'll come around on it and I may.
00:53:13
Speaker
I recommend you do watch the playthrough. I'm, I'm about 60% to 70% on about backing it at the moment because the playthrough changed my mind. I was not going to back it at all because I even looked at the Kickstarter and I was like scrolling through and I was like, eh.
00:53:28
Speaker
Then I went and listened to Meeple Universities. um They do a how to play of it. And even that, i was like, eh. You know, I actually turned that off within the first two minutes of watching that on YouTube.
00:53:43
Speaker
So then I thought, i saw it yesterday. i had a bit of time. So I watched Sam and Shem playing it. And I was like, i okay, no, I actually get it. And it would be a good, fun game at, you know, probably four players.
00:53:56
Speaker
Yeah. Hmm. And ah similar to say because I watched, like said, I watched the yeah original reveal and he's like, I'm not a big fan of auction games.
00:54:07
Speaker
Um, and I'm not a big fan of auction games. In fact, the only auction games I really like, uh, Nadavali and um ah Furnace and Ra.
00:54:19
Speaker
And he mentioned two of those three in his description of games that kind of gave him some like, okay, well, if it's got that kind of DNA, then okay. So I'll have a look. um I've backed four games that all closed within a week of each other.
00:54:36
Speaker
Well, and with a week within a week, none of each other. um Well, they're actually all expansions except for one. um So I backed the Distilled Cocktails expansion because Distilled is just keeps going up in my estimations.
00:54:50
Speaker
um I backed the Andromeda's Edge expansion because Andromeda's Edge is one of my favorite games. um And even though I said before I wasn't going to go all in on Galactic Cruise, I did back just the expansion but so and and and one of the other two expansions as an add-on that I was after.
00:55:07
Speaker
um And then the other one I backed... which, um, is, has to be the most meta game I've ever seen, um is the game makers.
00:55:18
Speaker
When you across the game makers. Yeah. yeah Very expensive. Oh yeah. we I mean, that's if you go the crazy, there was a tough one because the basic edition comes with like 160 cards and the higher you go, the more cards you get. And the cards are games. So you kind of want to get all the games.
00:55:39
Speaker
yeah But So i was I was humming and harring about it, but um I ended up backing it. um And i've actually it's actually was on it's now in beta on BGA, but I got to play a couple of games of it on Alpha because I did want to know that it wasn't just a ah gimmick. It was actually a decent game.
00:55:57
Speaker
And it is. It's it's kind of cool. It's a pretty cool game. It's like a simultaneous action selection game where you are trying to make these games by gathering the resources needed to make them. And then each of them give the like a different scoring, and almost like that Fantasy Realms thing where well, not so much fantasy realms, but where this game will score, you know, if you have it on whatever things require plastic, if you've got them on the right side, then this will score more points.
00:56:23
Speaker
But then that'll also work against this other one that says that it doesn't want to have plastic in this area. So you've got to try and work out where you place the games in yeah in your library to maximise your victory points. And once placed them, they can't move. So even that, that's a really interesting part of the game that,
00:56:41
Speaker
may you get overlooked if you're playing it for your first time because you're just so interested in, oh, I want to build Terraforming Mars or I want to build my favorite game, you know. um but it's actually, it's all about to play the game well it's also there's actually quite a bit of game there which was why i decided to back it in the end because i was worried it was just going to be a gimmick so but uh yeah looking forward to that one but um yeah that they're all the four the four kickstarters and it was like every other day i got an email saying we've collected your pledge i'm like
00:57:12
Speaker
was actually I was actually, because my wife and I have a guilt-free spending account. So um and that's what all of my Kickstarters come out of. And where was I? Oh, I went out for pizza and um I was putting it on my guilt-free spending and it declined. I'm like, what the hell?
00:57:28
Speaker
And then I've jumped on It's like Kickstarter, Kickstarter, Kickstarter. I'm like oh, that's right. No, that's good. All right. I watched a fair bit of the Game Makers and I was like, nah, it's not for me, this one. Plus it was too expensive, and I thought, from what it was.
00:57:48
Speaker
Yeah. I guess a lot of the expense might be in licensing fees. I'd say so, yeah. yeah and Excellent, mate. Well, shall we get to the result of the 2017 and then we can quickly bang through 2018? Sounds like a plan.
00:58:06
Speaker
Alrighty.
00:58:17
Speaker
Okay, so 2017, definitely scored less than I scored in 2016, but I guess that's expected. But um my total score was 3,127. 3,127. You bastard. Did get again? Yeah.
00:58:31
Speaker
3,541. Oh, close. Yeah. ba that i get you again yeah three thousand five hundred and forty one oh guys It was close.
00:58:45
Speaker
I didn't have anything in the though. Yeah, I think my highest game was maybe 365. Something like that. My highest game was Black Sonata, which was 944. Right. Yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it.
00:59:01
Speaker
What was mine? Oh, no, 880 was my highest, which was Rhino Hero Super Battle. Fox in the Forest, 655. Downforce 48. Where did I pull 365 from?
00:59:14
Speaker
no idea where that number came from. Anyway. No, it's um even this war of mine. You know, one my favourite games.
00:59:28
Speaker
No, that's good. All right, let's get into it. two thousand and eighteen 2018. Lucky dice roll. Flip the coin, roll the die, whatever you want. What do we on odds versus evens? Oh, that's right. got to roll my own die.
00:59:38
Speaker
What am I doing? Yeah. um I'm not paying attention. Dice, dice, dice, dice. I didn't bring a dice. I have to use digital dice. I was not prepared.
00:59:55
Speaker
All right, roll. Come on.
01:00:02
Speaker
Oh, that's lot of dice. um All right, I rolled one. Okay, that's good. I rolled a five.
01:00:12
Speaker
My number one, Ross Birmingham. Shocker. Ross Birmingham, number one. Locking in a one-pointer.
01:00:24
Speaker
I like it. That's the only time this can happen. The only time it can happen in the next, you however many years we go through until things change. Yeah. yeah All right. Well, that leaves it open for me to just go to my favourite game of this. And actually, you know what? I should just leave it because you're never going to pick it.
01:00:41
Speaker
Like, you're never going to pick this game. So, you know what? I'm actually going to leave it. going to go somewhere else first that you will pick unless you're just going to be a shark and take it from me. But I will go with Architects of the West Kingdom.
01:00:53
Speaker
Great game that we both love. Yep. Yep. That is great game that we both love. right. My number two. I hate the game, but I think it's going to be up the list somewhere. you Don't you dare. I just didn't take it, you bastard.
01:01:05
Speaker
It's in there. Obsession.
01:01:11
Speaker
Not happy, Shane. Oh, just, hey, we're going play it. We're going to play the game. I was going to pick it first, and then I was like, nah, you ain't going to touch that with Tempted Barge Pohl. But here you go, everyone. Shane just chose as his second game from 2018, Obsession. He might say that he doesn't like it, but I like it. I reckon. can Absolutely not.
01:01:33
Speaker
Well, now that changes the game. Now I just want to pick something that you like just to spite you. um because that's how we should play this game. and Well, i'm going to play I'm going to pick a game that I don't like just because it's high rated and screw you.
01:01:48
Speaker
And that will be that will be Root. There we go. and That was on there. It was on there, you bastard.
01:01:56
Speaker
And for the record, no, I don't like Root. I've never liked Root. I tried so hard, but no, not and for me.
01:02:05
Speaker
I'm not going to. I can't take this one from you. I won't try. I think I'm... so Maybe I don't know which one you're talking about, but maybe. I'm not going to take it from you. My next one, number three, is Quacks of Quedlinburg. Yeah, yeah. That's another cracker.
01:02:26
Speaker
Well, I'll jump in and take a game that I love that's on this list. It might not score the greatest, but I can't have you shark another game off me. So Smartphone Inc.,
01:02:38
Speaker
Oh, that was it. Okay. Yep. Oh, yeah. Number four, Western Legends.
01:02:47
Speaker
Okay, yep. Another good game. change Well, that was good because I was worried you were going to take this one off me. So, Space Base. Oh, you bastard. That was my next one.
01:03:00
Speaker
You can get angry at me, but you could have taken that instead of Obsession. That's all I'm saying. I'm taking TO as my number five then.
01:03:08
Speaker
Yeah. these I left that there for a while, didn't know Yeah, you did. Second favorite game of all time. Too long. Yeah. i
01:03:23
Speaker
To be honest, I didn't even see T.O. on the list. and i would have taken that first. um That's on me.
01:03:31
Speaker
I'm just looking at what to go with
01:03:38
Speaker
All right. Um, I think it's time for a left field game. As you know, I'm colorblind.
01:03:46
Speaker
So you would think that a game about colors wouldn't appeal to me, but illusion is a color game that i absolutely love. Great little card game. So illusion is my next one. Let's play it.
01:03:57
Speaker
Uh, my number six is Nemesis.
01:04:08
Speaker
Awesome fun themed game. There we go. it's um It's still a game I have not got to the table. Well, that's not true. I got to the table, but never played.
01:04:19
Speaker
you're ever, ever going to play it, you just need to play it and Troy run the game. I have heard that from many people. So I will make sure that that is the case when I eventually do get to play it. All right.
01:04:31
Speaker
So that you're taking that. I'm going to go with
01:04:37
Speaker
um okay I think i i'm I'm not going to pick Dice Throne because Dice Throne Season 2. So to me, that would just be Dice Throne.
01:04:48
Speaker
And that's not from this year. So I'm going to leave that one. But I'm going to go with a game that I've had for years, which is a great game to have at the table. And that is Camel Up. And it is the second edition.
01:04:59
Speaker
So it isn't technically a 2018 game. But the 2018 version makes the game better because it has the crazy camels in it and the better production. So I actually think it's different enough. as opposed to Dice Throne, which is the same game with more characters. So Kemalup Second Edition is my next one. My next one, which is number seven, is a game that I would play any day of the week over Terraforming Mars, and that is Underwater Cities.
01:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Never really grabbed me, that one. Played it a couple of times and went, yeah, I understand why people like it, but it wasn't for me. but um And because I'm stupid... um I'm going to take Dice Throne Season 1 because I didn't realize it came out in the same year. i was just looking at Dice Throne Season 2.
01:05:43
Speaker
Season 1 came out the same year. I wasn't going to tell you. yeah ah
01:05:49
Speaker
yeah ah Number 8. How many have you done? so This will be my number 8. Okay, cool. ah Just one. Might as well throw it in there.
01:06:00
Speaker
Thanks, Desmonday. The aforementioned just one. And you know what I say about that selection, seeing as that we just talked about it? I say that's pretty clever. ah Well done.
01:06:12
Speaker
Well done. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine.
01:06:21
Speaker
Okay. this Do I go one that's probably going to be lower than... It has to be there. I like it. We play it for our game group, Vindication. Fair enough. Yep. I'm not going to choose that. So you're, ah you're, yes I'm not even upset.
01:06:37
Speaker
Um, what I am going to do is going to choose a game that you have played that I really want. Um, but I've never played, um, two player game, fancy components.
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah. You're going to steal it. Go on. War chest. War chest is my game I haven't played that I'm putting on the list. That was my number 10.
01:06:59
Speaker
It's an excellent game. Excellent game. And youve got to have all the expansions because it just takes it to another level. A guy was selling it with everything and I was like, um I'll buy it. And he's like, oh, and local pickup only. I'm like, dude, not only will I pay for shipping, I'll also give you 20 bucks extra if you just s send it to me. He's like, no.
01:07:19
Speaker
Can I do what I can do? should have told me. I could have gone and got it for you. and From Tasmania? Oh, no, not from Tasmania. No.
01:07:28
Speaker
and
01:07:30
Speaker
All right, number 10 was going to be War Test. Instead, I reckon this will be pretty high up, Everdell. Yeah, yeah. It's a safe bet.
01:07:42
Speaker
um All right, so last one. Let's go something cool. Dice Run Season 2? No, I'm not going to do that. Okay.
01:07:51
Speaker
Looking at the games, these are the games that I've played out of that year. Oh, you know what? I'm going to go for a big epic game that I used to love, but kind of got ruined by, not ruined, but one of those ones where, know, when you have a game that you love and then you have a bad play of it and then it's hard to go back to?
01:08:09
Speaker
Well, this was what happened to this game. Then I went back to it and I had another bad game of it. So it was even harder to get back to the table. But I have had some absolute epic games of this, and that is Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea.
01:08:23
Speaker
It's a good game. All right, That's our 10. Oh, yeah. That's our 10. Excellent. There's a real, i don't know if you noticed this, but on that 2019 list, a friend of the show, Martin Wallace, he had three games out that year.
01:08:41
Speaker
Yeah, right. There you go. And Ryan can see probably had this 25.
01:08:49
Speaker
But, yeah, no, that's good. There's just some cracking games that didn't get mentioned that, like, you know, there's so many. Like there's Zombicide that came out that year. Shards of Infinity came out that year. My Little Sly, which is a great game.
01:09:05
Speaker
Star Rail Frontiers is a brilliant game too. Raccoon Tycoon. Yeah. Just like the more you scroll down, you're like, wow. Australia, which I'm really keen to play. I haven't got it to the table yet. Well, I don't own it, but I'm waiting to play Fuel's game of it.
01:09:21
Speaker
He raves about it. there's um There's also um the first of the city versions of Ticket to Ride came out that year, the Ticket to Ride New York. New York.
01:09:34
Speaker
Yeah. Endeavor Age of Sail, which I haven't played, but I love Endeavor Deep Sea. so I'm sure I'd like that too. Yeah, loads of good games. Chronicles of Crime. None of us took crimes Chronicles of Crime.
01:09:46
Speaker
I've never played it. Oh, I've played it, but it's, uh, I probably should have chosen it. I've played a lot of it, but it didn't make the list. Loads of good games. Lots of good games, except for Obsession.
01:09:59
Speaker
I disagree. Obsession's a great game. Um, what was the game that I took off you that I don't even like? No, think i like it.
01:10:10
Speaker
um I stole one off you straight off. Space base. Space base is great though. I love space base. Yeah. Well then that will conclude another episode. Apologies for the delay between shows. We'll try and get the next one up a little bit quicker.
01:10:27
Speaker
um The goal, my understanding, and I'll edit this out of my machine. The goal is we're going to keep going through the years until we get to 2024. And then the following episode after that is going to be our,
01:10:40
Speaker
We're going to start our countdown to our favourite games all time? Yeah, I think so. That'd be great idea. And we'll stay it live on on on the podcast so we can guilt her into it later. But our intention is to have a special guest for that episode those episodes, the the the top games of all time, which is Ingrid. So we know Ingrid listens to the podcast. So there you go Ingrid. You're on record as being requested, ah seconded to the to the Mate Let's Play podcast to do your top games of all time.
01:11:09
Speaker
to Start making your list. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we've got plenty plenty of warning because far out it took us a month and a half to get from 2017 to 2018. Who knows when we're going to be done? We'll also say it live too. We'll be getting together next weekend too to run 2019. Yeah, well, we go back to normality this weekend. The school holidays are over and, you know, my kids have gone back home back to boarding. So, it's ah yeah, like the weekends are a lot easier to coordinate now than they have been. Yeah.
01:11:39
Speaker
That's good, mate. Well, thank you. Thank you, everyone. And again, thank you to Asmodee for the review copies of the games. um When you can bring my family to a table, that's a pretty good bloody game.
01:11:50
Speaker
That's right. And just on that too, we did say we'll do Battle of Hoth this week. We're actually going to review that next week. we just want to get out I just want to get a few more plays in it, actually, before i talk about it.
01:12:02
Speaker
I did have a play a few weeks ago, but it wasn't. um i Honestly, I'd have to remind myself of what happened in that game because the reality was it was really easy to play because I've played loads of Memoir 44. So just the big difference has been the deck of cards, but I'll talk about more of it when I play it again.
01:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, good, mate. right. Well, thank you, everyone. Take care. Have a great week. See you. And go Bronco. still.