Transcript
Speaker: Roll the dice, pack your bags, let the countdown begin Shane and Steve's top 100, who's gonna win? Will Steve crown a feast for Odin his number one prize? will shit real confusion take Shane by surprise?
Speaker: Let the countdown swing! Skid-a-da-da-ba-dum-bam!
Speaker: Steve here from the editing room for, again, you may recall at the end of the last episode, I mentioned that we're cutting the episode short. This is starting from number 30, but there's no introduction because we recorded it all as one episode.
Speaker: You will recall that both Shane and Phil mentioned train games, which is why I lead into the next game with Speaking of Trains. Speaking of Trains.
Speaker: Speaking of trains, my number 30 is a train game. Hang on. We've done a three train crossover here. Ticket's right. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: And yours. Okay, it's a train crossover. Train crossover. And in what era was Snowdonia set? Oh, God, it's got to be...
Speaker: It was steam age because it was steam engines that went up there to start with. So probably a similar time to Ticket to Ride. So like that 1890s to 1920s kind of vibe.
Speaker: Brass, Ticket to Ride, yeah. So mine is not that. Mine is set in the 2100s, I think, where they're upgrading all of the subway systems with magnetic levitation rail.
Speaker: And this is Maglev Metro. I want to play this game. It's really cool. It's essentially a pick-up-and-deliver game, but you're also building the routes, and it's got some cool things that you've got to keep in your head, like the other train games kind of have, but it on a board like this, it makes it's harder to train your brain that way, where if you're because it's magnetic levitation, you can't just go one stop, turn around, and come back.
Speaker: You've got to go to the end of your line. because it's running that way. Like, it's that's the way that the the magnets are pushing you, I guess, you know? And then you've got to be coming all the way to the back. And you take a whole action to turn around if you decide to break that.
Speaker: But the coolest thing about this game is when you're building the tracks, they're clear hexes that you're placing on the map. Because it's subway, so it's underground. So every player can have a tile on the one space and you can see all the four colors of the tiles um from the top.
Speaker: And so you can build your own lines all over the map without anyone blocking your space, I guess, which is just super cool. It's one of those, we play it a lot at three player.
Speaker: And every time I play it at three player because of our color preference choices, the green is always left out and it sits in between, think it's the blue and the red on all of the tracks. So it just looks really disappointing. Like I almost want to put it down just so you get all four colors in a row looking nice and pretty.
Speaker: But yeah, great, great game. Again, Ted Alsbach, which he's been involved with a lot of the Age of Steam maps. So there's just maps galore. Like I've got i got the – Was he suburbia guy?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So there's just maps galore. I've got another map. I just got a notification in the post today that my Maglev Maps 2 is getting sent out. um this second That's the second Mapbox expansion. We've got like London, New York, Berlin, Mars, the moon.
Speaker: um some other place that i can't remember off the top of my head, and there's more, another 12 coming. So, yeah, great game. Definitely worth trying if you're into route building, but maybe a bit over the 18xx theme. This is a futuristic version. So, yeah.
Speaker: Nice. Great choice, mate. My number 30 is Battle Yahtzee. Hey, yeah. And it is my... Tokyo?
Speaker: King of Tokyo. My boys love this game. And we love it. Again, taught it to my nephew. bought the game from a my nephew as well.
Speaker: And um we love playing this game as a family. So Father's Day is this weekend. And Lauren said, what do you want to Do you want to go out for dinner?
Speaker: said, no. I just want to order some pizza in and play a couple of board games. So... I'm sure King of Tokyo will hit the table, plus potentially maybe some magical athlete.
Speaker: Yeah, cool. That's so much fun. All right, this is your chance to shine, Shane. This is my highest-placed Martin Wallace game.
Speaker: Well... I'm going to throw Nanty knocking in there as a guess. no No, I actually own it, so I don't own Nantinarchian. You own it?
Speaker: Bloodsense?
Speaker: It's by Eagle Griffin Games. Okay.
Speaker: Production quality through the roof. Oh, yeah, yeah. Shit.
Speaker: I don't know how my Google's going on, but... It's an epic game. Ships. Ships. Ships in the front car.
Speaker: Struggle of Empires. Yep. Yep, okay. Never played it. Cannot wait to play it. i It's one of those moments where I got to play with Martin.
Speaker: We were over Gil's house and I said I wanted to play this game. He says, I've got it set up. I've got Martin to come and teach us. It's like, yeah, I'm there.
Speaker: We are very spelt in the Queensland corner, aren't we? He lives up the road and yet he comes down and he we play test a lot of his games. It's pretty cool.
Speaker: But um It's like you're one of the old school, like in the 15th century, I'd say, where you're like, you're Spain, England, Portugal, or you're the the congus conquistadors going out into the world and exploring the new world.
Speaker: And it's very historical. So there are bits that annoy people because you can go to Africa and get slaves and drop off to America for money. and But it's it's all historically accurate. It's nothing malicious.
Speaker: And it's based over three wars or three eras. And the really cool bit is that at the beginning of each war,
Speaker: You bid to see what's on each side. So if you want to spend your money and resources, you can pick what side you want to be on. It might cripple you later in the game because you haven't the money to do what you want to do, but but it makes it really easy, especially mid-game, where all of a sudden it's like, oh, God, Shane next to me, he's really strong.
Speaker: I'll pay an extra couple of dollars to make sure he's on my side so he can't attack me. So I've got this free so I can go here and go against him who's weak to my left. But you still you still have options like piracy and rebellion, which you can do little sneaky like underhand tactics against your allies.
Speaker: So it's just it a seven-player game, and you need to play it at the maximum amount. And we were over in three hours.
Speaker: A seven-player game in three hours with yeah you know it's a lot of civ building and exploration. It's like a 4X game, but a Wallace one.
Speaker: It was fantastic. It's a great game. I've heard great things about the game. Can't wait to look at looking at playing with you one day. and but Martin, what they don't know a lot about Martin, he is a historian.
Speaker: He does a lot of research. He's a history teacher before he became board gazoon, though, right? Yeah, he was. So we are spoiled.
Speaker: well Well, let's keep the Martin Wallace love fest going then because line number 29 is not a Martin Wallace game. But it is a Martin Wallace game in the sense that he loves this game and he's pretty ruthless when he plays it too.
Speaker: there know We all know this. This is, yeah, Dune Imperium. i Kraken game has been in my top five before. So fallen away a little bit, just merely from not getting to the table as often.
Speaker: ah It is because it's linked to an IP. Some people don't want to play it, which is a shame because if they did, they'd realise it's an outstanding game. But yeah, if you haven't played it, give it a go. And you know the best thing about this board game is such a great board game that it spawned an entire book series, movie series and all those things came purely just based on this. well that's at least how I found out about it all. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, obviously I knew that Dune was a thing, but this was my first venture and it's led me to find all those other stuff. so yeah like And it was an awesome game with a nice memorable game with you and me.
Speaker: Yes, yes, for all the wrong reasons. No, for the right reasons, but for the wrong person. on it They were very clever. they They jumped on the new movie IP, so, you know the the characters of,
Speaker: The movie, the cartoon versions of the movie characters. You know, you've got Paul Atreides and you know you go David Batista and all. ah all I think it's very, very, very well done.
Speaker: If anything, I think the reason it's probably dropped away a little bit is because I feel like they're just putting out too much stuff to keep up with. Like, the base game was great. They had a couple expansions which added the ability to trash cards, which was a problem with the base game. they changed They made Uprising, which was like a 1.5 version of it.
Speaker: And every other week, there's like, oh, there's a new expansion and I've just lost track. So... It's getting a bit swamped by its own mass, I feel. I've noticed on BG, the Board Game Geek, Uprising has gone above Imperium now by a point.
Speaker: and Because you've got the worms and you can ride worms and put them into battle and stuff like that, which is all cool. But when you've invested $200 in the original game, it's hard to go and buy a game which is the same game with a bit of a different board.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. I mean, i have, but it's yet it was frustrating. and
Speaker: I'm waiting for somebody else in our group to buy it. I think Shane sold his in the last. Yeah, did. I sold the whole lot. Because we had the big box with the upgrade bits, so he didn't have to use cubes. He had figures. And and they both bought it at the same time from...
Speaker: 2d6 games. And so I've got the big box sitting there with the expansions in it. I love the game and a fantastic app by direwolf games as well. Absolutely fantastic. If you want to play on, on the app, is it that much better to justify
Speaker: yeah another? or hundred those It's great. Uprising is great. But so is Dune Imperium. I don't think it's... It's not blowing anyone's mind. like like I always go back to the crew. The change from the first crew to the second crew.
Speaker: Crew was a game I loved. Second crew was so much better. Dune Imperium was a game I loved. Dune Imperium Uprising is probably better, but just a little bit. like It's not like it's blowing it out of the water.
Speaker: it's like that I'm to do a spoiler alert. I think Uprising will be... in someone else's top 10 versus Dune Imperium.
Speaker: That's it. Gonna just pause it right there. This is where I think spoiler alert might come in. I've got Twilight Imperium 3 and it's it's never been played. It's sitting in this big coffin box and thinking like, and all these new expansions are coming out of a TI4 and it's like, is this, is the game that much better?
Speaker: Can I justify $600 to buy TI4, TI4 expansion 1 and TI4 expansion 2 for a game what you've already got? Yeah. And this is sometimes a little bit frustrating when the revamp games, isn't it? When you've got all in on the original.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah I agree. So anyway, it's I mean, still, either way, like, I haven't got Uprising on my list elsewhere. it's This is the entry for both of them as far as I'm concerned because they are basically the same game.
Speaker: The same game. I think so, yeah. All right, my number 29. I don't think anyone's going to guess this. It's a compact card day got card game about medieval monks building the most valuable library.
Speaker: His key mechanics includes card drafting, set collection, auctions, and hand management. I think that With theme focused on collecting manuscripts, pigments, holy books, and scribes. Does it begin with B?
Speaker: Yeah, it's Biblios. It begins with B. It is Biblios. High five, Steve. Virtual high five. Don't tell us we're never going to guess things. I love Biblios.
Speaker: Bibios was one of my first games I ever bought in my board gaming venture. So when you when you reflect back on 2017, I think it was sam's one of Sam's top tens.
Speaker: It still stays in my top ten. It still stays in my top board games all time because it's brilliant. Bibios is an awesome fun card game.
Speaker: 29, Bibios.
Speaker: So is that your 19, so is number my number 9? Your number 9, mate. We're up to 29, you're 20 in front. Okay, so my um my number 9 is rated 466 on BoardGameGeek.
Speaker: It's by a guy called Eric Lang. Okay. Blood Rage, right? Yeah, that's too low for Blood Rage. Yeah, it's too low.
Speaker: maybe And it's also one of the favourite games of something you've had on your podcast. Yeah. If you like people being drowned in the Hudson, this is the game for you. Corleone's the Godfather.
Speaker: Godfather, Corleone's Empire. It's exactly right. Don't think that'll be the last time we hear about that either. It won't be the last time. 466 on Board Game Geek. That's a travesty, man.
Speaker: It's better than Blood Rage, which is in the top 100. But there you go. That's my opinion. Mate, I can't hide you. okay It's game. It's an awesome game that we all love playing.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Well, ah I'm trying to make segues. So keeping with the theme of blowing things up, my number 28 is Bomb Busters. So this is a great deduction game, lots of fun.
Speaker: Helen and I have worked through about half of the missions. There's 66 missions that come in the base box. And I say the base box, there is no expansions yet, but I'm sure they're coming. But just a fantastic, easy, simple to teach deduction game where It sort of creates that that ah keep talking and someone or someone explodes um game, but in a board game sense and isn't a stupid big social reduction game. It's just, you know, two, three or four or even five players at once. So, yeah, great game. Bomb Busters, just I can't get enough of Played it heaps.
Speaker: Played it at PlayCon with Ingrid Shane. I don't disagree. It good fun. Really good fun.
Speaker: My number 28 is a new game of the list. A game that within about two months ago i was probably in sitting in my full sale pile.
Speaker: If you all know what this is. As soon as I said that. Condottieri. Condottieri. Condottieri. It's such a good game.
Speaker: Nick hates it, by the way. Pastor Nick hates the game. But he beats us. but I don't understand it. He beats us in the game, but he hates it. um I love it.
Speaker: It's just area majority. You're bluffing your way through. You're trying to battle. You've got to manage your hand. Awesome. Awesome game. It's going to stay in my collection.
Speaker: So for a game that I was going to sell... So now it's sitting against my number 28. It's a trick-taking game when it comes down to it. It's an area majority trick-taking game.
Speaker: But what I love about it is that you can just pass out of the trick and keep your cards because you only have 10 cards for the whole round. If you blow them all in one round, you gain one area.
Speaker: And then you're gone. on You can't even play. Everybody else is playing around you.
Speaker: I think it was... I've not played it, no. No, who taught it to me? It was a board game barbecue... um Probably Mitch. Mitch, yes. Yeah, Mitch loves it.
Speaker: And when we played it, I looked at my cards and on everybody was starting going super hard. And I went, pass. And then next round, pass. And then I went, dunk, dunk, dunk. I won three areas in a row next to each other on one. And he went, shit.
Speaker: was like, everybody else had just blown all their good cards on the first two hands. And I was like, I just had them all sitting in there. And i was just like, they wouldn't let me do that again. But the first day was, it was just like, yeah, I like this game. This is cool. It's a good game.
Speaker: really good game. My number 28. So my number eight. My number eight, the only thing that's missing in this game is a guy strapped to the front of a truck playing a guitar with flames coming out of it.
Speaker: It is Thunder Road Vendetta. Thunder Road Vendetta, yep. It is. I thought, this sounds cool. i just I'll pick it up. And we played it that night five times in a row.
Speaker: There was helicopters, there was cars smashing into mountains. It was just so much ridiculous fun with no strategy, no thing. It's just like, you could you were just vindictive. was like, he shot my one. I'm going to blow him up with a helicopter. It was just, yeah and everybody was just laughing. It was just literally, it was Mad Max Fury Road, the board game. It was fantastic.
Speaker: Nice. great i can go get right can we hear it okay Well, my number 27 is my one and only venture into a CCG.
Speaker: So I never got into magic. I never got into Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon or all those ones. But I did get into Star Wars Unlimited and my son and I play it a lot. We haven't spent a lot of money. We've got the bait base set and we bought, I think, a booster box for it and a booster box for one other season. And we've just sort of mixed them, mixed and matched those together.
Speaker: And we have a lot of fun. it's I'm terrible. Like my win rate is probably... we We kept playing because I kept making the joke that you know we played first. I'm like, all right, best of three. All right, best of five.
Speaker: I think I stopped doing that when we got to best of 31 because i kept losing. ah um So Rafa is very very much better than me at this game, but I just love building the decks.
Speaker: I recently built a new deck and... One of the things about this game is it seems like it can be over pretty quick, so you might not see a lot of the cards in your deck. So then you think, okay, I'll buy cheap cards, put cheap cards on my deck so i can get more out.
Speaker: And I was playing a new deck I built the other day and I'm like, oh, hang on, this engine allows me to buy expensive cards. So now I've gone back and I've thrown a handful of expensive cards, more hard-hitting cards in that deck because it just works with that build where every other build I've done...
Speaker: it would never work. You'd get these great cards, but you wouldn't be able to afford to play them. So ah just it's really quick from what I understand. Most CCGs, you do a few things where this is literally do one thing, opponent's turn, do one thing, opponent's turn. So very quick back and forth.
Speaker: It sounds very similar to magic. It's literally, you you play a land card, you've ah you've got a specific bunch of turns. You go untap, upkeep, draw, play card,
Speaker: attack, play a secondary card, and pay your upkeep and stuff. And exactly what you said, that that was the the joy of magic is like you've you've got a deck that you've been playing, but of sudden the card comes up and goes, oh, if I put that in here, I'll take this out here and put it.
Speaker: All of a sudden it just changes the whole dynamic. The deck building of those card games is half the fun. yeah You know, you get the guys who just go on the internet and go, oh, this is the competition. I need this card, this card, this card.
Speaker: but We were all, but we used to, we'd start at seven o'clock at night. And we'd finish at seven in the morning with like 10 pizzas and two bottles of bourbon gone. here's like I just playing through it and it'd be like, oh, it's light, it's time to go to bed. And we just literally play. And one of our friends, a Brazilian guy, bought a world championship deck.
Speaker: And we and soon as soon he turned out and he called it his machine, he'd drive it around the table, go, my machine. So we just picked cards, which we just demolished.
Speaker: yeah And it was a competition to see who could make him whimper first.
Speaker: He'd I'm going to do this. Oh, I'll do this. And go, I win. ah The other cool thing about, I don't know whether this is in Magic, i I don't think it is, but you I might be wrong, is that when you draw cards at the end of each round, you draw two cards and you have the option of making one of them a resource or keeping both of them. So it's that multi-use thing where you can either keep them in your card to play them or you have or the only way you can pay for cards is with your unused resource cards that you place down. and So you've got a juicy decision at the end of every round.
Speaker: That's really cool because the one bad thing about magic is if you don't draw your lands, you can't do shit. Right. Okay. Yeah. So like if you don't have at least two land cards and you're opening seven cards, you've got to mulligan and have another go or mulligan and have another go. And each time you mulligan, you get one less card.
Speaker: Okay. And if you're shit out of luck, you end up with a handful of shit. that you can't. And you can't do anything. The other guy is just, I'm going hit you for one.
Speaker: No, I'll take I'm going hit you for five. Yeah, I'll take it. Because you just don't have, if you haven't got the land, which you've got a tap for mana to cast a spell, you don't have any defenses. You don't have nothing. So it's, magic can be brutal that way.
Speaker: Whereas your game sounds a bit more forgiving. From my understanding, it just from the little bit of research I've done, the the the selling point is that it doesn't do anything new, but it picks really good bits from a bunch of different CCGs.
Speaker: So yeah it's like a best of, I guess, sort of thing. yeah ah The idea of you can actually play a card as ah as a mana card.
Speaker: Genius.
Speaker: you go. So that is my number 27, another money pit that I'm trying to avoid jumping down, Star Wars Unleaded. And I do have the base game of that.
Speaker: And I'm yet to play it, to be honest. So looking forward to it. and My number 27 is a crossover with the young man the left of me down the bottom corner, Mr. Lucky Phil.
Speaker: Um... And this game is deal making, risk, dramatic reversals, key mechanics are tile placement, area majority, dice rolling, negotiation, push your luck, where the ownership changes.
Speaker: The theme centered around developing your Las Vegas strip, baby. This is Lords of Vegas, number 27. Such a, such a good game.
Speaker: game i love it it's just love it mean fun mean fun mate it will climb this will climb the more i play it this will easily creep into my top 10 because it is mean fun phil you're absolutely right i was in the i went to the mango hill ball game night oh god years ago and
Speaker: Josh and Helen, they don't but have got other commitments. They don't get there anymore, but they they had it. And they've got they had the neoprene map. They had the lot. they said, oh, we're going to play this. And I looked at it, and it it looked underwhelming, to say the least.
Speaker: is It's just a grid. You had a neoprene map of a grid. I went, oh, yeah, I'll play it. Halfway through it, it was just like, oh, God, I've got to get this game for our group, is so mean. And, there's a lot of randomness, but also a lot of strategy as well going into it. it's You played her a lot as well, didn't you, Steve, with your – Yeah, I got the original version, the old one. And it's – yeah, you're right. it's
Speaker: The randomness is there, but it's a game about Las Vegas. So that makes sense. Yep. And it's it's awesome. love it that yeah Love it. My number 27.
Speaker: Lords of Vegas.
Speaker: Well, my number seven has been mentioned not so long ago. It's Dune Imperium. Yeah, lovely.
Speaker: Gosh, you've been close to some direct cross-service. look it's It's a... yeah I love the worker placement aspect of it where you've actually got to use, so you've got a hand management, but you then they actually cost you to place your workers.
Speaker: I love that that that weight that sort of synergy that it's like, oh, I'm going to go over here and it's like, crap, i don't have a I don't have a green card. I can't place him there, but I need that to do this. And he's like, oh, what am I going to do? It's like, I love i think it's very, very clever game.
Speaker: And yeah, love it. Brilliant game. Good choice. Good choice. Obviously, no disagreement here. ah My number 26 is another card game, but not a CCG, but a ah LCG, I think is the term. And this one is about superheroes, and it is Marvel Champions. has Has had a bit of a rebirth this year. Yeah, was going to say, that was very low on your list at one stage, wasn't it?
Speaker: Low as in below, where it like as in a like a higher number. So it's been both. When it first came out, it was in my top 10. I loved it. And then I just stopped playing it for years because it fell into that hole of you're having too much stuff. and You got done by the bloat.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And so I stopped buying stuff and I was just buying it and sleeving it, putting it in there and never playing it. But this year I made an effort to get it out. And Raph is at that age now where he's he's just about 13.
Speaker: He loves it. And it's either this or Star Wars Unlimited. When we go to play a game, he's like, they're the two games that he wants to play. And he usually, if he chooses one, we'll finish it and he goes, all right, now i want to play the other one.
Speaker: So these two being next to each other in a list is kind of serendipitous because that's kind of how we play them. But we we we haven't even really gotten into the scenarios. We just pick a bad, pick a couple of goods and have a big fight and have a great time. So <unk> it's rekindled my love for this game. That is Marvel, isn't it?
Speaker: yeah Yeah. He's like, let's have a crossover, pick a bad guy, let's smack him. Yeah, and Raph's not seen any of the X-Men movies. So I'm pulling out like Cyclops and all these characters from X-Men and he's like, oh, he's not interested in them. But then then they do some cool shit and he's like, oh, maybe i need to go and watch these movies. so You come in, boy.
Speaker: and shout out Shout out to Pastor Nick because him and he his son at the moment are doing all the Marvel movies that lead into Doomsday.
Speaker: Okay, yeah, and what's sort of a back-to-back so good on you Nick my 25 26 26 is a crossover with Ingrid and that is Clans of Caledonia Yeah, nice Good game.
Speaker: It's up there and I actually think I like playing this game more live than I do on BGA. And was taught this game by Def and Dimi at your birthday.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And Dimi would have smashed it for sure. Dimi killed us. smashed us. And, um, okay. Um, I like it. I just want to play it more live than I do on BGA. So Clans of Camelania is my number 26. Nice one.
Speaker: It's not recorded. They're only recording. Good night, Adrian. She said good night.
Speaker: She said good night. All
Speaker: right. So, Phil, we're down to the nitty-gritty top six. What was the last one you were talking about? Sorry, but I got the... head You had your wife the room, so we can understand why you got distracted.
Speaker: Clans of Caledonia. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, my number six, I think this guy has only designed one game, but his support for it is amazing.
Speaker: Could this be? Sorry. And it is one of Shane's favorite games ever. Yes, I think this is it. Obsession. Yes, what a great choice. A marvellous choice, Phil. Fantastic.
Speaker: It's not quite up there with Shit Real, but it's up there. Oi, mate, this is a game by Dan Halligan. And it's wrote everywhere. A game by Dan Halligan.
Speaker: A game by Dan Halligan. Because he... It's is his one game and he just devolves it. yeah And it always gets better when he evolves it it. It just seems to just get, he listens to all the feedback that people say and fixes his game.
Speaker: He hasn't got 20 different games that he needs to um level. He's just got his one. And yeah, it's fantastic. I love it.
Speaker: Yeah, it's so like it so plug and play, isn't it? It's like, oh, do you like a do you want the market to move quicker than it does? Okay, well, I've added this rule. You can do that now. do you Would you prefer if the the monuments aren't as strong? Okay, well, here's a whole new set of monuments if you want to play them with less fame. Do you want to know earlier when what the fairchilds want?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, you can roll a dice and it might be a couple of times. Earlier or? Yes, just... ah
Speaker: Are still awake there, Shane? Sorry, we've set him to sleep with the brilliance of Dan Halligan. So I'll move on and we'll go to my number two. Down the man, six. Down the man.
Speaker: yeah ah Number 25 for me is I think the newest game that i own that made, so not the newest game that came out, but it is fairly new. but it's the newest game that I own that made the list.
Speaker: And I only recently spoke about it on a recent episode before we started our top 100. And I talked about how it may or may not have eclipsed Hadrian's Wall as my favorite Roland Rutt. um not yet I'm not in a position to answer that question at the moment, but Tend, T-E-N-D, Tend, is outstanding. And Shane, you mentioned but that, talked about a game that might keep going up on your list.
Speaker: This is on, like, this is after four or five plays, like hardly any plays. And every time it just gets so much better. It's like the first time I played it, I won with a score of 84.
Speaker: ah On the weekend, I lost with a score of 205 or something. Like, we're just getting better and better at it. Like, it just grows. And pardon the pun, because, like, you are growing stuff in the game. But you're growing, you're mining, you're fishing, you're you're chopping through forests.
Speaker: And it's just ah just combo central. So many cool ways to score points. So many different strategies. Yeah, just if you haven't played it yet, get yourself haven't yet somewhere where someone's got a copy. don't Don't go and spend all the money just yet because it might not be for you because you can spend a lot of money on it. But, man, it's just I've been pretty well blown away. What are you coming it's i don't know if i'll be able to fit it in my luggage. so'll see It's nearly Gloomhaven size, but there is a smaller standard edition, but I don't have that. i've got the fancy deluxe edition, but um yeah, worth worth definitely checking out. Tend is my number 25. Nice.
Speaker: My number 25 is a Western-themed town-building game set during the Titanic Gold Rush. Yeah, of course you would do. Go. Coloma.
Speaker: Well done. Coloma, super fun. Johnny Park, one of my favorite board game designers. This game is just brilliant.
Speaker: and Again, you can't be me. So, call him one of a 20. 25. Was there issues about supplying through Kickstarter or something like that with that? Yeah, yeah. yeah the The second printing, the company broke with the tariffs when the tariffs came in.
Speaker: and To Johnny Pack's credit, he said he would honor... all the games that were purchased during the Kickstarter. um And he came out and it's such a good game.
Speaker: and I think I played it. i think you weren't in that game though, were you, Steve? we have played it at your house once. Yes. We played it community centre with Shane Ingrid and another lady who joined us.
Speaker: Yep. so Such a fun game. Climber, number 25.
Speaker: My number five is good old Jamie Stegmaier. It's Viticulture, but it is with the Tuscany expansion in it.
Speaker: Yeah, good call. And I've just got... the Bordeaux expansion. So I'm quite keen to get that to the table to see how that changes things up because it's supposed to speed it up a lot, which might, which will be pretty good because the one thing they said about viticulture, it could drag it a little bit in the middle game.
Speaker: So I never found it that way, but yeah. Viticulture, love the game. Another worker placement game and Jamie's the king.
Speaker: Oh, there we go. We made it pretty obvious, I thought, that's that Jamie was going to be the guy. But no arguments here. You can't. The guy knows how to run a board game business. There's no doubt. You can't.
Speaker: anyone Anyone who doesn't like Jamie, I feel like, is just tall poppy syndrome. Look, they slug off his new games. OK, look, well, Vantage was a hit. Yeah. He had a couple of misses.
Speaker: Hmm. And he backed a couple of oh games with Stormier games. like I went all in with Pendulum.
Speaker: Bit of a mistake. is It's not a bad game. But I think because when you're on that pedestal, they all expect everything else to be up there. Yeah. So they get penalized when it's not.
Speaker: so Yeah, for sure. Speaking of games where the summer they're not all hits, but most of them are, and this is another Garfield game because I've got a lot of Garfield games on my list, so a lot of them are hits.
Speaker: And this is the only of the South Tigress game that made my list, and it's the first one. It's Wayfarers, and it's stunning. And just I didn't mention this when we last spoke about Wayfarers. It nearly made my... um top 10 games that are important to me, Shane, because ah you, with the help of Shem, organised for me to play an advanced version of this on TTS on my 40th birthday, which was super cool. And that was a great experience. it was about a year before it came out and
Speaker: I loved it then, and and ah I've only just recently finished another game of it. And so many paths to victory. Good combination of ah like tableau building, worker placement.
Speaker: um It's got it all. So ah the dice selection, action selection is just you build it yourself, like do it yourself action selection. It's great. So Wayfarers is my number 24.
Speaker: Great choice and actually made my day when we could actually give that to you for your belief and we played that game live with Shem. It was brilliant. And Sam, Shem and sam Sam. Sam did the teach actually for me. He did. And yeah, he's I could listen to him talk about board games all day. That guy is a genius.
Speaker: He is a genius. My number 24 is a game I love playing with Shane and Ingrid. And it's my only Le Cerda game in my top 24. So say Le Cerda's not going to be there.
Speaker: Cars, Mars or what? Kanban EV. Kanban EV. Love to have it. Awesome game. Um...
Speaker: And I just love playing with Shane and Ingrid. That is it. My number 24, Klan Barney V. Just because, you know, when you talk about good games, but it's all the people you play with.
Speaker: So... Yeah.
Speaker: All right. Okay, my number four is... um This is... ah A pure fun, dice-chucking Cthulhu adventure.
Speaker: Mismash. It is Cthulhu Death May Die.
Speaker: It's just fun. It's just fun. you know Do I go insane? Do I stop the wounds? And and the different characters do different things. and They want you to die. They want you to go insane. It's just so much fun.
Speaker: And then yeah it's like you play a game and you'll die within 30 minutes. ah yeah I'd be like, okay, reset. And then you'll die an hour later. Brutal. If if the wrong mythos cards come out, it's not, but it's still just fun.
Speaker: yeah just get And it gets so kooky too. Like the first season, it's yeah pretty standard Cthulhu mythos stuff. But those extra expansions you get, man, they take that game down some weird rabbit holes and it's just, I'm just i'm here for it. I'm here for the poison ice cream and the mousse bombs.
Speaker: That's fantastic. um We're just getting towards the end of um season one, so we're still in the Cthulhu-y cultist zone. We're not into the... A cow needs to be fucking sent up into a spaceship with a bomb in his head. It's coming.
Speaker: Great choice, mate. Well done. All right, number 23 is a little game that's in a small box that Shane, not for the lack of trying, can't seem to get his head around. and gets The few times we have played it, he's been demolished by my 12-year-old son on BGA.
Speaker: And it is a game that is akin to Battleship, but not in a basic way, in a cool way where you're sending lasers. I can't get this game. Yeah, it's sending lasers down and they hit shapes and come out other ways and you've got to determine where all the shapes are based on what color the laser is. So if it hits a yellow, a blue and a white, it comes back as light green. So you've got to try and figure out where the shapes are based on that. And this is Rapa Moe.
Speaker: So just it's a great two-player game. It's a great multiplayer game. It's great. That sounds complicated. It's really tricky because you can, like, when you play a two-player game, you set up your own map and then the other person has to figure out what your map is, very Battleship-like. But when you play a multiplayer, one person sets up the map and everyone is trying to figure out that map, but it's still a competitive game. So the first person who figures it out wins. So you've got to listen to what everyone else is asking to try and figure it out on your map too, but it's it's cool. And then, like, once you've played it a few times, you get, like, a clear piece which reflects...
Speaker: off but it doesn't change the color and you get a black piece which absorbs the color so that means you don't get a result you just get that it's been absorbed and you got to try and find all these shapes in this grid uh and it's like how many times have we played it uh 52 times uh raf and i so it's just like it's like go-to chess for us we just have an afternoon we'll sit down and play four or five hands of it every now and again so yeah Admittedly, the first time I played it, I was just pressing pressing buttons.
Speaker: Yeah, it was obvious. What's this only solo game of doing? It absolutely drew me. I did not know what I was doing. So I do want to play it probably live.
Speaker: I want to sit down there. It's not difficult to learn. It's just it's not a BGA game to learn. yeah It sounds more complicated than it probably is. For sure. yeah, get yeah.
Speaker: Steve talks about a lot. ah You and i one day, we're just going to lock it in on video. We'll play BGA and you can teach me. Yeah. My number 23 is probably one of the most intelligent games ever designed where you have route building, auctions, pick up and deliver, income management, loans,
Speaker: Age of Steam. Age of Steam. By Three-way crossover. Martin Wallace. Three-way quaff crossover. Definitely.
Speaker: I love playing Age of Steam. I thought it might have been higher, but I'm not going to go against my system. um Brilliant game. By Martin Wallace.
Speaker: published through war frog games not eagle griffin it was originally published through the frog games so yep that's the one i got going to be controversial so well i've got the eagle griffin game version and that's i know that that means that martin didn't get any money from me purchasing that game but he gets my kudos yeah as he should My original Aegis team, I've actually got Martin to sign the front of it as well.
Speaker: I don't think he'd do that for a... Not for an Eagle Bigfoot one. Probably not, no. No. I wouldn't think so. All right. Number three.
Speaker: This is exciting. My number three. Nobody would pick this because...
Speaker: i this this probably got like I used to be a D&D role-playing game guy like from 14 to 18, 19.
Speaker: I was a RuneQuest, Dungeons and Dragons, whatever was cool and at the time. I remember going to a friend's. Well, I joined the Sealed Knot, which was a...
Speaker: English Civil War Reenactment Society. Basically, you went there, you beat the shit out of each other and got pissed afterwards. It was fucking great. And the guy that I met there, he invited me up to his birthday and said, we're playing a ball game. Do you want to have game? went, oh, all right.
Speaker: And it was a seven-player game. And it took nearly six hours. And it was called Civilization by Avalon Hill. it was It came out in 1980. Wow.
Speaker: And i've still got I've still got a copy on my shelf. that vi It's brilliant. It's so old school.
Speaker: But it's it's it's one of those games that it was amazing. You you want to play with like six or seven people because you've got all, it's all Europe and Africa and probably lot Asia.
Speaker: And everybody's got different um
Speaker: strengths and weaknesses. Like, you know, Crete is really good because it's ah isolated and nobody can attack you, but they've got volcanoes. And if the wrong card comes up, They are up and they destroy your cities.
Speaker: And depending on, like, if you've got one city, you've got civilization cards between one and nine. So if you've got one city, you draw civilization card one. you've got two cities, you've got one and two on your turn.
Speaker: So you you want to get your engine going.
Speaker: And then you can trade those cards in so that you've got four... reeds or papyrus. You can trade reading and you can get ah a civilization card called um write reading and writing or that it gives you an ability. So you buy an ability.
Speaker: And and is is is you've got you've got the person who gets to the end of the track wins, but you've got these roadblocks.
Speaker: So you can't go past there unless you've got two civilization cards and then you need an extra... It's brilliant. It's such a good game and it's from 1980. That's crazy. yeah It's what literally got me into board gaming.
Speaker: Nice. It's still up there. One of my favorite games to play. If somebody said, you want a game? I'd be like, shit, yeah. Well, one day you need to bring that to our Thursday night game night.
Speaker: I'm thinking we're the of Thursday night by the sound of things. Two or three in the morning.
Speaker: up But the next two games on my list have both already been talked about, so they might be pretty quick, but they are both brilliant games. And they've both been talked about by Lucky Phil, so they're both crossovers. But the first one is the game on my list that I always just play to try and do the most crazy shit possible, and I have no concerns whether I win or lose.
Speaker: I just, I always go to the hazard tiles. Yeah. Just under the right vendedor. Just do, just press all the buttons. If there's a hazard token, I'm driving on it. If there's a jump, I'm going over it. I'll do everything that is fun and forget the result. It's fantastic.
Speaker: I bought that Carnival of Chaos. And like you said, I only use it for the extra player count. Yeah. Yeah. is you an next presentta please It's not that good an expansion.
Speaker: No, it's fine. Yeah. But the other one is but better experience for sure. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. number 22 is a multi-use card game where you've got bit of engine building, hand management, resource conversion, and a bit of push-and-luck production where you're trying to chain all your goods...
Speaker: through bakeries, sawmills, markets. And that game is Oh My Goods. Played it a shit ton when we were away on the weekend for our footy weekend with Pastor Nick and John. Oh My Goods is just a fantastic card game.
Speaker: Brilliant. That's my number 22. Steve, you played it for? No, I never played it. ah You'd love it and I've got the ball game version. It was like expedition to Newdale remember we played that literally Brought her out as a ball game.
Speaker: Yep rather than the card game Super fun, but we're sitting in sitting in the Melbourne Airport and Playing the card game when we landed in Melbourne Airport Nick goes, what do want to play?
Speaker: While we're waiting for John to arrive. Let's play All My Goods. We're playing a two-player game. Then when John was leaving to go back to Adelaide, playing a three-player card game of All My Goods. It is super fun.
Speaker: So, recommend it.
Speaker: My number 26. My number two is a game. It's 25 the board game.
Speaker: a game it's twenty five on the board game geek list by Adam Kropinski.
Speaker: I'm putting all of them in this. It's the Nemesis. It's Nemesis. I've not played Lockdown, but Nemesis and Nemesis Retaliation.
Speaker: Brilliant. It's like... It's like the first one is the original Nemesis, is the original Aliens with Sigourney Weaver in in the plane.
Speaker: And Nemesis Retaliation is Aliens, the board game, where they're all rocked up with weapons and they explore in it. So yeah cool I love both of them.
Speaker: So, yeah, that's number two. and Can I ask where you had played Nemesis and who maybe had narrated the game?
Speaker: I've played it quite a few times, but if in doubt, get Troy to run your games. Big, big shout out to Troy. He...
Speaker: He's got it all painted. He's got it all pimped up. He loves being the bad guy. Just hitting you with aliens and stuff. And he'll run the game.
Speaker: And Matt, if in doubt, talk to Troy. Brilliant. Yep. Radio. Well, the last game on this countdown for me in my number 21 is another crossover with Phil, as mentioned. And yes...
Speaker: Dan Halligan, what a guy. Just obsession. You're obsessed, my friend. You're obsessed. I am. It is it is great. it is I get it, Shane. I've played this with enough people to know that some people just it just doesn't hit for them, but they're wrong, just simply. That's that just how that goes. It's such a pliable game that I reckon that there's a way – to play that game that you would love it.
Speaker: um Like we said before, it's so plug and play that you'd find, that there's a way you could find enjoyment from it. But I mean, it's just... I know that Shane played it and loved it. And he played it the second time.
Speaker: Granted, we might have been slightly intoxicated when we played it the second time. We were very intoxicated. Because weve we played back-to-back, oh, I think it was...
Speaker: Obsession and Distilled. Oh, right. if Yeah. I think Shane had a bad night that night because all of a sudden they went from his one of his favourite games to his worst games.
Speaker: Well, that's that's a shame for Distilled too. But yeah, Obsession, it's just I have no attachment to the theme. Having said that, I have since watched Downton Abbey with my wife.
Speaker: And so many... Oh, yeah. It was ah it was a long haul because, boy, there's a lot of that. But um it was quite funny. Not the show. The show was a bit long in the tooth.
Speaker: But it was funny to watch it having played so much of Obsession, just going, oh, I get all the in-jokes now. Like, there's so much in that game that he's just taken the piss out of that TV show that it was almost worth the watch just to enjoy the game more, if that makes sense.
Speaker: I think the first time you... The first time we played it, and we were we were doing some imitations like Lord Frontroy and Mrs blah blah blah, getting off to the tennis courts for a bit of la la la. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah the the first time we we were we were only mildly intoxicated and it was great fun.
Speaker: ah and the the I love just like the underbutler is my favourite. Like when someone has someone doesn't have an underbutler and you're like, ooh, you don't even have an underbutler in your estate. It's so ointy-tointy. love a useful man.
Speaker: Since when has that ever a thing, a useful man? Yeah. Or just a few times. ti when has that ever been a thing a useful man so yeah or around not I love the chef. I think it's the chef that adds prestige to your action, which is the so the cook.
Speaker: Yeah. Cause you just go, you want to come over at my house? Not really. We've got a good cook. Oh, okay. Then that's kind of how that works. Love it.
Speaker: That is my 21. Thought I'd finish on a high Shane. I'll go over to you now. all right um I'm actually finishing on a number 21 and it's another crossover with Ingrid. I think.
Speaker: if I remember back to her top 10, it's my favorite bag building game. And I have everything, I've got it all blinged out, and that is Orleans.
Speaker: Orleans, yeah. Orleans. Crossout with me too? No theme at all, but just a great deck building game. It's another crossover with Stavius. Aren't you supposed to be monks building your village or something like that?
Speaker: He's supposed pulling chips from a bag for victory points. Yeah, because they're all supposed to be monks and different types of monks and tradesmen and building. yeah yeah know could You could almost call this Leyland Brothers of the Wood Game.
Speaker: Leyland Brothers. Travel over the countryside after Leyland Brothers. yeah You know, you're going around that map. You don't know why you're going around the map.
Speaker: But anyway, that's an very much an Australian comment there on that board game. But yeah, Orleans on number 21. This is what here for, Phil. Number one game. think we all know what it is, but I love hearing about it. Other people talk about it. It is safe. I still, anybody ever turned around and said, do you want to give a shot? Yeah, I'll be in. Give me any function, give me any board.
Speaker: I'll play it I love it. We've done, it's the only time I've actually gone through the whole campaign of Fenris. you like we've Even our awesome game group on Thursday, we we faded halfway through, God, what's it called?
Speaker: Pandemic, let me see zero. We all just lost interest. But I can honestly say that the rise of Frenzy side, never lost any interest.
Speaker: He was like, when can we play next? When can we play next? When can we play next? Which is absolutely awesome. Easily number one. Good choice, mate. I love it. Well, there you have it. there is That's a large slate of games discussed. I will say that what I've taken out of this, listening to your top 20, Phil, and I think I might have said this last time when we when you were last on for a top 10,
Speaker: is that I just wish I got to play a games with you because, man, we had some crossovers and some crossovers yet to come as well when I get into my top 20. So, well, maybe I need to somehow manage to get down to Brisbane more often and go to some of these game retreats that you guys seem to do.
Speaker: Well, we do. we We have a game retreat coming up. And so, Steve, I will send you a message on when that might be. see if you If you can potentially make it down, we have a game retreat coming up where we're going to be locking away a board game weekend.
Speaker: but adapt like and And honestly, ah love playing games with Phil. It's super fun. There's no malice. Yes, we're mean. We're mean as shit to each other.
Speaker: But the four of us are mean. I've made a huge point of not... I've tried to make my language politically correct. LAUGHTER I know youre well enough, Phil, to know that you're doing a great job tonight, so that's fine. so so But when we're playing games together, oh no. Oh no.
Speaker: and there's a few There's a few words thrown, but at the end of the night, we walk away as good mates and that's what it's all about and that's why we did this podcast. It's about mates, let's play. so So the game that I talked about way back at the start, Phil, that I was like, I was interested to hear whether ARCs was on your list because of the interesting stories that Shane has about ARCs in your Thursday night game group. power i did I did like ARCs and it it was up there. It's just like,
Speaker: When you've got so many games, 20? twenty Yeah, yeah. It's hard, mate. would have been in my top 50 easily, right? But the amount of swapping and changing I had to do, because I did that the ah top, what's it called, the
Speaker: Oh, God. Complete blank. The PubMeeple. PubMeeple. PubMeeple. Yeah. I did it three times. And I completely, and went, okay, I can see where this is coming from, but this is wrong. This is wrong. This needs to be up here.
Speaker: Yeah. Because it's it's an algorithm, but it's also only an algorithm. It's not yours. It gives you an idea. So then I had to move stuff around. Yeah.
Speaker: I can tell you right now. Arcs is coming up. Don't you worry.
Speaker: I love it. But is there in, like, ah we've just we've stopped recording, but is there in your top 20? No, we're still recording. I can't give it away, but it's coming.
Speaker: Arcs is coming. I love it On that note, Phil, we should probably end it because this is a very long episode that I am going to split into two. So we've got another week's worth of content to which is great.
Speaker: But big thanks for coming on, Phil. That was ah it was very entertaining. I love your list. i love your little discussions about your games too. You make me want to play all of them. So, yeah, thank you very much for coming on, Ned. Well, after after after your – you can close it off and then I'll talk to you afterwards if you're all right.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. and i think you Thank you. Thank you, mate. I love everything you bring to the board game industry. Love your passion. I love your dedication and I love the devotion you give to people and you support the community really well. So thanks so much, Phil.
Speaker: All good, mate. Lovely days. All right. Well, on that lovely note from Shane, we'll end it there. And thanks for listening and we'll catch you next episode for our 20 to 11. Cheers.
Speaker: you
