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83: Gotta Hit the M
4 Plays5 minutes ago
The SoT cohosts get ready to rock 🪨🪨🤘🪨🪨 next week’s meta 🧗
For our esteemed listeners’ consideration:
- Gambit Horseman of Death 💀
- 🏜️ Sandstorm 😷 Caliban
- Ozymandias 🪨 Selene Horseman of Famine 🪨🪨
- 🫰 Weeks in Snap!!
- Secret Homework 🤫: RTS discussion 💻
Mentioned games/series:
- Age of Empires
- Command & Conquer
- Civilization
- Impossible Creatures
- Majesty
- Pikmin
- Rymdkapsel
- Starcraft
- Warcraft
- Crusader Kings 3
- SimAnt
Follow us on Twitter/Bluesky:
Check out the other great shows in the Snap Judgments Network:
- Snap Decisions
- Snap Judgments
Join us on Discord! 👾
- Join the server
- Head into the channel "welcome-rules-and-tickets"
- Find the "SJPN Podcast Fans" message, and press the button for Snap On This!!
Featured decks:
Credits:
- Cover art by Lauren
- Snap On This!! Theme by Ben
- YouTube thumbnail by Lauren’s kid, Reggi
- Thumbnail portraits by Adam Star
Timestamps:
- 0:00:00 Intro / Big Question
- 0:04:33 Gambit, Horseman of Death / Team Clash
- 0:11:50 Sandstorm
- 0:15:07 Caliban, Horseman of Pestilence
- 0:18:43 Ozymandias
- 0:21:19 Selene, Horseman of Famine
- 0:25:59 Our Week in Snap
- 0:46:15 Secret Homework: Real-Time Strategy
- 1:10:43 Next Week's Secret Homework
- 1:14:15 Housekeeping / Closing Remarks
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Secret Homework
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to Snap on This, a Marvel Snap podcast. This week's secret homework, discuss a real-time strategy. I'm your host, Lauren Whadevs, here with my usual amazing, delightful co-hosts. First up this week, it's Rhi. Rhi, I want to know, what is your favorite prehistoric dinosaur?
00:00:19
Speaker
No birds, but I will allow marine reptiles and pterosaurs. Okay.
Dinosaur Discussion: Prehistoric Favorites
00:00:26
Speaker
um So maybe T-Rex would be an obvious answer, but I'm going to go, I'm going to pick two to show the extremes of dinosaur that I love, which I fucking love dinosaurs to be honest. It has long been a bucket list trip that I want to do a trip to all the best dinosaur, like skeletons and, you know, and museums. Do you know where a lot of them are?
00:00:53
Speaker
I started looking it up and it's depressing because I don't have that kind of money right now. I was going to say a lot of them are in Utah. Okay, in America, yes. But also I would love to make it worldwide.
00:01:07
Speaker
yeah um But yes, Utah. Okay, yeah. The West has a lot of good ones. And then I could show you the one at the at University of Utah is so good. What is it? The Natural History Museum. It's incredible. They have a wall of Ceratopsians.
00:01:27
Speaker
And it's very cool seeing like a family tree of all their different skulls. anyway Nice. Okay.
Fascination with Sauropods and Dinosaur Documentaries
00:01:34
Speaker
On one hand, I'm picking, I love sauropods because they represent how huge, I love how extremely huge dinosaurs are.
00:01:42
Speaker
that's ah That's obviously the first thing, the most childlike thing we love about them. And then, you know, if we didn't, if you didn't like grow up with Dinotopia dreams. Okay. And then um on the other hand, though, I forget the name. I found this for like a D&D campaign.
00:02:00
Speaker
it was running once and um ah no, it wasn't D&D. It was like D20 Modern. But yeah. they're They're the pterosaurs.
00:02:12
Speaker
is like This was years and years ago, so I don't remember them. But they're the tiniest pterosaurs that existed. oh They were super, super tiny. And it's like, I do love little tiny dinosaurs that are adorable, which is why, okay, every time there's a new dinosaur documentary series, like, you know, the one just came out on Netflix and stuff, I'm always like, ah!
00:02:33
Speaker
I love it, but also every time I weigh in tension, it's like, ah in the first 20 minutes, are they going to make me watch an adorable baby dinosaur get eaten? They love to do that. They love to do that immediately at the beginning of dinosaur documentaries. That's very weird. Does Morgan do you that way this time? I haven't really watched it i also assume Morgan Freeman made all the creative decisions and ah was behind whether not dinosaur have been eaten.
00:03:01
Speaker
yeah i could i have I've been having like TV attention span problems, so all been like that. sorry. I've gone on too long. This is supposed to be a shorter intro. Yeah, it was interesting. Anyway.
Dinosaur Preferences and New Releases in Marvel Snap
00:03:13
Speaker
Ben, other co-host, what's your favorite dinosaur?
00:03:19
Speaker
I am partial to an ankylosaurus. Honestly, I think we've discussed it on the podcast before or something. I feel like I've i've divulged that information previously. But, you know, I love that it's got a little it's got a old tool on the tail. and I like it, you know, when it when a tail has like an equipment slot at the end with ah with a cool accessory. Yeah. Like ah like a scorpion or an ankylosaurus.
00:03:48
Speaker
Also, like ah like the Montabi Tonki, who has a little skateboard on his tail. Also, pretty overpowered Montabi. It's ah available in the the starting. so you'll You'll probably get offered a Tonki when you first play Montabi. You should take it. It's really good.
00:04:07
Speaker
It's busted. all right yeah Anything with an equipment slot on the tail. Okay. um My favorite has been as far back as I can remember, and I have been into dinosaurs for a very long time. It was an early childhood interest, is Parasaurolophus. And nowadays, it feels more like a nostalgia pick than anything else. I couldn't really tell you why, but they they are pretty cute and cool. So, you know, that's my pick.
00:04:31
Speaker
Dinosaurs. Okay.
Game Impact of Gambit Horseman of Death
00:04:34
Speaker
All right. Let's talk about this week's delightful new release, Gambit Horseman of Death. You have surely run into him. three three if you've been playing. 3-3, objective, play five total cost of created cards to randomly destroy up to four total cost of enemy cards.
00:04:54
Speaker
New thoughts? I do. Sorry, I have lots of thoughts because I've run. He's been around a lot. don't know. I assume you guys have seen him. a I've seen him a lot. OK, yep. I do think last week I was kind of like, hey, ah like as we were recording, I'm like, wait a minute.
00:05:11
Speaker
Wait a minute. Is this park worse than his bike? Because I was retreating once I had like I saw there were like. three, you know, several of them out there or whatever. I was just like retreating. And then I'm like, wait, you know, it's kind of the old like, what if you stand up to the school yard bully? Sure, sometimes you may get like beaten and stuffed in locker, but sometimes, you know, they just fall over. And like, this is what happened when I stayed. And now I found multiple times have I actually survived through like so Gambit with like two or three copies out. You know what I mean?
00:05:48
Speaker
Like, I mean, certainly I've I've been like, I've lost to some gambits, uh, horsemen of death, but like one, it's a lot of work for them to put out that many copies of him that they don't usually have a lot of power out, you know? So they're really like banking on hitting some valuable targets there. And B, I was running to him a ton in Clash.
00:06:12
Speaker
And that became the easiest thing to deal with because I just started putting all my power in like five costs and up cards, you know, like play Avengers, play T'Challa, like, um and ah they can't do anything. And, you know, if they're not running Shang in that like Brotherhood deck, you know, or whatever. So not Brotherhood.
00:06:34
Speaker
um so it is it is brotherhood that gambit's in brotherhood okay whatever it is in it's not avengers so they're not running but a bunch of stuff but his alignment is brotherhood yeah Okay, yeah. So, like, you know, so it's like i don't like, I still don't enjoy seeing them all the time, and it ruins certain, it means I have to play around them. i can't play tiny card stacks, which I love, which is probably why Lauren um lane probably feels the sting hard. Lauren loves tiny card decks. So, like, um yeah.
00:07:11
Speaker
Okay. what What about you? What was your experience been?
Team Clash Mode and New Strategies
00:07:17
Speaker
there too? Yeah, there's plenty of Gambit around. don't think it's a real interesting card. I don't think the decks that are playing it are real interesting. i think I think in my... Spoiler alert, didn't play a ton of Team Clash, but I think I did maybe see Gambit in the one game that I played.
00:07:33
Speaker
of I've seen a lot of screenshots of other people playing Team Clash with Gambit around on the other side of the board, and I'm like, gosh, that that I think I made the right choice to... um
00:07:47
Speaker
spend the 800 gold and get out with the card because that seems unfun in a game mode that doesn't even have snaps. Oh my gosh. um Yeah, I'm not not loving Gambit. if If I'm honest, I also don't think it's like the most, you know, it's not the most guaranteed winningest card of all time or anything. It's just obnoxious. And I wish I hadn't done it.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. he's he He's toxic, right? Like, he's not... I don't think he's necessarily super good, but he's definitely playable, right? He's not like yeah mill level of but of why are you even playing this?
00:08:27
Speaker
But... it Yeah, but like they know what they're doing. There's tons of gambit everywhere, which means people like playing it. And I believe they've hinted before that gambits one of their most like popular cards, like regular gambit is one of the most popular cards. There's something satisfying about blowing up shit on your opponent's side and making it random makes it a weaker effect, but also a swingier effect. So you do get like some really clippable moments sometimes. I just ah between this card and fin feng foom, I really did not have a good time in Team Clash this time.
00:09:00
Speaker
ah Because FinFingFoom is just free-rolled by X-Men and Spider-Verse, who both get the extra energy. It's like, he's not he' not an X-Man or ah or a Spider-Man, but they both get to run the giant dragon, and it's... um yeah it's just Yeah, between that and Gambit, it was just like...
00:09:26
Speaker
it's like different strategies too right like if i'm playing only big stuff then finfing boom loves that shit yeah um yeah i mean i did i didn't i basically just played goofy decks right i played a i played a brotherhood deck that's using maverick and captain carter and agony and america chavez to super duper boost up a brood and that's fun but
00:09:51
Speaker
For team, if we're like having our little team clash discussion here, that's interesting.
Caliban Horseman of Pestilence: Mechanics and Synergies
00:09:56
Speaker
For like me, i did the ones where i I didn't make custom decks of all of them. um But the ones where I did, i stuck instead of going optimizing the deck to be like the most winningest deck. I had fun like doing the tribal aspect and going all from the X-Men. you know whatever category that was and it's like oh yeah you're right a lot of it like like it does make sense in x-men to just like put feng
00:10:25
Speaker
and um yeah but it's like oh but my fun in it was like building the deck i wanted to play out of that limited card set you know Interesting. Okay. I wouldn't be I would be surprised to see Gambit banned next time, but I would not be surprised to see Foom banned next time. I hope they do it. because It's just like it's so lopsided when you can when you can play him without having like when you're just doing your normal game plan and that lets you play him. like If Fin Fang Foom doesn't make the ban list for that format, like why are the other cards on it? like but i i don't I don't get it.
00:11:04
Speaker
yeah that's part It's yet not just that it like harms the fun, but also like it hurts the synergy. and It's true, most of my decks are actually leaning into like the mechanic synergy more than the thematic synergy. But it' still I still had fun making a type of deck I wouldn't normally make. like My Avengers deck is is all in on...
00:11:25
Speaker
on Hawkeye because if you put him on Joaquin Torres, he gets two more he like doubles his number of procs every time and it's really silly. um He's not like Surge who can only have one spark going at a time. He can have as many going at as many chains as as you want.
00:11:46
Speaker
Anyway, I had no K time with it, but I checked out as soon as I got Sandstorm. Speaking of... One of our new cards this week, Sandstorm. Two cost skill. On reveal, add two rocks to your hand. Give them plus one power for each of your front row characters.
00:12:02
Speaker
Did you get to play with it yet? I have not. Rhi?
00:12:08
Speaker
I was playing against it. Once I saw it come out, that's what ruined it for me. I'm like, one Osmond Diaz is coming back out. And then I don't know. feel like I'm going to be against rocks before I'm for rocks just because there's going to be a lot of rocks everywhere. You just got to do your own cute thing with it. Do something different.
00:12:26
Speaker
But the mirror, it's the mirror. It's having to face other people doing rocks. Anyway, so i switched to Killmonger and that was just fun. You can pull out and get all excited and just wait till turn six and drop. Because I was playing, of course I was playing Killmonger in a deck that doesn't like...
00:12:44
Speaker
you know It's not destroy. It's not like necessarily running Killmonger. So I let them stab me and get all hyped up before I just like... All your little one-drops that you Marvel-boyed up and your big rocks and stuff. but I'm so evil sometimes. Okay. but so like so that's what I've been doing because there's just too much sandstorm around right now. But I'll enjoy it later when it's quieted down.
00:13:13
Speaker
For me, I've seen... i like not lately, but like right when people were getting it, you know what i mean? like I saw it around everywhere. not like the I saw a lot more of it than I expected to see before Ozymandias. And I also decided... like I played a few games with it, but mostly i was like, I'm just going to wait until I can do rock stuff with Ozymandias. That was my thinking. I have seen some played, but not like a ton. i got the sense that most people were waiting for Ozymandias, but...
00:13:42
Speaker
I don't know. People can't wait. They're excited about rocks. My favorite thing I saw with it that I have not tried yet. I only saw it today. ah But RezSnapper was doing Sandstorm to add the rocks to his hand and then also playing Nightmare and Black Swan.
00:13:59
Speaker
So... And I'm assuming one man's in the deck. Then you have a bunch of one one cost rocks that are zero cost rocks if you get Black Swan going that have abilities also. Like that was pretty fun.
00:14:11
Speaker
That'll be fun with Ozymandias. Give them give them abilities. Not that there's a lot of great one cost abilities, but I like the idea. Batrock the Leaper.
00:14:21
Speaker
I want to see Leaping Rocks. That's a real... Actually, my goodness, that's hilarious. I think one of them in the video had ah had Titania, but um but it was like played on the last turn, so you didn't get to see the rock hopping back and forth.
00:14:37
Speaker
i'm gonna I'm going to have fun with that. I don't know where else to put this thought, but if y'all are really into rock synergies and making the most of rocks... That is a valid abortion eugenics. there There are some cats who will summon rocks, ah animate rocks.
Upcoming Cards: Ozymandias and Selene
00:14:56
Speaker
A lot of rock mechanics. The game's got a lot of mechanics of all kinds. Goodness gracious. Mechanic City, that game.
00:15:06
Speaker
Okay. And then our other new card this week, Series 5, Caliban, Horseman of Pestilence. I'm so... I should have just gone for the Pestilence to to to so to cite Rez Snapper again. That's what he called it, and I giggled every single time he said it in his video. Horseman of Pestilence.
00:15:27
Speaker
ah I just... I don't know. im don't have don't have the bones to do that. 3-4. Objective. Have three cards that are four cost or higher in play. Afflict the highest cost enemy card with minus seven power.
00:15:45
Speaker
I actually played him a bunch because I had a Doom 2099 deck that I liked with Eska that I took to Infinite. And Caliban very little in this deck. I think he he does fit, but like there's lots of other things that can fit there, like new Drax.
00:16:01
Speaker
ah He's fine. I was not super duper impressed, but like. It's kind of what I expected from him, right? Like the numbers are solid. They're not amazing. There's not synergy yet. So it's just like, yeah, if you need to like sub something in, if you just need to sub a good card into a deck that does this anyway, then he's fine. Yeah,
00:16:27
Speaker
yeah I agree. That's all I got. I mean, that's all there is, I think. Lost. I don't have him, but i've I've played against him plenty and I've both, you know, lost to him and beaten um him And because it's like it's not hard to get the power. And I hate like, I don't know, big I dislike it. I think the big negatives.
00:16:52
Speaker
how were I don't know. For some reason, I think it's because I like to win by tighter margins a lot. um By playing worse decks cleverly. So it's like, I don't know. For some reason, like things like Omega, things that take big stabs at my largest power card or something. I don't know.
00:17:13
Speaker
I feel like they hurt worse than other other things that could happen. Yeah. yeah Highest cost also did not feel very good. Like I had him out and so my opponent knew it was coming and so they played a six in a different lane to protect their five. and was like, yeah, that's did the right thing.
00:17:31
Speaker
Like, good job. And you can because it's an objective, not an activate. You can play Caliban on the last turn. But like that makes it harder to fulfill his objective. Yeah, you can play it on the last turn if you add seven energy and you're also playing a four the same turn or like something cute. But like that is such a hoop to jump through and to get the surprise. like Caliban is not by nature a surprising design.
Recent Game Experiences and Non-Game Interests
00:17:57
Speaker
I did see Zodrex invented a deck that was running Astral Projection Zola and a bunch of other high curve cards. ah But that lets you on turn six play Caliban Zola.
00:18:10
Speaker
And that that was pretty ah's pretty cute. That is pretty cute. And Caliban technically is is a cool thing to Zola, but I'm sure that deck has a million better things to Zola, right? No, I think you're only playing one Caliban and then Zola-ing a big thing help trigger your Caliban. Zola-ing But i bet I bet under some particular circumstances it's right to dis Zola your Caliban. Yeah, and if you can trigger him early, that gives you three triggers. Because, as I have discovered, that the objectives will reproc if you create copies. easily
00:18:43
Speaker
All right. We've already kind of talked about Ozymandias, but let's vibe check next week's cards. Five-nine coming from high-voltage overdrive. Ongoing. Your rocks have plus three power.
00:18:57
Speaker
i Ben? ah ah You know, I'm kind of excited about this card, but it's it's one of these cards where I'm like, I would be excited more if I were in charge of who were and, you know, if I could say who was and was not allowed to play this card. Yeah.
00:19:19
Speaker
I think it would be okay if it were only for listeners of Snap on this, and I guess we each get a plus one. We can bring one friend, and that's who should be allowed to play Azymandias, and no one else should be allowed to play it, because I think it's going to be unfun.
00:19:40
Speaker
We'll see. We'll be responsible for this card. yeah If everyone plays it, we're going to start seeing rogues for the mirrors. Everyone's going to try to steal Osmond Dias for their own racks, you know?
Snoprentice Reality Show and RTS Homework
00:19:54
Speaker
and That's only going to be for the first few days, unless this card turns out to be really good. so It doesn't seem easy. Right. It seems good and easy, which is usually the combination that everyone wants to play it. But we'll see. Yeah.
00:20:11
Speaker
Black Swan actually is a fun call. Like, I know i know as soon as you say that you're in trouble. But like that lets you play Ozzy on five and a bunch of rocks. And that's that's more surprise power, you know.
00:20:24
Speaker
It'll be nice if Black Swan gets have... She's like never had a moment in her whole Snap life. That's pretty true. she kind of never endeds She kind of never did what she was supposed to do. All of her arguable moments have also been like... I don't use this term a lot, but like arguably cope.
00:20:42
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, friend of the show, Philip J. Woodward, runs a that's like his pet deck is like Black Swan Hitmonkey, as far as I know. um Anyway, I'm i'm like mixed on this card. I'm excited for it because I think new archetype looks fun, and I would love to take it to silly levels. But also, I am worried that the best thing to do with Ozymandias will just so far outshine any of the other things to do with him.
00:21:10
Speaker
I don't know what them what that looks like yet, but like oh it's just it's just not fun when there's only one way to play an archetype. Yeah.
00:21:20
Speaker
All right. And then our last Horseman of the Season, and and then we get four more next season. Selene, Horseman of Famine, 4-4. Objective, have three cards with no abilities in play to steal five power from an enemy card here.
00:21:38
Speaker
Rhi?
Rhi's RTS Memories: Warcraft and Majesty
00:21:40
Speaker
okay This is going to be so mean when I was just sitting here right now. thinking I'll say it. um Okay. So there's there's a subreddit I like to browse called What the Frock that's just about like fashion. Pretty dresses and stuff. and ah so Sorry, is that What the Frock?
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, okay. You know, like, but yeah, yeah. At first i heard frack. And then when I heard the context, I figured it out. Oh, that's the Battlestar Galactica. Right. Yeah. I was like, I was like, that's nerdy, right?
00:22:16
Speaker
Not that that surprises me at all. Um, no, I, um, um I'm trying to learn more about classic fashion in my older years. Okay. But also, I do just like pretty dress, be honest. But anyway, the point is okay, so when they see, like, someone who is, like, you know lots of beautiful woman like imposing in photo shoots but they just always are given the same face it's like really boring like the top comments will be like go on girl give me nothing like that's this card for me like she's a cool normally i'm into cool looking witchy looking ladies but like this card is so like i'm so bored by it like
00:23:02
Speaker
what What is exciting about this card? Like, yeah, maybe it's good if no ability cards get something, but like... You know, like, Isuka excited us. It's like, here's someone who doubles their power, you know? Who goes unbeat, who makes ties interesting, who like does stuff. And then it's just like, whatt what is this?
00:23:25
Speaker
Like, go on, Selene, horseman of famine, give me nothing. It feels totally like the slop we've talked about before, where it's just like Marvel snap keywords thrown together to do something.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, agree. This is a card that like has stat change stuff on it exclusively. like you know Affliction and boost are kind of boring things for a card to be all about. you know Single target affliction. I mean, I guess this is draining, so it's it's both affliction and boost at the same time. but like Sorry, you don't get a lot of bonus points for that kind of creativity. You're just making the numbers go up and down. it's I don't know. The only interesting thing about this card is like the the no abilities part. And that's not that interesting. I i mean, it's rocks, right?
00:24:11
Speaker
The question is, like, does this card get to hang out with the other rocks? Right. Yeah. I mean, maybe she's in like an Ultron deck, right? Like she's a backup plan in Ultron. But even then, she's she's she's a 414, which is big.
00:24:27
Speaker
it is big. But she ah like taking four out of your... That's a high opportunity cost for... for that deck. don't But, like, it's like you can't double, like, you're not gonna, like, double her up. Like, why would you double her up over other things? Like, there's nothing exciting. She's like yeah, she'll fit in a rock deck, because, like, she'll be good there. Like, I guess, maybe, if you're not doing other things. Yeah, I see what you're saying, right? Like, yeah because you can't double her up, because there's not other things, and maybe you'd rather be doing that with the other cards, so it's just, like...
00:25:02
Speaker
Oh, whatever. sad I think Lauren is really right with the opportunity cost thing. because like Don't you want to be making a shit ton of rocks on turn four? Isn't that like what you should be doing?
00:25:14
Speaker
i feel like she's like... asking you to take a detour from, like, what your deck is really about anyway. And I just... I don't know if she even, like, goes there. But maybe she does. 414 is, like, serious stats. I don't know. i just like it. She may backup plan, right? I'm just thinking, like, if she's there... If it's a Patriot deck, I would rather be playing Moonstone or Kezar. Like, if it's, like, Ultron-y, right? It's just...
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah, and if it's Ozymandias, I either want to be making rocks or preparing Ancient One or something. Like, i want I want to be getting ready for the rock party, right? I don't just want one random big card. have no idea where she goes.
00:26:00
Speaker
On to our side quest. First up, it's our weekend snap. Rhi, how is your weekend snap? And keep it snappy. Okay, I did play a lot snap, ah nothing I'm super excited to talk about is more of like a fever dream of text, like nothing super sticky, you know, um that I was really excited to talk about. So I thought briefly I would ah just share that I am having as a follow-up to previous Secret Homework. Yeah.
00:26:34
Speaker
I'm having my first group book club meeting this Saturday um over Zoom. And we read, I got to pick the book ah via poll of my choices. And it was the Water Outlaws um by oh, I have it right here.
00:26:54
Speaker
S.L. Ewing. Sorry, I'm probably totally mispronouncing that. Yeah. And I totally recommend it. It's like a standalone, which it's like, ah don't you love a standalone novel?
00:27:05
Speaker
Not like committing to an entire series. When I was a kid, that's all I wanted. I'm like, the bigger, it the longer, the better. And now I'm like, oh, please, just something that can like, it's not a whole a whole ass commitment. But a unit of literature, please.
00:27:20
Speaker
Right. OK, so the idea of the water outlaws, it's like, like a historical fantasy um kind of
Lauren's RTS Journey: Warcraft and Starcraft
00:27:30
Speaker
mix up. It's there is a ah classic Chinese tale called the Water Margin.
00:27:37
Speaker
um And so this is kind of a retelling of that. But if and all the characters were like women and ah queer people.
00:27:51
Speaker
You know, which is like pretty fun if you ask me. And I love it. I will if I say um anything ignorant, i apologize. um As for always, I was educated in a state that ah um funds its education based on property taxes unconstitutionally. So. You know, that's what we're dealing with. But this, it's so fun because I love, it reminds me of things that I love and from my childhood, from like my Western view into kind of like Chinese fantasy, just like Dynasty Warriors, the video game. yeah.
00:28:36
Speaker
ah Also, like it's kind of got... It gives me a satisfaction like Lord of the Rings, like Helmsteed, because, oh my gosh, the last like third of this book is like one battle.
00:28:50
Speaker
One long description of like a battle, but like a fantasy battle, you know? Which is the kind like I enjoy. and um it I will say...
00:29:03
Speaker
um There's one moment where it gets like super, super dark. I assume this maybe relates to the water margin because like, whoa. So like if you if something that is incredibly dark will trigger you, then like warning on that. Stay away. I don't want to spoil anything, though, from it. But um aside from that, I'm going ah One thing, another thing I love, it is i aside from that the last third is a whole battle, the idea is that they're like these bandits, ah like kind of like Robin Hood meets Dynasty, where it's like they the every all the local government is corrupt.
00:29:48
Speaker
And, you know, so bandits that like are kind of like stealing from the rich to give to the poor. And um it's their it's their story and um Another thing, surprisingly, kind of minor spoilers, I guess, there's no, like, love stories in it, which I kind of, like, love, to be honest.
00:30:15
Speaker
I think it's because it's, like, part of it is following the watermark, and it's very much a tale of, like, you know, voyeurs in battle and also, like,
00:30:26
Speaker
like local government and stuff like that i love it reminds me of i was reading um the the tale of three kingdoms am i saying it right
00:30:41
Speaker
right chinese history it's called the tale the tale of three kingdoms am i getting wrong okay sorry that's going to interrupt me okay but the the fight that it's like ah The dinosaurs usually cover about the, you know, the three families ah or the three big factions fighting for control of China. Anyway, I was reading it to research it and it's like everywhere.
00:31:06
Speaker
It's kind of tough to read like the Bible because it's a very old text. But anytime they introduce someone, it's the person and their weapon. And it's like, I kind of like love that. yeah I'm used to seeing it's like, like Lord of the Rings stuff. It's like, oh, it's son of, son of, daughter of, whatever. Like, you know, and it's like, I don't really care. I don't really care about your family tree. Yeah. I'm just not like, I'm not even if they're sister son of Theoden?
00:31:35
Speaker
Yeah, right? I'm not into like nepotism as much as I am, you know,
Ben's RTS History: Starcraft and Age of Empires
00:31:41
Speaker
into other things. So when it's like, when when you're like, here's how you can remember someone by their weapon. I'm like, that does. And literally in this book, like anyone they introduce you with, it's awesome. It's like them in their primary weapon. and it's like, that's,
00:31:57
Speaker
easier That Turtles approach. That's how everyone should be. It's like, okay, you, weapon, go. It's iconic. Anyway, um okay, but back to the no-love stories, which I love because it's like, you know, um Because i get like I don't hate love stories. I know for some people it's like, what, none? But I hate them. But a lot of times they're really obnoxious. And I feel like they've gotten more obnoxious. It started as I've complained about before with the love triangle stuff. But now I feel like we've entered an era that I'm going to blame on something I haven't watched, but I've had to hear around a lot, which is like Bridgerton.
00:32:39
Speaker
i feel like we've entered into this Bridgerton where not only is it got to be like all love stories, which like I don't mind, but not as like, you know, everything.
00:32:50
Speaker
ah But now they've also all got to be about like yearning specifically. slow yearning. I think this is like a heated rivalry thing too, which I also haven't watched for similar reasons.
00:33:04
Speaker
And I like, I don't get and hate, like, I would rather do anything than yearn. You know what mean? I would rather play video games. I would rather, it's like, Like yearning, never want to do. Why would I don't want to like experience someone else doing it like that's no fun for me. And that's like what everything to do with love has leaned into rather than like anything fun about it. I don't know. so like, oh, so I was actually kind of gratified that like it ended up.
00:33:36
Speaker
Not that there are no people in relationships or whatever, but it's just not the point. The stories that are going on. um But it's still like it was a really it was it was it was fun. There's a lot of there's a lot of battle. There's some dark stuff. So, you know, it's not all it's not all fun times if that's a a deal breaker. But, ah yeah, I got to recommend it. I'm going to
Nostalgia and Appeal of RTS Games
00:34:04
Speaker
ah I'm going to I'm going to that was Ope. It was my week because it's like that's the Saturday and before the beginning of the week, it was like a little less than halfway through, which like didn't worry me. I got it late from the library. I can read a lot and I did. and yeah It's fun. It's great.
00:34:22
Speaker
like I like it a lot. Okay. but The yearning is ah is a good thing to is to raise is complaining because it's like there's a sweet spot for me, right? like There is better payoff if you build the romance, but... like I hate nine seasons of will they, won't they? And then they do for three episodes and break up. and like Jess will be watching a show or and she's like, you want to watch this with me? And I'm like, I can tell who the romantic lead are. Are they going to get together? And are they going to stay together? And do I have to wait forever for it to happen? Because this will inform whether or not I want to watch it.
00:34:54
Speaker
um Cause I absolutely adore romance. I think romance makes almost every story better um for me personally. But yeah, I also don't want it to just be like all yearning, all buildup. Like I want, I want the relationship and I want to see the relationship happen. Like I want to, you know, it's something what I've cited it before on the show. Actually, it's one thing I like about the Harley Quinn cartoon is like she and boys and Ivy get together pretty early and then you get two seasons of them having a real ass relationship. Yeah.
00:35:24
Speaker
mm-hmm it's great that she rocks such a good show and I don't to act like I'm all high in my like um look at me I'm too cool for romance like I was all about like I was you know I was a teenager I was like way into pride and prejudice you know there's still like you know a fondness for Mr. Darcy but like yeah so like and sometimes you know I'll try I just i just get irritated by it very easily is all I think that's fair wo Ben how was your weekend snap and keep it snappy Oh, gosh, my weekend snap was pretty good.
00:35:58
Speaker
Another, you know, I forgot to set the timer, so I'm just going to eyeball it. Just a freewheeling, you know. ah You know, I played some snap. ah still Still having fun with Supergiant. Here's the thing.
00:36:16
Speaker
i was switching it up. I was going back to some other other decks. And then today everyone was playing end of turn shit again, so I went back to my Supergiant Surfer deck, and that's that's a fun one to play. I'm still learning all the Supergiant tricks, or I think I mostly know them, it's just like...
00:36:38
Speaker
Doing them, remembering them, all that stuff. Sometimes i'll I'll be like, oh, no, I forgot to supergiant last turn. I really should have done that. That would have tied the room together. um But, yeah, I have to say I i was worried that would happen like...
00:36:56
Speaker
during the golden gauntlet qualifier, but I mostly did smart super giant plays that day, which was good. Cause I was, I was worried I would not cause, uh, I hadn't really played the card until like 24 hours before.
00:37:08
Speaker
So, um, I don't have any exciting new decks. i I don't think... Also, as I mentioned, I played one game of Team Clash. I've got a 0% Team Clash win rate this time. I played Brotherhood Precon and did not win.
00:37:24
Speaker
ah so that that was that, but... I spent the 800 gold, which I do not regret at all. Honestly, i hadn't even read Lauren's Wonderful Economy Guide yet. I didn't know exactly if like the 800 gold would get me the card or if I'd have to like play five more matches or something. But I was like, at the very least, it'll get me closer. I'm trying to play as few matches as possible. And yeah, yeahp yeah, yeah.
00:37:47
Speaker
So got Sandstorm got out and I'm chilling somewhere in the 80s on the ladder. Mostly I've been playing Slay the Spire this week and I was talking about the rocket mechanics and eugenics and meugenics. You really got to hit the M on that one. um And, you know.
00:38:08
Speaker
There are also some fun rock mechanics in Slay the Spire 2. Not as many rock things, but um there's a card that turns all the attacks in your hand into giant rocks. That's pretty cool.
00:38:21
Speaker
And here's my favorite little rock thing in Slay the Spire 2. It's the Petrified Toad. It's a relic. it's I think it's a common or uncommon relic, you'll see it with some frequency. And its effect is, at the start of every battle, if you got an empty potion slot...
00:38:37
Speaker
You get a potion-shaped rock, and I love that. And you you throw your potion-shaped rock. it's just ah It's like a fire potion, except it does only 15 points of damage instead of 20. And ah it's very fun. It's a renewable resource, and it's just a cool little thing.
00:38:54
Speaker
And other than that, you know... I've been doing a lot of non-rock related Slay the Spire 2 stuff. I'm just flying flying through these ascensions. I'm loving all five characters. They're so cool. I did say something inaccurate last week. ah The Defects block card that makes wounds is not exactly like Power Through that the Ironclad had in Slay the Spire 1.
00:39:19
Speaker
Because Power Through puts the wounds in your hand and Fight Through puts them in your discard pile, which is significant. Anywho... I
00:39:32
Speaker
don't know. You know, it's been a busy week. I have played only a moderate amount of snap and I don't have much to say about it. I think I kept it in the I think I kept it under five minutes. I must hear about your weekend snap, Lauren.
00:39:47
Speaker
um Well, ah last week I think I mentioned buying Pocopia. I have not played it since. I did eventually go to the eShop and get a new Pacross to play while I finished the latest Dungeon Crawler Crawlbook. And I finished that yesterday and it was...
00:40:07
Speaker
wonderful and that is that that's a series i have really enjoyed despite it having basically no romance um so you know maybe i'm wrong about my own taste but like both can be good yeah for sure I do like that.
00:40:24
Speaker
I was thinking after you said it, I'm like, but when, when you get a little bit of romance aside, it reminds you that like people can find each other and there can be hope and we all need more of that. So i mean there are, there are a few relationships. They're just not like primary characters. So you don't get super deep into them, but like, you can still appreciate that. Like, Hey, the world is burning to the ground. It's the apocalypse. And still we, you know, can find, know,
00:40:51
Speaker
love In this case, a lot of it is chosen family type love, which is also excellent, just different. you know um But yeah, would strongly recommend it. And you'll know pretty quickly if it's your cup of tea or not.
00:41:06
Speaker
ah But yeah, it's a rich universe that I found really fun. And ah now I have to wait because I'm caught up. The next book comes out in May, so it's not a super long wait.
00:41:19
Speaker
um Anyway, ah I don't know. I did clips this week. I still don't know if it makes any sense to talk about them, but that's like that's what I did in my Weekend Snap. I got Sandstorm and then checked out of out of Team Clash because it's...
00:41:32
Speaker
bad yeah i want to like team clash so much i know some people love it and i know that they put a lot of effort into it but i just like i think it's i think it might just be my least favorite mode not called high voltage is it the missions it's long so long the missions might be a lot of it yeah because they're like forcing you to play a so many different decks it's like well what if i just want to play in the two or three i have the most fun with But I appreciate that the missions drive diversity among my opponents.
00:42:03
Speaker
So I don't know. the let know what those ah Maybe. i really like Arena though. So I don't think that is the single handed. That's not the only problem.
00:42:15
Speaker
um Some of it for me is like the decks have like weird synergies, right? Like ah Brotherhood deck, which I have had a lot of fun with, but it's like I played that one once. I know all about it.
00:42:31
Speaker
Magneto has no synergy with any other card in the deck. or he's just He's just an okay card. Oh, that's what happened. i didn't read the Magneto. He's just like the opposite thing, right?
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah. he pushes He pushes a three and four away, um which I've won games with, but it's not a lot of synergy. And then there's like two of them that create cards and...
00:42:56
Speaker
mystique is very cool being able to copy a card at ah at a location like targeted copy that uh that doesn't have to be the next card you play or like the opposite doesn't to be the last card you played that's cool i've had a lot of fun with that but i was just like they just don't they just don't have synergy and it's like i i understand like they're not trying to uh
00:43:23
Speaker
force us into a single archetype to play, but just like, don't know. that's That's why you have different teams, isn't it? So I can choose which style I want to play. it's or I think maybe they're they're hoping you'll feel excited about thematically hanging out with the characters. I don't know. Maybe... maybe maybe i don't know. Maybe they should have more mechanical identity, the the different teams.
00:43:48
Speaker
Or maybe it's... a how lopsided the teams feel or maybe it's like I actually don't like deck building where I only control six of the cards. Which which teams are the stinkers this time?
00:44:00
Speaker
um Guardians are still pretty bad. Spider-Verse is still not that great, except that it gets foom, so maybe it's had a significant upgrade because of that. ah To me, X-Men still feels just like clearly the best. it It gets so much energy, ah and it's not very hard to do.
00:44:22
Speaker
Did they rework one of the cards? Is it Wolverine? i like I played plenty of Team Clash last time, so I sort of know what's up. They've actually reworked like 10 of the cards, something like that. Like a bunch of them. Some of them it's just power adjustments, but some of them are bigger. Like Wolverine used to destroy himself and now he doesn't.
00:44:38
Speaker
um I don't know.
00:44:42
Speaker
So yeah, guess we talked about Team Clash again instead of my clips. My clips are cool, but I don't know if talking about clips is fun. So just go just go watch them. You really should. You watch him on he can watch them on my Twitter, my Blue Sky, or Fourth Location YouTube. um And then finally, Snoprentice is looming closer. We're planning on running it at the end of May. I think I did talk about it before, but we're still looking for a handful of players and we are including community members. So if you're interested, please DM me on Discord.
00:45:13
Speaker
It's fun. it's It's like participating in a 14 person snap themed reality show. It needs about an hour of your time a week. But honestly, if you want to do well, it needs more like so it should be something that you're pretty into. But it's really fun. I've participated in it ah in all three seasons, once as a competitor and twice as a helping to run the show.
00:45:36
Speaker
Did Phil J. Woodward win last time as as I hoped he would? ah Phil did not win, but he was in the final four.
00:45:46
Speaker
Winner in our hearts. Yeah. Winner in my hearts for sure. Dragon is a winning. Oh yeah. Awesome dragon is a winner in our hearts. Also fine, but come on. and It's Phil Woodward.
00:46:00
Speaker
You're with the show, Graham people. Yeah. ah Anyway, there's, there are already some community members signed up. There are a bunch of creators signed up.
00:46:10
Speaker
If you want if you want to do that, let me know. We have a few openings. All right. On to our secret homework. This week's secret homework was assigned by re Oh, OK. Yes. I thought we would just talk about real time strategy games and. um I'll start. I wanted to say it's among my earliest memories of gaming. Certainly, maybe not the very earliest, but in PC, a lot of it. We had these, so you know they're the people who are always...
00:46:50
Speaker
chasing the latest graphics card, you know what I mean? Like, it won't change anything about their gaming experience, to be honest, because they're so state of the line, but they just, like, they get it in their heads, and then they, like, lust after it like collectors do. And I'm not, like, deriding it. I used to, like, overclock all my graphics cards like I was hot shit, you know? And I, like, put them, like, look, I burned it out because I over, you know.
00:47:18
Speaker
So dumb. Anyway. okay but like um But my ah childhood was the opposite of that. um We had a bunch of LAN networked, local area networked computers um that were, what we had were castoffs of old computers. So not just like old computer parts that people were getting rid of It was like ones that like you, they couldn't even sell for value, you know, just like trash PC parts, the way tech degrades. And um my dad, who was a cheapskate, this is one of like...
00:48:00
Speaker
of my only two fond memories of my dad are, um you know, he would, he would put together these old pieces, you know, we'd put them together and to like, try to get a computer that runs more or less.
00:48:16
Speaker
And we had them all networked so we could play. I mean, mine, as you can see, was, was a childhood devoid of Starcrafts. I was a child of Warcraft.
00:48:28
Speaker
That was the one that we were always playing. Yes. One, two, and ah three. um And we would play those. So what we would do is we would often play against my dad. You couldn't play against the enemy because in the early ones, it was before they could do patch updates, right? Like before they regularly like fix stuff or if they did, I don't know. we weren't down.
00:48:53
Speaker
like So this is this was old games. We were running on old computers. And if you built a wall, like it would, all enemies would just stop. You could just totally wall all entrances to your town and just halt all enemies until you wanted to like run out with your armies and take over. it And it's like...
00:49:13
Speaker
That made the game unfun, like to do like co-op wise and everything. it was like the best thing to do. was like, why wouldn't you do it if you could?
00:49:28
Speaker
um so we'd play against them. And, you know, we're small children and my father would always beat us, of course, tactically. um My parents were not my mom was very against gaming, but my dad liked strategy games, civilization for turn based and real time. And, you know, some King's Quest type stuff. And that's what, like, gave us our little in um to playing And he would, it was just like, but like with chess, you know, he wouldn't just let us win. You know, you hear about like people talking about, and you know, my father, grandfather, grandmother, whoever, ah you know, out of respect for me would never let me win.
00:50:13
Speaker
um And he didn't. And so like a lot of times, sometimes he he would play against like all of us or whatever, however many people we'd fight over who had to get the most stuttery.
00:50:25
Speaker
executors. um But once it was just me versus him. And I see the thing about me and like board games and real time strategy games is I love to win.
00:50:38
Speaker
And I love to be clever about it. And I was just like a little kid and I knew I couldn't like my dad just was going to beat me tactically. Like, I knew long run he was going to beat me. So at the beginning of Warcraft, we usually do, is you build a bunch of peasants to build. You know, you take your peasants to build, I forget the typical, more farms, more whatever. It's been so long now to, like, build your thing.
00:51:02
Speaker
But instead of doing that, I immediately just built, like, a couple more peasants. Like not even because like not even a barracks to actually build warriors, just a bunch of peasants went full spread for his town where he was doing the normal opening build him and just had my four peasants take down his like two opener peasants, you know?
00:51:28
Speaker
It was this moment where like I wasn't and I did it and I won I wasn't sure because like, you know, like I said, it's one of two good memories. have my father. I didn't know how he was going to react to me like, you know, cheating, not cheating, but like winning in a different way, in a way I thought I could win.
00:51:48
Speaker
And he came running up the stairs laughing so hard, you know, and I got to have that moment of Like, ah he's never let me beat him, but I beat him. And, yeah, and I loved, I loved those games.
00:52:09
Speaker
I realized, like, I don't... I don't play. played a lot. like great You know what i mean? We've talked we talked briefly about Age of Empires, um all of this stuff. And I realize don't play anymore because I don't really game at my computer like anymore so much. I play more in console, and that's where really the the RTS home is.
00:52:35
Speaker
I wanted to also I think I've talked to before, brief shout out to Majesty, um which was like kind of for my like little known games that I love. it it's i was I was just talking, I forget who, to someone about this. It's insane yeah we had we have so much more games now than we had in the past, right? When we were younger, our game selection was so much smaller.
00:53:02
Speaker
And yet we each had so many fewer options that like we all have games that we've played that like we can't find anyone else who's played, you know, that we loved and played a lot. I feel like we all have that.
00:53:17
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Majesty is one for me. It's my like Stardew Valley. I'm always like... You know, Stardew Valley is is Eric Perron, like loving the Harvest Moon games. You know, there's a whole long story with like the two companies and stuff I won't get into falling apart. And I like, you know, it's the kind of experience is degraded, at least from your nostalgia of for it. And he was able to successfully recreate ah like the nostalgia he had for those old games in Stardew Valley. If I'm going to recreate my nostalgia for a game, it's going to be Majesty. That's what I'm going to do. to bring it to the people.
00:53:57
Speaker
ah that's my dream. Okay. Okay. um so no i guess, I don't know. Maybe we should round table it more. in a third no i feel like I've been talking for a long time. Maybe we should like break it up, bring someone else in here.
00:54:11
Speaker
i like your story. Let's do it. yeah okay I actually did play some Majesty. You made your But I'm Only Noom. reference and and talked very positively about majesty so it's actually available on ios i played i played a few games of it i didn't get very far um not that i didn't like it i tried on the phone it's not good on phone like i'm sorry it's not that i didn't like it i just i just bounce off of games easily uh and then every now and then one improves very very sticky uh yeah my some of my earliest memories playing on pc go to warcraft and warcraft 2.
00:54:47
Speaker
and then StarCraft later. but I didn't have them really. so like I played Age of Empires 2 at one friend's house, and Red Alert 2 at another friend's house, and at Warcraft 2 at another friend's house. Each friend had like their own RTS that I would go and play and have great fun playing. um but Eventually, one of my uncles let me... i don't know how this happened. I think he gave me Warcraft, like his copy of Warcraft he gave to me. and I installed it on my parents' computer and beat the campaign using cheat codes, of course. but Still, I was like...
00:55:21
Speaker
ah I don't know, I was probably like 10 or something like that, ah possibly younger, and it was yeah so fun. um And then later, got StarCraft and Brood War, and that could be... ah Sims is up there, but...
00:55:34
Speaker
It might be the game I've played this the most on PC. Then i I ended up much more console heavy since i got to nintendo since my dad got a Nintendo 64.
00:55:47
Speaker
I was the one who played it, but they wanted to retain control of it. um When I was, i don't know, when whenever N64 came out, it was Donkey Kong 64, so it was probably a couple years into the lifespan of that console. That was the first one we had at home and been a console girly ever since.
00:56:05
Speaker
But gosh, we, I should, we just had so much fun with Starcraft and of course Starcraft has the, uh, the custom game modes kind of invented tower defense as a genre. And yeah, just so many. And you know, I'm on 56k like dial up back then, but still like still fun to, to hang out with friends and play that. Um,
00:56:28
Speaker
And i I also remember StarCraft 64, which was a thing, and the controls were awful because it was on N64. But one thing that I absolutely loved that StarCraft 64 had that, as far as I know, sixty four or StarCraft PC did not have, is you could play two-player in the same base. Like, two players who shared resources and all that. And that was fun, having like two heads working together. Especially because you could be different races. and that was...
00:56:55
Speaker
weirder that you could be like terran and zerg at the same time but that probably wasn't the best strategy because then your tech tree is all messed up but i remember it fondly anyway for being unique in that way uh other than that i played impossible creatures i don't know if either of you will have heard of that but you mix animals together to create your units That one was really fun, but it felt busted once you figured out the strong units. And I don't remember exactly what they were. i think it was like, you know, like tigers with the size of a moose and the claws of a lobster and the tail of a scorpion. Like, I don't know, but I loved animals. And so, like, that game is really special to me.
00:57:36
Speaker
And ah since then, I don't really play them except for more modern takes on the genre. Like Pikmin, I would consider an RTS and a very special one at that.
00:57:47
Speaker
I've played all four of those and loved them. Would highly recommend them if you're looking for something that is controller friendly. think Pikmin 3 is like best on Wii U, which nobody has a Wii but I think you can get it on...
00:58:06
Speaker
think you can get pikmin 3 on switch no anyway and the final one ill i will talk about is rimmed capsule which is an an rts made for mobile and that is that's hard like i don't know if you've played other mobile rts's it's not good it' just not a good control scheme but this one is very simplified but still you feel very clever when you accomplish it at higher difficulties you control i just Just little vertical white lines. that's That's who your people are. And there's no differentiation between them. They all have the same abilities. ah What they do depends on what room they're in. Like what they're harvesting or if they're manning weaponry or researching technology or whatever.
00:58:46
Speaker
And it's a really fun little, I don't know, $5 game. I think it's on Android and iOS. Yeah.
00:58:53
Speaker
uh yeah just just sputtering through all the rts's i've played it's it's a very special genre to me despite ah how little time i spend with it now right it's formative absolutely how about you ben i also played some rts's i also don't play a ton of rts lately think the last time I was RTSing was maybe in like 2017 or 2018. I, you know, I think I purchased my third and final, uh, Starcraft battle chest.
00:59:40
Speaker
You got, you, you gotta, you know, every few years you got to get a new Starcraft battle chest. Um, for the longest time, you know, you could find one Wait, why do you need to buy it every few years?
00:59:53
Speaker
Oh, because, like, you move or something. You can't find your discs. You love them with your friend. Gotcha. No. If this happens, you just drop the $20 and you get a new StarCraft battle chest. sir It's a time-honored tradition.
01:00:08
Speaker
Uh, yeah, yeah, for sure. With the strategy guides and everything, you know, it used to come with the big ones, but, uh, nowadays if if, if it still exists, I don't know if it still exists, but you know, uh, in the, the later years, there were tiny little versions of the strategy guides. Um, honestly, pretty, pretty handy little, little paper reference. I do love a physical strategy guide. Um,
01:00:32
Speaker
Anywho, yeah, I've played i've played a fair amount of StarCraft. I'm not very good, is the thing. And i've I've always known this. But, like, you know, i did find it to be pretty magical to play as a kid.
01:00:48
Speaker
I just – the other RTS that I spent time with was Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2, although i I played those, like, a tiny fraction as much as I played StarCraft. Yeah.
01:01:03
Speaker
But um they're also very interesting games. And, like, so much of it when I was a kid was, like, about the the joy of discovery, just, like, seeing the stuff happen. Like, ah when they nuke you in StarCraft, it's like, what?
01:01:19
Speaker
That can happen? Like, you know, you you hear you hear the... the the adjutant or whatever an announced nuclear launch detected, you know, or I, don't, I don't know. uh, uh, yeah, it's, it's just, uh,
01:01:37
Speaker
and And then it happens and all all the shit blows up in a truly spectacular way. And you're like, wow, that's wild. I got to see that happen again. Maybe I'll do one. You know, that's that's exciting. Also, you know, you you start playing on the Internet. You see you see the people create huge swarms of units that like you've never seen. and You're like, what's the spectacle? The very spectacle. um You know, I'm not.
01:02:03
Speaker
Uh, you know, I, I don't like play games the same way I used to. Cause I've, I've, I've done seen all the sites, uh, games can't like blow my mind in the way that, um, they, uh, they did when I was a kid, but you know, that's only cause I've, I've seen this stuff, but, um, yeah, I, I, I love those games, age of empires and, um, Starcraft and I,
01:02:29
Speaker
You know, I think I owned a copy of StarCraft 2 that I installed and never played. um
01:02:38
Speaker
But i'm i've heard I've heard it's a real game, too. That's all fine. The reason I ah don't really play RTSs and that I've always known that I was bad at them is, like, I'm just never going to have the APM, right? Like, you know, I can i can beat someone who, like, doesn't know what to do at StarCraft, but I'm never going to beat, like, a good StarCraft player. That's fine. You know, I... yeah But yeah, I could probably beat a kid at StarCraft or ah or an untrained adult. There's more than just like competitive playing. like I would say you know, when I was a kid, I never played like online against people. it was all like PvE.
01:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. the The single player stuff is it was like fun because like like Lauren, I could get through the the campaign of StarCraft if use cheat codes. But like it was also, you know, I've always been the kind of person who wants to get good, even though I knew that I could not really get all that good at StarCraft. So like it was fun.
01:03:43
Speaker
getting good enough to beat the story missions and stuff, you know, uh, they, they got quite difficult, uh, for me. Cause like, sometimes you can't, you can't like, you gotta understand the assignment, like what, what the mission is really asking you to do Like, uh, some of them have sort of, you know, you need to understand when the, the waves of enemies are going to come and stuff and like what, yeah. Yeah. So much of it is about understanding the assignment. They different wind conditions. Yeah.
01:04:13
Speaker
And um that's the thing, though. I'm like the real time is is the part that always gets me because like I can, you know, it's not that I don't it's not that I only play turn based games. I do not only play turn based games, but like I that there is a comfort there and having a turn. you know and It's totally different. It's my turn until it is not my turn. And I'll figure out what the smart thing to do is.
01:04:42
Speaker
And that'll be my turn. And then we'll do it again the same time next week. you know ah But, geez, there was a lot of fun to be had, especially playing StarCraft online, all those use map settings games. ah You could just make...
01:05:03
Speaker
all kinds of things. I didn't make any great. I, I never made any that went viral or anything, but like it was fun to like poke around in there and be like, eh, would this be fun?
01:05:14
Speaker
Set the, you know, you could set everything's damage to whatever you thought would be a, an appropriate, that I don't know. Uh, yeah, I never really like finished one that would be cool, but i enjoyed other people's use map settings games. And, um,
01:05:29
Speaker
Yeah, I am and just have a lot of fondness in my my heart for for for that that time. It was also like I didn't have a cool local area network set up, but like, you know, you'd have friends over and...
01:05:47
Speaker
you know There'd be sort of a committee. We'd we play some Age of Empires by committee. like what What should we be doing right now? We'd take turns being in the driver's seat, so to speak.
01:05:59
Speaker
um But that's just another place where the turn-based strategy games are better because you can you can do hot seat and stuff. But yeah we co-opt some turn-based strategy games too because sometimes it's just fun to be on the same team.
01:06:16
Speaker
um But yeah, i just I loved the discovery of ah playing those those real-time strategy games. Just seeing the stuff happen. like The first time ah the priests roll up on you and convert your units. You're like, what just happened? That's some horse shit.
01:06:31
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, just the the, the experiences. It's very much about like the, the joy of the ride with real time strategy games for me in a way that like, I mostly don't play games like that.
01:06:43
Speaker
Yeah. I I'm concerned with like, uh, figuring out what's good to do in them and doing it. And I just, um, I struggle when it's ah when it's an action game or another kind of game that I play like that is fighting games. I i love seeing what happens in fighting games. I love meeting all the characters and their fucking goofy outfits and, but you know, I...
01:07:08
Speaker
I love when they they show up before the fight and they you know they have their little intro moment. They flip their nunchaku around and say some goofy thing. and like I'm just so bad at fighting games. but like yeah They're neat. They're cool. They're fun. and i like to i like to hang out there.
01:07:29
Speaker
They're never going to be like my my true gaming love. Like ah ah cards games or... a a turn-based RPG or a turn-based strategy game. Yeah. I, I get, give me a civilization over an age of empires any day of my adult life. That's for sure.
01:07:46
Speaker
And also, and any day of my childhood, if I'm being honest, civilization goes so hard. Um, yeah. RTSs are fun. and i also went over to some friends houses and watched them play other RTSs. I saw a little command and conquer in my day. Um,
01:08:07
Speaker
Uh, there was, uh, I think there was a star Wars RTS that I got out from the library. wanted know Like I installed it, but it wouldn't run. And then I purchased it later and then I couldn't get it to install it. Cause I'd installed the version from the library. I don't know. It was just it was the sort of problem that I'm sure I could solve today with modern things, but yeah.
01:08:33
Speaker
I don't know. I'll always wonder, was that Star Wars, RTS, any fun or good? Who knows? I like that you brought up exploration. It reminded me of something I really enjoyed as a child. Besides just like Warcraft and Starcraft being some of the earliest story games I was i was playing and and exploring customization, probably the first bit of game design that I did, ah digitally anyway.
01:08:59
Speaker
ah I loved tapping on the characters over and over again and seeing what their all their voice lines were, right? Like, every character's got, like, some joke if you tap them enough times. Yeah. I still, those voice lines are still, like, burned into my brain. They're super iconic. Also, every time, like, you have a Hearthstone card and they they give you a line that's a StarCraft line, I'm like, oh, I see what you did there.
01:09:24
Speaker
You know, all that shit. And man, the Starcraft lines are very much stuck in my head. Age of Empires didn't really have that except for that the priest conversion thing that up on the other episode. But like, man, the Starcraft ones, they'll chat at you. I think, you know, I i love the the surly biker who is the vulture.
01:09:45
Speaker
I read you, sir. You know, he's just like so resentful that he's taking orders from you. and I, you know, I also love the the very chill, calm energy of the the battle cruiser. you know, he's just ah he's he's he's inviting you to take it slow.
01:10:03
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, I will take it slow. I'll charge up that Yamato cannon. Yeah. Yeah. What's the rush? We'll we'll take the time to do a long distance big lasers at.
01:10:14
Speaker
Hell yeah.
01:10:17
Speaker
My life for ire. Absolutely. All that shit, you know? Yeah. Not enough vespian gas. Oh my gosh. You must construct additional pylons.
01:10:30
Speaker
Ben, you're assigning next week's homework. All right. Did you have anything else to wrap up on RTS? Oh yeah, do you? You want mine? I'll save it for outro. Unless somebody had something else.
01:10:42
Speaker
Nope. Well, while we've been recording, I noticed that the light outside my windows has faded. um i think maybe maybe maybe night is falling, but...
01:10:58
Speaker
Oh, up there in the sky, and don't see any stars. Do you know why? Because they're all out tonight and also next week on the red carpet. Because it's the first annual thisies.
01:11:14
Speaker
um That's right. It's awards season on Snap on This. We're not calling them the Snappies because that's just, I don't know. too obvious to i feel like somebody else probably already got there so our awards are the thissies and uh you know i'm here to announce the categories uh the categories that we're uh gonna be voting on in the academy are um Best Season. These are the 25 seasons. These are the nominees.
01:11:46
Speaker
And a related category I'll announce at the same time. Best Card in a Season Pass Roll. So these are the these are for your consideration. we've got Dark Avengers, Iron Patriot.
01:11:59
Speaker
That was the January season. We got Brave New World, Sam Wilson, Captain America from February. We got Prehistoric Avengers with Agamotto in March. We got What If with Captain Carter.
01:12:16
Speaker
And that's our our April. We got New X-Men in May with Esme Cuckoo. And then in June we get Masters of the Arcane, little card we may remember. Merlin?
01:12:32
Speaker
Yes. Fantastic Four, First Steps, with Mr. Fantastic First Steps. I i think the season was just called Fantastic Four. Then we got Heralds of Galactus, with Galactus First Steps. Visions of the Future, with Viv Vision.
01:12:51
Speaker
Undead Horde, everyone's favorite season, I'm sure, with Zombie Scarlet Witch. I will be shocked if that one gets much love, this awards season.
01:13:02
Speaker
And ah wrapping it up with the last couple, we got Arachnid Anarchy with Spider Punk. I feel some fondness for that season. i don't spoil where the votes are going. Then we get ah Weapon X with Weapon X.
01:13:17
Speaker
It's definitely a season that happened. You can't say it wasn't. um And for our other categories, we have best card in a series five role.
01:13:28
Speaker
Best card in a series four role. We're not doing any for limited time game modes. I'm sorry. But finally, our technical award, best card in a technical role.
01:13:41
Speaker
So that's that's the best new tech card. I know which one I'm voting for in from 2025. So those those are the categories. If I think of any more, I'll let you know in the Discord. Great.
01:13:57
Speaker
So think think about it and come back next week with your ballot for best season, best card in the season pass roll, best card in a Series 5 roll, Series 4 roll, and technical roll.
01:14:08
Speaker
So you got to make five picks. Awesome. Well, thanks for that. All right. Listener, viewer, if you liked what you heard and haven't already, please like and subscribe, feed the algorithm. And ah we're we're trying to hit 500 subscribers. Also, leave a comment to feed our souls on YouTube or Spotify.
01:14:31
Speaker
um Rating and reviewing is cool, too. ah You can also come hang out with us in the Speakeasy. It's our little corner of Discord. The instructions to get there are in the show notes or video description. We're proudly part of the Snap Judgments Network where you can listen to other great shows like the titular Grand Pod Snap Judgments by Pulse Glazer and Nick the Greek Geek on Saturdays.
01:14:53
Speaker
so they They cover all the news and rank all the things and play other games when Glazer can't think of ah something to rank. I don't know. ah It's a good time.
01:15:04
Speaker
And if you want to if you want to hear, if you want if you want to know how we voted in the thisies, Tune in next week. Same snap time, same snap channel.
01:15:19
Speaker
Okay. The time is now. Do you have more RTS thoughts? Yeah, so I'm like so... Crashing.
01:15:32
Speaker
I don't like talk that much. You think I do from the way talk in the podcast, but okay. No, I did want to end in a pause. I know we were all kind of saying like we don't play RT. Like ah we have so many strong childhood memories of like Right. It's one of those games you would play over and over. note You know, you'd really put a lot of time into and we don't anymore. But i was thinking, one, I just wanted to shout out the RTS that is most like I do want to get in place sometime. Every time I hear about it is Crusader Kings three.
01:16:09
Speaker
i bet like if you're out there and you're at all and you probably also heard of it and interesting. People are always talking about like, and I married off like my son to secure this alliance, but then they like poison their way. I don't know. It sounds crazy. I love it.
01:16:22
Speaker
It's like, I don't know. I like it. But part of that is what I love about RTSs is like the fantasy of ruling, you know, which I can kind of get from board games. But like something I've gotten that i get from RTSs that I get from my gaming now, um like the tactician, right? Sense of you. Like I love a fantasy battle. Like I love fantasy.
01:16:50
Speaker
Like, Warfare, you know, Lord of the Rings style, like Chinese fantasy battles. And I love um kind of that way of looking at it. And I've talked before about the big PvP battles in FFXIV called Frontlines.
01:17:11
Speaker
And, like, my growth in playing that is really, like, and to the point where I'm thinking about it tactically, like, of all of us, the whole group of us, looking at the big overall map, while I myself am, like, on the field. And it's so satisfying in the fantasy of it that I would get from RTS, which is, like, a faraway godlike commander, you know, like sending around troops but like here's me on the battlefield when i started front lines one i used to never play it it used to be kind of like pvp was considered to be like mostly dead ff14 they came back they like reinvented it they took a lot of lessons you know it's just like always a smart idea if you're like
01:18:01
Speaker
You're like, what? You know, we're struggling and we're not doing well. It's like, maybe you go look and see what other games do well. When you gather those mechanics and you could incorporate and you think about them thoughtfully for your game, of course. But like, so they did it and it it was great because they got this huge push they invent a new mood of everyone to try it again, you know, and discover it was fun. And like, That like fear, you know what I mean, that some people can have of like new competitive. I know some people are like, yeah, let me at him. Let me at him. And some people play competitive games. So like, but like, don't want people to yell at because I'm not doing well. You know what I mean? Like there's there's different you can enjoy competitive games while having different kinds of anxiety if you're not just someone who's aggressive.
01:18:47
Speaker
And um so when I started, I was very timid and I played my, you know, I was playing summoner arranged class, which is always a comfort for people. Like in battlefields, it's like, no, I'll stay back and like shoot from afar.
01:19:01
Speaker
And, ah you know, and I was just kind of like following everyone. And I didn't quite understand what was going on to slowly learning the rules, which is like a capture the flag with slight variations of every map, you know, and certain unique mechanics. And so,
Paladin Gameplay: Tactics and Battle Fury
01:19:19
Speaker
right. And I would get into that. And so then I kind of learned, I'm like, no you know, we need to get these nodes and stuff.
01:19:25
Speaker
And then like I switched. So now I'm like primarily always playing Paladin, right? um And i have' like I feel like I've ascended into the final level of learning frontlines, which is is incorporating into my tactician's brain of the map battle high, which is like you get this bonus when you kill, when you don't die as much and you slaughter a lot of the enemies. You spawn at a base, right, and run back. So it's it's not like a battle royale. And that gives you more damage. So when you get better, like you know you get this like kind of battle fury and you deal more damage. And that's a consideration in the tactics of a game. Because ah ah you know like you can be behind, but if you have like a whole bunch of people full of battle fury and that army comes together as someone who's like...
Transition to Leadership and Strategic Decision-Making
01:20:21
Speaker
you know what i mean so like i have grown from this like you know timid back of the ranks like kind of following around to being a paladin one reason because when you're a pal when you're a tank when you're a paladin and you like decide what you think the best thing to do is and you like run out you know people will follow you because people are sheep it's And then lead an army and you get to decide.
01:20:49
Speaker
like, it's the fantasy what they tried to do with what was it like even dust where they're like, Oh, people will be playing an RTS, but other people will be the soldiers on the ground. And it's like, i am both. I am the general leading the army. It's so great.
01:21:04
Speaker
for the fantasy. Because I'm like, and like no, we need to because people are stupid too because what matters is the nodes. You got to capture the flag. That's how you win. That's how you win. so I'm always like, you know no, no, push the nodes.
01:21:16
Speaker
I'm running in. ah That's what I love at Palette. I love like
Embracing Personal Style in Gameplay
01:21:20
Speaker
running like a full army. like The Aragorn charges me like behind me It's the streaming army. And I'm writing it. Currently, I have a very kind of girly glam, which I usually don't do. I've just i decided I wanted to embrace this side of me that I i used to repress when I was when i was younger in order to to seem cooler. I don't know. And so now I'm, like, currently writing a unicorn, you know, like, trying to battle with my big pink sword. I know. It's very – it's a vibe, but it's my current – I go through eras, like pop stars in my MMO playing – Okay. And this is where we're at. But it's so cool because then I'm like, and then there times I can see and it's like, hold the line.
01:22:02
Speaker
No, we have hold here like it all, you know, or we lose or we're done or it's over. And
Game Developer Feedback and Industry Critique
01:22:09
Speaker
the newest map. Because they learn. ah This is why I love a game. They like they collect feedback.
01:22:16
Speaker
They learn. they're always trying they They try to improve. And people worry that they're stagnating. But it's like they iterate. It's like, can you imagine? Instead of inshittification of everything you love, you know, in the name of profit, which is not to say that, like, there's not, you know, some of that going on where, you're like, our game is funding all these failures of NFT projects, Quirk. Enix, why? okay Anyway, but like, um ah distracted by rage. Okay, going
Nostalgia for RTS Classic Sim Ant
01:22:48
Speaker
back.
01:22:48
Speaker
Can I jump in? You reminded me of an RTS that I forgot to talk about because you're you're talking about the the duality of like being being the person leading the charge but or maybe also being the the greater tactician.
01:23:01
Speaker
True 90s classic, Sim Ant, where you are the whole... Lauren, you're muted. I know. I just said, oh, my gosh, yes, I whispered it. Siman is all time. I played a lot of Siman. You are the individual, but also the colony. yeah You're like everything. you're
Evolving Play Style and Strategic Aggression
01:23:23
Speaker
you're you you are the You are the arm. the Yeah, yeah you you are your own strong right hand.
01:23:30
Speaker
It's a really fun game. I would played it to completion multiple times. What a, yeah, that's an all-timer. i I love Cymant. Okay, no, I bet some people out there love it, too. I'm glad you brought it up.
01:23:45
Speaker
Okay, just a couple thoughts to finish about my arc of ah of playing Paladin is, like, the evolution. It's true that i have I've grown...
01:23:57
Speaker
ah less merciful. Like originally when I was playing, okay, and it it has to do with my concept of battle, know. Because I used to be like, no don't chase them. They're not worth it. We go for the you know we go for the flags. We go for the no nodes for the points for the victory.
01:24:14
Speaker
But now now it's like they're retreating. Chase them down and get all the stragglers. They will feed our battle fury. okay
New Game Map Options and Solo Tactical Play
01:24:24
Speaker
And then, um like, and the latest map, though, okay, before, oh, that's what I was talking about before i got distracted by, like, being excited by the thought that things could continue to improve because people love games and humanity and want things to be better and better for people. Imagine that as concept. Okay, but... Like, um this map, they it's like bigger. And so there's, you know, the center conflict area, but there's also nodes that are further out, right? And they're of a varying value. So when you're looking at them, it takes so it actually takes time to get like an army, whether it's your whole group or a split-off actor, to go for some of these other flags. do You have to start thinking strategically about like, do you want to split people? When do you go for them? When do you just call it on that and go? and it's just like, it's like playing now, it's so fulfilling for me for my soul to like, to be, you know, to press in and like hold something. Like the thing about the newest map too is you can hold as a single person.
01:25:35
Speaker
If you can just hold long enough sometimes for people to get there, you can turn the tide. It's like all the fantasies are in this for me, you know? And it's
Desire to Return to RTS Games
01:25:45
Speaker
just like, you know, it's just me alone and they're beating on me, but I'm a paladin, you know? i have shields. Although it's funny when only three of them come at me and it's just like, you want to waste your time doing this?
01:25:56
Speaker
I'm distracting, you know, like however many of you and you won't... I think I killed Okay, anyway. so like, am still getting some of the...
01:26:10
Speaker
the kinds of the, like the tactical, you know, satisfaction and fantasy I could get from RTS is in different ways, but I do miss it. And I hope we get to come back. And at some point I'll get crusader Kings. I think the problem is it's been out and it's so long and popular and they have all this DLC.
01:26:27
Speaker
They always are like, it's deceptively cheap, but then to like really get it, it's like a million dollars. feel like it's, I don't know. And also there's the fact that we all have so little time.
01:26:41
Speaker
So
Childhood Gaming and Educational Experiences
01:26:42
Speaker
much stress. think that sounds... okay. We could play games all the time when we were kids!
01:26:50
Speaker
Yes, correct. I mean, so it was good. I had a household. I come from a household that had, like, firm rules and time limits and things.
01:27:02
Speaker
But you had educational games. There were forms that you needed to, like, fill out your start time and such. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah.
01:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. Spreadsheets and this and that.
01:27:17
Speaker
It was a choice. I don't think I would make the same choice. Yeah. Our
Closing Thoughts on AI and Human Creativity
01:27:26
Speaker
world is doomed. ah at it okay Let's Let's fight the AI slop by not being AI slop ourselves. Yeah, here we are. Real real human. Creating... Yeah.
01:27:43
Speaker
most Mostly. i don't know about 100. Okay. ah okay