Transcript
Speaker: Roll the dice, pack your bags, let the countdown begin Shane is Steve's top 100, who's gonna win? Will Steve crown a feast for Odin his number one prize? Or will shit real confusion take Shane by surprise?
Speaker: Let the countdown swing! Skidada da ba dum bam!
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to Mate Let's Play, the Top 100 Countdown. Today's entry will be numbers 20 to 11. We've got a couple of people joining me for the countdown. But firstly, we've got Shane, as per usual. How are you, Shane?
Speaker: Very well, thank you. Good morning and welcome to Nick, aka Pastor Nick, as we call him on the show. Good to be here. Glad to make this an international podcast now with the American accent coming through nice and clear.
Speaker: It's a bit of an international field today because we're also going to feature another friend of ours lists who's Greek. So we've got we've got a bit of Greek flavor, we've got a bit of North American flavor. yeah And then two random Aussies. But yes, thank you very much for coming on. i got a funny story for you, Nick. And I don't know whether I've, I'm sure I've told you this story, but I'm going to tell the people listening anyway. But I'd never played games with you a few years ago. And on the Chinwag podcast, everyone was talking about Pastor Nick. And i can't remember what it was, but something happened.
Speaker: And it just like, I had this like beacon go off of my head. I'm like, oh my God, this whole time I thought Nick was a pastor. but maybe he just really likes pasta. And he's like this Italian guy who and then everyone's like, no, he's just a pasta. i but Oh, okay. sorry Every time I hear pasta, Nick, I just have a little giggle in the back of my mind. so Yeah. There's the restaurant pasta pasta here that used to be around until we always used to jump. Oh, it's a quick clergyman here in Australia.
Speaker: Very good. So ah ah we'll just I think we'll just crack on today because we're we're featuring not only past the Nick's list, ah Shane and I's 20 to 11 and Def's list. Also, as promised, after ah ah talking about Nick's list last week, ah we've got his list this time around. So I can't push it for a second episode in a row. So Mick, my nephew, you are going to get your top 10 as well.
Speaker: So how are we going to do this in order of operations? Start with you, Shane. Yeah, I think start with me, then go you, then go Nick, and then go back to you for your nephews, and then I'll do defs.
Speaker: To save time, though, because we're doing 50 games, right? it's the enemy It's going to be a big episode. But to save time, I'm not going to go on about my games too much.
Speaker: I'm going to leave all the wordsmithing to the amazing defs. Because I've had a read of three of his games already and you just can't compete. The way this man describes games is next level. And I'm just going to not embarrass myself by trying to read out and be really smart about ballgames. I'm just going leave it all to death.
Speaker: So um yeah how does that sound? That's fine. Obviously, you know, and don't feel like you have to do the same, Nick. We're happy to hear all about your games because in the end, sha and I have likely talked about all the games on our list on this podcast numerous times in the past, especially when you're getting to the the tip the the top of the pile. so All right, so we're going to go Shane, me, Nick, Def, Mick.
Speaker: Yeah, that'll Wow. Okay. Yeah, that's not confusing at all. All right, Shane, kick us off with your number 20. We could make it even more confusing in Snake Draft. But we're not doing it. Oh, gosh. Let's go.
Speaker: but Not Saturday morning. All right. My number 20 is another design game by Garfield Games. hope taking notes.
Speaker: And that is my favourite. Or is it my favourite of his? I think. No. No. Maybe. Could be. Yep. No, it's not.
Speaker: Raiders of North T is my number 20. Very nice. And that's it. That's all we're getting. Pick down, Pick down, pick up. Put down, pick up. That's it.
Speaker: Fire card. Well, we have a designer crossover because my number 20 is also a Garfield game.
Speaker: but it is a Bobby Hill designed Garfield game and it is Hadrian's wall. So I mentioned in the last episode that Tend is fast becoming, is it my favourite role in right? Is it not?
Speaker: It's not yet, but it's, I'll tell you what, it's, Both of these games are amazing. I've kind of always got a game of Hadrian's on the go. And a shout out to my nephew um and my brother and my sister-in-law. weve weve We basically now, 80 is just a crap score for us now. Like if you get 80, you're coming last. And that blows my mind because when we first started playing this game, like 70 was out of this world. And now 80 is sitting there going, oh I stuffed up on this thing. I stuffed up on that thing.
Speaker: And yeah, the winning game is quite often three figures. So um yeah, I played it a lot. i think 140 odd games. So yeah, love it. wow That's my number 20.
Speaker: Very good. So i kind of went about my list with the classic Pub Meeple, put all your games in there. And it was taking me forever. So then i had to cut it down.
Speaker: do it again and what i came up with uh i don't really like yet but uh i'm still gonna work on it uh after this but i thought i'd do more of hey this is who i am these are the types of games i play this is the board game essence of nick like at top 10. so so number 10 from this Well, I grew up playing cards. My dad is a ah mad card player. He plays bridge. he's now He's ranked, you know, got all sorts of points for that.
Speaker: Plays all the time. So he taught us cards everywhere, everywhere we played. And so the one game we've now developed that we play all the time in the U.S. is called oh Hell.
Speaker: Here it's called Up and Down the River. Up and Down the River. So you start with seven cards and a random trump is declared. And then you go around bidding how many cards you're going to take.
Speaker: and the dealer always gets screwed and they say oh hell i can't pick what i want to i have to make sure that somebody goes down so it's either too many tricks are bid or one less trick is bit so somebody's going down uh and you go seven six five four three two one and then when you go back up you start with one back up to seven and it's just a great game it takes about 25 minutes And i probably play this, you know, 30 times a year with different folks because it can play up to six people, seven people. So it's a good number count.
Speaker: Pretty easy to learn. um So my number 10 is Ohel or Up and Down the River. Great. Yeah. It's a, I've played that game as as a kid with cards.
Speaker: I think we use the different superlative to hell, ah but that's okay. And it's, it's kind of mirrored. i don't know you've played Skull King, but it's the similar thing where you start with a lower number of cards and then you, you add cards and you've got to, and you've got to declare how many tricks you're going to win. The only difference with Skull King is it brings in like special power cards that do things, but yeah. the same base game is the same, that idea. It's really good.
Speaker: Well, I'm looking forward to you teaching me that one, Nick, because I had not played it before. Sounds good. Sounds good.
Speaker: All right, Def, here we go. The masterful list that Def has created, because it, mind you, it's a very good top 10. um Number 10 is On Mars.
Speaker: On Mars is peak Lucerta because it feels like somebody designed a normal Euro game and then kept adding systems until the box started making structural noises.
Speaker: You're building a colony, launching from orbit, developing technologies, moving scientists around, constructing buildings, creating complexes, fulfilling missions, manipulating turn order, and somehow all of it is connected.
Speaker: The first time you play, you feel like you're trying to operate heavy machinery with oven mitts. Then eventually, the whole thing clicks and suddenly act should be every action is delicious.
Speaker: I love games where you can look back after three hours and think, yes, I understand what I just did. On Mars occasionally gives me that feeling. Occasionally. Just be mindful that if you play this for the first time or second, you'll probably end up in a situation where the game goes, you want to build a building? Great.
Speaker: Do you have the blueprint? Did you develop the technology? Is the scientist in the right place? Are you on Mars? Are you in orbit? Is oxygen sufficient? Have you consulted the United Nations?
Speaker: Did you submit forty Form No. Then fuck off back to orbit.
Speaker: ah ah yeah My favourite is the Lisseter's as well, so... There you go. hey Well done. That's a good start, Def. Well done. um Maybe i think i should I think I should go before Def with mixed list only because I don't want to, mixed list is far less um Filled out, I guess you would say. But Mick's, I mentioned last week, Mick's honorable mention was Twilight Imperium. But we'll get straight into his number 10, which is ah a game that did the impossible.
Speaker: It copy pasted what made a video game good while still creating the feels and plays very differently. I would rank this higher, but I haven't played the game since Slay the Spire 2 came out. This is Slay the Spire, the board game, number 10.
Speaker: Have either of you guys played Slay the Spire? No. No. Okay. It's ah definitely worth a play, I'll say that for sure. So thank you, Mick. So then back to Shane for your number 19. My 19, designed by Mr. Eric M. Lang, published by Simon, the only game I've actually painted completely, and that is Blood Rage.
Speaker: um Just good fun, mean,
Speaker: And if you play with people that know how to play, you know, it's quite good. Everyone's trying to not go the lurking strategy. Yeah.
Speaker: That damn lurking strategy. Very good. My number 19, I think, might be the biggest game that it remains. it's It's questionable. But it's definitely a big game. It's got a great table presence, but it is a simple game to to learn.
Speaker: And it's also quite a quick game to set up out of this humongous box. And it's a game that is if it's set up on your table. People will stop and go, ooh, what's that? And the great thing is it's ah it's an Emerson Matsucci game and all of his games are fairly easy to teach while also offering great strategic gameplay. And this is Foundations of Rome.
Speaker: So brilliant game, simple bidding system for, um well, sorry sorry, simple purchasing system for lots to put out buildings, upgrade buildings, score points based on what buildings you got out there and make this beautiful, amazing roam throughout the entire game where at the end of the game, I've never seen anyone just finish this game and go, okay, everyone's pulling out their phones and taking photos from different angles of what's what's in front of them. And yeah, it's great. So Foundations of Roam, my number 19.
Speaker: Very good. Haven't played that either. So my number nine starts with a date, the 31st of December 2006. I remember it vividly because this is my entry point into the hobby.
Speaker: i was here in Australia. ah just got engaged to my beautiful wife. And we were down in Adelaide where all great things happen.
Speaker: Right, Shane? Yes. And my friend, John Kupke, taught me my number nine carcassone. This was my entry point into the hobby.
Speaker: And I took that game and i was a randomly assigned the color green, right? Here, you be green. Great. That is now forever my board game. Color, because of that moment right there, I forever played green in all games. Shane knows this because of that moment.
Speaker: And I took that game home, went home back to the States because... oh We had to get ready to get married and in six months. And I took it, showed it to my friends.
Speaker: We played it. We all lived in different areas. So we would meet at a random um late night breakfast in the U.S. called IHOP. And we'd be in the restaurant at like eight o'clock at night and we would play Carcassonne on the table right there. We'd have our little breakfast food and we'd play in people and people would be like what are you playing?
Speaker: it's Carcassonne. We'd get them into it we tell them about it and they're like but okay. And they'd walk away kind of looking strange and wondering. who we are and what we're doing here at eight o'clock at night playing board games in IHOP. But we just played the heck out of that game for two years. And so that was it for two years. That was all I was playing.
Speaker: And it wasn't until later that I like discovered the rest of the world. So number nine, Carcassonne. Great story. That's awesome.
Speaker: You've actually got a friend, friend, set up don't you? I do so with John and Viv the ones who taught me and our other friends Andy and Betsy uh we took a ah copy that we had that that we didn't really need anymore we'd gotten a different version and so we said let's play a game and uh like lock this into a frame and so we played the game whoever won won I got second I'm still bitter um And we took pictures.
Speaker: I scanned every piece, put it in cat in a Photoshop, created the print, did a big, huge, giant print, pasted the tiles onto those.
Speaker: So I have a third, John and Viv have a third, Andy Betsy have a third of the pieces, pasted them in, framed it, signed it. So that's in my game room here as a ah nice ode to the origin story of board games for me.
Speaker: Nice. That's awesome. That is also awesome. He's awesome.
Speaker: Well, that's I'll follow Mick. Sorry, buddy. You're following that now. You're sandwiched between that and Def's next entry. So, all right. Mix number nine is a ah puzzle that is satisfying to solve.
Speaker: I love the meta puzzle solving where I'm trying to guess what you know based of what you off based off based off of what you know. But you know that I know that you know. So maybe it's just a bluff. But then again, search for Planet X.
Speaker: So this was on my list way back, probably in the 50s or 60s. But to I don't own in this game. and And I've often played it with Mick and his dad and mum, my brother and sister-in-law. And it is, like I you jar feel like such an hat outsider. I sit down at that table and they're like, we're playing the expect mode. I'm like, okay.
Speaker: And they're like, um all right. So, oh, you went there, which means you know this. And and I'm just going, hmm, I think this is the cloud. Yeah. so I don't win, but I have fun. But yeah yeah, those guys are on a different level with that game. So yeah, Search for Planet X is mix number nine.
Speaker: Good. Guess number nine 1862, railway mania in the Eastern countries. 1862 is where my love of economic games and my willingness to endure administrative suffering finally shook hands.
Speaker: It is deeply, deeply strange. You have a multiple train types, mergers, receivership, auctions, route calculations, companies appearing and disappearing, and the constant sense that the entire British Huawei industry has been placed in your hands by mistake.
Speaker: And I love it. I love that it rewards understanding the system rather than simply following a strategy template. You can't just do the good thing.
Speaker: You have to understand what everyone else is doing, where the money is moving, what the companies are worth, and when to commit financial crimes and plausible deniability.
Speaker: Number nine, 1862, railway mania in the eastern countries. That sounds like a very deaf game, that's for sure.
Speaker: number 18 Nova Ooh. is novaroma do
Speaker: You know, the Euro game set in the Byzantine Empire where players seek influence through trade, politics, faith, and infrastructure. Key mechanics are worker placement, action selection, contract contracts, resource management, and multi-part scoring.
Speaker: You can just score every round. So, Navaroma, my number 18. That action selection is is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. is lovely. It is lovely.
Speaker: ah Well, I'm actually quite happy to be following up your last pick, Nick, with my next pick because it's the game that got me into the hobby. ah which And it's lasted longer than any game, any other game that I've played since I started in the hobby, even in the first year of the hobby, ah like where I learned games like Scythe and Terraforming Mars.
Speaker: This game has remained and it always is in my top, it's always been in my like top 50, but sometimes top 20, whatever. ah And it's still because it still gets played and still gets played a lot. And every game of it I love.
Speaker: And that's Ticket to Ride. I can't get enough of this game. We've got a game day coming next weekend and my wife's like, I'll teach Ticket to Ride. And of course will. And yeah, it's just such a great game. So easy to teach. So much fun.
Speaker: And it's not the, yes, if you've youve played it a heap, you'll probably beat people who haven't played it that much. But yeah. Um, it's not like you're not murdering someone like you're not, you win Rez Arcana. If you played Rez Arcana more than anyone else, you're going to win like 12 to one. Where in Ticket to Ride, you won't know until you count up your tickets. It still comes down to the end. Everyone feels like they're in the game all the way to the end.
Speaker: So yeah, I love it. Can't get enough of it. Ticket to Ride is my number 18.
Speaker: Yeah, I love Ticket to Ride. I played it a bunch. And do you play the US map or the Europe, German map? we play a few. the the The US map is probably the most played because that's my wife's favourite. I prefer the Europe map.
Speaker: And we've got Nordic countries that we play around Christmas time. and we've also got But my favourite map of all maps is the um the UK and Pennsylvania one. So the Pennsylvania map is all about getting stocks and the UK map, you can't go to Scotland until you've purchased a Scotland concession and and same with Ireland and Wales. And it's just adds all these other little fun bits in um and you get loads of little tickets. So you end up with like 13 or 14 tickets at the end of the game because, you know, going from England's not that big. So you just stack up tickets after tickets after tickets. So, but yeah, I mean, I haven't played a bad map yet. So,
Speaker: yeah yeah i probably i played the u s I played the US s so much that I could literally map out the whole thing, every colour, every route, cause each and you'd just go to bed dreaming about where you would play if you had gotten the right tickets.
Speaker: Yeah, and and it is something that is lost in the Europe version, which I think is beautiful about the Europe version, is that because the names of all the cities are how those cities are pronounced. um in their language. So it's not very intuitive for English speaking people who don't understand any other languages to go into it and go, all right, I'm going from, where is this? Oh, that's Munson. Oh, that'd be Munich. Okay. Now where's Munich again? Like where at least everyone's got a general idea of what the USA is. So it makes a little bit of sense, but I love that about Europe. I think it's cool, but yeah.
Speaker: Very good. My number eight would still be along the journey of of Nick getting into board games and so it got into more ah larger ah popular games and I'd say um I'm halfway decent at board games and so I'm It's frustrating when I can't grog a game, when I just can't figure it out.
Speaker: And in this game, which you wouldn't think would be such an issue to figure out, I just could not win. I would get second just every single time. And one time our our group in the U.S., we were staying at a cabin, you know, for at a lake for a week.
Speaker: And we went out to a pub and we did trivia out there and everyone had had a good drink. And I wasn't drinking at the time. And so I'm pretty much the only sober person going. it and I go, all right, this is it. This is my chance to finally win this game. Let's go back and play.
Speaker: and And so we go back and we play my number eight, Seven Wonders. and I still lose. I cannot win the game. Even when they're drunk, I still couldn't win the fricking game.
Speaker: Um, but I eventually figured it out. I'm ashamed to say I looked at some ah strategy guides to figure out the valuation a little bit more. And, uh, and then I went on a roll and then, uh,
Speaker: I finally got it, figured it out, what to value, and loved the game ever since. Easy, happy to sit down and play that game anytime it hits. I tried building in expansions, you know, all those ones that they added, but you just can't beat the base game.
Speaker: Simple, fast, quick. It's done in 20 minutes. Everyone has a good time. Everyone's in it to the end. You don't know until you count it. So I love that about games. Yeah, good choice.
Speaker: And god it's God, it's funny when you you don't hide the fact when you're not rocking a game. It's hilarious. You can see it on his face. He's getting twitchy and That's hilarious.
Speaker: A couple of similarities between your pick and Mix number 8 as well. It's ah also a game that plays well at high play counts, simultaneous play. And it's it's a wonderful world.
Speaker: So 30 to 45 minute play of a game. This is just one of the best. Deceptively deep while being simple enough that I've taught it and played this game in excess of 20 different people is what he says.
Speaker: But i when I played It's a Wonderful World, I got Seven Wonders kind of vibes a little bit. there's only there's ah You're only doing the one thing as opposed to Seven Wonders where you're managing a few different things. But that simple idea of card drafting, ah pick a card, pass a card along, and then that card's going to help you build out your engine. you get You start with a hand of seven cards and you run from there. So has some similarities, but yeah, another another great resource management game. So It's a Wonderful World.
Speaker: Mix number eight.
Speaker: I do like that game. Def's number eight.
Speaker: This is good list, really good list. So, his number eight is Innovation. Oh, under your face. Ooh, this could be a crossover. Innovation is basically 105 cards containing several hundred tiny acts of violence.
Speaker: It looks like a little civilisation card game, and then ten minutes later someone has demanded half your hand, stolen your score pile, aged three eras ahead, and won using a sentence you didn't realise was legally allowed.
Speaker: It is completely unhinged. Every card feels broken until realise every other other card is also broken, so somehow the entire thing balances through mutual insanity. I love games where the boards the board state can suddenly become completely different because somebody found one ridiculous combination.
Speaker: Innovation is that feeling distilled into a deck. There's no way I'm even going to get close to explaining innovation like that. And it's true. It is so many acts of violence in that game. It's brilliant.
Speaker: Still have not played it. That's on our list of games that you need to teach me next time we're in the same room, Shane. Yeah, yeah, done. Have you played it, Nick? No. No, you haven't either. No. It's good.
Speaker: Okay, so we we move on to the 17s and the 7s. 17. My number 17 is Battle Quacks. Wonderland's War. Battle Quacks.
Speaker: Very nice. Wonderland's War is my number 17. Is this new to your list? It is. It is. And I think it doesn't hit the table that often, but I think the last time we all played it, as a Thursday night group, didn't we, Nick?
Speaker: Yeah, was. was the last time. And, jeez, that was a fun game. um Yeah. and But, you know, you are literally beating each other up. And using using any type of asymmetric function, you know, whatever power that player's got.
Speaker: So, really good. Battle quacks. Yeah. It's a beast to set up, though, I must admit. It's a pain in the ass to set up. little bit of a setup, yeah. It's one of those games where you've got to know what's happening so you can set it up before people arrive. Yep.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right. That was almost like last Thursday night when I'm setting up... Poochain Magnet. Poochain Magnet.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. That's a bad sound. to your earlier list and Shane mentioned Food Chain Magnet. like, ah, I haven't played that in about five years. I'd love to get it to the table. Shane said he wants to get it to the table.
Speaker: I said, let's do it. and i refresh the rules ready to teach and i get there and both shane and phil go no we're done we've got no mental capacity to burn this i was like yeah you need it because it's going to be about three hours especially if it's your first time playing you're going to need the time and the mental capacity i said so if you're not up for it let's not do it it's back it went into this box there you go my number 781 lentil
Speaker: ah My number 17, I kind of feel like it's it's not cheating, um but it's a Ticket to Ride Legacy. Legends of the West. These just ended up next to each other.
Speaker: And it'll probably change over time because we played through Legacy and, you know, all the other Legacy games like Clank Acquisitions. Clank Legacy was in my top 10, I think, last year and it's now out to 50 because I'm never playing it again. Like, it's done. But I can't not celebrate how great of an experience this was.
Speaker: ah my My two older kids go to boarding school and they were back for the holidays and we did the entire Ticket to Ride Legacy campaign in the two weeks of holidays when they were back at home. So five players, everyone in the family.
Speaker: and we just had a great time with it. And it was it was interesting because I think I mentioned when I talked about Pandemic Legacy and the earlier in the count, um that Pandemic Legacy had this amazing twist. And I was kind of waiting for that with with Ticket to Ride. But...
Speaker: What Ticket to Ride did, though, was this continual addition to rules that when you got to the end, if you were just to pull that out and put in front of someone and say, this is the game we're playing, they'd be like, this is way too much. Because of that drip feed effect, you just you just fully understood every mechanism, you fully understood what what was required, yeah whether you were still getting tickets from the circus or whether you were still worried about ghost trains or whatever it was. i won't I won't say too much. But the other thing that was really cool about Ticket to Ride is its little nods to the board gaming hobby.
Speaker: So yeah without giving too much away, there's a very, very large nod to Settlers of Catan. When they talk about Chicago, they're referred to it as the city of the big shoulders. There's all these things where you just go, oh, that's kind of cool. like And yeah, so it keeps the board game nerd happy. It keeps the family happy. And what starts out as a 25-minute game of Ticket to Ride, because the first couple of so um of scenarios are quite short. You only got 20 trains each.
Speaker: Ends with, I think you've got 60 trains at the last one in the game. The last four or five games go for like nearly nearly three hours. But it's just awesome fun. So if you if you love Ticket to Ride, give it a go. You'll love it. And it's such an approachable legacy game. so And it is my number one legacy game on my list.
Speaker: So there you go Ticket to Ride Legends of West. love it. I have a love-hate relationship with legacy games. They're great. I love the concept of them, but trying to get it to the table enough in a period of time where everyone remembers the rules, because I'm always the rules czar of the group.
Speaker: ah if It's been a while between games. Like we ran pandemic season zero for, we got maybe six games in, but every time I had to rehash the rules for the guys, here's what we're doing. I'm trying to keep track of all of it, keeping plates spinning, you know, because if we drop one of these things, the whole game's going to fall apart.
Speaker: And it did fall apart. We just couldn't keep it up because we couldn't meet and want to play that game regularly enough to keep it going. Yeah, I mean, for sure. Like part of part of reason it's so high is because of that experience of it all happened in a two-week block. You know, that just made it special because you just set it up the next night and went. Sometimes you just left it set up for the whole day, knowing that we're coming back to it the next day. So, yeah. so That's absolutely, absolutely the way to do it.
Speaker: Do it in a condensed two-week time period. That's how we did season one with some friends. We did it in about a two or three-week period. Yeah, it's good. Yeah.
Speaker: All right, my number seven here. Now we're getting into more of my my classic top ten list here rather than the autobiographical top list. So number seven for me ah is ah a classic of a game high on the ranks, and it is Power Grid.
Speaker: I love the game. i love the different maps that you can get change out the rules just enough to keep you on your feet. I don't like tickets arrived. ah Love power grid. It's so mathy.
Speaker: You got to figure it out. Those last rounds, you're like, can I win? Can I not win? Can I? i think I can. And you go for it. And and it's awesome. I still remember the last time I'm sure Shane will bring it up when we played with him. And and that realization that all of a sudden he's like, wait a minute.
Speaker: I can win. I can beat Nick. Let's do this. He just got so excited that I was like, yeah, I saw it. I was hoping you wouldn't see it. But here it is. scored. You won it one round earlier. And it's always that, right?
Speaker: Like everyone can win within about a round of each other. It's just a matter of can you be the first one? Yep. And I remember that. nick Are you sure you want to do that, Nick?
Speaker: Yeah, I am. I am sure.
Speaker: ah Mix number seven is a Martin Wallace game. Hey, everyone's got one on their list. ah It is a game that you mentioned earlier, Shane, but you mentioned all of them, so that doesn't really count for much. ah This one is n o eighteen hundred the board game.
Speaker: He says, my love for NO1800, the board game, has nothing to do with the video game. I haven't even played it. Despite that, in case you haven't picked up, Mick's a big video game, by the way. um Despite that, NO1800 has, in my opinion, the best tech tree in any board game I've played.
Speaker: I love the combo nature of the game. I love the investment I have into what everyone else is doing.
Speaker: agree that. a good game.
Speaker: Still sitting on my shelf unplayed. So I need to fix that. Hmm. You need to. Defs number seven is Through the Ages. and oh boy, this is going to be a long one.
Speaker: Yeah. It's probably as long as the game itself. Through the Ages is a civilisation reduced to pure cardboard capitalism. No map, no little armies marching around, just this relentless question, can your civilisation generate enough science, food, rocks, and murder to survive?
Speaker: And every time someone gets Napoleon or starts building culture while you're still trying to invent bread, you start reassessing your life choices.
Speaker: The thing I love is that everything matters. Leaders matter. Wonders matter. Military matters. Timing matters. And if you not ignore one system for too long, someone weaponises it against you.
Speaker: It is the least relaxing way imaginable to build a civilisation, which is probably why I've played it so much. Through the Ages, Jeff's number seven. Great choice.
Speaker: um My number 16 is a Martin Wills game. Go figure. It's set in the Victorian London era. It's totally mean game, but everyone has their own secret objectives to win.
Speaker: a And everyone has their own secret player powers. Key mechanics include area control, hand management, variable player goals, card-driven actions.
Speaker: And that is Nantie Narkin, my number 16.
Speaker: Really good game.
Speaker: I like it. i i I think someone else, I thought, I picked um that, yeah, I know we talked about it before. So that's interesting. So you're putting Nathan Arceus and I can only assume that your this is not your singular pick for this and K'more Pork. So I'm assuming you've got some, I mean, I just put two ticket ride to ride games together so I can't, you know, throw stones.
Speaker: No, you can't. and they are They are different in some ways, the games. yeah They're slightly different and the one is more enjoyable to play than the other. There we go. But they're both really good. Okay. They're both really good. All right. My number 16 is my highest ranking Garfield game.
Speaker: And it is a Shem Phillips and Sam McDonald design. So, yeah, it's Paladins the West Kingdom. It's been my favorite for a while and just recently came on to BGA, which has been amazing. I've got like four games going, which is really hard because every time I go in a new game, right, what am I doing in this one again? Yeah.
Speaker: it's ah But it's super heavy. Well, I shouldn't say it's super heavy. it's It's not super heavy, but it is such a step up from from architects. And it really kind of started this change in Garfield games to making heavier games. Every game that came since Paladins has been of a heavier nature than and and not going back to that sort of architect style of and Raiders of the North Sea style game, which is fine. Yeah.
Speaker: The expansion to Paladins, I have a love-hate relationship with. I love the expansion when we play it and when we played it a couple of times in a row. But if you haven't played it it in a year and you pull it out, you just your brain just takes ah mental somersaults and you never...
Speaker: figure it out. But if you can understand it, it's great. And yeah, I've never had a bad game of Paladins. Actually, I i rephrase that. I've had one bad game of Paladins and that was at four players ah with everyone kind of at a different level. And the game took way too long than it should have. And it was very clear who was in front and who wasn't. So this is a two max three player game, I think. So it's beautiful that player count. So Paladins West Kingdom is my number 16.
Speaker: choice My number six is a classic again, um and it is the Viticulture. I love the the idea of worker placement and competing with each other. So normally I love games that it's just you're in control, you do your thing, you be as efficient as you can. But when you have worker placement, you're competing with those things. and And what do you do when you can't get to that spot before anyone else?
Speaker: And so that's why i learned very quickly in that game, the best strategy is to always go first. And don't worry about the bonus you get from the other things. It's not that valuable because you're guaranteed to get the double bonus of whatever you first go to.
Speaker: ah So take that. So I always go first. That's the big trick there. But I love the idea of worker placement. And in the two seasons that they have of the classic Viticulture, haven't played enough of Tuscany or the other maps that have come out, the new map.
Speaker: But looking forward to that when we get a chance. So my number six is Viticulture. like to know, Nick, if you've played, yeah have you played Tuscany at all or just not that often?
Speaker: Just once or twice. I think I played it with Phil at a game day. yeah. yeah Cause my, my, my, I'd like to see after a few plays of that, what your opinion of the, of the season track, like the, the turn order track is because in order to get first player, you need to be last player in the previous round. So you get all these great benefits, but then you go to first, but you've got to be last. And, um, Yeah, so I'd be interested to see whether you like that or you'd just be just continually choosing number two and just let someone else deal with that.
Speaker: No, I think it's the classic of, hey, you play this game so many times, you do your same thing every time. Like Viticulture, I do my same first three, four opening moves are the same pretty much every time set me up.
Speaker: And then you base it on the cards you get helps determine the rest of the way there. But yeah, I do know with Tuscany, it does change that, right? You can't keep playing the same way you normally play.
Speaker: which is really good when an expansion comes out and changes that for you. It really brings the game a fresh and new, so I am looking forward to playing it more. I've got the nice case for it that Shane gave me, the box, but I haven't played it as much as I'd like. That's why it's here on my number six.
Speaker: ah One of my favorite things about teaching this game is that, and this has happened a few times because, know, we used to run board gaming days when I was down in Brisbane. And I was always, this is a game I ah taught a lot. And I'd be i sitting down with three or five people, right?
Speaker: And I'd be explaining how at this play account, this is really, it's a really nice game. And then someone else will come over and go, can I play? And I'm like, yeah, sure. And they'd sit down and go, right, now it's a really mean game. Yep. Yep.
Speaker: Too good. odd Odd play accounts is fun. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but like it's just because it opens up that space, which you're like, oh, you got all this room. Oh, now you don't because now there's an extra person. Love it. All right. Mix number six is a Garfield game and it is his highest Garfield game.
Speaker: And it ah it is a game that we've already talked about on this episode, but it's not Paladins. It is Raiders of the North Sea. He says, Raiders is just the full package. Every part of this game just syncs so well with the rest of it that it just feels like I've got so many different ways I could take my turn.
Speaker: Except for the offerings. I don't think I've ever seen someone use the offerings to win.
Speaker: Fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough. Raiders North Sea, great game. No complaints here.
Speaker: My number six. I'm sorry, Def's number six. Def's number six. Def's number six. Sorry. Is a Martin Nillis game. Hello. And that is Age of Steam. and that makes sense Age of Steam is one of the most purest games ever made about making money while slowly strangling everyone else.
Speaker: There's almost nothing decorative in it. Build track, deliver cubes, increase income, take loans. Regret loans. Destroy somebody's route because they had the audacity to exist near you.
Speaker: It's vicious because the map is shared with everything you do. It's vicious because the map is shared and everything you do changes what everyone else can do. You can lose the game in the auction before you even laid a piece on the track of track, which is objectively hilarious when it happens to somebody else.
Speaker: It's ugly, brutal, elegant, and I'll play it basically any time. Age of Cell. Very good game.
Speaker: Very good game. haven't played for while. need to get it to the bag with.
Speaker: My number... Number 15. 15. It's a game where I was taught by the great man, Pastor Nick. And it's the only game where I literally bought it.
Speaker: I think it was mid-game. I found it. Mid-game. Mid-game. He knows exactly what it is. And... I ended up you know getting a really nice the the really nice deluxe edition as well. So it is Acquire, Acquire by Sid Saxon.
Speaker: It's a classic business strategy game about hotel chains, mergers and investment timing. um it's It's brilliant. Again, I haven't played it for a while, but, man, I played the heck out of it when we were playing it, and, jeez, it's so good.
Speaker: Such a good game. So thanks, Nick. Yeah, you can really see how that was. Yeah, that was a building block for so many different games in terms of how to understand stock and and mechanic and keeping an eye on other players and how much do they have and and when to merge and not to merge. It's such a classic game.
Speaker: My dad, that was one of his games that he had, so I stole his his old vintage copy of it. and And we played with that and then changed the blinged out version, um which is nice. It's nice to have the vintage, but it's also nice to have the the nice blinged out version that they've come out with now. So classic game. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a game in when my parents were out.
Speaker: But at some point, we're going to take down the master that is my dad at that game. He just he's got such a good he counts cards. So he knows exactly what everybody has, how many stocks they have.
Speaker: of each thing and he knows exactly what he's doing so uh someday we'll get a chance to play with him it'll be good yeah that'd great
Speaker: All right, well, my number 15 is a reimplementation of a game that was on my list earlier, and it made a great game that I didn't think needed any needed any changing. It made changes, which every single one made the game better, and that is Galactic Cruise. Oh, except for the theme. I prefer the theme of Dwellings of Eldervale, but everything else, ah sorry, not Galactic Cruise, Andromeda's Edge. Oopsie. Might have given something away there.
Speaker: LAUGHTER No, Andromeda's Edge is just delightful. I've actually just been playing a game um and a cool way a cool thing happened. I went into a combat because whenever you choose combat, if someone's nearby, they can join.
Speaker: And I didn't want anyone to join because I knew I was going to be facing one of the monsters and I knew I had enough to beat them. So I went in and then it was on BGA. So did my thing and then it said waiting for other players to react. So I was just like, yep, pass.
Speaker: And I come back in the next day and Adnan has got like four ships in this combat. I'm like, how have you gotten four ships in this combat? He's like, oh, because I have the ability to bring him back from the dead.
Speaker: They're zombie ships. Like. what Adnan wipes the floor with me and wins the battle. like, fair enough. I wasted a lot of resources on something I couldn't win. so No, it's so good. it's that the The player powers are really similar to what you were saying before about, I can't remember what game it was, but like the the variable player powers, they all sound broken.
Speaker: but everyone's got some sort of broken combo. ah The other, the big change, there's a lot of changes, but the big change that doesn't get talked about a lot between Dwellings and Andromeda's Edge is the cards, the tactics cards, are so much stronger in Andromeda's Edge that you want them. You want a deck of cards. If you don't have cards in your hand, you're losing.
Speaker: So where in Dwellings, you could almost just carry on without them. But in this game, you you need those cards. so But it's a yeah phenomenal game. Looks amazing, but plays better than it looks. Andromeda's Edge Deluxe Edition is the one I've got. So i'll I'll say that one. My highest Luke Laurie game, another designer I like a lot. But yeah, that's my number 15. Nice.
Speaker: My number five has to do with the fact that I think all board gamers need a range of games to fit different audiences. Yes, we have our our games that are our favorites. you know Mine are are all those Euro-type games that are heavy. We'll get to some of those in a little bit.
Speaker: ah But because I'm often entertaining other people and trying to get people into the hobby, you need something that that still, that they can play and really enjoy and learn quickly, but that you still have some fun with trying to figure it out and the efficiencies of it and the best ways to do it.
Speaker: So for me, that game has become Wingspan. It's a game I can easily teach to people. They feel like they're playing a game. They're not just doing something light. It's a little bit further into just your welcome game.
Speaker: But it gives me something to do. I'm still loving that game, trying to figure out the best combos and break vassals law often with that game in terms of winning the game I teach. ah But I really like it. I like the expansions that they've put in.
Speaker: keeps you Keeps it fresh. And you can pretty quickly add those expansions in, which is really nice. Too many games. the expansions just make the rules so difficult to get to that you gotta build into that, right? Whereas Wingspan, you can pretty much say, hey, these are cards that do different things. just read them and figure it out. you know They're pretty easy to figure out. So I really like that about Wingspan, that you can add those expansions in pretty quick, which means the game's got a ton of variety, big stack of cards that you've got to adapt to and play differently. So we'll often play multiple games in a row, and we just don't shuffle the stack. Just keep going through the stack
Speaker: Yeah, right. So you get through all the cards, you know, and so you can play two or three games before you actually need to reshuffle that bird's deck. So it's pretty good. So my number five is Wingspan.
Speaker: Mixed number five is a crossover with a few people. ah It was actually Suzanne's number one, and that is Heat Pedaled to the Metal. Probably the most easily approachable game I own and the module system allows for so much depth that you could almost get away with Heat being your only board game.
Speaker: I'm kidding, but the point stands. Yeah, no no arguments here. Heat pedal to the metal. I don't think it's i don't think um' it's a spoiler to say that it's still coming up on my list at some point.
Speaker: So, yeah. Absolutely love ah love the game. well a Great pick, Mick. That is his number five. Best number five is Voidfall. Voidfall is what happens when someone looks at the 4X game and says, what if we remove the dice and replace it with anxiety?
Speaker: It's enormous, it's beautiful, it's absurdly over-engineered, and I love it. Because everything is deterministic enough that when something goes wrong, there is nowhere to hide. You did this, you caused this.
Speaker: You knew exactly how many ships were there, and you went went in anyway. It gives you the sweep of a civilization game, but underneath its brutally precise Euro puzzle. It's like Eclipse went to university, got three degrees, and stopped believing in luck.
Speaker: Def number five, avoid fall. So you know why I'm just just quickly giving you my games? Because this is this a good read. It's a lot, yeah. Well, you know, asking you shall receive. I can no can't make... I said to Def, give us a spiel about each of your games. He's he's he's understood the task.
Speaker: My number 14 is a game owned for ages and never hit the table until, again, Nick, you taught me this game. um This game is a tight monastery-themed Euro game about brewing beer with discipline and balance.
Speaker: It's tile placement, resource management, track advancement, and scoring optimization. With players managing mugs, ingredients, and reduction spaces to create the most refined ale possible.
Speaker: My number 14 is Heaven and Ale.
Speaker: Really good, good game. I enjoy it. like getting it to the table whenever we can. Yeah, shocked how high that is on your list. I've got that on number 20 on my list.
Speaker: But I always describe the game as you feel like you're drowning the whole time because your point markers are all in the negative. and it's only at And you're like, how am I possibly going to get these up above? how i ah you know you're just You're chasing the whole time until the very end. You finally get that like big gulp of air and you can get all these things moving.
Speaker: But the whole time, you're just you feel like you're underwater. It's a good game. Really good game. Yep. Well, my number 14 I kind of spoiled before by saying its name instead of Andromeda's Edge. My number 14 is Galactic Crimson.
Speaker: It is such a quality game. i got taught this by Dave and Suzanne last year, and I also bought this while playing the game. actually was lucky enough to get the last copy they had at Mind Games in Melbourne, who without asking and without paying for it, sent it Express, and it rocked up like three days later. And where you live when I live, where I live, three days postage is out of this world. So it was almost like it was dropped off by one of the ships you make in Galactic Cruise. But this has all the elements of the game I love. It's got tracks. It's got tech.
Speaker: It's got ah building ah essentially what is a cruise ship. And that's just fun. Like the idea that I'm putting a roller coaster on my my Galactic Cruise ship for people and the way that it matches the the the the modules you're putting in to the people that you want to go on your cruise. Just that whole advertising thing.
Speaker: mechanism where if you're hosting a cruise with heaps of family activities, then you don't have to advertise that hard to families. They're going to want to be on that cruise. But if you want to advertise to someone who's after a yoga retreat style cruise, you're going to have to pay a bit more to get them to come on your cruise because you've got to really sell it.
Speaker: And it's just, it's so easy to explain that we're in a game teach ah because it just makes sense that the link to thematic to the theme makes so much sense. So, Just a tremendous game. It's also often referred to as Lacerda Lite.
Speaker: And if if I was Vital Lacerda, I'd take notes because this game has been far more popular than any Lacerda game in the last five to 10 years. So if that's what it takes to get a game similar to his a bit more successful, maybe just I'll back those ah those options a little bit and you have absolute brilliance like Electric Cruise.
Speaker: That's one I'm keen to play. It looks, I saw all of it and i was like, this looks like a game I would want to play. Especially, I like Lacerda's. Love the idea that it's a light version of that. That's really great.
Speaker: Very good.
Speaker: You're number four, Nick.
Speaker: My number four yeah is thematic game, of which I don't usually do thematics, but the last couple here are thematic games. I'm used to dry Euros. But when I saw this being developed, it was one of those first, all right, I'm going to take the Kickstarter punt, see if it'll work, and listen to a bunch of different podcasts about it. And when it got here, played it and absolutely loved it. So this was a big win for me in the Kickstarter roll of the dice.
Speaker: And that game is distilled. Great game. I love this game. And i just today, or yesterday, I got the expansion, which is Cocktails. And it came in the big box. And I spent the whole time hacking the box in. And they do such a good job of their box and and all of that. So I'm just chomping at the bit to get in and get that game to the table.
Speaker: it's It's one that... I still have to convince the group to play. They haven't quite bought into it yet, but it's such a good game. It's, you know, yeah. So my number four is Distilled.
Speaker: That is an amazing choice. That's one of my favorites. It's I'm also, obviously, as I just mentioned with the post, I'll probably get mine maybe the week after next, I would imagine, but it's, it's on its way. It's I remember I first played this on the podfather cruise back in 2024 and um went into a board gaming shop in Hawaii and bought it.
Speaker: um And then Later on um when I got back and played it again, i rang that same shop because he had all the expansions. Like he had the mats, he had the cast strength expansion and whatever else, and I couldn't get that anywhere else, anywhere online. So I rang the store and I was like, dude, can you ship to Australia? It's just like I'll make it happen. And it became a debacle because he got quoted for Posted and he went to Posted and it was three times more expensive and we made it work. I got the gear. So it was all good. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: Amazing game.
Speaker: ah But we go we move on to Mick's number four. And this is a game that I i don't agree with Mick on this one. I didn't have ah great experiences with this game, but it is quite well regarded.
Speaker: I'm interested to see whether it shows up on Def's list because Def and I played this game once the first time and we were both like, what is this trash? Why are people talking about this? And the rule book was horrid. This is Imperium Classics.
Speaker: ah So David Turchie designed game. Yeah. He says, the best deck builder to ever do it. I disagree. I so rarely encounter games that actually understand and take advantage of the ability to remove cards in deck builders. That is true.
Speaker: The game has like five different ways, each with unique benefits and drawbacks. Simply the best to ever do it. And just in case it doesn't happen. It's a really good game, that Yeah.
Speaker: I'll take your word for it. ah This is one of those really excited, very disappointed purchases of mine where I owned it for about five minutes after I'd finished playing it. But that's okay. These things happen. Everyone's game can't be everyone's game. But i yes, Steph and I were playing this game, learning it together.
Speaker: And I can't remember, there was a word, was choose was on a card, but it wasn't quite clear what you were choosing. So we looked up rule book. looked up the rule book to see whether there was like you know and an explanation of uh what that meant and it was basically it says choose you may choose what you choose or something like that so it just became this thing that whenever def and i played this game was just like choose and and now even now like to this day we we joke about it and he's like star star trek captain's chair is this game with a star trek theme and apparently it's done really well and um And Def was like, I've been playing this a fair bit.
Speaker: Choose is all he said to me. But I know that he he's come around on it. He likes it now. So I'd interested to see if it makes his list. But yeah, Imperium Classics is mix number four.
Speaker: You do need to invest the time in the game to learn it. The thing that got me about it it wasn't the gameplay. It wasn't not understanding it. It was, it was the fact that i kind't remember what it's called, but you change from like primitive to not primitive in the game. You're, you're, you're, um,
Speaker: or whatever you're using. And I won the game without ever changing. And I'm like, how does that, like the whole point, the whole crux of the game is built on this, you know, developing and and improving.
Speaker: And I was able to win without even going there, which I just thought was a bit weird for a game that's, yeah, anyway. So there's few other things that happened that just sort of made us go, yeah.
Speaker: Well, I do have Captain's Chair. It's in Shrink and I'm looking forward to unwrapping it at some point. I might even do it for Father's Day tomorrow. Okay. death.
Speaker: Death's number four. That's a great number four as well, by the way. Mage Knight. Mage Knight is still the king. Mage Knight is still the king of I'm going to sit at a table alone and disappear into another dimension for four hours.
Speaker: It's not solo board gaming, it's ritual magic. You start with a sad little hand of cards and one pathetic unit, and by the end, you're storming fortified cities like some deranged fantasy accountant who has calculated the exact amount of violence required. And it's and that's the genius of it.
Speaker: The combat isn't random, it's a puzzle. You look at this impossible problem and go, right, if I burn this mana, wound myself twice, sacrifice that unit, and use this card sideways, and suddenly you've murdered the entire city.
Speaker: Therapeutic. Two stop. There
Speaker: you go. Yeah, this is good. You know, Mage Knight summed up perfectly.
Speaker: My number... 13. I don't know if Nick likes this game or not. We play it a bit. And so, you you know, you mentioned before about you know evolving yourself. Well, in this game, you have to vindicate vindicate yourself.
Speaker: And that is vindication. Vindication is just such a cool game. And just so many things can happen.
Speaker: But yeah, I was ah puzzled if you like it or not, Nick. So... I do, actually. Yeah, number 30 on my list. Yeah. ah Yeah, it it won me over. does It does hit the gra the the game table quite a bit, that one.
Speaker: suppose they're not. Indication, my number 13. Fair enough. My number 13 is a classic. It's a Reiner Knizzi game, and it's the best auction game that's ever done it, and this is Ra.
Speaker: I hadn't played Ra until the 25th Century Edition and I bought the Standard Edition with the wooden chips and it was great and I played it so much that I ended up just deciding to go and buy the Pharaoh Edition as well and ended up giving my Standard Edition to G-Money because he was keen to play. But it's such a clever game that has...
Speaker: it It has that perfect amount of, if I do this, I'll get this many points. But if I do that, I might get this many more points. And that idea of how much do you, it's up to you whether you want luck or not.
Speaker: you don't You don't have to go down that road of chasing luck, but you can. And it's a potentially winning strategy. Instead, you can just play it safe and just slowly accumulate points. I love that about it, but there's definitely the best thing about this game is you're not just bidding for the tiles that are out there. You're bidding for the chip that determines how like what you can how how you can bid later in the game. So the first bid, it comes with a one chip, which means you're stuck with the worst chip for bidding later in rounds. So it's got to be a really good board for you to want to take that. And then if it's a really good board and you play a high chip, then you're leaving that high chip out there for someone to take on the next round. So it's there's a a lot of things going on with with what you decide to bid and when.
Speaker: And it's just, yeah, it's that great thing where at some point there might be one person left and you're just everyone around the table is just hoping they pull out the raw chips so their turn ends without getting anything amazing.
Speaker: And sometimes people will chant and that just makes it exciting. So Ra is my number 13. I'll always play this game. It's great at full player count, but also still good, probably down to three. I don't know if it'd play you that great at two, but three, four or five is excellent.
Speaker: Ra is my number 13.
Speaker: Very good. Yeah. My number three comes off of the number four. I love it when you find a designer who kind of gets you and and you go, you know what, it really doesn't matter what they put out. I'm going to go buy it.
Speaker: And so my number three is follow up to Distilled. It is Luthier by Pavers and Games. I really like this game, played it solo, was quite happy with it, played a few other times with a different player count, and still in the exploration phase of the game, right? Still trying to learn all the different levels to it.
Speaker: um I remember I played it, and I played it a couple times, thought I kind of knew how how it would run, how it would go, and thought I did pretty well. And then here comes Lucky Phil, who basically just played the hand that was dealt him, right? Didn't do anything strategic, just played the cards that he picked up, that in and he just clobbered us.
Speaker: He had so many instruments in the orchestra that he just dominated, got a huge bag of points at the end of the game and and took it from us. So I like it. I like the that action selection in terms of ah placing your marker there, not knowing if someone's going outbid you for it.
Speaker: all the different places you need to go. It looks intimidating at first, but once you learn it, like many games, you're like, oh, okay, the concepts aren't that hard. It's just big, bright, and beautiful, and you just got to get through that. So my number three is Luthier.
Speaker: Nice choice. ah ah It's not on my list at all because I hadn't played it before making the list, but I have played it a handful of times in the last month. And I'm not going to go out on limb and say it's better than Distilled like you have, but it is it's quite good. And I love the ah the decision around when to go to a place And you can see that someone really needs to go to market before they need to go to a spot. And you just go to that spot.
Speaker: It can be very mean. yeah And you're like, oh, sorry, I didn't realize. ah yes, I did.
Speaker: All right, number three for Mick is a living card game that is not Marvel. So it's not a crossover with me, but I fully understand why he loves this because him, my brother and my sister-in-law played this a ton. And that is Arkham Horror, the living card game.
Speaker: He says, it is easily the board, question mark, game ah I've sunk the most time into. Each scenario feels unique and fun, and it's easy to lose hours choosing how you want to construct your deck.
Speaker: So similar to what we're talking about when I was speaking about Marvel Champs, part of the game is actually not even the game. It's just sitting there creating decks and going, this will work, you know, if i've I put this from this...
Speaker: yeah this person from over here and add it to here, then that'll make it a better ah better deck to play with. I fully get that. And Mick is that kind of person where you could just tell that he would make amazing decks for the games like this. He'd fully understand the sequencing of how how it all works. So that is Mick's number three, Arkham Horror, The Living Card Game.
Speaker: Okay, defs number three is Dyer Project. Okay, alright. Gaia Project is the game that makes me feel clever, even while um it's quietly proving that I'm not.
Speaker: It's just this beautiful machine of expansion, timing, resources, tech tracks, federation planning, turn order, and watching the map slowly become a war crime of adjacency bonuses.
Speaker: Every action feels like it has six consequences. Every mistake sits there for two hours reminding you what you did. And somehow it's still incredibly satisfying rather than aggressive.
Speaker: I can, so I can stare at the board for 10 minutes, move one little building and feel like i've completely completed a doctoral thesis. So Gaia project is defs number three.
Speaker: That's, that's pretty incredible. So for reference, Steph and i met back in 2020 when we started the Board Game Barbecue podcast and I think Guy Project was his favourite game then.
Speaker: Scythe was my favourite game. Mike's was Zombicide. And when Scythe fell off my number one spot, everyone was like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, it happens. And and both of them were like, my number one's never changing.
Speaker: And for the longest time, like this is the first time I've ever heard Def refer to Guy Project as anything but his favourite game. So that's crazy. Love it. Yep.
Speaker: My number 12 is my favourite Garfield game.
Speaker: And when I first learnt this game, I thought, oh, yeah, this is nice. Nice little fun game that you can play with your mates and enjoy ah just, you know, ah being nice to each other.
Speaker: And then I really learned how to play this game. And you have to play it mean. And that is Architects of the West Kingdom. It is such a mean game. And it's the only way to play it.
Speaker: Just put everyone in prison, piss everyone off, hold hold half their players for half the game and so they can afford to get them back. It's just so good.
Speaker: Architects of West King is my number 12. well Yeah. My favourite thing to do in this game is just to hang out down the bottom of the Virtue track. yeah pretty much for 75% of the game and get all, pay less to do stuff, get all the extra benefits, go to the black market.
Speaker: You don't care because you're that kind of person. And then with 25% of the game left, you have an epiphany and you suddenly decide to become virtuous.
Speaker: It's good. Very good. My number 12 is a crossover with Mick and it is a board game adaptation of a video game, which I also quite like, but i not not as enamored with the video game as Mick is, but Slay the Spire is fantastic.
Speaker: I didn't say much about it when Mick was talking about it because it was coming up on this list. I knew that, but it's just... There's not many games, but I play this with Raphael a lot, there's not many games where we pull it out and and how it works is you play through three acts.
Speaker: And it's you set it up, you so play Act 1, and you will generally beat Act 1. If you know what you're doing, you'll beat Act 1. And if you don't beat Act 1, you've only wasted 25 minutes of your day, so you'll just rack them up and go again.
Speaker: And then once you beat Act 1 and you get into Act 2, suddenly you're playing this meaty game that you've been playing for two hours now and you're getting some really heavy choices. So when you finish Act 2, you're like, well, we've just got to keep going. We've got to keep the ball rolling. So you end up playing Act 3. Suddenly you're playing a half a day, nearly almost longer than a half-day board game, and it's amazing. And then, of course, if you lose in Act 3, you don't rack them up and go again. You pack it away for a few weeks. But just sensational. The deck building that you do in this game is really clever, the way the system that you get cards based on what you defeat. If you want to make it
Speaker: Better for yourself in the long run, you've got to start by being hard on yourself at the start. So you have elite monsters that you can fight or normal monsters. If you fight an elite monster, you get a better, a really good reward that will help you late game, but you might lose all your health.
Speaker: So you've got always got these tough decisions of what to fight and which path to go. Tremendous game. Slay the Spire is my number 12. And just interesting little fact, I've It's my number 12 game. I've played it 13 times and it's currently 14 on BGG. So 12, 13, 14. It's just a random little maths fact thrown in there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: My number two is a game that just a minute after playing it the first time ago, that was great. I got to play. i don't I don't know why I loved it so much. I just did.
Speaker: And to this day, I still don't know why. um but I think maybe it's because there's so many different paths you can go. to win the game. There's different strategies you can take and I think that makes a replayability really nice is, oh, I'm gonna try this strategy this time, I'll try that strategy next time. You know, there's so many different options. And then they came out with so many different versions of the game that it's just doubled down on that idea of, hey, we're gonna give you something that you can play a lot and a lot and a lot.
Speaker: And that game is Great Western Trail. I love the idea that you can have so many different ways to win that game. Oh, I'm going to try the building track. I'm going really focus on building a bunch of places and clogging up the board and making it a longer game. Or I'm just going to go straight for for cows. I'm just going to buy a bunch of cows and and go that way. Or or I'm going to run the train. I'm going to run it as far out as I can, run it to the end bring it back, run it again.
Speaker: So I love that ah that idea that you can try different strategies to win the game. There's not one that is just gonna always win the game. There's lots of different.
Speaker: And i like that about the newer versions as well, Argentina, as well as New Zealand. But for me, it's still the the original version, Great Western Trail. I still hold on to the first print run of it. I don't have the updated version. I have the old version.
Speaker: um So it lacks some of the modifications that they've made in that updated edition, but to me, it's just classic. I got to have that artwork. I like that one far better than the new ones.
Speaker: So my number two is Great Western Trail. So you heard it here first. Someone prefers the artwork from the first edition. I did i did find it interesting that it caught so much flack. I didn't think it was that terrible, but...
Speaker: There's some great things. i don't know if you've seen that someone took the front cover from Great Western Trail First Edition and had them singing What is Love? So you've got all the mouths moving on the box. It's hilarious. I think it's just because it was that. That's the version I played first. And that's, I love the muted tones of that rather than just so bright. And I don't like the meeples with the big cowboy hats. I think those are a bit clunky.
Speaker: Yeah, fair call.
Speaker: Okay, so Mick's number two is a game that I talked about it way back, but mick Mick really was one of the reasons why I decided to go down and play this game with Raphael because he talked about it so highly. And this is Undaunted Stalingrad.
Speaker: He says, i love Undaunted, so when I first saw Undaunted Stalingrad, I thought, oh, Undaunted Legacy sounds cool. Little did I know i was open i was about to open the best campaign campaign box I've ever seen.
Speaker: The game evokes so much emotion for all your soldiers during through the gameplay. I still remember the game where my war hero scout died in battle, and I just don't think there's another game that has had me looking at my cards like that before or since.
Speaker: Great choice, Mick. Undaunted Stalingrad, Mick's number two.
Speaker: Defs number two is a crossover with me, but my and number that was my number 77, so way long ago crossover, but still, let's call it. um And honestly, if I played this more, it would be easily climbing the ranks. ah So Defs number two is John Company.
Speaker: John Company is... is barely a board game. It's a social experiment where four adults voluntarily recreate a collapsing bureau bureaucracy and then blame each other for it.
Speaker: And I adore it. You spend three hours making deals, lying, begging for offices, promising favours you have no intention of honouring, and then India explodes because some somebody's idiot nephew got appointed governor of Bombay.
Speaker: Magically, yes, there are dice and offices and ships and companies and all that, but the real game is people looking at each other in the eye and saying, trust me. i mean correct And then correct response is always, absolutely fucking not.
Speaker: So, John Company is Def's number two. Great number two, Jeff. Rightio. I wonder... I've got no idea of what his number one might be.
Speaker: Okay. I don't know. We'll see. What about your number 11, Shane? Number 11 for me is a crossover with Phil. I can't remember where Phil had this in his top 20, but it is a place where he visited and climbed the hill, and that is Snowdonia.
Speaker: Snowdonia is just such a good, good game where you're digging dirt, building track, And it's great.
Speaker: I love it. I've got the big box. and And whenever we whenever I can get at the table, I will. And that's Foothills, if you remember, which was, I think, was in my top.
Speaker: can't remember where Foothills was. Foothills is number 42. Foothills is a two-player version of it. I've snowed out here. Cool. So, really good. My number 11 is a game that that the the first word has been said a lot by me in this list.
Speaker: And the second word, though, for the first time is catacombs. So Clank Catacombs is my number 11. This is my favorite of the Clanks. And I just love that it takes a game that I already really liked. And the deck building is great.
Speaker: But then it adds this exploration where you just don't know where you go. There's no map. You you you discover the map as you go. which just makes sense. Like if you're if you're going deep into a dungeon, you're not going to already have a map. Like Google Maps doesn't work down there.
Speaker: So you've got to figure out your way. And you might just find yourself walking straight into a trap or coming across ghouls or whatever else. It's fantastic. Best way to play Clank. And yeah, Clank is just an excellent game.
Speaker: ah So that is my number 11. And I think Nick's still there. His camera's chopped. Yeah, okay. I'll edit that little bit out. But yes, over to you for your number one. Number one, Nick. Here we go.
Speaker: My number one, I had way too many thematic games up high, which surprised me how many thematic games, because I would say I'm always a dry Euro player. So my number one is the king of dry Euros. I love the game. I'll play it anytime anybody wants to. And that's Hansa Teutonica.
Speaker: um I just love the cutthroat nature of this game when you get guys who have played it multiple times and this game was kind of like the genesis of our group saying let's not rush through and play a game once and move on to the next. Let's play it three or four times so that you can really get strategy into it and it'll make the game better.
Speaker: a lot better and so that's what hansa teutonica is for me the more you play it you bring in all the knowledge you have from the previous time that you played it with those exact players and you go i'm not going to let him do that this time i'm going make sure i block him and and stuff him up and and slow this down and and go for that i just i love the game it's so simple just some cubes on a board moving them around on a map like So simple, yet so strategic.
Speaker: Hansa Teutonica, I'll play it any day of the week. My number one. I was going to say that it had to be your number one. So awesome, mate. And i love I love playing it with our group of four too because, you know, it's I tend to just sit in the corner and just do my own little thing. And just they leave me alone.
Speaker: Phil and Nick are just totally at each other's strokes the whole game. So then me and Andy just sit back and then we do our own thing. So it's quite good. yep Great choice. Excellent.
Speaker: All right, so we're up to mix number one, and it is a game, again, that I don't like, but that's okay. Like I said, every game is not everyone's game. ah this He says, this game's puzzle feels so rewarding to crack.
Speaker: There is so much depth to the game with a pretty simple set of rules. The time limit feels so tight, but it also feels perfectly judged. Amazing game. Any guesses? No.
Speaker: This is Pipeline.
Speaker: okay So, yep, good for you, Nick. Good for you, Nick, sorry. I've played Pipeline a a few times and yeah, you I've tried i've tried and I've tried and I've tried, but I don't i don't see the i don't see the secret sauce. But hey, I'm not here to yuck someone else's yum.
Speaker: If it's your favourite game of all time, i must be missing something. Well done, Nick. Well, well done. And Nick, great number one as well. All right, Steve, what do you reckon Jeff's number one is?
Speaker: I'm just going to go with PAX Premier. No. Okay. Number a one. And this is a great number one. And it won't be the last time it's spoken about.
Speaker: Put it this way. Death's number one is Arx. ah Oh, wow. Okay. I did not expect that. Arx is one of those games where every time i play it, I come away thinking, that was disgusting. I love it.
Speaker: It's a mean... It's political, it's tactical, it's constantly forcing you to react to things you absolutely did not want to react to. And the action selection is brilliant because half the game is not doing what you want.
Speaker: It's doing the best possible thing with the garbage circumstances everyone else has created. it produces stories, it produces grudges, it produces the wonderful moment where someone says, you wouldn't, and you absolutely wouldn't.
Speaker: I don't want a space game where we all politely build our little engines. I want i want space diplomacy conducted with a chair leg. So... Arcs is Def's number one, and i love Arcs as well. and Okay. There we go. Nick! I'm guessing by the the facial expressions on Nick that he doesn't agree. is He hasn't grokked me yet. That's all right.
Speaker: Yeah, we played it and enough and I can't remember. I put it out of my mind why I don't like it. I had strong opinions about it before, but I decided to vacate that because i need I need brain matter for other things that are more interesting. So I just know I don't like that game.
Speaker: But I was willing to play it four times for Shane because that's what's great about board game communities is is even if it's not your game, ah you you you play it anyways because you care about each other and you want to play each other's favorite games because it's fun to see people come alive when they're playing their best and favorite game.
Speaker: That's really well said. Yeah. Perfectly said. And yeah, it's it is such a good game. And Def described it perfectly. It's main... Yeah, so big thank you to Def and for Mick for ah giving us their lists. And, yeah, it's it's been really interesting. When I first suggested we do this, Shane, I was worried that it would might sound a bit dumb, like speaking about other people's games while they're not here to talk about that themselves. But it just means we've talked about so many more games, and most of the time.
Speaker: they've been games that we have also really loved that just didn't make our lists for whatever reason, or maybe they were, but in a different episode or something. So it's been really cool to sort of get a bit bigger of a scope of games that are out there that are good fun.
Speaker: Yeah. And, and, and thanks for joining us, Nick. um on On a Saturday morning, mate, you look bright and chirpy, so that's good. You'll be yeah that's all you so preparing yourself for a pretty big football game on tonight.
Speaker: That's right. 315, the Lions, the Lions, are playing. So ah um I'm going to do, I think, some wings on the smoker, get ready for that for for dinner. So that'll be good.
Speaker: But thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate the opportunity this share the list and talk board games with you for a little bit. ah I agree. It's great listening to other people's lists as you go. I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp of the hobby, I think I've got this." And you're like, nope, there are so many other games out there that people absolutely love that I've never even touched. you know And so you see how how wide and our community is, and that's just awesome.
Speaker: So I'm glad there are games for people out there that like different things than me.
Speaker: well On that note, I think that's the best way to finish it. Thanks again. And we'll catch you on our top 10 with a special guest that we'll have to wait to see.
Speaker: Come listening to our top 10. Thanks, Shane. Thanks, Nick. Thank you. Thanks, Nick. Thank you. Have a good one. Go Lions.
Speaker: you
