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Episode 6: Our greatest board gaming experiences
25 Plays2 days ago
Join Shane and Steve as they reminisce about their top 10 board gaming experiences!
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Transcript
Morning Greetings and Travel Concerns
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Mate Let's Play. How are you Shane? I am fantastic on this Saturday morning at seven ah four am are you doing mate?
00:00:19
Speaker
Well normally I'd say geez it's a bit early but I've been up all night because my kids are traveling at the moment and I'm not with them so there's a little bit of parental concern going on there but that's all right.
Weather Challenges and Holiday Plans
00:00:30
Speaker
it's ah Everything's going according to plan so well according to adjusted plans thanks to flooding so we're all good. We should see them this afternoon for the first time in 10 weeks which is exciting. It'd be nice to go a weekend without any rain to be honest with you. We've had a heck of rain up here in Brisbane so Yeah, no different up here either. So I had a whole bunch of co-workers because I work at a school and obviously today's the first day the school holidays.
00:00:54
Speaker
So a lot of teachers were planning on driving out today and they all booked flights yesterday because driving out is not an option. So I feel sorry for those guys, but we don't have a car. So we didn't have that option. We were always flying out.
Family Holiday to Cairns
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah That's good, mate What have you been up to? To be honest, just ah finishing up the term, getting ready for ah family holiday to Cairns, which is exciting. we just We just bought a car, so we'll be picking that up while we're down in Cairns.
00:01:23
Speaker
And yeah, we'll just have it. Looking forward to a couple of weeks of no responsibilities and chilling out at a resort. I've packed ah a pact ah full box of Santa Monica and World Wonders filled with about 20 other games. Oh, wow.
00:01:38
Speaker
Plenty of board games to play while we're down there. And yeah, just looking forward to some time with the family because i haven't like I said, we haven't seen our two elder kids since basically Australia Day. So um yeah, it'd be good to have the the five back together for a couple of weeks.
00:01:53
Speaker
Nice. And some nice five-player board games too, no doubt. Hopefully. We'll see how I go with that one. have you been to cans Have you been to Cairns before? No, sort of. Well, yes. The answer is yes. We've been to Cairns as a family, what, 11 years ago. so a while ago now. um And I went there once for a work thing about five years ago, i guess. So lovely part of the world. is a lovely spot. Yeah, quite happily end up probably end up there if if if the stars aligned. So yeah, we'll see.
00:02:26
Speaker
It is a really nice spot. And the markets, I don't know, I can't remember where the markets were, but they're in there. up up the top. in some hinterland there up there in Cairns and those markets are brilliant. Oh, Coranda markets? Coranda markets, yeah.
00:02:40
Speaker
They're awesome. I have a feeling just because my wife is an artist, I dare say that I'll be on our radar at least once while we're down
Coranda Markets and Chili Challenge
00:02:48
Speaker
there. I remember that, you know, and and it's interesting because, you know, today we're we're talking about our top 10 board gaming experiences, but I had an experience in Cairns at the Coranda markets once.
00:02:58
Speaker
This is a good little segue. um Unplanned too. um We're... They had this chili stall and yeah and um so I got dared to try this 20 million Scoville chili essence.
00:03:19
Speaker
Okay. Right? it's it was And it was all crystallized as well. So I had to sign a waiver before this guy i literally put a toothpick drop of this crystallized um hell on a cracker, like a toothpick drop.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah. And I tasted it, put the whole thing in my mouth, ah down it went. and i' like And he's like, well what did you think? What you think? said, really nice. Actually, it got a real nice fruity flavor.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, And he said, yep, yep. You're just going to wait there for a few minutes though. Then the burn kicked in. Holy shit. I'm sorry, but I had to swear on that one because it was so hot.
00:04:07
Speaker
Lauren and and my brother-in-law just saw my face go red, purple, every color of the rainbow I reckon was hitting my face. And I was like struggling.
00:04:20
Speaker
I'm walking out of there. I'm sweating out of every pore of my body. was slipping out of thongs. slipping slipping out of my thongs
00:04:30
Speaker
My feet were sweating and I had to sit down because I started hallucinating. i was like, this is bloody brilliant. Oh, that's awesome. I was dying.
00:04:41
Speaker
It's like that Simpsons episode where Homer eats the Guatemalan and sandy pepper. Yes, yes, that's it. But I just distinctly remember walking along and I've never sweat out the bottom of my feet before, but I was sliding out of my thongs.
00:04:56
Speaker
and Yes, it's humid in cans, but um ah geez that was a funny a really funny experience. They wouldn't sell it to me neither. ah It was only there to taste it. It's probably a good thing.
00:05:09
Speaker
Your charcuterie boys would take on a whole ah different context. Yeah, everyone has to sign a waiver before they eat it. ah No, that was that that was good. Nice little segue into what is today's episode. and what about yourself before we get started?
Busy Work and Limited Gaming Time
00:05:22
Speaker
have yeah How have you been down south?
00:05:24
Speaker
I've been been good. You say down south when you refer Brisbane, but yeah, down south for me. Down south, yes, I am. I am down south of you and I've been good. It's been a busy busy few weeks at work, so um not much gaming time for me. However, I did get did get and Castles of Burgundy the table again ah for the solo play and played it on medium difficulty and still had a win.
00:05:50
Speaker
And seriously, that That solo mechanic in that game, it's fantastic. fantastic Just fantastic. Really simple to run. I'd be interested to hear about whether it makes the list on our next episode, which is going to be the top ten solo games.
00:06:04
Speaker
We'll have to wait and see. I am a one-hit wonder, you know, so it doesn't take much for me to like something.
00:06:12
Speaker
No, but that's about it for me, mate. I've had a good weekend. i i my My son graduated uni, so we went to his graduation. Congrats. Yes, proud of him, and it's his birthday, and then it's Lauren's birthday on the weekend, so I've got a full week of celebration, which is nice.
Family Celebrations and Top Board Game Experiences
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, awesome.
00:06:30
Speaker
Great time to be alive. Well, it's probably a good thing that you didn't play a lot of board games because this week we're skipping talking about what board games have been playing and we're going straight to the list because we feel like this could be ah just the content enough content for an episode all in one hit. So as Shane alluded to, we are doing our top 10 board game experiences and we can make that what we want. It could be individual gameplay. It could be like a long-term campaign game. It could be an event.
00:06:57
Speaker
it could be, I don't know, like maybe one day you answered Trivial Pursuit cards on your on a drive between Brisbane and Sydney and that was memorable for some reason. Anything you could possibly come up with. So I guess before we start in our actual top 10, I mean, it's a strange thing to ask in a list like this, but are there any honourable mentions?
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, geez, good question. ah Yeah, honourable mention for me, let's kick off with, um I played, ah we had a game day once where it was there was four of us.
00:07:30
Speaker
we were around at Lucky Fuels House and we played Coffee Traders and On Mars. So two big games. And ah the first time in a very long time, actually won both of them.
00:07:47
Speaker
um And for me to win two two heavy games back-to-back was good. But the memorable part was um on Mars was our second game. and And um the one of the guys we were playing with um thought he had the victory.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah. ah However, Shane does what Shane does. Pulls out a sneaky card that he's got sitting there. And i like I ended up going past and i ended up winning by about four four points.
00:08:17
Speaker
So it was a really good really good moment. And poor Christy. um I don't think he was too happy. ah But it was good fun.
00:08:29
Speaker
It was good fun. So yeah, that was an honourable mention. Just missed the list. Well, I have another honorable, I can't even speak, two honorable mentions actually. One of them includes you.
00:08:40
Speaker
In fact, two of my two of my experiences on my list, two and a half, I guess you could say, include you. ah But ah the the one that includes you is that game of City the Big Shoulders we played at Vault Games. And it might come up on your list, I'm not sure, but ah with me, you, Def, and Dave.
00:08:57
Speaker
And it wasn't even so much that the game was memorable. I couldn't really tell you much about that game. I can't tell you anything. ball What's memorable about it was the fact that we have Def, who is like a maths whiz.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yes. You have yourself that work in a bank. I consider myself a bit of a maths whiz. And we have Dave, who at the time, I'm pretty sure was like doing accounting for the for the Brisbane City Council.
00:09:21
Speaker
Dave is a human computer. Yes. Yes. And we tried to calculate calculate the end scores and we got four different results. Yes. That's right. I do remember that. And you made a comment, how the hell have we done this?
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, and we had to do it again. And I think we got we got two people who got the same result the second time. So we just went, yep, that's the one. oh, look at that. That's our scores. Yeah, that. Yeah, that was a bit of a highlight. Well, and I guess this is it, right?
00:09:47
Speaker
Top 10 board game experiences. You kind of want them to be like your favorite, like the best 10. But it's not necessarily the same thing because I nearly included one, which was such a funny experience because my brother and I stuffed up the rules of this game so badly that it was so memorable.
00:10:04
Speaker
And we we played a game of Ride the Rails. My brother, I think it was my brother, my nephew and I, or it was either my brother or my sisters
Rediscovering Board Games with Pandemic
00:10:11
Speaker
sister-in-law and I, I'm not sure. But in Ride the Rails, you get points per connection.
00:10:17
Speaker
depending, it doesn't matter how long the connections were. And we misread that as you get a point per distance of connection. And in the end, towards the end of the game, you've got connections all over the map. So we're like scoring our rounds and scoring like 180 points each per round.
00:10:33
Speaker
And like the board goes to 400 points and we're on like 850 going, we've done something wrong.
00:10:41
Speaker
I'm like, I've got this in the bag. I'm 130 in front. And then Mark's like, Oh, well I score 182 this round. I'm like, Oh, okay then. ah but So it was, it was memorable for the wrong reasons, but yeah, definitely. yeah Definitely one of those ones that sticks in the memory.
00:10:57
Speaker
Did you want to kick off our actual top 10? No. Sounds good. i can do that. Excuse me. So my number 10, um, um It was the first game I played coming back into the hobby.
00:11:13
Speaker
um So it's memorable to me because it got me back into board games and it was one of the games I bought from the ah top 10 essential board games you should own from the Dice Tower YouTube channel.
00:11:26
Speaker
And that was Pandemic. um And I set up Pandemic, I watched the play through and it was myself and Josh and Max playing it.
00:11:41
Speaker
um So, you know, Max was a little bit younger and I'm chucking him into playing Pandemic. um But for me, it was, I was like at the end of the game, like we completely lost. And um as you do in in many, many plays of that game.
00:11:55
Speaker
um But for me, it was memorable because I was just like, oh my God, I couldn't believe that something like this exists. where you're playing cooperatively and you're using all these different mechanics, but then all of a sudden everything explodes on you. And it got me hooked instantly back into board games.
00:12:13
Speaker
And so then that game itself, I thought, well, I can't really get Max and Josh to the table to play that. I got Lauren to the table to play it the next time and um we both enjoyed it.
00:12:25
Speaker
um And then I thought, can I play this solo? So then i i went down a rabbit hole to try and find the solo rules. And ah yeah, so then I started learning how to play pandemic solo, two-hand solo.
00:12:37
Speaker
And so that took me into my solo board gaming genre that, you know, took me down that that path. And um so, yeah, pandemic and was memorable in such a way that it got me back into the hobby.
00:12:51
Speaker
um So from there, it was just, okay, 300-odd board games later. Yeah. enjoyed it and so for me that experience will always stay with me I think.
00:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. Well, my number 10 involves you, which is a game, one of my favourite games, and this is a specific play of this game, and this is Dune Imperium.
Memorable Game of Dune Imperium
00:13:17
Speaker
Yes. There's a car screeches by my window. So, yes, Dune Imperium. We played this game at my house when I used to live in Brisbane, and it was it was almost, it was kind of billed as the rematch to our TI4 game in a way. Yeah, it was. Yeah.
00:13:36
Speaker
And we played the game and everything was going on swimmingly. And ah i'm I'm not particularly great at Doom Imperium. I like it, but I'm not particularly great. And I think I was on, i was close to a win here. and You had to win. if You had to win. we were Yeah, we were into the last battle and I got to the 10 points and I was like, okay, this is finally going to be it. And then Shane plays that bloody card that says you get an extra two points if you got three ah Spice Must Flow. I think that's the card anyway. yeah And overtakes me. Here I am all celebrating my victory in the last combat and Shane just goes, hang on second.
00:14:09
Speaker
Bang. and overtakes me. And it's one of those moments where there's a few of these in the hobby where you you get beat on the last turn or something happens on the last turn. And as as disappointing it is as it is to take the loss, you also go, that's pretty awesome.
00:14:24
Speaker
That's pretty awesome that that just happened. So yeah, it stands out for sure that Dune Imperium game. So yes, well done. Congratulations on making my list for defeating me at the last moment. And yeah, that's Dune Imperium, my number 10.
00:14:38
Speaker
that was That was a fun day, very fun day. and the think it was out was my first time around your place, I think down... Traveled down especially for that game and, yeah, it was good. and but we played It was a three-player game from memory, wasn't it?
00:14:50
Speaker
Yes. i Sean was the other ah person in the game. Yeah, right. certainly certain, if I remember correctly. And he was all close too. He was he was up there as well. He was. Yeah, it was just after because it was literally only a couple of weeks after TI4 game, which was actually the first time I'd met any of you guys. so Yeah. yeah
00:15:10
Speaker
Very good. Excellent. Good choice. My number nine. um Now, I played this game. I bought the game very early on um to play with people and we were playing with people but then I ended up playing it a lot solo.
00:15:27
Speaker
And um then I got the app for it ah and I was playing it religiously every day going into town on the train, coming home on the train.
00:15:39
Speaker
I'd play it, i don't know, four or five times every day. Mm-hmm. and that is Gonshon Clever. Yeah. And Gonshon Clever, for anyone that's played it solo, has the holy grail of hitting 300. Yeah.
00:15:57
Speaker
yeah You've got to hit 300. And I think i I remember there was a bit of a Gonshon Clever competition going on in a discard and Discord thread with Board Game Barbecue at one point.
00:16:09
Speaker
And it was going to get the highest score. And so for for for many, many weeks, I'd be sitting on the train playing Conchalant Clever. um At the time i hit 300, massive celebration.
00:16:23
Speaker
Yeah. ah And then maybe four or five plays later, um so I took a screenshot of the time I hit 300 to see how the game looked. And then and eventually I started, you know, getting over 300, one in every three plays.
00:16:42
Speaker
I'd kind of worked out the pattern. Yeah, there's definitely a pattern. There's a pattern there, right? And then I thought, i okay, well, then I got to 317. I was like, gee, that's a pretty damn good score.
00:16:55
Speaker
There's not much, you know. But then I found out the highest score you can attain in that game 334 points, solo play. That's the max you can do.
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah. Mathematically, you can do or not do any more. And I wonder if I could ever get anywhere near that. And I got to 327. Oh, that's pretty good.
00:17:19
Speaker
That's pretty good. 327. I took a screenshot of it. it it's its it It sits proudly on my phone um because that's ah it was an amazing score.
00:17:30
Speaker
um And for me, that experience was cool. But it actually, for me then, I stopped playing the game. I haven't played it since. um Because once you know the pattern, it's hard to move away from it.
00:17:44
Speaker
Like you can't try and do something else. Yes, what would you play Correct, because this this pattern, if you get the dice rolling all the way you want to go, you will get 334. But yeah absolute pure luck to get it because this pattern, you know, you just – and so once I – yeah.
00:18:01
Speaker
So Gonshon Clever, 327. my highest score in that game and very it was a great experience. And I just liked the the way that it it was a nice for me from an experience point of view.
00:18:12
Speaker
It was a way to decompress on the way to work and then on the way home. So then when I come home, mine's clear, got rid of all the work stuff out of my head. So yeah, number nine.
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, I had a similar experience, actually. My highest score was 320. And that was my only score over 300. And a little bit like Friday, once I got over 300, was done.
00:18:36
Speaker
i just I never played the game again. And there was a funny time where we did our top 100 or top 10s or whatever of all time. And it was at that point, it was my most played game by far.
00:18:49
Speaker
Well, maybe not by far, but it was my most played game and it didn't make my top 100. I was just like, I wasn't doing it for enjoyment almost. It was like sport. It was like you had to beat the record. Yeah. Correct. Yeah.
00:19:00
Speaker
Yeah. So. That's very good.
Family Holiday to Bali and Wingspan Incident
00:19:04
Speaker
um No, my number nine is ah in twenty in 2019. Yes. 2019. My family and i went on a holiday to Bali for three weeks and during that Bali trip, it was the first real holiday that we went on where board games sort of became part of the holiday in a sense. So I took over, similar to what I've just done, um I took over a bag full of games, which is about seven boxes of games, but inside those was the components for at least another 10 or 12 games. But we took big games, like we took ah Champions of Midgard, Wingspan, Lords of Waterdeep, Century Golem Edition,
00:19:52
Speaker
I can't remember all the games, but there was a lot of games. Rival restaurants came with a trip. That's that's an important mention, that one. And we basically, we weve we've stayed in these beautiful resorts with one one in particular that had an amazing pool, had like a lazy pool that you could just sit in and go around the bar, which was awesome. And then it had other little pools and you just didn't really want to go anywhere else. It was in a quieter part of Bali, so it wasn't in the hustle and bustle and So we spent, of the seven days we spent in that resort, I think we spent like four or five days just hanging out at the resort.
00:20:22
Speaker
So we'd go and have a swim in the morning, we'd go and eat breakfast, we'd come up and then we'd just play some games. And it just it would just became what the holiday was. And there's one specific moment where we took the kids down to a restaurant for morning tea and we took down rival restaurants and we played rival restaurants in this restaurant.
00:20:41
Speaker
And it was the first time the kids had played it. And which just it was just a cool experience. I mean, the game itself isn't anything groundbreaking. It's just a fun little sort of mini take that game.
00:20:52
Speaker
But it just it just sticks out in all of our memories of remember that time and we we did this. and And it was a four-player game. So it wasn't the whole family, but Raph was loving kids' clubs. So he'd he'd gone to kids' club.
00:21:04
Speaker
And Heidi, Seb, Helen, and I sat down and played this game of Rolf of Restaurants. And but yeah, again, it was more than that. It was the, the sitting on our kitchen table with all of the pieces of, uh, um,
00:21:21
Speaker
Champions of Midgard laid out. So you've got the Valhalla board over here and and whatnot. And it just, every time we talk about that holiday, we the board games get mentioned. And of course it finished, the crescendo was getting held up in Bali airport, trying to exit the country, then thinking that the wing the wingspan eggs were drugs. And I was trying to smuggle drugs through the airport in Bali, which is not a safe place to be smuggling drugs through.
00:21:48
Speaker
I don't know that from experience, but you know that if you're Australian and yes, just being held up because they were like, what are all these little components you have in baggies? And I'm like, I'm a board game nerd. And they're like, yeah, sure you are.
00:22:00
Speaker
And they trying to explain it away. I'm like, you know, these, these are eggs. You use them in a game and you get the eggs and then birds hatch from them and they're just like, what is going on?
00:22:11
Speaker
ah So I believe I went through customs, but yeah it always sticks out as the, yeah, yeah did I mean, all The components themselves, all the components raised questions, but those wingspan eggs, they nearly got me put in lock up for the night. So yes, definitely a memorable experience on on many fronts, that one, but the barley trip was definitely, ah definitely one of my favorite experiences.
00:22:33
Speaker
I'm sure you were sweating out of every office as well at that point. 100%. A little side note to that. We got through that finally. And then we're trying to board the plane or go through customs to board the plane.
00:22:45
Speaker
And they wouldn't let Raf on with his foam Thor hammer because they considered it a weapon. Like, what's he going to do? Bring the lightning?
00:22:56
Speaker
like It's a foam hammer, for Christ's sake. So we had to wait while they went and fetched our bag out of the back of the plane, and bring it back up, and then go all the way back through customs again. And Paul Raff, he was like five.
00:23:08
Speaker
was his birthday. That's why he got the hammer. Oh, it was Christmas. Sorry, it was Christmas. So he got the hammer for Christmas. So he was in tears because he thought he was going to lose his hammer and just go, this is a disaster. Can we just get out of this country? Yeah.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yes, da it was a very memorable trip for my many reasons. But the board games, it was really the first family, like it sounds weird to say family board gaming holiday, but there were a lot of things we did on that holiday. But everyone remembers those days by the pool or, you know, overlooking the pool from our balcony playing games. It was awesome. you You remember it for almost getting chucked into prison for wingspan eggs.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yes. Thanks, Jamie. Ah, hilarious. That's good. Mate, if that's your number nine, I can't wait for your number one.
00:23:58
Speaker
um So my number eight, it's a bit of a ah mesh of everything and it's all about the experience I get when I play with certain groups of people.
00:24:12
Speaker
So I really enjoy my Thursday night game nights. ah we with Andy, Nick and and Lucky Phil. um They're always good fun. um they They're good mates and um we we really enjoy playing together. I enjoy playing games with yourself.
00:24:29
Speaker
Dave, G Money and you know this the whole group you know is an experience for me. that i you know I have very little time so when I do play board games it's about i want to you know spend it with quality people that really enjoy playing board games with.
00:24:47
Speaker
And not that I'm not saying that everyone in our board game community is not quality. It's just, you know, i I do enjoy playing games with this group of people because we all click. um You know, and especially playing, you know, with Shane and Ingrid.
00:24:58
Speaker
you know i You know, I'll travel travel travel as far as I need to travel to play, you know, games with those two. I really enjoy playing with them. So for me, my number eight is just... The experiences I get with playing with a core group of people that I just love board gaming with.
00:25:13
Speaker
um And you know I've been in the hobby now going on eight years. So you do you do work out who you click with best. and And also too, who also you don't want to board game with because potentially they're just going to ruin your experience.
00:25:30
Speaker
So because I have very little hours to play games, um I do want to make sure I'm spending it with people that I enjoy gaming with and they enjoy gaming with me, I hope.
00:25:41
Speaker
So my number eight is just that whole experience of bringing people together that I enjoy playing games with. Nice one. Well, obviously I must enjoy playing games with you at some point because, like I could mentioned, two two ah two games on my list that plays with you. So think that's a fair assessment.
New Year's Eve and Blood on the Clocktower
00:25:59
Speaker
So my number eight is not a game that I play with you though. It's a game that I played with my entire, my side of the family. So Christmas before last, we rented an apartment in the city in Brisbane and we stayed there over Christmas and New Year's. On New Year's Eve, I invited around my brother and his family, my sister and her family and my parents to celebrate New Year's Eve.
00:26:21
Speaker
And my brother thought it would be a good time to run a Blood on the Clock tower game. And he was right. It it was excellent. There's 19 of us. ah so we all sat up. set up, i think we started about eight o'clock.
00:26:34
Speaker
We just had dinner were just waiting around for the fireworks, we having a few drinks and we he pulls out one of the clock tower. And my family has an interesting sort of dynamic. So my my sister, she'd be all over it.
00:26:48
Speaker
She loved the idea. My brother and all of his family, they'd be all over it. My family, pretty much all over it. But my brother-in-law, Dave, This is not his bag at all. He's never been a board gamer. So, and because of that, their three kids sort of, sort of, you know, can or can't be into it, you regarding what's going on.
00:27:07
Speaker
So we set up this game and Mick, my nephew, who spoken about a bit, he's a massive board gamer. Yes. So he is playing blood on the clock tower.
00:27:18
Speaker
Like he's doing all the little private conversations and And everyone else is just happy to drink and chat and not get out of their seats. And he's like, Steve, I need to speak to you in the bathroom. He's running around.
00:27:30
Speaker
And then everyone else is like, well, if he's doing it I guess ah guess we should. So like I remember getting called into a room with Matthew, one of my other nephews. He's just gone, Steve, I have no idea what I'm doing.
00:27:42
Speaker
Awesome. Awesome.
00:27:46
Speaker
Anyway, so round one happens. Round one takes about 45 minutes, which, you know, so I played blood on the clock tower games that have gone for shorter than that first round. And we all come back to the table and Mark's really excited because he feels like 45 minutes means everyone's getting into it, right?
00:28:02
Speaker
And um so we have that night. i can't remember what happens that night. Although I do remember in the first round, i say what I think is, I think Heidi's bad.
00:28:13
Speaker
And I think Helen doesn't think Heidi's bad because she's drunk. that's my that's That's my opinion of what's going on here. And everyone thought I was bad because I said that, and I wasn't. Anyway, go on to day two. And day two is starting to look a little bit like day one, where it's going for a long time.
00:28:27
Speaker
So long, in fact, that Heidi and Helen decide that they've got enough time to start making a pavlova. but So in our family, this is and will forever be known as the pav game.
00:28:43
Speaker
Because Mark said, he' I've run a lot of blood on the cocktail games, but I've never had one pause for a PAV in round two. So halfway through round two, this PAV gets made and then by the end of round two, it's finished.
00:28:55
Speaker
And we all just have a piece of Pavlova before we get to the night session. that's the It's just, it's like, it's 9.30 now. This game's been going for an hour and a half. We've had a Pavlova and it's only round two and there's 19 of us. So this game is going to go until the next year, literally.
00:29:11
Speaker
and It was about round four or five that we get to a point and I've just looked over at Dave. I was going say, how's Dave going through this? Dave hasn't moved. He's sat in his chair the whole time. he hasn't gone to one of these little private meetings.
00:29:24
Speaker
He hasn't said a word. He's just sitting there with his card in front of him like he's just on another, like on an island somewhere and just not paying attention to anything else going on around him. It was brilliant. And it was like it was one of those moments where Lyndon, who, again, one of my other nephews,
00:29:41
Speaker
He was one of the bad guys, but he had no idea how to play his role. So he just started pretending that he was every role on the sheet. So you'd be talking to him and i can't remember what I was. Let's say I was like, i don't know, the chef.
00:29:57
Speaker
And he'd be like, I'm the chef. I'm like, no, you're not. He's like, yeah, you're right. I'm the watch, I'm the something else. He just kept jumping around and I'm like, you're too chaotic. I don't know what's real and what's not. Like it's, it's, it's too much.
00:30:10
Speaker
Anyway, at about 11.30 at night, everything came out and we all we finished the game. it was the longest Blood on the Clock Town game i've ever played. It was like people were, like most of my nieces and nephews are over 18.
00:30:22
Speaker
So people were drunk by the end of it because it was New Year's Eve and teenagers like to hit it hard on New Year's Eve. So it got sloppy, it got loud. we we had the We had the security guards come up and tell us to keep it down on New Year's Eve. Wow.
00:30:35
Speaker
On the 37th floor of an apartment, we got told to keep it down because we were playing Blood on the Clock Town Too Loud before midnight. ah It was it just insanity. anything that And then as it turns out, the reason I made point of what I guessed was that when it all came all came out, the bad people won.
00:30:54
Speaker
Heidi was bad and Helen didn't think she was bad because she was drunk, which I called um on the four hours earlier. It's been over 9pm.
00:31:07
Speaker
It was just, yes, it's it was such a memorable game. not necessarily all for great reasons. um it was I almost didn't want to play it again after that because it just went for so long. But man, with Dave just sitting there and not moving the whole time and Lyndon being chaotic and Mick just trying to game the game as much as he could.
00:31:26
Speaker
And then, of course, the Pavlava. It had everything. And security. And security arriving, yep. I don't know, mate. yeah You're hiding eggs. You're getting done with security on blood and cock power.
00:31:38
Speaker
I don't think board gaming is good for you.
00:31:42
Speaker
I think that's the last felony involved in my list. So I think I'm good from here on out. That's good. I was hoping you'd tell me that Dave ended up winning.
00:31:53
Speaker
But...
00:31:58
Speaker
My number seven, and I'm pretty sure you were there for my number seven. um And it's memorable on two two fronts because it will always go down in history as when I've literally blown the mind of someone.
00:32:18
Speaker
with Yeah, okay. dave I'm pretty sure you're going to know as soon as I say the word math, all right, when with When someone has literally just almost imploded and didn't didn't know what to do with the word I just said.
00:32:34
Speaker
And anyway, and that's when um we were at Peter Haw's house in Brisbane and we were playing Francis Drake.
00:32:46
Speaker
yeah It's memorable to me because apart from me saying I just need to math this out, and he lost it, which was just hilarious. um But I beat him at his own game.
00:32:59
Speaker
And ah we when I won Francis Drake, by two points, he came second. And I remember literally saying at the end game, I mastered out well. ah So was kind of like a double dig.
00:33:14
Speaker
It was so good. And he was he was such a gracious host. and um Because I think we played, was Royals prior to that? um You know, nasty ticket to ride. um And then then we went straight into... See, there's another thing that came out of that night, right?
00:33:31
Speaker
Oh, he hates that, doesn't he? He hates it.
00:33:36
Speaker
Very particular man, Peter Hawes. Very particular. But it was it was really good. And then playing Francis. Because I enjoyed Francis Drake. I think it the second play I had of it.
00:33:48
Speaker
and um And I think you can get it dirt cheap at the moment. I'm trying to remember the place. It's got it for like about $45 or $50. And that is such a good game for that price.
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah. yeah If I think of it, we'll post it in the show notes. Yeah. But that was very memorable for me and he is such a gracious man to host us at his house and teach us a couple of his games and then to break him and also win.
00:34:18
Speaker
um you There's not many times when you get to beat the ballgame designer at their own game. That's right. So I still get to beat Mr. Wallace at anything as well. that That's it, my number seven, beating Peter Hawes in Francis Drake by two points.
00:34:33
Speaker
and see him implode. It's true, that was a great moment. And actually I didn't even think of that one, but I don't know with i don't know if it would have made my list if I did. but because there are more there's more to that story too. like Obviously, that was memorable, especially when he just lost his mind when he said math it out, accused you of being and be like educated by Americans and all this random stuff.
00:34:55
Speaker
That's correct.
Playing at Peter Hawes' Home and Surprising Wins
00:34:57
Speaker
But the standout moments for me is we should mention that Peter Hawes' house is not your average suburbia house. It's like $14 million dollars mansion on the water.
00:35:07
Speaker
um And I'd pull up in my 2009 dinged-up Kia Carnival park on the street. And walk past his Ferrari into his house with these amazing views and mar playing on a marble table with a temperature controlled board game room and ah the big wine cellar, and I'm just like, yep, ah I belong here.
00:35:28
Speaker
this This is normal. and And all his board games are still in shrink. Well, they look like they're in shrink, but it's the way he the way he cuts cuts the game to keep the shrink still intact, which I thought was just ingenious. so I assumed, he I knew he doctor. He's Dr. Peter Horst. I wonder whether he's a surgeon, so he gets out his scalpel and...
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah, finally, finally done that. But yeah. That was a cool night. That was a cool night. Cool night. And yeah, it was good. My number seven.
00:36:03
Speaker
My number seven is a collection of games, and specifically two games. ah We were lucky enough, not long after we moved to Emerald, mutual friend got in touch with me and said, hey,
00:36:14
Speaker
I got a mate moving up to Emerald and he's in
Legacy Games with Friends
00:36:18
Speaker
the board games too. You might've met him and I did, he did actually buy some games on me when I was leaving Brisbane. So we had chatted before, but not really much more than that.
00:36:26
Speaker
And his name's Joe and his wife, Shannon, and they moved up to Emerald and we, like yeah. And we, we, we met up, it took us a while to actually coordinate cause they just had a bub and all this, you know, so yeah very busy,
00:36:40
Speaker
time of parents' life, but we ended up coordinating and making it work. And we went around to their house pretty religiously every week, at least once, sometimes twice, sometimes four times.
00:36:50
Speaker
And we started playing legacy games. And the first one we played was Ticket to Ride Legacy and ah Legends of the West. And it was an amazing experience because the buy-in from all four of us was huge.
00:37:06
Speaker
So it was Helen, myself, Joe and Shannon. We would even like listen to Ticket to Ride by the Beatles on a way on the way around to their house. like We got right into it. And we it was in in in Legacy Games, you can do it one of two ways. You can you can go for the win in Legacy Games, or you can press all the buttons of anything new that happens. And all four of us were button presses. So we got to experience everything.
00:37:30
Speaker
everything the designers kind of set out for you to try and experience, which I think just makes the whole experience richer in the end. You don't really care who's winning and losing. You just care about how cool is this and how cool is that? And I won't go into the specifics of what Ticket to Ride did, but what I will say is if you're a board game hobbyist, you will appreciate the many nods to other board games throughout that game.
00:37:55
Speaker
Even our, you know, very, a much loved City of the Big Shoulders got to mention when they go to Chicago. it says, Chicago, the City of the Big Shoulders. Just a few little nods here and there. bigger ones than that. But that was one of one of the nods that I thought just just sort of makes you smile.
00:38:11
Speaker
But yeah, night after night, we would we'd head around there and play. And it got to the point where we were just like shunning all of our other responsibilities and going, yep, kids can have reheated dinner from last night. We're going to Charles Shannon's to have another round Ticket to Ride. It was great.
00:38:26
Speaker
And we finished that game and um then we immediately started in Clank Legacy. it It was the same thing. we just and The only problem and difference with Clank Legacy is those first few rounds of Ticket to Ride go pretty quickly.
00:38:39
Speaker
In fact, the first game went for about half an hour. So we played a couple in a row. By the time the game got to its conclusion, it was no long games. Clank Legacy from... Game one is a long game. So it was it was a mammoth effort. and But again, same deal. We wanted to explore everything. We wanted to complete all the contracts. Clank is a game where you can run, grab an artifact, run back, and then kill everybody else. And it can be over in 20 minutes.
00:39:04
Speaker
Nah, we went everywhere. We looked under every nook and cranny for all the extra bonus benefits you can get and things like that. It was so good. And the best part about that experience was the last game we played,
00:39:18
Speaker
we had this We had this contract that we had to fulfill and we were struggling to fulfill it. And we got to the end of the game and we hadn't fulfilled the contract. So we were like, oh, we're going to have to play it again. Play the last round again. Helen and I get in our car, we're driving home and Joe rings and goes, ah, guys, we did fulfill this other contract and it says to rip up the contract we didn't fill.
00:39:43
Speaker
So I think we finished the game. So Helen and I do a U-turn, we head back and sure enough, we'd actually finished the game. So then we had to sit down and do all of that because they found this as they were packing up so that they kind of had to recreate the end of the game and we counted up our scores and then we went through and this was like half past 12 at night. was late on a weeknight and we've gone back and then we start doing all of the who won the whole campaign thing.
00:40:09
Speaker
And we didn't get home until 2am because it just took that long to go through. And, and it was like, you find out you don't know what is required to win the whole campaign until you get to the end of the campaign.
00:40:22
Speaker
So we were clueless going into that. And so we were exploring experiencing that for the first time, all of us, that it was just, it was so cool. And Joe somehow, managed to win every category of which there was like ah points awarded for the victor it was it was unbelievable what it's like for the person who died the most gets this i won't go into all of them but it's like even when you do things that you think are bad they could possibly give you reward points at the end of the game at the end of the campaign for winning so it was just it It was such a great span of time where we just played these two um legacy games. You also played other games, but those two specific legacy games, massive standouts. And there is no doubt in my mind, it is 100% certain that the one thing I miss more than anything in Emerald is Joe and Shannon and our regular board game meetups because it's it was what we look forward to through the week. so Yeah, nice. Big shout out to Joe and Shannon. I don't know if they listen, but if they do, thank you for accommodating us all of those times and feel free to move to Bemiga whenever you please.
00:41:24
Speaker
um Yeah, because you know me, I haven't played many legacy games at all. I think the only legacy I've got that I've played is Pandemic Legacy Season Zero, which we're I think we're about halfway through. And it's enjoyable. It's just we haven't gone back to it.
00:41:38
Speaker
However, Western Legends Legacy is coming out, I believe. My stories, yeah, yeah. That sounds good. yeah That's going to be amazing. ah Good choices, mate. My number six.
00:41:51
Speaker
is an experience that I had many, many years ago when this game first came out, which is Nemesis. Yeah, yep. Still haven't played it. and Well, I recommend when you're in Brisbane, if you can get down to Briscon, even better, um and playing Nemesis with this person that hosts a game of Nemesis all the time Briscon, and that is Troy.
Epic Nemesis Game Hosted by Troy
00:42:17
Speaker
Troy. We were at his house and there was myself, Dave, I think it was Luke and G Money. um And Troy brings out his all in everything, painted up, blinged out version of Nemesis and he DMs it.
00:42:39
Speaker
He is fantastic at it. Like he just immersed me in this experience. It was the first time I played Nemesis as well. and And you felt like you were literally in an ah in Aliens movie. Yeah, cool.
00:42:55
Speaker
The way he built it up, the way he was talking about things and um just made it so thematic and engaging and fun. And pretty much the whole game, all I did was hide out in an escape pod.
00:43:09
Speaker
and jump in and out every every now and then um so that I either didn't get stuck in there and get killed or I you know jumped in just at the last minute. I ended up winning the game. i think myself and Dave drew for the win from memory. I know i drew with someone. I'm pretty sure it was Dave because we we were the only two that eventually were in escape pods to get out before the whole thing blew up.
00:43:31
Speaker
um But the way Troy... I don't know he comes up with all the stories and all the drama and all the thematic goodness that he does and he just talks through and, oh, it's brilliant.
00:43:45
Speaker
um And, you know, because of that, we we had ah Troy, when we were doing BrizzCon, hosted Nemesis Play of it and full play account and he DMs it.
00:43:58
Speaker
And the people that come away from that game are just saying it's one of the best experiences they've had. So big shout out to Troy and our community here in Brisbane. um I just love how he he teaches this game, but then also two takes.
00:44:11
Speaker
Takes people on a really cool space-themed journey. um So that was my number six. And um while I'm talking about Bruce Codden... Oh, no, that might make it a bit later. That's okay.
00:44:25
Speaker
Okay, fair enough. Spoiler alert. Something else is on the horizon. Yeah. Well, speaking of BrizzCon, BrizzCon is a regular gaming event, and my number six is a collection of gaming events that I was ah part of the conception of and organisation of that have are still going today, and it's very proud thing to to be a part of at the start and that's the board game barbecue game days so I distinctly remember the first board game barbecue game day at the Cooparoo remember that too hall and I remember having a chat with Dave because at the at that time the podcast was still still fairly in its infancy it was about I think we'd been out I've been going for about a year maybe not even a year and I'd moved to Brisbane at this point
00:45:09
Speaker
And Dave was part of 2D6, which is one of our sponsors on the show.
Board Game Barbecue Development
00:45:13
Speaker
And we were chatting about this idea of running this game day. And I said, my only concern is and don't want to like, i can't assume that we're going to have yeah a heap of people who want to actually do this.
00:45:25
Speaker
So, know, I don't want to go too nuts and get too big of a spot. and And we're like, well, this Cooparoo Hall place, it holds 70 something people. I'm I don't know, it seems a bit much. Should we just go to a pub or something? He's like, I reckon you'll get 70. The tickets sold out in like two days.
00:45:41
Speaker
And I'm just like, holy shit, like this this is a thing. And it was, the first event was amazing. it was It was everything that more than what we could have ever imagined it was going to be.
00:45:52
Speaker
But then it became very clear that it wasn't big enough. So then this, then we kind of went on this pursuit of trying to find venues across Brisbane at the time we started in Brisbane, and just trying to find venues that were big enough to house, you know, hundred.
00:46:06
Speaker
And then we, we sell out. We're like, shit. Okay. Well, what about 120? And meanwhile, we also started them in Sydney and and we luckily got hold to the castle Hill ah RSL, which could hold 180. And we sold that out.
00:46:18
Speaker
And then we had a two day event in Melbourne because they had, we're supposed to have an event got canceled through COVID. So we ended up having a two day event and it was the place space we had there was too small. And it, it It just snowballed into this huge event that mean now is yeah on the calendar as must-dos and the hobby across the three yeah eastern seaboard states.
00:46:41
Speaker
And, you know, has on some level also spawned PlayCon, which when you look at it and just go, shit, that like I was involved in the start of that, that, that to me, I just, I, every now and again, I just go, wow, that's, that's a really cool thing. And the thing that stands out more than anything was that the fact that it was based on this idea that not many people were doing at the time, which is we, we just want people to feel welcome.
00:47:04
Speaker
We just want people to walk in the door and go, okay, someone's greeting me. That was huge for us because, We've all been to those game days where you walk in and everyone's head down looking at the game and they don't even recognize that you're there.
00:47:15
Speaker
And I know personally, but also externally, that introverts are attracted to this hobby and making the steps through the door is hard enough alone. correct but that So having someone there to greet you, get get you to a table, get you ah get you into a game.
00:47:32
Speaker
um We had us this this ah theory that if you were in a game and someone was wandering around that you would give up your seat and let them take over the game where you're at and explain what they're doing and all that sort of stuff. So there was never an instance where someone would walk in and not be involved.
00:47:47
Speaker
And I don't know, i haven't been to one in a long time, obviously because of my location, but I assume that's still the case ah with with all of the events. But ah yeah, all of those events as a whole were were is just put together as one massive highlight.
00:48:01
Speaker
And it's, yeah I feel like, my fingerprints are still on it, even though I've like three or four years detached from leaving the board game barbecue. And I'm, yeah, super proud of that. So, um, yeah, it's a bit of a self-serving self-indulgent one, that one, but, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm still counting it on there because I can't not look back on that without fond memories and things like what we talked about the other week, you know, teaching all the tea games and then in the middle learning Hadrian's wall, all those things just sort of stand out.
00:48:30
Speaker
All those moments. And, you know, you should, you should be a little bit, um, self-indulgent mate because you did spawn a lot of other game nights that hit Brisbane because of that so um you know a massive thank you to you and also to the the board game barbecue community that were involved in the initial stages of getting all that set set up because it spawned all the other game nights that now happen throughout Brisbane and you know other states as well that you know currently are you know I know of two that happen every fortnight within the the Brisbane North community and the the Brisbane South community. They were all spawned because of you know listening to the Board Game podcast boardgam Barbecue podcast and then it grew from there.
00:49:12
Speaker
a And I should mention too, obviously, I can't take all the credit. Obviously, yes, as you mentioned, the Board Game BBQ crew, but obviously Dave and Dan from 2D6 were very integral. Yeah, that was huge. yeah People like yourself and Sean and G-Money. And we had a slew of volunteers at all of them that were just happy to come in and teach games for 38 hours a day, which...
00:49:31
Speaker
is not easy and it is something that people don't like to do. Like I love it, but it's not for everyone. So having yeah a regular group of volunteers that we could rely on was, yeah, it just, and even just like the, the, the, what somehow became the, the standard go to Maccas before the show started event. And then for a while there, we always, we got everyone together at the end, all the volunteers and we played deception murder in Hong Kong.
00:49:58
Speaker
ah that yeah some Stuff like that, was yeah they're they're they're the they're the great things. Nice. Good call out, mate. My number five. I've spoken about this before, so I'll quickly just lash over it.
00:50:13
Speaker
But finally winning Friday. don't know. It would have been 100 plus, 200 plus play of this bloody game to finally win it.
00:50:25
Speaker
um But what was even funnier? is oh It was a true total solo experience. No one was home. so i had I'm sitting there jumping up and down celebrating, thinking I finally won it. Because even as i was got to that last round and I was playing the cards and went, oh,
00:50:47
Speaker
crap, I'm going win this. I think I've won it. And I slammed down that last card and I'm like, yes, I've won it. I've won it. I'm jumping up and down. No one's here to see me celebrate. I left the card sitting there and Lauren came home. I said, look, finally won this one. She's like, what is this? You know exactly what Lauren's going to do.
00:51:07
Speaker
She's like, i okay, yeah, well done. Good, good. i Do you want to pack it up? Because it's dirty in your table.
00:51:15
Speaker
I need to bask in this glory for longer. But I remember taking a photo, spamming it on my Facebook when I had Facebook, going, finally won this bloody game. And, yeah, winning Friday.
00:51:28
Speaker
think the funny thing, though, is because I was absolutely on my own when I won it. um But, yeah, that was very memorable.
00:51:38
Speaker
Number Yeah, nice one. Well, I think my number five, I reckon it'll be a crossover and I reckon I might disappoint you with it being at five, but it is my last single game experience on my list.
00:51:52
Speaker
And that is that TI4 game at Strathpine Library. So and I don't know if it's going to show up on your list. I've got a theory that it might, but- so Well, you never know, because like ah as you would know, my my list so far is about me winning. That's fair.
00:52:10
Speaker
That's fair. So we've probably we've talked about this a lot. I won't go into too much information. But like ah we mentioned before, Shane and I didn't even really know each other personally at this point. We both knew each other from our other adventures.
00:52:23
Speaker
And it was the first time we sort of came together and played a game. What a game to start. see see DG did a great teach. G Money tried to teach us how to combat and just got slaughtered and turned around said that's not how you do it.
00:52:34
Speaker
So do the opposite to that, which was great. It was a full play account. I was the Emirates of Hakan, which apparently are a bit stronger than most. So maybe I got a bit lucky there.
00:52:46
Speaker
But the thing that stands out in this game is that Shane was in an absolute unlosable position. Unlosable. Could not lose that game if you tried. Well, no. Unless... I didn't try. it um Yes, I had a rider that essentially took the first player token off Shane, which meant he couldn't take the number that gives you the chance to get two...
00:53:13
Speaker
and um I can't remember what they're called, but the two-point scoring cards. Which I would won the game with. yeah Which you would have clearly won the game with and you were clearly going to get. And he gave it to me instead. And I didn't even realize at that point.
00:53:25
Speaker
I was just trying to stop you from winning the game. And so I rallied up support for everyone to vote for my rider so you wouldn't win the game. And then you let me have it. You were like, yep, Steve, you can have it. i'm like, what are you doing? You're giving away the victory. Like, not realizing in my head. Yeah, yeah,
00:53:43
Speaker
and And in my head, I was like, you're giving away the chance to win this round. I still expected you to win the next round. And it wasn't until about halfway through that round, I'm going, oh shit, I can win this game this round. It was a total, I had no idea. And I'm like, and I called GG over. I'm like, can if I do this and then that, and then this,
00:54:03
Speaker
that mean what I think it means? He's like, yeah, it does. And he's pissing himself because he's watched this whole thing unfold. And he knew the moment I'm at, he thought I'd game the game and be like, sweet as what a move by Steve. He knows exactly what he's doing here. And I was totally oblivious.
00:54:17
Speaker
And then when it all, it all started coming down and starting to make sense. And I came away with that win. I've never felt so, elated and um I guess bad at the same time because I stole i feel like I stole that from you. I caught i caught i called BS, mate. You didn't feel bad. There definitely was like because i'm I'm not a take that kind of player and that's like the biggest take that move you can ever make.
00:54:43
Speaker
like literally costing someone a six hour long game on one on one action. And the whole time i'm like, but he gave it to me. He literally just gave it to me. So, yes, it's my name that's been ah embroidered on that mat and not yours because of that moment.
00:54:58
Speaker
so And as I mentioned before, that's the closest I've ever come to winning that bloody game. And, yeah. That's the only time I've won it. and just Just don't ever play it again.
00:55:09
Speaker
I shouldn't have won from one. I should have retired. it's ah that But, you know, you never know. That might make it on my list, mate. But um what a great experience that was. It was good. The game itself was great.
00:55:22
Speaker
The people were amazing. But also just the fact that it was ah my first interaction with all you guys. Yeah, I couldn't have asked for a better intro into that into your gaming group. So that was awesome. Yeah. It's the last time I've felt sorry for someone in a board game too, by the way.
00:55:39
Speaker
And as previously mentioned, you made up for it in Dune Imperium about two weeks later.
00:55:44
Speaker
That's good. That's gold. So my number four is Dune Imperium with you. Okay. So you've already spoken about it. Number 10 means you lose. Number four means you win. I get you. Yeah, but also too, the TI4 loss with you as well. So this number four is about playing kind of the playing games with Steve.
00:56:03
Speaker
and There's always, you know, when you play so many games with so many people, but to have two standout moments where you've literally got out of your chair, and both times I got out of my chair for the win and the loss.
00:56:14
Speaker
And even even the loss though, I just went, oh, my God. it's still the best experience, like to literally have that ripped out and you you ripped out my heart and stonked on it, then punted it out the window in that game.
00:56:30
Speaker
But the feeling I had was ah I still had elation, right? There was no hate. There was nothing. It was just you arsehole, brilliantly done. um But that I think that actually spawned my my love for now take that games where I'm now an absolute...
00:56:47
Speaker
right pain in the ass and I will never ever big give anyone up. Anything will feel sorry for someone in a board game. Now, no, you know what? You're gonna suffer.
Weekly Gloomhaven Sessions
00:56:57
Speaker
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. See you later. to Get out of the game.
00:57:00
Speaker
Time to think. um And, yeah, so I won't talk about it too much. But, yeah, that TI4 game was great because, again, we had an awesome group of people ah that we were playing with. The June Imperium game was just fantastic.
00:57:16
Speaker
Every time I've played TO4 though has been a brilliant experience um and I've played it three times now. So what's that? you know That's a significant amount of hours invested in one. It's a whole day really, technically, invested in one game. and But every time has been brilliant and a really cool experience with the people you play with.
00:57:37
Speaker
um although I've never, ever gotten as close to winning as I did that day. So ah good call. Yeah, my number four, playing games with you, Steve, and those two specifically. specifically Yeah, nice one.
00:57:53
Speaker
Excuse me. Okay, my number four is we go back to Cloncurry for this one, and it was my original Bloomhaven crew. So every Sunday pretty much for an entire year, we would get together,
00:58:07
Speaker
I'd put a piece of, I'd join the meat on the smoker. Helen would make some potato bake. Ness and Elliot would bring around one of those cob loaves with a dip inside.
00:58:20
Speaker
and And Matt would bring something from the supermarket because he doesn't cook. And we'd get there about 9. Sometimes you bring a cheese board or sometimes we'd make a cheese board.
00:58:31
Speaker
We'd get there about 9, 30, 10 o'clock in the morning on um on a Sunday. Helen didn't even play, but she just loved the whole environment. So we'd turn up. i had At that time, I had a square board gaming table that had a lazy Susan on it, which is perfect for Gloomhaven because you would have the the map on one quarter of it.
00:58:50
Speaker
Then you'd have the shop with all the items you could buy. and then in the other sort of half, you'd have the charcuterie board. So when it wasn't your turn, you could have it some some cheese and some salami and whatever. it was just lovely. You know, it was just awesome.
00:59:04
Speaker
And we just get together. We'd play every week and we'd work through our campaign. And we're lucky enough in that situation where we could leave it sit set up and play a couple, maybe a couple of times in a week. But it was those Sunday sessions that went from 10 a.m. some way sometimes all the way through to the night.
00:59:18
Speaker
We just go back to back to back playing Gloomhaven. We also played other games, but Gloomhaven is what this one's about. And just, you know, we'd stop at lunch. We'd have this, you know beautiful piece of, know, brisket or something that I'd cooked up in the smoker and these...
00:59:32
Speaker
all this other food and then we'd all go back and poor old Matt, we'd have to be careful. He wanted to go long. We needed to leave all of the stuff that had lactose in it till late because Matt loved all that stuff, but he was lactose intolerant. So he'd eat it and then he'd be like an hour later, he's like, I'm done.
00:59:49
Speaker
He had to go home because he didn't want to do things in our toilet that he had to do in his own toilet.
00:59:56
Speaker
ah But, yeah, it was just, it was such a great group. And that particular four was Matt, Ness, Elliot myself. And obviously Helen being almost like the the chef in the kitchen was, it just, it it made, know, it sounds stoppy, but it was like,
01:00:12
Speaker
all through the week, you'd just be thinking, I can't wait till Sunday. I can't wait till Sunday. And I remember once I was ah working at the school at the time and I've come out to the prep area and Elliot is picking up his kid from prep. but This is like on a Tuesday or something.
01:00:29
Speaker
And he's like, oh, I've been thinking about what cards I should, ah what what what two cards which one of the two cards I should take in my upgrade. He's dead set pulled his deck of Gloomhaven cards out of his top pocket and started showing me.
01:00:44
Speaker
So obviously when he's got spare time at work, he's just pulling out of his cards and going, oh, that'll work with that combo. And I'm like, how cool is this? How cool is this that on a random Tuesday in front of a prep school, you're just like, you just pulled out your deck of cards from your top pocket to discuss strategy with me, and like all in preparation for that coming Sunday. So it was such a great crew. And we tried to get it going online when I left, but didn't really eventuate. I ended up leaving Gloomhaven with them to finish because it made more sense for three of them to try and finish than for me to take it and have just me because it is one of those games that,
01:01:19
Speaker
yeah either you either got your crew or you can't play it. So I don't know. I don't even actually know if they ended up finishing it. i know they played it a few more times. But, yeah, Gloomhaven with my Cloncari crew, my number four.
01:01:33
Speaker
Nice. Very similar to my Thursday night game nights, mate. I do look forward to them and I haven't actually been able to do one for a very long time and I'm probably still a few more weekss to be four more weeks few more weeks away to do it again. So...
01:01:47
Speaker
um Cool. no My number three is similar to you around you know um building game days and ah within the community. and um For me,
01:01:59
Speaker
ah kind of you know we we we started, you know Dave created a ah little Facebook group that then blossomed into you know thousands of members in there ah in the Brisbane North community.
01:02:11
Speaker
um Then born you know born was some game nights. throughout the community, but then it just culminated into ah couple of years ago, Dave and I being approached to put together ah board game event for BrizzCon.
Organizing BrisCon
01:02:27
Speaker
And, um you know, we rounded up some awesome people within the community and it just became a real community game day when the community get involved to help you, you know, build it.
01:02:39
Speaker
And um we we ran it again last year to great success. We sell out tickets generally within a month before the event happens and we get great support from the BrizCon organisers.
01:02:55
Speaker
um And for me, just you know I don't play any games with there when I'm there on that day. I'm just walking around and just seeing everyone enjoying themselves, um having a good time. greeting other people that are just walking through. They might not to bought a ticket, but they're seeing the board game hobby for the first time as well. And you know they're going through, you know looking at all our board games and our game cupboards. And I'm talking to some people that have never bought a board game before in their life. And I'm saying, you know they're they're telling me what type of ah things they like to do. I'm then pointing them to some certain games. And then eventually, you know if you didn't buy a ticket or not, we're
01:03:28
Speaker
if if we've got spare spots, we're going to sit you down and we're going to teach you a board game. So, you know, it was really cool just to see ah something that, you know, really was spawned off of, you know, listening to your podcast, growing a community, um you know, within the Brisbane area to now, um you know, Brisbane's on again this year. It's, I'll give it a plug, May 17th and 18th, Saturday and Sunday.
01:03:55
Speaker
um And, you know, the, Southside Board Gamers and the North Brisbane Board Gamers Guild are hosting it this year and um it's going to be a really cool event. It's almost sold out.
01:04:07
Speaker
So jump on Eventbrite. We might even post the Eventbrite link in the the show notes here just so that if anyone hasn't got a ticket yet, you can get tickets. For a weekend ticket, I can't remember what it was, but something like $22, $23, dirt cheap, it's going to get your entry.
01:04:22
Speaker
and to a fantastic ball game library. And Joe and Stu are doing a really cool job this year of bringing all together. um But also, too, once again, for the third year, you know it's it's sponsored by and supported by VR games.
01:04:35
Speaker
So VR ah games are huge supporters of our community up here in Brisbane. They provide us some monthly games that we can ah you know give away at game nights. and And also, too, they're providing all the giveaways,
01:04:48
Speaker
and some demo demo games for BrizzCon this year. So um for me, that that experience of building something, being involved, and but then also too, you know, Lauren and Max helped us in our first and second year as well, and, you know, they're manning the canteen, just selling drinks.
01:05:08
Speaker
And Lauren said to me, she was looking at me at one point, feeling really proud that I've found something that I'm so passionate in outside of work and that gives me enjoyment. She said, I was just looking at you and I just saw a massive smile on your face as you're just you know talking to people and walking around talking to people because um you know similar to you, man, I'm an introvert. it's ah For me to to get out there and push myself out there, I've really got to push myself out there. so um and so ah you know
01:05:40
Speaker
That to me is just a brilliant experience. So BrizzCon, um So thank you to to Fraser, who who does set up Briscon, and I know they put a lot of work into it every year to involve, you know, just reaching out to me and Dave that day because Dave and I have loved being involved. And, you know, we look forward to seeing Joe and Stu put together a great event this year.
01:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. um I haven't made it down. I made it to one. i think it was the first one that you guys did. And that was when we played. Oh, it might not have even been the first one that you guys ran because Dave and Dan used to have their 2D6 store set up. that's right. They did, yeah. And I think that was the last time I went was when that was set up because I was out of Brisbane after that. But I still need to make it down. The last couple of years I was i was on a cruise last year when it was on.
01:06:29
Speaker
And I can't remember the reason why I couldn't make it the year before. And this year it's just it's a little bit too far from Bemiga, unfortunately.
01:06:36
Speaker
But my number three is my last... game related one, like specific to a game. And that is Scythe. So I've mentioned many times, and we've talked about my top 10 lists of all time. I've mentioned that Scythe has dropped off, but if i ever did a board game experiences list, it'd be on there and here it is.
01:06:56
Speaker
So Scythe is, that there's some specific things that stand out for me in Scythe, which are the Rise of Fenris campaign, which was the first sort of campaign I ever did in a game.
01:07:08
Speaker
And like genuine shock, genuine like surprise when things got revealed and changes were made. And it was it was experiencing that sort of thing for the first time in the hobby, which was just awesome.
01:07:21
Speaker
that That was great. But again, it was my Cloncari crew that we played it with a lot. And there was a bigger crew this because obviously Syed can go up to seven players. And we played so many of those games together. We ended up having 50th game together where we found out who which factions we were going to be a week before. We planned, we brought meals based on the location,
01:07:42
Speaker
ah yeah this the sort of locations that our areas were from. So I had Crimea. So I brought like this food from that region of the world to the board game day.
01:07:53
Speaker
We had other people from the Russians. They bought Russian food, et cetera. We just had like a ah massive event for this. we We wore the colors of our... of our clans and it was just such a great event but the side 50 that was one thing but the rise of fenris but also there was this one particular game that was when i went wow this is my favorite game which it was i remember it specifically because up until then i would have said terraforming mars was my favorite game but we played this game and i was playing with the sack city empire and i was doing okay but i was nowhere near winning the game at this point and i had this one turn
01:08:29
Speaker
where I got so in in size you're trying to the game ends when someone gets to six stars and it immediately ends it doesn't finish the round out no one you know it just ends when someone gets to six stars I had one star and I played a turn where I got five stars on one turn ended the game and won the game from nowhere and There was definitely a moment where I was um like, wow, I could probably pull off a four-star move here.
01:08:56
Speaker
And it wasn't until I was doing it that I'm like, oh, shit. um I'm the Saxony Empire and one of their abilities is they can they can do multiple objectives. they Everyone else can only succeed in one objective, but they can do multiple.
01:09:09
Speaker
So i' I'm moving my people around to get into two battles to get two stars. And then and but one of my objectives was to... um be in three location three of the same location.
01:09:21
Speaker
And I went on that, which meant that I got um had another battle, which would give me a third star because they can also win multiple stars in battle. And then I looked at my other objective. I'm like, oh, crap. I've only got to do this one thing and I've got That as well.
01:09:34
Speaker
So I did it. I won all the battles and I won all five five stars in one hit. i'm like, holy shit. How can I didn't even realize this game could do this? you know was it was just it was a stand up moment. And it was one of those moments where everyone at the table, think it was a five player game, was like just double checking that everything that just happened was actually able to happen.
01:09:53
Speaker
yeah oh But if you fought him harder there, then you would have won and then he wouldn't have been able to get this star. But you yeah you didn't think he was going to be strong enough. And it was was just awesome. It was such a great experience. But that game as a whole really solidified the hobby for me.
01:10:08
Speaker
It was a real sort of but sort of heavy game, but it was heavy for me at the time. it was It was the game that made me go, wow, this this hobby is more than just party games and yeah lightweight fun games. that there's There's some good strategy. theres and yeah It offered so much for me for so long. and yeah so But again, know I mentioned the Gloomhaven crew last and the Klong Curry crew in general. but yeah we we We love that game so much, but we actually booked a cruise, ah the seven of us, or the seven family or seven people. Some of them are married.
01:10:42
Speaker
um And our plan was to go on this cruise and call it the Scythe Cruise and play Rise of Fenris campaign every morning of that cruise for the for the eight days. that would have been That would have been what we did. And it was only because COVID cancelled it. that It got cancelled. But, yeah, that's how much we're all into it. And, yeah, it's standout.
01:11:00
Speaker
It's... Definitely, as far as a board game is concerned, no board game has come close to the experiences I've had with Scythe. So number three, Scythe, but specifically the Fenris and that five-star turn.
01:11:13
Speaker
Cool. My number two um is the feeling and the emotions i get when I teach anyone new to the hobby how to play board game.
Board Game Day at Work
01:11:25
Speaker
Very nice.
01:11:26
Speaker
Doesn't matter who it is you know Teaching someone new to the hobby So a board game so that gets them involved in the hobby and takes them away from anything they're doing um is the best experience as far as I'm concerned. There's many experiences when, you know, um I taught quacks at Aspley one night and there was a few people, it was their first time playing something like that.
01:11:50
Speaker
um and they loved it. um But more recently, um you know I ah hosted a mental health day at on the floor of where my office is with the other company that was based on the same floor.
01:12:06
Speaker
And um we we took a break for two hours and we just played board games and I brought a heap of board games in. And we had a room full of people. There would have been I don't know, 20 or 30 people in that room where I'm literally going around teaching ballgames. Luckily, I had a couple of people in that room that knew how to play a couple of the easy games. I took Splendor. So someone in the room knew how to play Splendor. So I said, are you okay to teach this to this group? He yeah, yeah, I can do that.
01:12:30
Speaker
And um and you know I had two games of Azul going and just all basic games. I had Las Vegas being played on a table, the Las Vegas Royale.
01:12:41
Speaker
And it was just really cool. But then, Just this week, um you know, it's been really busy at work and I could see there's some tension in the office.
01:12:52
Speaker
So I got my copy of Flip 7 back on Wednesday night. So I thought, this is coming to me to the office on Thursday. And so on Thursday there was, ah just after lunch, there was so four of us in the office and I said, come on guys, let's play a game of Flip 7.
01:13:11
Speaker
And they're like, what's this? And anyway, we took them, took us over to the table.
01:13:17
Speaker
Within five seconds, we're all laughing. Everyone's laughing, saying how cool this is. Like, it's such an easy game to teach. You teach it in less than a minute. ah You just go through, this is what this card does. There's 12 of these, there's 11 of these, there's 10 of these.
01:13:30
Speaker
and Let's play. And it's all about pushing your luck. And, um you know, they all got it really quickly. And um they said to me at the end, that was so fun. Can I leave it?
01:13:43
Speaker
so we can play again tomorrow. I said, yeah, I'll leave it And so what we did on Friday, we thought 1.30, we're going to pause and play ah Flip 7.
01:13:56
Speaker
So we actually invited the business next door, some of the guys from the business next door, to come down into our office at 1.30, sit in our meeting room, and we we played a seven-player Flip 7.
01:14:11
Speaker
And it was hilarious. Everyone was just laughing. These are all new to board games as well, except for the guys that played it yesterday, ah the day before. Laughing, saying how great this was. You know you know how it is, the tension.
01:14:26
Speaker
Everyone's trying to push their luck and then they're busting and ah the fun everyone was having. And then they said to me, that was at the end, um, and It was hilarious for me because i just kept all I wanted to do was show someone how to get to what happens when you get seven cards out.
01:14:41
Speaker
So the amount of zeros on the score sheet for me because I just kept busting. Eventually, I did pull it off. I did pull it off. um But the end of the game, everyone said how fun it was just to take a break away and just to have some... And that everyone was saying, where where can I get this game? Yeah.
01:15:02
Speaker
Yeah. because they could see you know them taking this home, playing it with their family, playing with their friends, the the younger guys playing at a party. um and
01:15:16
Speaker
So we went back down, sat back at our seats, they went back to their office. And next minute, one of my one of my team pops his head up and says, where can I buy that game? And I said, well, you might be able to get it at Vault Games around the corner and so you know in the city here.
01:15:30
Speaker
And said, can get it from Amazon? He said, Oh, you might be able to. So he jumps on. It's $26. twenty six buck And said, deliver it to me to but by tomorrow, which is great. I can play it on the weekend. Yeah, nice. And then another team member said, can you buy me a copy as well? transfer you the money.
01:15:45
Speaker
so you know, it spawns sales of a board game. And you know what? That's just going to expand and expand. So that's what I love about the experience is just showing people our hobby.
01:15:56
Speaker
And it's not nerdy. It's fun. It's just a way of taking your mind away from things. so Yeah.
Challenging Stereotypes with Board Games
01:16:02
Speaker
I think the outside perception of the board game hobby is that we all like to, like, it's all like Dungeons and Dragons and miniatures and stuff. And when they see games like that, they just go, oh, hang on, what's this? like And you mentioned Quacks. Quacks is another great example of just blowing people's mind about what this hobby can be. It's not just slaying dragons and whatnot.
01:16:22
Speaker
Yep. The gang's the next one I'm taking to work, by the Yeah, nice. um My number two is an event that I attended in September 2023, which was a bit of a culmination of ah kind of goal or a dream or whatever you want to call it of mine. And that was to attend a Dice Tower event.
Dice Tower Retreat Experience
01:16:44
Speaker
ah As we mentioned last episode, Dice Tower is what I consider to be my biggest go-to for board game content. And I was lucky enough to jag a ticket to the Dice Tower retreat in Miami in 2023. We were just about to start a big America holiday, our family. So I went over a week early and went to that.
01:17:02
Speaker
And it's hard to sort of pinpoint that. you know, so single out things that happened in that week. Just the whole week as a whole, ah it kind of, it was very refreshing. As I mentioned with the board game barbecue days, it was very refreshing to see someone as big as the Dice Tower being the same, very much get you involved, make sure everyone's catered for, make sure everyone's, you know, no one's feeling uncomfortable or lost ah on a grander scale. Like this is huge. mean, admittedly, the event wasn't huge. it was probably 250, 300 people.
01:17:34
Speaker
But still, that's bigger than anything I've ever been to. And said the the amount of the giving from the crew, the Dice Tower crew, the giving of their time to teach games, just to walk around and chat with people.
01:17:48
Speaker
have lunch with folks. We yeah had after each night, we'd end up in the bar with Bonnie Cor and Z and a few and few of the crew just chatting and drinking and well, I didn't really drink much, but chatting at the very least and, you getting to know them, I guess, off camera, if that makes sense and and off duty as well. But just the the event as a whole, I made a lot of friends because,
01:18:14
Speaker
the the type of community the Dice Tower is, is a very open and friendly community. So there was a lot of people, a lot of people knew me from the Board Game Barbecue podcast or from the Virtual Gaming Con and would just be like, oh, you you you taught us this game in the Virtual Gaming Con. You know, let's play, let's go play a game. I'm like, how you guys even remember that?
01:18:33
Speaker
ah And then obviously yeah I was part of the Dice Tower Werewolf group for a while and a few of those guys were there. So it almost felt like I knew, I almost felt like I was part of the, part of the in crowd before I even arrived, which was, was awesome. And I owe a lot of that to the Dice Tower and what they do. They had a group that,
01:18:52
Speaker
When you join the retreat, they added you to the retreat group so you can chat about what you wanted to play when you were there and where you're coming from and what yeah whatever. So there are a lot of people that were just genuinely interested in the fact that I was coming all the way from Australia.
01:19:04
Speaker
um I took over a heap of chocolates because that's all I wanted. oh And, yeah, just was play games for a week. It was, um yeah, it was awesome. And the only downside is that I had, and I say it's a downside, it's such a terrible downside. I had to leave early so I could meet my family to start our seven-week family holiday through America. So, it's it's yeah, it wasn't a downside at all. But I did miss out on the Saturday and the half-day Sunday.
01:19:29
Speaker
um But, ah yeah, the the rest of the week was... Phenomenal. And still have friends to this day that are from that event that, um you know, have what want to come to Australia and catch up. And, you know, um um when I eventually go back to America, I'll catch up with them again. So, yeah, just I recommend...
01:19:50
Speaker
Making the jump, it's it's not easy to get, especially to the retreat or to East because they're on the other side of America and it's not easy to get there from Australia. But if if you're a fan of the Dice Tower on E-Level, like I played probably four or five games with Tom, few games with Chris, couple of games with Mike.
01:20:05
Speaker
um I didn't play a game with Z, but he taught a game that I was involved in. But it's also a place for like Justin Jacobson from Restoration Games. um Obviously Bonacore, as I mentioned before, but like loads of different people that all come together at that event. So ah yeah, really awesome. That's ah my number two was the Dice Tower Retreat.
01:20:25
Speaker
Strong recommend. Well, mate, do you know, that's on my bucket list. So I will get there one day myself and um hopefully I'll drag you along with me. Oh, it won't be hard. But no, I have to do that as well, mate.
01:20:41
Speaker
We came close. We came very close. Yeah, to West. Yeah. ah i It turns out it was a really good thing we didn't book that because I wouldn't have been able to go in the end because it was right after yeah when I was supposed to go out of the surgery. But so i did we didn't know that at the time, but holy moly.
01:20:57
Speaker
I had that down so cheap too. I didn't even tell you that part, but I said to Helen, I said, oh, I've got it to cheap because where they were hosting it Westgate, we're part of an accommodation club and I could get a week there for free.
01:21:08
Speaker
ah So it wouldn't have even costed us to stay there. Come what else can go right for this? Why am I not doing this? That's good. We will get there, mate. We will. Yeah, we will.
01:21:19
Speaker
um My number one um is any time, I say to Lauren, Josh and Max, are you willing to play a board game?
Family Board Game Joy
01:21:30
Speaker
but And they say... And they answer yes. yeah um When they say yes. And look, they do say yes occasionally.
01:21:45
Speaker
However, it'ss it comes with its own rules. We can only play King of Tokyo or Downforce. They're the only two games. And I'm quite happy with that because every time we play those two games, ah there's great stand-up moments, especially King of Tokyo. It's always coming down to the last dice roll.
01:22:05
Speaker
And, you know, one of us is rolling. We're all standing on our feet. and um But any time I play with my two boys and Lauren is the best experience as far as I'm concerned.
01:22:19
Speaker
I am hopeful that this weekend we might be able to get a game of Flip 7 going. um it's It is hopeful, although it is Lauren's birthday tomorrow, so she may say, absolutely not, it's my birthday. um But any time I play, my games with my family is the best experience.
01:22:41
Speaker
So my number one. Yeah, it makes you feel bad for what my number one is because it's not bad. I always say to my wife, my favourite person I play board games with is you. as in my wife, not you, Shane.
01:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured that. Yeah, and now I haven't put her number one. so But I did put the whole family thing back earlier. Yeah, yeah, okay. You keep telling yourself that. Keep going, keep going.
01:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, because my number one is another event that I went to by myself without my family.
Podfather Cruise Experience
01:23:10
Speaker
Oh, the hole you're digging right now. Yeah. Yeah. Well, luckily none of my family listened to this, so I'm okay. um no the Podfather cruise that I went on last year is my number one. it I tossed a turn between this and Dice Tower Retreat, but honestly, this one was better.
01:23:26
Speaker
And it was better not so much because of the games. There was less games, obviously, because it's on a cruise and they were traveling. So the only games that were there were games that could people could fit in their suitcases. but it didn't matter. It was what made this the best experience for me was that every night after we, whether we had played games or whether you'd just gone and been on the ship and gone to shows or, you gone on land or, you know, done all of the things that a cruise ship can offer.
01:23:52
Speaker
Regardless of what you did, we'd come together every night. We'd have four tables of 12 people each in this one area of the, of the dining room. And you'd sit across from people and talk about your day and, you know,
01:24:05
Speaker
Just chat, just introduce yourself at the start and then, you know, what'd you do today? We go, blah, blah, blah. We did this, we did that. And where are you from? And what do you do back home? and And I mentioned I made some friends out of Dice Tower Treat. I made some real friends on the Podfather cruise ah to the point now where Eric is probably one person that um ah probably the strongest friendship I made on that cruise.
01:24:28
Speaker
We're both into Formula One and neither of us know anyone else that's into Formula One. So like we' we'll have just random text messages back and forth about Formula One. There you go. I can add you to that list. Yeah.
01:24:40
Speaker
like we're in different time zones and I'm like, are you staying up tonight to watch Oscar Piastri at the Chinese Grand Prix or whatever? And, you know, just I'll just get a random text message in the middle of the night going, oh my God. And I'm like, been I got to wake up at 7am and watch the replay going, I wonder what this is referring to. Like you try to answer. Just sack Liam. Just sack Liam. What's going on? Yeah, that's it.
01:25:02
Speaker
Yeah. And, but also he runs the Onboard Games podcast he's had me on a couple of times as a guest. Obviously, Bonacore was there. It's the Podfather Cruise. Of course, he was there. And he, again, like similar to the Dicetower crew, just so inviting.
01:25:14
Speaker
a little bit more adult, I guess, than the Dicetower crews in the sense that every night they're in the pub having a drink. And um that's just, that's fine. That's that's how they, you they get on. So that's fine.
01:25:26
Speaker
Really connecting group. Jeff Anderson, who runs it all, he works for Board Game Geek. ah He's a legend. He just, like, everything was organized to a T. But Tony Lawhorn was another one that I've kept in touch with, and he does all the big um like designs of like Gen Con setups.
01:25:43
Speaker
So maybe you see like a, you know, a big elf or something at a Gen Con stand. It's probably his company that created that. ah just Just some really cool people. And there's so many more.
01:25:54
Speaker
um I met Gil Hover, who's the designer of the networks was there, but, you know, ah Carl and Fallon, who are just, I'm just mentioning random people's names now that don't mean anything. So I'll just just say that everyone on that cruise was awesome. Everyone that we met.
01:26:07
Speaker
The only downside is I got to know the 12 people on my table really well. And I've made some really good friendships with those 12 people, but there were three other tables. So yeah I made friends with those other people, but not as tight as those, that group around the table, which is something that a cruise gives you that no other event really does. Like if you're in Miami at Dice Tower Retreat and you want to go out for dinner, you go out for dinner.
01:26:28
Speaker
You don't sit with the people you've just been playing board games with all day. But because of the cruise, you could have been playing board games with these people all day, or they could have been off doing other things and then you catch up at the end.
01:26:40
Speaker
So yeah, it's so good. It is the reason why I am going on the next cruise, which is the, it's actually the BGG at Sea Cruise out of Sydney, which is in February next year, because some but some of those people are flying out here to go on it again. So I'll have, I'll meet some new people, but also I'll have, I'll catch up with some of the friends that I made on that on that cruise. So, and it's such a great environment. You're like, oh, I feel like playing a board game. I'll just walk down there and play a board game.
01:27:07
Speaker
I don't really feel like a board game right now. Okay. I'll go and go on the water slides or, you know, watch a dive in movie or go and watch the theatre production or go and do some trivia or whatever.
01:27:19
Speaker
Go and eat like a buffoon at the buffet. it's There's just so many options to do, but, you've you've got this common interest with the group of people you're traveling with. And yeah, it's, I strongly, strongly, I strongly you recommend you are you you find a way to make it happen. And Helen and Raf are coming on the next one.
01:27:38
Speaker
So as I said to you privately, which I'll now mention publicly, oh should bring Rose along. She'll have a great time, even if she doesn't touch the board game room. There's no chance of that happening. is if If I'm going, it's just me on my own, unfortunately. So,
01:27:53
Speaker
There's no chance I'll get Lauren on a boat. So... No interested in cruising? No interested in cruising and whatsoever.
Future Cruising Events
01:28:00
Speaker
None. Disappointing. What about New Zealand? Interested in New Zealand?
01:28:05
Speaker
She's interested in New Zealand, but no, no interest in cruising. Fair enough. that no it'll be... it'll be if I do go, it'll be me on my own, which is... You know, it's an expense to go on your own and...
01:28:16
Speaker
so It is because single traveller is is almost the same as... Going to someone else. Yeah, a twin. Take one your boys. No, they're no interest at all. So call out to any anyone anyone listening to this our one listener to this podcast. If you want to come along, let's maybe work out how we can make that happen.
01:28:37
Speaker
ah All right. Great list, mate. And as far as I'm concerned, you know, this... it's the experiences that we have is just because of this wonderful hobby. that's I'm like glowing right now after talking about all that. I just, yeah, yeah that's so good.
Reflections on Podcasting Joy
01:28:54
Speaker
to our one listener, you know,
01:28:55
Speaker
Maybe think about maybe think about you know your top 10 experiences because it it got me in a really good headspace when I wrote all these down and and how you're feeling right now. so So if you want to, make sure you write down your own top 10 list of experiences and then maybe just you know sit in those experiences for a little bit and enjoy it.
01:29:13
Speaker
sign yeah so i sound like ah i'm so i sound like my wife in a yoga class. so ah That's good. There you go. Well, a great episode. It did go a bit long, but I think that was warranted given the content. So, yeah, we'll ah we'll we'll move on to um the end of the episode. But again, thanks lot, Shane. And, hey, you know, doing this podcast is is an amazing experience. It is. It is. And so thank you for...
01:29:39
Speaker
For both of us, actually. I think we both decided to go and do this. And I'm really pleased because it's another way of connecting in the and really winding out the week, too.
01:29:49
Speaker
Have a great week, mate. Take care. Same to you. Cheers, mate.