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Episode 28: Our top 5 head to head games
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Shane and Steve discuss their top 5 2 player head to head games
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Transcript
Setting the Scene: A Relaxed Sunday Morning
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to Mate Let's Play. are you doing Shane? I am wonderful on this Sunday morning. Happy winter solstice to you, Steve. Thank you. it's ah I can literally hear the birds chirping in the background. so can I.
00:00:30
Speaker
It's unusual to be in a room where I live without air conditioning on, but it's only 826 and it's 24 degrees. So it will happen later, but it hasn't happened yet. No, well, we're in for apparently 10 hours of sunlight today, which is nice.
00:00:45
Speaker
Fair enough. Make the most of it by sitting in a room and talking on a podcast. Nothing's better. like When you wake up in the morning, you open up, so I get this to get the sunrise where I am here, and I open up the blinds, open up the windows, see the birds chirping, the sun's coming up, beaming to wake you up.
00:01:01
Speaker
It's just a nice way to start the day. And even better when we have a little podcast for this. just um I'm interested to know whether, ah hopefully, the the the listeners can hear the birds too, because we can definitely hear them coming through, but whether they come through the recording or not, we'll wait and see. But anyway, we're not here to talk about birds unless we're talking about Wingspan, which I'm not, but like we can talk about other games.
Game Review: Tenby
00:01:22
Speaker
ah What's been hitting the table down your way lately? Well, mate, we, as we usually have our Thursday night board game night, um we played last week, we played Tenby.
00:01:36
Speaker
Oh, okay. This is interesting. I've not played it, but i've been very keen. Yeah, it's a um little card game, little set collection game where you, and it's got like the King don of Domino um a selection, you know, who goes first, who goes last, et cetera.
00:01:54
Speaker
And you you pick up cards and um you're building like a little street in Tembi and, The cards have got to have <unk> number of lampopes within two set two sets of cards or a number of clouds within two sets of cards and then you build a little bit of a wharf. All you do, what I do, is get two cards and join them together and there's this little streak.
00:02:19
Speaker
um And you can't build on from them. So was it was it was an okay game. I like the artwork, I must admit. The artwork's kind of cool. kind of reminds me of the old...
00:02:31
Speaker
you know, UK cartoon shows back in the days. It's just really funky little artwork. But the card the game itself, i was like, eh, you know, I'm not going rush to play it again.
00:02:44
Speaker
um it It took, it actually took a while, but I think it's because we were just, you know, learning it for the first time, so, and we were gas bagging as we always do throughout the game, which is fine, but, eh, it was okay, but, yeah, not not going to rush to play it again, but,
00:03:00
Speaker
we The week before, and we decided I've got two piles of games that I'm looking to to sell at the moment.
Game Analysis: Condottieri
00:03:09
Speaker
And can I thought, oh, let's, Lucky Fuel goes, oh, let's play this game called Contador.
00:03:19
Speaker
Called what? Sorry? can Conditerry. Yeah, I know, Conditerry. Yeah. yeah Anyway, so I pulled that out. And he said, it's really good.
00:03:30
Speaker
I said, yeah, I think we've played it once. Anyway, we played it seven times. Back to back, back to back, back to back. Yeah, okay. um It was ah super fun.
00:03:41
Speaker
It's a game where um two to six players and literally you can knock a game off in 20 minutes for 23 people. Or it could be quicker, depends on, you know, but it's trick-taking with area control.
00:03:58
Speaker
And so, and also the cards have certain abilities when you're playing. But it's ah it's a fair bit of tape that in there as well, which I really like. Yeah, we played it seven times.
00:04:10
Speaker
And then last week after the game timbi out of it Nick hadn't played So we did a quick teach of that and played again. So, needs to say, it's no longer in my cell file.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah, okay. That's good. has made it back to the pile that I'll keep. Very enjoyable. Really enjoyable game. So have you played it? Yeah, right. No, I've not played it. um I think Mitch used to talk about it a bit back on the board game barbecue days.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, that's what phil Phil said. Phil said he actually got taught by Mitch how to play it. so, yeah, solid, solid game.
00:04:52
Speaker
That's how I knew how to pronounce it because I just remember Mitch trying so hard to pronounce it with an Italian accent. Condottieri.
00:05:04
Speaker
Condottieri. Yeah, it was good. Recommend it. It's very hard to get though. Yeah, yeah. It's been a print for a while.
Deep Dive: Brass Birmingham
00:05:13
Speaker
um I'm speaking of games that are not out of print, but, you know,
00:05:20
Speaker
Sometimes we we end up finding ourselves talking about games that have been talked about ad nauseum in the past, but sometimes that's because they're good. And my wife and I have been deep diving a little bit into Brass Birmingham again. Excellent. So we've been playing it. We played it every weekend for the last three or four weekends.
00:05:40
Speaker
And I've also played it with some others. I think I might might have even spoken about it in the last podcast. It might have been that long, but it's just been a game. Like Brass has always been that game to me that every time I play it, by the second time I overplayed it, i've I've loved it. And I've been like, I just wish I remembered more stuff than from the last game.
00:05:59
Speaker
So it's been really nice just to keep going back to it because we are playing so much better than we ever had. and Like being far more strategic. Like in the last game, i um i set this whole situation situation up where I was able to essentially make hell and make a decision on the hope that I did something better.
00:06:19
Speaker
in the last round because of the turn order. um And i was just I was just sitting back going, wow, I can't believe this game has this. Like i built a brewery that she wasn't connected to and she needed beer.
00:06:31
Speaker
So I'm like, you're going to have to build a railroad to my brewery And then hope that I don't use both of my um both my kegs or yeah beers um before your turn because you're now going to go second in order because you've spent more money than me.
00:06:47
Speaker
And just to sit there and be like, watch her make a decision. and in the end, she ended up deciding to overbuild one of her breweries and not touch mine at all. which I didn't want because then I got to use both of mine to do what I wanted to do. But it was just like, it was cool just to sit there and go, Ooh, I've set the like a little trap up here. Like, and um yeah, we've noticed that our scores have gone from the scores in the one twenties and one thirties up to the one seventies and the one eighties kind of thing.
00:07:11
Speaker
um But that being said, that's two players. We had a game at four players and our scores, everyone's was like in the 120s, the 130s, lot closer. But even then that had something cool happen that I'd i'd not seen happen before.
00:07:25
Speaker
I was always was, I guess, lucky enough to be the first player. And I, you know, in that first round, you only do one thing. So I um i did a develop action. which means that means had to buy two iron to do that.
00:07:39
Speaker
But then everyone did the develop action in the first round. Oh. So when it came back to my turn, I'd spent the least amount of money because the iron, and when I went in, was cheaper. Yeah. Which meant I built an ironworks and got like $15 or something back. Like, it might have even been more um in in the first turn.
00:07:59
Speaker
So, because I'd actually, luckily enough, I'd developed the iron. So I went straight to the level two iron building. So it stayed there for the whole game. It flipped straight away and I got all this money. I didn't have to take a loan in the whole game, which I've never done in brass before.
00:08:11
Speaker
So it just became a game where whenever you built iron or stick or um coal, it filled the board and you got money. That was that was your money-making engine. You didn't need to take a loan, which, yeah, it was just really cool. um I didn't didn't end up winning the game, but just to see these other things that you can do in that game that I hadn't really come across before was was was really interesting. So, um yeah, the deep dive continues. I think we're playing it again today. Helen's really taken a shining to it, which has been nice. Yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah.
Game Day Plans: Smoked Meats & Power Grid
00:08:43
Speaker
yeah look I've got a game day here today as well. We've bought ourselves a smoker. So we went out and got a smoker from Pastor Nick. He was selling his.
00:08:56
Speaker
And he's coming around to show us how to use it today. So we're doing a nice smoked pork butt and playing some games. So I don't know what's going to the table today. Yeah, cool.
00:09:09
Speaker
there' ah there's what um I'd love to probably maybe get Power Grid out. So I literally had everything for Power Grid. Actually, no, there's two maps I don't have. Two maps that I don't have. So I've got everything else.
00:09:24
Speaker
So I think I mentioned in a past pod that, you know, we need Power Grid needs to come up with a big box so can fit everything in it. Yeah, yeah. it's so I've only got the base version of Power Grid, and it's a very old version. it's um it sir It's been previously well-loved, would be the best way I would put it.
00:09:44
Speaker
and um Yeah, I need probably need to get that out as well. so and Highly regarded, I guess. Anything else that's been hitting your table besides 10B? na No, no.
Nostalgia Trip: Monopoly Memories
00:09:54
Speaker
Nothing else. um Oh, Lauren and I had a quick game over Ticket to Ride the other day, so... it I brought that game back into the collection again because I ah gave my copy away to one of our young family members and because he really liked it. So I gave him my copy and then I ended up getting the 15-year anniversary to replace it. So that hit the table. That was quite good. We're playing. I'm playing bit of that on BGA at the moment.
00:10:23
Speaker
Quite a few games. Yeah. um That's a good game to play. Yeah. either on train or on the crapper, where you just play two-player with someone and it's done in 10 minutes.
00:10:35
Speaker
It's like speed ticket to ride. It's brilliant. Yeah. Yeah, it's ah it's funny. My wife, it's her favorite game, so we play it quite a bit. But um she also plays it on the app a lot.
00:10:47
Speaker
Not so much on BGA, but just on the like Ticket to Ride app. And um so when she plays with people, she gets really agitated at people taking their time because she's used to games lasting five, ten minutes. But yeah, you're you're right though. On BGA, I just actually finished a game this morning on BGA. a And there's is there a better feeling in Ticket to Ride when you've got an absolute crap ton of tickets and someone else ends the game, but you've got the last piece of track you need to put down to have all your tickets complete?
00:11:20
Speaker
which is exactly what happened. And I ended up with nine completed tickets in the game. Oh, wow. Jeez. Yeah, absolutely creamed everybody. But if it was it had finished one turn earlier, I probably would have been under 100 because I wouldn't have completed like four tickets. They would have been negative. Oh, no, I'm the reverse. Like, yes, there's no better feeling when you're doing that because it's your last turn, you lay that track and you complete that last ticket.
00:11:45
Speaker
It pisses me off though when I've got, I need two turns. Yeah, yeah. yeah i know Shit, now I'm just going to put down some tracks somewhere just so I can get some points. Yeah. to offset, you know, losing 20 points and not completing this ticket.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah. But it's actually, I don't know, do you play it two player off? Yeah, yeah, Helen and i play a bit at two-player. It's really tight because you can't use the double tracks and, yeah. Yeah, correct. And it's cutthroat too. Like, it's, you know, there's people I've played with sometimes and they're completely blocking me everywhere. everywhere and I'm just you bastard.
00:12:21
Speaker
We always talk about, is it, um I mean, not yeah not only in a two-player game, in ah any player game on the on the yeah US map. I think it's, is it Houston to New Orleans? Yeah.
00:12:34
Speaker
which is a two track single line and it really does sort of bottle down. everyone's It's everyone's first move. Yeah. Yeah. That or the Nashville to Atlanta one, the little one track that's always good too.
00:12:49
Speaker
You can just sit back and go, now you guys can figure out whatever else you want to do I know I can get from east to west if i need to, and I can get to it. yeah. Greg, it still holds up, hey? Like, I still play that game.
00:13:02
Speaker
I can't think of a game that is 10 years younger than that, that I play as much as that. Like, it came out in 2004. Like, I can't think of any game from the teens, the 2000 and somethings, that I play as much as Tigger to Right. So it just stands the test of time. It just holds up.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Um, actually, uh, probably about a month or two ago, did I talk about playing Monopoly? No.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, the boys, the boys decided to go, let's play Monopoly, dad. Okay. So we pulled out Monopoly and, and because I, I, cause I have not lost Monopoly since a teenager.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah. i said I said to them, they said, oh yeah, we'll crush you, dad, we'll crush you. I said, okay. And, yeah, they, i think Josh went out first bankrupt. that followed up for that.
00:13:55
Speaker
I had the whole, you know, Bond Avenue, Mayfair, Park Lane, all completely owned. So I was just waiting for them to come around the corner.
00:14:07
Speaker
And just wherever they landed, they and had hotels on all of them. So I said, guys, you guys are screwed now. You should block me for that.
00:14:18
Speaker
But yeah, it was good. It was actually quite quite a fun game. Said no one ever in our industry, in our hobby. I remember um when we, like the last time I played Monopoly, which, gee, don't know when that was, but umm I remember playing with my younger two and they just wanted to keep trading with me.
00:14:39
Speaker
They're like, dad, you really want this. Can we trade for that? And I'm like, no. I was the same. And they're like, why not? I'm like, because then I'm giving you what you want. Why would I want to do that?
00:14:51
Speaker
i think I think I owned Malboro, Strand, and Leicester Avenue. So orange, red, yellow. And both one of them had the other two yellow. The other one had the other two red.
00:15:05
Speaker
And someone had the other two orange. And they're like, can we trade that? No, not at all. Why would I give you what you want? I'm not going to help you.
00:15:13
Speaker
You landed on it. Yeah. And then then it's your turn. You're like, they've got one property, yearly one. You're like, hey, would you like the electricity works at $100? They're like, oh, yeah.
00:15:28
Speaker
yes oh That's too true. Yeah, they were collecting those as well. I thinking, oh, yeah, you're now in boat. Yeah, good on you. Yeah. Ah, too many years wasted.
00:15:39
Speaker
i am like being the youngest of three, I had to learn how to play that game because I used to just get, yeah, my mum and dad would force my older two to keep me in the game.
00:15:51
Speaker
Like, you've got to play with Steve. you got to play with Steve. I was four years younger than Mark. So like when I was six and they were 10 and 12, the last thing they would want to do was play bloody game of Monopoly with me. So it basically became gang up on Steve to get him knocked out quickly so that we can actually play the real game. So you had to get good early.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah. i had I had to like, you know, I used to do things like I used to trade my blue was my favorite color when I was younger. And I think the $10 notes are blue or the $50 notes. fifty fifty fifty dollars that Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
So I would trade my, my, my ugly pink and orange notes for the blue notes. at a one-to-one ratio. ah And my sister and brother never had a problem with that for some reason. I don't know why.
00:16:39
Speaker
a Everyone's got a Monopoly story though, that's for sure. And look, you know, I think we're probably the only podcast going around right now in board gaming that spent the last four minutes talking about Monopoly.
00:16:54
Speaker
And to be honest, every time I go into like a Target or a Kmart or a Big W or whatever, and I see the three expansions, i i I would literally have to buy Monopoly again to play with the expansions.
00:17:08
Speaker
But I am so keen to give them a shot. Like, it makes no sense. I don't like the game. i haven't played. I don't have a copy of the game. i haven't played it in years. But the idea of, like, one of the expansions that lets you to just buy anything, like you can you can own the bank or you can own the property cards.
00:17:25
Speaker
where you can own free parking or whatever. And that comes with its own. I'm like, that just sounds totally broken. But, I mean, it also sounds super fun. so And apparently all three of the expansions are designed around making the game shorter, which yeah is obviously a good thing. So, yeah, I don't know. I'd love to try it one day.
00:17:44
Speaker
we We used to always play with that that house rule of when you when you get fined or you have to put money in it, it goes in the middle and then if you land on free parking, you get that. take it all. Yeah, yeah. Take it all. Yeah.
00:17:56
Speaker
So, yeah, i don't know. Like, yeah, it's still around, hey? It's still getting played by hardened gamers like yourself. There you go. Yeah,
Monopoly Editions & House Rules
00:18:04
Speaker
yeah. Well, I do have a copy and it's an old copy and I also have a Port Adelaide version as well.
00:18:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah. nice i oh I remember um not long after I got into the, might've told this story before, but um not long after I got into the hobby, my mum and dad were holidaying through Northwestern WA and um mum's just kind of, Oh, I got you a present today.
00:18:28
Speaker
and I'm like, and I'm just like, Oh, it's not like Monopoly broom edition or something. Is it? And she's like, um, maybe. Yeah.
00:18:40
Speaker
It's fine. You don't have to give me that if you don't want to. You can take it back. It's like okay it' okay. One year, Lauren and I, this was before kids, we went to Kangaroo Island and you can for for a week.
00:18:57
Speaker
And we just walked into this yeah local jelly store. And in there, had a copy of Operation. I bought it. I said, let's play this while we're in Kangaroo Island. So we bought Operation. Next thing, you know, we'd go back to our our room that we were renting for the week and we played a week's worth of Operation.
00:19:19
Speaker
Oh, too good. funny It's funny though. Like um I was just speaking to my sister, my my daughter last night, sorry. um And she said, I have to tell you this dad, because she's not into board games that much, but she likes the odd card game like trio and a few other ones. And um so i I said to her, look, I've got an extra copy of flip seven. Just take it down. It's, it seems like such a dorm room game, like such a boarding house sort of game.
00:19:48
Speaker
um And I gave her a couple of other little card games and she hasn't touched them. And then she was at, um where was she? She was somewhere. And one of her friends was like, you said your dad's in the board games, right?
00:20:01
Speaker
And she's like, yeah. She's like, have you ever heard of a game called Flip 7? And then she's like, yeah, yeah. but And she's like, do you have that? and Yeah, I've got a copy of it. Oh, it's the Athletics Carnival. They're at the Athletics Carnival. And um so her friends played Flip 7 for the entirety of the Athletics Carnival, like just back to back to back to back to back. Just nothing but Flip 7. And Heidi's like, I can't believe they didn't want to play anything else. I'm like, I can because that's what normal people do. Like that's, you know, that's Monopoly, that's whatever. It's like you just play it because it's your option. You don't have 400 other options. You've got Flip 7 and you like it. Why would you do anything else? Might as well just keep playing. Keep playing.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah. And they were all like maths nerds. So they were all like figuring and out all the probability and stuff. i i have no trauma out So I just said, I said, look, if, if you've got a friend like that, buy them. Like, even you're always asking me, Oh, what should I buy my friend for her 18th birthday?
00:20:55
Speaker
Go and buy him a copy of Flip 7. Go and buy him Flip 7 with a vengeance, something different, you know, like, so it it was just cool to hear that the, yeah you know, not only the, you these cool games getting played in random places thanks to my daughter.
00:21:09
Speaker
But also just that idea that my daughter thought it was weird because they only had the one game and they weren't interested in playing others. i'm like, yeah, that'ss that's a product of growing up in my household. i Growing up in the outflow of cool games.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. good.
Board Game Geek Awards Predictions
00:21:25
Speaker
Well, should we move on to discussing the BGG Awards? Oh, yeah, the outcomes. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good, mate.
00:21:34
Speaker
I think I did pretty poorly, so... So if you recall on our last podcast, Shane and I went through what our predictions were for the winners of both the Board Game golden geek board game Geek Golden Geek Awards and the Dice Tower Awards. Now, the Dice Tower Awards haven't yet been opened, but haven't been resolved, but the BGG Awards have, and we're here to see which of the two of us has our finger on the pulse more or whether we're both just not going to. Yeah. We're both trying to find the pulse. Yeah. All right, well, so without further ado, um first category up is the two-player board game winner.
00:22:15
Speaker
So I went for Jewel of Cardia, Jewel of Cardia, and you went for Battle of Hoth, and the winner was Toy Battle. So, bop bop on both fronts. um Artwork and presentation, I had Galactic Cruise, you had Vantage, and the Old King's Crown won.
00:22:31
Speaker
So we did it all. We did well. Yep. um Co-op game winner. We both had Eternal Dex and Lord of the Rings, Fate of the Fellowship won. So on fire. ah Expansion.
00:22:44
Speaker
I had Clink Catacombs and you had SETI and SETI did win. So you're on the board. Innovative. I had, oh, hang on. Is that the next one I've got here? No.
00:22:56
Speaker
and We'll come back to that. Party game. We both had Hot Streak and Hot Streak won. So we both get a point there. Okay, next up is ah Print and Play.
00:23:10
Speaker
so I took a guess at The Promise and you chose Elevation, both based on extreme knowledge. ah But, of course, we didn't consider the Dungeons of the Oakdale, so we didn't get a point there either.
00:23:24
Speaker
Moving on to Solo game, you said Vantage, I said Scarabray Vantage 1, so you get a point. um thematic game. I went Speakeasy and you went Star Trek.
00:23:38
Speaker
um Was that Captain's Chair, I think? Captain's Chair. Yes, but unfortunately Lord of the Rings, Fate of the Fellowship won that, so neither us picked up that. The best war game.
00:23:50
Speaker
I went Star Wars Battle of Hoth. You went Fields of Fire and Star Wars Battle of Hoth won, so happy days. Come back. Um, best heavy game of the year.
00:24:02
Speaker
So that's back up here. I went galactic cruise. You went speakeasy and galactic cruise won that. So we're tied at three all. Let's go to the next page. um I feel like there's more categories than this. But anyway, Light Game of the Year.
00:24:18
Speaker
I went for Hotstreak. We both went for Hotstreak and Hotstreak won it. So we both get a point there. so Still tied. Medium Game Winner of the Year. i went for Eternal Dex. You went for Vantage and Lord of the Rings Faith and Fellowship. Jeez, it's done well. Oh, it's done well.
00:24:32
Speaker
And finally, Most Innovative. I went for Eternal Dex. You went for Vantage and Vantage won, which means you get the win 5-4 on Vantage. Ooh. Ooh. So there you have it.
00:24:44
Speaker
You know more about the hobby than I do, clearly. but one By one game. If you just voted Lord of the Rings, Faith of the Fellowship for every category, I think you would have beaten both of us.
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah, geez.
00:24:58
Speaker
That's it interesting that it won so many awards because it hasn't been massively spoken about. yeah, it's a bit of a strange one. We ended up giving a copy of that away for the booth conference.
00:25:11
Speaker
okay Okay. Hopefully that person that won it is enjoying it. Yeah. Nice. It always feels good to give away games. Yeah, it does. It does.
00:25:26
Speaker
I'm still doing a monthly giveaway to the Mates for Mates program down at Stafford there and helping build their library up. Thanks for helping me do that, which has been really good.
00:25:38
Speaker
But I wanted to do something a bit different today. All right. A little bit different.
Top Five Two-Player Games
00:25:43
Speaker
This is ad hoc top five head-to-head games or two-player games.
00:25:51
Speaker
So two-player competitive games. Two-player competitive games, yep. All right. And it doesn't have to be exclusively for two-players, but it's probably, you know, they're best at two-player.
00:26:04
Speaker
Okay. it's ah Now, I will point out that I found out that we were doing this at the start of the recording. So I am sure that I won't include some games that I probably should have, because this is a total off-the-cuff list.
00:26:19
Speaker
It is off-the-cuff. That's how went top five. I thought, let's not do ten, because I reckon I ah probably could come up with ten, but ah think it would be easier for five. Yeah. Yeah, I'm kind of trying to make a list because there's games I want to mention, but I'm like, well, that'll probably be number one. So I've got to think of like the order that I want to put these in.
00:26:39
Speaker
Anyway. No, so I ah don't have an order. I've got, um I know my five though. I think there's five. Yeah, there's five. I don't have my number one.
00:26:52
Speaker
So it's interesting because like I would put and Sky Team up there as one of my favourite two-player games, but of course it's a cooperative game. So not on the list because like my wife and I play that all the time. But yeah, I was like, because when so it's definitely different from just two-player games for sure. Correct, yeah, because it's head-to-head.
00:27:09
Speaker
So it's you versus the other person. Yeah. Look, ill I'll happily let you start because I'm still trying to connect. number five.
00:27:21
Speaker
is by Chip Theory Games, and it's Hopla Marcus. Oh, wow. Okay. I've never played Hopla Marcus is such a fun game. It's basically too many too many bones but you know against another person. So you both to have You're on a battle map, and your chips have got certain abilities, and it's you versus the other person.
00:27:45
Speaker
It's that simple. So... I love it. love but i've got the I've got the original version of Oppo Myrtle, not the the newer one.
00:27:55
Speaker
But I do enjoy playing that one. Cool. Number five. So I'm going to start my list potentially at number five. We'll see you later. Still got one spot i haven't filled. But this is a classic two-player game that has a lot of chess vibes, which is good because I'm not a massive fan of chess, but I appreciate the the strategy, the one-on-one strategy, I guess. But Onotama, I think, does it better. because you've got you can see all of the abilities out there. You can see the five actions. that yeah The only five actions you're going to have all game.
00:28:28
Speaker
And it sam sometimes it's really worth holding on to an action so your opponent doesn't get it if it's deemed to be slightly stronger. There's multiple ways to win, but um it really does make you feel very smart when you win. You feel very dumb when you make a mistake and lose. But it's also a game that I played a lot with Sebastian when he was younger, and I now play a lot with Raphael. So it's kind of...
00:28:51
Speaker
cool that i've that both of my younger boys heidi never got into it but to my both my boys both at some point loved chess and at some point learned on a tama and ma now i don't know if they prefer on a time but they're more than happy to play that with me um so yeah that'll be my my number five i um i think i've only ever played it once and um i at a game day and i enjoyed it um Because it's the cards, don't the cards tell you where you can move? Is that correct?
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. So on each card, there's like a block, which is you, and then it's got like a grayed out area, which is all the places you could move to with that card. And there's only a handful of cards that let you like jump two spaces or, you know, move far away from that dot. So they're kind of sort of that more valuable and they're all based on animals and shapes of somewhat like those animals. And yeah, it's just, it's just a really elegant game because, know,
00:29:46
Speaker
you know what your opponent can do. So when you're choosing your turn, you can you can go, okay, well, their next turn, this is all their options. So if I go here, i know I'm dead. And but then you're also giving them a card that they can use on the following turn. So you've got to be careful that you're not setting yourself up to fail. So... Yeah, lots really really good game and it's usually won by either someone making a mistake or not being aware of, because there's you can win by killing the essentially the king um or by getting to the home of the king with any of your...
Spotlight on 'Undaunted' Series
00:30:19
Speaker
with your king yep so like you can kind of just sneaky move around with your king and then suddenly just pop up in their home and they're like oh i didn't think of that because i was trying to kill your king um so like yeah it's it's kind of cool and and and there are expansions i haven't played them but apparently they bring other ways to win as well so yeah very good
00:30:42
Speaker
My number four is a toke it's just a two-player game, and it's a two-player card game where you are trying to win the favour of the Geishas.
00:30:55
Speaker
Yep, you know which one this is. And it's Hanamakoji. um It is such a cool card game and head-to-head, you've got to strategize how going to use your actions and on and also to strategize, you know, making sure that you are winning the most favor of the Geishas, but also to watching what your other opponent's doing to ensure that, you know, you ah you can either draw versus winning. So it's a good game. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Actually, you showed me that game and we've got a copy of it now and we play every now and again. Yeah.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, quite good. um My number four is the, I'm sure it'll be the oldest game on either of our lists, potentially tied for the oldest game on either of our lists. But as far as a two-player game that is head-to-head, it's got to be Crokinole, right?
00:31:44
Speaker
its I've never seen a game go from how do you play to absolutely rip it on your opponent in like in the shortest amount of time as Crokinole. It's like you literally start...
00:31:57
Speaker
getting angry and trash talking your opponent right from the second flick. of You can't even flick a disc, nice one, yeah to to far more um inappropriate slanders later.
00:32:10
Speaker
But, yeah, it's just a great game. you Whenever it's set up, it always gets played. So, yeah, Crokinole is a great two-player head-to-head game. Isn't that great? My number three is Crokinole.
00:32:22
Speaker
Well, there you go. We have a crossover. Who would have thought in the top five? It's Crokinole so much fun. I remember playing it for the first time.
00:32:33
Speaker
I went and visited Dave when he had his store at Brifcon and he had he had the Crokinole set up there. I think you were there that day too when we were playing it. Possible, yeah. Was that the Dave Rose Wars day?
00:32:47
Speaker
Yes, yeah, yeah, yes yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was that day. and it's So instantly I went and bought myself a set and the boys, whenever they're entertaining their mates, they're either playing eight ball or they get the crock and I'll sit out and they're having a game of that. So actually that's an interesting one.
00:33:03
Speaker
Would eight ball be classed as a tabletop game? yeah Yeah, a dexterity game. Some little more. Intentionally.
00:33:12
Speaker
Not to throw in there. ah No, but it's yeah no i agree with you, mate. Definitely. That was my number three. Well, my number three, I've got a group of games because there's five of them, but Raph and I have played through four of them, four and a half of them, and that's the Undaunted series. So, um yeah, just all tremendous games. And I've just realized as saying this that I have also not included Unmatched, which is a crying shame. So Unmatched is my honorary sixth pick.
00:33:42
Speaker
Probably should have been on the list. But yeah, Undaunted, um just a great war game, 1v1, where each player is using either the the good or the bad faction, or however you want to look at it, two sides of the war. And you've both got potentially different objectives to win each scenario. Yep.
00:34:02
Speaker
And some scenarios are deliberately set up to be hard for one and easier for the other. So you've, but because it sort of swings and roundabouts, you'll get one back then' not at the later stage, but yeah there are ones that start with an ambush. So one, one player has less stuff to start with. The other player goes first and can really race, but if they don't get it done quick, then they become a weaker later and,
00:34:24
Speaker
Just a lot of variety in each of the scenarios rather than just kill the baddies. so Yeah, yeah. And obviously Undaunted Stalingrad, the the legacy version or um campaign version is outstanding. So it'll be a top probably a top 20, top 30 game of all time for me. so yeah Oh, wow. I've actually, that's in my cell pile at the moment.
00:34:51
Speaker
If you can find someone to play it, it's a good time. And same designers as War Chest, which I have been playing a bit lately as well because I finally got to play it on the cruise.
00:35:02
Speaker
And um it has such similar DNA, like extremely similar DNA. so Well, my number two is War Chest. There you go.
00:35:15
Speaker
You know, it is basically, war chess is chess, really, when you think about it. It's another version of chess using chips, and each one of your chips has a different ability, and I've got all the expansions to it.
00:35:26
Speaker
It fits neatly in that little box. Awesome. Awesome game, head-to-head. Yeah. I've been really enjoying it, and I'm loving that it's on BGA, too, because Raph and I just continually have the game going, which is nice. so Yeah, nice. Yeah.
00:35:44
Speaker
That was my number two. That's interesting. Well, my number two is a great game that was made greater, not because of the theme, but because of the things they added because of the theme.
00:35:58
Speaker
um which is Lord of the Rings, Jewel for Middle-Earth. Obviously, it's the new version of 7.1. Look, I'm not a massive, I don't hate Lord of the Rings. I like Lord of the Rings. I'm not one of these people who could tell you any of the elves' names. I can't speak Elvish. I can't read Elvish, you know, all that sort of stuff. I know there are people out there that would be like those sort of people and I've met them and they're great people, but I'm not one of them.
00:36:22
Speaker
I am someone who just likes the game because it's, they've added Seven Wonders Jewel is already a great game and I really like what they've changed. It's not much of a difference, but I like the, the, the, the area control on the little board. on the board right yeah um Just the, the, the, the game itself, that idea that there are so many different paths to victory.
00:36:44
Speaker
So you've really got to be aware of not just everything that your opponent's doing, but, where you're at in each of those races um and it's funny because you you gain victory points for certain things which are totally useless unless no one wins the game in another way so it's like you think you're doing well because you got a lot of victory points and then suddenly someone has an alliance with all of the um factions and you lose or they were across the board too far and oh they catch you on the little track and You just sort of go, well, I wasted my time getting a whole lot of victory points for nothing. I win i lose the game by scoring 20 more points than my opponent, but losing the game. So, yeah, just just a great, like as far as head-to-head goes, to have to be across so many different paths to victory in such a really clear way is is really good. So, yeah, you could put 7-1 as dual here. It does basically the same thing with slight differences. So, yeah.
00:37:41
Speaker
I've only ever played that game once, and that was with you. Yeah. I think it was the first time you even played it as well. I think it might have been, yeah. Yeah, it was good. I enjoyed it. My number one, it was actually my number one card game, I believe, from memory.
00:38:00
Speaker
And we've done our card game list. It's Innovation. Innovation. I missed it, Shadding. Mr. Chadwick, just love his games. And I'm actually hopeful today that we actually get innovation out today.
00:38:15
Speaker
um it's You wouldn't want to play it any more than three players. Two players, it's the best. yeah um and But, you know, it's on BGO.
00:38:27
Speaker
If you're keen to watch how to play, and it's actually not too bad playing on BGO. um I've got the deluxe set, and It's got all the expansions in it, but I just like the base game. stupid It can be super quick, or you can take it out for about half an hour, would be the maximum two-player game.
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah, okay. When you're playing four players, it's just messy. It's like Glory to Rome. You don't want to play Glory to Rome with more than two people because cards are just going everywhere and it's just you a mess.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah, okay. Yeah, very keen. I keep seeing it pop up on like um either in board game marketplace or on at board game stores because the fourth edition is usually pretty cheap now because they've got that ultimate edition. The ultimate edition, yeah. Let's keep looking at it and going, but I always have to think on the lens of I'm probably going to play this with my wife and that artwork is doing nothing. And that's just kind of, that just ruins it for Helen.
Favorite Head-to-Head: Arapa Mine
00:39:25
Speaker
So I want to play it, but I can't, yeah, I don't think it would get to the table very often if I owned a copy. So it's, it's a really good strategy card game. I like it.
00:39:36
Speaker
Well, my number one is a um like a layman's way of saying it would be a better version of Battleship, but it's a lot lot more thought going into it than a game of Battleship, and that's Arapa Mine.
00:39:51
Speaker
So again, it's hard to argue with this one for me because this is a game that Raphael and I play all the time. It's you literally just set up your map of shapes in front of you and your opponent is trying to figure out where all your shapes are by sending laser beams um across the grid and they bounce off different colors. So if you hit like a red, blue and white, then the response they get back is light green. So they've got to try and figure out where all the shapes are based on what color comes back and um Yeah, it's it's really cool. And there's like the base version, which is just the five shapes, which I think is two white, a blue, a red, and a yellow.
00:40:28
Speaker
And then you can add a clear shape in, which just bounces whatever color was already going around off. So that can throw a bit of a spinner in the works. And then if you want to go again, I've got the black shape, which absorbs color. So as soon as you, if you send a beam and it hits the black shape, you just get your responses absorbed.
00:40:47
Speaker
So you, but you don't know where it was absorbed. So then you'll try and figure out where that is. And so it's, it's, there's a lot to it, but it's, it's so simple. You can, you can teach anyone in two minutes because you just say, put the shapes on the, on the grid.
00:40:59
Speaker
Tell me which, where you want your laser shot from, and I can tell you the response. And it's just so much fun. We just, we just, whenever we play it, we play it like 10 times in a row and yeah. Wow. And it's on BGA now too. And it works really well on BGA. We played it on BGA and I had no idea what I was doing. So we're going to have to have that. I'm going to have to have a BGA night you can teach me it because you rave about this game.
00:41:23
Speaker
Yeah. Well, to be honest though, the BGA version is the multiplayer version, even if you played it too. And that's disappointing because I think this game shines one-on-one. But in the BGA version, there is one there is one solution and you're all trying to figure out what the solution It's still competitive, but you're all trying to figure out. So you might ask us you might ask for a laser beam, but I get your response and then that helps me solve the puzzle.
00:41:48
Speaker
where one-on-one I'm only trying to figure out what your puzzle is and you're only trying to figure out what mine is. So it's I think it's a lot better like that. Unfortunately, on BGA, they've only got that multiplayer version, which is fun because you can play with four or five players and you're getting all this information. And it's also fun when you're playing with someone who has no idea what they're doing. um and Because there was ah this great moment because Raph usually plays on his computer, which is in the like a little study nook away from the like where the main lounge room is.
00:42:17
Speaker
And um I've jumped on one night. I'm like, oh, Raph, it's your turn on a rap of mine. And I've just heard this, what's this Aussie solo gamer guy doing? yeah yes really He's like, it's like round two and he's asking what the exact location the color is. And I'm like, yeah, he hasn't played it before, man. Give him a chance. had no idea what I was doing.
00:42:43
Speaker
<unk> Definitely, I'd like to have a game night where we log on and have go. Yeah.
00:42:53
Speaker
Good list. Good list. Yeah, mate. what's your plans for today? So,
Gaming with Brass Birmingham & Smoked Pork
00:43:00
Speaker
like said, trying to get Brass Birmingham back again to the table.
00:43:04
Speaker
um Friends of mine and actually won a couple of awards in the BGG Awards, but friends of mine have a copy of The Old King's Crown. ice And they've decided that they like me teaching them games more than they like learning games. So they have tasked me with learning the game so I can teach them.
00:43:22
Speaker
So um I'm pretty much there. I just want to have a bit of a run through before I actually teach them the game. Cause the last thing I'd want is to have a bad teach be the reason they don't like a game that they've been, they've on Kickstarter or whatever else. But I'm very keen to play that game. That was on my list of games I wanted to play on the cruise that i never got to. yeah.
00:43:40
Speaker
um yeah, thanks to Shea from RTFM for doing a a rules teach. i've already watched that once, which is, he's always very good. So, yeah good yeah, that's my plan, I think.
00:43:53
Speaker
That's nice day. How about you? Obviously, the the smoking in the games. Smoking in games and hopefully in enjoy a nice little pool pork roll for dinner tonight.
00:44:05
Speaker
So, It was, it just takes me back. It was one of my favorite things when I lived out in Cloncari was on a Sunday, we would have our Gloomhaven days and I would put something on the smoker in the morning. We'd play Gloomhaven in the morning. We'd stop and have whatever i was on the smoker for lunch.
00:44:22
Speaker
Then we'd play Gloomhaven again and then have leftovers for dinner. It was like a whole day fitting. Bloody awesome. That's what today's going to be all about. We've got that. the pork ready to go and this is all about, because Max, this is Max's smoker, so he's wanting to learn it all and he's's he's got a goal of making his own sausages. there go. he's turning 18 next month, so we're planning a big birthday celebration for him, so no doubt the smoker will be front and centre for that day.
00:44:55
Speaker
Yeah, nice. um The other thing I've got to try and work out is what games I'm taking away.
Travel Plans: Games for Tasmania Trip
00:45:00
Speaker
we're going on a two-week holiday to Tasmania. um There's a good chance there'll be some of those days that are just spent inside by the fire and not out exploring because the weather is not always the greatest.
00:45:11
Speaker
So um i'm um I'm tempted to take, because I usually just take like the small card games, and I'm sure I'll take a few of them, but i'm I am tempted. Actually, you know what I do have is I've got that Catan on the road. Oh yeah.
00:45:22
Speaker
I might might take that down. That's a bit of a, that'll be a bit of a surprise for the kids to see me promoting anything Catan because I'm not a massive fan of the original game. But um yeah, I want to try and find some other games that I can sort of add into our little, you know collection of games we play as a family. So yeah.
00:45:41
Speaker
Have you got any games you haven't played yet that are still sitting there in the shelf of shame? Maybe of those might be one. I actually got a game that I'm really keen to learn, but it also is very daunting because it looks like a GMT, like a coin series game. um but It's not, but it looks like it. And that's Hunt for Blackbeard.
00:45:58
Speaker
was a Kickstarter that delivered a couple of weeks ago. And it's essentially you're redoing, you're retelling the true story of the capture of Blackbeard. So someone's playing the Royal Navy, someone's playing Blackbeard and it's like a hidden movement game um across the Virginia. and You gotta like, um you the board sits between the two people and um as Blackbeard, you can see like whenever you move somewhere, you've got to replace a block with a block that shows that you've been there, but only you can see that and it's up to the other people to reveal that later. So it's just the way it sets up looks really cool, but yeah,
00:46:37
Speaker
There's, it's, it's like, if it was just that I would have played it 10 times, but because it's like a war game esque kind of like every, every move has seven different variants of what you can do. And yeah it can be adjusted by this card that's on the board over here or where this person's standing in relation to the sun coming up on a Friday afternoon or something like everything's got, there's all these conditions and it's like, i just give me the basic version. That's all I want.
Episode Wrap-Up & Reflections
00:47:07
Speaker
there you go yeah but you take it down to van demon's land with you yeah yeah i don't know i feel like if i took that down it'd probably come back untouched so but we'll see i'll think of something anyway good well that's uh that's a pretty short one for us so little bad newss perfect but uh great to chat with you again shane and we'll do this again at some point as always it's always great to chat and um
00:47:35
Speaker
I'm looking forward to some gaming today. Yeah, cool, cool. We'll see you on the next one. Ciao, ciao.