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Episode 4: Top 10 card games
24 Plays29 days ago
Shane and Steve discuss their favourite card games of all time, as well as discussing some games they've been playing. Steve has been loading up Moose with dynamite to save humankind!
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Transcript
New Recording Schedule
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of Mate Let's Play, board game podcast brought to you by Shane and myself. How are you, Shane? Fantastic. Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone.
00:00:25
Speaker
It's been a fantastic week, hasn't it, mate? So it's good to kick these these these episodes off on a Saturday morning yeah where we've got plenty of time, not much happening. and I've mowed the lawns already, I went and got a fresh cup.
00:00:41
Speaker
i That's good but a bit of a Bit of lawn porn going on in around your neighbourhood for sure. There's lots lawn porn. There's three houses competing for the nicest front lawn. excellent The other advantage of doing it in the mornings on a Saturday is that if you are an avid listener, and um and and thank you very much for being an avid listener to the Board Game Tinwag, you might note that we would record and then the episodes would come out much, much, much, much later.
00:01:07
Speaker
But that's because we used to always record on like a Sunday night. So you'd record and then I'd be like, all right, I'll get to that when I've got a spare time. And then the week would happen. And then like it was the next weekend that I'm like, oh, I better do something.
00:01:19
Speaker
I better actually edit this podcast. So now we do it on a Saturday morning. It's generally out a couple of days later at worst. and And what I like about, you know, doing it on a Saturday morning is that um Generally, we're not exhausted into the evening where we're like, I can't be bothered jumping on for and or and or something else like dinner's gone over over time or you've got to go pick up people from work, which is going to delay you to get on for the pod.
00:01:45
Speaker
um And, you know, there was a couple of times there we were booking, you know, to record after work sometimes. And I think we were all just too exhausted. So, that yeah, let's just play BGA instead. Yeah, that's a great one.
00:01:56
Speaker
But doing it on a Saturday morning. We're both fresh and ready to go. And we can see into the weekends. So, yeah, it's good. I enjoyed it, mate.
00:02:07
Speaker
Let's get right into
Gaming Commitments and Skills
00:02:08
Speaker
it then. So, Ophir, you shared with me you haven't been playing a lot of physical games in the last week due work constraints. Yeah, look, and I apologise to our our one listener that, you know, that I ah did promise I was going to play a game and just due to work commitments all week, I just haven't been able to get it to the table.
00:02:29
Speaker
I have watched the how to play of it, so I am going to commit and I'm going to double down. So I'm going to commit to playing the Castle Burgundy solo.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah. But I'm going to play it three times. All right. So I'm going to triple down on it. um Let's triple that triple down on it. So I'm going to play it three times and I'm going to try and beat the AI.
00:02:52
Speaker
It looks like a really simple system. um You know, it's just flipping cards. And so I will commit to everyone ah by next pod. So next Saturday morning, Steve, I will.
00:03:04
Speaker
have had three games of solo Castles of Burgundy. um The thing is just getting it set up. Like, you know, I've got to get set up. Once it's set up on the table, I know I'll be able to knock it out.
00:03:15
Speaker
I think you can pretty much, from the playthrough, if you're pretty good at Castles Burgundy, which I kind of think I'm not too bad at it, you can get it done with under an hour.
00:03:26
Speaker
So I'm sure out of the next five days, I can commit three hours, thereabouts, of my time to be able to get it done. So promise you.
00:03:37
Speaker
I promise you, won this now. It'll be done. So,
Managing Multiple Games
00:03:41
Speaker
but in saying that, i sorry, mate, I have i do have 16 games of BGA on the go at the moment. So it seems like the only time I can actually play a game is at 10 o'clock at night and I've got 16. So I just go, okay, that's my move on this one. Yep, yep.
00:03:57
Speaker
Then I go to the next game. Oh, what was I doing here? Yep, that I was doing there. Bang, bang, bang, bang. And those 16 games I'm getting through, I don't know, probably within about five minutes, I'm getting all my moves up on of those because I know everyone else that I'm playing with is waiting for me. so and then I would have assumed it would have been like on the commute.
00:04:15
Speaker
No, ah no jeff generally on the commute there's only about a few ah few games that are done by the the morning when I'm catch catching the train in. But late in the afternoon it's the full lot. In the morning, for me, it's only a few moves because a lot of generally I'm not having all the 16 games until about 10 o'clock at night. So it's whoever's made the next lot of moves the next morning.
00:04:36
Speaker
and yeah And then if i if I have a break on my lunch break, I'll quickly jump on my phone. It's just harder to see it on my phone. to make some moves as well. But I'm trying to keep up with my BGA. So i apologies to everyone. Please be patient with me. But we know we'll knock these games out the park.
00:04:52
Speaker
But I'm enjoying
Flip 7 Game Dynamics
00:04:53
Speaker
those.
00:04:55
Speaker
ah we We've started our third consecutive Flip 7 game. And I don't know why you guys keep coming back for the punishment, as far as I'm concerned. You are so tinny it's not funny. I don't know what you've done.
00:05:09
Speaker
ae It's like, you know, when you play a card game and you're doing well and someone questions whether you're being dodgy. Like I feel that in the BGA adaptation of Flip 7. Like I just get everything I want all the time. I don't understand. you i look at I look at the four scores at one point and like, and I'm on zero.
00:05:30
Speaker
um Shane might be on 46. forty six Ingrid's on 52. You're at 137. I'm like, what is he doing? So any opportunity I get a freeze card, it's coming your way.
00:05:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah. there i know I noticed in our ah our last game, now that we're playing now, someone's dished out the freeze card to you in the first round. was like, brilliant. Whoever that was, brilliant. Yeah, that's fair.
00:05:53
Speaker
like and And quite often that's been happening, obviously, because I'll just like – I'll flick into a game and it's like – um I've got one card. and I'm like, oh, i thought i had like four cards up. But it's because I've been frozen out and it's now clicked over to the next round.
00:06:07
Speaker
But no, it's it's I have been the arsiest player of that game ever. Like I mentioned off air, there was two times where I've asked for another card and got a second chance when I was about to skip and got a second chance.
00:06:20
Speaker
And then one time I got a times two, which took my score from like 39 to 78. I'm like, all right, that'll work. Well, I've never seen a second chance. two times whatever times, I've seen none of those. I've never even seen a plus two come my way.
00:06:35
Speaker
um And so i've so I've had a freeze, which I've thrown at you. And I actually got a flip three and it was my first it was my second card out. So do I'll take it on myself.
00:06:46
Speaker
And I crashed out on the next card that got dealt. And then I know the last game we played, you were at 197 points and I got a freeze card and I threw it a straight at you.
00:07:01
Speaker
I thought I'm going to make you hold out one more round.
00:07:06
Speaker
And I think on that next turn, I think I got like a 12 and a second chance. So I was like, I ended up with like 25 points and i just stopped after that. So yeah, you can't get wrong. Anyway, that's ah that's been entertaining to say the least. that has's been quiet And it's on point because today we're going to talk later in the episode, we're going to go through our top 10 card games. So I'll be very interested to see whether
Solo Campaign Experience
00:07:29
Speaker
Flip 7 Makes the lists, makes both of our lists or makes none of our lists.
00:07:33
Speaker
So we'll get to that towards the end of the show. ah But I will touch on a couple of things that I've managed to do in the last week, which have been insane. So I finished the Hadrian's Wall solo campaign. and Good work. If you are like me and you have played Hadrian's Wall for the last few years and you have just completely avoided the gladiators, the diplomats and the temples,
00:07:54
Speaker
I wholeheartedly recommend you do the solo campaign because I have now learned how to use all of the pad properly and how to make it go to my advantage. There are still some areas that I will either always, know, mostly avoid or mostly do. Like I almost always do the scouting.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. ah But there are instances I played a game yesterday where I didn't touch scouting at all, which is very unlike me. So, but the, even things like the gladiator thing is interesting because I still don't necessarily think that they're that valuable of a space, but what they're really good for is if you've got a couple of extra workers left in like round five round six, you build it, you put in a worker on each column and in each row, and then you have a battle and they lose.
00:08:40
Speaker
They will always lose because the the worst attack you can get is a one. So you've only got one on each row. ah But when they lose, they get two piety. So it's like a very cheap way to pick four piety.
00:08:50
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the hardest thing to get in that game, I think. So it's a nice little piety boost for for what essentially is what? Would cost you four workers and two bricks to get four piety. That's pretty decent return on investment.
00:09:03
Speaker
um So anyway, that's, yeah, but it's been excellent. It's really cool how it builds up and they put these stipulations in and then they also put like a a achievement bonus. If you get that, you then you start with extra resources the next time you play.
00:09:17
Speaker
And what's what's really good is because I've been playing it um on the table, but then if there's a round where I don't get the bonus, I'll look at the next um objective for the next fort.
00:09:30
Speaker
And if it's something that I can do on my iPad, sometimes I'll just go to bed and I'll sit on my iPad and I'll just play the next round um on the board game arena because you can manipulate how you play to be within the rules.
00:09:42
Speaker
yeah like It might be like you you can't build the you can't build this or you can't do this this round or whatever else. But then some of them are like the the hardest one is – the mining and forestry, that's where you get all the the bricks and yeah resources.
00:09:58
Speaker
yeah There's two or three of them that require you to spend two servants to move up one space along that track. yeah so So that hurts you because you're just you're not getting stone.
00:10:10
Speaker
and then So it's really hard. But ah in the last fra the last game, you need to get 15 or more in each attribute track. You have to finish the... wall guard and you also have that two workers restriction going up.
00:10:26
Speaker
And the bonus is that you have no disdain. And I just went, well, bugger that. That's not happening. i Because resources were so finite. I ended up scraping home with 15, I think what the top one is. Is that Renown? I think it's Renown. 15 Renown. And I was like, I had all these resources left in my hands. And i'm like, I can only see how I get 14 Renown. I can't see where this extra one is coming from.
00:10:50
Speaker
And then it so happened that I'm like, oh, hang on, if I get one more stone, I can get that 15th. And that was it. If I didn't get that, I would the whole game because the points didn't matter. It just, you needed to get 15 and at least three attribute tracks.
00:11:02
Speaker
And it was tight. And even then I still had to rely on um not getting defeated in the final attack because I needed two more Valor.
00:11:13
Speaker
And of course, because I couldn't um get enough stone, my valor was actually quite low. So I also had had to build up the diplomats so I could use them as a backup. And and it was just, yeah, was it's crazy. That game has levels that I didn't realize existed. And ah yeah, so it's it's a strong recommend. If you like the Hadrian's Wall, give the solo campaign a go. It's
Quirky Game Scenarios
00:11:35
Speaker
14 episodes. It took me 21 turns, 21 rounds to get through it. So I failed seven times.
00:11:43
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, so. It's not on BGA, is it, the solo campaign? No, it's not. got have a physical game. Yeah, it's just just printed out off their website and um it's, yeah, you just you'll need the physical game for some.
00:11:56
Speaker
There's definitely some, like, rounds that you can do on BGA, just a solo, but, um yeah, most of it you'll need a physical game. And did you back the latest version of it?
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah. It was kind of funny because I had about three thoughts to go and and then I got the notification that the anacrity is on the way. I'm like, well, better finish this before the anacrity gets here. So ah the anarchy, sorry, the anarchy, not the anarchy. That's a different thing. That's a different game. Yes.
00:12:24
Speaker
um Yeah. So that should arrive because, you know, it takes, you literally has to come here by boat. um I'll get that next week. So, yeah. Oh, great.
00:12:35
Speaker
and I'm sure you'll be diving into that one as soon as you get it. always find in Hadrian's Wall, I've always got a lot of blue workers left over. Always. And I just never get rid of them. Okay.
00:12:46
Speaker
So maybe that gladiator strategy might work to get rid of the blue workers. Well, no, because you've got to put purple or yellow there. Blue workers, yeah, i i I never really have... I usually have purple workers left over.
00:13:01
Speaker
So anyway, yeah, worth it worth a try, definitely. especially for someone like you who loves a solo challenge. I do you like a solo challenge. That's good. up Good game, mate. I'll quickly touch on the other one because I mentioned it last week and I don't want to keep talking about it, but my son and I played another scenario with Cthulhu Death Bay Died.
00:13:20
Speaker
And it was one of the lost scenarios from the season. What is it? The unspeakable or the unknowable? One of the something-able boxes. The um unspeakable box. Is that the first season or the second season? yeah Second season.
00:13:32
Speaker
Second season's unknowable. It's unknowable. Unknowable. Yeah. And I talked about how sometimes the scenarios are a bit wacky. Well, in this scenario, there was a ritual going on in a spaceship and they were they were sacrificing moose.
00:13:51
Speaker
that's what they were That's what the ritual was. So we needed to break up the ritual. And the only way to do that was to load up the moose with dynamite so that when they sacrificed them, their spaceship would blow up.
00:14:04
Speaker
Fantastic. So we walked around the board setting this up with dynamite and making sure they were in the right spot to be sucked up into the into the spaceship. And, like, this is ridiculous. Like, this...
00:14:17
Speaker
I don't understand. I'm glad it exists, but I don't understand how it exists. So, yeah, Cthulhu Death May Die is just a gift that keeps giving. The next campaign we're going to do today, the next ah scenario we're doing today, is called the Birthday Campaign or the Happy Birthday Campaign.
00:14:32
Speaker
So I can't imagine that's going to be normal by any stretch. So, yeah, just hilarious. To the writer of that campaign, well done. Yep. Well done.
00:14:43
Speaker
Anyway, it was actually quite – it was fairly easy, although – but Yeah, we got it done, but um yeah, we were surprised. we we got it done quickly, but we're also also nearly dead through insanity. So,
Exploring New Games
00:14:57
Speaker
yeah. Well, you are you are sticking dynamite into a moose, so.
00:15:19
Speaker
Do you have anything worth talking about, either newsworthy or crowdfunding worthy? and No, not really. I don't really have much at all. um I did a glimpse of something, and I haven't really had a chance to look it up, um which is Fields of Fire, which is the latest solo game from GMT. So i don't know if it's out on any crowd crowdfunding sources at the moment. Kickstarter.
00:15:44
Speaker
It's not on GameFound. But it's it's basically a solo war game campaign. And generally with those those war game campaigns from GMT, they are draining and they're hard.
00:15:57
Speaker
They're hard to grok. But once you get into them, they are amazing games. um And once you know the system itself, So I'm really interested because the Fields of Fire is the first GMT game that actually provides kind of like a teaching book.
00:16:13
Speaker
So it actually teaches the game to you as you go along. So it gives you these smaller mini campaigns that teaches all the aspects of the game. So you'll you'll build, you'll start in campaign one, which I think campaign one's all based on World War II.
00:16:28
Speaker
um And you'll work through the system then and go into campaign two and so on until you've basically learnt the whole system of the game and then you then go and launch into the game itself.
00:16:39
Speaker
um So I'm really keen to try and track this down. Maybe I can get some information on that by the next episode. um it's just I saw it on YouTube.
00:16:51
Speaker
I think it's is it the solo co-op guy. I can't remember his name he's on YouTube and he does solo play and he he had been provided a review copy of Fields of Fire. So I just glimpsed at it quickly last night. So I'm looking forward to trying to track it down because I do like that system from GMT and I do like those war games.
00:17:19
Speaker
So Fields of Fire. Hopefully I'll be able find it by
Rebranding and Game Expansions
00:17:23
Speaker
next episode and talk a little bit more on it. I did though. I did come across a game and I did buy it, which, sorry, it's Mistborn.
00:17:32
Speaker
Mistborn. and Oh, yes, I saw you mention that, yeah. Yeah, so really, I saw a playthrough of that ages ago tried to track it down, and it's not in Australia yet.
00:17:43
Speaker
think it's on its it's coming to. um But I was just on Amazon the other day and had this little, just searched, searched one game, but Mistborn came up.
00:17:58
Speaker
So I picked it up and... So it's on its way. Hopefully it'll be here Tuesday. And that's just deck building card game by John DeClaire. So I can probably talk to that over the next few weeks once I learn it and start playing it.
00:18:13
Speaker
don't know if it plays solo, but it's set in a Mistborn fantasy. I think it's and a book series. Someone was telling me it's a a really good book series.
00:18:24
Speaker
So, yeah, that's it, mate. The only news I have. Well, the one thing that I came across that i piqued my interest, even though it's something that I would never buy, but it was interesting was that they're rebranding quacks. quacks of Quedlinburg will now just be called quacks.
00:18:43
Speaker
Um, and they're getting rid of the, the sort of Germanic feel to it, to try and appeal to, I guess, probably the U S market. Um, but it's a bit cutesy. It looks like they're all claymation figures on the front.
00:18:55
Speaker
But what's interesting, if you're someone who's played Quacks and you're like, yeah, but I don't want to buy Quacks and then then feel like I have to go on to BGG and buy the ah fancy bits, like like those fools like us that have done that, or like me, um there are three different versions. You can just buy the standard version, the deluxe version, which comes with the bits.
00:19:16
Speaker
Well, they're newer bits and they actually look really cool. It's a bit more cartoony. and Or you can buy the all-in version, which has the two expansions. And I would wager that if I didn't own Quacks of Quedlinburg and the two expansions and the upgraded bits, that I would not, but I had played them.
00:19:33
Speaker
I don't think I would buy the expansions in retrospect. Like, it's a tricky one because ah played with the Herb Witches a lot. um And i've I've not even touched the Alchemist. So I can't really speak to how good it is or bad it is. But it's just...
00:19:48
Speaker
The beauty of Quacks, and it was actually my brother that said this to me once, he's like, the beauty of Quacks is that it is a stupid game. It is a game that anyone can jump in and play. And the expansions gamify it a bit.
00:20:00
Speaker
But then it kind of loses its beauty because it's now a gamer's game rather than ah kind of silly game that anyone can play. And since i he said that, I've kind of thought about it. And each time I played Quacks since, which isn't a lot, but I've only ever played the base game.
00:20:16
Speaker
not only the base game, I've only ever played the level one chips because it's simple. Everyone knows what they do. You don't have to reread cards and stuff. So, i yeah, I would wager that if you're someone who has played someone else's copy and you love the bits and you always thought, oh, this would be a good game, then I'd just go the deluxe edition, forget the all-in version, forget the expansion the content, just go to the deluxe edition, get the bits, and you're away.
00:20:40
Speaker
So and interesting. It's coming out Q3, I think. Q3, I heard that... um The Herb Witches is kind of like must-have expansion, though. um I've never played it. I always play with the base game myself.
00:20:53
Speaker
um Yeah. And I never
Criteria for Top Card Games
00:20:55
Speaker
had the deluxe bits, but I did buy those coin covers that yeah still gives you the clinky clinky when you put your hand in the bag.
00:21:05
Speaker
um love i love playing Quacks. It's like a go-to bag pool game when you've got a new group and they've probably played nothing like that before. It's really easy to teach. It's really easy to explain.
00:21:19
Speaker
The iconography is simple to work out for anyone that's new. um ah you know as ah As a teacher of that game, you know if you do have people that are brand new to it, it's it's good to then, this is what this means, and hang on, you you need to do this so you help them you know understand it in the first few rounds. But what you know by round four, they've got it.
00:21:37
Speaker
They know what they're doing. that's Yeah, it's great. That's right. if you ever back up and play a second game, I never changed what any of the things do because they just gotten used to what all of the recipe items do. So then if you go, oh yeah, but you can change it to this. It's like, well, I don't want to relearn the game again. You just taught me the game. So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's got a lot of variability, which is great if you're playing it regularly, but when you're not playing it regularly, which yeah I don't think a lot of people are playing Quacks regularly anymore. Like it's a once in an hour, now once every now and again game.
00:22:09
Speaker
It's, you're just playing the basic stuff. So, You're right. It's trickle. Not long ago, and Lauren and the boys asked, oh, can we play Quacks?
00:22:20
Speaker
and Because it was an easy game for them to get to and get their head into. But I sold my version of Quacks and they didn't know. I said, oh, no, I've sold it. They went, what? Why'd you sell that?
00:22:32
Speaker
said, because I said to them, well, I've actually got Wonderland's War. Do you want to play that? and they went, no. Yeah, yeah. Because Wonderland War is wonderland war iss probably more your gamers version of Quacks.
00:22:45
Speaker
It's little bit more advanced and there's lot more battling going on. So is that coming to Kickstarter or is it just going straight to? I think it's just going to retail. I think um they announced it as in a US release, as I said, I think in Q2 and then worldwide release in Q3. So I don't have the exact information, but it's coming.
00:23:03
Speaker
And it's not being kickstarted. I think for my family, I will get it back in and I'll just buy the deluxe copy because, you know, I never played with the Herb Witches. I was just, I was happy with the base game. I liked the Herb Witches, but yeah, I liked the Herb Witches because it did a couple of cool things, but I don't, yeah, I thought it was essential until I started thinking about that whole idea of bringing someone into that game and then it's not, it's just not essential, so.
00:23:31
Speaker
Anyway, that was the only thing I really found this week of interest. Well, you've piqued my interest, so thank you. Not a problem. Well, let's move on then to our top 10 card games of all times..
00:23:59
Speaker
Since 19... since 2017. thousand Actually, now no, I can actually say this ah for me would be since 2000. Oh, since very early on. Yeah, I guess you're right. In fact, my number 11, I think I learnt to play when I was 10.
00:24:12
Speaker
ten So, yeah, this is a pretty old list. um Obviously, we're not going to 11, so you won't find out what that is. but Hang on, do I have the one? i and Actually, no, I don't.
00:24:23
Speaker
I don't have it on there, but it's a special mention for me at the end. So... Okay. So this was a tricky list to put together. Firstly, because there's a really large amount of good card games.
00:24:36
Speaker
And also recently there's been a massive influx of really good card games. So I tried to not have a lot of recency bias on my list, but there probably is. um And the other thing that we talked about through the week was what constitutes a card game.
00:24:50
Speaker
so And that was hard to sort of, when I, so what I did is I put every game um in a list of that that relies on cards. Yes.
00:25:00
Speaker
And then I started separating, like games I like more than other games, but they have some reliance on something else. They lost out. So my my top 10 is a list of games that 100% rely on cards.
00:25:15
Speaker
there's There's nothing else really going on. um I also discounted any card games that are party games. I nearly didn't. Like I had a one that was up there pretty high, but I thought,
00:25:26
Speaker
No, because it's not the cards that are making that game. It's the people. Like the one I'm talking about is Just One, right? and You can literally play Just One with a deck of cards. And if it's on your list, I'm not not disqualifying it for any kind of reason. i just My thoughts were that what makes Just One great is the people around the table.
00:25:44
Speaker
The cards are just words. Yeah. Where when you compare that to some other games, I'll find one that didn't make my top 10 that I could use in this example. Like Castle Combo just missed out of my top 10. But that game is all about the cards.
00:25:57
Speaker
It's a fun experience, but it's all about the cards. So, yeah, that was that was kind of how I went with it. um I have a fair few games that I really love that just missed the list for that reason. So, yeah.
00:26:09
Speaker
I have one questionable game that may be in question, but the bulk of the game is cards. Yeah. that's it. But the rest are all card games, without a doubt.
00:26:22
Speaker
i have I have only one big box game in my top ten. Yeah. that was That was a bit of a surprise to me. So Dominion missed out. Sorry, everyone who likes Dominion. It missed out. Just missed the cut.
00:26:32
Speaker
But, um yes, there is one, and it's not the one you mentioned to me during the week either. So, yeah. Okay, yep, yep. Yeah. Got you. So um do we want to do other mentions at the end so we don't give away things that might be our list? think so. Yeah, let's do the special mentions at the end because I do or i do have i do have three at the end there that I do want to mention that it you know just missed out.
00:26:56
Speaker
All
Top 10 Card Games Discussion
00:26:58
Speaker
right. Shall I kick it off? All right. Let's it. Yep. So I'm going to kick it off a bit of controversy straight away.
00:27:06
Speaker
And that's just the whole Button Shy series is my number 10. Fair enough. Majority of those games that I play that are card games, they're all just, you know, 18 cards, that is it.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah. And the the amount of fun and headspace that you need to work on those 18 cards to get a good score is is very challenging. So, you know, when you talk to the Button Shy games, you've got Food Chain Island,
00:27:35
Speaker
Really good fun. Everything's just eating everyone. Skulls of Sedgilek is really cool, working in a grave graveyard, putting bodies, matching bodies with bodies.
00:27:46
Speaker
um Rove is another one, and which is, you know, you're on Mars, you've got a Mars rover, and you've you've got to help that Mars rover explore Mars ah in certain puzzles, so you to shift your around your cards in in certain ways.
00:28:02
Speaker
um And then Sprawlopolis, you know, which is probably one of the ones that put Buttonshy on the map. So and but my number 10, I could keep going because I do own quite a few of them, is any of the Buttonshy games.
00:28:15
Speaker
Totally recommend them. But those those ones that I did mention, a good way to get into that ah series of games, you really start to enjoy it. And they're ones that, you know, Lauren and the boys, I can easily pull them out.
00:28:27
Speaker
We could be sitting somewhere and we'll have a quick game of Sculls Acidlics. um or even Food Chain Island. So number 10, Button Shy Games. Yeah, nice one. Sprawlopolis just missed my list, but I have a copy at work, and when my lunch break, I'll often pull it out and have a game of Sprawlopolis, and random people will look at me funny, but that's okay. yeah um My number 10 is Flip 7.
00:28:52
Speaker
So the the the wait is over. We know. It's on my list. ah set that I should have set that up better in the when I was talking about it earlier. But, yeah, I really like Flip 7. I love its simplicity.
00:29:04
Speaker
It's like no one can't play this game. And it plays at high play counts. And it's just just fun. it's It's really simple and it's just a lot of fun. And if you play it around the table, there's laugh out loud moments and there's anger and there's people swearing and telling you that they hate the game and then asked to play it again straight away. It's great.
00:29:24
Speaker
So Flip 7 is my number 10. Good choice. Good choice.
00:29:32
Speaker
My number nine is Biblios. Ah, nice, yeah. This is my controversial one because it's technically dice play as well.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But it is cards and it's a card set collection game um where a really cool mechanic in auction, the auction mechanism in this game is is great fun.
00:29:54
Speaker
It's a game, it's one of the first game, board games I bought in the top ten, you know, when I mentioned I bought the when I watched the Dice Towers, you know, essential board games to own, this was one of the ones I bought because it was in um was in one of the guys' top ten.
00:30:12
Speaker
And it's a nice, easy one to teach. It's a good one for new to gaming and to teach the au and auction mechanism, but also set collection. So my number nine, Biblios.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah, good call. I didn't actually consider Biblios, so... Good to hear on the list because, yeah, you're right. I see what you're saying, but it's still a card game, really. It's still a game, yeah. Yeah. But I was a bit, oh, do I, don't I? And I thought, no, it has to make it because I do i do enjoy playing it and it's one the family likes to play too.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, very cool. My number an nine is my second highest trick-taking game on the list. And it's a great trick-taking game, obviously. And it's the thing that makes this different to most trick-taking games is you get to decide what the Trumps are, what the Super Trumps are, how much each Trump is worth, who your teammate is, who's who's got the lead, and it's nyet.
00:31:07
Speaker
the fantastic you've been taking game. So it's it's one of the coolest things is that because in most trick-taking games, you would have a partner that you play with, and this game is no different. You have a partner, but that partner changes each round and the person who is the dealer gets to choose the teams.
00:31:24
Speaker
So you can manipulate that how you wish. Like um you might put someone with so someone with somebody else who you're both – ah One's like doing really poorly, the other one's doing really well, try and drag someone down. There's things like you can get tricks that are worth negative two points.
00:31:42
Speaker
So you've got to make sure that you give the person who's in front the best chance of winning all the tricks. So you give them multiple partners so that they lose more points. And if it plays at odd numbers, which a lot of trick-taking games don't, so and how that works is if you have a team of two versus a team of three, for example, in a five-player game, the team of two get times two all of the tricks that they win because they've obviously got less players. So it's a bit of a disadvantage.
00:32:09
Speaker
However, if you get the times two and the tricks are worth negative two points, then that can be disastrous for you. um or if But if you get times two and the tricks are worth four points, then it can be outstanding. So lots to fiddle with, and you all basically vote sort of on how you want this round of the game to go.
00:32:27
Speaker
Solid solid a trick taker. It's called Nyet. It's ah based on a Russian word for no. I have an Italian version. So it's very multicultural.
00:32:40
Speaker
So Nyet is my number nine. It's very hard to get as well. Hence why I have an Italian version. yeah The only time I've played it was with you and we played it a few times.
00:32:53
Speaker
And I think it was probably one of the, it got me back into trick trick-taking games because I'd kind of forgotten how to play trick-taking games and that the games we played with you, it got me back into it again and I remembered how much I liked those type of games.
00:33:10
Speaker
Because I had tried to look for it. I can't get it. Yeah, cool. Good choice. My number eight is a game that's doing your head in at the moment, especially especially at three players.
00:33:24
Speaker
Oh, yes, yes.
00:33:27
Speaker
It's a new game, and I haven't been able to find it here in Australia yet. However, I have created my own version of it so that I can play a physical card game of it, and that is Nanatori Dory.
00:33:42
Speaker
um I play it a lot on BGA. At two players, it's really quick, fast. You know, you're done. If you want to play a live round of that, you're pretty much done within four or five minutes in a two-player.
00:33:56
Speaker
Three players, a little bit more, takes a little bit longer. um But you still, you can knock a three-player game off 15 minutes. Yeah.
00:34:07
Speaker
And again, trick-taking. it's ah But every time that... door is Is it trick-taking? It's not really trick-taking. It's more... It's more you're trying to beat the next number or the next trick that's been played.
00:34:21
Speaker
yeah you just it's not Yeah, it's not so much not suited or anything. No, it's not. It's just number-based. and Yeah, it's it's almost like ah almost like a set collection sort of poker-style game where you're looking for the better, although it's only in sets. It's not in runs or anything.
00:34:36
Speaker
No. Yeah. so it's it's So, for example, if if I played two twos, the cards go up to seven. So to beat the two twos, you need to play two threes. Or you can go three fours to beat it. and then But what you're trying to do is build up the strongest hand, but also too to shred your hand, get rid of all the cards out of your hand.
00:34:56
Speaker
And the first player that does that you know wins the game. and Although in ah in a three-player, it's a little bit little bit more different. So you're actually the loser in a three-player game.
00:35:08
Speaker
So if if you notice, first and second are still kind of the winners. But whoever came third, there you know you're you're the loser in it. so Yeah, and it was such a simple game at two because you have the two cards that you have to play, which are basically your two lives. You have to play if you can't play anything.
00:35:28
Speaker
And now i've got ah I've got a full deck to draw from and there's a discard pile and I'm like, And then I don't understand because sometimes I'll i'll like i'll play four fours or something and neither of you guys can beat it, but you play off your discard pile and then I'm left with nothing but singles and then I lose because you guys are playing doubles and i I'm like, all right, okay, this this just got harder somehow. you've got You've got to manage your hand really well. So don't don't always try and beat.
00:35:53
Speaker
don't You don't always want to lead. So try and hold your cards back and maybe lose a round so then you can come out even better in the next round, especially if you're if you If you play a lesser card, see then you' you'll draw from the deck.
00:36:08
Speaker
And then that draw card drawed car that you you just drew gets added to, and if you're lucky enough, you might have strengthened what was a three into a four, which you lead with next round.
00:36:19
Speaker
And no one can beat a 4-4, maybe, maybe not. But it's it's highly unlikely that because that's going to happen. So then you'll win that round. But then you've got to make sure you can back it up the next round. that Yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
So it's not about just always playing the highest highest set of cards out of your hand. You want to hold them back.
00:36:36
Speaker
It is good game.
00:36:39
Speaker
Well, my number eight is a game that I just need to play more, and I reckon it it would be probably top three because I've only played this game a handful of times, and it is outstanding. And that is Gnar. So K-N-A-R-R.
00:36:53
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yeah, the Vikings. Excellent. Yeah, yeah. And it's multi-use cards. It's so great because you can basically use your cards to be get the resources to get other Vikings or Warriors into your head.
00:37:06
Speaker
But if you instead switch it to... Being like a building, then you get ah like a regenerative resources, like like an engine building thing going there as well.
00:37:19
Speaker
But you can't just do that because then you don't have any warriors and they score based on their their colors and they like their tribes. So it's scott it's got collection, it's got multi-use cards, it's got an engine building element to it.
00:37:32
Speaker
all in a deck of sort of longer than normal cards. It's just, it's great. So I want to play it more because I was so enamored with it. I bought it when I was in Hawaii a couple of years, about a year ago, which is, and then we played it on the board game cruise that I went on over there.
00:37:50
Speaker
And I was just like, oh, this game is great. But it's, unfortunately, it it suffers from that issue of it's not a game that people look at on the shelf and go, Ooh, I want to play that. You need to know about it if you want to play it.
00:38:04
Speaker
So I'm going to try and bring it out this week. Cause I was, when I did this list, I'm like, it deserves to be on the list, but I want to play it 10 more times because I think it could be, yeah, it's, it's, it's I think it's really good, better than eighth, but I just can't of justify that when I can hardly remember the rules.
00:38:20
Speaker
It's interesting. You made that comment of, you know if you see it on the shelf, you're like, Oh, cause I've seen it on the shelf a few times at vault games. And I picked it up and actually, you know, I like i have a quick read of the back of it. um I knew of it.
00:38:32
Speaker
I haven't even watched any playthroughs of it, but noting that it's multiplayer, ah sorry, multi-card use, that really sparks my attention. So might have a bit of a look at it and might wander into Vault Games next week while I'm in work and while I'm at a break. And if they've got it, I might pick it up. Thanks, mate.
00:38:50
Speaker
That's a good suggestion. Yeah. There you go. That was my number eight. Number eight. So my number seven. This is... this is This is not fluky, but it's Flip 7. um It's, a yeah, boom, boom.
00:39:04
Speaker
And I didn't do that on purpose. It's just the way it all came out. um You've already talked about it. I'm enjoying it. i I don't have my physical copy. I need to get my physical copy because I think the family would like playing it as well. So...
00:39:21
Speaker
um And, yeah, I'm enjoying playing on BGA, even though I really suck at it on BGA. ah But, yeah, number seven, Flip 7.
00:39:32
Speaker
If you haven't tried it, anyone, go and get it. Really good game. I wonder if we're going to have any more crossover. That would be interesting, but that's obviously the only one so far. I'm going to say no. Okay.
00:39:44
Speaker
Absolutely not. We're not going a crossover. but There you I'm calling it. Right, yeah. Well, let's run with that. Well, my number seven is obviously another card game. I was about to say it's a card game. Well, of course it is. It's on this list.
00:39:55
Speaker
And it's also in that same camp as Flip 7 as something super easy to teach that when you play it, almost every time you teach it, you people are saying, well, like, all right, let's go again.
00:40:06
Speaker
And in fact, my son, not Raphael, rather Sebastian, who doesn't play a lot of board games, generally tries to avoid them uh he we taught him this game in the christmas break and he demanded that we keep playing it until he won it so we play it like 13 times in a row and that is trio which is also known as nana which is the original version japanese version has now been rebranded as trio and it is yeah it's a really simple game all you're trying to do is get there's three of every number and you're trying to get three down in front of you. So you've got to find where they are, but the the little wrinkle to the game is you can't, it's not like go fish where you can just ask someone for any card.
00:40:45
Speaker
They can only, you can only ask someone for their highest or their lowest card. They're the only cards that are essentially unlocked from their deck, from their hand, but it's the same for you. You can't just grab cards out the middle of your hand.
00:40:57
Speaker
You can only work from the top and the bottom of your hand. So you, ask questions around the table, I have, you show me your lowest card and you might show me a two. And then yeah I've got the ones, so your two is kind of useless to me. So then bet on someone that's sitting next to me, they've got two twos in their hand and they're like, ha ha, I'm going to get changed too. And then going use my two twos and I'm down.
00:41:16
Speaker
And it has that cool thing where the cards go from two 13, one 13. thirteen one to thirteen um So the sevens, if you can get the set of three sevens, you win the game. doesn't matter.
00:41:28
Speaker
um Everyone else has to get three sets of cards. But if you get the sevens, you win because obviously they're in the middle of the deck, so they're the hardest to get to. So Trio, great game. Really just high replayability, simple.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah, great game. Awesome. Never heard of it. So I might look out for that one as well.
00:41:49
Speaker
I had another game in mind. where I thought you were going to guy but I'm going to see if that's on your list. So my number six, um really good ah little card game, and this is literally just a box of cards that are very thin, um and that is Bandito.
00:42:08
Speaker
I knew this was going to be on your list. I'm playing it a lot on BGA with Shane and Ingrid. and butre We're doing really terrible. We get to that point where thinking, look, we've only got one more spot to close up.
00:42:20
Speaker
And next minute i go back to be go back in and it's just like exploded. and there's this And there's this comment, sorry, i had shoot cards. I think that's what makes Bandito is that the someone will be like, what the hell are you doing? It's like, what do you think I had? Like,
00:42:36
Speaker
I had nothing. This is the best of a bad bunch. ah one i What I think is hilarious as well is, you know, there was sorry I had shit cards and you get that you get that warning, is this person being offensive? you want ah But Bandito was so much fun.
00:42:56
Speaker
I taught it at work. So every now and then I'll take it into work and there was it I was away ah interstate and I get this photo come through from two of my team and it's of Bandito completed and it was like on the sixth or seventh card they played and they were hooked. But then you know then they played it again and it's sprawling over the table.
00:43:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. They got no chance of closing it off. But the there was one time they sent me a photo and – I wrote back, you haven't completed it. You've blocked this zone off.
00:43:37
Speaker
And they're like,
00:43:41
Speaker
That's Bandito, my number six. Great card game. For those that haven't don't know about it, all you're trying to do is block a burglar from getting out of prison. And there's all these tunnels that they're trying to escape. So you just need to block them and you you have these police officers with lights that are shining down through the tunnels.
00:44:01
Speaker
And as long as you can block that and block any of the exits, you'll win the game. Sounds simple? Better now. Definitely not. um My name is six is a bigger game.
00:44:14
Speaker
ah Not really in just just because there's a lot of cards and it has a
00:44:22
Speaker
clearing and that is forest shuffle and it's fairly new to forest shuffle in fact i think it was the first game i spoke about on this very podcast uh and i talked about how i hadn't found the matrix yet and but and ah but i but i did have one game where it all made sense and had a few games since then and it really is such a cool it reminds me so much of fantasy realms which is when you get a card in Fantasy Realms and you look at it and go, right, i can make this work. I can score this many points from this card. I just need to get this card and then that card.
00:44:52
Speaker
But a bit of Forest Shuffle scores a bit differently, but it's that same thing where you go, right, I've got a roe deer. I've got to go and find the, what are they, the leopards, I think, that that hunt the roe deer, and that's going to score me heaps of points. Or I've got a Squeakus. I'm going to find the boar. And, like, you you're trying to make these collect connections. And, of course, you might not see that card until the end, so you might just go down a rabbit hole that you can't get out of.
00:45:14
Speaker
sometimes you just get these beautiful synergies where you have, I think it's, i can't remember the name of the animal, but it gives you five points for every completed tree that you have. And you get it. You get two of them when you've completed five trees already. and you're like, Whoa, I'm going to play both of these. And now I'm scoring a heap of points. And,
00:45:32
Speaker
Like you just get on these rolls of points and you have these turns where you're like, you have some turns where you just, you score nothing. And then you have another turn where you score like 85 points in one turn. Yeah. Wow. It's just, it's so good. And I mentioned when I spoke about it, that I know that this game is not for everyone, but what I love about it is that,
00:45:49
Speaker
ah that maths at the end where everyone thinks they've done a great job and then you start counting it up and you're like, I got 284 and someone goes, I got 410 and ten you're like, bullshit, you did.
00:46:01
Speaker
And then you go over there and you do the maths for them you're like, yeah, you got 410. That's yeah that's really good but Here I am thinking I did amazing and you just got beat me by over 100 because you did something even more amazing.
00:46:15
Speaker
So, yeah, it's just it's a really good game. It requires a little bit more brain power than something like Fantasy Realms, but I'm okay with that. So Forest Shuffle is my number six. Good choice.
00:46:27
Speaker
um My number five is my only two-player. I think it's my only two-player card game on here. It is. um And again, it's one of the first card games I've ever owned, ah getting back into the hobby.
00:46:43
Speaker
um And was bought purchased within that first lot of 10 that I bought bought from watching the top 10 essential board games. And that is Hanamakoji.
00:46:56
Speaker
Hanamakoji is such a great card game where it's just a battle between two people. to gain favour of the... I'm trying to think of the names. The geishers? The geishers, yes.
00:47:12
Speaker
Gain favour of the geishers and simple game to learn. You've got a certain actions that you've got to then work out how you're going to play each one of those actions every round to benefit you the most, but also to kind of hide cards away and not give the other cards off to someone that's going to help them beat you and get favour of the Geishas.
00:47:32
Speaker
So my number five is Hanamakoji. Nice one. My number five is a game I own two copies of and I've never bought. So this game, again, got taught to me on a cruise and the cruise was sponsored by Amigo Games who gave everyone a copy.
00:47:52
Speaker
And then at the end of that cruise, there was a heap left over. So Bonacore just said, If anyone wants another copy, take one and give it to somebody else. And I have actually, i don't want to say I own two. I've technically, I have one cause I did give the copy to my parents actually.
00:48:06
Speaker
And this is Cabanga. Cabanga. Cabanga is so great. And my copy and my parents copy and coincidentally are in German. So, but the rules are that simple that you learn them once and you never have to look at the rule sheet ever again.
00:48:20
Speaker
Everyone gets eight cards. There's four different colors. and you're trying to create the the the smallest difference between the two numbers on each color. So if you someone plays a 15 and you play a 14, there's no cards in between.
00:48:33
Speaker
But if i play if you played a 15 and then someone plays a 7, well, there's eight cards in between. So if anyone around the table has one of those cards, they it's apparently it says in the rulebook, I can't quantify that because it can't read German, but you yell kabenga and you throw the card at the person.
00:48:49
Speaker
And for every time you get kabenga'd, you have to draw a card. And it's a card-shedding game, so the winner is the person who has no cards left. So I love it because, it's again, it's similar to a lot of these cars games on my list where it's all about getting to the table easy, easy to teach, lots of fun, lots of laughter.
00:49:07
Speaker
is Is it the most yeah in-depth, high-strategy game? No, but it doesn't need to be because it fills that... and Well, I would say it's a filler game, except, again, almost every time I play Kabenga, the games go for about 15 minutes.
00:49:22
Speaker
but no one wants to pack it away and play something else afterwards. they're like let's go again. So it turns into a an hour and a half experience because you play it six times, even though it would technically be considered a filler. So yeah, Kabanga, great game. Fits in like one of those really annoying boxes that you need to rub a rubber band around, but that's like okay. it's ah It's worth it. So that's my number five.
00:49:44
Speaker
Kabanga. um Have I not played that with you yet? No. Oh, you must have. Because I played it at that game night where you were um where we played another game that will be on my list later.
00:49:57
Speaker
And I thought I played that with everyone, but obviously not. So, now yes, I'll have to make it. And I do know that one that's going to be on the list later. um My number four, I'm actually just going to read it.
00:50:10
Speaker
I'm going to try and read it. um It's a cooperative game in which one to six players control a squad of Terminator Space Marines. venturing deep into the massive Space Hulk.
00:50:22
Speaker
Through teamwork, bravery and raw firepower, players must survive against overwhelming odds to eliminate the Gene Steeler threat. It Space Hulk Death Angel, the card game.
00:50:38
Speaker
Right, okay. It's a boss battler in the Warhammer series by Fantasy Flight Games.
00:50:48
Speaker
I jagged a copy. I don't know how I jagged a copy. So sorry to all the listeners. It is a very hard game to get. And if you are gonna if you do see it, you are going to pay through the nose for a card game.
00:51:01
Speaker
But I love Boss Battlers. um And this one's just awesome. Awesome card game. Really enjoy it. Hard.
00:51:13
Speaker
Very hard. Which is what you want. You know you can play at cooperative. I've only ever played it solo. And I've tried two-handed solo as well. um And you're just getting hammered.
00:51:26
Speaker
You get hammered really fast. a it's ah But the cards look really cool. um And, yeah, just it did it is very hard to get. that is Space Hulk Death Angel, the card game.
00:51:43
Speaker
ah My number four is my highest trick taker on the list and it's, I guess, revolutionized trick taking to some degree in within the hobby. i There's two versions of it. The second one is my favorite and that is The Crew Mission Deep Sea.
00:51:59
Speaker
It's just, I've played it over 200 times. well played 200 hands of it, I guess you would say. But I've played through the campaign a couple of times. It's one of those games where you can pull it out and if people are really new to trick-taking, you play the first five missions and it really makes it simple to understand. They're not going to understand all the nuances of trick-taking, but they'll understand enough to how to play the game.
00:52:22
Speaker
And if you play with people who do know how to play trick-taking, you just jump to to scenario 10 and go from there where it's a bit harder and bit more of a challenge. But simple game, some of the rounds go for about 20 seconds because someone needs to win a particular card and to win the round and you do that.
00:52:37
Speaker
But some of them go right down to the last card and Seven different things have to occur in order for the table to win. It's cooperative. It's, yeah, I've had so many great experiences with the crew.
00:52:49
Speaker
I've just picked up the Lord of the Rings trick-taking game, which apparently is very similar to the crew. So I'm actually going to make that my goal to play that before the next episode just to see how I think it compares. But if it's better than the crew, I can't wait. If it's not as not quite as good, that still means it's an awesome game. So yeah, the crew mission deep sea,
00:53:09
Speaker
is excellent and it's my number four good choice uh i have seen the lord of the rings uh trick-taking game the latest latest version of it and thanks to vr ah games they supply a monthly set of games for our local board game groups so our local board game group uh based up here in brisbane north has got a copy so i actually should check in and see how that copy's being played but uh it does look really interesting steve Yeah. Everyone seems to say that it's like, it's better than the crew. So, I mean.
00:53:42
Speaker
Very, very much campaign based. Yeah. Good choice. Um, my number three is multi-car juice. This is probably the king of multi, probably not the king of multi-car juice.
00:53:55
Speaker
Prince. It's the prince of multi-car juice. Um, and, uh, very hard to get, It's chaotic when you have a lot of cards on the table and at some at some points you'll have a stack of cards on the table to choose from.
00:54:15
Speaker
um You're looking at ways to really screw someone else over on the table. It can be terribly mean um but the the actual multi-card use of it is just fantastic so you can use it to build buildings, claim resources um and that is my number three, Glory to Rome.
00:54:36
Speaker
by Mr. Carl Chalik. It is a great game. There's another one I had down written down for you. i thought that was going to be there. It's a great game. I love it. um It's easy to teach once you get your head around how to teach it.
00:54:52
Speaker
um But you need to play it a few times to as ah as a player to start understanding it. And um I just don't have the people that often that,
00:55:03
Speaker
wants to dive into it and try and learn it because it it is a little bit of a learn for the first time you play it. Glory to Rome. I love it. It's not the greatest card game by Mr. Chudik, but its it's certainly my second one.
00:55:21
Speaker
Number three, Glory to Rome. I can think of two other ones from Carl Chutting. So and I haven't heard you talk about either of them. So I wonder if I'm thinking if there's another one out there. and Well, it's, um it's again, um I apologise because Glory to Rome is extremely hard to get.
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah. Although if you wanted to, you could easily print and play it. There's so many print and play versions out there and create your own copy. um I do have the the original version, which you know everyone classifies as the ugly version and because it's it's got ugly artwork, but I actually like it. i like the artwork on it.
00:55:53
Speaker
So... I'm with the others on this one.
00:55:59
Speaker
The black boxes are just even harder to get. Forget it. It's too expensive. It's too expensive. But did you notice that whenever anyone does do a PNP version, they do the black box version and not your version? They do ugly version. ah So my number three is the biggest game on the list. And it i don't play it as much as I used to, but The fact what it does with cards makes it feel like it's far more epic than a simple card game.
00:56:31
Speaker
And it is Marvel Champions, the card game. So Marvel Champions, for what it does with all of its cards, not only for you, but what I really like about it is what it does for the the bad guys where they've got their own deck, their treachery deck that they draw from, and sometimes that they'll get like a a weapon that'll add plus two attack to them.
00:56:51
Speaker
ah not only so not only does a treachery deck bring out things like minions that you have to deal with or maybe some negative conditions that you have to deal with and also strengthens the baddie.
00:57:02
Speaker
So there's this... it's just cards everywhere in this game. And I i just saw it. It can't, ah I did think about whether I mentioned the start, like games that rely on anything else, but cards. And for some reason in my head, ah had Marvel champions in that list. And I'm like, no, everything you do in this card game is cards. It's literally called Marvel champions, the card game.
00:57:25
Speaker
and it's one of my favorites. It's been on my top 10 in the past of allgate all time. I've got everything up until a point, and I've stopped buying up until that after that because ah I haven't touched on a lot of the content that I own.
00:57:38
Speaker
So I've ah managed to stop myself from continually digging, which is good because I still haven't touched a lot of that content. But every time I play it, which is not as much as i as as I used to, but every time I get it out, I'm like far out.
00:57:51
Speaker
There is so much going on here, and it's easy enough once you understand the system to just pull out and play again. You don't have to go and relearn or reread rules. It just makes sense. So Marvel Champions, the card game, definitely the most expensive game on my list, but also probably in time-wise the most played.
00:58:09
Speaker
so And that's one game I've never played, as popular as it is, especially in the solo realms. I've never played it. Good choice.
00:58:20
Speaker
and Now, my number two
00:58:26
Speaker
is Too Many Bones.
00:58:30
Speaker
Okay. you me to it? I'm going to explain it. Is this the 20 Strong version of Too Many Bones? It is the 20 Strong series. Because I'm like, I call shenanigans.
00:58:42
Speaker
I just thought I'd leave with it. ah The 20 Strong series by our Chip Theory Games is an awesome system. Once you learn the system, you can ah play the three games and there's more games coming in that system as well. So I own the Solar Sentinels, which I actually print and played and play tested for Chip Theory and um very early on.
00:59:03
Speaker
and um And then I have the Too Many Bones and Victorium. So I've 3D printed a box that just holds everything in there, holds all the dice for it. um Again, Boss Battler in Solar Sentinels, Too Many Bones, Big Campaign.
00:59:17
Speaker
And Victorium, again, again a Boss Battler. um totally recommend it the 20 Strong series I don't know you can just buy it directly off their site I've never seen it really in any board game stores um but Solar Sentinels is probably my favourite again it's and that's very similar to your Space Hulk Death Angel very similar game to that except for Space Hulk you know it's a um little bit more cooperative than the Solar Sentinels ze know they're they're purely solo games so fair enough
00:59:51
Speaker
Number two, 20 strong and series. Yeah, should definitely try those because, again, we talked about too many bones last week the week before last. It's just so hard to table. So, yeah, the kind of thing is problem. is it This is a deck cards.
01:00:07
Speaker
That's it.
01:00:10
Speaker
Speaking of a deck of cards, my number two is a game that I have played with you and i I really enjoy. And I think maybe I enjoy this more than anyone I've played it with because – I just want to keep playing it and other people don't.
01:00:23
Speaker
So maybe it's a me thing, but that's expressions. I really like expressions. I think it's a clever... game that feels like a party game but makes you makes you burn your brain at the same time which is a really nice uh two things to have so just you're just basically trying to figure out what's in everyone else's hand of cards and you do that by giving clues to what's in your hand for everyone else to see and they do the same but every time you give a clue it works against you so you don't want you want to do it with the least amount of clues given So there's a lot of, ah well, you knew that they had that card, which means you must have this card because I've got this card and try to keep track of everything. And it's a really hard game to play with someone who only really focuses on their turn.
01:01:09
Speaker
Yes. Because they miss all of that other stuff that's happening on the on the board. And it doesn't pass the parent test. I taught this to my mum and dad and I will never play it with them ever again. But as far as everyone else is concerned,
01:01:22
Speaker
um it's It's a great game. So, yeah, Expressions, really simple game with a lot of a lot of depth. like <unk> I've almost always never played with the normal side. There is a hard side. i accidentally played on that side once and we lost. Surprise, surprise.
01:01:37
Speaker
But it's just good to know that if you're in a group that really is in sync, you can make it harder. And and that's I love that. So, yeah, it plays... plays good at a higher play account, but it also plays pretty good at two and three. you just because There's more unknown because the the stack of cards that you – the round tracker stack of cards is higher. So there's less to be known about what it's ever the hands. Yeah, I love it.
01:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, I enjoy it as well. Get a game going on BGA, Steve. Yeah, we'll do. We haven't played that one for a while, and I do i do enjoy it. That's a really good game. Good choice.
01:02:10
Speaker
Still haven't seen it here yet. you've you've got You've got a deck of it. Yeah. i' i In the state, overseas. Yeah, actually bought it off a guy on the cruise.
01:02:21
Speaker
um But you can get it off Amazon, I believe. Oh, okay. I'm sure it's on Amazon now. I could be lying, but I'm fairly sure it's on there. and the The shipping will cost – I don't think it's Prime though, so think the shipping costs more than the game.
01:02:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I forget that one. um All right, my number one, drum roll. It's my favorite Carl Chadwick game.
01:02:47
Speaker
and And again, it's not one. Can I tell you the three that I i know that I'm thinking of? Yeah, go for it. So Red 7. Yep.
01:02:59
Speaker
um Mataino. Yep. Actually, maybe I've only got two in my head. All right. don't know how I went. Okay. Okay. Mattain, yeah, good. I actually like all of Carl Chadwick's games. Red 7's good.
01:03:12
Speaker
I'm actually using the Red 7 deck to play Nanatori Dori. Right. that's a good deck to to play. it's neither of those. Okay. It's neither of those. um ah Again, it's not one that I play that often.
01:03:25
Speaker
I only learnt it and not long ago, ah probably about eight, nine months ago. um But, you know, it's still based off of the Glorita Rome system, as Carl Chadwick does, multi-card.
01:03:38
Speaker
use and it is innovation ah yep innovation is and I did grab the deluxified box off of someone that was selling it because they were upgrading to the exclusive exclusive deluxified box and I actually learnt that game from this person and it is cool it is such a cool game on BGA it's great fun as well Steve so if you want to Learn it.
01:04:01
Speaker
We can play it. um it's ah And I've been playing it a bulk on BGA with people that know how to play it too. So yeah, totally recommend my number one, my favourite Carl Chaddock game.
01:04:14
Speaker
It beats Glory to Rome, but that is Innovation. It wouldn't have beaten Glory to Rome if I didn't start playing Innovations. um I do have also behind me a GNC, but I haven't learned that one yet.
01:04:27
Speaker
But I'd love Carl Chaddock to come up with.
01:04:31
Speaker
a multi-card use mafia style playing game. You just love the mafia. I do. I do. But, you know, if that if you you know you could rebadge Gloria to Rome and set it up into a mafia style bootlegging, owning clubs and speakeasies and you're building those up.
01:04:49
Speaker
So if you can imagine Fort, like Fort's, you know, you're you're building the Fort in that game. Um, and love I'd love for Carl Chuddeck to come up with a mafia-style Glory to Rome.
01:05:00
Speaker
So, ah Mr. Chuddeck, if you're listening. Of course, yeah. One of our regulars. One of our regulars. yeah Please, please, let's come up with something. It'd be cool. That would be cool.
01:05:14
Speaker
ah Number one's in nation. Well, not number one yet. My number one is obviously no surprise to you, but and if you listen to my top 20, it's probably no surprise because it was in my top 20.
01:05:25
Speaker
And I mentioned that my number 11 just missed, and obviously just missed my number 11, of course it did. But what it was is a game that I've learned when I was 10. I remember learning it sitting in a tent at a mate's house and we were well betting with sparklers, was our poker chips, the sparklers. So that's how I learned poker, which is my number 11.
01:05:46
Speaker
But the gang is my number one, which is cooperative poker. It's everything I love about poker with the things I don't like about poker taken away. And the things I don't like about poker is the money.
01:05:58
Speaker
I don't like playing for money. I just want to play a fun game. yeah And whenever you don't play poker with money, it gets stupid because no one cares. They just, I'll just go all in there and I'll like whatever.
01:06:09
Speaker
And the other thing I love about this as opposed to poker is there's no folding. So you get to see everyone's hand every round. There's no, this and and in poker, it's actually makes it harder because in poker, you've only got to really read. If you're playing a hand, generally you get down to at most three players in one hand, but normally to,
01:06:29
Speaker
So you've really only got to read what one person is doing. In a six-player game of the game, you've got to be across six different hands and trying to work out what people have and don't have. And someone has got a number one chip all the way through and you're like, how do I know how strong their hand is? Correct. Because they've been crap the whole time.
01:06:47
Speaker
And I've been crap the whole time. So how do I know they're more crap than me? Like there's so much more to work out. But – the The main reason I love this game is because it's chaos. It's just madness. it It involves a lot of shouting and explaining. I love the debrief after you've lost and you go, oh, I thought you went that because you've got this. and And even like when you're teaching new people who might not be too familiar with poker and They're looking at their hand strength card and they go, oh, I'm not very strong. I'm not very strong. they got pocket as
01:07:18
Speaker
They've got pocket aces. And they've got triples. They've got trips. And you're like, yeah, you're not very strong in comparison to a Royal Fluss, which you're never going to see. Yeah. And you're looking at the board and there's no way anyone could have a stronger hand than the trips.
01:07:31
Speaker
And you're like, you should, you should have taken the six and they're like no, no. Cause it's all the way down here on the bottom of the street. Anyway, I love that. I love people realizing that and understanding how it all works and getting better at the game.
01:07:43
Speaker
It's, it's so good. I it's blown my mind. I played a prototype version of it a little over a year ago and i just, I, I couldn't stop talking about it.
01:07:54
Speaker
It actually, I think it made my top 13 games of all time having never even been released. And then, and then it got released and I bought it the second I could. And I think you bought it and DG bought it. And yeah, it's so good. So yeah, the gang, ah yeah, I just want play it now.
01:08:12
Speaker
Just talking about it. It is a good game. And, uh, you do need to know a little bit about poker. Um, But, you know, suppose, you know, people can learn because the player aids have the kind of like the... The hand strengths. The hand strengths, yeah, it does, yeah.
01:08:33
Speaker
so It works fore-end against the game, those hand strengths, because it does show, like yeah the obviously, high card, pair, two pair, triple, and triple's here. That's a good hand.
01:08:44
Speaker
But then you've got straight flush, straight fast royal flush. There's all these ones above it. So for a new player, they're like, oh, no, no, I'm down here. I'm in the bottom half of the card. Yeah, yeah, because they're all thinking you've got a Royal Flush.
01:08:56
Speaker
Everyone thinks you've got a Royal Flush. Yeah, yeah. Someone out here, there's six of us. One of us has got to have a better hand than this. You're like, no, you've got the nuts. So it's I love that it works with hardcore poker players, but it also can work with rookies. I love that hardcore poker players have their own problem because they bring their knowledge to the game, which doesn't help them in many, many aspects. It's like, ooh, I've got suited connectors.
01:09:19
Speaker
um I'm going to choose a six. And then what they really have is a 10 high. And until those suited connectors hit, they're useless. But when they hit, they're great. So you're better off saying, no, I've got an average hand, just a high card.
01:09:32
Speaker
But then when you get your flush or you get your strength, then you take the big card and everyone's like, ah, they hit the flush. But trying to tell a poker player to not show strength when they've got strength is fun. yeah So, yeah, it it works in so many levels. but it's and And there are bonus cards that do things for you, but Otherwise, it's a deck of cards and some chips.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yep. You could play this with – you could make your own version of this. You could. And I tried. ah But, yeah, the $15, $20, $25 I think the game is.
01:10:07
Speaker
um Yes. Yeah, just buy it. and the chip The chips are good too. The chips in the game are good. Chips are great. And then the special abilities cards are great. Yeah, they're great. Sure, you can make it yourself, but why not give $25 to the person who created it? Yeah, I agree with you.
01:10:23
Speaker
And it looks good. The box looks nice. Yeah, yeah. And the cards are good. The cards good. Can't go wrong. Well, that's it. Good choices. Well done. 10 card games completed.
01:10:35
Speaker
And um there's a couple there i'm going to look at going to grab, Steve. So I thought we'd just touch on those quick special mentions for me and then over to you if you like. Sure. um Six Nymphed.
01:10:50
Speaker
I'm surprised that wasn't on yours as well. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I can play it all the time, but it's I wouldn't you know go nuts about it. I guess. That's a good party game. Yeah. Really good party game. And you don't need to know much about
Unique Card Games and Experiences
01:11:03
Speaker
card games.
01:11:03
Speaker
Easy to teach to anyone that's new. Stonks, which you and I have been playing a bit, is a really cool trick-taking share trading game. Yep. um Little special mention that was just outside. I'd I want to own the physical copy of that, but I just cannot find that game anywhere.
01:11:22
Speaker
um Star Realms, the Frontiers edition, because it's more directed at solo play. But Star Realms, yeah that's fantastic. You get some really cool combos going there in that game.
01:11:37
Speaker
um And the card game that got me into card games. ah I probably would have learnt this this game... when i was about seven or eight years old.
01:11:50
Speaker
And that's called may I, you ever heard of my own? No, I haven't. It's a version of rummy. So you've got to build sets and get rid of your cards.
01:12:03
Speaker
And the first to get rid of their cards, um, gets points attributed to them. And each card is kind of, it's almost like, you know, 500 as well. Uh, but it's called may um,
01:12:13
Speaker
I have not played it for years and years and years, but I used to play it with my grandma. My grandma taught it to me when i was a young kid. And, you know, it's ah I've just downloaded the rules about two weeks ago, so I'm going to get back into teaching Lauren this game. um Yeah, I've got a few special mentions.
01:12:32
Speaker
um A few of the big box games that i I just decided to keep off that I probably like a bit more than some of the games in my list, but you know, it's tricky. So Dominion, although I think that deserves to be on the list as a card game. I think it just missed out.
01:12:47
Speaker
Baseball Highlights 2045. love game. I'm surprised to not see that on your list. i it It just, ah probably just by virtue of not playing it as much as I'd like, but a great game. Just,
01:12:59
Speaker
um Didn't make the list. ah Noobs in Space. I nearly put that on there because that is a cool experience, but it is a one and done kind of deal. Yeah. So Let's Go to Japan is essentially a card game.
01:13:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's I left that off because it was it's it's on that cusp of you doing other things, but not really. It really is just playing cards. Same as Santa Monica. That was another one that I really like.
01:13:24
Speaker
And I think that's about it as far as special. Obviously, I mentioned poker, but also 500 is on my list because I grew up playing Well, funnily enough, I didn't actually grow up playing 500. I grew up wanting to play 500 because it's a four-player game and I was the fifth person in my family. So it was always my brother, sister, mother and dad, mother and father. So I only ever got subbed in when someone was out.
01:13:45
Speaker
um And they all had their table talk that I didn't have. so But we we I got to play it enough that I...
01:13:56
Speaker
spawned my love for trick-taking games, with obviously two of my top 10. So um That's Not a Hat is another one of those party games that is all cards, but again, it's the people, it's not the cards.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yep. So similar to Just One that I was talking about before, but and a few of the ones you mentioned are on my list, but lower down, like Narnatory Dory and Six Nymphs. um I did also...
01:14:21
Speaker
um look at, I'm newly considered Regicide because then again, it's, I play it a lot solo. I also have a deck to play Regicide at work in my and my lunch break.
01:14:32
Speaker
But again, just a deck of cards. It's, it's essentially all it is. So. And the Regicide, the Regicide app is great. So I don't even use, I don't even use the cards anymore.
01:14:44
Speaker
I just play it on the app.
01:14:47
Speaker
um I picked 60. I went through my list and I picked out 60 card games to to sort of compare, right? What do you reckon ended up at 60? So it
01:14:59
Speaker
um so it had to be good enough for me to consider it, but it ended up in the bottom of the pile. Would I know it? I mean, there's many card games out there. Yes, you would definitely know it. Put it this way. It's a game that we've spoken about before where,
01:15:11
Speaker
You play it and play it and play it until you win and then you never touch it ever again. Friday. Yes.
01:15:21
Speaker
You don't play it because you like it. You play it because you hate it and you're like, I've got to beat this game. right yeah There's no enjoyment. Even when you win, you're like, finally, to the bid. No, no, I did i did that. like i was you know Game 300, I finally won.
01:15:35
Speaker
and But i didn't I didn't chuck it. I then went back to it about a year later. And again, it took me about 10 plays of it and then I won again.
01:15:46
Speaker
And then I got into a system where I reckon I'd probably win one of them three games afterwards and then I got it to one or two and and then I worked it out.
01:15:58
Speaker
I worked out actually how to break Friday and so I passed it on. So I'm not going to give away how to break Friday but it took me you know a lot of plays but yeah, that there there is a way that you can break it but it's There's a lot of luck involved as well.
01:16:16
Speaker
Yeah, so that's about it for me for nice notable mentions. There's a lot of great, I think the big thing to come from this was that I thought, oh, this would be a pretty easy list to put together. And then I started going through the card games I'm like, i'm like oh, no, won't.
01:16:30
Speaker
okay It's definitely not an easy list to put together. plus What I like about card games is I've got one of those plastic boxes that have all the little ah cases in them.
01:16:42
Speaker
So each box has got 18 cases in them. So I've got 18 card games in this one box. So whenever I go to a gaming day, I can just take one of these boxes along to the gaming day and it's got 18 card games in it. It's already stored in there. I can pull out and play at any time.
01:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, nice. And I shred the boxes to everyone's dismay. The actual real game box that comes in is gone, binned. Wow. Well, that's intense. I don't go that far.
01:17:12
Speaker
I mean, I guess Bible Champions I do, but that's because I've got this humongous big wooden crate that fits everything in. So that's a bit of a different story. I'm not taking that to any game days easily. It weighs about 25 kilos.
01:17:24
Speaker
Oh, but mind you, Space Hulk, Death Angel is still in this game box and so is Glory to Rome. But... I'm not ripping them up. Still in its squash plastic. Squash plastic. Yeah.
01:17:34
Speaker
yeah
01:17:37
Speaker
All right. Well, that'll pretty much wind us up.
Future Gaming Plans
01:17:40
Speaker
I did mention that I'm going to try and get Lord of the Rings trick-taking game to the table. Is there anything you've set your sights on three games of Castles of Burgundy? Three games of Castles Burgundy, Salo.
01:17:52
Speaker
I will set it up today so it's ready to go. yeahp I think I'm going to go and play the birthday scenario in Cthulhu after this podcast. I'm looking forward to it. yes I don't know if it's going to be as insane as blowing up Moose, but hey, it could be.
01:18:06
Speaker
wow The brain of that person that came up with that campaign. Brilliant. Because it's Rob Davio and Eric Lang, and I think another someone I'm forgetting. I'm just picturing them around a table going, I've got it!
01:18:20
Speaker
Moose!
01:18:25
Speaker
Anyway. All right, mate. Great chatting. Always a pleasure. We'll catch up on the next episode. Take care. See you, everyone.