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Episode 20: Steve froths over Battle of Hoth, and we check out 2019 games
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Steve discusses the Star Wars branded version of Memoir '44 - Battle of Hoth. Spoilers, he likes it a little.
Shane's been getting his sheep herding gear on again for GWT New Zealand, and Steve reminds Shane about how great Obsession is, to which he disagrees.
Then it's on to 2019 games - another outstanding year of games!
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Transcript
Introduction and Brisbane Life
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey there and welcome to Mate Let's Play with my good friend Shane. How you doing Shane? i am fantastic on this lovely sunday sunny Sunday morning here in Brisbane.
00:00:25
Speaker
It is a humid morning up down here so i don't know what it's like up your way. It's probably always hot.
00:00:33
Speaker
um But it will be the first day I think I venture out to the pool. So it's interesting because when we first moved to Brisbane, it's, ah you know, it takes while to climatize, right? When you come from Adelaide, which is just four seasons in one day.
00:00:48
Speaker
and And then when you come to Brisbane and we moved up, I think we moved up in October. And it was instantly, you know, you could feel it starting in a little bit more humidity, humidity, humidity.
00:01:00
Speaker
And it took us a little bit to get used to it. And then we bought the pool, put the pool in and reckon the boys from September every year after we put the pool in, they're in the pool from September.
00:01:12
Speaker
yeah Now they're what, we have 16 years living in Brisbane. We had the pool probably 10 years now. And they're nowhere near the pool.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. In September at all. No, that's too cold, Dad. ain't jumping in yet. And
Travel and Wildlife Insights
00:01:31
Speaker
I think today's the first day we're actually all going to jump in the pool. Yeah, nice. Nice pool day and go back to old school. We used to make nice little fruit platters and just sit by the pool. Yeah.
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, um our pool up here is – We went to about a week and a half ago, which isn't a pool. It's a waterfall um about an hour and a half out of town. And it is amazing. But given the fact that it's an hour and a half out of town means that that's the first time I've been there and probably be the last time for, know, until Christmas.
00:02:03
Speaker
Well, we won't even be here Christmas. So at some point, but yes, it's a, I would love to just be able to pop outside to a pool that all the water that's around us, because we are surrounded by the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen in your life.
00:02:16
Speaker
You can't go anywhere near the water. No, no. Not you want something snapping at you or something really tiny, really tiny, killing you. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah.
00:02:28
Speaker
Anyway.
Board Games Focus
00:02:29
Speaker
ah So, yes, we are a board game podcast, um although we could be a travel podcast, you know, Brisbane, Birmingham, other places. But we are here to talk about some
Battle of Hoth and Memoir 44 Discussion
00:02:38
Speaker
games. And if you don't mind, Shane, I might kick off with a game that's pretty hyped at the moment, um and we were both lucky enough to get a copy from Asmodee, which is Battle of Hoth. So Battle of Hoth, for those people who aren't aware, is a star basically a Star Wars version of Memoir 44. That's pretty much the best way to describe it. So I've got a fair bit of Memoir 44 stuff. My son is um like a collector, I guess, of the... He doesn't play it that much, but
00:03:08
Speaker
has all the expansions and does his own little war scenes on his table. He loves it. ah So when Battle Hoth came along, it was an instant um want for us because we're both like Star Wars.
00:03:20
Speaker
We're both like memoir. So we got it to the table. We got to the table a few weeks ago, played one game of it, played the first mission and was like, it's cool. um And then, but in the last week we played it maybe six times, I think.
00:03:33
Speaker
And we played through a lot of the scenarios and, Let me tell you, it's it's a great game. I'm so stoked with it. So the things I love about Memoir is that yeah anyone can learn it. It's a pretty basic war game.
00:03:48
Speaker
yeah ah You're essentially, if you've got four troops on a spot and someone's attacking you, they'll roll a certain amount of dice based on how far away they are. There's a one there's one side of the dice that's an always hit and the other sides of the dice are either a person, a piece of um machinery or something else where that has to be specific to what you're attacking.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yes. So in Star Wars, they've got the same thing. It's exactly the same setup. ah so And if they hit you three times, you move three of your workers. But it's when your last worker, when your last soldier moves, gets beaten from that spot, they become a ah trophy.
00:04:26
Speaker
And generally, most missions are who has, you've got to get to this many trophies to win the mission, right? yeah There are other ways to get trophies sometimes on some missions, but that's the main way. Well, in Star Wars, when I said to Raf, you want to be the the Empire or the Rebels?
00:04:42
Speaker
He just took one look at the box and saw that only the Empire had 8080s. So I've not played with the Empire yet. ah But it's really cool. the the difference So the big difference between the two games is that in memoir, everyone's drawing from the same deck.
00:05:00
Speaker
In Star Wars, in Battle Hoth, you've got your own deck. Yes. And you also have your own leader. So in the Rebels, you get to choose between Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, or Han Solo.
00:05:12
Speaker
And, you know, me putting on my mid-40s male guys, then clearly you would already know that I've only played with Han Solo. Like, who's choosing Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia over Han Solo?
00:05:24
Speaker
Right. Right. I've got Han's three three leader cards mixed into my personal deck and Raph's got his three Darth Vader cards mixed into his Empire deck.
00:05:36
Speaker
So the the standard decks are fairly similar, but the the little bit of spice that the leader cards add in is quite quite good. ah So you draw a card and it might say, activate three units in this third of the map or in this third of the map or activate one unit in each third of the map or something like that.
00:05:56
Speaker
And then your units do your turns. So with the extra spice of the, the ah asymmetry and also the fact that you are, there's a lot more achieving different things like,
00:06:08
Speaker
In memoir, it was very much like, shoot him up, shoot him up. And whoever shoots up the most wins. And there were different scenarios, but that was a lot of them. This is very much like storyline, you know, the rebels the rebels have spotted an empire camp. So the rebels have the advantage. They have more cards. they They attack first, that sort of thing. And you can really just lose yourself in them in the movie, I guess, a little bit.
00:06:32
Speaker
So I quite enjoyed that. But just overall, just a really... solid version of memoir where I'd probably enjoy it more just because, look, war is great and historic historians love war and Raph loves war.
00:06:46
Speaker
um But for me, it's Star Wars' is make-believe, which makes it a little bit easier to get to just go and shoot everything. Yeah. ah But, yeah, it's cool. Like the AT-AT, you've got – it's probably the hardest thing on the board to kill, which would make – makes perfect sense, right?
00:07:04
Speaker
ah So to in order to attack that, you need to firstly hit it and then roll again and hit the one side of the dice that is the insta-kill. So you've got to kill it and then hit it again to knock it down. So, ah yeah, just just really good really good mechanisms.
00:07:21
Speaker
The snowspeeders, like my snowspeeders fly around and they're a little bit harder to knock down um from a distance. yeah there's there's There's all kinds of things that you just sit there and go, well, that that's obvious. That makes sense.
00:07:33
Speaker
um But yeah, just overall, and my favorite way to play Memoir 44 at this point um wow you know in that system. And it's just one box, you know, like who knows what the future will bring regarding whether they'll do, you know, other battles. Battle of Endor. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I'm assuming that sort of stuff's going to be coming.
00:07:56
Speaker
um But just for a first one, I don't think they could have chosen a better battle in the entire Star Wars saga than Battle of Hoth. It just makes sense. It's the most famous Yeah, yeah.
00:08:08
Speaker
And, yeah, so massive thanks to Asmodee for sending it out. i would i Like, I would have bought it anyway. um Raph wouldn't have let me get away with that. It might have turned up as a birthday present for him. I don't know.
00:08:19
Speaker
But he was like, oh, well, once we played it a few times, can I take it upstairs and add it to all my memoir stuff? And i'm like, no. I just want to play it as a board game so we can play it as a board game.
00:08:31
Speaker
It's staying your collection so that when you get Endor and you get all the others, you'll build up a nice collection yourself. ah probably Probably the best thing about it, um which I don't know, might get talked about a bit. i haven't yeah No one's really talked about memoir for years. so But if you're if you're not familiar with it, probably the best thing about this is that a mission might take 20 minutes.
00:08:52
Speaker
like It's not a long game. You're not there for an hour and a half battling it out like an old school war game. war game It's literally... you've got to kill maybe four different units on the board.
00:09:03
Speaker
And once that's the first person to do that wins and you've got like eight units on the board. So it's not difficult to do. There's a lot of maneuvering and planning around what you, where you want to go and how you want to protect yourself.
00:09:14
Speaker
But in the end, they're pretty quick games. Like they're they're quicker than like a undaunted scenario. yeah Yeah. Oh, wow. it's That is so easy to just repeat, play, repeat, play, repeat, play. And,
00:09:27
Speaker
I said to Raf, what we should really do is I should play one mission as the rebels and then one mission as the empire. But as previously stated, I don't have that option. It just got down straight away. He's always the empire. He's um he's not giving up the AT-ATs.
00:09:40
Speaker
um So yeah. And heaps more to discover too. Like we played the six missions. There's more, I think there's 10 missions, 10 scenarios in the book, but then there's like a full on like mini campaign, two mini campaign modules that add other things in.
00:09:56
Speaker
We haven't even looked at them yet. So yeah. even just out of the base box, there's, yeah you if you played everything, you're probably talking minimum 20 games and that's just one hero, one, like just the rebels or just the, so like as far as replayability, if you played everything, you're talking, you know, 80 plus plays to have seen everything in the game. So yeah.
00:10:17
Speaker
Yeah. Lots of, lots of variability there. And um would you recommend it? How, how would you rate it? Massive recommendation. yeah like full full um Yeah, it's for everyone. Like, you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy the the style of game. It's like, i don't want to call it a war game because that has connotations. Like, there are war gamers, and I'm not dissing war gamers.
00:10:41
Speaker
But you don't have to be a war gamer for this game to, it's a bit of push your luck. Not a lot of push your luck, but enough to be like, well, I'll shoot that thing over there. I only get one dice, but you never know. I might get it.
00:10:53
Speaker
might get a hit, you know, like that. You can mitigate, like mitigation, I guess. That's not even right the word. I don't know what word is. Anyway, um there's a bit of that. There's tactical movement.
00:11:04
Speaker
There's, um you know, scenario based things that if you're into that, there's a bit of asymmetry, but not a heap. And like I said, even if you don't like it, it's over pretty quick. It's not like you're going to be sitting there for hours.
00:11:16
Speaker
I don't know how it plays. Memoir was always a two player game. And then there was some variations that added more players and, I don't know how this would play it for. I assume you would just have two people doing the same thing, like working as a team, but it essentially be the same game.
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah. i But as a two player game, the give it a shot. And if you don't like it, well, you've just, and you've only lost 20 minutes of your life. Like, it's not like it's going drag you down. I think even if if you've never played ballgames before,
00:11:46
Speaker
And like, so no one's going to, anyone that's listened to our poor podcast has obviously played board games. So this may not touch that person where you you don't even need to play board games before. This will bring non-board gamers into um yeah the board game industry like Star Wars Risk did.
00:12:02
Speaker
It brought the Star Wars fans because everyone wanted Star Wars Risk just to, you know, because they, you know, and that was and was that was a really good game. And this will bring the non-board gamers into the industry, I think.
00:12:15
Speaker
this game. haven't yet to play it, yet to play it because number one, Lauren hates Star Wars with a passion. And so I'm finding it very hard to find, and my boys are always out, so I'm finding it very hard to find just someone to sit down with and play a heap of this game with
Review and Strategies for Great Western Trail: New Zealand
00:12:33
Speaker
and just i also to find the time. So I'm really looking forward to playing it, Steve.
00:12:36
Speaker
um I was jumping out of my skin when we were offered this by Asmodata Review. um I've seen it in board game stores like EB Games have it.
00:12:48
Speaker
It's super pretty accessible. yeah Yeah, it's very, very accessible. So i saw it there just gleaming on the shelf and I said, I've got that at home, Lauren. yeah I need to play it because I've got to review it.
00:13:00
Speaker
And Lauren said, well, don't look at me.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, well, to be fair, I didn't even try with Helen. I just went straight to Raph. Although Helen likes Star Wars, so i could probably get her into it. But I guess it's like yeah you're right about bringing people to the hobby, but in a weird way that's what memoir did too like years ago days of wonder was ticket to ride memoir and small war well and there are so many collections these days that still have those three small those three days of wonder games because it was war games were such ah like a like i said there's such a thing that people it's like a lifestyle but like my sister has memoir and plays it all the time because it's just a simple get out on the table have a have a
00:13:38
Speaker
shoot them up kind of war game, but then it's on the shelf in half an hour. Like it was never, never outstays its welcome. Easy mechanics to understand. So it was already a winner as it's in its original form, but now adding that IP. Yeah. I i expect it to do extremely well this year and, you know, into the future with regards to other battles and whatnot. So yeah, massive win. I honestly, even if you, even if you don't like star Wars, probably not Lauren, because Lauren is one of those people who doesn't like star Wars or board games.
00:14:07
Speaker
Um, so it's a bit of a stretch, but if you're in the board games, she loves just one. Yeah. Well, that's right. Just one game.
00:14:18
Speaker
Oh yeah, definitely. It's, it's sounding, I'm super excited. I just can't wait to find someone to, to sit down with me and just play a few missions of it. It's, it's sitting right behind me. Um, and um I'm actually going to paint the minis as well.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. i think You just look good, you know, the other way around. And, um, that my mind's spinning with, you know, the different types of, you know expansions they could add to this. Like, you'd imagine doing, like, a 1942 Battle of Britain, but in space, you know, where you've got all the, you know, the different star fighters going against each other.
00:14:53
Speaker
And then the end mission is where you're going in to blow up the Death Star. You know, so you're running down the tunnels and you've other, endless. Yeah. That's it. and And there could even be a point where,
00:15:06
Speaker
similar to memoir where there was so many expansions and they brought out that overlord expansion where was like you put eight maps together and all this kind of stuff. Like you could see a world and an expensive world at that, but you could see a world where they eventually bring out a combined mission, which is like the whole story of star Wars kind of thing. Like every battle in a row, i was carry out but that would cost a lot of money over time. So let's just be happy with the path.
00:15:32
Speaker
um Would you, because they often they often say about Star Wars Rebellion, which this is true because Star Wars Rebellion I love, is Star Wars in a box. Would you say this is slightly Star Wars in a box as well? It really captures the Battle of Hoth battle, I think. like this's it's It's hard because battle of the Battle of Hoth was an event that happened in an episode of Star Wars.
00:15:52
Speaker
And this is just about that. So, know, the scenarios, some of them I'm trying to pin exactly whether they link to anything that happened in the movie or not, you know, um but in the end it gives you that feel. It gives you the feel like you are battling at Hoth and it gives you the, when you attack different things, like you you can knock down their droids, but they don't count as ah as a victory because who cares about the droids, you know, like they just fall down in the snow. No one, you know, kind of go, Hey, I killed a droid, you know?
00:16:20
Speaker
So you don't get to keep them as and or as a reward, um as a trophy. It's only the other units that you do. and um So you kind of ignore them, but then they just keep firing at you like annoying droids. So you want to kill them. And i'm like, so everything kind of makes sense in the Star Wars universe. So, yeah, I wouldn't say Star Wars in a box, but I would definitely say Battle of Hoth.
00:16:39
Speaker
This is the best thing that I've come across that about Battle of Hoth. Like it's just, it does encapsulate that. those scenes in that movie and they're iconic scenes right the at-at and the um the harpooning like i haven't found a way to harpoon the at-at yet i don't think that's a thing but at the same time whenever i've killed the at-at which has only been like twice i've taken one of my speeders and just done circles around it to emulate and just knock it onto its side and be like hey
00:17:12
Speaker
Oh, it's great, mate. Great. Well, thank you, Asmodee. And I'm looking forward to – I'll do my review um as soon as I can get this game to the table. um it's ah I'm super excited now.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, great game.
00:17:27
Speaker
What about you, mate? What have you been playing? um Yeah, we I haven't been playing much. um it's ah It's been a bit a busy week, but I did – um Normally we have a Thursday game night with Lucky Phil and Andy and Pastor Nick, but I was away this week, so ah did tell the boys, I said, how about we do Friday night instead?
00:17:53
Speaker
can't do tonight because I was travelling back into state, and They both, you know, it was and Andy and Pastor Nick said, yep, definitely let's do Friday night. They were came around and we got Great Western Trail New Zealand to the table.
00:18:09
Speaker
um Who would have thought I'd be saying that, given I wasn't a big Great Western Trail fan whatsoever. um But I really enjoy New Zealand.
00:18:21
Speaker
um and talking to both the boys. I think they both do as well. I think that's their favourite as well. Okay. And, you know, it was interesting because the first time I played New Zealand, my score was 52, which was pretty poor score. mix was 164, and sixty four and i think Andy's was 129 the first time we played it together as a group. And...
00:18:46
Speaker
and don't know. It just clicked with me, this game. It just clicked. Yeah. I got it. I was buying heaps of sheeps. I love saying the sheeps. I'm buying some sheeps. And, uh, it's going to do some people's heads in, no doubt. It's like the math word.
00:19:01
Speaker
Um, it's like, i because of sign, I always, I'm always deploying things. Like I'm deploying a cow.
00:19:11
Speaker
I'm purchasing some sheeps. Um, and no, I just, I just got it. And, um, Really enjoyable. And look, everyone knows how to play greats Great Western Trail.
00:19:23
Speaker
um You know, it's a little bit of a deck builder on the side. You're trying to trash the cards. It's a little bit harder to trash cards in New Zealand. um I didn't really know how to trash a card, and then i saw Nick trash a card, and i went, oh, okay, that's how we trash cards.
00:19:38
Speaker
And so then i learned that. and But I actually did, because I'm generally the the master of trashing things, trashing cards out of my hands, of Didn't that one killed you last time you played this? or Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It killed me.
00:19:52
Speaker
And, but I don't know, my the hands I was drawing, like I drew the perfect hand and I was had to go the ran all the way around without trashing any cards out of my hand.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. yeah And so all I was doing is, oh, it's very hard. I'm thinking I cannot get rid of any one of my cards. Like I had, it was a 21 points in my hand. Holy moly.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah. Sorry. No, sorry. It was, wasn't 21 points, but all I had to do is move, ah move up the path and increase my certificates every time. So I had this engine that I can increase my certificates.
00:20:28
Speaker
Um, So did was I think I had 16. 16 in my hand. And I thought, if I can get to five on certificates, I've got 21 points.
00:20:39
Speaker
And so I got to four, but then I also cleared down the bottom of the board where you clear two of your buildings, you get an infinity certificate.
00:20:50
Speaker
So that gave me my 21 points. So I just slammed my cards down at twenty one and said, 21 or not. And that was after completing 18 points the round beforeott prior. Yeah, wow. And so then 21 the next round and then eventually I got the 20, opened up a shipping spot, the 23 slot on the shipping spot and that was my next round um where I hit the 23 points as well. So think I scored I was about 55 points just off of um all my circle discs.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah. So I beat my best score just just clean those parts of the game. And um God, it was fun. Such a fun game. And of course, Nick just sees them you know he sees the matrix in most games.
00:21:37
Speaker
But it was a really tight game. I think the scores were 129, 110 for me. So I was very proud of that score. And 102
Exploring Darwin's Journey and Family Games
00:21:50
Speaker
for Andy. So for three of us to get over 100, apparently that's quite not a bad effort.
00:21:57
Speaker
And great lesson trial. um But no, recommend it. um I actually would prefer that's the game you learn. Yeah, it's interesting. Like, I think El Paso has its place for sure for that. ah Yeah, definitely. ah El Paso gets you into it. That's what got me into it. So, yeah, I agree. Yeah, thats i like I keep going back because I play a little bit of Great Western Trail on um BGA now, which I never used to because ah that used to confuse me.
00:22:25
Speaker
I needed to have the bits in front of me for that game. I've started to understand it more, but it's just not. New Zealand's so much better. Such a better game. Such a good game. I would and because it doesn't i think the thing I like about it is it doesn't hinder you as much as the original.
00:22:43
Speaker
there's there's less, there are less fences that you have to build around. Like the in yeah in New Zealand, like you say, you can just get your score up and then you can venture out to the, you know to where to place those discs where you can get your score up in Great Western Trail, but it's going to cost you a fortune unless you've also moved your train up, you know, like yeah you've got to balance more things.
00:23:02
Speaker
ye Yeah, i agree. And um I just couldn't, there was one part of the game where, and
00:23:12
Speaker
Nick and Andy had built on the path and there was no way around me I couldn't go around this path to try and I could but it was going to cost me an extra dollar instead of so pretty much every time I got to that spot I'm giving them a dollar each I hated it yeah that because because then i put I put a building a car down they never went there once but or never went past it once they always went around it just to piss me off and And they made they made point of it as well. I'm just going to go around, Shane.
00:23:46
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Even if they have to pay the bank, they would rather pay more to the bank than pay $1.
00:23:57
Speaker
It was too good. And ah we had a really good night. It good, fun game. And... um You know, it was no nice to say that I think I've got that game now. I've grokked it.
00:24:08
Speaker
I know some things that I can do next time that I didn't do in the last game. So I just want to keep playing that. and But we are still continuing on with Darwin's journey on the Thursday night game night.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm playing it on BGA at the moment. I'm just pressing buttons on BGA. um I really want to learn it first on the board.
00:24:31
Speaker
Because I did enjoy it on the board. I'm not enjoying it on BGA.
Obsessing Over Obsession
00:24:35
Speaker
That was it. That's it. That's all I've played, mate. I'm sure we will get just one to the table this afternoon with the family. and We might even just play it out by the pool.
00:24:45
Speaker
So a bit of fun. Yeah, an nice one. Well, I have one more game to talk about. um And as mentioned at the start, it's a game that you obviously love because you put it on your 2018 list from last week.
00:24:58
Speaker
um So clearly you'd love love to hear more about it. And it's timely because there's a... yeah ah There's a big box and a combined rulebook on on Kickstarter at the moment.
00:25:11
Speaker
So I imagine that means you could get the original game as well if you wanted to. And I know you don't have this one, Shane, so maybe this is something you can look into. I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. Any guesses?
00:25:22
Speaker
No, no, I've got nothing. Well, it's one of your favourites. It's an obsession. Oh, God, no. LAUGHTER You did this to yourself, mate. You picked it last week. That's all I'm saying. Seriously. I was actually literally going to pick up on my phone and go back to my 2018 list and try and guess. I would not have guessed you were talking about obsession.
00:25:41
Speaker
I can tell you right now. You totally duked me there. So, well done. No, I played Obsession yesterday with Helen again, and it's been a while since I've played the physical game. Obviously, it's on BGA, so it's easy enough to get to the table, but it's just it's a great example of when you've got a game in front of you, how much better you play the game, but also just how much more enjoyable it is.
00:26:03
Speaker
to actually, know, hold the cards in your hand and and do the things that a board game is, you know? ah And it it was such, we had such a great time. And I, I do find that interesting that you don't like this game because i don't find that there's much in there to dislike.
00:26:18
Speaker
Like, I guess the theme, let's say you're anti the theme, but I'm not, I don't, I never watched like five episodes of Downton Abbey. And that's probably all the Victorian England stuff I could handle. I hate Pride and Prejudice.
00:26:30
Speaker
I never watched Bridgerton, all that sort of stuff. However, it was an easier selling point for Helen that those shows existed for her to get into the game. So the theme helped her in, but that was never a driving for me driving force for me.
00:26:43
Speaker
However, the game itself is so dripping in that theme that it does create those little moments of hilarity. Like ah yesterday, Helen had a lady from America and because it's Victorian England, everyone just hates the Americans. it's Like I talk about all the time. It's my favorite part of the game.
00:27:01
Speaker
but Because they're all worth massive negative points for you if you've got them in your hand. or any americ But they also, they bring money because like, you know, she was the daughter of a train, you know, mogul in in Connecticut.
00:27:14
Speaker
So she's out there flaunting her money around because that's what she's in Victorian England. She can afford to travel, you know? So while she's worth negative victory points, she also gives you 800 pound on her turn.
00:27:26
Speaker
So it's like I kept every time she played, I'm like that bloody American. Like i was so angry. Helen had this 800 pound card. Money is not easy to come by. um And then as long as you get rid of it by the end of the game, the negative victory points aren't going to hurt you.
00:27:39
Speaker
um So and and then I was I was were talking about the the American. And I'm like, every time she played her, I'd just come up with some other insult. Like, she probably has probably our slaves back home. Despicable. yeah
00:27:54
Speaker
we didn't, it's not we were dripping into the thing. We weren't talking about it nonstop, but we were, Like those little moments where you like, it's so good. And like i was, um but anyway, the game itself, it's really just a bit of a choose your own adventure with regards to what you want to do, because you just got to play an event every round and you get to choose which events you want to buy for future rounds.
00:28:18
Speaker
So You can go, well, I'm just going to i'm just going to focus on you know getting heaps of men in my deck and running heaps of sporting events because men love sports. Women don't like sports. They want to be they want to play a game of Whistler. They want to yeah cook in the kitchen. It's 18th century Victorian England. That's how it is.
00:28:37
Speaker
Um, but in order to do that, I've got to get some helpers that only help the men because the the women helpers are useless to me. And then there's helpers that only help the women. So you've got to balance your workers with the people that are in your card.
00:28:50
Speaker
You've got, um, your servants, I should say with the people that are in your card. you know, there's little things like you've got a footman that just has to be in anything outdoors to help, you know, carry the junk that you're taking.
00:29:01
Speaker
but then you might have someone who might be in a wheelchair. So you need an extra servant to help with those people. And like, all it all makes sense in your head, I guess is saying. So, um but in the end you choose an event, you get the benefits from the the event itself and the, in the people that you play.
00:29:18
Speaker
And then you use those things to either buy new tiles or get prestige and, ah do like Again, it's such an easy game to explain because you start off at one prestige and then all the cards and all of the events all have a level of prestige that you need to be at to be able to use them.
00:29:36
Speaker
And when people are like, oh, I want to play this event, and you'd be like, well, you can't. Because you're not prestigious enough. Like no one's going to come to your markets because who cares? Like it's just some crappy mansion, like crappy men that's got no prestige.
00:29:50
Speaker
But then later on in the game, when you've got a bit of prestige, like, well, I'll check out the markets. and And then there's the national holiday day where everyone's got a national holiday. There's no work. There's nothing else to do. So you can invite anyone on that day because there's more people out and about.
00:30:03
Speaker
yeah. people will lower themselves to your level because what else they going to do? You know, it's busy everywhere. We'll go and suss out this game of tennis at some random manner, you know?
00:30:13
Speaker
So anyway, in my mind, i love that. I love that this idea that it all makes sense and you can, you can lean into the theme as much as you want, or you can just ignore it. But overall, I think the mechanisms in the game are worth it, irrespective of whether you love Victorian England or not.
00:30:29
Speaker
But I don't know, Shane, have I convinced you would you when you go back? No, you've convinced me to absolutely ignore it. Well, I guess what why I wanted to talk about it is because I really like this game and I know you hate it.
00:30:42
Speaker
So I'm interested to know what it, what rubbed you the wrong way with the game? Like what was it that made you just go, not for me? um I don't know. I can't articulate it, but I never want to play it again.
00:30:56
Speaker
um I've played it. I've played it quite a few times. And the first time I played it, I did have a bit of fun with it because, you know, you start to say, oh, you know, um Miss Ainsley is taking Lord Fauntleroy down to the tennis courts for some, you know, fun activities.
00:31:11
Speaker
yeah And, you know, all anyway, so you have a bit of fun with it. But even then I thought, no, i just this game's pointless. I don't. just it's It's got no point to it in my mind. And the three other times I played it,
00:31:29
Speaker
I don't know what I'm doing, and and it's just... Yep. Excellent. I'm, you know, entertaining in cigar room. Yeah. Big whoop.
00:31:43
Speaker
It's... Oh, it's just not... No. It's an absolute ignore game for me. So you said perfectly. Yeah, you can either love it or ignore it. Choose them to ignore it. Yeah, fair call. No, that's it's it. Yeah, I mean, not all board games are for every person, so... Which...
00:31:58
Speaker
To be fair, I would have actually said this is a for me and for everyone game, but obviously not. So I'll have to say it's ah not for everyone, but it's for me. Oh, look, there's so many. I mean, look, let's face it, right? and It was pretty high up on BGG.
00:32:15
Speaker
So there's a lot of people that like it.
00:32:20
Speaker
There's also a thousand variants. Like it's one of those games where the the designer of the game, this is his only game. And he pours everything into it and he's got a really strong supporting community. So he'll take ideas that they have and play test them into his game.
00:32:35
Speaker
So there is a variant for everything in this game. So it is something that you can tailor a little bit to your group. So for example, you know me, I don't love conflict for the sake of conflict in the game.
00:32:47
Speaker
So one of the things in in in the original version of Obsession is when you hire servants, after you've hired servants once, the next time you do it, you can either take two new servants or take a servant off someone else.
00:33:01
Speaker
and And that kind of sucks a bit, especially if you've gone and got yourself an underbutler and then someone comes and takes your underbutler. It's like, Hey, I worked hard for that underbutler. um So there's a variant that changes that rule and gets rid of it, but doesn't get rid of it in the sense that it doesn't unbalance the game. Like he's worked out a way to have that work and,
00:33:19
Speaker
um in the In the upstairs, downstairs expansion, you don't even use that as an action to get workers. You do that when yeah when you rest. and so And then there's other things like, and he names them after, like there's an Emily Bronte variant, which does something else. They're all named after these fancy, fancy people. I don't know. but tom ah But you can you can manipulate the game within a rule set to suit your group or your style play, which...
00:33:47
Speaker
um you wouldn't get on a normal game because a normal designer wouldn't spend six years working on one game and just continually refining and and changing it. Yeah. So really has that, that, you know, that independent feel about it. So, yeah.
00:34:05
Speaker
Everyone else enjoy it. And if anyone asks me next time, Shane, do you want to join Obsession? And be like, no, thank you.
2019 Board Game Rankings and Kickstarter Adventures
00:34:11
Speaker
It's not, it's not, it's not up there with shit, real confusion. So. Well, that's good. That's good.
00:34:16
Speaker
It's not up there with that. maybe i need to Maybe I need to pull a Shane and invite you to a game day one day where you travel an hour and a half across town and you're like, we're playing this game.
00:34:28
Speaker
Do you want to drive back or do you want to give it another go? I'll sit down and watch you play. yeah No, that's it for me. So do you have anything else or do we want to – No, know nothing else, mate. We probably spent five minutes too long on that Obsession talk anyway. so Well, I believe we're also skipping the news and Kickstarters this week because we don't have anything. Yeah, because I don't think we have anything, mate. I ah don't think I've seen seen anything that's newsworthy or I certainly haven't looked at Kickstarter, so I don't think there's anything out there.
00:35:01
Speaker
And given that you've just told me your session's on there, no wonder I haven't looked at Kickstarter. All in, all in. Let's just jump into the yeah ah results from last week's VGG 2018 list and then we can do the 2019. How's that sound?
00:35:18
Speaker
Sounds good to me.
00:35:29
Speaker
Well, I know my score, so while you're playing your elevator music, I can inform you that you do did do i snuck in under I'm score...
00:35:40
Speaker
wow ah think i'm going to take an l yeah thousand and eighty whoa wow that is selecting um my high game school On BGG was Vindication at 283. Okay.
00:36:03
Speaker
okay I mean, I did have brass. Mine was 1678 Illusion. Okay. Yeah. If you know was what was surprising for me was Nemesis at 23. Yeah, yeah.
00:36:22
Speaker
Very popular game, apparently. Very popular game. I thought Western Legends would have been higher, but it wasn't. That was 279. My second highest game. There you go. All right. Well, yep, smash me in that one.
00:36:36
Speaker
So redemption on the mind as we move into 2019. So were talking before the show. 2019 is an interesting year. There's there's ah there's a lot of... There's probably more top 100 games than any of the other two lists we've done so far.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But the other lists had, like, Gloomhaven and Brass Birmingham and, like, other games that had been number one or number two, where I don't think there's anything inside the top 10, but there's a stack of games in the top 100. And there's a stack of games that I really like outside of that too, so I ain't going to score for anyone this round, without a doubt.
00:37:13
Speaker
The scores are going to get a bit wild, I think. And 2019 was the first year I backed a Kickstarter. Oh, okay. Yeah, righto. There's a game on this list that was my first Kickstarter. It
00:37:29
Speaker
it and ended up being a pretty big Kickstarter year, to be honest with you, when I actually look at the list. Well, it's interesting because last, in 2018, Smartphone was on a list, and I always attribute that to my first real Kickstarter. There's always the charty party stories, but ay but the smartphone i didn't back that until i think i backed it in 2018 but i didn't get it till 2020. uh so but the game had come out on a limited release in 2018 so i didn't actually play it until 2020 so you're probably right around this time this would have been when i was going a bit nuts in kickstarter 2 so interesting to i didn't even look at that as far as whether some of these games have been kickstarted or not but
00:38:09
Speaker
Definitely some good ones. some games in here that have been um There are games in here that have been in my top five, top ten. yeah Whether they're still there or not is a question for a podcast in about a couple of months.
00:38:24
Speaker
um and But there are some solid, solid games here. There are some solid games. and um Certainly some of my favourites. And I think I've only chosen one.
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, I've only chosen of one. ah actually don't really rate playing, but it's a popular one, and I ah know it's going to be up there in the top 100 at least. aye um I reckon we're going to fight over two games. if we If we went with games we like, I think two of the games are we're really going to fight over.
00:38:59
Speaker
so Yes. Yeah, we'll see how we go. All right, shall we roll? Yep, I'm rolling. I've rolled a roll of one. Oh, I've moved up in the world. I've gone from a one to a two. I've rolled a two, so we re-roll.
00:39:11
Speaker
Re-roll.
00:39:14
Speaker
well Six. One. Off you go. Well, I'm just going to take... I'm really torn between the two, which one to take. um So I will take Cthulhu, death may die. Oh, you bugger. Yep.
00:39:30
Speaker
Well done. Had to be done. Had to be done. um Now, i I know that this is probably, it's going to rate they're pretty high high on the list, not low.
00:39:46
Speaker
But I have to do it. You know, we're talking about number one game. um So I'm going to take City the Big Shoulders. Big Shoulders, okay.
00:39:58
Speaker
It was released in 2019. Yeah. It's not the lowest on the list, but hey, it's my number one game. I can't not. Yeah, that's fair. i Look, I'm really happy that you took that. Not because I'd yeah ah and i'd love to have taken Big Shoulders, but to it leaves the other one for me that I... Go on.
00:40:17
Speaker
It's one of my favourite solo games. Not that it's not that it's yeah it's not going to be the number one game of the year or anything, but Paladins of the West Kingdom. One of my favourite silos.
00:40:30
Speaker
that's that I think it's either that or Wayfarers is my favourite Garfield game. So I'm glad you left that one. Oh, Viscounts Architects. They're all good. Oh, no, no. I think Paladins is the... Architects is definitely my favourite out of the lot.
00:40:45
Speaker
um But Paladins is my favourite solo. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm going to take it. ah Wingspan. Wingspan.
00:40:56
Speaker
Yeah, go for the old mainstream vote, that one. Yep, probably get you the win. Look, i don't mind I actually don't mind playing Wingspan. I've got got the two-player version, which I'm really trying to get out with Lauren because Lauren enjoyed playing Wingspan because she loves birds. and so Yeah, yeah.
00:41:12
Speaker
it's There's nothing wrong with Wingspan. I've just played it too many times that I don't really ever want to – I've never drawn to it. I guess that – if was on the table and people like i want Wingspan, like, oh, okay, fine. But I'm never going to be like, ooh, we should play Wingspan.
00:41:26
Speaker
yeah Um, but yeah, great game. Just, I just played it too many times. Um, my next one is going to be another game that was in my top, i think it was my number two game while ago the now, but it is a game that I've probably spent more money on than any other game that I own.
00:41:42
Speaker
And that is Marvel champions. Yeah. have to play that. I think I'd really enjoy it. it's i It's great. It really is. i've just don't play it enough. that's it's I've done that thing. I've done that thing that board gamers do where they've got too much of it.
00:41:58
Speaker
So now it's too much of a head melt to work out how you want to play it. Yeah. And it's now it's been so long that I almost just need to go back and play the base version just so I remember how to do things. So it's like it's really disappointing. I'd love to just be continually playing it, but i just don't.
00:42:14
Speaker
Yeah. but For me, because they rated it as one of the best, if not the best solo games going around. But I'm a collector. It would be a massive rabbit hole.
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So what I might do, if yeah if you ever because I'm not on Facebook, but if you ever see in the Facebook marketplace that someone's selling their Marvel Champions collection, that might be the way I buy it.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah. So keep an eye out for me. plan to Plan a holiday to America. That's what got me stopping from buying all the updates. ah sounds like I was literally buying every pack that came out.
00:42:52
Speaker
And some of those packs I got towards the end, i still i've I've unpacked them and I've put them in their expensive Dragon Shield sleeves and bought all the stuff to make them ready to go. And I've never touched them.
00:43:03
Speaker
And it was getting to a point where I'm like, I'm trying to save for an America holiday here. I've just got to stop. So I stopped. So if it wasn't for that America holiday, I'd probably have everything um for Marvel Champions and still not played it anymore. So there you There's a hot tip.
00:43:20
Speaker
Well, um my number three and um is my first Kickstarter that I backed. Okay. And I know that you like this game.
00:43:31
Speaker
like Okay. Okay. It'll be second time we've mentioned this designer and that is circadians first light. Oh yes. Okay.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah. Your first Kickstarter. There you go. That's my first Kickstarter. And it was the first time I'd ever, um, back to Garfield game. Cause I hadn't played any Garfield games prior to that. So I didn't play architects.
00:43:56
Speaker
So then when I backed circadians, i then backed Paladins that year too.
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah, fair call. Yep. All right. hi Look, the next choice is is really hard. I'm looking at like three different games thinking it's got to be one of those three. In fact, four different games. But I'll go with, look, I'll keep it on theme.
00:44:24
Speaker
I talked about Battle of Hoth before. um So a game I played on, I don't really get into hold of the whole May the 4th thing, but I did play this on May the 4th. in 2024, which was Star Wars Outer Rim.
00:44:37
Speaker
Great, great game. I've not played it before, hadn't played it since, but i I really do want to play it again. It was it' a very, very cool game, like a pickup and delivery game across the galaxy.
00:44:48
Speaker
Great. Fantastic. well this This could be a plan for us that May the 4th next year we get together. We play couple of missions of Battle the Hoth, move into Outer Rim, and then end with Star Wars Rebellion.
00:45:04
Speaker
I've never played Rebellion, so I'd be up for that. Rebellion is brilliant. That means I've got to get to Brisbane on May the 4th. I'll put that in the diary. Oh, I've got to get to Birmingham. Well, that's true too, yeah. um
00:45:21
Speaker
My number four... um
00:45:26
Speaker
I've played it quite a bit. I can't say I like it. I like it. Okay. Actually, no, I'm not going take that one. That's my number four. I'll leave that one hanging out there to see if you take it.
00:45:40
Speaker
um My next one, number four, it's a game we play at pretty much every game day. I get asked by Ingrid and Shane to bring it. and We love to... um We love the quirkiness of it.
00:45:52
Speaker
We love to take that in it. um And that is Nanty Narkinke. ah Yeah, i'm I'm pretty confident I'm going to win this week. Yeah, I know. I had to do it because it's that's that's in my top.
00:46:05
Speaker
I think it's in my top 10. ah its out Because I'm ball box in my top 10, right? So it's the same game. Just sitting say in Victorian England, mind you. um There you go.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, um and the the the longer we do this, the more it's just like, I'm just choosing my favourite games. That's what I'm doing too. I'm not really caring about the score.
00:46:30
Speaker
And as it turns out, this this year was a good year. And it might have come back to like what we talking about before, where this is this is really when the hobby was booming for me. So a lot of these 2019 games I got right into, um which leads me to the next one, which is my second favourite Stonemaier game.
00:46:50
Speaker
and that is Tapestry. yep ah Tapestry has just turned into one of those games where ah just, it's on BGA, which helps too, but like I'm never saying no to a game of Tapestry. yeah It's the opportunity to be spent.
00:47:05
Speaker
I just like, it's just, it's so, but it's relaxing. your Your moves are so simple. Sometimes you can do some cool things on your moves, but you don't always do cool things. there that There's a science to that game that I do not understand.
00:47:19
Speaker
I don't, again, similar to this game, I really don't care how I score. I just, I want to do things. i want I want to make stupid stories about, you know, like everyone says, I invented the light bulb after I went to space.
00:47:30
Speaker
You know, um I love that. it's it's it's It's, I don't know whether he wanted it to be serious and it didn't show up that way, but it definitely isn't a serious game. It's a very chill kind of tongue in cheek civilization game. So, yeah.
00:47:45
Speaker
And well produced as well. Oh, yeah, outstanding component quality. Yeah. Good choice, mate. I think I'm up to number five. Is that number five? Yeah, I think so.
00:47:57
Speaker
Yeah. um This is probably one of the best engine builders going around still, and i still love getting this game out. Yeah, he's nodding. knows which one I'm saying. Yeah. And that's It's a Wonderful World. Yep.
00:48:13
Speaker
Another similar to to tapestry in a way, like, I just, I'm always happy to play it. Like it's. Yeah. Anyone can ask me, you want to play It's Wonderful World? say, absolutely. Let's get it to the table.
00:48:27
Speaker
Well, speaking of one of the best engine builders, this one's a different kind of engine builder, but, um, it's such a great engine builder because it's so restricted, uh, eight cards in your deck and one mage for Reza Arcana.
00:48:42
Speaker
Ah, same similar sort of thing, like you've've you've got you've got what you've got and that's it, but you build these crazy these crazy engines where you just suddenly are getting resources out the wazoo and you sort of go, how did that happen when we started out the game and i was getting three things at the start of a round? It does really compound on itself, so yeah, Rez is a great game.
00:49:04
Speaker
I've only ever played that once and I did enjoy it. ah think the I think the more you play, the better you get at it, right? So...
00:49:13
Speaker
a Good choice, mate. a Speaking of card games, I love this card game. That's Scout.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yep. Good call. yeah Scout is a brilliant card game. Still play it today. and ah was um i don't know if you've watched the board game Hot Takes by the Dice Tower, the video they did recently.
00:49:40
Speaker
No. No. So like you could send in what your board game hot takes were and then they, Tom would say it on the show and they'd all discuss whether they agree or disagree. And someone said, you don't play scout, scout plays you.
00:49:55
Speaker
Like, it's kind of fair. ah All right. um I'm going to go for the next one. Jeez, there's some good games. Yeah, no, I'll stick with this one.
00:50:10
Speaker
This is ah probably either my favorite or second favorite Luserta game, and that's Escape Plan.
00:50:21
Speaker
Yeah, haven't played it. lot of people rate it that. Good choice. and Any dandy in Lacerda is good. In a weird way, if you like Lacerda games, you might not like it.
00:50:32
Speaker
Because the reason I like it is because it's not like other Lacerda games. Don't get me wrong, I like Karmar and Evie, and I appreciate the other games of his that I've played. But Escape Plan just feels so different to all of them, and that's kind of maybe why it stands out so much. so
00:50:50
Speaker
Cool. Good choice. Ah, what are we next? Number seven. Number seven. ah I have to go this one. um It's one of those games where you have to play it at full player count, which is five.
00:51:08
Speaker
like It looks really good on the table. um And the amount of times you can... block someone just by purely accidentally blocking someone. And remember were playing one game, I think in a row this person got blocked, don't know, five times, and I felt so sorry for her.
00:51:27
Speaker
on and And that is a game by Johnny Pack. So I'm really sorry everyone out there that backed it previously. And I know that Johnny's working hard on to make sure they do get it back out. But Coloma is such a good sandbox game so much going on so much you can do i don't know if you've ever played it steve but god it's fun yeah actually i played it with you years ago and then i bought it um and i haven't played it since but yeah it was such a good game and um this is the first time i saw the micho artwork not on a garfield game that's right yeah yeah yeah no it's a good it's so it was a really good game i just i don't remember enough of it to i'd have to relearn it when i get it out but um
00:52:14
Speaker
Something to completely different, which is also really good at full play account, but any play account is good
Lighter Games and Party Favorites
00:52:19
Speaker
too. this i don't know if you've played this game, but i would absolutely this this this could be a Lauren special.
00:52:24
Speaker
20-minute game, simple mechanics, not even 20, maybe 10 minutes max. No, no. If it's the one you're thinking of, there's no, because it's war-related.
00:52:38
Speaker
No, not war-related. and Dinosaur-related. Draftosaurus.
00:52:45
Speaker
Oh, okay. I've never seen it. It's a sneaky good game. Hey, like yeah if you've not played it, you get a handful of dinosaurs. You choose one to place on your board. Then you pass, it's like a drafting game. and Then you pass your hand to the next person. and You get another hand. So now you've got five to choose from.
00:53:01
Speaker
You choose one to put on your board and you keep going. and but there's all these rules about where you can put them and know one pen will score if you have six the more different dinosaurs you have in the pen will score more and then another one will have more of the same will score and if you have two that are the same in this other one they'll fall in love and that'll get your points and yeah it's a it's a really cool little drafting game um it probably overtook sushi go party as that go-to drafting game for newer players but i love it i'd play at any time so it might be a winner for lauren i reckon Okay, all right. Well, I must admit, there's not many games that Lauren does like playing, so hopefully that is one of them.
00:53:41
Speaker
worth it Worth a go. Worth a go. All right, yeah. and
00:53:49
Speaker
Next slide.
00:53:52
Speaker
Oh, yeah, without a doubt. One of the best party games that anyone could own. um I did see copies of it in Vault Games, which is very rare to see new copies of this game out.
00:54:04
Speaker
It's very hard to get. But every time I've played it, everyone loves it. Everyone wants to buy it. Absolute fun dice game, and that is Las Vegas Royale.
00:54:17
Speaker
Damn. Yep. Okay. It wasn't what I was looking at, but I did see that earlier on the list of like, Oh, I'll make that for later, but no, it's fine. Yeah. Great game. Fantastic. That's a good game. So if anyone does want it, I did see it at vault games the last time I was in there.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah. They've done a new release of a few of those Aaliyah games. Um, so might at the moment, at least anyway, it's a bit, um, more available than it ever has been. Um, okay.
00:54:46
Speaker
No,
00:54:50
Speaker
Okay. Nah, I know where going. Yep. Okay. It's been decided. My second or third most played game ever.
00:55:00
Speaker
Now, let me just check. I think it's, it'd be up there. It's definitely in the top three or four, cause I played it over 200 times and I haven't done that. Oh, wow. It is number three, third, third most played game ever behind Gloomhaven and Terraforming Mars.
00:55:16
Speaker
Much smaller, much, much smaller and kind of a cheat because won the game of this can sometimes go for 30 seconds. Uh, but the, uh, the, the, the new wave that's brought in with regards to trick taking changed the hobby, uh, especially the idea of cooperative trick taking and that's the crew.
00:55:37
Speaker
and crew Yeah. Yeah. yeah Absolutely. fair It doesn't, doesn't get played anywhere near as much as it should now, again, probably because I played it. So it's my third most played game and mission deep sea is my fourth most played game.
00:55:50
Speaker
um So between them, it's over 300 and something games. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not always jumping to get it off the shelf, but it's fantastic because I got it off the shelf that many times and I played through the whole, like the whole thing, maybe three times.
00:56:05
Speaker
So yeah. Great. Great game. It was good game. Well, you you haven't said it yet. I've left it on the list for you, but you haven't said it, so I'm going to have to bring it in now. I've played this game quite a few times, and I but don't mind it. It's not up there.
00:56:21
Speaker
you know it It wouldn't be in my top 50, and that is Barrage. Yeah. um But I just know so many people love playing that game.
00:56:32
Speaker
I just don't play it enough to to really understand it And then generally when i do play it, there's that massive gap before I play it next. Yeah. I go in waves with Barrage too. Like so if you have a good game you're like, this is like a top 20 game.
00:56:47
Speaker
And then other times you play it you go, I just can't do anything. And I don't know where, obviously a lot of that is me, but I just don't know where I sit with Barrage, but it is a great game. I just, you know. I heard that it's broken.
00:57:03
Speaker
There's some first move. If you do it in the first move, it just helps you throughout the whole game. Yeah. Okay. I know you can screw people over in the first round. Um, be that, uh, deliberate or accidental. And I may have done it both ways in the past.
00:57:22
Speaker
Uh, all right. Actually, you know what? My first Kickstarter ever is on here. and I just saw it. I've forgotten about this one. Um, this I think this was the first Kickstarter I backed. It might not have been the first Kickstarter I got.
00:57:36
Speaker
ah Sorry, except for Charity Party. Not including Charity Party. But it was around the same time. And this is a weird little game where you are...
00:57:48
Speaker
all running your own little restaurant and it's a bit take thatty it's a bit funny and but it's actually it's actually a pretty good game like it's it's nothing amazing but i still have fond memories of it we took it to bali on that that you know that yeah the the wingspan bali trip and i still remember playing it in the coffee shop with my son and my daughter and my wife and it just it became like synonymous with that trip and that's rival restaurants oh okay So I don't think that'll be a highly rated one, but it is, it's a solid game. There's nothing wrong with it. It's, it's, um, it's a little bit lighter than most other games on the list, I think. So yeah, worth it, worth a try if you come across it, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't, uh, go out and actively source it, I wouldn't think.
00:58:33
Speaker
Uh, well, my final game is designed by the, um, the company that designs one of my favourite dice playing games, and you can play it solo, but you know you can still it with lot of people. But then it that kind of then born a genre within this mythology.
00:58:54
Speaker
um And it was probably one of my first... It's not it it's more of a draw, draw a card and write, and that is Cartographers.
00:59:07
Speaker
um Cartographers was so good. yeah And ah know, you know, I remember playing it once. had this big game of it all on on Zoom, and there was about 20 of us all playing, and yeah it was really good. It was really good to play. in um I haven't played it for a very long time.
00:59:29
Speaker
and But then, you know, you saw people blinging out copies with using Lego. thought getting a Lego board. That was their map. And it was crazy.
00:59:40
Speaker
Crazy. ah But no, Cartographers was good. Can't find it on my list. Why can't I find it on my list? It's definitely there. I've definitely played it, but
Closing Thoughts and Future Topics
00:59:52
Speaker
I can't find it. I'm making, like, writing around our names of who got... Oh, there it Cartographers. Yep, all good.
00:59:59
Speaker
um All right. Well, that's that's the list. I mean, look at some of the games we left off. Like, that's, i always, this is this the thing that I do, but like, I was never going to put Pax Pamir on my list, but it's there.
01:00:11
Speaker
Maracaibo. um Horrified. Isle of Cats. Isle of Cats. Undaunted. Like, i've Undaunted has, but like, Clink Legacy. Why didn't I go for Clink Legacy? That's like of favorite games. Yeah, did you love that game? Did you forget?
01:00:27
Speaker
I just oh but must have seen it as I as i as i strolled past. um Unmatched, Volume 1 came out in 2018, 2019, sorry.
01:00:38
Speaker
Like so many good games. ah Imperial Settlers Empires of the North is great. Wavelength, Pipeline. would never vote for Pipeline, but it's there. don't Pipeline, it's good.
01:00:51
Speaker
Aquatica. oh Just what a year Aeon's End Legacy is another great legacy. Atlantis Rising, great cooperative game. Yes.
01:01:04
Speaker
Yeah. So many good games. I didn't see Atlantis Rising. That probably would have made my list. That's good game. Yeah. Oh, well, anyway, there you go. There you go.
01:01:17
Speaker
That's 2019 in a nutshell from us. It was a good year. It's got to be weird because from 2020 onwards... Those games are going to be the games that we, you know, for the first period of time anyway, like in Australia, we would have gotten them during the pandemic. So imagine we would have played them a lot. Like we just, I don't know about you, but I just seem to play so many games during the pandemic. So it'd be interesting to see whether what 2020 list. 2020 list. Yeah.
01:01:47
Speaker
Oh, well done, mate. Um, another, another year of good games. Yeah. Yeah, i mean, is is there a bad year of anything?
01:01:58
Speaker
There was a bad year when
01:02:05
Speaker
Well, on that note, we'll finish off. um Really good to talk to you again, Shane. Great to talk to you about one of your favourite games in Obsession. And, yeah, we'll but talk next week about 2020. Yeah, let's end on that, shall we?
01:02:18
Speaker
Take care, everyone. ya.