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Episode 17: Crafting the Cosmos and carfting a new topic
33 Plays15 days ago
Shane and Steve do their usual chatter about games they've played recently, then move into their review of Crafting the Cosmos.
Afterward, Shane easily confuses Steve with a basic concept for a new topic. This week is all about games from 2016.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction and Audio Apology
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome again to Mate Let's Play. And we'll call this the new gear episode because we're both using different microphones. So apologies in advance if the sound quality is but less than expected. So if that is the case, please let us know.
00:00:28
Speaker
we're out We're a young podcast, so we are always eager to improve. ah Now we've got the boring tech talk out of the way G'day, Shane. How you doing? Good morning, mate. You're coming through loud and clear from my end. And yes, yes, look, you know, you've got to try these things, don't you? Experiment.
00:00:44
Speaker
And if it fails, it fails. We just don't do it again. Yeah, I mean, yes. our I think we've got up to seven listeners now, so like... Oh, thank you, seven. Our seven listeners will let us know, I'm sure.
00:00:56
Speaker
That's brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. But no, I'm well. I'm well, thank you. And how are you on this bright Saturday morning? Yeah, pretty good. It's been a bit a full-on week up here, but I'm glad it's the weekend. I think I'm probably more glad it's the weekend this weekend than and most of me get weekends past, so...
Excitement for New Gaming Events
00:01:12
Speaker
Yes, i very much looking forward to playing some games. And I've actually, next weekend, I've organized, like through calendar invites, a massive teacher side to basically all new players. None of them have played it before. So looking forward. Wow. So you're going to bring out your bling copy?
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. As you should. Yeah. What about yourself? whether whether How's this your weekend and what you got planned? No, I've got no plans this weekend. I'm just going to spend time with the family, mate. I've got no games I really want to play. I've got fighting fantasy adventures still sitting here. I haven't even... I've unboxed it.
00:01:50
Speaker
And I started to read the rules yesterday and I went, yeah, no, can't be bothered. say But no, I've got just some odd jobs to do, family jobs to do this weekend, mate. And if I get a game, I get a game.
00:02:04
Speaker
I... am a It's... a No plans, which is nice. Yeah, that does sound delightful as well.
Teaching Andromeda's Edge
00:02:14
Speaker
ah ah The other thing I'm going to do this weekend is Andromeda's Edge. I'm going to do a teach of Andromeda's Edge on BGA, which is a sentence I never thought I'd say because i just I am excited but also wary of a game like that being on BGA because it really is ah table presence kind of game. it is It is a game like that where you need a lot of energy around you
00:02:38
Speaker
it'd be interesting to see how it goes anyway. and indeed Because I've never played it. Has it still got the big dr dice rolls, the epic dice rolls that you know yeah have in Dwellings? Yeah, yeah. And it's it's that they've actually changed. One of the things, like ah Dwellings was one of my favourite games and everyone used to whinge about the dice rolls and I didn't care.
00:02:57
Speaker
yeah But they made one change in the battle this time around in Andromeda's Edge. Which i I have to admit makes them better again. So you have like a floor. So every for every um for unit you have in battle,
00:03:14
Speaker
your, um, your floor moves up by one. So let's say you've got three units. That means your floor is three, which means you re roll dice that are below that floor. So if you roll a two or a one, you'll re roll them.
00:03:27
Speaker
So the dice rolls go on a bit longer, but there's, they're much stronger. Like if you go in there with five ships, then your worst dice can be a five. ah you So yeah yeah, if you roll all fives though, and someone rolls a six, you still got to lose, but it, it,
00:03:43
Speaker
takes away a little bit of that, oh, I rolled a whole bunch of ones and I should have won this battle. like you know yeah similar one on ah Someone won on a three. I suppose you could adopt that to dwellings as well, though.
00:03:54
Speaker
Oh, 100%. Yeah, it it's clear they put that in there for that reason, that people didn't like the dice rolling in dwellings. But yeah, it's definitely a better system. but anyway That's one of the many things that has meant that dwellings has left my collection because it's just such a superior game.
00:04:12
Speaker
So yeah anyway.
Brass Birmingham vs. Brass Pittsburgh
00:04:13
Speaker
and I was down in Adelaide last week and my little nephew, he plays Raiders of the North Sea on the app. He said, oh, can we can we play Raiders? I said, yeah, of course we can. So we ended playing Raiders.
00:04:28
Speaker
And then I showed him BGA. And he's like, oh, this is good. And so then he's asking his mum, can I join this? Yeah. And anyway, last night I get this phone call.
00:04:41
Speaker
You know, he says his name and then he goes, um I'm on BGA. Can we have a game? And so anyway, I ended up teaching him Flip 7 on BGA and Bandito.
00:04:56
Speaker
No, sorry. No, it was Captain Flip. Captain Flip and Bandito. And he loved it. He loved it. So he ended up winning Captain Flip. And then he said, can we play that again? I said, no, no, I'm going to, I'll request you as as you know as a friend and then we can play it.
00:05:13
Speaker
So now he's he's my new friend on PGA. He's my nephew. that's good. Yeah, that's awesome. But I have been playing yeah anything I've been playing. might as well get into what we've been playing, eh? Yeah, let's do it.
00:05:25
Speaker
It's been a heap of PGA, but I did stumble across, I don't know mentioned it the last pod, but Friedman Freeze's fishing game. Yeah, I think you mentioned you played it at... I played it in the PlayCon down in denni Sydney.
00:05:44
Speaker
I played the the you know the card version of it. But there's an app. Oh, okay. um I can't find it on BGA anywhere, I don't think exists on BGA, but I did stumble across the fishing app and so I've been playing that.
00:05:58
Speaker
Damn, it's hard. It's so hard to win. I had my first win yesterday. But it it is such, because I'm playing against the the computer and I'm playing with max player counts, so four players.
00:06:11
Speaker
it's ah It's a tight game. like this Most games I'm within between first and fourth are at about eight or nine points. And I've gotten second heaps of times, third heaps of times.
00:06:24
Speaker
And then finally yesterday to win by two, i was stoked. was like, yes, yeah finally got it. and um So I recommend it. Anyone out there, grab the fishing app. i think it's like about five bucks in the Apple Store. yeah you have yeah It's very hard to find if you put in fishing.
00:06:41
Speaker
You imagine what kind the amount of apps that come up for you. That's true. But it does, you just put in free-man-free fishing and it does come up that way.
00:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, can't imagine and there's two of those. No. But that's all I've been doing, mate, is just playing a lot of digital games. Yeah. Yeah, it's been a fairly quiet week up here for um tabled games. and We've had a couple, like again, I won't keep talking about it, but we played Endeavour Deep Sea again last weekend, which was amazing, um as it always is. But I did play Brass again, Brass Birmingham again, after we talked about Pittsburgh last weekend.
00:07:22
Speaker
No, we haven't talked about Pittsburgh. No, we're going to talk about Pittsburgh today. not really yeah not It's not really breaking news. The world knows about Pittsburgh, but that's okay. and We haven't had podcast since it got released, but it made me think I'm just going to have ah another crack at Brass Birmingham again. And geez, that's a good game.
00:07:38
Speaker
It really is. It deserves its spot. it's when And I remember hating it. that was That's the thing. It's one of those games that the first time I played it, I'm like, oh, that's pretty good. And the second time I played it, I went, na no, no, I don't like this game.
00:07:53
Speaker
and it took a while to get it back to the table. But yeah, I'm so glad I did because it's such a clean game. it's when When it all boils down to it, when I learned the game, I remember a lot of people saying, oh, it's ah it's hard to get your head around and it takes ages. And once you play the first era, you'll probably pack it all up and want to start again because you would have you wouldn't have figured out how to play and you'll you like you'll be like, oh, I'm going to do all this all over again. And I'm like,
00:08:20
Speaker
it's 16 turns. Like in the end, it's a 16 turn game. It's not that big a game and it's not that difficult to game. It's quite simple to explain to people. And I guess why people think it's a more difficult game is there's definitely a better way to play it than just, you know, exploring and going and figuring out what you can do.
00:08:42
Speaker
And that's, I guess, because you've got the big map, that's kind of the people's first impression is I should go out and explore and, um, But that's still fun to do.
00:08:53
Speaker
Like, know, if you're learning the game to be, know, to grok it on play one, then yeah, sure, maybe you're not going to like it. But I don't know how many times I've played it now, but I certainly haven't groked it either.
00:09:05
Speaker
My scores always seem to be around the same. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it's just, I just, every time I play it, I'm like, um'm I'm doing my thing. I'm like, oh I'm going to build towards this. I'm gonna yeah i'm going to deliver this good. and And then I look down and I go, crap.
00:09:21
Speaker
I'm not going to have enough turns to get this done. I need to think about the fact that, yeah, this is a limited game and stop trying to do everything. and ah it's yeah, I... i For those who haven't played Brass Birmingham yet, obviously the number one game on BGA, and on BGA, on BGG, um not on BGA.
00:09:41
Speaker
ah It's just a clean, um what would you call it? Like area, not control, but like area, it's almost like a... um It's resource management.
00:09:53
Speaker
And, yeah um, I'm just thinking about like with the routes, when you, when yeah when you're claiming the points for having your routes in different areas, it's kind of like area control, but not really. It's like, yeah, can't even think what you'd call that.
00:10:06
Speaker
More of a resource management delivery, uh, game. And yeah, there is a bit of area control because you know, you're owning that, that, that city or town.
00:10:18
Speaker
um Yeah, and well, it's more that you're owning the route between two teams. That's the control, isn't it? Yeah. But the other thing that I love about it, and it's it's probably why it's number one, is that it's just, it's, there's positive player interaction. Like sometimes you're building things with the hope that someone else will use them.
00:10:39
Speaker
And when you build that, someone else goes, Oh, thank you. I've been waiting for that. know, I'll be waiting for someone to build this thing. And you're like, yep. Yeah. I'll scratch my back. You scratch yours. I'll scratch your back. Yeah. You know what I mean? So yeah. Classic game. it And, uh, you know, obviously by your fan, your favorite designer, but, um,
00:10:59
Speaker
I guess we'll talk about it, brassburgur Brass ah Pittsburgh, a bit later on. But, yeah, i'm just I'm glad that I decided to get it back out again and I want to teach it again. So, um as I mentioned, we've got Scythe next weekend. But if I do get a chance to sneak anyone around for games this weekend, i'd be I'm going to be recommending we play that again.
00:11:16
Speaker
Play Brass, yeah, while it's fresh in your mind too. That's the thing about Brass, you got to play it while it's fresh. Yeah, that's right. it kind cements it for you as well. I was similar to you. When I first played it, I thought, oh, yeah, it's not too bad.
00:11:28
Speaker
Cause I played Lancashire first and then, um, when I played Birmingham, liked Birmingham better. And then the next time I played it, I didn't like it. I think it was the group that I was playing it with.
00:11:41
Speaker
i was like, yeah, no. And I was like, I thought, I don't actually understand it. I couldn't get it. And then one day we were out at a, um, game night and Dave DG taught it to the table.
00:11:54
Speaker
and I jumped in for the game and I reckon about three quarters way through the game, I got it. It just clicked. And ever since then, it is a great game.
00:12:05
Speaker
Um, and, uh, yes, I did waste about five of my turns, five of my 16 turns leading up into that point. Yeah. But then once, once I gropped it, I was like, ah, right this is, this is actually quite simple.
00:12:16
Speaker
So, yeah. Um, no, good call. Good call there, mate. Um, it's, uh, We might as well talk about it. We've talked about it now. So Brass Pittsburgh.
00:12:29
Speaker
I've been, I don't know how many months I've been wanting to say Brass Pittsburgh. Yeah, right. Well, was interested. A lot of people have been asking the question of how involved Martin has been in this new Brass because it doesn't, when you read the the details that come in it's very much a, um is it Matt Tolman? Yeah, and Gavin Brown. Yeah.
00:12:51
Speaker
Gavin Brown. Sorry, Gavin Brown. More Gavin Brown. Yeah. It seems like it's only Gavin Brown. Like he's just using the Martin system and he's made changes to make it Pittsburgh. It doesn't really talk about Martin's in input at all. So I'll be interested to know how much input Martin's had with Yeah, know from what I understand, he's had a fair bit of input into the game. Okay.
00:13:13
Speaker
and and and But yeah, it is it is a big Roxley release, right? So it's going to be brass Birmingham 2.0.
00:13:25
Speaker
and But there's there's a couple of new mechanics coming through in this new game, um which which is going to be really good. um But, yeah, no, I've been wanting to to mention brass Pittsburgh for months now.
00:13:39
Speaker
So, and there's also another brass as well, but I'm i'm not going to mention that one. So, it's something else that's been done on the side as well, which looks really good. ah That's a long way away, that one.
00:13:52
Speaker
But still, I'm excited. The brass, the cover looks amazing, doesn't it? Yeah, and apparently we're going to get a choice of three covers, like three different covers when they do the crowdfunding.
00:14:04
Speaker
yeah um But yeah, the cover that they've got looks quite good. it's What I'm hoping for is that every time Pittsburgh is involved or the or the Rust Belt is involved in a train game, even Ticket to Ride, it lent heavily into shares.
00:14:21
Speaker
yeah Um, and I just hope that that's some part of the game because that's kind of, yeah, like, I don't know, I don't know whether it's accurate or not, but every time Pittsburgh shows up in a train game, shares are, shares are a part as well. So, yeah.
00:14:34
Speaker
And it's all, it's all, it's all about the iron industry in Pittsburgh. So, um, and, uh, there's certain families that did rule over Pittsburgh back in the day, especially in the iron industry. And, um,
00:14:49
Speaker
They even patient talk about Coke. So it's not Coca-Cola, it's not cocaine. Back in the day, this guy discovered a... Oh, a Coke, yeah, yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, which basically forms iron. So once it's... When you heat coal to a certain level, um it becomes Coke, which is key ingredient in iron. So I think that's going to play a bit of a function in the game as well.
00:15:16
Speaker
So... uh i'm excited i am excited i think it will and if the two if the two new mechanics kick in i think it will pit brass from the number one spot eventually there you go be cool yeah i mean whether i yeah it's one of those things i don't know i don't know that about that obviously without playing the game and you seeing what the the public reaction to it is and all that but You know, that's that's what often what people say about Frosthaven as opposed to Gloomhaven. Oh, Frosthaven.
00:15:46
Speaker
But Frosthaven was like a love child for people who love Gloomhaven. Like, no one's walking into a board game store and go, huh, what's this Frosthaven? I'm just going to drop $350 that today. Frosthaven was made for people who love Gloomhaven.
00:15:59
Speaker
yeah So i'd be interesting to see whether Brass has that same effect, where Pittsburgh can be popular on its own or whether it's going to depend on the fanfare of the fact that it's the new brother of the number one game. Like, yeah, is is it a love child for the people who love Brass or is it a game that right from the start anyone can jump into? So, yeah. you i think I think it's very smart marketing as well on behalf of Roxley.
00:16:26
Speaker
because it's going to tap into the American market big time. Oh, yeah. Like in the comments, you already see all these people are like, ah if this was called brass, you know, um Sunderland, i wouldn't be interested. But, yeah, like it it brings it to the Americas and that's kind of – I mean, you don't have to live in Pittsburgh. You just have to be like proud of the – yeah, proud out of the U.S. Americans are proud of themselves. yeah. Yeah.
00:16:50
Speaker
but so yeah I don't mean that as a negative, by the way, for any American listeners, any of the four seven americans seven listeners who are American. No, no. Well, it's um it is certainly, I think, yeah, very smart marketing.
00:17:04
Speaker
ah So they'll capture that market with that game. But also not just flopped on the box because Pittsburgh was a major part of rail history in North America. So it's not like it doesn't belong.
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, it's not like it doesn't make sense. It makes total sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't wait. Very interesting see to see. Tell you what, it's been it's been a month for interesting releases and like sequels. like We only talked about the Danes last episode, about yeah the the Feast for Odin sequel. Yep.
00:17:34
Speaker
yep And we get the the brass, then what the number one game on BGEG gets a older brother younger brother. So, yeah. I will say one of my favourite things about both brasses that are out so far um And I'm assuming it's the same as Birmingham, as Lancashire, geez, she has Pittsburgh, far out.
00:17:54
Speaker
um And that is that they are one and done games. Like there's no such thing as an expansion. It goes with Birmingham or goes with Lancashire. So I assume it's going to be the same with Pittsburgh. And I really appreciate the fact that they go, this is the game.
00:18:07
Speaker
ah And it's the number one game on BGG. They could flog. If they did an expansion, it would make millions. But they're like, the game's good. The game is what it needs to be right now. I'm not adding anything to It it is perfect.
00:18:21
Speaker
You don't need anything with it. Yeah.
Game Mechanics and Fandom: Brass Pittsburgh vs. Frosthaven
00:18:23
Speaker
And if you go through the top 100 in BGG and see any game that's had any kind of modicum of success, I would say at least more than half of them have gone, hey, let's just add an expansion to and bring in some more dollars. Your favorite game of all time.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, yes, absolutely. that Well, no, I was going to say it's only one expansion, it's not as four, but three of them are very mini. But the big one, yes, it's almost expensive as the game.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah. yeah
00:18:54
Speaker
Very good, mate. Very good. Any other news that you've seen around the place? ah Not really, no. A couple of things that on on crowdfunding that I've sort of raised an eyebrow but not not made me jump.
00:19:07
Speaker
um So haven't really got any news across there. I'm actually pretty bare um ah in the crowdfunding world as far as backing anything at the moment. There's nothing out there.
00:19:20
Speaker
yeah The only thing is my Clank Catacombs pledge manager came out this week. so And was one of those moments where I'm like, I didn't realize that one of the expansions is actually in stores. So I'm like, damn it, I could have just got and bought that. So now I'm waiting.
00:19:37
Speaker
So it was almost disappointing. ah yeah Yeah, nothing really newsworthy other than obviously the big story, which is... I mean, there's been, um I guess it's worth chatting about, and actually i'll be really interested to hear your opinion on this.
00:19:52
Speaker
um The Codenames Harry Potter drama? Oh, haven't heard you anything about it. Oh, okay. So you know how Codenames, don't know if you're familiar, but Codenames have rebranded and they're re-releasing with this new look.
00:20:07
Speaker
yeah um And they announced, they've announced Codenames, Codenames Duet, and Codenames Pictures. They announced Codenames Harry Potter. And because of J.K. Rowling's political opinions or social opinions, um they got ridiculed pretty hard for suggesting Harry Potter because that would be paying royalties to J.K. Rowling. And um basically the board game industry as a whole said, we don't want to do that.
00:20:36
Speaker
And it led to a retraction, it led to a letter explaining that they should have done more research and they should have. and um And I guess I'd never, as as a Harry Potter fan, I'd never, and I'm not like a huge Harry Potter fan, I don't carry a wand with me, but um yeah i like watching I like watching the movies and I read the books years ago.
00:20:57
Speaker
um But as a Harry Potter fan, I'd never put the two in the same... Like, I don't care about J.K. Rowling. I don't think when I watch Harry Potter, I don't sit there going, geez, J.K. Rowling's amazing.
00:21:09
Speaker
That's just not how I am. I don't link the two. But it's clear that a lot of people do and a lot of people are very upset. So I guess it probably leads to a question more than anything is at what point do you separate the artists from the artwork?
00:21:24
Speaker
Because like, you know, the music is another perfect example. Like I used to like, you I even say this and I, I, I have this fear, like not fear, but like embarrassment come over me.
Controversy: Codenames Harry Potter and Art vs. Artist
00:21:36
Speaker
I used to like Kanye West and I can't, I cannot listen to anything that fool puts out.
00:21:44
Speaker
now um but so i've separated i haven't separated the artist and the artwork there but yeah yeah where where is that line and obviously a few years ago there was all that drama about daniel tashini um with his racist comments and what did that mean for me my favorite game is t at the time was t-o-t-o-wakan which is one of his how does that impact me playing that game and like yeah so what what's your opinion on the yeah the artist first the art for artwork to tell you the truth mate and um Straight off the cuff, I don't think I've got an opinion.
00:22:16
Speaker
okay Because, you know, I ah didn't know any of this stuff goes on. I mean, yes, you know, Kanye and yes, Kanye's music. um I do know a bit about the J.K. Rowling, but at the end of the the Harry Potter movies are still good.
00:22:29
Speaker
The books are still good. I wouldn't, you know, deprive a child from reading a Harry Potter story just because of J.K. Rowling and and and her opinions. So, I well i think I just don't care.
00:22:41
Speaker
a And whether or not that's right or wrong, I just and figure there's more going on in the world than worrying about that type crap. and So I'm just like, yeah, move on type of thing. So, yeah, sorry, man.
00:22:57
Speaker
I kind of don't have an opinion. No, that's fair. That in itself, I think, is probably a pretty common opinion to not care. like But blew my mind that it was such a big such a big retraction and such a big deal for so many people because in the end,
00:23:16
Speaker
we know what her opinions are. We know what her very anti, um, the, uh, like transgender people, very, and very anti LGBTQI, et cetera.
00:23:29
Speaker
Um, so we know that about her. Yeah. So what about all the people that we don't know that about? Like just because she's prominent in media, we know this about her.
00:23:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Like we all watched Harvey Weinstein movies for years until that all blew up. Right. Like, what you don't know can hurt you much more than what you do in a way. So, yeah, I mean, it hasn't, hasn't soured my taste for Harry Potter content, whether that's in movies, board games or whatever, or video games or anything, but I, it obviously has for a lot of people. So yeah, that was the only other news thing that sort of has popped up lately on the feed.
00:24:07
Speaker
And um look, I can understand it, right? Because, you do I agree with her opinion? No, absolutely not. No, same here. Yeah. I just, I figure, yeah, It is what it is everyone Everyone's got a right to their opinion.
00:24:21
Speaker
yeah um And whether it's right or wrong, that's up to everyone else to decide. so
00:24:29
Speaker
ah Good choice. good Good question, mate. Unprompted question too, so I wasn't... Yeah, sorry about that. But yeah in ah in a similar way, are like the Daniel Tashini thing,
00:24:44
Speaker
that I remember that when that happened because, yeah, like people were stopping playing his games. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm not going to stop playing a game that I love because the guy who made it's a dickhead.
00:24:56
Speaker
Like in the end, that's that's not what I'm in the hobby for. I'm not i'm not sitting here going, i only play this game because I love the design. Like that's nothing to do with it. And to be honest, in the long run, the real – well, dickheads, I guess, two two swears in 30 seconds. Apologies are ah to our G rating.
00:25:16
Speaker
um But um the real idiots were bored and dives. And to be honest, it's them that I have a problem with still about the way they treated it because they they hung him out to dry like nobody's business and put out this crap press release that was like, we're never going to do another Daniel Tashini game, but we're going to keep selling the ones that he's already done for us because we like money.
00:25:40
Speaker
but And then like maybe six months later, they were producing more new Danielle Tashini games. So they tried to make this real powerful stance and then hoped that everyone forgot about it so they could carry on making money from a designer that they apparently would never work with again. And I'm like, that's that's the dodgy part. They were the ones who phoned in their response and made this big stance to sound like they were politically correct and then completely turn on it less than six months later.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah. So... Yeah, he he he said some pretty inappropriate things, no doubt. But they, as far as I'm concerned, were way worse doing what they did. So, yeah. Anyway.
00:26:19
Speaker
Money, money, money. Yeah. So, anyway, I'll get off my high horse now. That's okay. but um We'll move on to something more exciting.
00:26:38
Speaker
Well, something that is a bit more exciting, um
Review: Crafting the Cosmos
00:26:43
Speaker
I was going to talk to us, or talk to you specifically, what did you think of our review copy of Crafting the Cosmos?
00:26:52
Speaker
That's a great great segue. Yes. i yeah um It's an interesting game. It it is It looks amazing. Like straight ah out of the box. like and Preface this by saying I'm not a big space game fan. I know I just said that Andromeda's Edge replaced Wellings and, you know, Terraforming Mars was my favourite game for a long time and Space Base is in my top ten.
00:27:12
Speaker
Forget all that. I don't – the space theme never draws me in. It's never something I go, ooh, space. and People love it. The Final Frontier, blah, blah, blah. I don't. Space, I can name all the space games you like.
00:27:25
Speaker
yeah Steve yeah is Mr. Contradiction right now. ah hundred percent 100%. 100%. But it's it's never the theme that drags me in. the game The game's quality is what keeps me around, I think. Maybe I'm wrong.
00:27:37
Speaker
Maybe I'm a closet tricky. don't know. But... Um, so so I wasn't eager as, I wasn't as eager to play this as other games, but when I got it out of the box and set it all up, I'm like, wow, like they haven't spared on components in what is a standard edition. This isn't some sort of deluxified edition.
00:27:55
Speaker
This is the game you buy. Um, Raph and I, first time i played, it was just Raph and we set it all up, I read it through the rules and i'm like, oh, okay. It's, it's firstly, it looks like it would be harder than it is.
00:28:09
Speaker
um So I thought it was quite easy to understand game. ah I love the idea that ah you, the the way the map works. So you've got all these planets and you're trying to, I guess. Populate them.
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah, populate them. And you've got, so you've got these three different types of population that you're trying to, um but like what are they called? them I've forgotten all the names now. the the proto-life life and advanced life. Yeah. um But to take control of ah of an area on your board, you need to have the certain requirement of... Atmosphere.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So you need to have nitrogen, you need to have um carbon. I've forgotten everything. Oxygen. Oxygen. yeah yeah and so you've got to have these things surrounding it but because of the way the map works you've also got to think where do i put each particular one because it's going to help me with the planet that's you know bordering it on either side and so you're trying to and what's interesting is they've got this ability that um you can flip one of them to being a wild resource which sounds great except you can't move them so you You spend a turn or you spend an action to do this and it sits there for the rest of the game and now you've completed all of those areas.
00:29:24
Speaker
So it's just this useless thing sitting in the ether that you don't need anymore where everything else is movable around your... yeahra atmosphere so i quite liked it um i wouldn't say it's like it's not going to make my top 10 or anything like that i don't think it's an amazing game to me but it's a game that i'd pull out and play because again it doesn't overstay it's welcome i love how the the the proto life works where if you sa surround uh uh are they planets they surround they're supernovas you're turning a star into a supernova and yeah that's right yeah
00:29:58
Speaker
But if yeah if you surround a planet with proto-life or anything, but if it's fully surrounded, then you add advanced life to it. But if it's only proto-life that's surrounding it, then they all disappear. So you want to upgrade that to life so that it sticks around afterwards.
00:30:13
Speaker
So you want to go and do all these things, but you really need to think about, okay, well, I don't care if this one goes because it's not bordering anything else that I want. I'm not going to move it anywhere else. You can destroy it. Right. But then I definitely don't want this to go. So I need to make sure that I flip this. It's yeah, there's a there's some really good decisions in what is a fairly simple game, I think.
00:30:33
Speaker
And it's pretty combo-tastic too. Yes. ah Because when when you're when you're you're doing doing something in particular that triggers this and it triggers this and it triggers this and you're like, yes, that was nice. Or you pick up the marble.
00:30:44
Speaker
So that's the other piece around, like you've actually got to pick up a marble and then where you where you pick up that marble, where you move that marble to, you get those elements and you get both those elements, but then you'll get I think it's the left side of all the other elements. that's that that this this the So it's the secondary move, all the other elements.
00:31:03
Speaker
And but then yeahke okay you're trying to also map it out. Okay, if I go here and get this, this, this, and then you're putting all that out as you're putting it out through the the putting outt stage. And it's just cool. And it does, you're right. It looks stunning.
00:31:17
Speaker
Like the components are amazing. like When we were at PlayCon, there would have been three or four copies on the table of people playing it. And every time you walk past it, people were just oohing and aahing because how it looks.
00:31:30
Speaker
And, you know, when I was speaking to Britt from Asmodee, it's her favourite game at the moment. Yeah. why country like I can definitely see that. There's enough there. Like you mentioned the action selection stuff. That is so cool.
00:31:45
Speaker
And I love the fact that there is a little bit of player your interaction with that. Like you can there is move things so that an action is not available to your opponent. I never did that intentionally, but it certainly happened because of what I wanted to do meant that Raph or Helen, when we played it again, couldn't go there.
00:32:05
Speaker
And they didn't like that very much, which I understand, but I needed that action. So, yeah. Well, I know when i um but I was one of the tones I was playing it at, because when when we're in PlayCon, I...
00:32:20
Speaker
I got to this point because I was only a quick learner how to play. But I got to this point where I was about to turn over two planets in one move. It was great.
00:32:33
Speaker
I was about to create them both and trigger them both. um So for me, i just you know when we're on our rating scale, you know is it is it for me? Not for me. Is it for everyone?
00:32:45
Speaker
think this is kind of it This is it for everyone. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I feel like I could teach this to anyone yeah um and they'll have a good time. Some people will absolutely love it. yeah I don't think anyone's going to dislike it.
00:32:59
Speaker
And even for those hardcore board gamers, I think they'll like it too. and you Because it it is a simple game, but it's also quite fun and stunning.
00:33:11
Speaker
And what I like is you're not competing for space. Like you've got your own board. You've got... yeah you've got You're claiming planets, but not off the other planets. You're just doing it... Yes, it's a game-end trigger. So I guess you could argue that, you know, at some point you could potentially stuff your opponents over by finishing quickly. But it doesn't really... That doesn't really matter. What matters is, know, extracting the most out of your board.
00:33:35
Speaker
So, yes, there's player interaction, but there's not... you're not taking things from other people. The only player interaction is really on the action selection board. And yeah that's, that's your, it's again, it comes back to that positive interaction thing. It's, you're always getting something and you're always getting more than what you choose because you get the left hand action.
00:33:54
Speaker
think it's the left or the right, whatever the side action is of every spot. Every spot, correct. Secondary actions. And you've upgraded one of them, you get it even if there's no marbles there. so Correct. And then because then you've got your upgrades and then you've got your special abilities as well that come out through cards throughout the game as well. Yeah. um So there's there's quite a bit going on. So there's a fair bit to remember as you're going too.
00:34:14
Speaker
and But, you know, I actually really enjoyed it. Really, really enjoyed it. I think anyone new to board gaming, it'd be a little bit of a step up to learn straight off the bat.
00:34:27
Speaker
I probably couldn't teach it to Lauren. Lauren would just go, yeah, no, too much going on here. Whereas, you know, certainly anyone that's going to, you know, enjoys board gaming, um you could easily, you know, pull it out and teach them.
00:34:43
Speaker
I pick it up fast. Yeah. And I did also, yeah, it's it's it's got enough there that it might just get a bit too hard to explain, I guess. like yeah you'll Maybe not explain, but keep everything in in your mind of what you can and you can't do.
00:34:58
Speaker
Like, I think when the first time we played it, I won by a fair bit. And I put that fully down to the fact that I understood that the advanced life started with better victory points at the top.
00:35:11
Speaker
So I went out and i completed planets as quickly as I could so I could get those, um that advanced life. And Raf didn't think of that. So by the time he started doing planets, all of the high point scoring ones had gone.
00:35:25
Speaker
The second time that didn't happen and it was a much closer game. And in fact, Helen won that one. So it wasn't even Raf, but I think I actually lost. think it went Helen Raf me because, yeah Again, in a three-player game too, there's there's more competition to get out there and compete against. So, yeah, aside of that though, when we played the first time with just Raf, who was only 11, that was the only determining difference I could see in strategy that affected the game. So everything else was very well understood and yeah um by him and he loved flipping over all the – he had a lot of supernovas, but he had a special ability that allowed him to move them.
00:36:05
Speaker
Oh, brilliant. Yeah, so he was pretty happy with that. Yeah, that's powerful, that is. Yeah. I think it cost him resources to play it, but, I mean, hey. Let's move those.
00:36:18
Speaker
That's great, mate. No, so thank you to VR. It's ah going to stay in my collection as well. I just i really like it. So, Pergola I'm going to donate. um But crafting the cosmos, I'm going to continue playing it with people and take it to a couple of game days and teach.
00:36:37
Speaker
Yeah, i think that's where it'll shine, hey? Like whenever anyone else can see it, like you're going you're never going to play with an empty table. Funnily enough, I put up on BGA if anyone wanted to play it and no one actually said yes, um which was interesting because I think – because it's a fairly new game and it hasn't got a super amount of buzz. Like it's not been marketed strongly, but at well, not that I've seen.
00:37:02
Speaker
So I don't think anyone's hanging to play it, but if it was set up on a table, you would have a full table every time. Right. Because people walk past and go, what is this? Yeah. And that's that's exactly what happened at PlayCon. People were, it was it was jumping off the shelves. People were buying it as soon as they'd finished playing it.
00:37:18
Speaker
So, and then every table you walked past, you know, a row of tables, there would have been at least one Craft in the Cosmos being played. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, i'm going to definitely take it to to a game day and and give it out and give it a go.
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah. Good one, mate. Good one.
Favorite Games by Year Series Introduction
00:37:36
Speaker
Well, thank you to vr And I know that we've got ah really cool review canop be coming very soon with something else. So, I can't wait. Yes, I'm very, very keen to get that one to the table. that alone That'll come in a few weeks. hasn't arrived yet. So, once it has, we'll get it played a few times and we'll be, ah yes,
00:37:58
Speaker
We'll leave that one out there sitting, but to to say both Steve and I are excited of this game coming is an understatement.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yes, it it ticks all the boxes as far as I'm concerned. As far as the theme, the the base game mechanisms, yes, very, very keen. yeah yeah We'll leave that one there.
00:38:21
Speaker
Let's talk about games we can talk about. Yeah, well, let's let's shall we move into...
00:38:35
Speaker
Our topic of the next eight weeks, really? Yeah, and I'm going to let you do all the explaining here because you you you texted to me what your plan was and I'm like, yeah, cool. I have no idea what all this means. You used the crap out of Steve, didn't I? so So what we're going to do over the next seven weeks is talk about 10 games each.
00:38:59
Speaker
from the years that we kind of really got into board gaming. So I think both Steve and I got into board gaming in 2017, but we're just gonna go back one year to 2016. So over the next eight weeks from 2016 to 2025, Steve and I are gonna talk about 10 games that either we enjoy from that year, or we still wanna play from that year.
00:39:20
Speaker
And then Steve and I can't have any crossovers.
00:39:26
Speaker
So this is not in any particular ranking, 1 to 10 or 10 to 1, nothing like that. We're just going to talk about 10 games and that came out in that year. And then what we'll do is after this episode, we'll total up our BGG ranking of each of those 10 games.
00:39:44
Speaker
And whoever has the lowest number is the winner of that ah that year of picking out a good top 10. So, yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker
You're about to say something. the winner is the most mainstream. is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, That's what I'm saying. But i like I like the fact that we can't have any crossovers. And 2016, when we're kicking off, was a good year. Wow.
00:40:08
Speaker
like when I ah knew these games come out and twenty six came out in 2016, but it wasn't until I went and looked at the list, I'm like, oh, man, there's like there is a lot of excellent games.
00:40:18
Speaker
So, Yeah. So, and it's going to be first in best rest as well. So, as I said, we can't have any crossover at all. And there are some games on this list that I know that Steve's going to be, reckon, probably Steve's top 20 would be a few of these games. Yes, there is definitely, in my top 100 of all time, I would say there's maybe seven games and there is at least...
00:40:50
Speaker
Three, three either current or former number one games of all time for me. Wow. Wow. yeah That is amazing. Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to bring up my list because I've got it up on a screen.
00:41:08
Speaker
Am I still coming through? Shane's not giving anything away. He's taken away his video, so I can't see his facial expressions. He's gone full rogue. Can you hear me at all? Am I still coming through? yeah i can hear yeah All right, okay. I am going full rogue because I can't have... I'm doing this on my iPad, so I can't have two screens gap at once. That's fair.
00:41:28
Speaker
So we're rolling a dice to see you guys first? Is that what we're doing? That's what we're doing. Let's go. All right.
00:41:35
Speaker
I rolled a two. Okay. I'm off. okay um'm off
00:41:42
Speaker
and So number one game, and I'm going to say that I like this game. It's Scythe. um
00:41:56
Speaker
I like Scythe lot, and just i just wish should had battling. we need We need battle Scythe, but anyway. Over to you, mate.
00:42:07
Speaker
What's a game you'd like out of 2016? Well, look, you took mine what would be theoretically my number two on this list, so I'm not going to wait around and I'm going to take my number one, which is my number one game of all time.
00:42:19
Speaker
So A Feast for Odin is the game that best represents 2016 as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how it compares to Scythe as far as on the BGG rankings, but I don't care. I could never leave it on the board.
00:42:32
Speaker
So Feast for Odin. Yeah, well, I kind of did leave that one for you. I was going to take Scythe if you said Feast for Odents.
00:42:43
Speaker
Well, um number two for me, that came out in 2016, and I enjoy it. I've got, ah had the base game for it, but then I've had a couple of other and additions of this game, and that is Terraforming Mars.
00:43:00
Speaker
I think that kind of changed the industry this game when it first came in. 100%. And I know that you had a massive blinked out copy. That was spectacular. on But yeah, Terraforming Mars, number two.
00:43:15
Speaker
It's an interesting one, Terraforming Mars, because ah don't play it much anymore. and it's not for not liking it, I think, because I've played it over 200 times. And it used to be one of my favorite. It used to be my favorite game of all time as well.
00:43:26
Speaker
So so there there go my three. but I mentioned before, there goes was one, two, and three. um i always i always attribute Terraforming Mars to being the first heavier game that I ever learnt in the hobby.
00:43:38
Speaker
um So it stands out for that reason for me. But I can't claim it. So I'm going to claim another game, which... to be honest, is a game that I love for what it created, similar to what you just said with Terraforming Mars, because of all the versions of this game, this is my least favorite, but I still really like it.
00:43:58
Speaker
And it's a deck building game. Yep. And it's Clank. Damn you, you just took it. Yep. I got one. Okay.
00:44:08
Speaker
yeah clink clink's amazing and clink catacombs is i think in my top 20 at the moment and yeah it wouldn't be there without clink and clink legacy is amazing so yeah love it yep agreed great game um my number three will be a game i love playing with my family um And I play it at work with my team and when I take it.
00:44:36
Speaker
And that it's such a great little card game, Bandito. Yeah, I knew you'd have Bandito on your list. if you were If you were getting really aggressive and taking all the things that I wanted to say, I was going to steal Bandito from you, but that's okay.
00:44:50
Speaker
ah But it is such a fun game, though, isn't it? so Yeah. and i i don i didn't I don't know whether I liked it initially because we were playing it a lot on BGA. And it used to drive me insane.
00:45:01
Speaker
Like it was one of those things where you're like, You get to a point where you know you can't win and you're like, we're still 15 cards away. Like, yeah ah in the moment when you've got it on the table, it's fine because you're moving it around and yet you're always, oh, we've only got four exits.
00:45:17
Speaker
All right. Well, I've just played a card, which means we've only got seven exits to cover. So, sorry, everyone. Or you get down to only one exit to go. And you know, someone's someone's got thatlu that card that can close it off, but someone else puts out it through another another card that gives us another three exits and you just hear this, oh, damn you. Yeah.
00:45:38
Speaker
I remember I filmed my board once where there was this beautifully solved puzzle all the way into one door and then it just blows up into this massive tree of doors. um And you're like, ah that was, we were right there.
00:45:52
Speaker
but that That was a thing. Anyway. I'm going to go on a different tack. I'm not going to go with what would I would consider be my next in line as far as favourite games go.
00:46:03
Speaker
I'm going to choose a game that I think it was one of my first games into the hobby and to this day is still a great game to play with new people to the hobby. And I only recently played it at the board game day that I hosted back at the – a couple of months ago.
00:46:16
Speaker
And that is Sushi Go Party. Yeah, good choice. Good choice. Very, very good choice. by the Aussie designer himself. Yep. A bit of PWH love.
00:46:29
Speaker
No, well done. That's a good one. One number four is Last Wheel. Yeah, that's a good game too. It's such a fun game.
00:46:40
Speaker
And Pastor Nick teaches it so well. And I think it's one of his favourite games as well. And it's just brilliant when you take, you know, horses out for dinner.
00:46:53
Speaker
the
00:46:56
Speaker
Yep. Waste money. But yeah, it's good. Last wheel, number four. um My next one is going to be a game that I actually met the designer um in 2024 on the Podfather a Gaming Cruise and had lots of chats with him about this game in particular. actually read a teach of the game, which was one of those things where it's, you know, we're lucky enough to have had it happen to us a few times, but where the designer teaches you their game.
00:47:27
Speaker
um which is cool. But this one in particular, because it's pretty he' a pretty unknown designer, I guess, and he hasn't had a lot of games out. And there's many reasons for that, but the games he's put out are quality. And this one, very tongue in cheek, quite has you giggling all the way through it. And that's the networks.
00:47:45
Speaker
A game about running a TV station. And it just, if for anyone who is old as old as me, you may remember watching the Vidiot from UHF, the Weird Al Yankovic movie from the 80s, where he runs a TV station and he has all these crappy TV shows on it.
00:48:02
Speaker
And every time I play this game, I've just, it's like I'm back watching Vidiot from UHF. So it's hilarious and it's ah it's quite a good game. So yeah, the networks. Good. I've never played it.
00:48:13
Speaker
So that might be one I'll add my list. ah My number five is Roleplayer. I love Thunderworks games. love Roleplayer. It was one of my very first games I bought when I got into the hobby and I played a stack of it solo.
00:48:32
Speaker
and really enjoy the solo challenge of the game. And then I started teaching it to the family. The family like it as well, which is surprising because, you know, yeah you're in that Dungeons & Dragons universe. So, no, role player, my number five.
00:48:50
Speaker
Fair enough. Well, um depending on how things go, I'm going to create controversy with my next two picks. um see how that goes. It'll make sense after the second one. But the first one I'm going with is a game we've already spoken about on the podcast very briefly tonight or today, this morning, and that is Codenames Pitches, which is my favorite way to play Codenames. Actually, that's not true. my favorite way to play Codenames is a mixture of pitches and words, but I always play with the pitches at the very least. So Codenames Pitches um is my favorite Codenames.
00:49:25
Speaker
Very good. So I've got one here that I actually want to play and I want to find it. But apparently I think it's come out. They've done a new version of it.
00:49:37
Speaker
And that's Nekoshu Dice. I think they've only just announced a new version of it in the last few weeks. So...
00:49:48
Speaker
I'm really keen on hunting a copy down and and having a go at it. So that's my number six, Nikosho Dots. Yeah, it's one of my brother's favourite little trick takers. um It was okay. I didn't love it.
00:50:03
Speaker
But, tom ah yeah, it's it's it's a pretty cool where you've got four dice in front of you, which are also tricks that you can play, but everyone can see them. And then you've got cards as well. So youre kind of you've got some hidden information, some public information.
00:50:18
Speaker
And you I think whatever dice, whatever your last dice you have, I think is what... each of your tricks that you win are worth or something along those lines. I can't remember exactly.
00:50:31
Speaker
yeah Something about the last dice is important. um Yeah. ah So the second half of my controversy is Harry Potter Hogwarts battle. So... The linking of Codenames and Harry Potter again. I apologise if I've upset people, but right Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is a very cool story-driven deck builder that plays through each of the seven chapters, ah seven books, and does it in a way where the first couple of books are really easy.
00:51:03
Speaker
And then as you keep playing, the mechanisms get harder as the story gets more like filled out, I guess. And it almost feels like... you're in school like it feels like those first couple of episodes were you know years one and two in a school and then as you get progressed through the school you're getting smarter so the work gets harder and you kind of get that feeling through the game it's I don't know whether I'd say it's underrated but it's uh it often gets fobbed off as ah just a Harry Potter game but it actually is a brilliant system and you if it doesn't the Harry Potter theme helps for sure but it doesn't need that to be a good game
00:51:42
Speaker
Very good. and Well, my number seven ah will be a surprise for everyone because I never used to like this game. So Great Western Trail.
00:51:53
Speaker
I did wonder when that was going to come off the board. Yeah. it I was hanging out there for a little bit there, so I thought I'd better claim it before it does get claimed. But um it's a good game. And I must admit, playing the New Zealand recently, it's definitely my favourite version of it.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that I agree on that one as well, that the New Zealand version is the best. it's um But I guess it's a bit like Clink, right? ah so Yeah.
00:52:23
Speaker
um All right. I'm going to go off book a little bit and pick something a game that I've been very keen to play for a very long time that I've never had a chance to play, um which I'm going to have to add to the spreadsheet that I sent in you because it's an not because I've never played it before.
00:52:40
Speaker
um One of the reasons I've never played this game is because to play it properly, it requires eight players, which is a number you don't often have around the table. And that is Captain Sonar.
00:52:53
Speaker
Fun game. I've played it a couple of times. It is good fun. Yeah, i've just I've never been in a situation where there's been enough people and it's been available.
00:53:05
Speaker
But one day. good It'd be a good one you know for a game day. Really good one for game day. I think that'd be the only chance I'd have. Yeah. But I've played it a couple of times at people's homes and we we've had enough people to get around the table and play it. It's excellent fun.
00:53:23
Speaker
Well, going to go off script too, because and there is a game for my number eight, and and this game is not on the list here, but I do know it came out in 2016 as a second edition, and that is Blood Bowl.
00:53:41
Speaker
Oh, right. Okay, yeah. Blood Bowl is fun. It's just dice-chucking, throwing gnomes in the air, hilariously good fun.
00:53:52
Speaker
And you don't need to know anything about NFL, really. um But, you know, you just do have...
00:54:05
Speaker
a plethora of minis that you can go out and buy all these different teams, which um know a lot of my mates have gone down the rabbit hole and seeing all their paint painted teams up looks brilliant.
00:54:16
Speaker
And there was leagues going on there for a while. And I just did i just couldn't find the time to devote myself to a league. But God, I love, you know, getting out and having a game of it. So Blood Bowl, my number eight.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's probably it's probably in my top 10 intriguing games that I've never played. Like, i I am concerned of the rabbit hole, which is the whole reason why i haven't dipped my toe at all.
00:54:42
Speaker
knowing Knowing you love sport too, yeah um you will definitely go down the rabbit hole, mate. You need to stay away. But it is good fun.
00:54:54
Speaker
All right, my number eight, I think, or nine, eight? Eight, yeah. Is a game that we have spoken about the designer on this episode. I'm keeping it all very much in-house today. But this game was probably the first one of his that sort of started this thing that he always does in all of his games, which is when you have a turn where you bring your...
00:55:17
Speaker
workers back. That's actually not just a random reset turn. Really fun stuff happens in that turn. And the first game of his that I know that did that was Manhattan Project Energy Empire by Luke Laurie.
00:55:32
Speaker
It's a great game. I've i waited a very long time to get this one because um the Unfortunately, the person who was producing the game via Kickstarter actually passed away during production. So there was a i probably waited like four years before someone actually picked it up and put the game out. And i just I'd given up. i'd I'd expected to never get the game.
00:55:55
Speaker
But it actually came through in the end, which is awesome um because it is such a great game. It's amazing. probably not as well known as obviously Dwellings or Andromeda's Edge and even Whistle saw Mountain, but they all do something similar and that started with Manhattan Project.
00:56:09
Speaker
So that's, ah yeah, awesome.
00:56:13
Speaker
Good choice. Good choice. I have never played it. I want to play it though. So, and I remember seeing it at PlayCon. It was dirt cheap. They had brand new copies of it for like 25 bucks or something like that. I believe they've just released it in a different... um they've they've Someone else has bought the licensing and they've actually completely changed the artwork and it's like a white background with like orange stripes on it and they're all the same. So like they've they picked up all of those old minion games. So yeah, hopefully it's more available now than it ever used to be. won't have to wait as long as I did to get my copy.
00:56:48
Speaker
All right, number nine. Number nine, and I'm going to be controversial. and This is a really cool party game. um It's not my favourite of this type of party game, though, because there are later intodirect you know ah later versions of this game that came out that I actually do like a lot better.
00:57:07
Speaker
However, Secret Hitler. Oh, okay. So much fun. So much fun. And just leave it there.
00:57:19
Speaker
Fair, fair. I remember um we went to a board game barbecue game day in Sydney and it was at the RSL club in Castle Hill.
00:57:30
Speaker
And um they told us that we weren't allowed to play Secret Hitler. Like they didn't know much about board games, but they knew that we weren't allowed to play Secret Hitler, which is interesting. Yeah.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yeah. um So it's obviously, red it obviously is more known outside of the hobby as well than most other games. so un' Understandable, right? So yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, just we're just like, why? Oh, well, hang on. Yeah. Okay.
00:57:57
Speaker
We're good. We won't play it. We'll put it away. Yeah. um Next one up is probably not going to help me with the ah yeah winning the round as as he as we're doing, but I couldn't go without mentioning this game because I got to play this game when I was over in Dice Tower Retreat, and it was a very difficult game to find. i eventually got my copy of it, and then a week after I got my copy of it, they announced that a new company was releasing it globally, really easy to get now.
00:58:25
Speaker
ah The game is called, well, as far as I'm concerned, it's called Minnow Dice. Mino dice. The new version is called Mythical Dice. So Mino Dice is a Japanese-designed trick-taking game with dice.
00:58:38
Speaker
So you mentioned the Koso dice before. It's like that, except it's all dice. um And there's some cool little mechanisms with where if you if you roll particular things, you can – it's like there's there's three main characters and that's kind of like a rock, scissors, paper thing with them.
00:58:54
Speaker
um but then every other value comes down to the just the pips on the dice value. So you you have to guess how many tricks you're going to win, but then you still have to roll the dice, which means you may not get what you hoped for. So quite a cool little um trick-taking dice game, Minnow Dice.
00:59:12
Speaker
Minnow Dice. Excellent. ah My final one, and it would be remiss of me not to probably have this as my number 10.
00:59:21
Speaker
We have spoken about this ballgame designer today, and that is Automobiles came out in 2016 by Martin Wallace. yeah i didn't like that one.
00:59:32
Speaker
Car industry in the US. sir It's good. It's good. Yep. um But, you know, similar to his other game, Ships. Ships is a very similar mechanic. Well, it's basically the same thing.
00:59:44
Speaker
Just ships instead cars. But no, automobiles. Yep, they're cool. Very hard to get. Funnily enough, I've got my list of games that I played in 2016 and Automobiles is on the list and two below it, which means two, yeah a game I didn't like as much as auto Automobiles, which I didn't like a great deal.
01:00:04
Speaker
um But it's just worth telling telling the story because I nearly saw a couple have a divorce while playing this game. So it's another Phil Walker-Harding game and it's called Imhotep.
01:00:19
Speaker
Oh, yes. And man, this game can be mean if you want it to be. Holy bolly. I was, this lovely couple taught me this game. And hu that was so funny because he's like, oh, have you ever played InnoTep? I'm like, oh, i no, I haven't. And I like Phil Walker Harding games.
01:00:35
Speaker
And his wife just looks at him. apart I don't think they're married. i don't think they'll marry. I can't remember. But tom she's just looked at him and gone, no, I'm not, I'm not, I want to play that game with you. He's like, oh, don't worry, honey. It's not as mean at three.
01:00:47
Speaker
I'm like, oh, what am I getting myself into? And if it's not as mean at three, it must be super mean at two because you've got these ships that you've got to take out to, um and and there's only three or four spots you can go to.
01:01:02
Speaker
Wherever you move the ship, that's the action you can take for the game, and for that round. So the action, not not one of the actions, the action you can take. So if someone wants to do an action, and you take that spot with your ship,
01:01:16
Speaker
man. um And it just kept happening. And this lady, Sherry, who is awesome and friendly and lovely, I was genuinely concerned for Greg's wellbeing when she was playing this game.
01:01:31
Speaker
Um, but we we, we had a great time. We had a laugh, but far out. I was just like, and you know me, I'm not a big fan of mean games and I'm just, I'm playing this game and I'm like trying to keep the peace as best I could.
01:01:43
Speaker
And the whole time in the back of my head going, i am never playing this with Helen and I don't think I'm ever playing this game again. So, uh, i it It's actually on my list to play now. I really want to play it. I'm sure. Yeah, you probably would be like, that's that's my jam right there.
01:01:58
Speaker
That's my jam. And for those that know me and Ingrid and Shane, they'll be like, I bet you ST wants to play that now. Yes, he does. Next game day. It's coming out. We are finding it, Ingrid and Shane, and we are playing it.
01:02:13
Speaker
we We do love our main game. Well, there you go. That's it. 10 games or there's 20 games from 2016 that we both either like or we want to play. And I reckon you've pipped me on the the BGG list, mate, but we'll wait and see you until next episode.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure. I nearly, there was one game I was going to mention, but um I actually know, i don't know, it's exact ranking, but I know it's in the 28,000s. So I thought I'm going to leave that one off.
01:02:44
Speaker
That would kill your score. No, that was Zung or Zung. don't know how to pronounce it, but it's X-X-U-N-G. um It's actually kind of a it's a cool little, like almost like a paper and pen game that Raf and I play on BGA every now and again. It's worth it.
01:02:59
Speaker
Worth having a look, but not worth losing 28,000 points for. No, it was good. No, was good, mate. I enjoyed that. So next week is the little amounts who did come up Trump's in 2016 and, um,
01:03:14
Speaker
next Next week we'll do 2017, which was a massive, astonishing year in board games. Yeah, look, the hits keep coming, don't they? like we do It's still going to get better and better now. we i mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people's favourite game of all time, which used to be the number one game on BGG, is 2017 game. so Yes, I'd say so. Yes, that'll be there.
01:03:36
Speaker
Whoever rolls the dice first. Oh, no, no, let's let's be fair. and you can take You can take the number one spot next week. Oh, no, I'm happy that i'm happy to put you on the chance every week. yeah like i don't need I don't need your pity.
01:03:54
Speaker
All right. Well, that was great episode, mate. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the idea. and Now I understand it, I'm i'm even more excited to but to dive into 2017. 2017 is going to be cool. And then it's going to be interesting because I reckon as the years go on, the ballgame industry got bigger and bigger.
01:04:11
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, there'll be a ah massive selection of games coming up. so Yeah, to be honest, like I think on that list, I think I'd played 39 games from 2016, even though it's got some of my favourite games of all time. I think that's because...
01:04:29
Speaker
I got into the hobby after it. So the only games I've played are the ones I've gone looking for or come across in time. Where moving forward, I culture the new means I've probably played a lot more games. I might not like them as much because I didn't, you got into the hobby when you yeah you love the games you get into the hobby with. So it'll be interesting to see where, how it all goes. But yeah, it's going to be some cracking weeks.
01:04:51
Speaker
There's going to some cracking weeks. But I don't think there's going to be a bad week, put it that way. I don't think there's ever been a bad week. And for those that, you know, want to go out and pick up a game for 2016 we've just given you 20 20 good ones there and still yeah i'll allow you my tip i'm gonna look for it now you should be able to get majority of them still in the market so yeah i think so yeah i don't think there's much there i mean maybe automobiles might be hard to find but you'll be able to pick up a copy and you can play it on bga
01:05:24
Speaker
All right. Thanks, mate. Have great weekend. Same to you, mate, and we'll catch up next time next week. you later.