Transcript
Speaker: Roll the dice, pack your bags, let the countdown begin Shane and Steve's top 100, who's gonna win? Will Steve crown a feast for Odin his number one prize? Or will shit, real confusion take Shane by surprise?
Speaker: Let the countdown swing! Skid-a-da-da-ba-dum-bam!
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to Mate Let's Play where we're in the midst of our continual top 100 countdown. Today we've got Shane. are doing Shane? Mate, I'm fantastic and look we're doing it at night time.
Speaker: We've done it for a night time for a long while now. No birds chirping in the background. No birds chirping. There might be some cane toads croaking but you know that's okay.
Speaker: We live in Queensland. Well, speaking of Queensland, we have another guest with us tonight, but he hails from very far away, but has chosen to live in Queensland as opposed to his own country.
Speaker: This is Lucky Phil. How are you going, guys? I'm going good. a Good to hear. Welcome to, I think this is the first time we've had you on this podcast. I think we had you on the Chinwag once upon a time.
Speaker: i Yeah, I think I came and did the top 10 on the Chinwag once, yeah. yeah Yeah, very cool. for today for the funding those that are the fans of the show, Mucky Phil is a great mate of mine And we board game most Thursday nights together with a good core group of four people.
Speaker: But also, too, at game days, you know, it's pretty much we we hog a table the whole whole day. So it's great to have you along. Well, it's pleasure to be here. yeah I don't want to spoil the list, so I'll i'll wait until the end of your list before i have I have a question for you. So if the game comes up that I have a question about, I'll ask then. Otherwise, I'll ask at the end. So nothing gets ruined. But something about this Thursday Night Game group that I find very interesting.
Speaker: about a particular game. So we'll see how that goes. Also tonight, I will be mentioning Mick or Michael or Jedda if you're on our BGA group, which is my nephew. I'm going through his top 10 as well.
Speaker: So I'll briefly run over those games every second game so we get right through to the to our number 21s, Phil's number one, and Nick's number one as well. But to kick it off, his honourable mention is Twilight Imperium. He says he only ever played the game once, so it feels a bit wrong to list it in his top ten, but that one play was good enough was good enough that I'd be remiss of him to not mention it at all.
Speaker: So I understand that. I've actually got Twilight Imperium in my honourable mentions as well. Oh, wow. It's fantastic game. It's just so epic, it's so hard to get to the table.
Speaker: So I think only played it three times. Each one's been fantastic. But I've noticed that quite a few of my games have dropped out of the 20 because I haven't played them enough.
Speaker: Yeah. i think that Pretty fair sentiment across the board, I think. Nice. And at the first crossover. Perfect. There we go. A crossover, honorable mention.
Speaker: All right, without further ado, let's just get to let's just rock straight into it. so Sorry, Phil? I've got a couple of vulnerable mentions, which I might get out of the way. The other one is it's Blood Bowl, because I've been playing a lot of that with um with DG and G-Money and Troy.
Speaker: So I got into that sort of rabbit hole and bought a lot of teams and painted them all up and played them, which is, I'm still staying very far away from forty k Not going down there.
Speaker: ah And the other one, which basically should be my number one game, but I'm not putting her in there. It's Magic the Gathering. I played it for over 20 years. i had thousands and thousands of cards and thousands of hours of playing it so but it's a collectible card game rather than a board game so I didn't put her in there yeah that is definitely worth a mention because it's a fantastic game and i I do remember though you were at one point very high up in the rankings of the old Star Wars collectible card game weren't you as well
Speaker: it was the It was called the Versus Star game. It was a superhero game. So it was like all DC and Marvel superheroes. And I think it was done by WizKids, but they had such a great support.
Speaker: Like there was a lot of money in the competitions and the prizes were fantastic. And they just pulled it all. and That we're not supporting anymore. And it just died. The whole game died within three months.
Speaker: just quick Just quickly on Warhammer 40K, I saw a great sign someone posted on a board game group and it was um it just said, ah and ah and like and unaccompanied children will be taught Warhammer 40K. Please be aware.
Speaker: like That's a great way to make sure you keep your children in tow, for sure. now what No parent can afford that. how did How did you go down the rabbit hole? Because didn't I hear it a story from you where you went to a games workshop with your son and he painted a figure up and made him and...
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. So, know yeah, luckily we haven't delved directly down the rabbit hole yet. He he still hasn't played the game. He's just, he he is, I was saying to him today, he needs to play D&D because he has these storylines going on. His table is full of Warhammer characters, Memoir 44 characters, Lego minifigs, and then if you touch anything, you're in trouble. Like, it's a whole storyline going out across his table.
Speaker: And I'm like, you just got to play D&D, mate. You've got that creative brain that you you'd love it. um But yes, he he's still every he I've made the deal with him that I'm not going to buy him any more 40K until he has painted everything that he has. And he has at least played the game a few times to understand it. So that's slowed the the desire. But he'll get there eventually. So we'll see.
Speaker: He wants a 3D printer now so he doesn't have to buy the things. He can just print them. But if you go if you've got a Warhammer store close to you, i don't know if you have. No. I had a drink it almost came out my nose.
Speaker: Yeah, well, actually, funny you say that, Phil, because the one in Cairns, which we do go to Cairns probably once every quarter just because it's our only place nearby. And by nearby, mean it's only 1,200k away.
Speaker: um That's bigger than Every time. It is. it's it's it's closer we We are closer. that You are closer to Hobart than you are to me right now.
Speaker: ah even though they you're in the same state as me. So, but anyway, um, So, yeah, every time we go to Cairns, we go to the Warhammer shop there. And the guy is awesome. And he was the guy who got him to paint up the mini.
Speaker: And I felt really bad because we couldn't buy – I was going to buy him the set from there. But because the small planes that we have to fly to Bemiga, we wouldn't have been able to fit it in our luggage um because you have a strict 20-kilo limit. So I didn't buy off him. I bought it online.
Speaker: And he's like, no, that's cool. just like We don't work on a commission. Just go for gold. And every time we've gone in, he gives us the mini of the month. He gets him to try something else with paints and stuff. Oh, great. I'm like, what ah what a like failure of a business model, but brilliant customer service. I don't know how they're making money if they're not interested in sales. but that That's the hobby, though That's the hobby.
Speaker: The hobby is all about supporting people and bringing them in. i if i'm If I've got a half hour for lunch and there's Warhammer shop around, I'll go in there the menu of the month? He goes, it's this. Do you want to build one one? Yeah. And I'll sit down I'll just build it, put it in little box, bring it home.
Speaker: When the grandkids and they all say, what are you doing when I'm painting all my figures? is it I'm just painting the figures. Here you go. Have a go. Give them one of them. Yeah. yeah You know, it's a no brainer.
Speaker: It is it's definitely a very cool community. I can see that. It's just also a massive financial rabbit hole that I do not need to jump down. I'm trying very hard to avoid. that one does so Blood Bowl is bad enough.
Speaker: 40k. To me, Blood Bowl sounds perfect to me because that's like one fantasy football. Yeah, and you only have to paint 11 guys.
Speaker: usually twelve There's usually 12 in a kit for 50 bucks. So, and when they did the new rules, they made it that every box is playable out of the box for a team. So with a lot of the power teams, they you have to buy a second box just to get two extra figures, like two ghouls, because you needed four ghouls and they only like two in a box.
Speaker: So they changed all the rules for every team so that you had the full team apart from the big guys in the box who was playable straight away, which I thought was a cool.
Speaker: We need to move on before I spend money. Okay. More money. All right, we better get started because we have 70 games to chat about, so this could be a long one. Yeah.
Speaker: ah So I guess order of operations, I'll i'll kick off with my 40 and then we'll go to Shane's 40 and the Phil's 20 and then twenty one every second one I'll do one of Mick's just to confuse everything. Yeah.
Speaker: you all good with that? Sorry, listeners, if you're trying to keep up. let's Let's start with Phil's 21 so he doesn't throw it out. So what's your 21st game, Phil?
Speaker: It's a zoo. It's ah the classic Kiesling game. It was the one game that I can, my wife doesn't like the games I play. She said, why don't you just play one game well when you've got 200 sitting there? And it's like, oh, but it's the one game she'll actually sit down and play.
Speaker: It looks great. It's got an amazing table presence and it's Easy to learn. It's the perfect gateway game, I think. It's that and Ticket to Ride. The rest, don't even bother with.
Speaker: Just start with those. So, yeah, Azul. Great choice. And I believe you came second to someone today. so Well, the king of Azul, Mr. Tonkin.
Speaker: yeah I thought he was actually going to flip seven games. No, no. It was a fun game. And And and we we play it really well, too, as a group of four people when we play as well. so Good choice, mate.
Speaker: The one thing I do like about it is you can be nice and play with your family or you can be a complete butthead and yeah be mean ass. It's one of those games that all depends how you want to play.
Speaker: How bad do you want to win? so Yeah. And what I like about playing in our group is I know there's a certain person out there group of four people that hate when someone speeds up a game.
Speaker: And so I completely sped up the game Azul. I think that person came in. Halfway through and it says, it is your last turn. It's like, what? Okay. I ended the game really quick because I did the math in my head.
Speaker: I did the math in my head. I thought, no, I've won this game. as ah I'm finishing it right now. Yeah. All right, well, I think that's a bit of a crossover across the thing that's been mentioned a couple of times. i think I had it in maybe later in the countdown and it also got mentioned by Manuel.
Speaker: So a few people have mentioned us all. ah My number 40 is a game I have played one time and I was very curious about this game and I didn't want to buy it until I played it because I'd heard really good things, but it just sounded odd. And that is a train game with dinosaurs and it is Cretaceous Rails.
Speaker: And I am now waiting for my copy to arrive because it was so good that I backed the second print straight away. And it's, It's such a cool ah decision, like a, what would you call it? Like action selection where you've got this little dobber thing and you put it in between two actions and they're the two actions you going to take, but there's only a limited amount per round. So as you get towards the second half of the round,
Speaker: you can really block people out of where they want to go and make them take a subpar action. So there's fair bit of player interaction, even though you're kind of you're kind of doing your own thing with your actions, you can block people out of what they want. So a really, really clever system. And the the the theme, although Luce is...
Speaker: that it's the future and time travel is like everyone's favourite thing to do, but everywhere else has just been ruined except for the Cretaceous period. So we're we've gone back there to build a theme park around these dinosaurs living in this distant past, apparently.
Speaker: Works for me. It's a fun game. Cretaceous Rails is my number 40. has Has the designer done any other games? I don't think so. And Journey. I'm not familiar. I'll have a look. But I thought I hadn't heard of anything. But, know, I'm not an Almanac. There's a game called Spirium. don't know if you've played it. But you've got like a grid of nine cards.
Speaker: But you put in your meeples in between the cards. And you trigger the cards on either side of your meeple. Okay. And it just sounded a little bit familiar similar to that where you you're not actually placing them on the cards, you're placing it between them.
Speaker: and Yeah, okay. Yeah, ah similar sounds like a similar thing, yeah. Well, according to BGG, she has created a game called Master of Kung Fu back in 2016 and another game called Aguere in 2014 and then nothing until Cretaceous Rails in 2025. So she spent a lot of time working on that game.
Speaker: Sounds fun. it's good. Good choice. My number 40 is a dice-driven engine-building game, and it's about commanding a a fleet of starships.
Speaker: Its key mechanics ah include dice rolling, tableau building, card drafting, income generation, spacebased It is space-based. always think it's space-based It's you're making space sound space sound really full on. I know, wasn't Didn't I do that well?
Speaker: That was good. I thought, you know, Phil's on the show. I've got to step it up a bit. So, but yes, Mr. John D. Clare, one of my favourite board game designers, and he designed an awesome game. It's my number 40 here. Space-based.
Speaker: I thought you said you were going to ah guess my favourite designer before this. Oh, yes, yes, sorry. So, Steve, I thought we should try and guess who Phil's favourite designer going to be and perhaps what his number one game is.
Speaker: it's going hard for you because you don't have Phil well. Yeah, this is literally just potluck. I'm just going to go off based on the games you guys play on Thursdays ah that you talk about. So, for designer, I'll go with... um Phil, were you the person who was keen to teach Great Western Trail?
Speaker: No. No. Okay. So I'll leave Fister out of it. um I'll just go – I don't want to say Martin Wallace again. Let's go – give you clue, mate. Okay. I'll give you a clue clue because you don't know much of it.
Speaker: My favourite game was once one of yours. I said before you do, was going to say – Maybe let me guess first.
Speaker: Go on. Go for it, Shane. your favorite designer is going to be Jamie Stegmaier or Stegmaier Games? Yes. yeahp Yeah, that's what i was thinking after that comment, for sure, yeah. My number one choice for you.
Speaker: Now I'm tossing up between two. oh they're they're very close to each other. So I'm going to go either. and I'm just going to say it.
Speaker: Cthulhu Death May Die. That's not Stigma, mate. That's Eric Lane. No, I know that. I think that's going to be a number one. Okay. Okay. I'm going stick with the Stonemaier game and just for funsies because it could be Scythe, but just for funsies, I'm going to throw a Tapestry in there and see whether Tapestry might get a Guernsey.
Speaker: So we'll see. We'll see. Oh, interesting. Well, speaking of your list, what's what's your number 20?
Speaker: This is my my epic two-player game. When I listened to your, um you did the top ten, is it two-player or? Or dual or versus games, yeah. Dual versus games.
Speaker: And I nearly slapped Shane for not picking this. It was Star Wars Rebellion. Okay, yeah. I've not played it, but. It's one of the best. It's Star Wars in a box.
Speaker: did The combat was a bit clunky, which they fixed with the expansion. So it's a caveat that the you need the expansion with it because it just smooths everything out, makes it a fantastic game.
Speaker: But... Dependent on my mood, if I'm sci-fi, it's always Star Wars Rebellion. If I feel fantasy, it's War of the Ring. They are both that huge immersive universe, one versus one. v is one there It's just both two fantastic games.
Speaker: I absolutely agree with you. And Star Wars Rebellion, one of my favorite games I've played was with you at your house. Yeah. That was a great game. That's when you lost Lady Bono, wasn't it?
Speaker: Yes. I said... i sit Did you hear that story, Steve? I did. hit hud This is... um ah as it way goes back to chinwa gave That episode. I'm trying to recall it. I just remember the term lady boner. Where I said to my my wife, Lauren, I said, do you mind if I go to Fields and play Star Wars? And she went, you've just killed my lady boner.
Speaker: So... Yeah. That's how get it. Can I go to Fields and play Star Wars? Yeah, 50-year-old man playing Star Wars. Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker: Nothing wrong with that. Well, my number 39 is a big immersive game and has a ridiculously large tower in the middle of it, making it return to Dark Tower.
Speaker: It's a Rob Davio game. So if you keep in score, he's had a few so far. ah But, ah and a whole bunch of other people like, you know, um Isaac Childress of Gloomhaven fame and stacks, Justin Jacobson, stacks of people. But anyway, great game. What I love about this game is that there are so many different elements that you're using the similar mechanism for. So you can, uh,
Speaker: play you'll pay your money to attack monsters, but you can also pay your resources to go deep into caves and go searching for stuff. It's got like the exploration built in as well as the attacking. And there's just been some great moments where there was one game where I played with my son where I was fully surrounded by wolves. There was like eight wolves around me and I was about to die. And he's just on the other map, just trekking around, having a grand old time, won the game without me. And that was and we win as a team, so it didn't matter.
Speaker: But, yes, it's a ridiculously large tower that might be seen as a gimmick for some. And you can have bad games of it, just like the one we had in Brisbane where there I killed us all before we got to anything fun. yeah No, I think it was at the ah community place, actually. Community place. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And I killed everyone before we got, like, even to the third level monsters in those four levels. So that was very disappointing. But especially when I'm trying to show off a game that I love. But, yeah, great game. Worth a shot if you ever get a chance to play it. It is hard to get, obviously, because it was Kickstarter only, but excellent. Return Dark Tower.
Speaker: Choice. Almost across that.
Speaker: That's interesting. If we go to designer, okay we have almost an absolute crossover. buts um So my game is an adventure game of cult fighting and cosmic horror.
Speaker: Key mechanics include dice rolling, variable player powers, scenario objectives, modular bosses, cooperative combat, and a theme centered around on investigators disrupting Rituals battling cultists. Cthulhu Death May Die.
Speaker: Cthulhu Death May Die is my number 39 by designer Rob Davio. Rob Davio. And Eric Lang. Eric Lang. So.
Speaker: Yeah, don't know if I've ever had a game that's just by Rob Davio. He kind of just jumps with everybody and goes, I'm here, I'll help. Wasn't he the original Pandemic guy? Yeah, yeah. But that was obviously taking Matt Leacock's game. So it's always like, yeah, if you want to do Legacy, yeah if you want to do a Legacy, Rob Davio's on the box, basically. It's he owns that.
Speaker: that Yeah. Great choice. It won't be the first time that's mentioned. I can guarantee that. Well, it might be the first. Definitely won't be the last.
Speaker: Won't be the last. That's it. CMD.
Speaker: Okay, well my number 19 and I did last minute switch. It's Power gri
Speaker: Grid. It was Barrage, but I've only ever played it once. I loved it, but I've played Power Grid so many more times and...
Speaker: At the moment, I think Power Grid edges it, but if I get more plays of Barrage, I just like the meanness in it. I reckon that could shoot up on my list quite a lot. But yeah, fantastic games with ah Thursday Night date Game Group.
Speaker: you know I still remember the one time that Shane goes, I'm gonna do this and finish this. And Pasternak was like, are you sure? And he's like, yeah. He's like, are you really sure? I was like, yep.
Speaker: And Shane jacked it by a point. He'd done all the calculations. I said, going to finish it here. And he won by a point. it was just like, I think it was on one of our retreats, wasn't it, Shane? It was on the retreat, yeah. and And, yeah, you know when you beat past the nick of Power Grid, that's a good win.
Speaker: And he was, yep, he sped the game along and won. just like he did the game before with Oh My Goods. So he was on a roll with, the let's hurry up and play more games.
Speaker: um um I'm going to cut Mick's list and put that on our next episode. we're already doing 10. Okay. because otherwise we're just going to be here till midnight, which is great, but maybe not great for everyone. So sorry, Mick, if you're listening and you've heard me build you up, I'll try and edit as much of that as I can out, but I probably won't be able to edit it all out. So we'll get to your list when we're doing our top 20, which does then take me to my number 38.
Speaker: ah Way back earlier when we started this countdown, I think in my top 100 to 91, I mentioned the Seven Wonders games. And you were like, wow, I can't believe Seven Wonders Jewel is this low.
Speaker: And that's because it's been almost like for like replaced by a Lord of the Rings Jewel for Middle Earth. which is my number 38. It's a great system. It's the same system. The car drafting is amazing.
Speaker: But it just gives you a little bit more. I love the little race between the, don't know, I'm not too big on Lord of the Rings to know the name of everything. You're going around the map. You're around the The map, you've got the you've got the area control, you've got the race mechanism, you've still got the the tribes, which is like the science.
Speaker: So good. um I love games where you're sitting pretty thinking you're doing something really well. Like maybe you've got a heap of victory points or maybe you've got five of the six tribes and then suddenly the other person just wins the game and you're like, oh, I wasn't paying attention to that.
Speaker: Would you recommend that game, Steve, if you've got Duel with a couple of expansions? you see Does it supersede it or... Well, ah for me it does, yeah. I don't know. it's it's It's hard to say. like I'm not a Lord of the Rings fan, so it's not the theme. I shouldn't say that. I like Lord the Rings, but I'm not like a fan fan. Like I just went to New Zealand earlier this year and I didn't go to Hobbiton. So I'm sure I'll get there one day, but it wasn't like I had to do that.
Speaker: um So I just think it takes Seven Wonders Jewel and adds not much, but enough to make it a little bit more interesting personally. Okay. Okay. Oh, great.
Speaker: I think it's a play before I buy a game. Yeah. Since I've got the other one. Yeah, fair call. ah Good choice. Now, this is almost a crossover with Phil.
Speaker: So close. Very, very close. So um this is an epic asymmetric strategy game that recreates the galactic conflict between...
Speaker: the Rebel Alliance, and neglect the Galactic Empire. And that is Star Wars Rebellion is my number 38. thirty eights So close, Phil.
Speaker: In saying that, that was your 20. But Star Wars Rebellion, love the game. It is Star Wars in the box, without a doubt. And when Phil and I played it,
Speaker: at his house. That was probably one of my favourite games of the year that we played. it was good fun. It was so much fun. So I was just chasing Phil around everywhere and trying to find him and I was trying to hide.
Speaker: It was great. Really okay good game. Good fun. I'm going have to play this at some point. So it's my 18 and, well, Shane will know this. He's talked to it on this podcast a few times. It's, um,
Speaker: It really rocketed up my ratings. It's Lords of Vegas. Ah, great game. After Pastor Nick got me these the box, which weighed a ton, so kudos to him for bringing it back in the luggage. Because it's a big box of cardboard, and Shane 3D printed the the casinos, so I threw the insert out and baggied them all up.
Speaker: So it's all in one box now, Shane. So yeah. Nice. Love it. Love the meanness. I love the chaos of the dice rolling where you think I've got four dice. He's got one. There's no way he can gain control. And I just roll three ones and a two and he rolls a six. And it's just like, this is the groan as you just lose control of this multiplex casino. And you think,
Speaker: And the next turn, they draw the card and they score four points on it. And you're just like, the I love it. It's pure chaos. You cannot take it serious. It's just fun.
Speaker: Rightio. Well, my number three, it's a game I've only played once. And it was game that I was really interested in, but I wanted to try before I bought it because I'd heard a lot of great things, but I just wasn't.
Speaker: able to take the plunge without playing it. And since I've played it, I've backed it on Kickstarter. But it's not Cretaceous Rails. It's Ostia. very so Played it on the same trip away, actually, on the board game cruise that was I was on.
Speaker: And just some really, really fun Mancala mechanism that you wherever you choose from, you get the resources where you choose it from. and whatever but as you drop off your little pieces along the route, wherever you finish is the action that you take, which is a really cool puzzle to try and figure out.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's it's hard to get because it's a Uchibukoya game and they don't really sell them in shops. But Rosalie was just on Kickstarter and I backed Rosalie for a dollar just so I could go and add Ostia to the cart. not going to hang Rosalie, I'm buying Ostia.
Speaker: So hopefully won't be won't be too far away for that one. But just those two games have just kept me thinking about them ever since I played them. And I think they're the highest ranked games that I've only played once. And they both fell in this 40 to 31. So um yeah, cannot wait to play more of them.
Speaker: Nice. I'm going to see if Phil guesses this one.
Speaker: It's lighter network and resource delivery game set in a mist-covered fantasy land. got it. What is it? The Nebula.
Speaker: Well done, Phil. Well done. Designed by Martin Wallace. Wallace. Martin Wallace. I'm going to be so out with my... I counted... I predicted seven, Phil.
Speaker: Seven Martin Wallace games for Shane, and I reckon I'm underdone. Oh, no, it's going to be double figures, man. I think we're up to five or something now. It's such a great introductory game to his system, right?
Speaker: And Lauren loves Fear Nebula. So this weekend I said, look, I'm going to step you up. she She goes, can we play a board game on Sunday? she said, yeah, of course we can. Father's Day.
Speaker: No, no, no, no. Sunday they just gone. Oh, okay. And I said, yeah, of course we can. I said, would you like me, because you like this game via Nebula, I said, would you like me to teach you the next level up from that?
Speaker: And she goes, yeah, okay. So I taught her Steam Power. Do you actually think it's the next level up? I think so. I think it's the same gamery theme. It's almost the same, same, but it's it's it's a little bit more, it's probably the next level up.
Speaker: i like I like the idea of you have to clear the clouds in Via Nebula before you could... Before you could do it. Yeah. But but um she loved it. She loved steam power on the weekend.
Speaker: And she beat you. She beat 86 72. And at the end of the game, so the map, look, i mean, I didn't go any blocking. I was doing a total vassal rule.
Speaker: There was no blocking going on. I wasn't being... You were doing in the husband room who wanted happy wife, happy life, right? I was letting her spread out everywhere, do what she wanted to do, not blocking anywhere. And then... Did you do your ah I'm just going to build factories strategy? No, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I i said, you know, there was a couple of times where I was going to go buy off her and she said, why are you buying off me when you've got them over there for free?
Speaker: Oh, good choice, Lauren. No, you've got to take your own before you can take others. is that No, I know that, but I didn't see them over on the board. oh yeah I didn't see that I had them.
Speaker: So she was pointing them out to me during the game. But ah after the game, I said, what did you think of that? And she goes, I actually really liked that. And I said, okay, okay. Next level, Aegis Dean. Yeah.
Speaker: ah have yeah Have you divorced and remarried another lady, like, with the same name? Because I've been in your house when you've suggested board games, and I cannot believe that same person is now playing Steam Power, the train game. She really enjoyed it.
Speaker: the The best thing about Steam Power is between you can play with two or five. It's over in about an hour. Yeah. It's...
Speaker: You know, it's it's quite easy because you get two big moves rather than just one a turn. It really accelerates the play. And even when you're being mean and nasty and just block it and this, it's still all over in an hour, which I think is a very, very clever design. So that's why Via Nebula has made my top 40 is because it introduced my wife into a system and that I did not even think she'd ever get into.
Speaker: So 37, Bear Nebula, Martin Wallace. Keep them counting, Steve. My number 17, talk about an almost crossover, Age of Steam.
Speaker: Wow, that's close. right I don't, I've read the stuff on the internet about this. I class it as a Wallace game, not a Maggobora game. um And yeah, the amount of maps out there, that and you can't just go willy-nilly. If you don't plan it out to start with, it can ruin your whole game.
Speaker: You know, it it does actually have, it's a Euro with player elimination in it. If you go bust and bankrupt, you're out. it's Which I love because, you know, you can't just go, oh, I'll just go, yeah, yeah. You've got to actually think, all right, where am I going with this?
Speaker: So, you know, and you've got to survey the whole board. You've got to take everything into consideration. ah I think I played you with Shane's pimped-out copy with the acrylic tiles, and Def did a teach.
Speaker: I already had a copy of it. Mine is a very old-school cubes and wooden stick. But I just love it. I can't justify an Eagle-Griffin game like that because it's just...
Speaker: Adortionally expensive. Looks fantastic. fantastic It made my day. we were at Briscon. And think it was like the first year of Briscon, Martin came along to teach some games.
Speaker: And I think DG had a copy on the board game sale table of the original Age of Steam, still in Yeah, that's...
Speaker: That's the one I've got, but it's not in shrink. i got it off one of his old mates with dozens of maps squished into it. and well showed Martin. He said, where where did you get that?
Speaker: And Dave ended up giving it to him, saying, you know, you can have it. And it was just a really nice moment. And he said to me, that has just made my day, even coming to Brisbane.
Speaker: Yeah, remember that happening, mate. Yeah, it was really good. it was It was my 49, so it was on our last episode, Phil. So, yeah, like um no arguments here. Great game. For a totally different... Sorry, you all right?
Speaker: i' I'm only down to your 70 on your podcasts. and I'm... i'm You've done well with it there because it didn't get released when it was supposed to. so they They promise me every week.
Speaker: They lie to me. I had it scheduled and the schedule didn't run. So I was very frustrated when Shane sent me that message this morning, but it's up now. And we've got three in the cannon ready to go. so And I've listened to you already. yeah That's awesome, mate. Thank you very much. I don't know why anyone listens to me talk this long, but hey, I'm glad you do.
Speaker: ah My number 36 is a different transport style game ah based in the air for two players, cooperative, where you can't talk to your partner once you've rolled your dice.
Speaker: Oh, i got this. And that is Sky Team. Yep. My wife and I have played this a ton. We played through all of the base box content. we've We're about halfway through the Turbulence stuff. There's some really funky additions they make in that game and just some bizarre, like, things that you've got to account for. But in the end, that the core mechanism of...
Speaker: two people working together to try and achieve all the goals without the plane crashing and multiple ways to die, only one way to win. ah Yeah, it's just it's loads of fun. We've got a pretty good strike rate, but we we often lose. And when we lose, the blame game starts pretty well straight away. we kind of have to rack them up again and go again just so we can get back on the same page.
Speaker: It's fun of the game. I bought a game of somebody the other day and he he gave me the Sky Team. He goes, I bought this. it was a It's a Chinese copy.
Speaker: You can have it for free. Everything is in there. like it's not the The components are not brilliant, but those it was definitely one of those games where I have to play it before I buy it.
Speaker: But it sat on the shelf because I don't know if my wife would like it.
Speaker: Well, Helen's not the biggest gamer and she loves it. It's it's like it's comfort food for us on ah on a weeknight maybe where we've had a pretty crappy day at work. She'll be like, we'll just play a couple of scenarios of Sky Team.
Speaker: So it works in that. A crappy day it work. Let's go crush a plane. Yeah, let's kill some civilians. Nice work. Put a smile on my face.
Speaker: My number 36 is a game designed by Riddick Adorn. um And at one point it was very hard to get, but then they re-released it. And it's absolute dice-chucking fun where you are trying to get area control and win the certain favours of certain casinos.
Speaker: And that is Las Vegas Royale. It's my number 36. Just super fun. Great party game. And it honestly went on at a...
Speaker: Like an Are You Okay Day, I take that game. Yeah. Because it's a nice way to introduce people into a bit of pushy luck. I don't have the Royale. I have the the old school, which is called Las Vegas.
Speaker: Yeah. And I bring her out. The grandkids like it. They throw games. They throw the dice. They love it when they say, going to have exactly the same. And you're like, no, it means nobody wins. It's like it's...
Speaker: And the best rule ever is when, and Steve, I think you mentioned it last episode, where you're drawing and the guy who comes last wins the buck. Yeah, so that's yes so good.
Speaker: So good. Yeah, great move. It's always is always good to just put, I'll just put one dice on you just in case, especially when it's like a 90K. I'll just put one dice on the ninety k And everybody else goes so hard for it, they end up drawing and you go...
Speaker: I've got a 60, a 40, and a 90.
Speaker: but Just so much fun. It's one of those stand-up moments, isn't it, when everybody's rolling dice and, you know, you play in a pub ball and everybody's standing up and going, oh, ooh, ah. see Actually, I think, Phil, I could be wrong, but i actually think the first time I played that was with your old copy of Las Vegas at Shane's house one night.
Speaker: Yeah, it was, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, and I i picked it up for like 10 bucks somewhere. I can't remember where, but it was just like, this just sounds like fun. It was this, this diving toy shop in Strathbarn.
Speaker: Yes. no Oh, yeah. mean And I went there about a month later and they had Las Vegas Royale and what they had, they had damaged stock. So there's all holes punched in the games. And I phoned up, I just put i posted it saying, Las Vegas Royale is at so-and-so.
Speaker: yeah And four people drove this straight away and picked her up for like 10 bucks. i remember I remember that. i remember where you got it from. Because um Shane Murray drove up there and they went, oh, I don't what's happened, but it's all sold out. Like in the last half hour.
Speaker: yeah The old Quaid-Zan Bull gang work. Well done. How do you feel? Thank ah Sorry, that was I thought that was Phil's choice. He was talking so lovingly about it, but that was Shane's. Sorry, Phil.
Speaker: Number 16 is going to throw a spanner in your number one pick for me. It's Tapestry. Oh, there you go. Not for me yet.
Speaker: yeah So I love the – oh, I think it's a great game. It's one of those games when you don't want to be overly competitive. You just have a bit of fun doing your thing around the tracks. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: it's It's definitely one of the... Let's have a mellow game. Especially if you had a real brain burner or a very aggressive... It's let's play a game where we can just all do our thing.
Speaker: And it's not multiplayer solitaire because what you do does affect. You're racing up tracks. You're moving in around the island trying score points and get resources to extend your turns. I just...
Speaker: I just love the game. I liked it even when people said certain tapestries were, civilizations were unbalanced. may I'm 100% with you there, Phil.
Speaker: I've never played her enough to say this is superpower, this isn't. Everybody had fun playing whoever they played. I 100% agree. i It's this conundrum you get, right, where the people who who have played it enough to know it's unbalanced, I never want to play the game with it.
Speaker: No, you're never going to win Because I just want to play. just want to fun. It is one of the only games I play on BGA where I just go, I'm just going to try this. And I honestly, I don't look at what anyone else is doing. I just, I just go, what's this? How's this going to work? I'll just try this and this. And that's all I'm going to do. ah I love it.
Speaker: And I had it like, we've just started a game on BGA and I've got the Heralds or something or other. And the, Tapestry card is something about exploring.
Speaker: I went, no I've never gone up the exploration track. I'll use that one today. I'm going to go up and see what happens. I remember um I've probably talked about this on the pod before, but i was playing a game on BGA once with randos.
Speaker: And this one rando who was winning the game by a country mile starts getting in the chat, like tagging bug and being like, bug, bug. I should have 10 civilizations, but the game is only letting me have nine.
Speaker: So I don't know how, but he had some combination where he had achieved the ability to have up to 10 civilizations, but he had only had nine. And I'm just like, dude, you're ahead by 200. Like, just just move on with your life. Like, does it really matter?
Speaker: oh But I guess if you figured out the game to that extent and you know you should have it, I could see how that could be frustrating. But that's not my level. I'm just on that. Oh, this is fun. A track to go up. The one thing that annoyed the crap out of me is like, I have a lot of respect for Jamie Stegmaier, right, as a designer.
Speaker: And he brought this game out as a civilization game. And everybody's like, this isn't a Civ game. It's it's like, well, but it is. It's completely different to any other Civ game you've played.
Speaker: But you are evolving your civilizations and yeah yo know It's as much a Civ game as Spacebase is a space game. Maybe more. like Yeah. Good choice, mate. Well done.
Speaker: but to see Flash behind you too, mate. He's still alive, mate, after his tick instant when he costs us $1,000. Good see him. but to same So my number 35 is a game that has been in my top 10 in the past, and it is a game that is basically themeless, although I guess you can say it's themed around space.
Speaker: And it's a great game about upgrading sectors and getting resources when other people do things. And this Spacebase. So nearly a crossover, Shane.
Speaker: Almost. We're close. Almost ah on the same number. Yeah, great game. It's still a family favourite. We've got some, you know it's a family favourite when my two older kids who do not play board games will often reference playing this when we're at Mount Buller on a ski holiday at the pub on the big wooden tables in front of the fireplace.
Speaker: And i that was the night that I made the 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 combo run and I ended up winning the game with like 67 points. My kids talk about that. which they're not they hate they well they don't hate board games, but they they're not they would never choose to play board games anymore. But they'll tell that story, and I'm like, that's cool. So it's a family favourite, still gets loads of play. I still play it all the time on BGA. Love it. Well, I know, and you kill it every time you play Yeah, I once got third in a tournament on BGA, which was very surprising because it is kind of a lucky game.
Speaker: But I guess there's some ways you can play it. I think one of the best things about it is that be phrase you're always... in it if you know what i mean like even if somebody else is doing if they would roll the right dice oh i get this oh i get that oh i can do this so there's no downtime because you're always interested in more every but every single role you're involved yeah yeah for sure um so i'm gonna probably have to try and speed it up now because like we're 48 minutes in
Speaker: And we're four games down into our top four. We've got 16 to go. So, right, be really, really quick. This game here is a role selection Euro game about developing plantations and buildings in a colonial section. It's Andy's favourite.
Speaker: Puerto Rico. Andy's favourite game of all time. Puerto Rico is my number 35. it's It's fun. It's just fun.
Speaker: And I know he hates it, but we just punish him by playing it as a Thursday night group. We just talked about a whole slew of games that talk about paying attention when other people have their turns and getting things when other people have their turns. It all started with Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, really good game. My number 35. Go, Phil.
Speaker: i feel hu My number 15, Western Legends. Cowboys in a box, man. Cowboys in a box. yeah not in small box It is. Just do whatever you want.
Speaker: I remember a game. I went mining. I got all this gold. i took it to the bank. Put in. Got all the money. Then robbed the bank. Got more money. Then run away. You can just do whatever you want.
Speaker: Whether it's just gambling in the casino, gambling. You can be the good guy chasing the bad guys, the bad guys killing the good guys. It's just just fun.
Speaker: Cowboys in a box. Love it. My number 34 is the only game in my top 100 that begins with the letter V. Any guesses?
Speaker: Just on that? Viticulture? No, Viticulture didn't make my top 100 this time around. It was like in my 100 to 110.
Speaker: think Shane's on a phone call, so he's not guessing. Vindication? No, I do not like Vindication. I have two bad experiences with that game. this The second clue will give it away.
Speaker: it is the second of my of the West Kingdom games on my list. no the one The one I really disliked and I sold it without even opening it, Viscounts of the West Kingdom.
Speaker: It is, yeah, or Viscounts, however you want to pronounce it. It is... yeah likeo yeah ah it's I am definitely in the minority here. A lot of people dislike this one. I love it. i think I actually think it's genius.
Speaker: ah trade it onces it changes am I and my game was still in shrink and I sold it. Wow. See, to me, of all of the Shen Phillips games that I've played, and I've played a lot of them, I reckon this is the most genius out of all of them. It's not my favorite of hip theirs, but the the the ways you score points in this, how they they interact with each other and how they also detriment each other at the same time.
Speaker: <unk>s I love it. I love the castle mechanism where you're booting people off and you're trying to climb to the top and other people boot you off. and it's like and then But I love also writing the the yeah scripts with the ink. and ah yeah know it's It's almost like keep talking about Minkala mechanisms. Maybe that's a thing that I like, but it's almost like a Minkala system the way you're continually going around.
Speaker: Just, ah, yeah. i It doesn't get it as much love as it should, I think. But, yeah, it's not my favourite Shane Phillips game, but it's a one I really respect. I didn't dislike it, but Shane had it, and I didn't love it, so I passed it fair call. Shane has it still, um and it didn't make my top 100.
Speaker: Out of Shem's game. Like I said, I understand a lot of people, it's the the least favourite. It's actually, it's a head of architects on my list this time around, but they have chopped and changed a bit over the years, but yeah.
Speaker: it's ah it It has a bit of, and Phil knows this game, Plethora from Shem Phillips. It's got that pick up and deliver mechanism going on and no, just, i don't know.
Speaker: Cool. All right. My number 34 was my number one at one point in time. And i love this game, but I can never beat it and never win it. And I haven't played it for a very long time. I had all the expansions.
Speaker: Oh, I got it. I love the fact... Go. This war of mine. This war of mine is my number 34.
Speaker: I really do like this game, but... I could never get it the table. um And I love the fact that they re-released it and their money went towards Ukraine, which was really nice. sorry I bought a copy of this to play with my son who loves war like loves the history of war. And you were just like, don't play it with your son.
Speaker: So it's still sitting there until he's a bit older. um I played a game of it and it was like, do you want to rescue this woman from the, and let her into your thing? So yes, she yes.
Speaker: So let her in. And of course she had influenza. She infected everybody in the house. Everybody was unhappy. Half of them left. And then when I kicked her out, I got invaded and everybody died.
Speaker: it was the end of the game. And was like, it was only day two. And you were just being nice. Yeah. It's like, don't be nice in that game. It's like, no, close the door, lock her out, let her die.
Speaker: No, I've had a little boy knocking on the door, wanting to come in. yeah Sorry, there go. You're not coming in. i know what you did to me last time. You're not coming in this time.
Speaker: it's It's very story-driven, but it's very dark. It's dark. It's dark. But no, this war of mine, number 34.
Speaker: okay you look Well, my number 14, it sounds like it's Steve's favorite game, is ah Vindication. yeah we vote We've had a couple of classic games on our Thursday night game night for this.
Speaker: I got the big box with all the expansions. i got it from 2D6 Games when it was going.
Speaker: It's a good board game store in Brisbane. And just I just like it. It's like bit similar to game we mentioned earlier on. It's like you don't actually go to the
Speaker: ah the tiles, you're moving in between the the the triangles, you know, where they meet. Yeah, so you can't, but you can actually trigger it and you can gain control of it.
Speaker: And you're a wretched scum sucking something or other. You're trying to get redemption. So you're trying to bring up your your honor and yeah, there's so many different paths in it that I liked it. You can get your owner up, you can get your your movement up, you can get just different little tracks that you can go through. So, yeah.
Speaker: It is a game. It's one of those games where i I really want to play it. I feel like at the right time, the right group even would change my opinion on this game because I was so hyped for this game and I tried so hard to get a copy, finally got a copy and played it and just had a really crappy game experience. actually won, but I won by a country mile and it wasn't even close. and That was kind of what sucked about it. I was it wass like, how is this even...
Speaker: work as a game if I can just do these three things over and over and over again and just house victory points and then I played it again like a couple of years later and it's different result but still just sort of went oh just it was felt lacking to me but then everything about the game people who like the same games as me love it I just don't understand what I've missed but yeah I think you're right it's the right board game Craig this is like your city of the big shoulders for me You get the right group that you play it with.
Speaker: You really enjoy it. um And, yeah, so when you're down next, we are playing Vindication as a group. I think it plays five.
Speaker: It does play five. We'll see if it gets vindicated. the thing You did it. But I think it had a big issues on the Kickstarter that,
Speaker: they supplied lots of things didn't go out. Like the base game went out, but all of the extras and that you supposed to have got when you backed it, they all sort of dribbled out.
Speaker: yeah So I know that Dave was getting bits and pieces for about six months after he sort of given everything what they'd paid for and said, look, you know, this is it. And then something else had turned up and goes, oh, okay, I've got to find out who bought this now. and Yeah, right. Yeah.
Speaker: I think it was bit difficult for...
Speaker: yeah If you backed it, you got it all in dribs and drabs rather than just all in one big... All in my head. Seems like a very expensive way to do it too for the company. that's fine Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Okay, my number 33 is my highest ranked Feld game and might even be my only Feld on the list. What? What?
Speaker: Yeah. And it's the classic. I've got the special edition, but, um, and it's, I know you're going to give me grief saying it's not too, it's it's not high enough, but Castles of Burgundy sits at 33.
Speaker: And you know what's funny is the next, the next game on my list, you're going to lose your shit when you see what the next game on my list is. And you'll be like that beat Castles of Burgundy. Um, it's yeah like i bring Number 33 is huge. I've yeah know played over 800 different games. So 33, it's not like it's a bad number. um It's just I play this game almost only on BGA now. I rarely get out the big box. And that's what I loved about the game was that the big box was quite accessible and it can get to the table. But I've just been playing it on BGA and it's still wonderful.
Speaker: But... i need i need to I need to table the beautiful, big special edition more often than I do. So, yeah, Castles of Burgundy, number 33. Great game.
Speaker: You know who's running a heap of shit on you right now? Oh, yeah. She can live with it. She is doing it. Wow. All right. Okay.
Speaker: Well, my number 33, I actually feel like really bad that it's my number 33 now because it's one of your favorite games.
Speaker: It's your list, mate. I can't believe it. I cannot believe that. It's just so... No. Anyway, Smartphone Inc. is my number 33.
Speaker: Okay. That's a great game. I love this game. And you have taught it so well to us. Every time I've played it, it has been with you. And I really enjoy it.
Speaker: I bought that mobile link thing. That was, that was shit. I think I ended up giving it to you or selling it to you. No, I don't know. I've never had it actually. I got rid of it, but no smartphone Inc.
Speaker: I mean, I love economic games as you know, and, but this is a really simple way to get into economic games. In a smart theme, very, very simple, very easy to teach, and, Steve, you do it the best. So can't believe I'm saying that. I'll take a compliment. You're going to give me that? After what you've just given me on that shit with Stephen Feld.
Speaker: Wow. You blow me away. And it tells you how to how to work the times tables if you really don't know them. That's it. I've got a copy with the expansions and the three, four, five players. and matt It's a great game. it's It's...
Speaker: I think it's even got like a ah rule saying how to teach it and just go through these. It explains it all. You just run through the first round and he go, and that's it.
Speaker: Four more to go. Five times. Yep. Let's go. yeah And it's like, you know, like, and you've got so many different strategies you can use. Like I spent the first one, I think I was the red one, the Blackberry, and I just flooded the market with cheap crap.
Speaker: which filled up all the spaces, you know, but then everybody else went to the technology and later in the game, I was screwed because they all had the cool phones and I was still with ah a Nokia when they were on their iPhones. give me Give me the Blackberry any day in the week, I reckon.
Speaker: The Redberry in that game. It was the Redberry, yeah. It was a cracking game. Very good. Good call. Thank you, but let's move on because I'm still devastated by Steve's 33. Go, go, Phil.
Speaker: go get to My theory is Concordia.
Speaker: Love it. I think it's there so much depth and the only rules you have to do to teach is pick a card, do what it says on it. And that's the rules.
Speaker: It is easy. It's like you've got seven cards to do. You play a card, you do what it says on the card. Move your dudes. Get some resources.
Speaker: bring all your cards back. you know it's It's a bit like the the Luke Glory thing. you know you You play a card, you draw it all back. yeah yeah But with Luke Glory, you tend to get the resources when you draw it back rather than when you play it.
Speaker: But yeah. It's fun. You can be mean. You can strategically place your dudes and ships so people can't move over them because you know how many men they've got, so many places they can move so they can't jump you. and so it's got all that.
Speaker: And it's all open knowledge. It's a classic Euro. It's no dice rolling. The only... randomization is what order the cards come out but they all come out yeah right you'll see so if you're chasing something you'll eventually see it yeah and you might have to pay more for it if you really need it or somebody else might get it because it's cheaper or yeah it's that i just thought it was a great game i love it it's
Speaker: I persuaded the the the group into it and they all sort of got behind it and sort of enjoyed it. Even Shane who hated it to start with. Yeah. So yeah. I've been there.
Speaker: I've been there. i didn it Call that a win. And yeah, just the base game with the Salsa expansion. And the Salsa expansion just literally gives you an extra couple of maps and the salt resource, which you can use as resource.
Speaker: it It just opens up the game.
Speaker: So that was my 13.
Speaker: 13. Well, my 32 is going to blow Shane off his chair because he's going to be like, it's going to be the case for the next 32 games. He's just going to be like, how can you rate this higher than Carl Sussman? Because this is a party game.
Speaker: No, but if it's shoot, no, it's not shoot real. Sharky party. No, no, no, no, definitely not It's neither of those two. You're welcome. Thank you. Otherwise, I'm hanging up. But it is a party game and it is a stupid fun party game. And it's ah it's a brain burner of a party game that some people just hate, absolutely hate. And I love it because I'm a maths nerd and I love a good Venn diagram.
Speaker: And this is Things in Rings. Australian designer, by the way, Peter C. Haywood. So you can't hate on me too much, Shane, because, you know, you've got the homegrown love. I've never played it, so I can't play it. No, me neither. I was just expecting you to be like, oh, you'd write a party game. But anyway, now, things and rings is great. You've got three rings. One's a word, one's a context, and one's an attribute. And you have to, one person is the knower, and they know what each of those things are. So the clue for the word might be has a double letter in it.
Speaker: um So people play down cards and you move them to where the right area is and then everyone at the table has to figure out where all their cards go based on whether they figured out what the clue is in each of the three circles. So like if it says made of wood,
Speaker: um used in used outdoors and then maybe um has a double letter, then wheelbarrow would go in the middle because it would meet all three of those prerequisites. um But if it was something else that i might only meet one or two or even none and you have a little section where you can dump them over into none and that's information too. So it's a it's a it is a competitive game because you're trying to get all the cards out of your hand, but it's just a fun party game that you either love or you hate.
Speaker: No one's partial to this game. It's very much it's your style or it's not. And it's my style. So it's my number 32. Well done. Nice. Nice.
Speaker: Well, this is a brand new board game to my list and it's not my highest Steffenfeld game. Okay. reckon I gonna know what it is.
Speaker: This game, i play I've only played a couple of times now and the first time we played it, it went for almost five hours because we had to learn the game
Speaker: And I'll keep talking. And it is Civilution by Stephen Feld. Similar mechanics to... I thought it was intriguing. But you are building a civilization and where you're focusing on, you know, shaping it, building a culture, building exploration, building your invention.
Speaker: And it's it's really cool. It's a really cool game. i just want to play it more. um I need to probably, it's it's perfect it's a perfect Thursday night game night, Phil, where we play it for a few weeks in a row.
Speaker: But Civilution is brilliant. I thought it might have been Trajan. That's why I was saying T for Trajan. We all thought you were saying timeout. So we stopped talking. I thought too. for me, mate. All right.
Speaker: ah that ah Okey-doke. Oh, my number 12. Mr. Wallace's. It's rated at board game key number one.
Speaker: So i don't have to say anything else. It's been talked about already, hasn't it? Brass Birmingham. Great game. Actually, I don't know if Brass Birmingham has been mentioned on either of our lists. hasn't been mentioned yet. ah it was it was on Andy's somewhere.
Speaker: Oh, you're right. Yes, you're right. Yeah, you're right. But, mate, great game. um The, what's it, Roxley Games did a great um yeah version of it.
Speaker: You know, you get the dark, gritty British... side or the lighter side so i like the dark sort of me too yeah just reminded me of the history that i grew up with in you know the industrial revolution of the of the uk and yeah great game i wasn't gonna ask how old you were phil but did you just say you grew up in the industrial revolution I look very young for my age. You've done well. You may see a lot of oil of you, Ian, or whatever it is. You should see him when he wears his little Peaky Blinder hat, you know, with a razor blade on the top. I'm old enough that they actually taught the Industrial Revolution in school.
Speaker: Okay. So, yeah. But, get we were you choice like right yeah. choice, mate. Iron Bridge and stuff, yeah. And you have all the 3D printed bling to it as well. say Okay, we're almost getting close to halfway through this. so Let's go. Yes, it's going to be a long one, but that's okay. I'm having fun. Shane, we nearly did it again, mate. We missed by two.
Speaker: We nearly had an exact crossover because this is Smartphone Inc., my number 31. Wow. I thought this would have been lower. Well, it's it's sort of hovered and it always comes down to this game. Like it used to be my number two. And yeah the the reason it sort of fell away a little bit was because in the end, the game doesn't change much. What you're doing doesn't change much. The way you do it changes. But like it's it it was if you play it multiple times, it's kind of, it's not really giving you anything more other than a good time, which is still great.
Speaker: um But ah yes, it settles around here. It's just probably because it's so good at five. Like if you're talking about five player games, it's my number one game. But it's hard to always get five um to go. so But my favourite thing about this game is if I always say this. If I was going to tell you, sit down, let's play an economic game that has eight phases per round and five rounds,
Speaker: People will be like, oh dude, I don't know if I've got four hours to spare. And then you're like, no, no, you'll be done in maybe hour, hour and 10. and it's And it hits that. And it just doesn't feel like the sort of mental load that ah an economic game should have. And there's, you know, area control and, ah you know, ah upgrading selections to make them better for yourself and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, it's got a lot. Tech trees and all sorts, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, so much. So Smartphone Inc. I almost feel guilty when I put it at 31, but there's so many good games to come. So what are you going to So do you think maybe that Smartphone Inc.
Speaker: was pre-BGA where they brought in the calculator to help you work out the math quicker? it's It's funny that it always gets mentioned, that screen. But I think it's funny, not for the multiplication, that's awesome. But when you say to people, when you're teaching the game, you're like, you'll need this screen to cover what you're doing. And everyone's like, don't think I'll worry about that.
Speaker: Come round four, everyone's got the screen up. understand it's important now.
Speaker: All right, my number 31 is the perfect entry-level game um to anyone that wants to enter into board gaming where you want to learn route building, you want to learn how to connect cities, you want to learn the mechanics of set collection ah with a bit of hand management and it also, too, some hidden objectives.
Speaker: la Ticket to Ride is my number 31. Yep. i I love the game. i love playing on BGA. Because you can knock out a game, Ticket to Ride, BGA within 10, 15 minutes when you're playing live. It's it's super fun.
Speaker: um But it's also, too, I've taught um i my my nephew. I've taught my best mate's son how to play it. I gave my best mate's son my copy of Ticket to Ride.
Speaker: I play with my nephew in Adelaide on BGA, and he's 10 years old, and he loves it. what a great way to get people into ballgaming.
Speaker: Ticket to ride. Thank you, Mr. Alan Noon. I agree, mate. It's a fantastic game. I actually gave my original one, the Americas, to a workmate because he wanted to play games with his family.
Speaker: And he went out and ended up buying, I don't know why they persuaded him to buy Catan, but he bought Catan. I went, oh, that's probably the worst game you're going to buy. But there you go. But yeah, he bought a couple of other ones. Yeah, great game. So easy to pick up and learn. Yeah, great. too I agree. Yeah.
Speaker: right. Deal.
Speaker: So my number 11 is a game by Troy Boydell. It's rated 867 on Board Game Geek.
Speaker: And it's all about building a railway track a mountain. Pause.
Speaker: It's Tony Boydell. Pause. to Tony Boydell. ah that's just That's my bad writing. Edit that out, Steve. Now, cut it back.
Speaker: This game's by Tony Boydell. And it's Snowdonia. Okay. and I had no idea. So, yeah, cool. it was It's a worker placement game, which is one of my favourite genres.
Speaker: But it's also about going up the highest mountain in Wales. Which it took three goes with my wife, but we did end up walking up it and walking back down.
Speaker: Nice. The first time we went to the UK, it completely rained out. The second time we went to the UK, it was a bright sunny day in his two hours drive.
Speaker: By the time we got there, it was overcast. By the time we were a kilometre up, it was hammering down by with rain. Two kilometers up, and we were thinking we're getting wet now, was when the lightning started hitting the mountain. And we turned around and went, yep, this ain't going to happen.
Speaker: And we were 100 meters away from the car when the hail hit us. Oh, shit. Welcome to Welsh summer. Welsh summer.
Speaker: But on the third day, we had a beautiful day. We went up there. walked all Well, we actually had the the train of what the whole game is about. Three quarters up, we jumped out because there there was maintenance. We walked up the last quarter and then we walked all the way back to the village of Llanabere with the game starts. So it was pretty cool. That's awesome.
Speaker: So, yeah. It's an awesome, great game. You might remember... the Last episode, I mentioned a game called Foothills.
Speaker: Oh, and you were like, ah there's a bigger game coming. Okay, so I'm guessing we're going to finish Snowdonia at least one more time. Maybe. Hello, it's Steve here from the editing room floor.
Speaker: We decided to cut this episode after 10 games because otherwise it was going to be two and a half hours long. So we will pick up at number 31, sorry, number 30 on the next episode.
Speaker: Cheers.
Speaker: you
