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Episode 29: The Podfather Cruise, Briscon and loads more games
58 Plays6 months ago
The Chinwag is back after many adventures through April and May. Dave introduces the pod in his own 'unique' way, which sets the tone for the usual relaxed, aussie pub-style banter.
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Transcript
Board Games and Podcast Delay
00:00:17
Speaker
fucking chin wang it's been forever so we're gonna talk about some board games and shit if you're not down for that then yeah maybe tune out because there's been a lot of board game playing there's been not much board podcast recording so here we are board game time
00:00:35
Speaker
I'll throw out a policy out there to all four of our listeners that I totally thought I'd put out the last episode like three months ago until Shane pointed out that I didn't. And then I was like, oh crap. And that was like a few days before I went on my trip.
00:00:51
Speaker
And then I didn't get it done before then, so it didn't go out until like a week or two ago, which, um, would have made it for interesting viewing because there were a lot of like discussions around dates and things when they're going to happen and when they did happen. Um, so my apologies, people, my apologies. The best thing about that is everything happened that we said was going to happen. Exactly. And I can guarantee you, G Money has not even listened to that episode.
00:01:20
Speaker
I'm not listening to this episode. What? Like right now, he's got us on mute. Fucking shit game that is. Hello. Just some controversial to start your fucking podcast with. I would not be saying that man. Number four rated game on BGG's shit. BGG's shit anyway. Yeah well.
Barrage Tournament Highlights
00:01:50
Speaker
All right. Well, I run BGG, I just got to say. So I joined a barrage tournament and it's one on one. And the game started today. I'm like, oh, I won my first game, like, a lot. And I was really happy. Second game started and it's against the guy who has the highest ELI I've ever seen. He has 718 ELO. Holy. Wow.
00:02:14
Speaker
Okay. Both in Barrage. Justin Barrage. I'm like, wow. I might as well just concede now, Matt. He's like, oh no, this'll be fun. I'm like, not for me it won't. Yeah, you'll have a great time. He's going to be a masterclass in getting whooping, I think. Is his username like S. Luciani or something? Yeah, he's Japanese guy there. Yeah, he's number two in the world in both like the seasons and the old time. Wow. Two-player Barrage. I learned something here. What's that like?
00:02:45
Speaker
It's tight. I'll let you know. It's tight, but it's just tight. There it is. Well, if you win that one, good luck. Let us know how you go, mate. Yeah, not going to happen.
00:03:13
Speaker
Well, the good thing about not putting out the pod is that I'm pretty sure on the pod, we said we were going to do this more often. So the fact that you set it out later, we were doing it more often. I didn't even know this fucking thing was on till I saw a message from Steve saying, I'll see you all in 10 minutes. I was like, oh shit, I better get my headphones. And that's the kind of professionalism we bring to you with the chinwag. I just love every time we go, we're going to do this more often than we don't. Yeah.
00:03:42
Speaker
Sincere lack of follows really, but we're good intentions. We mean, well, we're just terrible. I've actually enacted the, uh, bond game, chin wag chin, uh, gym program where I go, I should do this more often. And then don't resemble that. Are we all paying about $15 a week for the freaking membership as well? It's a stupidity tax for me. I just can't. One day.
00:04:14
Speaker
So board games, hey? So, I mean, we have all played a significant amount of board games in the last, well, let's not ruin the podcast magic, but it's been a little while since we've seen each other and recorded. So, who wants to lead off with some board game experience that they've had? Or should we go in terms of like significance order, like, you know, pod Father Cruise on a down?
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, just do that. Just do that Steve first. Never see you all in about half an hour. Where's the mute button? No, that's that. I don't mean that. That was just a joke. I'm actually yourself. I'm really excited to hear what.
00:04:54
Speaker
Look, it's Steve, right? Yeah, yeah, Steve. Yeah, and
Board Gaming on Podfather Cruise
00:04:58
Speaker
it's me. That's yeah. I haven't seen the other one. Yeah Now it the podcast Podfather cruise for those who don't know was a cruise that went from Honolulu in Hawaii to Vancouver in Canada and it was perfect was the perfect cruise for playing board games because I
00:05:17
Speaker
We left Honolulu. On the first night, we were just in between islands. The second day, we cruised around the island, so it was really cool. And then the third day, we were in the Big Island, which was fucking amazing. If you ever go to Hawaii, go to the Big Island, do all the volcano tours, do the Black Sand beaches. It was just, it was incredible. It was probably the best day tour I've ever done while on a holiday.
00:05:43
Speaker
Um, so absolutely recommend that. But then we get back on the ship and it's six straight days at sea where everything is blue ocean all around us. So it was just board games on from that point onwards. Um, and yeah, we played some games. It was, it was pretty cool. What was interesting though, was that like,
00:06:04
Speaker
I got to play games like Distilled, I got to play Nucleum, World Wonders, I got to play the networks with the designer of the networks, which was really cool. And a few other big games like I played Star Wars at Arim for the first time. But it was the little games that have been the total standouts for me. We all got a copy of a game called Kabanga.
00:06:25
Speaker
which is a German print-only game. It's being released later this year by Amigo Games in English. It's this awesome little card game that you can play, I think up to six people. I probably played eight or nine games of that over the course of the week because everyone had a copy, everyone needed to learn it because the rules were in German, so you had to learn how to play it while you were there so you could actually understand how to do it.
00:06:54
Speaker
So we just kept playing it, playing it. It was so much fun. It's basically this game where you've got the four colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. And they'll have a number like one will be like 12 and the other one will be 18. And
00:07:10
Speaker
If I played the 12 to make it eight in a 12, if you've got any number between eight in and 12, you throw it out and yell kabanga. And then that gets it out of your hand, which is good. And then I have to draw as many cards as I've just been kabanga. And the objective is to get rid of cards in your hands. So it's just a simple card shedding game, but it was loads of fun. And if you can imagine, like some of you guys are familiar with Steven Bonacor, he's quite a character to be around. There was a few of them. So it was always like a raucous occasion playing just these little tiny card games.
00:07:40
Speaker
Another one called Expressions, which was super cool. And then there was this, we played a prototype of a game coming out in
Standout and Prototype Games
00:07:46
Speaker
GenCon called The Gang. And I know that a few of you guys like poker. This is cooperative poker. And it was so cool. It was probably the game that I stood out the most to me because we played it pretty much every night as the last thing we did. And essentially what you do is you each get your pocket cards, your whole cards, and then
00:08:08
Speaker
there's these six chips out in front of you. We use dice because it was a prototype, numbered one to six. And depending on how strong you think your whole cards are, you take the dice that represents that. So if you're holding pocket aces, you'll grab the six straight away. But then maybe I've got pocket aces and Dave's got pocket kings and he's like, no, no, I'm the six. I've got the strongest one. So then he can take the six from me. And then I'm like, nope.
00:08:30
Speaker
That six is mine. And similarly, if you're sitting there with two five off suit, you're like, I'll take the one. And then someone else is like, no, I'll take the one. And basically, you've sort of just figured out where everyone sits based on how eagerly they are to take their their dice in which particular number it is based on their hole cards. And then the flop comes out and a new lot of six dice comes out or chips.
00:08:52
Speaker
And then you do the same again. So if you hit the flop, you'll take a higher die. And if you don't, you take a lower die. And then you'll get the turn and then the river. So you've got these four dice, which kind of tell the story of your hand. And the last thing you need to do is you reveal your whole cards, starting with the lowest value holder of the last round. So whoever's got the one. And then you try and see whether you have successfully gone from one to six or one to however many players you have in order of weakest to strongest head.
00:09:22
Speaker
And if you do it, you succeed. Then the game throws a little curveball at you to make it harder on you. If you don't succeed, the game throws you a little bit of a bone to make it easier. And you've got to try and basically win three times before you lose three times. So again, just quick.
00:09:39
Speaker
easy. I could literally play the game with a deck of cards and a couple of sets of dice. I just wouldn't have those special characters or whatever else but like the game's going to retail for like 20 bucks so it's an absolute definite buy for me but it was it was so much fun not because the game itself the game was fine but the moment it ended and everyone revealed their cards the chat around the table about
00:10:02
Speaker
why did you take this? And why did you do that? And oh, I thought you would have had this. And we had the most bizarre thing that I think you could ever imagine in that game. It's just one deck of cards, right? Four of every number, you know, four Kings, four Queens, et cetera. There's not two sets or anything. I've got this, I've got Jack six off suit. And I'm like, that's a fairly decent high card. You know, I'll go for a three out of that. There was six of us. So three sort of mid ranging someone, surely someone's got stronger cards than me.
00:10:31
Speaker
And then I couldn't hold on to the three. I kept getting the two and then someone to take the two and end up with the one. I'm like, it's definitely not a one hand. Like there's got to be some weaker hands out there than Jack six. Anyway, it ended up, I had the one at the end of the first one and I'm like, okay, well, let's just all remember how disappointed I was that I got the one. Cause this is a strong hand. The flop comes out. I totally miss it.
00:10:52
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, well, no one's really grabbing anything really fast. So I don't think anyone really hit the flop. So I'll take the three again. And then the same thing happened. Everyone kept taking the three off me and then the two off me and that was the one. I'm like, what the hell? And that happened for both the turn and the river. I never hit anything. No jacks, no sixes. I clearly had nothing, but at the same time, no one else seemed to have anything great.
00:11:14
Speaker
And I ended up with the one, I'm like, there's no way. And I flipped over my cards, Jack Six, and the girl sitting opposite me who had the three, she just rolled her eyes and like, oh, we haven't got this. And then the guy who held two flipped over his hand, which was also a Jack Six. And then the girl was like, holy shit, flipped over her hand, also a Jack Six.
00:11:35
Speaker
So three whole cards were the exact same hand. Well, no wonder you didn't get anything. No wonder we didn't hit anything, right? But like how bizarre was that? Like you just, these are the sort of things like we took photos of it and it was like the conversation of the next couple of days, like how bizarre.
00:11:51
Speaker
But yeah, it was just it's just such a fun game. It kind of poker is ruined when you don't play it for money, right? Like people just go stupid and try and do chased ridiculous hands. This is a way to play poker without money that actually keeps you engaged and makes it fun. So yeah, it was fascinating. It was really looking forward to that one coming out. So but yeah, that was what was it called? The gang, the gang. Any copies on the boat for sale or?
00:12:19
Speaker
No, it was actually literally just, we played it with a deck of cards and some dice and a PDF of all the special characters, which the guy who had the PDF was not willing to share with anyone because of course it is the kind of game where if you get hold of that PDF, you don't need the game. And by any chance you didn't take any photos of that PDF. No, I didn't. There was a moment where he was going to bed. He was going to bed and he looked at the people playing and he's like, Oh,
00:12:48
Speaker
You could tell that he wanted to give us the roles, but he knew that he was kind of in a bind. And there was another, I was playing with Gil Hova, who's the designer of the networks. He was on the table as well. And he said, Gil, I'll send you the PDF because you're a designer and you understand.
00:13:04
Speaker
NDAs you understand how important this is not to leak out So I expect that you're not going to share this with anyone and he made it a very important that So Gil got it. I'm like, come on. I'm a trusty Australian. You could throw it my way If you did you guys would already have it In other words we trust no other fuckers on this table Pretty much he made the right decision
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah, there was so many other games. I played heaps of games I'd never played before. I played a few games that I had played before that didn't really sing with me. And I thought, I'll give them another shot. And actually, to be honest, none of them still sing to me, which was Flame Craft. I don't see the fuss around Flame Craft. I get that. I love Flame Craft. Well, and two of the people I played with came away going, wow, this is so amazing. And I'm like, oh, OK.
00:13:59
Speaker
I didn't get it. Cascadia played that again. And I was like, wow, this is even more boring than I remembered it the first time. Again, and then the people I played with went and played another game straight away. And I'm like, I don't understand what I'm missing here. And the last one, which was Spirit Island, where I don't know, I played Spirit Island solo a bit and I didn't mind it. I played with four and I appreciated that it was better with four islands and four
00:14:29
Speaker
spirits, but I didn't appreciate the fact that it took like four and a half hours to play. Yeah, you would have had a heap of AP kick in and that's why it's great solo. Yeah. I think Spirit Island is one of those games that it matters who you play it with. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And it was one of those weird things where the lady who taught it, who was amazing and knew that game backwards, sideways and upside down. She did an excellent teach, but one of the four of us didn't really click.
00:14:58
Speaker
So she turned into a bit of a game manager. She wasn't actually playing. She was just game managing, I guess. But that made it harder for people who weren't quite getting it.
00:15:08
Speaker
to get it because we'd have like the spirits, the settlers attack or whatever else. And she would just do all the calculations and move all the pieces off the board. And we're like, okay, what just happened? We don't actually understand what you've just done. You've just replaced bits. But so we got after a while, she figured that out and started explaining. It's been a long time since I played, but it clicked again. And I remember what I was supposed to do. And I held my own with my little island and went and started helping other people.
00:15:37
Speaker
Um, one of the other guys who was a regular player, he, he and I did a lot of the heavy lifting, I guess, but, uh, and we won, which is great. But I guess my problem with Spirit Island has always been that every time I've won it, it has been a little bit of an anti-climax. Cause it's like, if you get to that third card, which makes it the easiest winning condition, sometimes you just get to that third card and go, Oh, we won. Like.
00:16:02
Speaker
It doesn't finish in a big grandiose fashion, which is kind of what I expected of the game, I guess. But after four and a half hours, you're like, yeah, okay, I'm happy to draw that card. Well, to an extent, but also like we put all that effort in and we're like, oh, cool. So it's over now. Like rather than, holy shit, like, you know, high fives and whatever else. So yeah, it didn't have that kind of cooperative finish that a lot of other good cooperative games have where it's like, you're on tender hooks, whether we're going to win or we lose, it just kind of ends and you go, okay, we did it.
00:16:34
Speaker
So I know someone who that was their gateway game. That was their first game they played. Holy crow. No way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They loved it. And so they're really anti any games that are too simple now. Cause that's where they started from. That's pretty much every game. That's too simple after spirit of Holland. It's not as bad as the other game. Yeah. Hmm.
00:17:00
Speaker
But yeah, it's definitely something that I think I've seen a few people play multiple handed solo and really enjoy. I think you're not anticipating that massive hand like high fiving hand slapping moment when you do it yourself because you know it's coming, you get seed coming. But yeah, it just ends like you go through four hour game.
00:17:19
Speaker
and you all tried really hard and your brain actually hurts and you're like, yay, we finally did it. Where are we? We don't have to keep struggling against this. But if you're doing it yourself, it's just such a good puzzle until you win. Then you like high five yourself. Yeah. Yeah. But multiple handed solo is definitely the way to go. I don't think you do it just one for one.
00:17:45
Speaker
It works best with four, I think, and if you can do it four by yourself, it's a massive effort, but makes such a difference. Four by yourself. I've never done that. I've done three on my own, and I've loved it, but not four. Wow, that's a brain burn.
00:18:02
Speaker
It was cool to see the synergies between the spirits. I had the lightning one, I can't remember what it was called, but that meant I got to go early pretty much every time. Even if I had slow cards, I could make them fast. And then I could make other people's cards fast. And that got us ahead of the curve a little bit.
00:18:20
Speaker
rather than having to wait until after the phase is, but where the settlers attack essentially. So that was kind of cool. And then the other guy that had played before, he was a character that
00:18:34
Speaker
stayed on the coastlines and he could just pop up on another coast and do damage and then go back and come around on another coast and do damage later on. So it was it was really cool to see how the spirits sort of interlinked with each other which was which something I hadn't like playing it solo and only playing the the one spirit previously I'd never seen that so that was cool. So tell us about Distilled Steve because that was probably one of the most fun games of the last year.
00:19:01
Speaker
It's a great game. I'm really glad I got to learn that game. However, I will say that that was also the most difficult teach of a game I've ever endured, not because of the teacher himself. I actually felt really sorry for the guy who taught the game. The guy I taught the game with clearly had some anxiety around teaching games.
00:19:26
Speaker
And at that table was another guy who, when he thought of a question, couldn't wait until there was an appropriate moment to ask a question, just needed to blurt it out.
00:19:36
Speaker
So the guy teaching the game would be halfway through a sentence about something. And the other guy would be like, but what happens if this happens? And what happens? And like, and he's like, yeah, I'll get to that. Like, just let me finish talking. And that happened a lot. And I'm just like, wow, this is, I would be losing my bundle right now. And the other person at the table was, I kid you not, learning the game and just every now and again, just taking a couple of seconds, picking up a book, starting writing in a book, just about a journal entry.
00:20:06
Speaker
And then she closed the book and turned around and go, so what's going on? And I'm like, are you serious right now? Like, this is a heavy game and you're just this guy is going through the rules and you're now asking questions because you decided that you wanted to write in your journal. She had two journals. It was insane. And it and then towards the end of the game, something happened. We got a rule wrong.
00:20:28
Speaker
And she lost her shit at the guy doing the teach. And he's like, oh, you know, it's not an excuse, but I do have ADHD and I haven't taken my medication on this ship. And she's like, well, I am too. And that's no excuse. And he's like, well, yeah, it is an excuse.
00:20:49
Speaker
um you know like it is something i'm very sorry i missed that one rule and i'm like and i just i went up to him after the game i said dude that was you did a fantastic job teaching you don't need to put up with that shit because like she didn't listen to half your teacher anyway you could have said that rule and she wouldn't have had anybody idea um and it was so that i was sitting there i think i messaged the the group when i was playing that game and i'm like
00:21:12
Speaker
If I come out of this liking to steal, it must be a fucking great game because that circumstance was not conducive to an enjoyable time. But I did. I really enjoyed that game. I thought I'd like it, but then it looked a little bit too convoluted, but then it's totally not convoluted.
00:21:30
Speaker
It's really simple. Simple game. Yeah. Just building up your ingredients. And then I love that little bit of push your luck where you're like, sometimes you really, you don't really have a lot of ingredients, but you just hoping to pull the alcohol out.
Distilled Game Experience
00:21:42
Speaker
So you keep all the ingredients in and then you end up making moonshine. You're like, ah, gosh. And then you're like, okay, but I've got this cool bottle that makes my moonshine better. So happy days. And yeah, it's, it was really cool. I really enjoyed it. So definitely a winner that one.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah, I do like that game. And so, Steve, if you ever want to have a good teach, Pastor Nick teaches it really well down here in Brisbane. He's brilliant at teaching it. The guy who taught the game too, like he was afterwards, he's like, we should go and lap this. Let's go to the bar and lap it. I don't know if they've got Koju, but I'll give it a shot. Soji or whatever it was. Yeah.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah, the guy who taught it, honestly, I know how to play that game back to front now. So he did a great job. He just unnecessarily copped a lot of flack for things he shouldn't have. And the poor bugger just looked like he was upset the whole time. And I felt like I just wanted to give him a hug. Like, dude, you're doing fine. Don't let these crazy people get in your way. But anyway, yeah, that was distilled. So how many people were on the cruise, like board gamers was?
00:22:55
Speaker
Was there other people there or just board games? So there was 49 in our group. Of that 49, there was probably about six kids that played a couple of games, but not really, and a couple of partners that didn't play. So I'd probably say there was 35 to 40 dedicated board gamers. And that was really cool because we really just, I'd really got to know everyone, made some really good friends. We
00:23:22
Speaker
We were sat in the same place in the dining room across four tables. We're always on the same table with the 11 of the same people. So I know everyone on that table really well. And, you know, I actually met a guy, Eric, who runs the onboard games podcast and actually had me on one of his episodes not long ago again. So to talk about
00:23:47
Speaker
gaming in Australia and what you guys do, like the R.U.A.K. Day stuff. He's an educational psychologist, so he wants to talk about mental health in board games, which, as you guys know, I've talked about before, and that's a topic I'm passionate about. So that was really cool. Met him and his wife. They were lovely. Met Tony Lawhorn, who has done some
00:24:09
Speaker
marketing and game design for Kickstarters and things like that. Obviously, Botacore was there all the time, got to have plenty of games of Thunder Road Vendetta with him.
00:24:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, just really good group of people, a couple of, like I said, couple of designers, couple of people from the industry, but most people were just, just love board games. So yeah, the, the, the place that we played the conference center on the ship was at the back of the ship on deck 13 with all glass windows. So you had this beautiful outlook over the ocean the whole time you were playing games. We're, we're, we're cruising into Vancouver and you can see mounts, low cap mountains in the distance. And like, how, how awesome is this? So.
00:24:47
Speaker
whole experience was excellent. I'd do it again. I'd recommend it. We had a couple of, I randomly won a basketball, came second in a basketball trivia thing, which was very bizarre. I'd gone to lunch with Tony and his two kids at like the steakhouse place. And then we were kicking us out. So we went to the bar next door. We're just having a couple of drinks, having a yarn. And then they're like,
00:25:10
Speaker
We're doing basketball trivia next. And I'm like, oh, I know something about basketball. And we end up winning a medal. And Tony was like, I got one question. You got the other 14. So yeah, little things like that. It was a cruise. There was 49 of us. There was 4,550 other people who had a great time just doing cruise stuff. So even if you're not really into board games and a lot of the partners weren't,
00:25:38
Speaker
They just went and did shows and, you know, um, all the, you know, uh, rock climbing and flow riders and. Dodging cars and all kinds of stuff that were, that was available on the ship to anyone just on a normal holiday. So yeah, unbelievable. 10 out of 10, we'll do again. 10 out of 10 am doing
Cruise Gaming and Future Plans
00:26:02
Speaker
again. So how many days were you actually playing for?
00:26:07
Speaker
Well, the cruise was nine days. I played a board game every day. One day I only played one game. The first three days was a few games. The last six days was pretty well solid, you know, almost a dawn till dusk kind of thing. We'd play games, we'd stop, we'd go and eat lunch, we'd come back, play a couple more games, or go out to dinner together. Some people would go to a show, some people wouldn't. If they did go to a show, they'd come in after the show, play some games.
00:26:38
Speaker
It was, it was, yeah, it was great. And you're on a cruise, so if the game goes to 2am, the game goes to 2am. I had an inside cabin, so the sun didn't wake me up, which was a bonus because if you get the bed at 2am and the sun wakes you up at 5, that's probably not ideal. Yeah, it really worked. I did mention I
00:27:01
Speaker
very likely going on another one in 2025. That'll be a different experience though, because it's a seven day cruise and it's gonna visit, I think three or four ports in seven days. So there'll be a lot more time holidaying rather than playing board games, but it'd be nice. I just liken it to, yeah, you go out and you do your things and then you settle into the board game room of an evening, catch up with everyone, play a couple of games and off to bed. It sounds pretty awesome, so.
00:27:29
Speaker
Did you end up playing more games with the Journaler and the ADH guy? The Journaler definitely, and it was one of those things I felt really, she actually hit on me. It was quite bizarre. Apparently she's a bit of a... No, Steve. She's a bit of a loner.
00:27:50
Speaker
Carlos, another guy I met who is gay, he was having a chat with me about it, and he's like, how have you found her? And I said, I won't mention her name. And I said, oh, look, she's fine. She's just been a bit full on. And she, because I bought a whole bunch of Tim Tams for everybody, and she got a pack of Tim Tams and rubbed them against the side of her face. And she was like, this could be you if you play your cards right. And I'm like,
00:28:16
Speaker
I've got a say in this and it's no. And then she found out I was married and she's like, oh, I wouldn't break up a marriage. And I'm like, yeah, no shit. Like I wouldn't let you. Anyway, I was telling Carlos that and he's like, yeah, she's tried that on before. Pretty much she goes to a lot of these conventions and things and she tries that on. And and he said, just
Unwanted Attention on Cruise
00:28:40
Speaker
tell her you love cock. Work for me. She hasn't talked to me since.
00:28:44
Speaker
It's like, feel free to try that if you want. All right. Yeah, I don't know if she'll listen to the podcast. I really hope she doesn't. But if she does, I do apologize. But it was very uncomfortable for a couple of days. And I wasn't the only person who pointed out how uncomfortable it was. So yeah, there's always always been that one or two interesting people and you know, it's our hobby.
00:29:09
Speaker
you know, generate gravitates towards people who are a little bit eccentric, indifferent and geeky and nerdy and potentially have social anxiety and social difficulties. So, you know, I can't complain about it. I can't say it's a bad thing. It's just people are people. And yeah, you can actively avoid someone if you wish. I was friendly, but I was distanced after that. And damn you for ruining a Tim Tam slam.
00:29:47
Speaker
Well, you edit this thing, so it's up to you whether you leave that in.
00:29:57
Speaker
Anyway, I can talk about it for another like three hours, I guarantee it. But the one disappointing thing about doing that cruise was that I missed out entirely for the second year running. I missed out entirely on Briskon. So now it's your turn, guys. What happened to Briskon?
BrisKON Highlights and Martin Wallace
00:30:16
Speaker
How was it? Take us away, Shane. It was good.
00:30:46
Speaker
So one of the last things we did, I had a game
00:30:49
Speaker
of June Imperium uprising with Martin Wallace, Steve Dang, and Troy, Dr. Troy. So in our group, Dr. Troy, very good at June. He's a June mega fan, loves the whole thing, but very good at the game and regularly obliterates us and it's not usually close. I was like, oh, get him in the game. Yeah, Martin's a big fan of June Imperium. He plays pretty regularly. Steve Dang, he may or may not be human. He's a supercomputer in a human shape.
00:31:18
Speaker
And so we sat down, we had an hour before we had to pack up, and it was the most blown out game of June Imperium I've ever seen. It was like, Steve Ding obliterated us all on 11 points. I think I got three, which was the next highest. Next highest. Holy old. It wasn't even close. And, and the whole game through, he's telling us like, Martin's trying to keep up with it.
00:31:42
Speaker
Troy is just completely bewildered, has no idea what's going on, doesn't even remember what the symbols are, because Steve's telling me what to do with his cards, and I'm just barely trying to keep it out. I'm surprised Troy hung in the game. Oh, there's a few choice words. At one stage, so I was finishing my turn, and all I had to do was place the spires, the last part, done everything else, and Troy starts taking his turn, and Steve goes, it's not your turn yet.
00:32:12
Speaker
And Troy looks at me and I put my spy down and I go, it's your turn, Troy. He goes, yeah, fuck me, right? Yes, it was a, it was a learning experience for Dr. Troy. So he, uh, he definitely got a hand, but he's the arse who gave Juniperium, which doesn't always happen that well. Um, yeah, solid weekend. Like it was, it was well attended. There was lots of people going on. There was lots of random shit. That's,
00:32:39
Speaker
some guys that just turned up at some stage and as we found out later didn't actually ask anybody just turned up and set up a gazebo outside and they did a live action prototype of a murder scene wasn't it yeah like a like a escape room yeah like escape rooms yeah thank you Helen brains that work in Sydney
00:33:01
Speaker
Um, full costume and everything. Yeah. Right. But everybody, I think assumed that they'd ask somebody else. And so they just turned up and started writing this thing. It was like, okay, cool. That's well, that's something else to add to this whole evening. So yeah. And they came back the second day and they, you know, Victorian English era dressed up in costumes, doing a live escape room in a tent.
00:33:25
Speaker
Um, but yeah, there's a bunch of demos that went on. There's a bunch of game sales that happened. There was lots of games played at peak on about 2pm on a Saturday. Every seat was taken, you know, we sort of spreading it. So it was over a hundred people there. Um, yeah, solid, solid weekend of board gaming. I think that everybody that I'd talked to had a good time. I don't think it was a negative illness. We had an awesome weekend and, uh, um,
00:33:54
Speaker
Both days were action-packed, totally field venue. We had the Star Wars release of Bounty Hunters for Bruce Khan for Australia and that was awesome. I taught that throughout the whole day. I think I only played one game that whole weekend that I actually pulled myself away and I played all the awns with Shane Ingrid and Phil. That was great.
00:34:25
Speaker
I love playing that game. But there were so many lovely moments, and I just love how we support the community, hand out so many free games to everyone. And we got to the point on the Sunday afternoon, and I had all these games from VR that were left over. And I think it was Dave. Dave just said, just go prize on every table whoever wins.
00:34:54
Speaker
on that table gets that game. So that's what I did, delivered a game on every single table that we had left over. And I said, whoever wins, whatever you're playing right now, there were people rocking up on the Sunday that didn't buy a ticket, who I just said, look, grab a table and just play a game.
00:35:17
Speaker
I think a really cool moment was seeing Phil beat Martin Wallace in his brand new game. He's got a new game coming out. It's kind of like a twist on a handful of stars. It's like a new adaptation of that. And Phil beat Martin by one point and seeing that table erupt was pretty cool. It was awesome. Just an awesome weekend again.
00:35:48
Speaker
Steve, you'll be happy to know that we taught Hell in Res Arcana, and she scored one of the biggest scores I've ever seen on the first game. Of course. Of course. It's as it should be done. And it was her first. Tell me that. I would have just known, right? She scored 873 in Res Arcana.
00:36:05
Speaker
I didn't, it was 14, calm down. It's pretty damn good. Dave could have won. Dave's game was set up, but he sort of was half playing, so like... He played like a real asshole. He might have started playing for like half the game two hands until Dave got back, because he was having to do the thing, and that would be the one thing I would say.
00:36:29
Speaker
is next year is making sure, you know, and I'll put my hand up to help, but, you know, getting more helpers so that Dave and Shane can play more games, because I think it's really unfair. They've put all this hard work and they get all these people there and then they don't get to enjoy it. So I think it'd be good to almost do shift, like set it up as shift so that, you know, they've got parcels of time where they can enjoy the days as well.
00:36:52
Speaker
That's lovely. And to be honest, I still did enjoy it. I loved it. Whilst I only played one game, seeing everyone having an awesome time over the weekend, that does it for me. And even when I'm standing out in the sunshine,
00:37:08
Speaker
and I was selling all those games for everyone. It just took me back to my sales for days, you know, selling shoes. And all I was doing was selling games for everyone. It was great. But what pissed me off was that I was chasing people down so I can get their account numbers so I could transfer money to them. That was annoying. It was an awesome day. Awesome weekend. I loved it. So looking forward to 2025.
00:37:35
Speaker
I played a new game, so other than Rezz, I can't ask. Is that right? Is that how it's said? You got it. I played Apiary, which was Shane's copy of, so it's again another Stonemaier game. I now own it. Love this. Of course, of course. I didn't win because I wasn't playing with you guys, so I never win when I play with my friends. I only win when I play with you guys. I feel like she's putting us in a particular bundle of
00:38:04
Speaker
Least lesser skilled. Yeah, yeah. To help you raise your self-esteem, you come and play with us. No, there's some weird vortex that happens when I play with you guys. It's bizarre. I don't know. It's 2024, the year of the Hell on Us. You just beat us on everything. Nobody needs that. Nobody needs a year of Hell on Us. But yeah, A.P.A. was really cool. So that, has everybody played that?
00:38:34
Speaker
So it's basically space bees. I might have to get Shane to explain it a bit better than me. You've got these bees. You're in space. You've got these bees and you've got to colonise stuff. I'm not going to be able to explain it. Shane, can you explain it, please? Keep going, keep going. I've got it. And then at the end of the
Apiary Game Overview
00:38:53
Speaker
game, I'm on 100 and you guys are on 30.
00:38:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Pretty much. But no, it's really good. There's lots of different things you can do with your bees and you've got to get them up to, you know, a four or a five and then you can like. Hibernate and then you come back in. And that's how you get points. So you're building your hive, you're building your hive and you're trying to make your hives, you know, really, really strong, but also to you can actually trigger
00:39:24
Speaker
As you're building your hive, certain cells that you put in your hive will trigger another cell, will trigger another cell. So you want to try and build your hive really well. However, your bees have a knocking mechanism. So it's worker placements. You'll place your worker bee out on the board.
00:39:47
Speaker
But it's a bump mechanism, so it'll bump your bee over to your next, it'll bump another bee over. So what you wanna try and do is place your bees on the board where you're gonna bump and move your bee, which will upgrade your bee to a high level bee, and it can come back again until it has to hibernate. So really good stone my game, I enjoy it too.
00:40:14
Speaker
Is there any Jason Statham references in there? Yes, yeah, the beekeeper, absolutely. I don't think so. There's some cool names to like the planets and stuff, but I don't remember, but I'll have a look. I mean, certainly maybe there is Transporter written or something somewhere. The beekeeper, yeah, sorry.
00:40:38
Speaker
You just did that awful movie. No, that amazing movie. Amazing movie, sorry. Unbelievably awesome movie. I also got Wormspan on the table with actual adults. So that was really great. They loved it. It played as good as I remember. Actually, they left thinking it was better than Wingspan just because it's such a different mechanism. But yeah, I do really enjoy that game. I think it depends on who you're playing with.
00:41:05
Speaker
And also I learned a lot from the first time I played because you can get very stuck in that game if you don't get yourself eggs, because you stop being able to do turns.
00:41:14
Speaker
and continue playing. And so you've got to have a bit of everything to continue your game through and to have a good game. So that was really good. Again, didn't win. Why do you go say it like that? Like really somber and into yourself when you say it. I lose to my nine-year-old daughter.
00:41:46
Speaker
We don't have to worry
Helena's Winning Streak
00:41:48
Speaker
about it. Like we can be our own little, uh, what do you call that? Like, um, hive mind, I guess where we think we're great because each of us wins against each other every now and again.
00:41:58
Speaker
It doesn't matter that we can't be nine-year-olds outside of that world if we just stay within our world. Yeah, exactly. And there's always a Steve Dink out there, so you don't need to worry about it. No, that's right. It's always a Steve Dink. He is the man. He is the matrix.
00:42:18
Speaker
And I appreciate the sentiment, Helen. I did actually get to play a few big games, and I taught a few people for the first time. So we played Dwellings of Eldorale on the Saturday night with a few new people, and then Eclipse as well with a few new people. So yeah, I did get a couple of big games in. That was sort of half teaching games, half play-through games, but yeah. Enjoyed those, because they're not often get the opportunity to bring out such big hitters like that.
00:42:46
Speaker
Yeah, the monsters with the soundbases didn't have the same impact in a ball full of 100 people. No, that's true. You trigger them all up at once. That's the best thing about those is when someone gets angry and hit the table and they all go off. Can't be angry anymore, can you? But I think I have to do a bit of work, see a couple of my batteries running out. Yeah, yeah.
00:43:11
Speaker
I am. I taught a game that's kind of taken the world by storm at the moment. I think it's number two on BGG, on the Hotness Games, and that's Harmonies. It is fantastic. If you can imagine Cascadia, Steve, crossed with Azul. Do I have to?
00:43:35
Speaker
It's an upwards game. It's an upwards game, Steve. Okay. It's brilliant. You're building a little forest and the tiles you pull from the bag, which are either stumps or their branches, which can become trees, rivers,
00:43:59
Speaker
fields and I think the last one's clay and stone so you're pulling all those out and you put them on tiles similar to azul you put
00:44:07
Speaker
three of each and then everyone has to pick one of those three off a tile and then place it on their board and there's a certain way you have certain placement rules you have to do so you either have to build uh stumps or you can build a you know a bush um but then they have to match certain cards that you pull so you're trying to build from the card patterns
00:44:33
Speaker
But then you also want to get cards that match other cards so you can then try and trigger other patterns that you're building. I hope this makes sense, it probably doesn't. But when you get a couple of cards that kind of almost match that are similar that trigger a few of your builds altogether and get your points. And so I've taught it at the game day.
00:45:00
Speaker
and I taught it prior to game day as well thanks to VR. They gave us a couple of copies that we could teach in the community and then they gave away a few giveaway games at the game day. People were buying it not only prior to and people are thanking me now because you can't get it anywhere in the world. It's sold out worldwide and now they're going to second printing how popular it is.
00:45:25
Speaker
So, it is a really fun game. I haven't even taught, I have not taught Lauren yet. I taught it at the ferret last, the last ferret night, which was last Wednesday night, and everyone loved it. So, Harmony's is brilliant. Little hidden gem in the community. Good luck if you can get it, if you can get it, go and buy it. Totally recommend it.
00:45:56
Speaker
What did you play, G-Money? What? What did I play when? The board game day. Age of Steam, Nemesis, Reza Camera. I think that's about it. No, you taught me a couple of little games. Was it the one with the numbers? Oh, no thanks. That's great. That's great. Yeah, classic. Yeah, no thanks. It's brilliant. And I think that's about it.
00:46:26
Speaker
And then we played that weird game with Hague around the... Well, every game with Hague is weird. So you've got to be more specific. The one with the crystals and the two in circle, like the circular rows of things. I can't remember what that's called. Do you remember that one? What? What are you talking about? The one where you... That one? Yeah, that one. Yeah. Hang on, let me think.
00:46:57
Speaker
It obviously landed. I cannot remember. Unforgettable game. Fantastic. Everyone get on it. It's two crystals in a row. That's it. Yeah. And it was interesting. It was a circular board shape. So it was kind of like... Oh, the castle one. Yeah, the castle. So there was a different track. There's Japanese scenes.
00:47:25
Speaker
Okay, I know a lot of people talk about Ostia, maybe I thought it was that. Not even a bell. I'm looking for it. We'll come back to that one. Whilst he's looking for it, I've been playing Empire's End. I have been. John D. Claire. John D. Claire. It's reverse. Speaking of, you know, no thanks. It's got a no thanks mechanism in there and it's kind of like reverse space base.
00:47:53
Speaker
Instead of building a world, you're wanting to destroy the world. That's amazing. You are destroying it with a no thanks mechanism as well. There's certain tiles that come out that build up along the way and you have to add axes and things.
00:48:19
Speaker
wood and people go around and you've got to say, okay, well, do I want to take all of those and grab those two cards? Or you don't grab them, you've got to add axe or sword. It can continue. So there's that no thanks mechanism to it. So really enjoying it. It's a really good game. I've played it about four or five times since our last pod.
00:48:48
Speaker
Very nice. I've got a fool all in sitting here looking at me and I was nearly going to sell it, but I was like, oh. No, don't sell it. Well, you can sell it. I've got it. I'm not going to sell mine. So I've got it. You can sell it. Especially if you've got the planet. Yeah, I've got the planets. Sell it. I've got it. You don't get it. All right.
00:49:10
Speaker
You still got Shane's, Steve's big shoulders. He was right the first time. We had some people over on the weekend. I was playing a couple of games on the weekend and there's Citi's big shoulders sitting there. It's a pride of place. And they said, do you own it yet? And I said, no, I don't. I don't own it. Still on Lend. It's still on Lend. Long term Lend. It's like, you know, it's like a bullet when you
00:49:39
Speaker
you do your novated lease for a car. I had Cass and Anita over and they both saw us in there. Do you have it yet? Is it yours? No, it's not Cass.
00:49:53
Speaker
So we actually played Age. It basically is. I mean, you know, I may never ask for it back, you know, but I may. That's where it's at, like, yeah. We played Age of Comics. You just couldn't sell it on him. Yeah. No, no, no. God, never do that. I just sell my own copy. It's a dickhead. We played Age of Comics on the weekend, actually. I've owned it for a while.
00:50:23
Speaker
I enjoyed it. How can I describe Age of Comics? It's a worker placement game where you are an owner of Marvel or DC. So you're hiring writers, you're hiring an artist and then you're developing a comic.
00:50:45
Speaker
But you have to have the right color artist matches the right color writer matches the right color artist to build the right color comic. So that maximizes your points but then you can also
00:51:02
Speaker
Do a bit of a blend, but you'll get less points. And then you'll build your fans up on that comic sale. So the more fans that you have bumps up your price of the sale. And then at the end of the round, you total up the amount of comics you've sold. It gives you more money for the next round. And you rinse and repeat. I really enjoyed it. We played three-player. We were done within.
00:51:32
Speaker
40 minutes for a three-player game. And I won by, it was 120 to 114 to 109 for a three-player game. So pretty close. And really enjoyable game. I liked it. I think Tom Vassal rated it a 5 out of 10.
00:51:54
Speaker
You don't know what you're talking about, Tom. There you go. Yeah, I'll say rated brass Birmingham, a 5 out of 10 if I remember correctly, or a 3 out of 10. I enjoyed it. It was good. It's got a bit of an economic game to it as well. Nowhere near City of Big Shoulders, but there's a little bit in there. No one needs to buy it because I own it, and I'll bring it along one day if anyone wants to play it. Fair enough.
00:52:23
Speaker
We played Food Chain Magnate the other day. Awesome game. I did World's Worst Teach. You did the Teach? Yeah. I did World's Worst Teach. I only do World's Worst Teaches of things. Yeah. Yeah, it was a wash. We decided, didn't count, and we'd have to play it again. Yeah. Okay, so you fucked up after the first round. I fucked up one slight thing with the end. Yeah. I made a tiny huge mistake. And I played the new Barrage Jewel.
00:52:54
Speaker
which is the special two-player. Two-player barrage. Yeah, but it's a barrage duel. So like Seven Wonders duel, it's got a little extra board where you tug a war back and forward. Yeah, cool. And it's really got a new map and it cuts out some of the areas on the map so you can't build there. It really makes it fun for two-player. We played two games in three hours. And it was awesome.
00:53:23
Speaker
There you go. Is that out yet or coming out soon? I just came out through the Kickstarter. Ah, okay. Yeah, right. And I've heard rumours that there's a big box of barrage coming late this year. Kickstarter. Have any of you guys played Nucleum yet? Yeah, I played it about six times, six or seven times.
00:53:43
Speaker
Yeah, I've got it. It was one of those games that was waiting for me in Hawaii when I arrived. And I got taught that game. And it was funny, because when I played it, I was like, oh, I'm not getting the... I'm so used to some only Chi-Ani games having those sort of chainable turns where you're building towards something big and you're like, oh, I get to do this thing now. And I was like, oh, it's not really giving me that. And then it gave me a little bit of that. It was one of those games I walked away and I was like, oh, I liked it.
00:54:10
Speaker
But then I've done nothing but think about that game since, and I'm desperate to play it again because it's just been stuck in my head. I love that the idea for you guys who haven't played it. It's like your action tiles are also the rails that you have to place down. And once you place the rails down, you no longer have those actions to choose from as action tiles. So you either play them as action tiles or as track.
00:54:35
Speaker
When you play them as tracks, sometimes you can trigger their benefits then, but that's it. Once they're on the board, they're on the board. So it's this really interesting thing of like, I want to keep them because I want to be able to do these things more often, but I need to build track to get from here to here. So I need to get rid of them. And that was, I found that super interesting, that style of, and then you're like, okay, well, if I place this one this way, then when I place another one, I'll be able to trigger it. But then someone else places it.
00:55:02
Speaker
track there and deliberately blocks you from that so you can't take that benefit or maybe they don't and then like halfway through someone else's turn you randomly just get an action that you can do because you place this train track down somewhere. I found that really fascinating. So yeah, so if you've played it six times, do you mind if I'm guessing you're a fan? Yeah, I thought it was good. I thought it had probably a couple of extra mechanics in there that weren't necessary.
00:55:33
Speaker
And it clogs the game up a little bit. But it's a pretty good game. It requires a lot of working together sometimes to build tracks next to each other so that you get multiple actions and chain all your actions, reactions together.
00:55:53
Speaker
And obviously it's a little bit like, you know, you got to carry coal or stuff through your loop to get to your power station, to run things. It was good. I just felt like there were other games I would probably play over it because of the less convoluted parts. Yeah. I guess that's kind of what I like. Yeah. I think I've got like a, um, a glorified memory of it because I remember at the time, not, not being blown away, but just.
00:56:20
Speaker
Afterwards, it's just been in my head. I really want to play it again. I do like a lot of the things on their own, but like you say, there's so many things that you could probably do with two or three less things and it might be a better game.
00:56:36
Speaker
The whole brass slash barrage comparison, I get it because there's contracts and I get it because you're putting down track and transporting resources and stuff. But it's a dangerous comparison because I think both brass and barrage are better games. So being a brass slash barrage conversion, if it's not going to be as good as either, then you don't really want to promote that tagline.
00:57:04
Speaker
Yeah. Do you like brass and barrage? Do you want to play something that's not as good as either of those? It's kind of how it went. And dear God, they need to change that freaking like little offshoot off your board that's supposed to hold you. It'll snap.
00:57:20
Speaker
One of my little legs is already broken. Someone dropped soon nearby and it broke. It could have been so good. It's a bit like Barraged for the first edition where it came out where all the boards were warped and you couldn't spin them. It's like, surely, did you not playtest this? Did you not realise that pushing cardboard into cardboard isn't going to work long term?
00:57:46
Speaker
Yeah, very bizarre. Yeah. But they saw the wooden things coming. Like they just needed to get the laser cut wood ones out. So people spend, you know, $25 on each dial to get the fancy version. The main reason I wanted to try it was because there's an Australian like expansion coming out and I'm like, oh, that'd be cool. The expansion was coming out before the game was out. Well, in Australia, yeah, absolutely. It was like, hey, hey Australians, get on this. Well, we'd like to. Yeah.
00:58:22
Speaker
Well I've entered into a realm of a massive rabbit hole now. Thought I'd share this tonight.
Blood Bowl Obsession Begins
00:58:31
Speaker
Dave's nodding, he knows rabbit hole, I'm about to go down. And that is Blood Bowl. Holy shit.
00:58:44
Speaker
That's a pretty deep hole you can go down too, right? It's a massive hole. No context given. Andy, Andy, you know, talking it up and he's getting involved in it. And anyway, I was selling all these games at RiskCon, made a massive profit. So I'm thinking, got a heap of money, walking past the stand.
00:59:13
Speaker
There's a blood bowl, you know. Starter set for sale. You know, barter with the guy. Walked away with it in my hands. Took a photo. Senator Andy said, fuck you Andy. And owning a set of blood bowl. Came home. And you know, he's all pumped. I bought myself a blood bowl set.
00:59:41
Speaker
And he said, you know, this is going to be brilliant. Opened up the blood bowl set. Notice all these skews. Text him again. Fuck you again, Andy. You have to build them all, right? You've got to build them all. Fuckin' shit. And paint them. You don't have to paint them if you don't have a Troy, generally. So text him again, you know, other FU. And
01:00:07
Speaker
Then I started building him. And he came around and we played a game. And God, I loved it. Just dice chucking, crap madness. So much fun. We played, you know, he talked the game one night. He sent me a bonehead podcast. Anyone who's in the blood bowl may know it if they don't. Great podcast. He sent me that. He sent me a YouTube clip.
01:00:37
Speaker
on how to play, came around one night, set up the game and I kind of, I grokked it pretty much straight away. And I'm sitting there, he scored in his first touchdown. I scored my next one. And we finished the game in about two and a half hours at one all. Super fun, but what was even more fun, he rolled seven ones in a row.
01:01:05
Speaker
So he's setting up his team for this master move. Does the dice roll. I'm sitting there going one, one, one, one, one. Rolls a one. So you can imagine I'm just dancing around the room every time we did it. It was fantastic. We then suckered Shane into a game last night, SK, Ingrid's partner. And I think he's hooked.
01:01:34
Speaker
We played Blood Bowl last night. So there was me and Shane playing against each other and Andy was doing the teach. So he did really well. Like he was refereeing it on the sides. Sped the game up a lot quicker.
01:01:49
Speaker
You know I can understand if anyone has AP in this game this game could go for a very long time You know four or five hours just you know to play it, but we did really well and We tied one all my team my painted team hit the table last night for the first time Which is all painted up in the Port Adelaide Football Club colors God they look good on the table and
01:02:18
Speaker
I can see myself now, okay, what's my next team I'm going to buy? I'm researching all these teams that are out there. I think it's like 21 teams that you can buy. Oh, and then there's the teams you can just mix and match random shit. Yeah, yeah. This is a massive rabbit hole. I'm loving it. It's partially the reason why I haven't gone down that rabbit hole because I am afraid of going down that rabbit hole.
01:02:44
Speaker
It's sports. It's fantasy football. It's there's, you know, and then there's the basketball equivalents. And I'm like, I'd like dread ball. And I could get into all of that. It seems like the sort of perfect thing that I'd love, but it's the, it's that, you know, that war him a style thing where once you're in, it's like.
01:03:03
Speaker
So all right, once you're in, do you want to buy, there's a new set, there's a new season, there's a new, there's, now you can play as orcs, now you can play as wizards, now you can play as this. I'm like, oh, I'm just going to watch from the sidelines. Pardon the pun. As I found out, if you've got a PlayStation 5, it's actually free at the moment. It's free at the moment. I'm on there on PlayStation 5. Anyone else is on there? I'm there as well.
01:03:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's scary because it's a good way to do it. Like the game, the video game versions are pretty good replication. And while it's sometimes it's DLC, like you don't get access to everything that you want. There's I think 10 teams that you can pick from in the base game. It lets you play the game. So if you like it, it's not really a sports game. It is a, it's a dumb game.
01:03:52
Speaker
for dumb people that's really enjoyable and just crazy random shit always happens. And like it ends up being fun, but like you cannot plan anything. It's not a game. If you like structure, it's a game. If you like random change and the absolute slim hope that something might pay off and you want to gamble everything on, you know, two hours of stupidity, it's great. I remember Dan glue on, or I tried to get me into a game.
01:04:20
Speaker
Um, when I used to play over at his house, when I lived back in Brizzy, and he was saying that in every round you get to cheat, like you get to plan to cheat once a round or something like that. Like that's just part of the game that you can randomly cheat. Oh, there's fouls. There's fouls. So you can. Yeah.
01:04:40
Speaker
So the game goes, it's like Griddle Island is set up and you hit people. And so you take it in turns, your team has a go. But if you fail something spectacular or one of your guys falls over, that's your turnover. Like it's, you don't get to plan when your turn ends. It ends when you fail something. And if you knock somebody on the other team down, they roll, you roll the dice. And if you roll higher than their armour, then you roll in the injury table. And if you're all high in the injury table, they get injuries.
01:05:08
Speaker
So if they, if you get through their armor, but they don't get an injury, they just stay lying on the ground. And then you can go once per turn and fail them. And that's literally going to hit them while they're on the ground. And the more people you have standing around the person, you get a plus one to it. So you got to get something like a nine on two dollars, but for every one is plus one. So you can get like six people standing around a guy, they go fail them. You need like a three and then they might die. And so.
01:05:33
Speaker
But if you if you then roll and the referee sees you, then you get sent off the rest of the game. Which happened to me last night. I decided to go one of one of Shane's characters was on the ground. I thought I'm going to go and stomp you just to, you know, piss you off and stomp you on the ground. I rolled a double six, which meant the ref saw what I did.
01:05:56
Speaker
and then I had to roll a d6 and I needed a six because I contested the call from the ref. I rolled a one. I got sent off the rest of the game. I was out. Done. Red carded. Andy has some character that's painted with a red card. He pulls it on the field with a red card holding up. Said red carded out of the game for the whole game. It was just great.
01:06:25
Speaker
So it's a weird because they're English, obviously games workshops, a weird combo of like soccer rules with NFL rules. So you have 11 players on the side and you started the lines like you do with gridiron, but the ball goes over it. So there's throwing rules, but you sort of like you keep your formations as you go through. So you've got like throwers and catches and runners and you've got blockers that stand at the front. And so you start with 11, depending on how many
01:06:52
Speaker
like how you build your team and how you go in with extra people. If you get sent off, next time you start with 10. Or if someone dies or they get a serious injury, next time you start with nine. So you can end the game. I've seen games, I think it's three is the minimum. If you can't put three people on the field, you have to forfeit. But yeah, so somebody will score a point and you set up again and you get like five people to set up with. That's all you can do. Kind of hoping that you don't get screwed. It's a rabbit hole, Steve.
01:07:23
Speaker
Jump in. We've managed to cobble together 10 people that are keen to give it a run. I think Shane's in as well.
01:07:38
Speaker
I'm pretty sure after last night, he wants to get involved. So I'm sure he's listening to this podcast when it gets recorded in about six months time. Could be able to tell us how it went. We're in the
Plans for Blood Bowl League
01:07:52
Speaker
off season now. We're training for next season. And it made me think though, we need to give Andy a nickname because we got past the neck when we got lucky Phil. I think Andy needs a nickname. He does. He does.
01:08:03
Speaker
Just ask the Nick a pasta. Yes. Yeah. Well, that's a really unique. Yeah. It's ironic. I thought that's the first time you've actually said it's his nickname and I'm like, oh, is he not a pasta? I just assumed he was a pasta. Turns out he just really likes Italian food.
01:08:34
Speaker
Well, that's lots of board game talk. It's an hour ten of chatting. Like you said, Steve, I know we could sit and listen to you talk about the pod Father Cruise, and really, you didn't even talk about your brother's house and then paying 50 games over four days. When we caught up at Vault Games or... Yeah, told me Thunder Road, which is great.
01:08:53
Speaker
You know, my daughter, you know how you gave me G-Money's copy of Ra that we played a couple of times that day? Yeah. Well, I held onto that for like two weeks and played it another 10 times after that. Yeah, right. Yeah. I think we've played out Ra. Have you got Ra yet, G-Money, or is it still a TGs? I got it. Yeah, I got it now. Excellent. You made the handoff, but yeah. So yeah, there's been a significant amount of board game playing. I think it's been good to catch up, but
01:09:23
Speaker
Maybe unless anybody's got anything else pressing, we can call it there for this session and maybe save some gems for next time around. Sounds good. Donski. Pleasure to hear from you all. It's always nice. Yeah, been delightful. And I'm sure our eight listeners will really enjoy the catching up over the last six months worth of board gaming.
01:09:46
Speaker
Yes, and today's date is the 26th of July, so this will come out within the week. I'm calling it. Oh, it's cold. Enjoy it on the first night I've ever, everyone. That's right. Thank you. And see you later. Nighty night. Bye.