Episode 8: Exploring Asymmetry + "My Favorite Faction", with Tim Williamson

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Hello and welcome to episode eight of the Kickin' It Creative Podcast, where we geek out about board games, the mechanisms behind them, and the people who create them.
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I'm your host, Candace Harris, and I am super duper excited to be sitting here in the same room with one of my best friends who is a friend that I met through board games, and I would say also has my same energy level about board games, Tim Williamson, the professor, the improv professor.
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Wow, what a tall order.
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Hey Tim.
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Hello.
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I'm so excited that you're here.
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And Tim and I play like a ton of games together all the time.
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And we go down a lot of rabbit holes together, get each other excited about stuff.
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Even when we're supposed to be like going home and going to sleep, we will be like, oh, let me show you this one more thing.
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Let me show you.
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One last thing.
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One last thing before I go, right?
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Break out the box.
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Yes.
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Gotta show you what's in there.
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And we just get so excited.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And and Tim is very much an omni gamer.
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But everything from like Lacerda games to like the small button shy wallet games.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Everything from anything from like a small push your luck to a heavy euro, love a good train game, you know, party party games.
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And our our first our first game together.
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Wait, was it our first game together?
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Yeah.
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Dual gauge.
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Dual gauge.
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That was it.
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Yeah.
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And I haven't played it in so long.
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I know.
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I've been really wanting to play it again.
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Yeah, we should we should circle back to it because I feel like I got all of the maps.
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Yes.
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And haven't played it.
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Yeah.
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And every train company on each map has its own special power.
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So it's so fun to break out a new map and see like what are the new rules for this game?
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Yes.
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Which train company looks like it's gonna be such a good bet for me to buy a stock from.
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Yeah.
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And they're they're all like slightly weird because it's Holland Spiel, I'm a bell Holland.
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Yeah.
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But it's got like a little bit of that 18xx feel, but like plays a lot faster.
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And yeah, now you're making me we really need to like bust this out again.
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Let's do it next week.
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But anyway, what's new in your world?
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Oh my gosh.
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Well, you mentioned at the at the start, improv.
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Yeah.
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I'm very excited.
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And yeah, yes, and exactly.
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So I used to do improv theater years and years ago, but just haven't done it in so long.
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And at the turn of the year, I was just feeling like I wanted something new, something to help like just break me open even further, you know.
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And wait a second, because Tim is like one of the best board game teachers.
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Like he gets so theatrical, he gets into it.
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He could take the driest abstract game and and and put put some theme and spice into it.
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So you are a king in medieval Europe, and everyone is trying to steal your lamb.
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Whatever it is, yeah.
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I'll bring the enthusiasm for sure.
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Yeah, that's so cool.
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I I'm gonna have to come to one of your improv shows at some point.
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Oh my gosh, I would love for you to come.
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Yeah, it's just the the best group of people, and it just helps you listen and it helps you take risks, you know, and so there's ways that it's just fun and everyone loves to laugh, but then there's ways that you can use it outside of class too, you know.
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So I love it.
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Yes, yes, that's so cool.
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And another good friend of ours in the board game world told me that he's studying Chinese.
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Like he just decided to start taking, like, signed up for a college course to learn Chinese.
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Yeah, because I think he works with a lot of people that speak Chinese, and he's like, hey, I want to learn this skill.
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So it's it's really cool to see people like branching out into like learning new things.
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Yeah, I mean it's my favorite thing to do.
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I love learning new things, I love learning new games.
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Yes, yes, I love reading a new rule book, and so anytime you have the chance to put yourself out there, learn something new, grow, develop, that's my favorite thing.
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And also, uh, Tim is probably, and people can comment wherever, but I don't know if there's anyone else I know that will multi-hand solo everything.
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I I love I love playing a multi-hand solo game.
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I will play a game that has hidden information, hidden movement, playing all the players myself.
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I know it makes no sense, but I truly will do it.
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And I and my favorite thing to do is like play like a five-player game and just station each hand of cards around the table, and I will literally walk around the table.
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I love it.
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I can picture it.
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Yeah, I can picture it.
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And I always send Candace these photos of these giant games set up with all of these different factions, and I'm like, just a regular old solo game.
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It's not actually a solo mode, it's just me playing all of the sides myself.
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Yeah.
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Yes, yes.
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The problem is I also have friends.
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It is much more satisfying to play with other people, yes.
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But it is but that's cool.
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Like we we that's something else we share in common is that we do enjoy playing games solo and true solo, yeah, auto automa solo, whatever, right?
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All of the different ways.
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I just think it again, it's like fun to explore.
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Yes, yes, yes.
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So Tim and I, for like probably the past year or so have been talking about doing some content together, and this is kind of like a precursor to what we're planning to do.
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We both love, love, love board games, card games with asymmetric factions.
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Yeah.
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And so we have been talking about doing something that we've have a long list of games we are gonna cover, a little video series called My Favorite Faction.
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And so today we are going to be just talking about what like all the joy we find from asymmetric games with asymmetric factions or asymmetric player powers.
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And we're also doing a bit of an extended fresh plays because we've actually had time to play some games together recently.
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Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be great.
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We've been friends not that long, but for so long, like forever, that I hear Tim telling this story about a board game meetup in New York where he randomly started playing Root.
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Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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Back in 2018, I had just moved to New York.
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I was looking for a game group to play games with, and there was a spot that was doing a weekly game night on Tuesdays, and I showed up and they said every Tuesday we get together and we play this game called Root.
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I had never heard of it before.
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I had, you know, been playing, you know, games for quite a long time, but definitely nothing as wildly asymmetric as Root.
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And so I show up, had never played the game before, hadn't read the rules.
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I was like, yeah, I'll just roll right into it, right?
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And I got handed my faction, the birds.
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To this day, I have a soft spot for them because of this.
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Don't spoil any episodes of my favorite faction.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Spoiler alert.
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I just said I had a soft spot for them.
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Yeah, always a special place in my heart.
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So I left the game feeling like, oh my gosh, I'm instantly excited to play the next faction.
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I'm instantly excited to explore what does that one do?
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Right?
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I felt like there's so much game in the box.
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Yeah.
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You know, and I and I fell in love with this idea of like different powers, different maps.
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It just gives you so much to discover.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Because I learned for myself that like the joy of discovery in games is just something I love so much.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Well, before we start talking about some of our plans for my favorite faction, I'd love to hear what you've been playing lately, Tim.
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Yeah.
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So let's jump into Fresh Play.
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So our first fresh play is actually a shared fresh play because uh just yesterday we played a very big beastie game called Imperial Elegy.
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And this is a six-player war game.
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You can play it with one to six players because it has a bot system that is apparently very intuitive.
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I haven't tried it yet, but it's designed by Michael Lorino.
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Came out just, I think, at the end of 2025 from VUCA Simulations, who were kind enough to send me a complimentary copy when I ha heard from my friend Hector and I think Uli from Spielworks how much they loved it.
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And I love Here I Stand.
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So I was like, I need to play this game, I need to play this game.
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And I think I've had it since like February or something, like it might it might be like a month or two, but it's it's a hard game to get six people together for because it is a big beast.
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Yeah, I mean, any any game that requires six players, that's already gonna be tough, right?
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To get that many players together and then a game that long.
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Yeah, and then I asked for the time commitment.
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I'm like, hey, can you guys all give me your whole day to try this?
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The premise of the game is we are six different powers on the road to World War One.
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Yeah.
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And it is a game where everybody like I played as Prussia slash Germany, we had the UK, I played as France, yeah, and then we had uh uh Austria-Hungary, Russia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.
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Yeah, and every faction in this game or power has their own special abilities.
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You have this deck of cards that are your national goals, and periodically throughout the game, you're going to draw three of your goal cards and keep one.
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So you're kind of setting your scoring criteria as you play the game, but there's a whole thing where the Great War might happen or it might not.
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And if it happens, alliances matter because you win with your team that you're allied with, and it's just we did not get that far.
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Yeah, we got almost through three rounds.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It it it's it was I'll just say it's a very complex game, but I'm so excited now that we've had that like that kind of like bumpy learning game where we're all like looking up rules, we're checking BGG for this and that.
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It can be a thing that is definitely not for everyone, but to me, it just gets me excited because now, like, as soon as we stopped playing, a bunch of us were just like talking about like, oh, look at this card I had.
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Oh, I could have done this, oh, we need to figure out this, and like we're excited to play it again and figure those things out because I think I said this like with Fire in the Lake, heavier war games that are like have asymmetric factions, multiplayer, you're not really getting to experience the game when you play it once with all new players.
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Yeah, I I I I fully sort of had the understanding that we'd be going in, we'd sort of be exploring things out.
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We don't understand maybe like the long-term strategy, you know.
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Like we sort of try to think like, what do I just want to do in my first couple turns to get the ball rolling?
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But I I just sort of inevitably thought, like, okay, I'm gonna make some expansion or some battle that I'll look at later and say, oh my god, how foolish was that, you know?
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And then learn from it, right?
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And I think getting to know the steps, getting to know the systems, there's a lot of value in that.
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Like the first battle.
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Oh my gosh.
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Yeah, I yeah.
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So me as the uh German slash Prussian player, I play first every round, and I was going with like my strategy to unify Germany, and so I'm taking the very first turn of the game, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna start attacking some areas to try to unify attacking to unify Germany, because I needed to kind of get what, like, 10 different spaces all on my side to basically say Germany is unified, and then all this other stuff happens, which I did not get to.
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Yeah.
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You know, and seeing like the battle steps, and you have to declare your region, you have to think about what armies you're bringing in, and then it's actually a very cool battle system.
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So, like each player gets to use a card, and the action points on that card set your war budget.
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Yeah, and then you actually go back and forth spending one point of your war budget at a time.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So there's this back and forth, which is quite tactical, right?
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It really simulates this very like, you know, battlefield strategic picture, right?
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But that takes time, you know, to look through all your options.
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How can I spend my points?
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How many points do I have?
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Do I want to bring in, do I want to deploy a reserve army?
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Yeah, do I want to move some units?
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Or do I want to just start a land battle?
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Yeah, yeah.
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So there's lots of intricacies in each of those steps, right?
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And then so it takes time to learn them, it takes time to see how they unfold, and then and then we don't get to know the consequences until the end.
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Then we see.
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And there were a lot of consequences, right?
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It's not just like who won, who lost.
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Yeah, it's like there are different levels of victory.
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Yeah, and treaties.
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Yes, and then you get some people get treaty options, and then you can do stuff with that.
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And so there's like there's so much there, but I I'm pretty sure this is my first game that I'm playing from VUCA Simulations, and I'm really impressed with the production of everything.
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Yeah, the player aid has so much going on that it's helpful, but also I feel like I'm gonna want to like really learn the combat system and make my own player aid for that, because there were things like the treaty options where in the victory conditions, it's like, oh, well, you get a treaty option, and everybody's like, What are the treaty options?
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And you have to just like look down the page, and it's there.
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Yeah, everything was there, even like we had c we had questions on like naval movement and stuff like that.
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But that was helpful, but once you get it, the player it is like really, really good.
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Yeah, and thoughtful, right?
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So like I was sitting on the far end of the board, right?
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Like the far end of the table, and there's a particular spot on the board that was totally opposite of me.
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And the at this, I think at the start of the game.
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I was like, take a picture.
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Yeah, because in the rules it says these flash points are basically areas of like control or dominance that you can sort of vie for, and if you are able to meet the conditions, you get a really strong card draw benefit.
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Yes, and the game says, like, listen.
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This is your number one thing to out the gate to really just focus on one of these if you can.
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Yes.
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And they're like so far away, I can't see them.
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Yeah.
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So, but what I'm what I'm going with this is that on the player aid, they're all listed there.
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They're all so no matter where you're sitting on the table, you feel like, okay, I can always look here to see what the details of those are.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, it's it's really well done.
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And I like that.
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I'm glad you brought up the flashpoints.
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I should probably take a step back because I got all excited.
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But this is a card-driven game.
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So the main game is if you're playing the full campaign, it's seven turns long.
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Each turn represents ten years.
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And theoretically, when you get to the end of that seven turns, the Great War, the World World War One might break out.
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And it might break out sooner, I think, depending on the world tension track and everything like that.
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But it's a card-driven game.
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So the like the the flow of the game is very straightforward in that sense.
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Like, we had a diplomacy f well, first we built the deck, you build the deck of cards, like on some turns you're gonna add new cards into the deck, but each turn you're you're reshuffling the entire deck aside from a few events that get tossed out, like once they're triggered, they're like once per game.
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But then you get everybody gets a hand of cards, and this to your point, cards are everything in this game.
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Like, you can use a card for either the command points, which are just like action points, to do a bunch of stuff, or you can trigger the events on the cards, and some of them are really powerful.
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Yeah, and if you're newer to war games like me, a turn is a round.
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I know.
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In most other games, yeah, but in war game lingo, the turn is the round.
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So our our turns were called impulses in this game.
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Yes, yes.
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But each individual player turn, right, is an impulse.
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Impulse, yeah.
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And a round is a turn, right?
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But these are kind of more standard for folks that know war games, right?
00:19:24.819 --> 00:19:25.619
That's more standard.
00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:29.539
And so when you play a card, you're getting to do stuff.
00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:34.099
So the more cards you have, the more power you have, the more you can do.
00:19:34.579 --> 00:19:42.980
And so when you when you take advantage of these flashpoints, which usually like it's like control certain areas, like have control of certain.
00:19:43.299 --> 00:19:46.019
I think most of them were about controlling key spaces.
00:19:46.339 --> 00:19:46.740
Yeah, exactly.
00:19:46.819 --> 00:19:52.420
Like either you control Egypt over the Suez Canal or Italy has four spaces.
00:19:52.579 --> 00:19:56.339
So if you have, you know, ally or control over Italy, that's another one.
00:19:56.660 --> 00:19:59.779
Oh, I I I don't know anything about control over Italy.
00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:04.099
My diplomatic efforts led to that for me, yeah.
00:20:04.339 --> 00:20:07.619
I loved that diplomatic aspect too.
00:20:07.779 --> 00:20:19.539
So there are all these like minor powers that are in the game, and they're represented by little chits, like markers on the board that are purple and it'll have like whatever their nationality is.
00:20:20.019 --> 00:20:29.139
But you can in the game try to ally with them, and if you do that, there's it's a two-step process, right?
00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:29.940
It takes time.
00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:36.099
You can't just go to like up to some people that you don't know and say, hey, we're we're cool with each other, right?
00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:37.220
You gotta make inroads.
00:20:37.460 --> 00:20:38.259
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:38.420 --> 00:20:52.420
So so the the way the game handles that is that you have to first take an action to put a diplomacy token out, and then on a future impulse, you can then flip that over and become allied with them.
00:20:52.660 --> 00:20:53.700
And that's very expensive.
00:20:54.180 --> 00:20:58.660
So the diplomacy is I think it's only one point, one action point.
00:20:58.899 --> 00:21:02.740
But then to flip it from diplomacy to allies, three action points.
00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:08.819
So it's which is a lot, four points all together, and these are not stable.
00:21:09.139 --> 00:21:14.180
Other players can actually weaken your diplomacy and undo some of your interfere.
00:21:14.339 --> 00:21:14.899
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:14.980 --> 00:21:21.619
So because only one player can be allied with any particular minor power.
00:21:21.859 --> 00:21:22.420
Is that what they're called?
00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:22.980
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:23.139 --> 00:21:23.619
Yeah.
00:21:23.940 --> 00:21:35.539
And as you were mentioning, there's also such a real a cool alliance with other players, like an alliance system with other players, which we barely even like scratch the surface on.
00:21:35.779 --> 00:21:41.859
But I have to say, this was one of my favorite parts of the game was this alliance track system because there are six powers.
00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:42.500
Yeah.
00:21:42.819 --> 00:21:47.299
And there are two alliances that could be formed, right?
00:21:47.700 --> 00:21:52.819
And everybody starts at neutral, and you can sort of shift to the left alliance or the right alliance.
00:21:53.139 --> 00:21:54.420
I don't remember the names of them.
00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:56.899
Entente and Alliance.
00:21:56.980 --> 00:21:59.220
I think it's just triple alliance at Triple Entente.
00:21:59.379 --> 00:22:00.420
Okay, okay.
00:22:01.220 --> 00:22:02.980
I just remember T E and T A.
00:22:03.139 --> 00:22:03.379
Yeah.
00:22:03.539 --> 00:22:06.099
One was kind of orangey and one was kind of blue.
00:22:07.220 --> 00:22:14.500
And so what I think is really cool is in a lot of games where you can set alliances with other players, like I think about like classic Dune.
00:22:14.579 --> 00:22:16.980
Yeah, the players kind of have full agency.
00:22:17.139 --> 00:22:17.220
Yeah.
00:22:17.379 --> 00:22:18.899
Are we gonna get into alliance, right?
00:22:19.299 --> 00:22:19.859
We just choose.
00:22:20.019 --> 00:22:20.660
Do we want to do it?
00:22:20.740 --> 00:22:21.059
Do we not?
00:22:21.139 --> 00:22:21.220
Yeah.
00:22:21.379 --> 00:22:23.619
And we can also choose to abandon each other, right?
00:22:23.700 --> 00:22:25.700
And sometimes there's consequences for that.
00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:29.700
And this game, it does something different that I find really interesting.
00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:39.779
There's a track where every player can actually move down this track, and you have you can manipulate anybody's tokens on this.
00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:40.899
Anybody's tokens.
00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:43.539
And each player actually has three tokens.
00:22:43.700 --> 00:22:44.019
Yeah.
00:22:44.339 --> 00:22:48.420
One that might push you towards the orange alliance, yeah.
00:22:48.660 --> 00:22:53.059
One that might push you towards the blue alliance, or one that might push you towards neutral.
00:22:53.379 --> 00:22:53.619
Yeah.
00:22:53.859 --> 00:23:01.779
And so what you can do is if I wanted to be in alliance with Candace, maybe you are gonna come for one of my regions.
00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:03.779
And I'm I'm feeling a little vulnerable.
00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:04.259
Yeah.
00:23:04.500 --> 00:23:08.180
What I can actually do is stack this track, right?
00:23:08.259 --> 00:23:11.539
By actually spending your action points, your cards.
00:23:11.619 --> 00:23:11.940
Yeah.
00:23:12.500 --> 00:23:16.819
And putting her chit on this track towards the blue alliance.
00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:17.220
Right.
00:23:17.379 --> 00:23:17.619
Right?
00:23:17.779 --> 00:23:19.460
Uh, which might be my alliance, right?
00:23:19.619 --> 00:23:22.420
And if we become allies, you can't attack your ally.
00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:22.660
Right.
00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:25.460
So, in some ways, I'm sort of like using this intrigue.
00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:34.500
Or this kind of diplomacy to sort of bring her onto my side, but then it you get a little bit hamstrung because you can't attack me even if you want to do it.
00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:36.740
If we're an alliance, we cannot attack each other.
00:23:36.819 --> 00:23:37.460
And what was it?
00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:45.139
It was like committed, and then I forget what the other so there are two levels on each alliance side.
00:23:45.539 --> 00:24:00.099
And the other cool thing was that like when you are involved with combat with another player, then that automatically pushes the whoever the defender is away from the attacker.
00:24:00.339 --> 00:24:01.059
On the alliance track.
00:24:01.379 --> 00:24:01.940
Yes, yes.
00:24:02.099 --> 00:24:10.579
So if you were if you were no neutral and I'm on the orange alliance side, yeah, and I go to attack you, you're pushing one step closer to blue.
00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:10.819
Yeah.
00:24:11.059 --> 00:24:11.700
Like away from me.
00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:13.059
Which makes so much sense.
00:24:13.139 --> 00:24:13.379
Yeah.
00:24:13.539 --> 00:24:13.779
Right?
00:24:13.859 --> 00:24:16.339
Because once you start attacking me, of course we're gonna be enemies.
00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:16.819
Yeah.
00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:17.220
Yeah.
00:24:17.379 --> 00:24:25.779
And and what's really cool is that that manipulation of that track where I can spend points to push you up that track doesn't guarantee that you're gonna go to that alliance.
00:24:25.940 --> 00:24:26.019
Right.
00:24:26.259 --> 00:24:27.940
There's a die roll process, yes.
00:24:28.259 --> 00:24:31.379
At the end of the round, and I'm basically adding a modifier.
00:24:31.539 --> 00:24:31.859
Yeah.
00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:49.539
So I think that's so cool because for me, this is one of the only games where I've really seen like sort of shadow diplomacy or like intrigue, where it's like, I feel like I'm sending my diplomats or my envoys to talk to your people and sort of And it might work out and it might not.
00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:49.779
Yeah.
00:24:50.019 --> 00:24:56.579
But like you can highly increase your odds if you want to invest in that in it going in your favor.
00:24:56.819 --> 00:25:00.579
And and then if you really want to turn on me, you have to invest in kicking me out of the alliance.
00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:01.859
Yep, yep.
00:25:02.819 --> 00:25:05.139
I just think that part was really, really cool.
00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:14.500
Yeah, and I think later, after we actually get to play a full game of this together, like after we do some homework and study up.
00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:17.059
By the way, something I'll mention.
00:25:17.299 --> 00:25:22.099
So this is a very complex game, and I knew that going into it, and I kind of like everyone knew that.
00:25:22.339 --> 00:25:25.940
Everybody like did a little bit of research coming into it.
00:25:26.180 --> 00:25:28.579
Not everyone, but me.
00:25:28.819 --> 00:25:32.740
I came in very fresh.
00:25:33.059 --> 00:25:33.859
But that's okay.
00:25:33.940 --> 00:25:34.500
That's okay.
00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:38.420
It's like as long as everyone knows, like, this is a learning game, right?
00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:50.180
But something I read on I think it was someone posted on BGG that they the way they did this is how I want to do it going forward with any kind of like heavier games like this.
00:25:50.740 --> 00:25:57.059
But they had everybody read the rule book and they gave each player something to specialize in.
00:25:57.460 --> 00:26:00.819
Like Tim, you need to be the expert at pacification.
00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:04.019
Steven, you need to be the expert at naval combat.
00:26:04.259 --> 00:26:04.819
Rules-wise.
00:26:04.899 --> 00:26:05.059
Yeah.
00:26:05.299 --> 00:26:07.059
We have to be the expert in some aspect of the rules.
00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:13.779
Yeah, so everybody like reads the rules, yeah, but then you have like one little area that you're the person.
00:26:14.099 --> 00:26:19.539
So if I have a question about how to do pacification, you have to answer.
00:26:19.779 --> 00:26:21.940
I think that's so cool because you know, right?
00:26:22.099 --> 00:26:25.619
Yeah, and in some ways, our game table actually started forming in that way.
00:26:25.700 --> 00:26:26.740
Like I don't know why.
00:26:26.819 --> 00:26:29.139
I was just reading those treaty options.
00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:33.539
Maybe I just had my playwright open there, but I was hoping who was the treaty expert?
00:26:33.700 --> 00:26:36.660
I never even used a treaty, but I just read that section.
00:26:37.139 --> 00:26:38.420
Always had the answer.
00:26:38.579 --> 00:26:41.059
We're like, actually, you can do Yeah.
00:26:41.220 --> 00:26:45.779
I was like, yeah, there are oh, and you have this option available, and if this happens, you could do this, right?
00:26:45.859 --> 00:26:48.660
So I I I was just reading it and became really familiar with it.
00:26:48.740 --> 00:26:50.500
So I totally get why that could be helpful.
00:26:50.740 --> 00:26:50.980
Yeah.
00:26:51.379 --> 00:26:54.980
And I think I think that's how I will approach it going forward.
00:26:55.139 --> 00:27:04.099
But I think personally, like, I know going into a game like this that it's gonna be all sorts of bumpy, it's gonna take forever, we're not gonna finish it likely.
00:27:04.420 --> 00:27:14.899
And I'm totally okay with that because I came out of even round turn one yesterday, I feel like we came out all so much more knowledgeable.
00:27:15.139 --> 00:27:15.460
Totally.
00:27:15.539 --> 00:27:15.619
Yeah.
00:27:15.779 --> 00:27:21.940
Yeah, like stuff still took a while, like battles, because like, oh, we have a different type of battle situation.
00:27:22.099 --> 00:27:29.940
Yeah, and we're it's mostly I feel like the timing comes from or the the long periods come from the uncertainty.
00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:32.660
Yeah, and I think the battles have a lot of steps, right?
00:27:32.819 --> 00:27:33.619
So that's the other thing.
00:27:33.779 --> 00:27:39.700
So a turn could be so simple as I play this card, it's gonna be I'm recruiting an army here.
00:27:39.940 --> 00:27:40.740
Yep, done.
00:27:40.899 --> 00:27:43.460
So you you're most turns are super quick.
00:27:43.619 --> 00:27:52.660
I would dare to say, despite us only getting through three turns across 10 hours, eight, ten hours, however long it was, right?
00:27:52.819 --> 00:27:55.139
Most turns It wasn't 10 hours.
00:27:56.339 --> 00:27:57.779
It wasn't 10 hours.
00:27:58.019 --> 00:28:00.420
Because well, no, it wasn't 10 hours.
00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:01.059
Yeah, not 10 years.
00:28:01.299 --> 00:28:05.220
Like people left at 7:30, and I don't think we even got cook until noon.
00:28:05.460 --> 00:28:06.019
Yeah, that's right.
00:28:06.099 --> 00:28:07.859
Yeah, somewhere closer to eight hours, yeah.
00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:10.660
So, you know, given that time, right?
00:28:10.819 --> 00:28:13.539
Most turns, probably, or most impulses, right?
00:28:13.619 --> 00:28:17.700
Most player turns took less than two minutes, less than a minute, even I would say.
00:28:17.859 --> 00:28:18.660
It's just the battle steps.
00:28:19.940 --> 00:28:23.139
It's when we have questions and the battle steps, I mean it's very high stakes.
00:28:23.379 --> 00:28:26.980
So you also really want to take your time to really make sure you know each step, right?
00:28:27.139 --> 00:28:28.660
Because that has really long-term impact.
00:28:28.740 --> 00:28:31.460
So the battles that that's where I think a lot of the time came from.
00:28:31.539 --> 00:28:32.980
But again, we were learning through those steps.
00:28:33.379 --> 00:28:34.019
Yeah, exactly.
00:28:34.180 --> 00:28:45.539
And it it if I had had enough time to like prepare a little more, if if somebody knows those rules, yeah, it would have like made it even smoother.
00:28:45.859 --> 00:28:56.099
But in spite of all the like the complexity of the game, yeah, it has some really cool stuff that I'm excited to explore and play more.
00:28:56.339 --> 00:29:04.660
And I definitely like went to bed last night and was like watching the video, one of the videos the designer put up to say, like, oh, did we get something wrong?
00:29:04.819 --> 00:29:06.740
I'm reading like BGG forums.
00:29:06.980 --> 00:29:08.579
I'm very excited about this game.
00:29:08.660 --> 00:29:11.779
I think the production is really, really thoughtful.
00:29:12.339 --> 00:29:15.539
Even the flashpoint spaces on the map, like they have a dot.
00:29:15.859 --> 00:29:16.899
There are lots of reminders.
00:29:17.059 --> 00:29:27.859
There was a there were a couple of like weird things that I might reach out to the designer to ask to get clarification on, but overall, yeah, I'm yeah, I'm stoked to play it.
00:29:27.940 --> 00:29:29.859
Like, I think the asymmetry is cool.
00:29:30.019 --> 00:29:41.139
I mean, you as France, you were talking about your two each each power has two home cards, and every round you will get to choose one of those home cards.
00:29:41.299 --> 00:29:51.779
Yeah, I don't even know if we talked about the diplomacy fees, but there's a whole negotiation, there's a period of time at the start of a turn where you can kind of huddle with each other, leave the table with someone and say make deals.
00:29:52.019 --> 00:29:55.700
Yeah, I got this card that you know can assassinate someone, right?
00:29:55.859 --> 00:29:59.460
I can take out one of your enemies, but what what can I get from you to do that, right?
00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:04.099
So there's a lot of this like direct player bargaining too, which is always so fun for me.
00:30:04.259 --> 00:30:04.579
Yeah.
00:30:04.740 --> 00:30:04.899
Yeah.
00:30:05.139 --> 00:30:07.379
But I'll just say too, I was so excited.
00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:15.220
Like, I know you're definitely like one of my friends, game friends, that is down to play anything, right?
00:30:15.700 --> 00:30:24.579
But usually when I play games like this, there's there's a common group of friends that are like into some of these like heavy war games.
00:30:24.819 --> 00:30:31.940
And yesterday was like extra special because it was like you were there, Steven was there, even James had never played a war game like that.
00:30:32.099 --> 00:30:42.899
Yeah, so it was just like it was and and like I love playing with Drew and Aaron also, of course, but they're my usual suspects for games like these and coin games and stuff like that.
00:30:42.980 --> 00:30:48.500
Yeah, so it was like really something special to have some new, like fresh meat there.
00:30:49.220 --> 00:30:52.420
Oh, I'm glad I could be that fresh meat for you then, my goodness.
00:30:52.660 --> 00:30:54.019
Yeah, no, it was so fun.
00:30:54.099 --> 00:30:54.980
It was such a great group.
00:30:55.139 --> 00:30:59.619
Like I had such a great time, and honestly, I didn't come in with many expectations.
00:30:59.859 --> 00:31:00.899
You had a beret on, though.
00:31:01.059 --> 00:31:01.299
I did.
00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:02.339
You were prepared.
00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:11.059
You know I am spirited, so I will always find an outfit or a costume that I can wear, a color that matches my faction.
00:31:11.700 --> 00:31:13.059
So, yes, I was France.
00:31:13.139 --> 00:31:15.460
I knew I was France, so I came in with a beret.
00:31:17.059 --> 00:31:17.859
It was perfect.
00:31:18.420 --> 00:31:21.779
Um, you know, I just love those little moments to give some joy at the table.
00:31:23.379 --> 00:31:25.539
But I think for me, I agree.
00:31:25.700 --> 00:31:31.379
I like I left it feeling so excited to play again, so excited to keep exploring.
00:31:31.539 --> 00:31:38.740
And I'm someone, like you said, I think I've only played one game that really could be considered a card-driven war game.
00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:39.779
Land in Freedom, right?
00:31:39.859 --> 00:31:41.220
Yeah, I played Land and Freedom with you.
00:31:41.379 --> 00:31:42.339
Which is much lighter.
00:31:42.500 --> 00:31:43.700
Yeah, so much lighter.
00:31:43.779 --> 00:31:44.980
And I loved it.
00:31:45.059 --> 00:31:48.019
Yeah, but I am not in this genre as much, right?
00:31:48.180 --> 00:31:50.259
And and so, yeah, exactly.
00:31:50.660 --> 00:31:54.819
And I but I seriously, I mean, here's something that's complex and heavy even in this space.
00:31:54.899 --> 00:31:58.019
And I felt like, you know, it was like I was so excited, right?
00:31:58.180 --> 00:32:03.859
Like, and two things I'll say, you know, about that exploration and excitement for future plays.
00:32:04.259 --> 00:32:06.899
When I played France, I have these two home cards.
00:32:07.139 --> 00:32:08.019
Oh, yes, yes.
00:32:08.259 --> 00:32:12.899
And every round I can pick one of them, right, to add into my hand as a guarantee.
00:32:13.059 --> 00:32:16.980
And the France player has two very clear paths, right?
00:32:17.299 --> 00:32:20.579
One is very peaceful, one home card is very peaceful.
00:32:20.660 --> 00:32:22.500
It's literally called like City of Light.
00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:22.899
Yeah.
00:32:23.139 --> 00:32:28.339
It's like, let me build my Eiffel Tower, let me celebrate my Eiffel Tower and just be this shining city.
00:32:28.500 --> 00:32:28.660
Yeah.
00:32:28.980 --> 00:32:29.619
So peaceful.
00:32:29.700 --> 00:32:33.139
I just kind of click up this little track, my little City of Light points.
00:32:33.299 --> 00:32:33.539
Right.
00:32:33.700 --> 00:32:34.899
And that's the whole thing.
00:32:35.220 --> 00:32:36.099
Basically.
00:32:36.339 --> 00:32:41.940
The other one is like you gain two reserve armies, declare a war.
00:32:42.180 --> 00:32:44.339
You can target two people if you want.
00:32:44.579 --> 00:32:44.980
Oh my god.
00:32:45.220 --> 00:32:47.859
They can even be two meaningful territories.
00:32:48.099 --> 00:32:51.700
Other players that are not in the battle can come and fight against you.
00:32:51.859 --> 00:32:53.059
It's like so aggressive.
00:32:53.220 --> 00:32:54.420
It's wildly aggressive.
00:32:54.579 --> 00:32:54.740
Yeah.
00:32:55.299 --> 00:32:58.259
There's a penalty for starting these kind of conquest wars.
00:32:58.339 --> 00:32:58.579
Yeah.
00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:01.379
And it's like you don't even get the full penalty, right?
00:33:01.460 --> 00:33:03.859
So it really incentivizes you to be aggressive.
00:33:03.940 --> 00:33:04.259
Yeah.
00:33:04.500 --> 00:33:08.980
And so even as the France player, I was like, wow, I could really pivot here.
00:33:09.059 --> 00:33:09.220
Yeah.
00:33:09.379 --> 00:33:11.299
I could like I didn't play that card.
00:33:11.379 --> 00:33:16.099
I was terrified to really make an enemy, but also battle felt so intimidating.
00:33:16.180 --> 00:33:17.940
So I just went my little city of light.
00:33:18.099 --> 00:33:22.420
But I'm so excited to actually see what it would be like, actually, to take that more kind of military route.
00:33:25.539 --> 00:33:26.019
Scared, yeah.
00:33:26.339 --> 00:33:27.619
The glimmer in my eye.
00:33:27.859 --> 00:33:30.660
I'm like, uh, uh-oh, got a problem.
00:33:30.899 --> 00:33:35.379
And so it just makes me think like each of us probably had these branching paths like that, right?
00:33:35.460 --> 00:33:36.180
That's so cool.
00:33:36.420 --> 00:33:36.660
Yeah.
00:33:36.819 --> 00:33:41.700
And then the other thing that is so interesting, we keep saying, like, oh, the great war might happen.
00:33:41.940 --> 00:33:47.460
And so many things in the player raid is like, oh, once the great war starts, everything changes, right?
00:33:47.619 --> 00:33:47.940
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:48.259 --> 00:33:48.980
Ignore this.
00:33:49.139 --> 00:33:51.379
You know, here's a whole new color for what this looks like.
00:33:51.539 --> 00:33:51.619
Right.
00:33:51.779 --> 00:33:55.700
And so I'm like, we have no idea what the game looks like once that starts.
00:33:55.859 --> 00:33:56.339
Who knows?
00:33:56.740 --> 00:33:57.539
I'm excited though.
00:33:57.859 --> 00:33:58.019
Yeah.
00:33:58.259 --> 00:33:59.379
And it turns into a team game.
00:33:59.460 --> 00:33:59.539
Yeah.
00:33:59.779 --> 00:34:01.379
You win or lose with your alliance.
00:34:01.460 --> 00:34:02.660
They get locked at that point.
00:34:02.819 --> 00:34:03.139
Right.
00:34:03.299 --> 00:34:03.539
Right?
00:34:03.700 --> 00:34:03.940
Right.
00:34:04.180 --> 00:34:06.500
And so, or or semi-locked, I'm not sure, right?
00:34:06.579 --> 00:34:09.460
But no, I think you're pretty, I think you're locked in.
00:34:09.860 --> 00:34:10.180
Yeah.
00:34:11.139 --> 00:34:19.940
And you know, I'm not 100% if this is true or not, but on the side of the box, I think it indicates that there's a scenario you could play that's just the Great War.
00:34:20.099 --> 00:34:22.820
Like you might be able to just get right to that start, maybe.
00:34:22.900 --> 00:34:23.940
It looks like a shorter time.
00:34:24.180 --> 00:34:26.099
Oh, I thought you said there was yesterday.
00:34:26.660 --> 00:34:28.579
Because I I told Hector today.
00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:33.940
When I was giving him the recap of our game, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, there's a great war scenario.
00:34:34.019 --> 00:34:37.860
So we might do that just to like familiarize ourselves with that part of the game.
00:34:38.099 --> 00:34:44.820
But that's so cool too, where it's like that, you know, if you want to do a little bit of the if you just wanted to learn that part or just play that part, it's an option, I think.
00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:45.619
Yeah, to do that.
00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:46.099
Yeah.
00:34:46.340 --> 00:34:48.500
So anyway, that's Imperial Elogy.
00:34:48.820 --> 00:34:59.139
I was not even intending for us to talk about it this long, but you could see obviously like we're excited about it and intrigued, and so more to come.
00:34:59.380 --> 00:35:00.340
It was a full day game.
00:35:00.420 --> 00:35:00.579
Yeah.
00:35:00.740 --> 00:35:03.300
So there's lots of lots to say about it.
00:35:03.460 --> 00:35:04.099
Yeah.
00:35:04.420 --> 00:35:05.539
Yes, yes, yes.
00:35:05.619 --> 00:35:09.780
And I'm I'm already like thinking about when I'm gonna put the next date on the calendar.
00:35:09.940 --> 00:35:10.099
Yeah.
00:35:10.340 --> 00:35:11.139
Because I'm I'm ready.
00:35:11.380 --> 00:35:11.780
I'm ready.
00:35:11.940 --> 00:35:12.420
Sign me up.
00:35:12.660 --> 00:35:12.900
Ready.
00:35:12.980 --> 00:35:14.500
And we're gonna pick the same factions?
00:35:14.740 --> 00:35:15.300
I'm down.
00:35:15.380 --> 00:35:15.539
Yeah.
00:35:15.780 --> 00:35:16.980
I might switch.
00:35:17.780 --> 00:35:18.740
I'm down either way.
00:35:18.900 --> 00:35:19.539
I'm down either way.
00:35:19.619 --> 00:35:19.700
Yeah.
00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:20.099
You're normal.
00:35:20.420 --> 00:35:20.740
No, I know.
00:35:20.900 --> 00:35:22.820
I want you to lean into that.
00:35:23.059 --> 00:35:27.220
Because then I'm gonna worry about like all I'm like, is he gonna do City of Lights or is he?
00:35:27.940 --> 00:35:29.619
I'll wear my other color buried.
00:35:31.619 --> 00:35:32.260
Awesome.
00:35:32.420 --> 00:35:35.540
Well, outside of Imperial Elogy, what else have you been playing lately?
00:35:35.780 --> 00:35:36.500
Oh my goodness.
00:35:36.580 --> 00:35:38.100
I'm so excited to tell you about this one.
00:35:38.260 --> 00:35:42.660
So this game that I have played recently has a whole story behind it.
00:35:42.900 --> 00:35:45.140
The game is called, it's in German.
00:35:45.220 --> 00:35:47.060
Okay, so I'm gonna do my best.
00:35:47.380 --> 00:35:49.940
It is called Alf Tufel Kom Raus.
00:35:50.580 --> 00:35:52.180
And I one more time?
00:35:52.820 --> 00:35:54.820
Alf Tuffel Kom Raus.
00:35:55.060 --> 00:35:55.300
Okay.
00:35:55.620 --> 00:35:57.060
That's my best attempt.
00:35:57.380 --> 00:35:58.980
I believe I got it all.
00:35:59.220 --> 00:36:02.900
It translates roughly to like come hell or high water or something like that.
00:36:03.700 --> 00:36:09.460
But the this is a really fun, push your luck kind of betting style game.
00:36:09.780 --> 00:36:19.460
And the reason why I got interested in this game is because I saw a picture of this game from a friend who had recently played it.
00:36:19.620 --> 00:36:24.820
And if you look up this game online, it has this really goofy art.
00:36:25.060 --> 00:36:31.540
It's the theme of this game is that you are trying to steal coal out of the devil's furnace.
00:36:33.140 --> 00:36:35.700
So already it's just this little zany theme.
00:36:35.940 --> 00:36:45.540
He's got this red cartoony devil, this huge furnace, these chunky coal pieces, and something about this picture that this friend had sent me of like, hey, check out this one.
00:36:45.700 --> 00:36:46.500
Like, I won't play this.
00:36:46.660 --> 00:36:47.700
It just looked so fun.
00:36:47.860 --> 00:36:49.780
Like I was just instantly hooked.
00:36:49.940 --> 00:36:53.460
So I went online and I was like, oh, let me try to pick up a copy.
00:36:53.540 --> 00:36:55.380
It's only in German, right?
00:36:55.540 --> 00:36:58.019
Like it was only, I think, ever published in German.
00:36:58.260 --> 00:37:00.740
I couldn't really find like a used copy.
00:37:00.980 --> 00:37:05.300
And I was really sad about it because I was like, this it's it looked simple, it looked fun.
00:37:05.460 --> 00:37:06.500
It was push your luck.
00:37:06.580 --> 00:37:08.340
I always love a push your luck game.
00:37:08.580 --> 00:37:12.100
And so I looked through the rule book and I just stared at it.
00:37:12.180 --> 00:37:13.700
And I was like, you know what?
00:37:13.860 --> 00:37:15.540
I could try to make this.
00:37:17.220 --> 00:37:18.980
Like I could try to be crafty.
00:37:19.220 --> 00:37:24.260
Yeah, I could try to just sort of proxy some pieces together because I really wanted to play this game.
00:37:24.420 --> 00:37:24.740
Yeah.
00:37:24.980 --> 00:37:28.100
So I found some cabbage meeples.
00:37:29.940 --> 00:37:41.940
And instead of stealing coal out of the devil's furnace, I just themed it, you know, with my little my own version as you're stealing cabbage out of the witch's cabbage patch.
00:37:42.900 --> 00:37:44.340
And I had as one does.
00:37:44.500 --> 00:37:45.300
Yeah, of course.
00:37:45.460 --> 00:37:49.140
Every witch has a great cabbage patch, and you're trying to steal those cabbages.
00:37:49.380 --> 00:37:53.060
So I had to make a little bit of my own little backstory here to make it make sense.
00:37:53.140 --> 00:37:54.660
But the game itself was so fun.
00:37:54.740 --> 00:37:56.580
So I was able to put these pieces together.
00:37:57.060 --> 00:37:58.740
I was able to play it with friends.
00:37:58.900 --> 00:38:03.780
And what you do in the game is you actually have money.
00:38:04.019 --> 00:38:05.700
You actually have money.
00:38:07.060 --> 00:38:09.780
And you use that money to make a bet at the start of the round.
00:38:09.860 --> 00:38:10.019
Okay.
00:38:10.180 --> 00:38:10.260
Right.
00:38:10.340 --> 00:38:11.860
And the bet is almost like a bid.
00:38:11.940 --> 00:38:15.860
Like, how much cabbage can I steal out of this cabbage patch, right?
00:38:16.019 --> 00:38:20.660
The tokens range from 10, 25, 50, 75, up to 100.
00:38:20.740 --> 00:38:22.100
That's the highest cabbage.
00:38:22.340 --> 00:38:26.180
So when it's your turn, you can steal a cabbage token, flip it over.
00:38:26.340 --> 00:38:27.140
Oh, I got 50.
00:38:27.220 --> 00:38:27.460
Great.
00:38:27.540 --> 00:38:29.060
And then you can choose to steal again, right?
00:38:29.140 --> 00:38:31.620
So you're building up this like cabbage value, right?
00:38:31.700 --> 00:38:34.740
Or the coal value, if that's the original game.
00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:37.060
I am cabbage on the brain.
00:38:38.660 --> 00:38:44.019
And so what you're doing is you're basically having a bet of like how much cabbage can someone steal.
00:38:44.500 --> 00:38:46.260
And you see how I said someone.
00:38:46.420 --> 00:38:56.260
Because it actually doesn't matter if you are the player that stole your bet, as long as anybody steals as much cabbage as your bet, you're going to make your bet.
00:38:56.500 --> 00:38:56.980
That's cool.
00:38:57.140 --> 00:39:02.980
So if I bet a hundred, as long as somebody at the table gets a hundred, then I'm going to get paid out.
00:39:03.220 --> 00:39:04.019
So that's cool.
00:39:05.860 --> 00:39:12.180
But then what's really interesting is if I bet lower, I'm only going to make that lower amount, right?
00:39:12.260 --> 00:39:18.260
So if I bet 60 and someone gets a hundred, I made my bet because they exceeded the 60, but I only get paid 60.
00:39:18.420 --> 00:39:18.740
60.
00:39:19.140 --> 00:39:24.740
So do you want to bet low and go safe, or bet high and actually try to get more money out of it, right?
00:39:24.820 --> 00:39:25.860
That's kind of a cool choice.
00:39:26.019 --> 00:39:30.900
Now, are you trying to get more money out of it by like pushing people to like pick more?
00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:37.540
Yeah, I mean, at that point, especially if if because what I didn't mention is some of the coal pieces have the devil on the back.
00:39:38.260 --> 00:39:40.740
Or does the cabbage also have devils?
00:39:40.900 --> 00:39:42.580
I drew a witch's curse.
00:39:44.420 --> 00:39:44.980
Skull.
00:39:45.700 --> 00:39:50.660
And so if you pull, you know, that token, you bust and you lose all your value, right?
00:39:50.820 --> 00:39:56.900
So if you bust and you don't you didn't meet your bid, for sure you're egging other people on to try to get to where your bid is, right?
00:39:57.140 --> 00:40:02.340
This this is like slightly reminding me of the the finger crane championship game.
00:40:02.580 --> 00:40:18.260
This is a game that on the episode of number something that I recorded with Taylor Reiner back when we were in Cincinnati at TJ, this uh trick-taking convention where there are lots of like import games there.
00:40:18.740 --> 00:40:22.900
There's the finger crane championship, I think it is what it's called.
00:40:23.140 --> 00:40:34.820
And one player you flip a card, and it's like, oh, you can only use like finger these particular fingers and you are trying to pick up a number of cards.
00:40:34.980 --> 00:40:36.340
Maybe it's like 11.
00:40:36.900 --> 00:40:44.820
And so all the other players are gonna bet whether you're gonna go under, over, or exactly hit.
00:40:45.220 --> 00:40:52.660
Then if you're the crane player, you have to close your eyes, and all the other players are like, no, no, you you need more.
00:40:52.820 --> 00:40:59.460
No, oh, oh no, that's too much, you know, and they're like pushing and pulling you, but they're trying to do it for their own interests.
00:40:59.780 --> 00:41:00.740
Oh yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:41:00.820 --> 00:41:04.500
Like there's these sort of competing interests at the table being like, no, no, go further, right?
00:41:04.580 --> 00:41:07.140
Like, you know, because they want to make sure their bet is made.
00:41:07.460 --> 00:41:11.300
And what is really cool is that the game also has two bonuses.
00:41:11.700 --> 00:41:18.740
So if you are the person who pulled the most cabbage in terms of the highest value, like the biggest sum, you get a bonus$50.
00:41:19.380 --> 00:41:21.780
So you still kind of want to be the one to pull the most.
00:41:22.900 --> 00:41:23.860
And I think that's important, right?
00:41:23.940 --> 00:41:26.019
So you're not just egging other people around, right?
00:41:26.260 --> 00:41:30.660
And then the other one is you get a another bonus$50 if you pulled the most tokens.
00:41:30.980 --> 00:41:34.900
So who you whoever pulled the most tokens gets$50 too.
00:41:35.300 --> 00:41:44.260
So there's no that this is cool, but like with your cabbage game, I feel like all there need to be characters with lore.
00:41:44.420 --> 00:41:44.740
Oh.
00:41:45.620 --> 00:41:46.980
Aren't you in luck?
00:41:47.220 --> 00:41:52.980
Because I had to find little meeples to represent each character.
00:41:53.140 --> 00:41:58.820
And I had to, of course, as you know, I had to write a whole backstory for each one.
00:41:59.780 --> 00:42:00.340
I love it.
00:42:00.500 --> 00:42:03.220
Yeah, my favorite one is that I had this like bride meeple.
00:42:03.300 --> 00:42:08.820
It's like this bride, and I was like, oh my god, why is she in the cabbage patch stealing cabbages out of this witch's garden?
00:42:08.980 --> 00:42:12.740
So her whole backstory is she was at her bachelorette party.
00:42:12.900 --> 00:42:22.180
They dared her to go in there and steal a cabbage, but then she sees like the prize money at the fair, and she's like, Oh my god, I got a wedding to pay for.
00:42:22.260 --> 00:42:26.260
So then she gets so competitive and just starts stealing cabbages left and right.
00:42:26.420 --> 00:42:28.660
Wait, so is the original like German game?
00:42:28.740 --> 00:42:30.420
Does it have characters like this?
00:42:30.980 --> 00:42:32.580
They just start player pause.
00:42:32.820 --> 00:42:34.580
This is why we call it kicking it creative.
00:42:34.900 --> 00:42:35.220
There you go.
00:42:35.300 --> 00:42:37.620
Yeah, you have to, you know, it was just so fun.
00:42:38.019 --> 00:42:41.700
And and the player in my game who played the bride won.
00:42:42.660 --> 00:42:43.300
I love it.
00:42:43.940 --> 00:42:45.700
She was determined that pride.
00:42:46.340 --> 00:42:47.940
But it's a really, really fun game.
00:42:48.019 --> 00:42:54.340
You know, it's that it gets it's just this classic little push your luck, but you're setting these bids, you know, you're pushing other people to take more.
00:42:54.500 --> 00:42:58.180
There were groans at the table, screams at the table, laughs.
00:42:58.420 --> 00:43:02.580
Like any game that makes the whole table react that strongly is a win in my book.
00:43:02.660 --> 00:43:03.540
So I loved this game.
00:43:03.620 --> 00:43:06.340
It's it's designed by a mother-daughter duo.
00:43:06.660 --> 00:43:07.540
Oh, that's so cool.
00:43:07.860 --> 00:43:11.540
Tanya Engel and Sarah Engel, and it was published by Zocke for Lag.
00:43:11.620 --> 00:43:13.540
And it was just a really What year did it come out?
00:43:13.700 --> 00:43:15.220
It came out in 2013.
00:43:15.700 --> 00:43:15.860
Yeah.
00:43:16.260 --> 00:43:16.500
Yeah.
00:43:16.660 --> 00:43:21.220
I had never heard of it until I saw this picture from my friend, and I'm just so glad that, you know, that's cool.
00:43:21.460 --> 00:43:26.100
It speaks to just how sometimes the look of a game, the components, it just pulls you in like a magnet sometimes.
00:43:26.340 --> 00:43:26.500
Yes.
00:43:26.900 --> 00:43:27.140
Yes.
00:43:27.460 --> 00:43:28.019
That's so cool.
00:43:28.100 --> 00:43:29.700
And uh repeat the title.
00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:31.060
Oh goodness.
00:43:33.140 --> 00:43:41.700
This is like Steven's uh one of his special abilities had some word that was hard to pronounce, and we were like, wait, what was that power against?
00:43:43.460 --> 00:43:45.940
But it was off to Fulcombe Rouse.
00:43:46.340 --> 00:43:47.380
Okay, I think you got it.
00:43:47.540 --> 00:43:48.100
I think you got it.
00:43:48.820 --> 00:43:57.700
I just have to say, if anybody seems to find this game somewhere, you know, if you find it in like a uh yard sale, yeah, please, please, you know, but pick it up.
00:43:57.780 --> 00:43:59.300
It is so fun, it is so worth it.
00:43:59.620 --> 00:44:00.100
Cool, cool.
00:44:00.180 --> 00:44:01.940
Well, I want to play your cabbage patch version.
00:44:02.100 --> 00:44:03.220
Yeah, we'll do it.
00:44:03.380 --> 00:44:04.260
That's so cool.
00:44:04.500 --> 00:44:15.940
I guess for me, I was trying to think about like what I've played recently, you know, because Imperial Elogy is just still very much all up in my mind, my brain space.
00:44:16.420 --> 00:44:19.380
But I'll just shout out a couple real quick.
00:44:19.700 --> 00:44:28.180
Wild Serengeti is a game that I picked up at the Strategicon virtual flea market.
00:44:29.060 --> 00:44:38.180
And this is one I had not heard of, but then I think I heard of something else from either the same publisher or the same designer.
00:44:38.260 --> 00:44:39.460
I think it was the same publisher.
00:44:39.540 --> 00:44:40.820
It's Bad Comet.
00:44:42.260 --> 00:44:49.460
Yes, someone told me about like life of the Amaz Amazonia, and there's they also did Shallow Sea.
00:44:49.540 --> 00:44:51.460
I think Monica Naveen did a video on that.
00:44:51.860 --> 00:45:00.260
Anyways, this game kind of hooked me in because I looked at it and it has all these like big, like chunky animal meeples.
00:45:00.820 --> 00:45:13.780
And the premise is you're filming a documentary, a wildlife documentary, and I'm like, just like even if the theme was pasted on, I'm like, I love that that theme is kind of like out there.
00:45:13.860 --> 00:45:14.100
Yeah.
00:45:14.420 --> 00:45:17.140
And so You know, I'd come with a director's chair.
00:45:17.300 --> 00:45:17.700
Yeah.
00:45:18.340 --> 00:45:19.300
My camcorder.
00:45:19.540 --> 00:45:19.780
Yes.
00:45:19.860 --> 00:45:19.940
Yeah.
00:45:20.340 --> 00:45:20.900
Yes.
00:45:21.220 --> 00:45:30.019
So one morning, and it was there was one of those like rare Times where like Matt was kind of like, let's play a game.
00:45:30.180 --> 00:45:31.380
And I'm like, okay.
00:45:31.540 --> 00:45:35.380
And I like go in my bag, stuff that I've been wanting to play with two players.
00:45:35.620 --> 00:45:35.940
Oh, yeah.
00:45:36.100 --> 00:45:37.780
When the spouse asks, yeah, we show up.
00:45:38.019 --> 00:45:39.380
When the spouse asks, we show up.
00:45:39.460 --> 00:45:39.620
Yeah.
00:45:39.940 --> 00:45:40.180
Same.
00:45:40.340 --> 00:45:41.380
With me and Adam, same.
00:45:41.700 --> 00:45:42.019
Yeah.
00:45:42.180 --> 00:45:42.580
Yeah.
00:45:42.740 --> 00:45:46.019
So so I was like, he's like, oh, you know how to play this, right?
00:45:46.100 --> 00:45:46.980
And I'm like, yeah.
00:45:47.140 --> 00:45:51.060
And I'm like, you know, flipping through the rule book, like learning as we go.
00:45:51.460 --> 00:45:54.180
But it's a very puzzly game.
00:45:54.500 --> 00:46:04.900
Like you have all the you're trying to like complete these scene cards, and you have different resources where you are placing like the actions on the board.
00:46:04.980 --> 00:46:22.900
It's sort of worker placement-y, but there are a lot of spaces that many people can go to, but you get a certain amount of money at the beginning of each round, and you can spend that to go on these different spaces, and you're either like placing animals on the board or you're moving them around, like there's a swap action.
00:46:23.620 --> 00:46:28.580
And you're trying to position them to complete these scene cards.
00:46:28.900 --> 00:46:40.019
As you complete scene cards, you're like building an engine, you're getting like some resources, you're getting points, and you know, you're trying to have the the best documentary by the end of the game.
00:46:40.260 --> 00:46:53.620
But there are some like nice thematic touches, like one of the resources is meat, and you can like spend a meat to like move an animal closer to get them like into position where where you need them, where you need them to be.
00:46:53.700 --> 00:46:53.780
Yeah.
00:46:53.940 --> 00:46:56.580
And there's also like there are different types of terrain on the board.
00:46:56.740 --> 00:46:58.580
The game board is double-sided.
00:46:59.780 --> 00:47:02.900
And yeah, it was it was a nice puzzle.
00:47:03.060 --> 00:47:06.260
Like, I don't know if I would play it with more than three players.
00:47:06.500 --> 00:47:08.660
And and can anybody move any of the animals?
00:47:08.820 --> 00:47:09.060
Yes.
00:47:09.300 --> 00:47:10.580
Oh, I love it already.
00:47:10.980 --> 00:47:14.580
Yeah, but that's why I'm like, I think with four, it would be just chaotic.
00:47:14.740 --> 00:47:15.460
A little too chaotic.
00:47:15.860 --> 00:47:16.740
Everybody.
00:47:16.980 --> 00:47:20.019
Which, if you got the right group and you're like, just a different vibe.
00:47:21.700 --> 00:47:24.019
But it was uh it was really, really nice at two.
00:47:24.260 --> 00:47:25.380
I would do it at three.
00:47:25.460 --> 00:47:33.780
But yes, there were a lot of moments where like I moved something, and Matt was just like, uh, like I was just about to do, you know.
00:47:34.420 --> 00:47:38.100
I also love the image of like competing documentary crews.
00:47:38.980 --> 00:47:43.620
One it just throws a slab of meat to like attract some you know tiger or whatever.
00:47:44.340 --> 00:47:45.700
I was trying to capture that.
00:47:45.860 --> 00:47:46.500
Yeah.
00:47:46.740 --> 00:47:48.900
I needed those three elephants lined up.
00:47:49.220 --> 00:47:49.540
That's funny.
00:47:49.700 --> 00:47:50.580
But yeah, yes.
00:47:50.740 --> 00:47:53.460
So that was I needed them lined up.
00:47:54.420 --> 00:47:56.180
So that was that was pretty cool.
00:47:56.340 --> 00:48:01.860
And almost like unfortunately, I'm like, I don't want to get rid of it.
00:48:01.940 --> 00:48:02.580
Yeah.
00:48:03.460 --> 00:48:09.940
I'm like, sometimes I play games that I have like new games that I'm like, I hope I play it, and I'm like, oh, I don't need to keep this.
00:48:10.260 --> 00:48:10.900
Ready to move on.
00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:12.900
No, don't you hate it when you love a game?
00:48:13.060 --> 00:48:14.740
I know, I know, I know.
00:48:14.980 --> 00:48:22.980
And I did on my YouTube channel for kicking a creative, I did record a little short for a new series that I'm doing.
00:48:23.540 --> 00:48:25.380
And the first one was for this game.
00:48:25.460 --> 00:48:30.500
So if you want like a peek of it, yeah, um, check out my YouTube channel and you'll find it.
00:48:30.740 --> 00:48:31.380
Yeah.
00:48:31.940 --> 00:48:32.500
Sounds great.
00:48:32.660 --> 00:48:32.820
Yeah.
00:48:32.900 --> 00:48:33.060
Yeah.
00:48:33.540 --> 00:48:33.620
Yeah.
00:48:33.780 --> 00:48:35.300
Do you wanna what else have you played?
00:48:35.540 --> 00:48:41.140
I have been playing a lot of a game called Embers that I would love to tell you about.
00:48:41.540 --> 00:48:41.940
Yeah.
00:48:42.260 --> 00:48:44.820
This is a Butten Shy game.
00:48:45.140 --> 00:48:47.620
So as you know, I love Buttonshy.
00:48:47.860 --> 00:48:51.940
You know, their classic model is that they make games that fit in little wallets.
00:48:52.100 --> 00:48:53.460
They're 18 cards.
00:48:53.620 --> 00:48:55.700
Some of them come with a little expansion that come with balls.
00:48:55.860 --> 00:49:00.740
Or lots of expansions, and then Tim built a whole like deluxe box for Battlecrest.
00:49:01.140 --> 00:49:03.060
Yeah, I I love their games.
00:49:03.140 --> 00:49:07.300
I think I own a hundred of their you know, Button Shy wallet games.
00:49:07.380 --> 00:49:08.580
I love this company so much.
00:49:08.740 --> 00:49:14.580
But the and Battlecrest, one of their games, has so many cards, and so yeah, they start to expand beyond that.
00:49:14.820 --> 00:49:15.940
You got me into Battlecrest.
00:49:16.100 --> 00:49:16.580
It's so good.
00:49:16.820 --> 00:49:18.180
It's so good, it's so good.
00:49:18.420 --> 00:49:29.860
But Embers is a solo-only game by Steven Aramini, and he's done several published games with them before, and so I knew that I liked a lot of the games he just designed.
00:49:30.019 --> 00:49:38.580
But also, if you look at the cover of this game and the character cards of this game, it's another one of those games where instantly, like the art, I was like, I want to be in this world.
00:49:38.660 --> 00:49:39.460
Like that's cool.
00:49:39.780 --> 00:49:41.140
It's just so evocative.
00:49:41.300 --> 00:49:47.380
You're playing as this sort of group of uh people surviving out in nature.
00:49:47.700 --> 00:49:51.860
Um, and so there's a campfire in the center of your tableau, right?
00:49:52.019 --> 00:49:53.540
In the center of your table.
00:49:53.780 --> 00:49:58.019
And then you position four of your characters around this fire, right?
00:49:58.260 --> 00:49:58.820
That's cool.
00:49:59.060 --> 00:50:02.260
And every round, it's almost like a little mini tower defense game.
00:50:02.420 --> 00:50:10.820
Every round, you take cards from this fire deck and place them around the outside of the perimeter of where your heroes are.
00:50:11.140 --> 00:50:14.180
And their goal is to kind of attack and like snuff out the fire.
00:50:14.340 --> 00:50:14.500
Yeah.
00:50:14.660 --> 00:50:18.180
So if any given time you your fire goes out, you lose the game, right?
00:50:18.420 --> 00:50:28.420
So what happens is at the start of the round, you get to position these kind of like demon, you know, monstrous, sort of beasty beings here, right?
00:50:28.660 --> 00:50:30.180
They look quite gnarly, right?
00:50:30.740 --> 00:50:32.980
In the art is very good art, in my opinion.
00:50:33.220 --> 00:50:40.740
You position them around, and you get to know there's a little bit of like they're gonna move around, they're gonna move to where your heroes aren't often, right?
00:50:40.820 --> 00:50:42.180
They're gonna try to do that.
00:50:42.500 --> 00:50:49.940
Because then on the player's action, every character around this fire gets two action points.
00:50:50.260 --> 00:50:58.660
You get to choose the order you you know execute those points, yeah, and every character can only move in a very specific way.
00:50:59.060 --> 00:51:03.140
So sometimes one character it can only hop over another character.
00:51:03.380 --> 00:51:04.019
Magic maze.
00:51:04.180 --> 00:51:05.060
Yeah, yeah.
00:51:06.500 --> 00:51:13.460
Another character can push, like it can only move if it pushes another character next to it, right?
00:51:13.700 --> 00:51:19.940
And so it's a little bit of this spatial puzzle of like, how am I gonna move them around to be the best defense?
00:51:20.180 --> 00:51:22.820
Because frankly, all the other actions are really simple.
00:51:22.980 --> 00:51:29.700
Like a defense action thwarts off one of these demon guys, a forage action takes one of the discards and puts it back into the deck, right?
00:51:29.780 --> 00:51:31.380
So everything else is pretty simple.
00:51:31.460 --> 00:51:31.620
Yeah.
00:51:31.860 --> 00:51:37.700
But the movement is the one where the decision of like which one, which person do I want to activate in which order.
00:51:37.860 --> 00:51:41.540
And if I move one to that spot, then it allows the other one to move.
00:51:41.700 --> 00:51:44.500
So there's kind of this like domino effect where the order really matters.
00:51:45.700 --> 00:51:49.060
It's thinky, and then each character can upgrade.
00:51:49.220 --> 00:51:54.900
And so you can instead you can basically pass that character's turn and just upgrade that level.
00:51:55.300 --> 00:51:56.260
It costs two points, right?
00:51:56.340 --> 00:52:01.620
And then they level up, but then they get more health points, and usually like some action gets stronger.
00:52:01.860 --> 00:52:07.540
And so every game you play with four of these characters on the board, you can have different arrangements of these characters.
00:52:07.620 --> 00:52:09.780
I think there's five in the base game and three extra.
00:52:09.860 --> 00:52:14.019
So there's eight total, eight total, and you might get any given combination.
00:52:14.260 --> 00:52:17.460
It's just a nice little thinky puzzle, little tower defense game.
00:52:17.780 --> 00:52:21.060
Yeah, I I just have like play it like almost nightly at this point.
00:52:21.140 --> 00:52:21.860
It's just so fun.
00:52:21.940 --> 00:52:22.180
Yeah.
00:52:22.420 --> 00:52:23.380
Ah, that's cool.
00:52:23.540 --> 00:52:25.780
Yes, I do remember you telling me about that one.
00:52:25.940 --> 00:52:26.660
Yeah, I'm hooked.
00:52:26.820 --> 00:52:31.940
I guess I'll just say one more, and then we we could talk about the two that we just played.
00:52:32.180 --> 00:52:35.940
I finally played Slay the Spire, the board game.
00:52:36.260 --> 00:52:39.140
Only one act, I think.
00:52:39.700 --> 00:52:40.260
Have you played it?
00:52:40.420 --> 00:52:40.580
No.
00:52:40.740 --> 00:52:40.980
Oh, okay.
00:52:41.380 --> 00:52:42.580
Just the just the uh video game.
00:52:42.820 --> 00:52:44.660
The app, okay, or the game the video game.
00:52:44.820 --> 00:52:45.220
Yeah.
00:52:45.540 --> 00:52:56.820
So Slay the Spire, if you're not familiar, is just it's a it started as a video game that's based on a common uh board game mechanism deck building.
00:52:57.460 --> 00:53:04.980
And then someone decided to like turn it from back from a video game into a board game.
00:53:05.300 --> 00:53:06.660
And I really liked it.
00:53:06.740 --> 00:53:11.780
It it had a very like kind of weight of clank or something.
00:53:12.019 --> 00:53:17.300
Maybe the icons there was something that was kind of straightforward getting into it.
00:53:17.540 --> 00:53:23.300
It's cooperative, I think everybody had their own character, and I liked it.
00:53:23.940 --> 00:53:28.019
That's all I'll say about that because I honestly I'm starting to realize I don't remember.
00:53:28.500 --> 00:53:36.019
I don't remember too much more than I had a good time, and it's like been one of those games that I've been wanting to try for a while.
00:53:36.580 --> 00:53:44.420
But the last thing that I wanted to mention real quick is just because this is relevant to our asymmetric factions conversation.
00:53:44.740 --> 00:53:54.820
One of the games that I'm I still cannot believe we have not played together that I love that has asymmetric characters, too many bones.
00:53:55.380 --> 00:54:10.900
So I our our good friend Kyle has like recently gotten into Too Many Boons, and it's it's so cool because I see the excitement is like the same as I was like when I first got into it.
00:54:10.980 --> 00:54:13.380
I'm like, this game's amazing, and I still feel that way.
00:54:13.460 --> 00:54:23.140
It's just that like I don't think about it every day, but but we were like you know, about to we were like, oh, let's play one more game for the night, you know.
00:54:23.700 --> 00:54:30.019
And Kyle was refreshed on it because he's been playing it, so I was like, let's let's go, let's do it.
00:54:30.100 --> 00:54:42.260
Like I love it, like I haven't played it in like a year, probably, and it definitely is a game that has a lot of like finicky rules, but like if you can run it, I can run my character, and you know, we'll do our thing.
00:54:42.420 --> 00:54:46.660
And it was just cool because it I just was reminded how much I love that game.
00:54:46.900 --> 00:54:56.660
I played this character called Static, and he like meditates and does all this stuff with like mindfulness with his fighting.
00:54:57.140 --> 00:55:00.340
But I think I'm just gonna go ahead and put this out there.
00:55:00.500 --> 00:55:07.860
I don't know what you're gonna say for your favorite faction for all the different too many bones sets, but I think you're gonna love it.
00:55:08.019 --> 00:55:12.980
Yeah, like just the way you like the characters are so different, so thematic.
00:55:13.060 --> 00:55:23.380
There's so many like funny pun things in the adventures that you have, but it's essentially kind of a boss battler, a little bit.
00:55:23.540 --> 00:55:30.900
Like you're mostly like you have some like friendly encounters, but you're going and you have this battle mat, and it's very puzzly.
00:55:31.540 --> 00:55:37.620
It feels really satisfying to like work with other people, and the gear locks are just amazing.
00:55:37.780 --> 00:55:42.019
So I had to just give that a shout out just because I've I love too many bones.
00:55:42.100 --> 00:55:43.220
Yeah, I would love to play it.
00:55:43.300 --> 00:55:45.940
Yeah, it sounds so much like we're gonna do it.
00:55:46.100 --> 00:55:47.780
I want to give one quick shout-out too.
00:55:47.860 --> 00:55:48.100
Yeah.
00:55:48.340 --> 00:55:50.500
To a game, you know, I'll just be really brief here.
00:55:50.580 --> 00:55:52.580
But I recently also played a game called Super Mundy.
00:55:52.660 --> 00:55:56.180
But I just was really fun.
00:55:56.340 --> 00:56:00.100
And, you know, it has a really cool, it has a lot of cool things going on.
00:56:00.180 --> 00:56:11.540
I don't, you know, I can't get to all of it, but it's like, you know, you start your turn by moving around this rondell, and that might inform some of the choices you make, what card is available to you, and what allies are available.
00:56:11.780 --> 00:56:12.260
Ooh.
00:56:12.500 --> 00:56:13.460
Because in this game.
00:56:13.780 --> 00:56:14.820
Did you say allies?
00:56:15.060 --> 00:56:15.620
Yes.
00:56:16.500 --> 00:56:19.060
You know, I love a game with allies.
00:56:19.460 --> 00:56:27.620
So in this game, what makes this game so special is that, and I'm losing the name, I want to say it's like King Frederick, I think is the king.
00:56:27.860 --> 00:56:28.019
Okay.
00:56:28.180 --> 00:56:28.980
So the king, right?
00:56:29.220 --> 00:56:29.540
I believe you.
00:56:29.780 --> 00:56:32.019
Yeah, his nickname was Super Mundy, right?
00:56:32.100 --> 00:56:33.300
Like the wonder of the world or whatever.
00:56:33.620 --> 00:56:36.980
And I want to say it's Frederick, but I we'll look it up later.
00:56:38.580 --> 00:56:43.300
King Frederick is basically this like non-player character in the game.
00:56:43.460 --> 00:56:47.300
And I love it when games do this, when they bring in sort of a non-player character.
00:56:47.460 --> 00:56:47.860
Oh, yeah.
00:56:48.180 --> 00:56:55.780
And he's got his own castle, and he will kind of like, you know, have pieces that are walls and towers.
00:56:55.940 --> 00:57:00.260
And then what is so cool about this game are these ally tiles.
00:57:00.660 --> 00:57:04.420
These ally tiles come in two different sort of categories.
00:57:04.740 --> 00:57:15.140
One is to be aligned with the king, and so their goals will basically help you, as the player, score if his castle meets certain conditions, like like good conditions, right?
00:57:15.300 --> 00:57:15.620
Okay, okay.
00:57:15.940 --> 00:57:23.060
Like you want his towers built, you want him to have allies, he you want him to have money, he has all the same stuff you've got, right?
00:57:23.380 --> 00:57:25.540
And probably more of it sometimes, right?
00:57:25.860 --> 00:57:27.300
But sometimes less.
00:57:27.620 --> 00:57:32.420
Because the other type of ally you can take is like a rebel.
00:57:32.580 --> 00:57:36.180
I forget the name of what they call it, but it's basically like against the king.
00:57:36.340 --> 00:57:40.500
And they give you points as the player if you take away stuff from his castle.
00:57:40.740 --> 00:57:43.620
So what makes this game so fun is Frederick.
00:57:43.860 --> 00:57:44.340
That's Frederick.
00:57:44.500 --> 00:57:45.140
Oh, it is Frederick.
00:57:45.300 --> 00:57:46.580
Great, it's Frederick.
00:57:46.900 --> 00:57:48.019
He makes it fun.
00:57:49.940 --> 00:58:01.780
What makes it so fun is that like your goal might be that you want the king to have a lot of towers, and I might just not want the king to have very many pieces in his castle at all.
00:58:02.340 --> 00:58:05.780
But now, do you see how that creates this kind of interesting tension between us?
00:58:06.100 --> 00:58:12.500
Because now, if I get the chance to remove pieces, you best believe I'm gonna remove the towers because that matters for you, right?
00:58:12.660 --> 00:58:13.380
Right, right.
00:58:13.700 --> 00:58:18.340
But then imagine like another player gets an ally that also wants towers.
00:58:18.420 --> 00:58:23.300
Now you have a buddy that during your actions, you both like to build towers specifically.
00:58:23.460 --> 00:58:30.019
So it's just this nice way of where you're everybody has parts of King Frederick's castle that they either love or they hate, right?
00:58:30.260 --> 00:58:30.740
That's cool.
00:58:30.980 --> 00:58:33.700
Um, and it that's what makes it for really kind of interesting dynamics.
00:58:33.780 --> 00:58:35.780
There's a whole, I mean, I didn't even get into the card play.
00:58:35.860 --> 00:58:40.100
There's so interesting card play here and resource management, all this stuff, but cool game.
00:58:40.340 --> 00:58:41.380
Well, you want to know?
00:58:41.620 --> 00:58:45.060
So, Stuber Mundy, do you know who first told me about this last year?
00:58:45.300 --> 00:58:45.700
Tell me.
00:58:45.940 --> 00:58:56.580
Penelope from Penelope Gaming in France, who is the same person who had me pick up Prasage and also Arapa Mine.
00:58:56.740 --> 00:58:59.140
Oh, both great games.
00:58:59.300 --> 00:59:00.260
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:00.340 --> 00:59:03.860
And I remember Penelope was very excited about this game.
00:59:03.940 --> 00:59:07.940
And ever since I've been like, you know, it's been on my radar to to check out.
00:59:08.100 --> 00:59:08.420
Yeah.
00:59:08.740 --> 00:59:12.900
And it's the same designers, one of the shackleton base designers.
00:59:13.060 --> 00:59:15.300
Is it one of the is it the IR?
00:59:15.780 --> 00:59:18.100
Not okay, a different co-designer.
00:59:18.340 --> 00:59:20.180
Yeah, so it's Nestori Mengone.
00:59:20.420 --> 00:59:21.940
Yeah, he designed Newton.
00:59:22.100 --> 00:59:24.180
He also co-designed Autobahn.
00:59:24.260 --> 00:59:24.500
Yes.
00:59:24.740 --> 00:59:25.700
And Shackleton Bass.
00:59:25.780 --> 00:59:27.940
Yeah, which of course Shackleton Bass is one of my favorite games.
00:59:28.260 --> 00:59:29.620
Yeah, and it's by Quined Games.
00:59:29.860 --> 00:59:30.420
That's cool.
00:59:30.580 --> 00:59:31.940
Yes, I really want to play this.
00:59:32.019 --> 00:59:32.740
I really want to play it.
00:59:33.460 --> 00:59:39.300
And I did not realize that it was the same designer as Shackleton Bass or Autobahn.
00:59:39.380 --> 00:59:39.540
Yeah.
00:59:39.700 --> 00:59:45.220
I mean, I should like that should have told me why Ben, like yeah, our friend Ben loves this game.
00:59:45.380 --> 00:59:46.019
Yes, yes.
00:59:46.180 --> 00:59:46.420
Yeah.
00:59:46.580 --> 00:59:49.380
And he's a big, he was always a big fan of Autobahn.
00:59:49.700 --> 00:59:50.019
He loves that.
00:59:50.100 --> 00:59:51.300
He loves Shackleton bass.
00:59:51.460 --> 00:59:52.180
What do you call it?
00:59:52.660 --> 00:59:56.980
Evangelicus or evangelizing that game.
00:59:58.019 --> 00:59:58.820
I don't know that one.
01:00:00.980 --> 01:00:04.180
He's it's like he wants spread the gospel.
01:00:04.820 --> 01:00:06.980
Oh, Ben himself is a very yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:07.060 --> 01:00:08.580
I thought that was a game.
01:00:09.460 --> 01:00:11.620
I was like, I don't know the evangelizing game.
01:00:11.860 --> 01:00:15.060
I was like, I think I'm getting the phrase kinda right.
01:00:15.300 --> 01:00:15.700
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:15.780 --> 01:00:16.420
No, you got it.
01:00:16.500 --> 01:00:16.820
You got it.
01:00:17.140 --> 01:00:18.340
Cool, cool, cool, cool.
01:00:18.580 --> 01:00:22.820
All right, and then let's quickly just mention the the two games we just played together.
01:00:23.060 --> 01:00:23.940
Yeah, these were so fun.
01:00:24.180 --> 01:00:26.500
So we've been talking about this for a while.
01:00:26.820 --> 01:00:30.500
The two-player trick-taking game versus Mephestus.
01:00:30.820 --> 01:00:31.300
Mephestus.
01:00:33.940 --> 01:00:42.100
And we actually were just having a like an interesting conversation as we were playing it, thinking about the like the evolution of two-player trick-taking games.
01:00:42.180 --> 01:00:49.060
Like they have come a long way since it was like it seemed like it was just like Fox in the Forest for a while.
01:00:49.380 --> 01:00:49.860
And claim.
01:00:50.100 --> 01:00:50.660
And claim.
01:00:50.820 --> 01:00:54.180
I remember I had claim one and claim two, and you told me there were like 20 of them now.
01:00:54.420 --> 01:00:55.060
There's so many.
01:00:55.220 --> 01:00:55.860
Yeah.
01:00:56.420 --> 01:00:57.540
But I remember that too.
01:00:57.620 --> 01:01:00.260
I remember actually the first time I played Fox in the Forest.
01:01:00.340 --> 01:01:04.019
I think it was with my dad, who you've met and you've played trick-taking games.
01:01:05.940 --> 01:01:06.580
Yeah.
01:01:06.820 --> 01:01:11.300
And my dad taught me trick-taking games, hearts, you know, growing up, all these things.
01:01:11.380 --> 01:01:13.220
I've he he loves these games.
01:01:13.380 --> 01:01:15.380
And you know what he didn't like?
01:01:15.700 --> 01:01:15.940
No.
01:01:16.820 --> 01:01:17.860
Iceberg.
01:01:18.340 --> 01:01:22.340
He's not a big fan of climbing games, as we've learned, which was surprising for all of us.
01:01:22.500 --> 01:01:24.500
We were like, yeah, it's so, you know.
01:01:24.900 --> 01:01:25.300
But yeah.
01:01:25.700 --> 01:01:26.900
Anyway, sorry, sorry.
01:01:27.140 --> 01:01:28.260
But he loves a trick taking.
01:01:28.980 --> 01:01:34.660
And when I found Fox in the Forest, I was like, wow, this is so special because my dad and I can play a two-player trick-taking game.
01:01:34.820 --> 01:01:36.820
It was so it was to me, it was like this shining light.
01:01:37.060 --> 01:01:39.780
That's so cool because he's the one that taught you trick-taking games.
01:01:39.940 --> 01:01:42.340
Yeah, and and we played it together and we both loved it.
01:01:42.420 --> 01:01:43.700
To this day, I play it with him all the time.
01:01:43.780 --> 01:01:45.380
Like it's one of our favorite things to do together.
01:01:45.460 --> 01:01:46.260
So that's so cool.
01:01:46.500 --> 01:01:52.500
So two-player trick-taking games like have a special place in my heart because they make me think of like a special kind of that memory.
01:01:52.740 --> 01:01:52.980
Exactly.
01:01:53.300 --> 01:01:54.980
Now, did you like the co-op version?
01:01:55.300 --> 01:01:56.740
I never played the co-op version.
01:01:57.220 --> 01:01:57.860
Never played it.
01:01:58.019 --> 01:01:58.980
Oh wow, I'm surprised.
01:01:59.140 --> 01:01:59.780
I know, me too.
01:01:59.940 --> 01:02:06.740
I think I liked it, but like, you know, now, like years later, I don't know how it holds up, but I think I liked it.
01:02:06.900 --> 01:02:07.060
Okay.
01:02:07.540 --> 01:02:09.300
Yeah, I definitely want to play it, you know.
01:02:09.460 --> 01:02:11.380
But it's you're right, it's so interesting to see.
01:02:11.460 --> 01:02:15.220
Like, I I think I made the comment while we played this game today, this Faust versus Mephisto.
01:02:15.380 --> 01:02:20.100
I said, I said something like two-player trick taking games, it doesn't sound like they should work.
01:02:20.820 --> 01:02:25.460
Like, yeah, you have to do something kind of twisty to kind of make it interesting, right?
01:02:25.700 --> 01:02:30.260
And so it's so cool to see the creativity people are bringing to truly make it work.
01:02:30.500 --> 01:02:31.220
Absolutely.
01:02:31.380 --> 01:02:37.940
And I know you haven't played Slasher yet, but like I still think the Slasher as a two-player co-op, I mean, we have Sale.
01:02:38.420 --> 01:02:40.580
I mean, I'll bring a chainsaw to game night.
01:02:42.660 --> 01:02:43.060
Ooh.
01:02:43.380 --> 01:02:45.540
Maybe maybe we better not play that one together.
01:02:45.700 --> 01:02:46.820
You know, it's cooperative.
01:02:46.900 --> 01:02:46.980
Yeah.
01:02:47.860 --> 01:02:48.740
Okay, I'll leave it at home.
01:02:48.820 --> 01:02:50.019
I'll leave it at home.
01:02:50.820 --> 01:02:53.380
I was about to say, but there was an assassin in this.
01:02:53.460 --> 01:02:54.980
That's getting ahead of myself.
01:02:55.220 --> 01:02:55.300
Yeah.
01:02:55.460 --> 01:02:56.660
Faust is Mephisto.
01:02:56.820 --> 01:03:02.580
This was so it's uh designed by Gio Nil, who actually designs two-player trick-taking games quite a bit.
01:03:02.660 --> 01:03:04.019
He's has several of these, right?
01:03:04.180 --> 01:03:06.019
And it's published by Mandu Games.
01:03:06.180 --> 01:03:11.780
And the the way this game plays is one of us is Faust and one of us is Mephisto.
01:03:12.100 --> 01:03:13.140
And Mephisto.
01:03:13.620 --> 01:03:14.660
I was Mephisto.
01:03:15.940 --> 01:03:20.260
And Mephisto gets to uh win, gets to win.
01:03:20.420 --> 01:03:27.860
Mephisto wins if one of the players wins all of the cards in one of the four suits, right?
01:03:27.940 --> 01:03:33.620
So if by the end of the round Candace wins all of the yellow cards, I think that's the suit that's called greed, right?
01:03:33.860 --> 01:03:38.980
Then whether or not she's Mephisto or Faust, Mephisto gets to flip that token over, right?
01:03:39.060 --> 01:03:39.220
Yeah.
01:03:39.380 --> 01:03:44.820
So basically Mephisto is trying to lose all of the cards in one suit or win all of the cards in one suit, right?
01:03:44.980 --> 01:03:50.740
And if after two rounds, if Mephisto can accomplish that for two suits or more, Mephisto wins.
01:03:50.900 --> 01:03:55.220
If Faust can hold off that from happening for two rounds, Faust wins.
01:03:55.380 --> 01:03:55.540
Yeah.
01:03:55.700 --> 01:03:55.860
Yeah.
01:03:55.940 --> 01:03:57.380
We didn't get to a second round.
01:03:58.660 --> 01:03:59.380
You won.
01:03:59.620 --> 01:04:01.700
You got three of these tokens flipped.
01:04:01.860 --> 01:04:05.540
Somehow, somehow, this is a brain twisty game.
01:04:05.860 --> 01:04:10.180
It's really twisty because you know you play the strength of the suits.
01:04:10.500 --> 01:04:17.780
You play a card, and as soon as you play a card in, the suit you play, that there's a token for that suit that goes onto a little track.
01:04:18.019 --> 01:04:22.019
And as those tokens get added, that indicates how strong the suit is.
01:04:22.180 --> 01:04:26.660
So if you play off suit, the tiebreakers with whichever one's higher on the track.
01:04:26.980 --> 01:04:30.420
So if you are waiting to play a suit, it's gonna probably be stronger.
01:04:30.580 --> 01:04:32.820
And if you play it off suit, it'll likely win.
01:04:33.060 --> 01:04:42.019
So in some games where when you play off suit, you lose, this game, you have to really be careful about that because again, winning off suit could really change.
01:04:42.500 --> 01:04:46.260
If that chip is about to be placed on the top of the stack there, yeah.
01:04:46.500 --> 01:04:51.940
And then if all four of the suits get played, so there's those tokens get out into a hierarchy, it clears.
01:04:52.180 --> 01:04:52.660
You reset them.
01:04:53.300 --> 01:04:53.380
Yeah.
01:04:53.620 --> 01:05:01.060
So like timing every single turn, you're you're wondering what's the suit that's gonna be, right, to come out.
01:05:01.220 --> 01:05:04.180
And each suit has a little special ability of itself, right?
01:05:04.420 --> 01:05:06.340
So like one of the suits never clears.
01:05:06.420 --> 01:05:08.420
Once it gets added to the track, it stays there.
01:05:08.580 --> 01:05:08.820
Yeah.
01:05:08.980 --> 01:05:09.940
The knowledge one.
01:05:10.260 --> 01:05:12.500
Love, right, can never be led, right?
01:05:12.580 --> 01:05:14.900
So that one can only be played off suit, right?
01:05:14.980 --> 01:05:16.500
Or unless you only have that card.
01:05:16.740 --> 01:05:18.740
There's little wrinkles within each suit.
01:05:18.900 --> 01:05:20.019
There are different numbers of cards.
01:05:20.340 --> 01:05:21.140
Two cards are out.
01:05:21.380 --> 01:05:22.260
Two cards are out.
01:05:22.340 --> 01:05:24.019
Each suit has a different number of cards.
01:05:24.260 --> 01:05:26.180
So there's more green cards than red cards, right?
01:05:26.420 --> 01:05:31.140
So if that wasn't enough, you know, to add in, then the biggest twist of all.
01:05:33.380 --> 01:05:35.140
We have these coins.
01:05:35.300 --> 01:05:37.780
So both players start with these two coins.
01:05:38.100 --> 01:05:43.220
And when it's your turn to lead or follow or follow.
01:05:43.540 --> 01:05:44.580
Whenever you want to play a card.
01:05:45.220 --> 01:05:53.460
You can uh spend your coin and I could say, Tim, I want you to play your highest blue card for me.
01:05:53.620 --> 01:05:53.860
Yeah.
01:05:54.100 --> 01:06:00.019
And so you're declaring, you're making your opponent play a specific card color.
01:06:00.340 --> 01:06:01.620
Color and number.
01:06:02.019 --> 01:06:04.340
Well, it's you say either it's your highest or lowest.
01:06:04.420 --> 01:06:04.740
Yeah.
01:06:05.300 --> 01:06:11.540
But playing it for you, so hopefully, you know, you're swaying the cards in your favor.
01:06:11.620 --> 01:06:11.780
Yeah.
01:06:12.019 --> 01:06:14.420
But it like it becomes a mind twist.
01:06:14.580 --> 01:06:20.180
It's a total mind twist because if Candace plays that token and says, Tim, play your highest green.
01:06:20.500 --> 01:06:26.019
I play a high green, but then I need to follow from my own hand, right?
01:06:26.260 --> 01:06:28.660
So what's really interesting, that's like the mind twist.
01:06:28.820 --> 01:06:31.060
Because you can basically kind of see like, am I gonna win?
01:06:31.220 --> 01:06:31.620
Can I win?
01:06:32.019 --> 01:06:32.740
Am I gonna lose?
01:06:32.820 --> 01:06:33.140
Right.
01:06:33.380 --> 01:06:38.180
But then the the other twist is like I could play a coin back and tell you to play my card.
01:06:38.340 --> 01:06:38.580
Yeah.
01:06:38.900 --> 01:06:45.140
So we have two of those coins, and we played each of us played two coins every time.
01:06:45.300 --> 01:06:49.780
So like we were spending our coins to it's just such a cool little twist, right?
01:06:49.940 --> 01:06:51.380
That really makes it brain burning.
01:06:51.780 --> 01:06:54.019
And everything, yes, it's a brain burner.
01:06:54.180 --> 01:07:03.780
Like every single like time it's your turn to play a card or decide if you want to spend the coin, you're just like, wait, if I do that, then they might do this.
01:07:04.260 --> 01:07:09.140
And wait, if they can't follow, then that's gonna be now stronger than this.
01:07:09.380 --> 01:07:10.740
And what suit hasn't been played yet?
01:07:11.140 --> 01:07:12.100
And that's gonna get added.
01:07:12.260 --> 01:07:14.260
And oh shoot, I only have the weak one, right?
01:07:14.340 --> 01:07:14.500
Yeah.
01:07:14.740 --> 01:07:19.380
Yeah, but it's but it so it's it's a brain burner, but the art is so cool.
01:07:19.460 --> 01:07:21.140
It's yeah, every card is unique art.
01:07:21.460 --> 01:07:22.260
It's a really cool design.
01:07:22.580 --> 01:07:25.380
The metal coins are super chunky and nice, very satisfying.
01:07:26.019 --> 01:07:27.140
With it that comes with it, yeah.
01:07:27.220 --> 01:07:27.780
That's in the game.
01:07:28.100 --> 01:07:29.140
Yeah, it's really nice.
01:07:29.300 --> 01:07:34.260
And dare I say, because I've played several of his two-player trick-taking games.
01:07:34.340 --> 01:07:35.540
This is his best one, in my opinion.
01:07:35.780 --> 01:07:36.100
Cool.
01:07:36.340 --> 01:07:37.460
You know, I love a lot of them.
01:07:37.540 --> 01:07:39.220
He's done the Jekyll versus Hyde.
01:07:39.620 --> 01:07:40.980
Yeah, I still haven't played that one.
01:07:41.300 --> 01:07:42.100
And that one is great.
01:07:42.180 --> 01:07:42.980
I love that game.
01:07:43.060 --> 01:07:47.140
But I really feel like this one, it's just humming, it's just shining.
01:07:47.300 --> 01:07:49.380
He's done The Yellow House, which is another one.
01:07:49.780 --> 01:07:51.860
No, I've I've played that on BGA, I think.
01:07:52.019 --> 01:07:52.980
I've played that on BGA.
01:07:53.300 --> 01:07:53.780
Ptolemy.
01:07:54.019 --> 01:07:58.100
I might be pronouncing that wrong, but he's he's done several of these two-player trick takers.
01:07:58.260 --> 01:08:00.500
And I this one so far for me has been my favorite.
01:08:00.580 --> 01:08:00.980
I love that.
01:08:01.380 --> 01:08:01.700
Cool.
01:08:01.940 --> 01:08:02.580
Cool.
01:08:03.140 --> 01:08:09.060
Then we also, Tim brought his bag of tricks of every once in a while.
01:08:09.140 --> 01:08:21.060
This is like, I'm sure other gamers out there have this too, where you have like friends where you're like, oh, we're gonna play two-player game day at some point, and we talk about this all the time, and it just happens every now and then.
01:08:21.699 --> 01:08:23.539
I texted you a list of games, two player games.
01:08:23.699 --> 01:08:25.380
I said, listen, I pack these in my bag.
01:08:25.460 --> 01:08:26.420
I'm ready anytime.
01:08:26.579 --> 01:08:28.659
You tell me this is my go bag.
01:08:28.819 --> 01:08:29.939
I'll come over.
01:08:30.659 --> 01:08:31.939
These are the ones I've packed.
01:08:32.019 --> 01:08:32.260
Yeah.
01:08:32.579 --> 01:08:33.619
Yes, yes.
01:08:33.779 --> 01:08:38.739
So Tim recently acquired a copy of a game called King and Peasant.
01:08:38.979 --> 01:08:40.180
King and Peasant.
01:08:40.420 --> 01:08:49.220
And this is like right up both our alleys because it's it's just a little card game, and it has multi-use cards.
01:08:49.460 --> 01:08:57.539
Each card is split in half, and one player is gonna be the king, and the other player is gonna be the peasant.
01:08:57.619 --> 01:08:57.939
Yes.
01:08:58.180 --> 01:08:58.500
Yeah.
01:08:58.819 --> 01:09:05.779
And it is a very much like a mind game kind of game.
01:09:06.180 --> 01:09:10.180
Because the goal of the peasant is to kill the king, and the goal of the king is to stay in power.
01:09:10.739 --> 01:09:17.699
And so there's one card, the assassin card, and if the king ever draws that card, there's only 20 cards, may I say, right?
01:09:18.180 --> 01:09:19.779
And I think two of them are player aids.
01:09:21.220 --> 01:09:24.340
So it's a really small deck, and we share that deck.
01:09:24.579 --> 01:09:29.619
So as you were saying, like every card, the top half is for the king, the bottom half is for the peasant.
01:09:29.779 --> 01:09:35.859
And so we actually share a deck of cards, but if you ever, as the king, draw the assassin, you lose.
01:09:36.100 --> 01:09:36.340
Yeah.
01:09:36.420 --> 01:09:36.739
Yeah.
01:09:37.220 --> 01:09:44.979
And so the game is basically this game of cat and mouse where the peasant player can sneak that assassin card into the deck somewhere.
01:09:45.219 --> 01:09:46.819
With certain actions, yeah.
01:09:47.219 --> 01:09:51.380
And actually, like very specifically, like I'm gonna place it second, right?
01:09:51.460 --> 01:09:52.259
Yes, and secretly.
01:09:52.819 --> 01:09:55.539
You decide how far into the deck you place it.
01:09:55.699 --> 01:09:58.179
But the king has these guards in town, right?
01:09:58.259 --> 01:09:59.059
Which is the part of the city.
01:09:59.219 --> 01:10:00.340
Tableau, yeah, yeah.
01:10:00.579 --> 01:10:04.099
And the guards often have abilities that help the king get more certainty.
01:10:04.179 --> 01:10:06.819
Like maybe I can peek at the top three cards and reorder them.
01:10:06.899 --> 01:10:09.699
So if I Or discard the top two cards from the deck.
01:10:09.779 --> 01:10:10.019
Yeah.
01:10:10.099 --> 01:10:10.259
Yeah.
01:10:10.659 --> 01:10:11.300
Risky.
01:10:11.539 --> 01:10:12.099
Yeah.
01:10:12.340 --> 01:10:19.539
So if I see the assassin is in those top three cards, I can then maybe mobilize another one to shuffle the deck or something, right?
01:10:19.699 --> 01:10:19.939
Yes.
01:10:20.099 --> 01:10:26.659
So there's a little bit of like each side gets a little bit of tools here and there to, you know, add some secrecy or reveal some secrecy.
01:10:26.979 --> 01:10:32.340
And yeah, and the peasant player is playing these like different rebels face down.
01:10:32.579 --> 01:10:32.819
Yeah.
01:10:33.059 --> 01:10:35.139
And then beside did you mention the decoy?
01:10:35.380 --> 01:10:35.619
No.
01:10:35.859 --> 01:10:36.179
Okay.
01:10:36.659 --> 01:10:45.219
So there's the assassin, and then there's also a decoy card, and both of them have this infiltrate ability.
01:10:45.539 --> 01:10:51.859
And so when you're the peasant player, your rebels are placed face down on the table.
01:10:51.939 --> 01:10:55.939
But like if you're the king, all of your guard cards are face up.
01:10:56.179 --> 01:10:56.259
Yeah.
01:10:56.420 --> 01:10:57.219
Standing proud.
01:10:57.380 --> 01:10:58.819
Yeah, stand and proud.
01:10:58.979 --> 01:11:03.539
But like when you choose to use their ability, you mobilize, they're discarded.
01:11:03.939 --> 01:11:15.539
So there's this like balance of like making sure you have guards to do stuff and that you're protected from the rebels, but then you're also playing this mind game of like, well, where is the assassin?
01:11:15.859 --> 01:11:29.539
Because the other way the assassin can get you is if you as the king have expended all your guards and you have no face-up guards, and the peasant player flips over one of their rebels and it was the assassin, then that'll kill the king too.
01:11:29.779 --> 01:11:33.779
Yeah, tell them how I I killed you the second time, like in our second game.
01:11:34.099 --> 01:11:35.939
That was heartbreaking.
01:11:37.460 --> 01:11:45.939
So I was the king, and it's clever because the game is set up to play two out of three, but whoever wins the game is gonna be the king in the second game.
01:11:46.099 --> 01:11:49.059
So I like that because if you were the king, you stay in power.
01:11:49.219 --> 01:11:52.259
But if you were the peasant and killed the king, of course you're gonna take the throne.
01:11:52.500 --> 01:11:54.739
So I just think that's a that's a clever little bit, right?
01:11:54.899 --> 01:11:55.460
Yeah, sure.
01:11:55.699 --> 01:12:02.420
Yeah, so I so you started as the king, yeah, you know, in the first game, and then I was able to assassinate you.
01:12:02.819 --> 01:12:03.619
Oh my god.
01:12:03.779 --> 01:12:08.579
But in the game where I was the king, you were able to assassinate me, and it was like such a nail biter.
01:12:08.899 --> 01:12:09.219
Yes.
01:12:09.300 --> 01:12:17.139
Um because at one point I was convinced that you had put your assassin out in the tableau, right?
01:12:17.300 --> 01:12:18.899
And and so I was flipping over these cards.
01:12:19.380 --> 01:12:21.859
Yeah, taking actions to like reveal my rebels.
01:12:22.340 --> 01:12:23.779
Where is this assassin?
01:12:24.099 --> 01:12:36.500
But but then I had that I had one of my like rebels let me shuffle all of my hand and my uh rebels in my tableau into the deck and draw three new cards.
01:12:36.659 --> 01:12:36.819
Yeah.
01:12:36.979 --> 01:12:39.939
And at that point, neither one of us knew.
01:12:40.099 --> 01:12:46.420
Well, Tim didn't know that I didn't know where the well, I knew the assassin wasn't in my hand, so I was like, it's in there.
01:12:46.500 --> 01:12:49.219
I'm just kind of patiently waiting for him to draw it.
01:12:49.380 --> 01:12:49.539
Yeah.
01:12:49.779 --> 01:12:50.259
And he did.
01:12:50.579 --> 01:12:51.139
Oh, yeah, right.
01:12:51.219 --> 01:12:55.859
So there's that one point you had this rebel ability that allowed you to shuffle and redraw.
01:12:56.099 --> 01:12:58.579
And I was like, there are so few cards in the deck.
01:12:58.819 --> 01:13:00.259
I bet you drew the assassin.
01:13:00.340 --> 01:13:00.579
Yeah, right.
01:13:00.819 --> 01:13:07.699
So I kind of blindly went into the deck and just drew it, and I was like, oh, like so it was so sad, you know.
01:13:08.019 --> 01:13:09.059
But it's a cool little game.
01:13:09.380 --> 01:13:16.579
Yeah, I'd never I'd never heard of it, but definitely like something you could throw down on the plane to or yeah, yeah.
01:13:16.739 --> 01:13:18.579
Yeah, super quick, super quick too, right?
01:13:18.659 --> 01:13:19.779
Like five minutes per round.
01:13:20.259 --> 01:13:20.819
Yes, yeah.
01:13:20.899 --> 01:13:22.979
So that's the king and peasant.
01:13:26.899 --> 01:13:30.659
You and I have been talking about doing this my favorite faction thing for a while.
01:13:30.979 --> 01:13:37.219
We have a a list already where we're gonna go through like some of the classics, like root.
01:13:37.300 --> 01:13:37.859
Yeah, terrible.
01:13:38.179 --> 01:13:38.899
We're gonna break it down.
01:13:38.979 --> 01:13:44.899
We're gonna say, hey, hey, this is my favorite faction root base game, and here's why.
01:13:45.139 --> 01:13:50.979
And we're both gonna do that for a lot of games we're gonna be exploring and like deep diving.
01:13:51.059 --> 01:13:53.699
We're both big spirit island fans.
01:13:54.099 --> 01:13:54.259
Yeah.
01:13:54.659 --> 01:13:57.619
Lots of factions to explore there too.
01:13:57.939 --> 01:14:05.779
But there are also like when we think of asymmetric gameplay, yeah, we're talking about player powers.
01:14:05.939 --> 01:14:07.059
You want train games?
01:14:07.300 --> 01:14:14.579
Yeah, like even train games like Prussian Rails, where each of the different companies has a different sort of ability or a power, right?
01:14:14.979 --> 01:14:15.699
Which one's your favorite?
01:14:15.859 --> 01:14:17.939
Yeah, like some of them feel super strong, right?
01:14:18.099 --> 01:14:21.699
And maybe that sort of determines the auction a little bit, which is fun, right?
01:14:22.019 --> 01:14:25.699
Or the very first game we ever played together, dual gauge, right?
01:14:26.099 --> 01:14:27.380
Each one has a new map, right?
01:14:27.460 --> 01:14:31.539
And as we talked about, each train company has its own, again, special ability.
01:14:31.619 --> 01:14:34.179
And so that really adds some nice texture into the game.
01:14:34.420 --> 01:14:34.659
Yeah.
01:14:34.819 --> 01:14:35.139
Yeah.
01:14:35.380 --> 01:14:59.300
And I'm I'm I really I don't even know right now, like for I think a lot of the games that we're talking about doing, I'm gonna have to like sit down and think about it and like replay certain things because I'm I'm more the others sometimes like gravitate towards one faction, but then we have also like Gaia Project or Mystica, Age of Innovation, like that kind of all those games.
01:14:59.380 --> 01:15:01.059
So you have like the heavy Euro games.
01:15:01.139 --> 01:15:09.539
Yeah, now I got you you're I got you in the war game world, so I'm gonna show you some coin games which have asymmetric factions too.
01:15:09.939 --> 01:15:14.739
And even more minor ways in which games give you these different different positionings.
01:15:14.819 --> 01:15:18.739
Like I even think about like Steffenfeld's Oracle of Delphi, right?
01:15:18.979 --> 01:15:22.659
And you start with a little boat that just has a really minor boost, right?
01:15:22.899 --> 01:15:24.579
But it is meaningful, right?
01:15:24.739 --> 01:15:27.539
And you might sort of fall in love with one of those boats.
01:15:28.579 --> 01:15:30.099
Sounds like somebody did.
01:15:31.380 --> 01:15:41.219
And so I think it's fun, even for games that are like, you know, I agree, the ones that have like wild asymmetry, and that's like the whole crux of the game, but even games that just add a little bit of a boost, right?
01:15:41.300 --> 01:15:42.899
It's kind of fun to think about it that way too.
01:15:43.059 --> 01:15:45.619
Yeah, and then there are games like Guards of Atlantis, too.
01:15:45.859 --> 01:15:46.500
Yeah, characters.
01:15:46.579 --> 01:15:46.979
Yes, right?
01:15:47.059 --> 01:15:55.219
So the character has a flavor and love games with asymmetric characters, mechanic that could go with that character, which is really interesting, or abilities.
01:15:55.380 --> 01:15:55.539
Yeah.
01:15:55.859 --> 01:16:01.300
So we've played a game together that has been so fun by Jennifer called Door.
01:16:01.539 --> 01:16:02.899
Oh The Lesser Houses.
01:16:03.859 --> 01:16:07.859
It's a game of secrets and intrigue and gossip and scandal.
01:16:08.259 --> 01:16:10.099
It is a weird little game.
01:16:10.420 --> 01:16:15.139
And it gets it's so fun if you really get into it and really get into the table talk, right?
01:16:15.219 --> 01:16:21.619
The trash talking, because you're you're spreading scandals and lies about all these other noble or lesser noble houses.
01:16:21.859 --> 01:16:25.619
And each of the different minor houses have their own special ability.
01:16:29.460 --> 01:16:31.619
What it makes is very, very meaningful.
01:16:31.779 --> 01:16:39.859
And I feel like that's that game is so strange, but I've had so many like memorable gaming experiences.
01:16:40.099 --> 01:16:43.059
Like the very first time, because I had what Bemused.
01:16:43.380 --> 01:17:00.420
I played Bemused first, and like I don't know if we like just didn't grok it or or or what it was, but then the first time I broke out dir and there were five of us, and again, I still felt like I'm like, I don't know, this is what we do.
01:17:00.500 --> 01:17:16.179
We like play cards on each other, and we had this incredible experience because, like, yeah, if you kind of get into it a little bit, and there's a lot of like LARPing, like, oh, I heard Tim's house has skeletons in the closet.
01:17:16.420 --> 01:17:17.059
I don't know.
01:17:17.779 --> 01:17:25.139
There's a house that makes you know music or something, and you're like, I've heard you've been building these instruments with some unfair labor practices, right?
01:17:26.099 --> 01:17:29.859
Every card just says scandal or secret, so you get to add all the flavors.
01:17:30.340 --> 01:17:31.619
Exactly, exactly.
01:17:31.779 --> 01:17:40.420
And the scoring is super weird and wild, but yes, yes, even games like that that have like an ability, right?
01:17:40.500 --> 01:17:40.979
Yeah, exactly.
01:17:41.139 --> 01:17:44.899
Or, you know, again, if we're thinking about you know Jennifer's game, like Cosmic Frog, right?
01:17:44.979 --> 01:17:50.340
Yes, you cycle through these frog cards and frog abilities and which one is so fun to play, right?
01:17:50.579 --> 01:17:57.380
I'm looking at Argent the Consortium, that is a worker placement game that has several different types of workers.
01:17:57.539 --> 01:17:57.699
Yeah.
01:17:57.859 --> 01:18:00.179
Like, is there one that you gravitate towards?
01:18:00.340 --> 01:18:00.979
I want to know.
01:18:01.059 --> 01:18:02.340
Don't tell me right now, though.
01:18:02.739 --> 01:18:05.139
Those sorcerers that boot people out, right?
01:18:05.300 --> 01:18:11.380
Like maybe that's so satisfying, or you know, you prefer the druids that are into the nature magic.
01:18:11.539 --> 01:18:11.859
Yeah.
01:18:12.099 --> 01:18:20.420
So so I think it's gonna be really fun because again, I'm I'm sure there are probably like lots of games that you want to show me, and vice versa.
01:18:20.500 --> 01:18:21.699
I want to show you Sue Many Bones.
01:18:21.859 --> 01:18:22.899
Yeah, exactly.
01:18:23.219 --> 01:18:24.579
Yeah, for sure.
01:18:24.739 --> 01:18:29.139
And I think too, it's interesting, like there's asymmetry in every type of game.
01:18:29.460 --> 01:18:30.899
Or there could be, I should say, right?
01:18:31.139 --> 01:18:31.460
Uno?
01:18:35.779 --> 01:18:40.179
We're gonna make it Uno with player powers.
01:18:40.420 --> 01:18:42.179
Yeah, later coming later this year.
01:18:42.979 --> 01:18:45.939
I guess, yeah, you could do that with any game with player powers.
01:18:46.099 --> 01:18:48.099
I'm just add that to any game, right?
01:18:48.340 --> 01:18:54.979
But it's interesting to think about, you know, for example, what does asymmetry bring to a co-op game experience, right?
01:18:55.139 --> 01:18:57.779
Because in that way, we want to work together on a goal.
01:18:57.859 --> 01:19:01.219
So, like our asymmetry is how do we work our factions together?
01:19:01.460 --> 01:19:05.460
You want to look for that overlap and think about like, okay, you know what?
01:19:05.619 --> 01:19:09.300
You're really good at foraging or searching, so you like, why don't you go here?
01:19:09.380 --> 01:19:12.420
It's a lot of you know, maximizing the asymmetry.
01:19:12.659 --> 01:19:17.059
Other games, right, like Terra Mystica or whatever, you're gonna be in direct conflict.
01:19:17.139 --> 01:19:19.939
So it's sort of like, what do you think gives you the best advantage?
01:19:20.099 --> 01:19:27.539
So thinking about the different mechanics and even just different styles of games, asymmetry like brings a new flavor or texture to it.
01:19:27.779 --> 01:19:28.579
Yes, yes.
01:19:28.739 --> 01:19:33.699
And it when you were talking about that, I was looking at the loop because I know we both love the loop.
01:19:33.939 --> 01:19:35.059
Oh, so much fun.
01:19:35.139 --> 01:19:35.539
Yeah.
01:19:35.779 --> 01:19:38.099
But also, have you played Fate of the Fellowship?
01:19:38.340 --> 01:19:39.619
No, okay, yeah.
01:19:39.779 --> 01:19:40.899
That's that's another one.
01:19:40.979 --> 01:19:46.739
Like, as soon as you start talking about cooperative, like, hey, I can do I'm strong with this, yeah, you're strong with that.
01:19:46.979 --> 01:19:51.380
And of course, now I I can't recall, like I I hope that's true.
01:19:51.539 --> 01:19:54.340
Yeah, all the different characters that they have different abilities.
01:19:54.500 --> 01:19:57.380
Do not quote me on that, but I did enjoy Fate of the Fellowship.
01:19:57.539 --> 01:19:58.099
Yeah, yeah.
01:19:58.259 --> 01:20:01.939
I mean, even something like, right, and we can stretch what asymmetry means, right?
01:20:02.019 --> 01:20:13.460
Because I think sometimes we think asymmetry, it means we each have to have a different mechanic, uh, you know, but again, like we're talking about different maps or different abilities, different boosts, even a different starting position on a map, right?
01:20:13.539 --> 01:20:18.259
I think it's an expansive way to think about just different ways that asymmetry is brought about.
01:20:18.340 --> 01:20:19.380
And it's fun to think that way.
01:20:19.539 --> 01:20:20.019
Absolutely.
01:20:20.179 --> 01:20:31.539
And I think it's also just like as we're as we're talking now, thinking about the complexity levels or like the level of asymmetry in different games.
01:20:31.699 --> 01:20:37.139
Because like one game that I was very intrigued by that I haven't played yet is Vast.
01:20:37.380 --> 01:20:37.939
Oh, yeah.
01:20:38.179 --> 01:20:48.500
And Vast, all I hear from people is like, like, you need a dedicated group because it's like, you know, it's on another level compared to even something like Root.
01:20:48.739 --> 01:20:48.819
Yeah.
01:20:49.059 --> 01:20:56.340
That's one, yeah, that's one where I did a four or five player solo four or five-handed solo game myself.
01:20:56.500 --> 01:21:02.340
And and it was one of those things where it's like, yeah, once I'm playing as this character, I have no idea what the other characters are gonna do.
01:21:02.420 --> 01:21:06.899
Like, I truly felt like I was competitive with myself as all five characters.
01:21:08.420 --> 01:21:13.139
But you're right, like that the level of root, everybody has that shared point track.
01:21:13.219 --> 01:21:13.539
Yeah.
01:21:13.699 --> 01:21:16.099
So the main question is like, how do you score points?
01:21:16.179 --> 01:21:16.979
How do you score points?
01:21:17.139 --> 01:21:20.659
We all score points differently, but in vast, we all have different win conditions.
01:21:20.819 --> 01:21:20.979
Yeah.
01:21:21.219 --> 01:21:23.059
So that takes it to a whole nother level, right?
01:21:23.219 --> 01:21:26.179
Where it's like in root, it's 30 points wins, right?
01:21:26.340 --> 01:21:30.979
But in Vast, we all can end the game in victory different in different ways, right?
01:21:31.059 --> 01:21:33.139
So that totally changes it in a different dynamic.
01:21:33.460 --> 01:21:35.219
Oh, I can't wait to play some coin games with you.
01:21:35.380 --> 01:21:35.699
Yeah.
01:21:36.019 --> 01:21:37.219
Oh, I'm so excited.
01:21:37.539 --> 01:21:44.979
That also made me think of something like as we're planning out like how we want to start actually doing this.
01:21:45.219 --> 01:21:52.659
It would be fun to kind of bundle like as like little seasons, like, hey, now we're exploring cooperative games.
01:21:52.899 --> 01:21:53.460
Yeah, theme.
01:21:53.539 --> 01:21:53.699
Yeah.
01:21:53.859 --> 01:22:00.099
Yes, yes, like like oh, or two-player games or card games or team games.
01:22:01.619 --> 01:22:02.819
That is exactly what I was thinking.
01:22:02.979 --> 01:22:07.219
Sorry, because I I brought up cards, yeah, but I was also thinking of defense of games.
01:22:07.300 --> 01:22:08.179
Defense of Proceon.
01:22:09.380 --> 01:22:09.619
Three.
01:22:10.179 --> 01:22:11.939
I was like, is it a two or three?
01:22:12.099 --> 01:22:12.500
Yes.
01:22:12.739 --> 01:22:15.300
Defense of Proceon is awesome.
01:22:15.859 --> 01:22:28.099
Like, I think it's a like highly underrated game, but I understand because it's it's complex if you aren't able to like kind of get into it the right way.
01:22:28.340 --> 01:22:31.779
Yeah, and that's an example of that level of asymmetry is so high.
01:22:31.939 --> 01:22:32.259
Yes.
01:22:32.500 --> 01:22:34.979
Where every single player has its own rule book.
01:22:35.300 --> 01:22:39.779
So, you know, if you're gonna typically have one game teacher, that's a big ask, right?
01:22:39.859 --> 01:22:43.219
To be able to go through the main rules, all four rules, to be then.
01:22:43.699 --> 01:22:45.380
And then I gotta listen to all of it.
01:22:45.619 --> 01:22:46.019
Yeah.
01:22:46.259 --> 01:22:53.139
And so, you know, when we played, you know, we all knew what faction we were gonna play, did our homework ahead of time to read.
01:22:53.300 --> 01:22:54.819
But even that takes time and commitment, you know.
01:22:54.899 --> 01:22:57.139
So it's it's a high bar, but but it was so fun.
01:22:57.539 --> 01:22:57.859
So fun.
01:22:58.019 --> 01:23:14.099
And I had no idea, like, and so like Defense of Proceon 3 is a a team game where one player on your team is going to be doing like land battle stuff, the other person is in space against the other team.
01:23:14.340 --> 01:23:16.259
Yeah, and there's an alien team and a human team.
01:23:16.420 --> 01:23:16.739
Yes.
01:23:16.979 --> 01:23:21.619
So you have as the alien on land, which is what my character was, right?
01:23:21.859 --> 01:23:21.939
Yeah.
01:23:22.179 --> 01:23:24.179
Oh, yeah, we were in the land battle together.
01:23:24.659 --> 01:23:27.779
Yeah, you have your primary opponent, which is the land human, right?
01:23:27.859 --> 01:23:28.659
The human planet.
01:23:28.739 --> 01:23:28.819
Yes.
01:23:28.979 --> 01:23:34.179
And then you have your primary ally, which is your same faction, but the one in the different battlefield.
01:23:34.340 --> 01:23:38.500
So you have these two main connections, your main opponent and your main ally.
01:23:38.659 --> 01:23:38.899
Yes.
01:23:39.139 --> 01:23:44.899
And so everybody has that, but you know, across from me, you know, at the diagonal was Jordan.
01:23:45.139 --> 01:23:45.219
Yeah.
01:23:45.460 --> 01:23:47.300
He was the human player in space.
01:23:47.539 --> 01:23:49.699
And I'm like, I never basically interact with him, right?
01:23:49.779 --> 01:23:54.099
Because I'm either fighting you or trying to get help or help my buddy in space.
01:23:54.179 --> 01:23:57.219
So it's a cool way in which you have these little ties with the players.
01:23:57.380 --> 01:24:08.979
Like, yeah, and I think like, you know, because that was our first time playing too, like, I think as we like, once we've played all the characters, we can then probably pay attention more to like, hey, what is that person?
01:24:09.059 --> 01:24:11.779
And maybe I can advise my teammate a little bit.
01:24:12.019 --> 01:24:22.899
But like thematically, it is like it reminds me of something like Star Wars, where you where they cut back and there's action going on in the land and ewoks.
01:24:23.059 --> 01:24:24.819
Yeah, there are no ewoks in the game though.
01:24:25.460 --> 01:24:29.460
But then, but then it jumps to like, okay, now we have this space battle.
01:24:29.619 --> 01:24:33.859
Oh, now we cut back, and and like it's just very unique.
01:24:34.179 --> 01:24:38.739
And there's small and meaningful ways in which like the space player can drop stuff into the land or the land player can start.
01:24:39.059 --> 01:24:41.059
Oh, yeah, you can work together a little bit.
01:24:41.380 --> 01:24:42.979
It's subtle, but it's important, you know?
01:24:43.219 --> 01:24:48.019
And every faction in that game had like a different core mechanism.
01:24:48.259 --> 01:24:48.500
That's right.
01:24:48.579 --> 01:24:50.819
Yeah, so that's another just an extra layer, right?
01:24:50.899 --> 01:24:55.859
So like I had these like multi-use cards where I could, you know, trigger them off for actions.
01:24:56.340 --> 01:25:03.699
I have you had like an action point system, I think, where you had four characters, right, on land, like these four heroes.
01:25:03.859 --> 01:25:06.979
And each turn you had to, I just noticed because I had to play.
01:25:07.139 --> 01:25:08.099
Oh, yeah, you played them all solo.
01:25:08.420 --> 01:25:09.619
I played a four-handed solo.
01:25:09.859 --> 01:25:12.739
So you have these four characters that are like these heroes.
01:25:12.899 --> 01:25:13.380
That's right.
01:25:13.539 --> 01:25:16.500
And each of them has an asymmetric ability.
01:25:17.380 --> 01:25:20.739
And each turn, you have to pick like which one am I gonna activate?
01:25:20.899 --> 01:25:27.139
And then I sort of mobilize armies around this character and use their ability with a with movement points and action points.
01:25:27.300 --> 01:25:27.619
Yeah.
01:25:27.939 --> 01:25:30.819
And then I'm also thinking about doubt is our product.
01:25:30.979 --> 01:25:31.539
Yeah, yeah.
01:25:31.699 --> 01:25:32.979
Another Hollenspiel game.
01:25:33.380 --> 01:25:34.099
Oh my gosh.
01:25:34.179 --> 01:25:35.300
Yeah, there's so much.
01:25:35.539 --> 01:25:40.659
So yeah, we're planning for 35 seasons of my favorite faction at this point.
01:25:40.899 --> 01:25:41.300
Yeah.
01:25:41.619 --> 01:25:42.979
Hit that subscribe button.
01:25:43.059 --> 01:25:43.699
Yeah.
01:25:44.819 --> 01:25:51.300
But I think, you know, for me, like why I get so excited about this topic and why I feel like we could do 35 seasons.
01:25:51.380 --> 01:25:51.619
Yeah.
01:25:51.779 --> 01:25:52.819
Is because easily.
01:25:52.979 --> 01:25:53.460
Yeah.
01:25:53.779 --> 01:26:00.019
The for me, one of the ways that I find joy in this hobby so much is this joy of discovery.
01:26:00.179 --> 01:26:00.579
Yeah.
01:26:00.739 --> 01:26:03.460
And asymmetry is such an invitation to do that.
01:26:03.619 --> 01:26:06.659
I instantly want to play again as my character, right?
01:26:06.739 --> 01:26:07.619
To learn it better.
01:26:07.779 --> 01:26:08.420
But guess what?
01:26:08.579 --> 01:26:11.059
I instantly also want to play again as that new character.
01:26:11.219 --> 01:26:11.619
Yeah.
01:26:11.859 --> 01:26:18.819
And it might feel almost like a gimmick to get you to play again and again, but but it's it if it is cool, it works.
01:26:19.779 --> 01:26:20.659
Because I want to do it.
01:26:20.739 --> 01:26:22.420
And I want to play every character.
01:26:22.579 --> 01:26:24.340
I want to try every map, right?
01:26:24.500 --> 01:26:29.300
Because I love to do this comparison of like, how did this change the dynamic?
01:26:29.460 --> 01:26:31.699
How did this make me feel differently this time?
01:26:32.019 --> 01:26:36.340
Which one flowed and and and like made me feel like, wow, I just really rock this one.
01:26:36.500 --> 01:26:36.659
Yeah.
01:26:36.899 --> 01:26:39.139
Which one, like I have the a Spirit Island?
01:26:39.380 --> 01:26:43.300
Yeah, I have a Spirit Island spirit where I'm like, she and I do not get along.
01:26:43.460 --> 01:26:45.939
I do not know what she's supposed to be doing.
01:26:46.099 --> 01:26:50.340
Everyone else says she's great, and uh, she and I just do not click.
01:26:50.420 --> 01:26:52.179
And I've tried so many times, right?
01:26:52.259 --> 01:27:03.460
So sometimes you just kind of click and don't click with different things, like yeah, and there's the there's another game that I kind of got you obsessed with that also is gonna come into this conversation.
01:27:03.699 --> 01:27:05.059
Oh yeah, you know what I'm thinking of?
01:27:05.219 --> 01:27:05.619
Which one?
01:27:05.779 --> 01:27:06.259
I don't know.
01:27:06.500 --> 01:27:10.099
What's the second game that we went deep together with?
01:27:10.500 --> 01:27:11.619
Popcorn chicken.
01:27:11.859 --> 01:27:12.500
Keyforge.
01:27:12.739 --> 01:27:13.300
Keyforge.
01:27:13.539 --> 01:27:14.259
Oh my gosh, yeah.
01:27:14.420 --> 01:27:15.059
Yeah, yeah.
01:27:15.219 --> 01:27:18.259
Like Keyforge, you have all those different houses.
01:27:18.500 --> 01:27:21.059
Yes, and they have very distinct mechanics.
01:27:21.619 --> 01:27:25.779
I mean, not quite mechanics, they have very distinct kind of like flavors, flavoring.
01:27:25.939 --> 01:27:29.059
Some of them are more aggressive, some of them are more card draw focus.
01:27:29.300 --> 01:27:38.019
I'm like, I didn't realize I was so aggressive till like I found out that Brobnar has the like the band, and I'm like, well, this these are my people.
01:27:38.259 --> 01:27:40.659
I mean, if there's a rock band, yeah, that's true.
01:27:40.739 --> 01:27:43.699
I I do gravitate towards oh, what's the festival card called?
01:27:43.859 --> 01:27:45.059
The big rock festival card.
01:27:45.300 --> 01:27:46.979
Oh, Halifest or something like that.
01:27:47.219 --> 01:27:48.420
That was like your signature card.
01:27:49.059 --> 01:27:50.659
Oh my gosh, where I get to like bring the whole band.
01:27:51.139 --> 01:27:53.619
The whole band comes together, and it was like so fun.
01:27:53.859 --> 01:27:54.979
I mean, it was just so you.
01:27:55.380 --> 01:27:56.099
Yeah, yeah.
01:27:56.259 --> 01:27:59.699
But then I loved other ones, and I still always see you as the dinosaurs.
01:27:59.939 --> 01:28:01.219
That's my that's my faction.
01:28:01.619 --> 01:28:04.899
And and uh Philosopher Philosopher Dinosaurs.
01:28:05.139 --> 01:28:23.059
I mean, I'm feeling a bit typecast, but it's but you I'm I'm sure people listening to this can already hear like how many different types of games have asymmetry that that we're also like very big fans of as knit gamers.
01:28:23.219 --> 01:28:23.779
Yeah, yeah.
01:28:24.099 --> 01:28:25.939
So I'm I'm I'm excited.
01:28:26.099 --> 01:28:28.659
Like, let's we'll we'll start dropping some videos soon.
01:28:28.819 --> 01:28:40.500
Yeah, and let us know in the comments like what are your favorite games that have different factions, different maps, different abilities, because you know it's there's so many out there, and so we'd love to hear.
01:28:40.579 --> 01:28:42.179
Like, what are what are the ones you want us to cover?
01:28:42.420 --> 01:28:44.659
Yeah, we could do some YouTube polls too.
01:28:44.739 --> 01:28:52.420
Like, maybe if like we figure out what are the first four we want to do, like throw a poll up and see what people want to hear about.
01:28:52.579 --> 01:28:53.219
Yeah, that'd be great.
01:28:53.380 --> 01:28:56.500
But either way, I'm excited because again, like I don't know.
01:28:56.579 --> 01:29:02.340
Like, if you were gonna ask me right now, oh, what's your favorite faction of the Spirit Island, this expansion?
01:29:02.579 --> 01:29:03.300
Yeah, I gotta think about it.
01:29:03.539 --> 01:29:03.859
I don't know.
01:29:03.939 --> 01:29:04.500
I need to think about it.
01:29:04.739 --> 01:29:06.579
You gotta think about it and play it together more, right?
01:29:06.659 --> 01:29:09.380
Yeah, and what a great way to also focus our plays, right?
01:29:09.460 --> 01:29:09.699
Like that.
01:29:09.939 --> 01:29:10.739
It's so fun, right?
01:29:10.979 --> 01:29:11.939
It's gonna be so fun.
01:29:12.179 --> 01:29:12.979
I'm excited.
01:29:13.219 --> 01:29:16.420
Well, Tim, I'm so happy you were down to like record with me.
01:29:16.500 --> 01:29:22.899
I know this was kind of like a sort of spur of the moment thing, but that's kind of how I roll these days.
01:29:23.219 --> 01:29:25.539
And you know, you're one of my favorite people to play.
01:29:26.099 --> 01:29:36.899
Games with one of my favorite people in general, and so I'm glad we're finally doing content together, and other people in the world can hear your wonderful voice.
01:29:37.219 --> 01:29:40.979
And Tim is also an amazing blood on the clock tower storyteller.
01:29:41.300 --> 01:29:42.579
Oh blood on the clock tower.
01:29:42.819 --> 01:29:43.219
There you go.
01:29:43.380 --> 01:29:43.939
For every script.
01:29:44.259 --> 01:29:44.579
Every script.
01:29:44.739 --> 01:29:45.460
Who's our favorite?
01:29:45.619 --> 01:29:48.979
And then we have to go like, who's our favorite outsider?
01:29:49.380 --> 01:29:49.699
Outsider.
01:29:50.019 --> 01:29:51.859
And what demon villagers, right?
01:29:51.939 --> 01:29:54.579
What are the other people that we go?
01:29:54.739 --> 01:29:54.979
Yeah.
01:29:55.380 --> 01:29:56.019
So yeah.
01:29:56.259 --> 01:29:57.059
Oh my gosh.
01:29:57.539 --> 01:30:01.059
My brain is gonna be like just just just going.
01:30:01.300 --> 01:30:01.619
I love it.
01:30:01.699 --> 01:30:01.939
Yeah.
01:30:02.019 --> 01:30:03.139
No, uh, thank you for having me.
01:30:03.219 --> 01:30:04.019
This is so fun.
01:30:04.179 --> 01:30:06.979
I mean, you're one of my favorite people in the world.
01:30:07.059 --> 01:30:07.139
Oh.
01:30:07.539 --> 01:30:10.739
And when we get excited, we just upward spiral.
01:30:10.819 --> 01:30:15.539
We upward spiral together and just get more excited and more energetic.
01:30:15.779 --> 01:30:16.340
We do.
01:30:16.579 --> 01:30:18.659
Those are the type of people that just give you energy.
01:30:19.059 --> 01:30:19.139
Yeah.
01:30:19.380 --> 01:30:22.019
You give me that energy, and it's just always such a blast to gain.
01:30:22.420 --> 01:30:23.859
My spouses still support it.
01:30:23.939 --> 01:30:24.340
Thank you.
01:30:24.579 --> 01:30:26.500
Yes, thank you, Madden Adam.
01:30:27.300 --> 01:30:27.939
Yeah.
01:30:29.539 --> 01:30:29.939
Yeah.
01:30:30.099 --> 01:30:30.340
Yeah.
01:30:30.819 --> 01:30:31.539
No, no, no.
01:30:31.619 --> 01:30:31.859
Yeah.
01:30:32.340 --> 01:30:34.420
So much joy, so much joy.
01:30:34.739 --> 01:30:36.659
But I'm very excited.
01:30:36.739 --> 01:30:39.139
I've been excited since we started talking about this.
01:30:39.219 --> 01:30:40.739
It might have been two years ago at this point.
01:30:40.819 --> 01:30:41.460
I don't know.
01:30:41.539 --> 01:30:41.699
Yeah.
01:30:41.939 --> 01:30:43.859
But I'm we're gonna do it.
01:30:44.099 --> 01:30:51.139
And I'm just excited to think about the first one and to like start replaying these games and to introduce you to Too Many Bones.
01:30:51.300 --> 01:30:51.619
Yeah.
01:30:51.779 --> 01:30:56.659
I think we'll probably have to get some special guests popping in with us here and there too.
01:30:56.739 --> 01:30:57.059
Yeah.
01:30:57.380 --> 01:31:04.819
Because I think that just will be even more interesting conversation to see, you know, like multiple perspectives on.
01:31:05.380 --> 01:31:12.500
And we know, you know, some folks, for example, like if we did each, you know, expansion of root, we know pleep peop, we know pleopals.
01:31:12.899 --> 01:31:14.099
We know pleeples, yes.
01:31:15.539 --> 01:31:17.779
We know people that really play these games, right?
01:31:17.859 --> 01:31:18.739
So deep dive.
01:31:19.059 --> 01:31:19.300
Yeah.
01:31:19.380 --> 01:31:20.739
And so we'll pull them in.
01:31:20.979 --> 01:31:31.059
We'll pull them in and hear what they have to say because you know, folks that have more and more plays, like maybe my sort of first impressions after playing a game, you know, five plays, right?
01:31:31.219 --> 01:31:33.779
It's a little bit different than someone's who's played it 20 times.
01:31:33.859 --> 01:31:35.059
So it'd be nice to see that too.
01:31:35.139 --> 01:31:38.979
Like, yeah, how do your favorite factions evolve as you play them more and more, too?
01:31:39.460 --> 01:31:41.059
Yes, yes, yes.
01:31:41.380 --> 01:31:42.099
Awesome.
01:31:42.340 --> 01:31:45.699
Okay, anyways, I gotta get you to bed because you're an early.
01:31:46.099 --> 01:31:47.460
We're gonna turn into a cabbage.
01:31:53.779 --> 01:31:55.380
All right, thanks again, Tim.
01:31:55.619 --> 01:31:56.420
Yeah, thank you.
01:31:56.739 --> 01:32:01.619
You've been listening to the Kickin' It Creative podcast, produced and edited by Candace Harris.
01:32:01.939 --> 01:32:05.460
Special thanks to Matt Fonda for editing and mixing our music.
01:32:05.619 --> 01:32:14.179
Be sure to visit us on the web at kickin' itcreative.com and on YouTube for even more kickin' it creative content crafted by Candace.
01:32:14.500 --> 01:32:16.979
Thanks for listening and happy gaming!