Episode 353 – Holiday Gift Guide 2021

The end of the year is nigh, and it’s time to buy gifts for all of your favorite gamers. No problem, we have your back! Check out the annual BGA Holiday Gift Guide, with 20 games to match every gamer on your list.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to connect with us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/boardgamersanonymous), Twitter (http://twitter.com/bgapodcast), and on our website (www.www.boardgamersanonymous.com). You can support the show as well by donating on Patreon (www.patreon.com/bga) or using our Amazon affiliate link.

Transcript

00:00.00
bgapodcast
1 welcome to board gamers anonymous the podcast about board gamers and the insane fun. We have at the table together. This is chris and this is episode 3 hundred and fifty three holiday gift guide for 2021 we like to thank.

00:06.15
Anthony
And this is anthony.

00:17.50
bgapodcast
All are our patreon backers for helping us bring you a brand new episode but especially our new patreon backer philip knight thanks so much. Philip. You rock all right? Everyone we’re back and it is the Holiday season the season in which we buy all the games and pretend that we didn’t spend all the moneys on all the games. And huddle around the games because that’s basically all we have except for crippling credit card debt.

00:42.56
Anthony
Ah, well that was fun Man way to started us off.

00:45.70
bgapodcast
Well look games have gotten expensive if you haven’t noticed. That’s all I’m saying they’re back.

00:49.92
Anthony
Ah, Tis the season to be depressed. Ah my games are everywhere.

00:54.21
bgapodcast
But if you’re going to be look if you’re going to be depressed at least you should have a really cool board game by your side to get you through the the holiday blas nonetheless. But yes, this is the super hot super rare board gamers anonymous holiday gift guide. 2000 and 21 we have searched through all of the naughty and nice lists and come up with a list of games that we think that you will enjoy and look should look forward to purchasing for the Holiday season. Obviously anthony we’re always very much aware of the expense. So we’re not going to throw anything crazy on here. Although we might at the end just in case. Oh no, so we got a great list for you and that’s going to be our feature review. So that’s going to be the big big big Holiday guide. So stick with us for us that.

01:31.13
Anthony
Ah, you didn’t tell me to keep a cheat man. So I don’t know.

01:47.73
bgapodcast
But Anthony before we get into that. There’s been a little bit of things going out on the board game scene. So speaking of big big things. There’s a big big thing coming out and it’s kind of kind of undead right? A little bit.

01:57.24
Anthony
Yeah, we yeah super super super, not alive. Um, so yeah you if you if you pay attention to the boardgaphere at all. You’ve seen this? ah. The zombie side Marvel they’re calling it Marvel zombies but it’s just zombie side marvel ah little bits have been flowing out into the ether The first thing that came up on the net that I saw personally was the Galactus. That’s the size of that giant cthulu baby and.

02:19.88
bgapodcast
She’s.

02:29.39
bgapodcast
Yeah.

02:32.66
Anthony
Ah, that thing’s huge. It’s going to cost a couple hundred dollars. But it’s pretty cool. It’s very tempting and then you sent over to me today a video that had a little bit more about the actual like the cover and some of the the characters and how it actually plays. Um.

02:42.38
bgapodcast
Um, sure.

02:49.50
Anthony
And and it’s not your typical zombie side because now your plan as the zombies is twist.

02:52.55
bgapodcast
Sure? Yeah I was I was wondering when they would get around to that because Zomb besides seemed like they were eventually gonna do that twist and yeah, they did it and you get to play as 1 of the Marvel heroes that is undead. So I think there’s like. Captain america the hulk I think Miss marvel is 1 of them. Can’t think iron man I think I think iron man’s 1 of them as well from what I remember and then you’re facing down shield and you’re facing down a bunch of other Marvel heroes including spiderman so that’s the thing right.

03:26.97
Anthony
Yeah, yeah I mean so my initial response to this was you know like it’s just capitalism. It’s just you should put a giant stamp on the covers. That’s capitalism. This is why we did it? um.

03:39.43
bgapodcast
Because money.

03:42.67
Anthony
Money yeah is there anything unique or different or creative in here. No but money like okay, well that’s fair money. Um, yeah, and like I heard you know how expensive the zombie side games are and then you slap the Marvel license on that this is going to be really expensive. It’s going to be so expensive.

03:45.86
bgapodcast
Um, money have you have you met money? anthony.

03:55.54
bgapodcast
Yeah.

03:59.76
Anthony
But people are going to buy it and I’m going to be tempted to buy it anyways because I’m like little Marvel Zombie miniatures. That’s pretty cool.

04:05.55
bgapodcast
But ah yeah, these this is definitely not your chebi miniatures from all the United games. So it’s could be interesting to see anthony we might have to do an intervention. We might have to do a please please Dear god. Me from backing marvel zombies for you I think that that certainly must be a thing that’s true I don’t know it’s a thing. Yeah I’ve never picked up any of the zombside games I’ve never really just never really hit me for whatever reason I really love the.

04:19.77
Anthony
Yeah, do we need to bring in a third party though because it’s Marvel right? But then it’s like the Zombie marvel that’s like both of us so like I don’t know it’s pretty good.

04:39.40
bgapodcast
All the different legally distinct characters that they have in those zombicide games. It’s so much fun to like watch and read through the kickstarters and you’re almost tempted. You’re like I Really like those cool characters. But it’s my it’s zombie sides. So but it what’s up.

04:41.36
Anthony
8

04:53.50
Anthony
I Know yeah I have the black plague stuff and it’s like like my little four money Python guys are on my shelf like I don’t play that game but I took out the money Python guys I’m like yeah this is fun and the little rabbit. So.

05:01.59
bgapodcast
that’s fantastic. Yeah that’s fantastic yeah that’s like you said that for me was like worth the price of aission but they just keep ramping up with the price and it’s just it becomes just crazy. So this is going to be interesting to see. And the galactus figure now again this all comes from the what if comic book universe maybe you’ve seen the disney what if episode but actually there’s a whole comic book series with this and galactus is and you know a part of this and galactus. Also becomes a zombie or I guess can become a zombie because they have 2 heads. It looks like right or at least 2 faces or something for Galactus there. So I don’t know how Galactus gets infected but I actually do know but I want to spoil it but in the game I don’t know how that happens. But yeah, this is a thing that’s happening so hold on because.

05:39.76
Anthony
Yeah, first right.

05:55.48
bgapodcast
You will see all the monies in the world kind of leak over to this because I think it’s that weird strange crossover between like you said anthony marvel and Zombies. So it might be like it might be like the other marvel united games where they just pull out like 3 hundred different random characters like hey. Here’s moon night. You know like just because why not here’s moon night in here right? like and you’re like damn it.

06:17.00
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, and what they’ll do and you know this is what they’ll do because this is what they do is you’ll have zombie version and then as a stretch goal Eventually, you’ll get non zombie version and so you can choose whether to play.

06:30.36
bgapodcast
Um, yes.

06:35.70
Anthony
As the zombie which I guess is the hero in this case or fight against the hero and it’s so there’s gonna be so much stuff packed in here. We shouldn’t take a bet now. What do how much do you think? what is the over under on the all in cost of this. So the all in would be the.

06:35.91
bgapodcast
Yeah, yeah.

06:45.14
bgapodcast
Um, oh.

06:52.20
Anthony
The full pledge plus all the add ons which would include galactus what are we looking at here I’m going to say five fifty and I was I was thinking up around 600 because we’ve seen a few kickstarters in the last six months hit or hit the 7 hundred mark I I think seem on.

06:55.78
bgapodcast
Um, I’m gonna say four fifty. Okay, all right.

07:07.36
bgapodcast
Sure.

07:11.39
Anthony
Like with this they might be able to pull that off I don’t think they should but I think they will.

07:15.49
bgapodcast
Ah, ah, they they never ask if they should do a thing. They just do a thing they’re like you know this will make all the money like ah, it’s going to crush like a whole bunch of countries gdp. But who cares money. Ah.

07:25.53
Anthony
Yeah, plastic. It’s super good for the environment last day I mean I can’t yeah I’m surrounded by plastic but that galactctus man. It’s so big.

07:35.69
bgapodcast
Um I want I Honestly wonder if it’s good What you know how high in comparison to the cthulhu because that’s yeah.

07:45.42
Anthony
I’m looking at a picture of it now and it looks like it’s I don’t know from like here to the top of my head. So what is that like 2 and a half 3 feet

07:48.67
bgapodcast
Wow. Okay, and then they you know it’s going to be like cross platformform possibly playable with the other Zombic sides too. So all those other wacky characters get to get to play.

08:00.23
Anthony
How we better be yeah. Yeah, yep.

08:07.10
bgapodcast
This is gonna be painful. Yeah I’m not back in this but I will I will I will say no vina for you at the very least because yes is gonna be all the moneyies. Maybe again like you said it may be 56 right? It It could certainly be that much because they might release like. Endless numbers of Expansions. So.

08:25.10
Anthony
I honestly think if they’re going to do it if they’re going to go crazy big numbers. This is the time to do it. Um, it’s the most cynical cash grab least interesting thing. They’ve done in a while but that doesn’t matter because it’s Marvel and it’s zombie side. So it’s their biggest I p plus the world’s biggest I p smash together and it’s like yeah.

08:38.99
bgapodcast
Um, yeah, ah ah, all right? Well everyone stay tuned to that because that’s that’s gonna be a little crazy and and ah yeah, that’s a thing.

08:44.59
Anthony
What monies gross. But yeah.

08:58.64
bgapodcast
So anthony again and we wanted to talk a little bit about something that we’re really excited about which is pacs unplugged for 2021 turns out, there’s a convention that’s still left standing.

09:10.50
Anthony
Ah, yeah, absolutely we’re actually going to go to this thing so that’s weird right? I haven’t been to pas in 3 years I’ve been to any convention in 2 and a half and then pax is the last 1 you went to it all right? So we don’t remember how to do this.

09:16.41
bgapodcast
Um, she could come.

09:22.48
bgapodcast
It was I was at the last facts no not even a little bit I don’t even remember what.

09:28.68
Anthony
Yeah, and you think that’s a joke but before we started recording today. We were literally like how do we do this kind of remember.

09:34.41
bgapodcast
So if you’re a publisher out there or a designer and you’re listening remember we forgot how to do this So please find us because we’re probably gonna be wandering around circles or be like just like walk up to people and then get afraid and walk away and then walk up and then get afraid to walk away but like.

09:48.55
Anthony
Yeah.

09:52.29
bgapodcast
I Don’t know if I should be engaging with people at this point or I don’t I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing here.

09:55.00
Anthony
So do we play the games. What what is the deal here. What is this? Why are we here.

10:00.83
bgapodcast
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s weird I don’t I don’t know why we do would do that It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you play the games. Don’t you just admire the games from a distance like in a glass case with like plastic gloves and like yeah that things.

10:16.28
Anthony
Yeah, little opera glass.

10:20.42
bgapodcast
That’s right? Bravo well done well done I love that I love what you did there? Excellent I wonder how it plays I don’t know how to plays. But I wonder how it plays. So yeah, so that should be interesting ah pack some plugs especially is well known for its first look first play kind of section. And honestly, that’s worth the price of emission because typically a good number. A really good number of the games that either have just been released or going to be released or sometimes even kickstarters are there and available to play and what they do is they get a team of volunteers together. Actually teach those games and I think I mean I think the first pack’s unplued I loved it so much I actually wrote a whole email to them just thanking them because I think that led to their convention mean just superior in every way because again, you know you can go to other conventions and like they have a game library and that’s great, but.

11:09.57
Anthony
Death.

11:16.14
bgapodcast
You’re still getting stuck playing the games that you know how to play you want to play something new and if it’s and again that was kind of funny cause I think that was the opposite anthony at least the first year we went to pax where it was like Asmo day had what was it civilization and they’re like cool. It’s good that you guys are here from the media. Let’s show you the game here’s 1 turn.

11:20.44
Anthony
Rape.

11:34.86
bgapodcast
And we’re like all right cool and then they’re like pick your thing. Okay I’m gonna go there and like all right move your thing to done I’m like what do you mean done like I don’t what that’s not a game. That’s that’s that’s moving 1 piece from here to here like I don’t.

11:43.94
Anthony
Ah, yeah.

11:49.24
bgapodcast
No, they’re like that’s our demo and I’m like it didn’t know that didn’t show me anything. What do you know? I don’t want to be now. It was bad so getting to play games is actually fun, interesting and reviewable I don’t know.

11:54.36
Anthony
Yeah, yeah.

11:59.61
Anthony
Yeah I think it’s pretty good I think it’s insane that gencon hasn’t stolen this idea yet because all the new games come out there here in the us and yet there’s no way to play them unless you can somehow magically fight your way through the line to buy 1

12:15.99
bgapodcast
Or what about origins like their their origins is like the convention from gamma the game association like if anyone should be running free playthroughs would be gamma and they don’t do that like it’s it’s criminal. What. They do. It’s just it’s really sad because it’s like and they do an award ceremony and they have like a couple of games like thrown out on tables like you could play these It’s like there’s like 3 pieces left in a thimble for some reason in that box I’m going to play this I’m like are you kidding me come on. So.

12:42.98
Anthony
Ah. Yeah packs I Always said it was the best convention so much so that I moved to Philadelphia so take that gencon.

12:53.87
bgapodcast
Um, whoa. We’re gonna get packed Statuettoos after the convention. We’ve already we already discussed it. So yeah.

13:00.26
Anthony
Yeah I’m I’m very excited because yeah I did move here 6 months ago. The convention center is four miles from my house to fifteen minute drive so very excited to be able to hop down there and not to buy pay for hotel room. That’s cool.

13:15.64
bgapodcast
So we’ll have more details as that comes up and we’ll be giving you a full kind of like preview review. Um, live at the scene we’ll we’ll see how if we remember how to do those things remember we used to do like live video Anthony at the conventions and we used to tweet live and we used to take.

13:26.98
Anthony
I have math.

13:33.83
bgapodcast
Send that pictures lot Remember we used to do things member conventions. Ah.

13:35.34
Anthony
Yeah, that’s weird I don’t remember any of that I don’t know we’ll have my computer because we can come to my house we can record right here.

13:40.38
bgapodcast
And. So if you’re going to be at the convention hit us up. Let us know we love to see you love to get a game with you at the table and again if you’re just randomly looking for us probably look at the first look first play section because that’s probably where we’re going to be and I think we’ll be wearing these outfits more or less right. little little bga stuff so if you see bga sit down introduce yourself and remind us that conventions are cool again because we forgot.

14:04.77
Anthony
That’s yep.

14:12.28
Anthony
Ah, it’s bit so long. It’s going to feel weird and dreamlike like am I really here.

14:18.21
bgapodcast
I know it really is and I’m really excited because Pax does an exceptional job each and every year so I think that they’re going to do that again and again philly is an amazing city if you haven’t been to philadelphia I mean you got to go I mean it’s it’s it’s big enough that there is. So much to see that you’re never gonna run have things but it’s small enough that you never feel overwhelmed like you can actually find your way around. It’s not like Manhattan where it’s just like oh everything’s huge here. Everything’s super fast. So it’s a good mix and I’m not gonna say what other conventions but like.

14:47.46
Anthony
Yeah, if.

14:56.36
bgapodcast
When you leave the convention center here. Things are still open and things are easily accessible I’m just saying It’s really a good thing like you can get food like everywhere and you can go do things all the time and the hotels are cross the street I mean all the hotels All of the people come to back someplug again.

14:57.76
Anthony
Um, yeah, ah.

15:15.67
bgapodcast
Not a plug for packs unplued we’re not getting paid I likes un pluged but it’s a really great convention really like it all right? So that’s everything that’s going on with us anthony now onto our feature reviews. So our feature of review this week is again. 1 of our favorite feature reviews because again, it’s talking about our favorite games are coming out this Holiday season.

15:17.60
Anthony
Yeah.

15:35.26
bgapodcast
And we would love to inform you? What is the latest and greatest that you should be looking to pick up for the Holiday season. Obviously the games have become really crazy kind of expensive and sometimes even hard to find due to the crazy supply chain problems out there which seems weird right? like. I think like most board gamers especially you’re a board gamers know how to operate a supply chain like really really well even though that’s not their thing like it’s like it’s not my field but I know it’s it’s like we have a supply chain problem done I’m in there.

15:59.31
Anthony
Right? Well they got to call us. Yeah, why? Why aren’t they calling us like come on.

16:12.30
bgapodcast
We have these ah shipping containers. We can’t get through panamax we’re done like whatever whatever you got, we got it just sending a team of professionals in there. We just we don’t want to be paid. We just want victory points for getting the you know the the ships through so but we do have our 2021 list we break it down in a number of different categories that we think would.

16:16.34
Anthony
Yeah, yeah.

16:23.84
Anthony
Death.

16:31.18
bgapodcast
Be super helpful for you as far as picking out the best games for the holiday season and obviously black Friday is upon us. So we’ll try to get this episode out a little bit earlier so that it doesn’t hit on black Friday cause I think it might be a little too late at this point but I know most of the major board gaming online. Companies. So your miniature market your cool stuff inc your game nerds and several others that are out there already having some of their specials out there or their upcoming specials. So anthony let’s talk about some of those games. So. What’s our first category.

17:04.56
Anthony
First up we have kind of the the self gifting because I’ve never gifted anybody an app but board game apps right? Um I think we’re past the time where we say this is the year of the board game app. They’re just all the big games get apps now all of them if think of a big game that’s sold more than.

17:08.15
bgapodcast
Um, oh sure.

17:21.00
bgapodcast
It’s true.

17:24.24
Anthony
10000 copies it’s getting an app. It’s it’s going to happen like things pop up now that I didn’t even realize were coming out and I’m like oh cool. So ah, so yeah I played a lot of good apps here and I think all four of these are fantastic. The 2 that I chose that I wanted to share were brass birmingham.

17:26.30
bgapodcast
It’s true.

17:39.55
bgapodcast
Um.

17:41.53
Anthony
Which is available I believe on I know it’s on steam because where I have it and then I believe on ios and it is a very solid, very accessible implementation of 1 of the best of Martin wallace’s games. Um and the superior version of brass. So.

17:45.59
bgapodcast
Sure.

17:54.30
bgapodcast
Um, absolutely.

17:58.34
Anthony
It does a good job of capturing the artwork without making it too dark on the screen which is what I would worry about with that particular like things pop enough that you can see where everything’s supposed to go the multiplayer works. Well, they’ve implemented a lot of fixes and updates since then so brass is a fantastic game in general but being able to just knock out a quick game against the ai.

18:05.21
bgapodcast
Sure.

18:18.17
Anthony
It’s just some games work that way and they’re fun and some of them are not as fun. This 1 is 1 of those ones where I’m happy to to sit down and play for fifteen minutes and kind of play with different roots and yeah, so it’s ah it’s a regular mainstay on my um on my computer now. Um.

18:19.60
bgapodcast
Um, in.

18:35.47
Anthony
The other 1 we talked about just a few weeks ago is concordia which is also available on steam and ios and this is just a fantastic implementation of 1 of the all-time. Great games. It’s honestly surprising it took this long to get a digital implementation because it’s fairly simple, basic map basic cards.

18:36.90
bgapodcast
Sure.

18:46.46
bgapodcast
Um, yeah.

18:52.85
Anthony
Place a thing move around but it does a really good job of zooming in and zooming out to where you need to be capturing all the information you know where everything is and where it needs to be based on what your opponents are doing and it plays really quickly. It doesn’t have too many animations like enough. Be interesting, but not so many to really slow it down because there are a lot of different pieces to each Move. So Both good eurogames if you want something meteor on your device.

19:16.38
bgapodcast
Yeah, both are great. Both high recommendations for me as Well. The you could play Concordia on an ios or obviously up on Steam. So Really good opportunities and again Concordia is 1 of those games. It’s it’s not as fast as ticket to ride. But it could almost be once you kind of get in the zone because the ai is pretty fast with that and you know what routes you’re taking you know what resources you have so pretty cool I Want to give an honorable mention because I have not played it yet. But Gloom Haven is on steam and 1 of the things that really just.

19:48.36
Anthony
That.

19:54.54
bgapodcast
Honestly, you know bug the heck out of me about gloomhaven was the fact of like the setup and breakdown and obviously the endless numbers of missions but having it digitized having it on Steam I haven’t played it So I Can’t recommend it. But I recommend you look at it. Because it looks pretty good and I think that might allow a lot of us like me included to actually finish gloomhaven because again, it’s just it’s a lot. So yeah, that’s great I Want to go back to a little bit of an older game. Not that old. But again. Something that still stands up to this day and that’s wingspan wingspan is still a phenomenal version on Steam I think it’s 1 of the best if not the best board games I’ve ever seen online just because it allows you to play the the normal Euro kind of version of it. And then it allows you in the game switch on and off between that and the animation kind of style that comes along with the birdsongs and the music and the background and the online play and the ai is pretty tough I mean it’s it’s It’s unnecessarily an exceptional. App and it’s It’s reasonably priced too and then finally ah the fox and the fars we talked about this recently I know it’s a favorite game of Anthony’s I have it on Ios. It’s a little small on your phone I wouldn’t recommend on the phone but on Steam it’s It’s quite good. And the ai is kind of fun on the plate as well.

21:26.21
Anthony
Awesome! Yeah, fantastic. Those are both good games a little more family oriented a little lighter a little quicker than ah, the heavier stuff I picked out but Fox and forest. Especially just so good I wouldn’t think for something so simple and small box that they were just such a beautiful implementation but that’s great.

21:31.16
bgapodcast
Um, yeah.

21:42.19
bgapodcast
Yeah, and it again they could have just leaned on just the cards but they give a lot of really nice animations and it just plays really well. All Anthony what’s up next who we do.

21:50.89
Anthony
All right next category we got family games so each have 1 each here and there are just a ton I actually have a review coming up next week that not quite ready this week of of another family game that seems like it will be solidly up. Everybody’s alley.

22:09.34
bgapodcast
Um I can’t wait to listen.

22:09.45
Anthony
Um, but just a teaser for next week if you need a late gift after the gift guide. Um, but the game I want to talk about this week you should absolutely check out as well. It’s over boss from brother wise games. This is a boss monster adventure. So brother otherwise known for Boss monster among other games. Quick little card game of a hero running through a 8 bit video game dungeon overboss is you are that boss and you’re building the over map that the hero has to run through to find that dungeon and so it is a quick tile lane game.

22:39.90
bgapodcast
E.

22:44.64
Anthony
Ah, you’re going to everybody takes turns taking tiles placing them in your tableau along with monsters and enemies and treasures that will go on those tiles and you’re trying to create different combinations of tiles. It’ll determine your scoring along with the little pieces that you put on there. Um, there’s. Think twice as many tile types in the box than you need to play the game. So lots of variability. There are advance rules. There are beginner rules. There’s a solo mode. My kids absolutely love this game like they are video game nerds. But it’s it’s very accessible. It’s very easy to play I think the box is eighten up. Ah, daughter is 6 and she adores this and has no problem with it whatsoever. So if you have a video gaming family that can appreciate kind of the jokes that come with running across the this over Map. Um, they’re going to love this It’s over boss.

23:33.81
bgapodcast
Excellent. Yeah I remember playing Boss monster I haven’t gotten to this but I actually want to play it myself so a game that I mean I’m a big fan of and you know this if you’ve ever listened to the podcast even once is 7 wonders love seven wonders. Love all the iterations. Love all the expansions. Love the second edition which I never thought I would but I really do actually love it more than the first edition. Don’t tell the first edition I own all the stuff for that. But 7 wonders architects came out recently and this is a family version of 7 wonders by antonm bowza and in fact. Board game geek itself rates it at a 1 point 6 weight. So this is a game you can play with family. You can play with kids and it allows you to play a lighter funner more How would you say colorful, kind of version of 7 wonders. But out the downtime that comes along with 7 wonders. They’re very quick actions. It allows you to build up the wonders which is really fun, especially for the kids and again this is a quick playing game. You’re talking about twenty minutes and you can knock this game out so very light game. Very fun game think of a. Think of a game that’s maybe a little more strategic than like sushi go and you got 7 wonders architects. So absolutely something to check out for the family you know and a very good gateway game to get people into the hobby.

25:01.38
Anthony
Fantastic I need to try this new version see if the see if it’s good for the kids all right next category we’ve got solo so in in a year of

25:05.31
bgapodcast
Yeah I’ll bring it over all right? Anthony What’s up next solo you know? yeah.

25:17.48
Anthony
And yet another Covid year Obviously Solo games have been a big part of our lives. Um, and and so for me ironically I’m picking a game That’s a lot like boss monster and could probably have gone in my family category. But I put it here because I’ve played this almost exclusively solo and.

25:32.71
bgapodcast
Um, lose them.

25:35.55
Anthony
I did play with the family they did like it but it has a little bit more of a learning curve for the scoring mechanisms which makes it perfect as a puzzle game for solo and that’s cascadia so I reviewed this a few weeks ago and I loved it. It was a buy. Absolutely check it out. But it’s similar mechanic to Boss monster and that you’re going to have tiles out.

25:43.64
bgapodcast
Um, is.

25:54.85
Anthony
Along with animals that go with those tiles you draft in a tile and an animal and you place it in your tableau and then you try to match them up and in complete these different scoring objectives the scoring objectives. However, a little more complicated. So. There’s going to be five of them 1 for each different type of animal. There are multiple different animal types in the box so they can be different in different combos which is great. Love that and so they can be things like okay this can only have this type of animal next to it and this 1 has to be in this particular pattern and this 1 needs to be. You know. Every other 1 you can’t have a bear next to another bear but sometimes the bears need to be next to each other like you have to keep all these things in your head and so when I reviewed it I compared it to like Sprawoppolis but with animals and hexes and that is what it feels like and Sprawopulos is 1 of my favorite solo games of all time because it’s so quick and easy to play and this is like that. But. Thirty minutes instead of 10 so there’s more to it right? I’ve played over boss solo. It’s fine. This is great. This is like sprawoppos plus that and um, yeah, it’s been. It’s been 1 of my favorite games of the year so far especially for solo play. So if you’re a big solo gamer if you like puzzle stuff if you like. Beautiful illustrations of animals by Beth sobel check out cascadia it’s relatively inexpensive too because there’s not a ton of stuff in the box and it is not out of print like a lot of games. Um that are hot right now because of various shipping issues. So check it out.

27:17.19
bgapodcast
Yeah, especially for Beth sobel’s artwork just fantastic as always so let’s talk about a very small game when I play Solo games. Unlike anthony I like to play solo games very quickly. So I want to talk about orchard a nine card solitaire game. This was a winner of the print and play.

27:22.14
Anthony
Beautiful.

27:35.40
bgapodcast
But now it’s actually out in print so you could pick a copy of this out. It’s a Ninecard solitaryre game and basically what you’re doing is you’re gathering together an orchard using like a tile lay mechanic but they’re not tiles. They’re cards but they’re double sided cards and as you match up the different. Colored fruit on the different you know trees here in the orchard as you like overlay them on top of each other. You’re able to place 1 of these different color dye on that particular card because you’ve produced fruit there the more times that you overlay the cards to increase your orchard. What the same color. Um I Guess fruit in there or a same color plant in there. 1 of the 3 different colors there then you’ll be able to upgrade your dye and then eventually it becomes full and then by the end of the game. You’ll be able to score points based upon the dice that are all over your orchard. Can also be spoiled fruit but you know that’s a bit a little bit of a downside there Nonetheless you score points. You see how you did in comparison to the game’s you know rules and it gives you a bunch of different fruit puns in there. It’s just a quick fun game and it’s a small tiny box with a really nice number of like customized dice that you can play with. And you know that’s pretty much it Orchard Cheap game. Fun game Quick game. Yeah.

28:57.20
Anthony
Orchard’s fantastic. Yeah, the the the sequel is just up on kickstarter which I backed because I think all it adds is I forgot what it add like what is it add the answer that I don’t know there was like 1 new mechanic they threw in there just like the Apple orchards. Um, but such a fun little quick game.

29:07.90
bgapodcast
Um, yeah.

29:13.44
bgapodcast
Um, thanks.

29:14.80
Anthony
Yeah, good call all right next up we have 2 player games so 2 player only games that you just play with 2 people. Lots of these games play with 2 but specifically what game would you just play with 2 people. So the 1 I picked is Botanic this is a 2 player only game from space cowboys.

29:28.82
bgapodcast
Um, me are.

29:33.84
Anthony
Um, and 1 of the people on the design team sebastian pochon worked well he was the sole designer of jaippo which is 1 of the best 2 player games in my collection as well. So like that’s right up there for me with 7 wonders duel in terms of games. It gets to the table for 2 players. So. That’s why I was all about Botanic when it came out the artwork for this game is. Just insane like just look at the covers like this woman with 4 arms planting things inside of machines. it’s it’s weird but the gameplay and that’s not bad I like the artwork. It’s just it’s weird so you know come bad at it as you will some people might find it too. Weird. Um, but the gameplay is.

30:03.77
bgapodcast
Um, yeah.

30:11.55
Anthony
Again, like this tiling thing where you have like this special kind of drafting mechanism in the middle of the board where you’re kind of moving things back and forth between you and your opponent and drafting tiles accordingly based on what you flip over and then building into your own personal Tableau which looks a lot like pipeline if you’ve played that where everything I can ask to connect.

30:27.22
bgapodcast
Um.

30:31.24
Anthony
And the different types of machines that connect will determine how you score so you’re trying to connect these different things. They have different icons on them and it becomes kind of a little bit of a brain burning puzzle at times but it’s not crazy heavy. You’re just taking a tile often. You only have 1 or 2 options available. You’re placing it in your tableau and you’re trying to get the most points. So. It’s quick. It’s twenty minutes it’s thinkky and puzzling which I love and it’s very clever and creative design like this is I want them to make more these types of games because it’s just it’s out there. It’s different. So definitely check that out if you like just quick, weird little 2 player games. Botanic.

31:06.58
bgapodcast
Ah, yeah, no, the artwork is very unique. It’s very different. It’s very surreal kind of french surrealism kind of there. But yeah, no fantastic for me as far as a 2 player game and only a 2 player game I’m looking at Sum awards second edition master set. Someone awards is a game that we reviewed so many years ago and recently I think we reviewed it I think I reviewed it actually in fact or previewed it and again it was the idea that they took someone awards that was a game that was just a phenomenon like the idea of having these cards act as miniatures that. You know, usually you would have to get like this really kind of extensive rules set to it and you would have like this big board and how everything moves but by placing the cards like like tiles dead on the board. It gave you all the explanation of the character that was in play gave you the hit points. The attacks the special abilities and there was all of these different. Factions that were in play. It was a really a great game except the artwork kind of bugged me like I get the artwork I bought the game I own the game I own the game and owned several of the expansions but the artwork never really gelled me for whatever reason second edition new artwork. But also they did upgrade.

32:11.71
Anthony
Ah, yeah, yeah.

32:24.42
bgapodcast
Rule book which was not the best and they did fix a lot of the cards and a lot of the factions and they made things make a little more sense So instead of walls that kind of like you can populate characters from there’s now portals which makes a lot more thematic sense to it and it’s actually a really solid.

32:35.87
Anthony
Month.

32:41.82
bgapodcast
Super deluxe fancy kind of version to it. In fact, I’m not sure what to do with my original set I’m like should I get rid of this and get the new set or get the expansions at like super discount like they’re throwing them out the door now. At this point I’m like I don’t know. But again if you’ve never played summer awards this is really a great. Place to start the second edition master set comes with a number of different factions to play and you won’t be disappointed. It’s really really a great 2 player game. Yeah.

33:10.20
Anthony
That’s fantastic. Yeah someone awards was 1 of my favorite games period and then for whatever reason it just kind of dropped off I think they stopped supporting it. We stop playing it but man I love that game. We used to play it every Sunday every Sunday that thing would come out.

33:14.62
bgapodcast
Ah, yeah, we did and there was that 4 player variant where you put like 2 2 boards next to each other and you had allies in that that was fun too. It was.

33:27.99
Anthony
Yeah, and it was really long but it was still fun all right now next up on the list. We have light games. So um I achieved a little bit because I’m just you know spill this ya.

33:33.40
bgapodcast
It was ah.

33:44.70
Anthony
Why not just take that game give that to you. Ah, it’s a micro macro crime city and this game is so it’s it’s where’s waldo but with storytelling and I did have a chance to play this at my friend ryan’s house um like a month or 2 before I left pittsburgh so friend and.

33:47.55
bgapodcast
She’s.

33:54.14
bgapodcast
Um, yes.

34:04.18
Anthony
Michael who’s been on the show before he got a copy. He brought it over. We went through the first four or 5 cases and so it’s it’s really It’s weird it’s I don’t even know if I’d call it a game. It’s more of like a group activity like word search type of thing. Yeah, like you can really only play it once and.

34:15.85
bgapodcast
Um, game experience. Yeah.

34:23.73
Anthony
It’s you’re not destroying anything. Although honestly if I owned this game What I would probably do is play through it and then color it in because yeah, you just have this giant map. It’s just a line drawing and there’s.

34:29.20
bgapodcast
Um, oh nice.

34:36.87
Anthony
Tens of thousands of things happening on the map and you flip the cards over and they give you clues in a case that you’re trying to solve. There’s 16 cases in the box. The map itself is 30 by forty 3 inches. It is enormous like it takes up the entire table. Um, it’s not really family friendly. That’s why it’s not in the family category. It’s a shame because they.

34:40.73
bgapodcast
Um, sure.

34:56.40
Anthony
You know it’s 1 spill this yard. It’s kind of the family thing but some of the cases in the box are really just not appropriate for my children at least I personally wouldn’t play it with them. They are coming out I think with a more family friendly version of this. Um, which is great because it would be perfect for the kids.

35:03.67
bgapodcast
Um, sure.

35:13.32
bgapodcast
Yeah, yeah, it’s not. It’s not necessarily a family version of it. But it’s a we give you like the age guidelines right for the for the new version so there is like.

35:15.40
Anthony
I’m looking forward to that.

35:25.17
Anthony
Right? if.

35:30.63
bgapodcast
Certain murders certain infidelities and things that you may not want kids to kind of read through but it’s it’s not exceptionally different so and it’s a standalone so that’s pretty cool. No absolutely no, it’s it’s it’s great I guess for maybe people eyesite issues. But I think again like it’s certainly 1 of those things like.

35:37.00
Anthony
Right.

35:44.53
Anthony
Right.

35:49.51
bgapodcast
Word Slam where it doesn’t matter how many people are at the table. It’s like you just open the map up and like let’s all play a thing and they’re like what is it I’m like it’s this and they’re like huh. So with the rules like don’t worry about the rules just play the game. It’s fine. It’s good. So.

35:55.34
Anthony
Yeah, ah.

36:02.29
Anthony
Yeah, what we ended up doing because there was like 6 of us around it and we all kept like banging into each other was we just get the section of the map that we think we’re working on because some of the cases kind of stay in 1 area some of them. You’re open all over the place.

36:07.83
bgapodcast
Um, that’s fantastic. Ah yeah.

36:17.88
Anthony
And you take pictures with your phone and then you just zoom in and out on your phone which is not as much fun as leaning over the thing. But then when somebody finds it they kind of point it around because yeah, you’re right? It is hard to see and if anybody has any kind of eyesight issues at all good luck. You need a magnifying glass.

36:18.67
bgapodcast
Um, ah, that’s smart all right. Yeah, So yeah, if you can find a try Macro Macro Crime City Full House. That’s the version that has the kind of like disclaimer about what this might work best for each other on on those kind of things but either version is great and again like you said it’s a game experience.

36:34.95
Anthony
Um, yeah.

36:42.75
Anthony
The goth.

36:48.26
bgapodcast
And I think it’s a game experience that most people like so awesome. All right? Well I’m going a little bit I guess I’m surprised anthony didn’t pick this because I know Micro macro crime city was a game that I talked about initially the crew mission deep sea. So.

37:02.45
Anthony
So.

37:05.75
bgapodcast
This is I know and 1 of anthony’s all time favorite games. It’s trick takingking but it’s cooperative tricktaking and in this version instead of going to space. You’re going under sea obviously right deep sea and this version allows for a little more of. Variety because basically what you’re doing is you do have your missions but you do have these goal cards. So based on the particular mission. It tells you what number of points you need for this mission and then you go through these deck of cards and you randomly put together the different goals. This is fun because like almost infinite replayability with the exception that every once in a while the goals don’t match up and you have to kind of reset. But I honestly, even though I’m more of a so I’m tremendously more of a space fan than I am a deep sea fan I like the artwork here better for some reason it’s it’s not a sparse.

37:57.83
Anthony
Um, yeah.

37:59.78
bgapodcast
And I like that I like the idea of that I think I think it does a lot I I would pick this version if I if I did pick between the 2

38:05.38
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, the artwork in here. It’s beautiful. The tweaks that they made to the rule to the the missions structure is great because you’re not going to get stuck at that point which is what happens to everybody. You’d like mission twenty or so and you just get stuck for a month or 2 It’s not fun to get stuck right? Let’s lose 12 times in a row. That’s fun.

38:09.95
bgapodcast
Yes. Yeah, it does. No. Yeah now. Sure nice.

38:25.33
Anthony
And nobody wants to skip Ahead. So having the option to kind of like circumvent that or rethink it and then like the way the cards are laid out. Yeah, this is Fantastic. So Good call all right next up we got medium games. So again I feel like we always have to not disclaim this but you know. Where we’re coming from with what a light medium and a heavy game are some people might consider our medium games heavier games then you should be listening to our podcast. Ah um I I Honestly think that mine is a medium game though. It’s it’s called Mini Express I reviewed it back in the spring got a chance to play it’ in Pittsburgh Ah we like.

38:57.50
bgapodcast
Um, so yeah in.

39:03.66
Anthony
All backed on kickstarter it’s from Mark garretts who has done some other similar games mini rails and steamrollers. So this is a cube rail game and so cube rail games are effectively. They’re like the root building and network building of your traditional train games with some stock holding elements. But it’s. You know forty five minutes not 15 hours like an eighteen xx game right? So it’s accessible. It’s relatively straightforward mini express is fantastic because I mean I don’t know that it does anything terribly different than a lot of these other games but the way it all does it. It’s all just very cleanly presented right. Have a map There’s 2 maps that come in the Box. There’s going to be more coming in the future but they’ve kind of delayed the next kickstarter because of shipping costs. What are you going to do um but you put tiles on all the different cities and you know you’ll invest in different companies and then you’ll build rails from those companies out to these different cities pick up different goods.

39:47.21
bgapodcast
Hidden. Yeah.

39:58.55
Anthony
And you’re trying to like manage these 2 different tracks like the value of the company but then also to score the points from that company. You need to be higher in like your influence for that. So you need to pick up a certain amount of goods to be able to actually score. So if you run the brown track all the way up or the brown trends all the way up.

40:11.86
bgapodcast
Um.

40:17.60
Anthony
But you don’t actually have any wood Influence. You haven’t built any wood up there then you’re not actually going to score that someone else might score that. So um, it’s a really fun like push and pull Mechanic. It is a bit of a brain burner but it will again. It only takes forty five minutes. So I Think. Bgg listed as like a weight of a 2 point five I think that’s probably accurate I could probably play this with my son I don’t know how much he would enjoy it but I don’t think it’s that complicated of a game. Um, and yeah in terms of like the newer Cube Rail games because there’s been a lot of them coming out lately. This is 1 of my favorites. So highly recommended.

40:47.85
bgapodcast
Excellent, yeah, it’s nice to to find a train game with stocks that actually family can play so that’s great. All right? Well again, as you said depending on you know your mileage may vary terraform me Mars aries expedition this is. Came out 2021 this was the kickstarter now it’s in retail in particular what I’m talking about because I did see it. It’s available. The collector’s edition which honestly just means that it has a dual layer board. So not everything goes flying again again. I don’t know why that wasn’t standard I mean.

41:23.72
Anthony
Ah, right.

41:26.33
bgapodcast
Geez people come on. You know we tortured ourselves but the collector’s edition has a little bit of an upgrade there and I think that’s definitely worth your time and honestly worth a couple of bucks to kind of throw that in this is a 2 point nine as far as the weight’s concerned and obviously lighter. Then terraforming Mars with all of its endless expansions and everything else. So I do think this fits in a middle weight kind of game this honestly and I know it’s Sacrilege. So maybe this is the last time you listen, but this is the terraforming Mars edition game that I prefer.

41:59.37
Anthony
All right? I’m not listening anymore I’m out map. Yeah, every single 1 I’ll still come record I’m just not going to listen anymore.

42:01.29
bgapodcast
Damn I lost anthony was he listens to every episode and I lost anthony ah, but there you go I honest I mean I just I feel like the endless numbers of extensions and glut. That’s kind of bogged down terraforming Mars really just took away a lot of the joy of the game for me and terraform Mars areas expedition really kind of puts back the joy in it to it I mean it is somewhat a different game. It is you know, incorporating race for the galaxy but it is this is a medium weight game that is. Far faster. You know far more streamlined and just a lot of fun. It just gets a lot of the terraforming Mars stuff correct now 1 day 1 day in the future if Stronghold games actually gives us like an essential addition where you can actually be able to play terraforming Mars in a normal amount. Time with a normal number of people and things like that. Then yes I will come back. But for right now terraforming mars area expedition is my favorite terraform. Mars.

43:09.60
Anthony
I like it. But what you said is insane. So I can’t I can’t condone that statement as a representative of this podcast. Unfortunately, um, but I do like the game and I own and it’s sitting over here I wish I had the collector’s edition though because going back to those standard mats.

43:12.10
bgapodcast
Um, I know I ah.

43:24.92
bgapodcast
Now it’s not good. Yeah.

43:27.81
Anthony
Is insane. You’re right I don’t know why they did that. But what are you going to do.

43:31.79
bgapodcast
The views expressed by chris is not the views expressed by Board gamerss anonymous those are his alone his crazy crazy. No I think I think most terraforming Mars fans get it right? like this is a game that you could put to table and not.

43:42.62
Anthony
Um, yeah.

43:47.69
bgapodcast
Eat up your entire night with ends endless expansions and like twists and turns and things like that. So yeah.

43:48.15
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s it’s 1 of my favorite games of all time. But there’s nothing worse and I’ll say this I love this game and I’ll always say yes if someone wants to play it but there is nothing worse than sitting down thinking. Let’s play terra for me Mars it’ll take 2 to 3 hours and having it take five. It is terrible.

44:05.27
bgapodcast
Yes.

44:08.14
Anthony
You’re like great. It’s 1 in the morning we’re still playing this game that I’ve played eighty times I don’t want to be doing this anymore just terraform the planet Joe terraform the planets.

44:18.60
bgapodcast
But ah ah I think more of the negotiation beforehand of trying to figure out which expansions to include because you know that’s always gonna be a thing of like but but prelude right? Everyone’s on prele. You’re not a um, dude prelude prelude prelude and then it’s like no let’s throw in.

44:23.72
Anthony
Or I do.

44:30.52
Anthony
Yeah.

44:36.63
bgapodcast
All of the expansion like no, you need to leave the house right now I don’t want you here anymore like we can’t do this.

44:39.40
Anthony
Ah I Just remember I just remember coming to visit you and I can’t remember who it was but we’re at the mall and we sat down to play this and whoever put the game out was like no expansions and I was like what I cannot play this game with no expansions like we got to have prelude or something and they’re like no expansions I’m like.

44:45.80
bgapodcast
Oh no. I know.

44:58.84
bgapodcast
Um, you’re not cool man all right? Let’s let’s hit. Yes.

44:59.21
Anthony
Why did I agree to this oh man. So heavy games. Um all right? So we each have 2 here because it’s what we do here. We got we got heavy games for you. Um, and so you mentioned that we had.

45:10.98
bgapodcast
We did and.

45:15.11
Anthony
Affordable, accessible games. These are not affordable. So I do apologize both of mine are over 100 dollars but they’re very good so you know check them out if you want a heavy game First up is coffee traders this was released by capstone earlier in the year and it is a big sprawling monstrosity of a game. Ah, by ralph siegel and andre spiel um, who I believe designed wildcatters before this which was also big sprawling mess of a game and had a fantastic good time with this so got a chance to play this a couple times in Pittsburgh I kind of played through it on my own. It does not play Solo. It’s 3 to five really like it says 2 to five but relates 3 to 5 but. It just it does everything. So interestingly, there’s different types of pieces that go in different locations. The area control element of it. The different tracks you’re trying to manage so much stuff going on in this game. It all kind of feeds together somehow like when you first dump it all out. You’re like there are so many pieces in here. How can this not be a mess. And somehow it works. It’s intuitive. The layout is intuitive and it’s fun to play so coffee trader is absolutely top recommendation if you love a big sprawling heavy euro the other 1 that I backed on Kickstarter last year but is also available now in retail is oath so oath is a game. We never actually.

46:21.10
bgapodcast
Sure.

46:27.41
bgapodcast
Um, and.

46:31.50
Anthony
Reviewed on the podcast because it’s it’s a special kind of game where you really need to sit down and play several in a row with the same group of people like you can’t just sit down and play it once and then come back a few months later and play it with some other people and then call it a day like you need to work through it. It. Builds it has like a campaign to it almost There’s a story element. It’s not just a war game. It’s not just a euro game. It’s like a narrative based game in a weird way like it’s really hard to describe this game and I have not had a chance to do that properly. But what I have played to this game. What I have experienced of this.

46:48.47
bgapodcast
Sure.

47:06.97
Anthony
Is it’s just brilliant right? and it takes what cole kind of cole worldley kind of introduced in. Um John company and pax premie and root mashes it all together and creates this very interesting spin on this this. I don’t want to call it a war game because it’s not really what it is but like this asymmetrical 1 versus many kind of approach where people kind of shift sides back and forth and there’s different. You know elements you’re trying to control and there’s a countdown in the game about when people can score and win the game and you’re constantly worried about what’s happening and who’s doing what so much. So much interaction throughout. Um I really wish I could play this more Someday. Some will get a good good group to get him. We’ll play it. But if you have the group and again you want 4 or 5 people to play this properly if you have the group in the money because it’s expensive. Um, oath is very good.

48:02.14
bgapodcast
Yeah I think the heavier games I do think they they they carry a heavier price tag. But I think both those games you mentioned are quite good and obviously worth the money I think like you mentioned coffee traders are getting like a ridiculous number of pieces on there and oath is a long term kind of. Legacy type of game that you can keep coming back to so you do get your money’s worth on those ends so 2 games that are are certainly heavy for different reasons first up unfathomable I talked about this recently this was the reimple implementation of balustar galactic of the board game. This was the game that was all about I guess at least initially it’s all about you all coming together to join forces on a mission in order to save everybody so you are 1 of many passengers on the ss atlantica and it turns out kind of. Cthulu people are around and they’re trying to sink the ship with the other deep ones that are kind of hanging around and trying to drown everybody so you got a problem here unless you’re with the cthulhu deep ones and all the ancient ones there. So the game itself. Is crunchy as heck because again, you’re all trying to save the ship because you don’t want to let on that you’re necessarily trying to sink the ship until the appropriate time. So there is that social deduction element that comes into play in the game. There is the euro game kind of like can you manage all the systems at the same time there is the complex voting system that will give you some information but not all the information and there’s just a sheer spectacle of it all so bowelsar galactica did a really good job of giving you that kind of intense fear and you know. It’s all doom and gloom kind of thing and at the same time you have to be able to do a job so this is a big crunchy game and again if you can if you don’t have Balsar galactica you can certainly pick this up. It ranges about seventy five to eighty bucks but it’s definitely worth your time whether you’re a kathoo fan or not great game. Next is a game anthony and I both love very much. It is the last game by a fantastic designer chad jensen this is dominant species Marine we’ve talked about dominant species a lot because it’s a fantastic eurogame that really pushes the limits of crunchiness. This is a 3 point 8 7 onboard game geek and it deserves every little point on this, you have your own species that you are fostering throughout the way to claim dominance over the ocean this version of it is quicker easier and more dynamic because instead of placing all the pawns out on the board.

50:49.12
bgapodcast
And then pulling them off at the appropriate time with dominant species. The marine version. Actually lets you activate things as you go, but it keeps you from you know once you go down, you can’t come back up on the board. It also allows you more viability. As far as the game’s concerned because you’re going to take your species and be able to take different traits that go along with those species so you have a lot of different options with playing the game new version Better version greater version place 2 to four players I highly recommend playing at the highest player account dominant species marine. Again, even if you’re not a heavy gamer even if this game is taunting the heck out of you because it’s just a little scary a little more dynamic. Definitely check it out I think you’ll have a lot of fun I have I know anthony you have too.

51:32.71
Anthony
Yeah, dominant species Marine was like I’d already preordered it I was super excited about it but having played it very very pleasantly surprised. How good it is because you take an all time great and you’re like we’re gonna boil it down and make it more accessible. We’re gonna change this and streamline this you’re like well that could maybe backfire but it didn’t.

51:41.23
bgapodcast
Yes.

51:52.34
Anthony
Works perfectly and this is probably the game of the version of this game I will always play now unless I have a 5 hour block to play the full version all right? Ah, next up we got expansion. So ah for me I want to talk about 1 that you and I both played we reviewed back in august.

51:54.67
bgapodcast
Um, yes, definitely. Oh.

52:09.71
Anthony
Grand austria hotel let’s waltz so this was on Kickstarter we both got this in and grand austria hotel is 1 of those games that I love and I’ve had on my shelf for a while but it doesn’t really hold the same level as the other games but the same designers right? Lorenzo io Magifico some of the other games but let’s walt ads.

52:10.64
bgapodcast
Um, ah.

52:29.24
Anthony
5 new Modules for the games. You have the waltz board like different things you can do when you fulfill different orders. You have variable place starting like an auction to start like you have in lorenzo’s Expansion. You have these special celebrities who can come and give you special abilities are in the game. Lots of different things and ways to mix up the game and it adds a lot to a game that just didn’t quite feel like it came together the way you wanted it to it also has the official solo module in the box instead of having to print stuff out on Bgg which is fantastic because I had a lot of fun with the solo Mode. So. Yeah, it takes a game that was like a high play for me makes me much more likely to play it and really upgraded and elevated. What was a good game to a great game.

53:15.77
bgapodcast
No, it’s fantastic to say and again it’s it’s you know it needed more right? This was the reason why I never purchased a game even though I did like the game. It was just like it needed more. It was on rails. There was there was problems with the game. The. The employee deck was an issue and this just really opens the game up. It reminds me now having played I Guess it’s Asian Railroads Railways Railroads right? The the ultimate version of Russian Railroads where it’s like hey. You can score all the points now isn’t that fantastic and this allows you to do all the points and once you do different things so it doesn’t necessarily solve the problem but it definitely makes things easier all right? So I’m going to go the opposite here. So We talked about cheap. There is a solo expansion. For free from Cge lost Runes of Arnac has an expansion. The search for Professor coolty and basically you can go on their website download. The free web app or print and play.

54:08.93
Anthony
Ah.

54:25.22
bgapodcast
And get to play this solo version of um, an amazing game lost runs of ourac. It’s free. It’s solo. You get to play the game but you have to have the game right? You have to have the base game. You can’t just play it alone right? So I love this. This is awesome. Great job C ge.

54:34.98
Anthony
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, this was on my I almost put this down for solo and I saw you put it on expansion on my good call because it’s freeze. That’s a great expansion. Ah I’ve played through this twice I’ve had a blast with it like while I’m waiting for the big full of box expansion I’m like yeah, let’s play through Professor catil again. This will be fun. Um, it’s a blast.

54:46.66
bgapodcast
Um, yes.

54:58.82
Anthony
The solo game in this the solo version of this game already is very good but giving kind of a narrative to it even better.

55:00.24
bgapodcast
Yeah, excellent, all right? Anthony we’ve done all the proper shopping at all the proper list. Let’s say by chance we go off the rails. What do you have for our last category if we had all the monies.

55:17.23
Anthony
I feel like I’ve spent the last six months talking about all the things I’m not going to buy because they’re too expensive. So the big 1 the 1 that drives me crazy that like kicked me off of my biggest collecting train was stefan feld’s marra cash in New York city because

55:22.17
bgapodcast
Um, deaths.

55:32.47
bgapodcast
Um, oh.

55:37.20
Anthony
To get the proper stuff with all the extra things I would have needed to spend four hundred something dollars for 2 games I could not do that absolutely could not do it so I didn’t do it and now I no longer collect stuff on field games. So thanks Queen games appreciate it in guys of tear. But if I had all the monies.

55:50.50
bgapodcast
Oh e.

55:55.50
Anthony
I’d be all in on that. But I did I did four hundred dollars for no, that’s not happening.

55:59.43
bgapodcast
Gotcha oh boy well a game that I was really excited about is Stellaris infinite legacy this came out by academy games and was a four x game based on the pc game and the idea of the game was. You are going to be able to play a four x game in 2 hours so right there amazing right there solaris the video game amazing academy games is amazing. The production here looks amazing and it turned out that they did not have a rulebook. They did not have any videos or any playthroughs or any reviews or even previews at that point and if you wanted the game I think it was like 2 fifty plus shipping but you had practically no information on the game especially when the early bird came out early on. So if you wanted it, you needed to back it without. Almost any information and again this looks like like a fantastic game. You get to customize your empire. You get to play through it in a kind of a legacy format where you’re building up to bigger and bigger goals throughout and if new players want to jump in they can still play the game but they have different. Goals that they have to meet so new players jumping in could get to play for fun players that play the game multiple times, get to play for fun. So drop in Dropout is amazing I just couldn’t back this at like 2 fifty I just couldn’t do it because again we knew nothing about the game. Plus shipping it was gonna be extraordinary plus all the extra content that certainly you would want to buy along so sadly enough did not back this game but I don’t know I just don’t have all the moneys so. That’s what that’s what happens to all the moneys more monies.

57:40.35
Anthony
Ah, more moneys please.

57:45.91
bgapodcast
Hopefully this list has been helpful for you hopefully on your Holiday season. Get these games play these games get these games to the table and until next time this is chris and we’ll save you all a seat at the table take care. Everyone.

57:52.50
Anthony
Hey and this is anthony.

58:00.63
Anthony
Bye.

  • Anthony lives and plays games in Philadelphia, PA. A lover of complex strategy, two-player war games, and area control, Anthony is always eager to try a new game, even if he's on rule-reading duty.

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