Site icon

Episode 355 – PAX Unplugged 2021 Hotness

We’re back from PAX Unplugged 2021 and we played and saw a whole bunch of games! This week we look at the best, most interesting, and most exciting games from the weekend. The full list includes:

First Look:
Shinkansen Zero-Kei
Prosperitea
Mobile Markets
1923 Cotton Club
Living Forest
Khora: Rise of an Empire
LUNA Capital
Boonlake
Welcome to the Moon

Cool Stuff:
Aldarra Reborn (big airships)
Total Rome: The Board Game
Velocity Vanguard
Mythic Mischief/Veiled Fate
Phantom Ink
The Legacy of Isla Nublar
Bigfoot: Roll & Smash (tire dice)
Frosthaven

For Sale:
Picture Perfect
Bitoku
Final Girl
Faza
Mantis Falls
That Time You Killed Me
Furnace
Lost Ruins of Arnak Expedition Leaders / Galaxy Trucker (The CGE Room)
Middara
Capstone’s New Games
Tabannusi
The Night Cage
Witchstone

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.

Episode Transcript

00:00.00
Chris
Welcome to the board gamers anonymous the podcast of board gamers and the insane fun. We have at the table together. This is chris and this is episode 3 hundred and 55 packs unplugged 2021 hotness we’d like to thank all our patreronon backers for helping us bring you.

00:06.00
Anthony
Hey and this is anthony.

00:19.23
Chris
A brand new episode all right? Everyone guess what we’re back from pax twenty twenty 1 not a big surprise because you actually saw the title for the episode and I just actually said the title of the episode but hey looks like we actually did it. We did a thing.

00:35.25
Anthony
We did. We got to the convention. We played some games. We met some people we hung out it was weird. It was fun. It was awesome. It was weird. So.

00:47.54
Chris
Ah I don’t think it ever stopped being weird and weird is not a problem. But yes, it never stopped getting weird. This was our first convention back. So it was certainly a very surreal kind of experience I mean first off the packs.

00:50.23
Anthony
Now.

01:06.51
Chris
Convention is just gigantic. It’s great. It’s a wonderful convention. We always have so much fun. It’s become our favorite convention of the year to go to but it is weird to be back amongst all the board games amongst all the board gamers. And of course a ridiculously giant convention hall full of people during a global pandemic. So there’s that too.

01:25.00
Anthony
Um, indeed yeah, it’s it’s it’s hard. Yeah, it’s it’s hard to know how to feel about that because you know packs did an awesome job anytime you saw anybody even remotely close to not having their mask on right somebody would just jump. Literally like there were a camouflage into the wall would jump out be like put your mask on nicely. They’re very nice about it but fix it. Um, security was great. The flow of people was great like it was just it was very well run and generally felt about as safe as you could in that situation and yet you know after spending 2 years locked in our homes.

01:57.17
Chris
Sure.

02:03.11
Anthony
Um, being out in a big crowd of people did feel a little strange. Ah but we did it and we played a lot of cool games so that was fun.

02:09.93
Chris
Yeah I think there was the first time I ever saw a mask Stewart somebody multiple people I want to say 1 but there was actually multiple people walking around with boxes of masks in case I guess you dropped yours or lost yours or something which I thought was very cool and.

02:15.70
Anthony
Yeah.

02:28.70
Chris
Purell everywhere and and everyone was pretty respectful I think everyone you know did a good job and again it’s hard because playing board games at a table means you must. You know you’re basically 6 inches away from everybody else. But I think generally it was a. Smaller turnout as far as people’s concern whether that was by design or not and there were a smaller number of vendors again whether it was by design or not I mean I think generally we saw large chunks of the room just kind of empty and it did not have like the typical. Amount to people for packs that we usually have seen in the past right

03:04.91
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, no, it was definitely lighter in general in terms of people and um, flow you like and from like anecdotally from people I’ve spoken to who either tried to get booths or did get booths. It definitely seems like Pacs intentionally kept it smaller. They didn’t accept as many. Applications for booze. There weren’t as many people, the aisles felt wider much wider in some cases like we walked through and it was still empty and it was like cavernous and then even went the people in there. It just you never really rubbed up against people which was nice because that’s not comfortable in any circumstances but especially not right now. Um, and the only time it really felt.

03:24.72
Chris
Sure. Yeah.

03:42.95
Anthony
Crowded, crowded was Saturday and you know Saturday’s always the busiest day of any convention and that was the only day where it was hard to find a table. It was hard to find a demo because there were a decent number of people there but like Friday sunday saturday evening. It was not light but like.

03:44.10
Chris
Sure.

04:02.50
Anthony
Okay, comfortable. They didn’t overpack the place which was nice.

04:03.95
Chris
Yeah, absolutely and so a pack unplugged Twenty twenty 1 in the books. Obviously we have a lot of games to talk about so that will be our huge feature of you here to let you know about all the latest and greatest. That hit the tables down there in philly and again philly is a great city. So if you haven’t been down to philly go visit philly definitely come down to the convention because there’s so much to do outside of philly and so many great places to eat and so much entertainment and the city does a really great job. So bravo everyone involved. Thank you to pax for having us. Thank you for everyone for being there and anthony we actually got to meet a couple of ah you know listeners out there as well.

04:44.61
Anthony
Yeah, no, it’s a lot of fun. Um we were we were playing a game and a longtime listener the show Carlos came over and introduced himself. So carlos we know you’re listening thanks for coming over. It was awesome to meet you and I’m sure we’ll repeat your name again in the future from more questions of the week but that’s always awesome.

04:58.82
Chris
Ah.

05:03.98
Anthony
You know and anybody who sees us anytime just please feel free to come over and start a conversation that’s literally the coolest thing that can happen when we go to a convention is being able to talk to the listeners because you all know us a lot more than better than we know you right? You know what we play we know what we’re doing um but we want to get to know you guys as well. So that was a lot of fun and then we sat down to play a game of 19 twenty 3 cotton club which we’ll talk about a little bit later and 1 of the players sitting there chris not not our chris but another chris we’d actually played a game with 3 years earlier at Pax. Um. And chris you know, thankfully remembered and and we obviously remembered him after the fact but it was really cool like just being able to like it’s it doesn’t feel as big as it is you know pas like you can run into these people you can see people over and over again. We saw good friend of the show and and longtime. Member of the bga family jason perez there like 8 times I feel like every time we turned around we ran into him. Um, oh my gosh. Yeah yeah, Jason gave me a nice bear tackle at 1 point that was fun. Um, but so like.

06:06.67
Chris
Or he ran into you.

06:18.48
Anthony
You know friends from pittsburgh came over people I know from the area in philly people we know from Jersey like it’s not so big that you can get lost in it and never see anybody like a gencon and yet it’s still pretty big and there’s still a lot to do so I think that’s why pax is such a good show. And so you know everybody who did come say hi to us everybody we did meet everybody we did hang out with Carlos chris you guys are awesome and hopefully we’ll see you again at the next pack so or another show. Even.

06:44.15
Chris
Absolutely yeah I think anthony and I keep talking about doing something very big at packs I know we had a ah conversation with ay’s games about doing something at pax and some of the other publishers because we’re local we’re local to that area and we would love to do an event at pax before during after something something fun something to bring more games to the table and bring more people something outside the convention. So if for some reason you didn’t get a pass to the convention. You get to come to some elements of the convention. So. We’ll probably be be talking about that as the year goes on because I think we’re going to make a conservative effort to do more around the conventions that we do attend so hopefully things hold up. Hopefully everyone stays. Well hopefully if you’ve been to Pax. Hopefully you’re well you’re doing good and again. It was great to see all of you. Thank you all for coming up. Thank you all for speaking to us. Thank you all for mentioning us to all the different publishers out there. It’s really nice to hear that you’re listening and we love being party live. So anthony let’s talk about the games that we want to get and I guess this is gonna be. Our first look section and we should mention a little bit about first look and again, why it makes pac so special.

08:02.47
Anthony
Yeah, the first look section is the thing right? that makes pas for me at least and and I’m assuming you as well. We’ve talked about this constantly. The best of the conventions we go to in any given year so pax is uniquely situated 2 months after essin.

08:11.42
Chris
Absolutely.

08:21.46
Anthony
And so what that typically means and not quite as much this year as in past years but still a little bit is that we get the first chance to play dozens of board games that were just released in europe and maybe even were trying to come here but they’re just hard to find before anywhere else right? the.

08:36.73
Chris
Yes.

08:39.78
Anthony
2 packses I had been to before played all sorts of games like months and sometimes years before we got a chance to play them here. Smartphone inc obsession ah the underwater cities like that was just pacs twenty eighteen like the 1 year that 1 day we played those 3 games. Um, which are now all in my top 1 Hundred. So it’s it’s a blast and it’s also like this you know thing where we’re like trying to find the diamond in the rough we’re looking around we’re trying to find the game. The 1 that nobody’s heard of the obsession or the smartphone inc that hasn’t been picked up yet that hasn’t come to kickstarter yet that you know smartphone ink when we played it that first time was. Just this small little publisher from russia that had no copies and nobody had picked it up locally. Nobody knew how to get it right? And then we played it like it’s amazing and it kind of gives you that feeling of like oh I got a chance to play that before anybody else even sees it and so that’s what first look is and no other convention has that. Um, the only other way you could get that is to go to s and and even then that game is more that convention is more about like walking around and buying stuff than actually sitting down and playing it so that’s a blast That’s what we have the most fun with and it’s well probably what we spend the most time doing.

09:49.64
Chris
Yeah I think so I think way back when um, a friend of ours carmen from game surplus we were not friends at the time but I was so endeared by the first look section that you know we promoted pacs. Really early on when they were coming out with their first convention and we were really hoping that this would be a great convention and we looked through it. We researched it. We had gone to pacs east many years prior to that and we were like we were really big cheerleaders for pacs and that first look section again sponsored by game Surplus really. Kind of put them on the map because it was 1 of those wonderful opportunities to play games that you would never have an opportunity to play and they actually trained people to teach you how to play the games which if you’ve ever played a board game and clearly you have because you wouldn’t be listen otherwise that’s that’s the real challenge of and of the enjoyment right? so. Sit down. Someone’s ready to teach you teaches you the game you get to play with people at the table. You got the game played months in Advance. It’s it’s just everything that’s good about board gaming. So again, thanks to everyone at packed for teaching and and working in the first look section that was great. So anthony let’s actually talk about the games.

11:02.62
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, so we got a chance to play. Um a bunch of these there were a few games there. We either could not get to the table which we can just mention Briefly boone lake was 1 that everybody was trying to play the new alexander fisster game and they only had 1 copy.

11:03.13
Chris
And the first look section.

11:20.75
Anthony
And it was always busy and some sometimes people just waiting around to get in the next game that’s a 3 hour game so that was not 1 we got a chance to play unfortunately but it is coming stateside I think in January so we’ll have copies very soon coming from capstone and we’ll get a chance to play that so that was really hot. Ah, the new games from board and dice tabbanui and origins the first builders those are very hot as well. Several copies available a little bit long but a chance to play those welcome to the moon was very hot. That’s a game that’s just the third version of the the welcome to formula that people seem to be digging quite a bit. Um, we try to get in a game of furnace repeatedly at 3 3 tables there of that and that game was even for sale in the main hall and so those were all games. You know there was several others as well. But there’s a lot of games that people are just like gravitating towards and trying to get their hands on um before anything else. Um, but there were several that we did get a chance to play as well. So we wanted to mention those the first of them is ah a game out of I don’t actually know exactly where it comes out of actually it’s about Japan though. So. That’s I was about to say from Japan. It’s definitely not from Japan shinhansen zero kai it’s designed by Isra c and shes from locamade studio um, they’re the designers behind red cathedral so this is a. 1 of their new games. They have several other games that have come out recently. But this 1 released at essin and it is about the construction of the bullet train ahead of the 64 tokyo olympics so you are doing your part to build the bullet train. Everybody’s building the bullet train equally. But you’re also. Creating your own little train car and have different ways to score points based on what elements on the Board. You’ve manipulated we we did have a chance to play this. We found somebody to teach us because we needed that.

13:24.50
Chris
We did? Yeah no I this like you said the the rulebook here was a problem a serious problem and again it was it was good that we had the the pack staff there to kind of walk us through that and it had a lot of elements of games that we had seen previously I think first class was a. You know a game that it just popped into my head because you’re taking cards to build up your actual bullet train on your own little tableau and as you build up your train. You’re getting special abilities that go along with each section of that train. And I really enjoyed that that was a lot of fun to build up like your own unique special skills and abilities. But if you don’t get 1 of those really cool. You know train tiles. You’ll be able to use other people’s trains as well and there wasn’t like a mass of penalty to it. You just end up paying the other player versus playing the. Paying the bank if. There’s a cost to something in particular so that was really fun. Also the destinations were on the cards. So that tells you what scoring areas you’re gonna score so again, like kind of like concordia the cards that you draft to use it for their special abilities are also the cards in the game. And then it had this really kind of unique. How would you say it like line building situation where you have to clear the tracks then build the tracks and then build the stations and any person could be involved in those different segments. So it doesn’t just have to be you. But as you build the different segments you score victory points for those different segments. So I really liked this game I I was surprised it was 1 of those games that was it seemed like a little too small a little too basic but it was actually a lot of fun and I think certainly it plays best at the higher player counts because it opens up. More of the track areas. There’s more competition for the different stations and you plant these little olympic torches in the different randomly selected cities and again I think that just needs more more so I would recommend playing this at a four player count than the smaller player count because I think it just. Just diminishes all the different actions that you could take but otherwise really great game if and when this does come out to the us I will probably pick this up.

15:41.12
Anthony
Yeah, me too. Yeah it and it it gave me a similar vibe to red cathedral which is another 1 of those games. It’s like it comes in a small box. It’s like 35 dollars and then and you think you’re gonna get a light game but there’s a decent amount to it right? and Shunhansan is not a big heavy game but it’s certainly not a light game either. So.

15:56.79
Chris
No.

15:59.87
Anthony
I think that maybe put off a lot of people like not at a all of people sat down to play this but it was 1 that I had on my radar and I’m glad we got a chance to play it. Yeah, all right? Ah next 1 and actually the first 1 we played of the weekend is prosperity. This is.

16:05.12
Chris
Um, absolutely bad rule. Books are a Killer So yes, excellent.

16:17.38
Anthony
A game of artisanal tea blending that was on Kickstarter not too long ago and we got a chance to sit down and the designer taught us how to play walked us through all the different aspects of the game and the basic idea is you are on your turn purchasing. Some number of tea Ingredients. You always get 1 for free. But if you have enough money you can get up to four and then you will complete as many different recipes of tea as you can and then you’re trying to obviously get the most points before the deck runs out and so it’s pretty straightforward in that Sense. It’s set collection game. But the the thing that’s a little bit of ah, a tweak to it is that you can ask other people for their ingredients and if they say yes and give it to you to help you complete 1 of your objectives. They get a little token that’s worth a point and that acts as a wild ingredient. It’s interesting. The artwork was fantastic. The designer. Ah. Is also the artist or 1 of the artists on the game and ah they you know, showed us a lot of of the work that they’ve been doing. It was ah a prototype we play but it was very pretty um and it was an interesting take on kind of this small box pretty food related game Chandra um.

17:33.18
Chris
I Like to like you said the graphic design was great I mean the designer of the game is a graphic designer so they did a really good job laying out all the different graphics there again. Like you said it’s a cute quick fast set collection game.

17:33.21
Anthony
What did you think.

17:52.24
Chris
With really nice pieces in the eventual Kickstarter copy some of the cards themselves will look like teabags. So again that that kind of like adds itself to the theme and then the coins were very nicely Printed. Everything’s aluminum the the game itself is completely Recyclable. So they said you could just throw it in you know and. And recyclable thing and you’re good to go which is nice and he made a really conservative effort to make sure that everything was either somewhat reusable or recyclable or sustainable. The 1 challenges you mentioned Anthony happens to be the idea that you can ask other players for ingredients. And exchange for that wild 1 point token which is required for some of the major bonus points at the end of the game that being said, a lot of people don’t want to do it. They don’t want to give you points and and.

18:41.76
Anthony
Now better.

18:45.76
Chris
Like you’re looking to make a you’re looking to make a t and they’re looking at the same t and you’re like can I have that thing to make the t and they’re like yeah I don’t think so so I think that’s the 1 problem with it but otherwise a very nice game.

18:59.80
Anthony
Yep, Alrighty so next 1 up we played ah didn’t get a chance to play through the entire game I think we got through 3 of the 5 rounds mobile markets a smartphone inc game. This is the new they say don’t call it a card game. Version. But it’s the card game version of smartphone inc um, it boils down I know robert told us not to go there but we’re going there because that’s what it is and so the box as an hour I think it’s probably going to be a little bit longer than an hour based on our experience but not terribly much longer and especially not when you know the game.

19:16.39
Chris
He told you not to say that.

19:33.42
Anthony
And similar to smartphone. Everything is printed out. It tells you exactly what to do in each phase of the game. It’s very straightforward and the things that I like most about it. So in smartphone. You have a big sprawling map where you’re basically working for area control elements so that you have the ability to sell into different regions here. You don’t have to do any of that. Just different customers come out that want different things and you fulfill their needs and their little cards and the thing that makes it a little more forgiving than smartphone is that you can get private customers that you bring to yourself that only you can sell to and there’s a lot of ways to get them and a lot of customers come out. So. Maybe the first round or 2 you might not get lucky and not be able to sell anything based on the features that you pick up from the technology cards that you pick up but over the course of the game. You’ll make money you know if you play it Poorly. You’re not going to do well. But you’re not going to just smartphone a is 1 of those games that if you just don’t price properly. You maybe don’t sell anything for half the game and that’s not very much fun. Um, it’s a great game once you know how to play it and you don’t have those problems but I’ve seen it come up for people. Um, so yeah, I’m looking forward to this 1 coming out I think they said originsishsh so mid mid next year here in the states. Um and it might be a little bit easier to get to the table. Smartphone inc is fantastic. It’s 1 of my favorite games. But it’s it’s big. It’s a little more time consuming. It’s a lot in the box.

20:51.12
Chris
Yeah, this is definitely down the line as far as like it still retains I would say most of the complexity of smartphone Inc but certainly streamlines and simplifies some aspects of it. So Once we kind of got through the rules. It was very simple as far as you know setting things up putting together all the resources and everything else I mean a lot of people I’m not gonna say who but a lot of people did say that this was their favorite more so than smartphone until I actually get to play the full game I’m gonna I’m gonna hold back judgment on that. But this is certainly something that I did really enjoy and I would absolutely pick it up as soon as it hits the market because again it gives you I would say again the majority of the feel of smartphone but it doesn’t feel ever too cutthroat it gives you a lot of options to sell like.

21:45.79
Anthony
Right.

21:50.46
Chris
It’s definitely more of the lines of like so so many other games we’ve seen before like we talked about asian railroads and things like that where it’s like hey we just want you to be able to play the game as anthony was saying like you’re not going to find yourself completely walled off from the Market. You can have private clients. You can build up a whole bunch of. You know, private clients and customers throughout the game and there’s a bunch of different victory point conditions. So this this is a better entry level game for smartphone at the very least which again is not radically more complex or less fun. It’s just a little different.

22:26.74
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, and it’ll be interesting to see I mean scratch that I’m sure it’ll do better than smartphone because it’ll cost less and be more accessible and play quicker but it’ll be interesting to see how many people end up owning both I mean I will yeah isaac.

22:39.82
Chris
Um I will I will now I think you know this is kind of akin to terraforming Mars I guess aries expedition where it’s just the card s.

22:44.81
Anthony
We will. But we’re crazy so I don’t know.

22:51.37
Anthony
If.

22:57.89
Chris
Ah, version of terraforming Mars is it better than terraforming Mars I mean I mean each its own but it’s definitely more portable. It’s definitely more refined. It’s definitely. You can get to the table with a lot more people. So. By those kind of metrics. Yes, it is better. But again obviously there’s always an experience that you want to like lay out the big board and the table and really go for it and that’s what smartphone inc and terraform Mars excels at.

23:26.38
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, definitely all right next 1 up on the list. We have nineteen twenty 3 cotton club. So this comes from looping games which is known for making like decently chunky games in little tiny Boxes. So I’ve played. 80 7 channel tunnel from them. They also were involved with fantasy realms which is pretty famously kind of jumped up of the list recently six San francisco and so this is their newest game and it’s about opening and running a. Ah, nightclub in nineteen twenty s so you are. It’s basically a worker placement game where you will use your 3 workers and go into various markets to purchase 1 of four different types of cards. There are individuals um booze. Various types of alcohol and then celebrities and entertainers and you’ll use different resources to kind of purchase those once you purchase a card. It goes into your own personal tableau and it gives you more icons more abilities more things you can do with it. You’re also moving up various different tracks that give you those resources to do things. So. It’s fairly light. Um it I think the box says an hour I think we spent a little bit more than an hour but we were also kind of learning the rules so pretty quick, pretty accessible and not exactly lighting the world on fire in terms of new mechanics. But I did appreciate. You know I had nice artwork. Use all historical figures. Um, it wasn’t just mobsters and gangsters. You also had like political figures. You had famous jazz musicians. Um, which is very cool and it kind of blended all those things together pretty nicely. So like thematically I feel like it worked with its mechanics. Um, it’s you know the end of the day still just kind of like a. Basic economic style worker placement game but fun.

25:22.90
Chris
Yeah I think as you said it’s they they write as a 2 point. Oh wait and I kind of get that. But also at the same time It’s it’s a challenging game because again as you mentioned anthony there’s like 5 different areas to kind of choose from. To build up your own personal tableau of icons and then there’s you know we’re looking at I think at least four different tracks if you add in the victory point track and so you have to kind of manage your reputation you have to manage you know who goes first and that’s really key in this kind of game because. Selecting the card you need or the best card that’s available is essential in this game but there’s also you know notoriety I mean you don’t want to be noticed. You don’t want to be a bad person on that bad track because you’re going to take negative victory points. There is 1 of those weird kind of mechanics where like you can kind of shoot the moon.

26:06.87
Anthony
And.

26:17.22
Chris
If you reach like all the way down but don’t go over then you don’t get any kind of like negative points from that but generally it’s a really as you said a really decent good game in a very small box. And you can certainly play it with a lot of people but again like you said there are Mobsters. There are guns in the game. Not that you shoot anybody in the game. It’s just a set collection game. That being said, it is very much based upon what the market pops out so and where your player order happens to be so there is a lot of that kind of like.

26:42.34
Anthony
This is.

26:48.53
Chris
Luck and rammed inness as far as that’s concerned. You also should know that you should have at least four guns in your Tableau as early as possible because we discovered as as we got through the game that a lot of the cards I mean a lot of the cards, especially the all the the drinking cards.

26:58.40
Anthony
Yep.

27:08.60
Chris
You know the alcohol the all the bootleg kind of cards the good cards at the end require 4 So as the game goes on. You can get more guns but it gets a lot more dangerous to get a lot more guns. So yeah I like it. The.

27:11.69
Anthony
Yeah, yeah.

27:22.10
Chris
Bonus conditions that come into play the cards that come out, you get a ah handful of cards that will give you opportunities to score different things each round I love that mechanic. But the problem is not Everyone’s getting good victory point cards. Some people are just getting. Hey you get 2 bucks for things and that’s good, really early on but not late in the game. So it’s it’s a it’s a bit of a mixed bag if you like you know that kind of tableau building racing up the tracks and you know.

27:37.47
Anthony
Yeah.

27:52.49
Chris
Wild and crazy markets and wild and crazy victor points is games for you. It’s a good game. It’s not a buy for me, but it’s It’s certainly a definitely I will play this.

28:01.18
Anthony
Yeah, yeah I I Honestly think I might pick this up if only because it’ll be Inexpensive. It’s a small box and there’s a fair amount of stuff in that box and ah, you know you could probably. House rule it a little bit maybe just like ensure everybody’s hand of 5 cards has at least 2 scoring cards like separate the decks or something but that yeah that was a problem at least 1 player at the table had no scoring cards in their starting hand and so of course they can’t work towards points whereas I had 3 out of my five So I could work towards those points. Um I didn’t win the game but I was pretty close.

28:19.48
Chris
Yeah.

28:30.60
Chris
Yeah gotcha.

28:36.32
Anthony
So ah, that was a good 1 um, probably my favorite at least personally of the ones that we played in the first look area and I found out today is actually available now. So I’m trying to figure out where I want to order it from is a living forest. So. This is designed by os christianensen and published by lutaott and it’s basically mystic veil but more family friendly and a little more forgiving on several friends so you’re you’re gonna start with a hand of I think 10 cards and it’s again mystic veil. It’s got icons on the side. You’re gonna. Place them out 1 at a time you decide when you stop if you get 3 of the night tokens you bust and when you stop you then count up your various tokens or your various icons on your cards and you use those as resources to take various actions. The sun icon will let you buy new cards. The water icon will put out fire if you don’t put out fire. Then the fire is going to burn you and it’s going to clog your deck with bad cards. The tree icon lets you buy new tiles that go onto your little personal forest tableau and there are multiple different wind conditions that you can potentially. Work through. So if you get 12 unique trees. You could win if you get 12 points on your cards in your tableau at any point you can win if you get 12 fire tokens that you’ve put out you can win. So it’s a race game. It’s quick. It’s accessible. It’s very cute. The beautiful artwork on there with the animals. Um. Yeah I like this game a lot I was surprised and it’s 1 we like walked past like 20 times before we asked somebody for a recommendation and this is what they gave us so I’m definitely going to pick this up once I can find it.

30:16.80
Chris
Yeah, no I agree as Well. Living Forest was a pleasant surprise as you mentioned it is certainly along the lines of of all those kind of like card building games that you kind of put together. But it also. It’s a little bit of a spatial element because you’re building your own particular board. So you’re able to put trees in there that gives you bonuses Again. It’s still very mystic veil right? Mystic Veil you get those kind of bonus cards that sit with you throughout the game. The fire condition is kind of a fun condition because.

30:40.49
Anthony
Yeah.

30:49.55
Chris
As that fire builds up as ah, as just a people at the table you want to be able to put that fire out because that’s a win condition. But obviously that also fills up your deck but there’s also ways to get rid of those cards. So It’s as Anthonys. It’s ah a very forgiving card building game. The artwork is beautiful. The standies are a little iffy I Wish they would have wet with something different but generally a very good. A very very good game. This is definitely a buy for me I think you could pick this up at Miniature Market for like 32 dollars so that’s probably where I’ll be looking for this.

31:20.56
Anthony
Yep.

31:25.12
Chris
Unless I pick up a game nerds. But I think that’s on pre-order. So there’s there’s a couple places you could pick it. But yes, this is this is 1 of the better games that I play at the con.

31:34.88
Anthony
Yeahp absolutely all right? a couple more that we played in the first booksection um 1 just real quick because we played it late at night. It was fine I don’t think either 1 of us was wowed by it and that’s luna capital this is from devere and this was specifically because someone recommended it to us.

31:46.50
Chris
Now.

31:51.94
Anthony
And they said it’s like cascadia but all this extra stuff at it. It’s I was like well I have to play that because I love cascadia and they’re not wrong. It is like cascadia on your turn. You’re going to draft a card plus 1 to four tiles that go into your tableau but unlike cascadia it’s not really very elegant. It’s got just all these random systems and stuff the scoring I feel like if you play it enough. The scoring will make more sense but it’s certainly not as clean and simple as a game of cascadia it adds complexity for the sake of complexity and while I think I would enjoy the solo puzzle of it I don’t think I would enjoy playing this like with 3 or four people. Like we play with 2 and it was okay, but it it was still I don’t know like even going for the various like goal cards. It just felt like okay well I’m going to get this 1 that takes 8 turns in Eight turns because I know it’s what I’m doing. Um. Yeah I don’t know it’s it’s like a play for me I would certainly play it solo but I don’t know that I’m going to go out and buy it because I do have cascadia and I love cascadia so I don’t need this.

32:53.85
Chris
I Love the sci-fi theme I like the cutesy nature to it I Generally like that kind of building up your own physical Tableau So when you walk away from the game. You’re like oh I remember when I did that thing I think it.

33:09.36
Anthony
Right.

33:12.57
Chris
Definitely suffers from small player accounts anthony did 1 thing and I did the complete opposite and he scored a lot of points but I scored more points but I think that you sincerely need a four player count game to enjoy this because.

33:26.46
Anthony
Well.

33:28.41
Chris
You do need the interaction and diversity of people going for the same thing because I just think that it limits the game success if it’s just a matter of or of a race of who can get the stuff that they want you can equally split it Up. So. I Think this might be still a play but I’m kind of done with it I feel like I played it I enjoyed it and now I’m done with it.

33:50.63
Anthony
Yeah, same I think same I’m glad we played it too because I was like after the recommendation I was like maybe I’ll pick that up and I’m like no I’m good. All right? and then the last 1 we played in the first look section. Um, which I think we both likeked is quora rise of an empire. So. Quora is a game from yellow that came out a little bit earlier this year and it is a civilization building game ah specifically ancient greece and you have multiple different tracks that you’re trying to move up on so there’s like culture and military and economy. Um. And each of those is going to correspond to various different things that you separate tracks on the main board. Um, your total troops strength and your taxation level and your glory points and your citizens. So. There’s like 7 or 8 tracks you’re keeping track of plus your development track on your own personal sive card and. The really cool thing about the game is yeah, you’re managing on those tracks which is a little fiddly but the really cool thing about the game is that there are cards that you place into a tableau you will start the game with 5 in your hand to choose from. Um, that are drafted out but you can also take new ones into your hand based on these actions. And you can then play 1 or more per round down and create your own little tableau and basically create an even more asymmetrical civilization. The actions are pretty cool as well. You start with 2 dice. You roll those and then you can take 1 of 7 actions on these little tiles based on the di rules that you’ve played. Um, you can. Tweak those as well. So it’s fun because you have a lot of variability. There are several things that you’re racing towards against each other There’s no like direct direct interaction other than like trying to get these various military conquests before someone else can get them and then there’s some achievements that you could achieve before other people. But it plays pretty quickly. It’s like an hour and a half at at the most and it’s fairly straightforward in terms of rules like once we kind of knock down the rulebook. It was pretty quick to pick up. So yeah I was pleasantly surprised by this.

36:00.63
Chris
Yeah I like this game for many reasons. First off it was kind of funny because this is a yellow the you know the game company here expert it’s it’s kind of like in bold letters. It’s expert and I was like Yellow made an expert game. Oh man we have to play this.

36:10.70
Anthony
Great expert level.

36:19.40
Chris
And the production is yellow right? The production yellow does a rarely nice production. The artwork is beautiful. The graphic design is on point and again and anthony and I might have to do a list on this these games that allow for. Ah, least on the player boards or or even on the main board where they have these kind of built-in stages so you just got to follow through the procedure and it’s printed out there for everyone are fantastic because I could just sit down and play this game any and at any point in the next five years and just instantly come back because obviously there are rules on the board.

36:42.70
Anthony
Or.

36:52.96
Chris
But also because it’s it. It flows thematically through so again, this is an action selection game so very much like your race for the galaxy where you but you pick a particular action. You want to take but everyone gets to pick their own actions and in turn order and mainly as anthony says it’s based on those tokens. Times your glory and you score all your points. What’s really fun about this is and I really like the idea is that they have these really nice chunky cardboard different I don’t know if we would call them factions and not necessarily countries but depending on the civilizations that you’re able to kind of pop in here. They have. Some different developments and special abilities. Nothing too crazy, but it allows for that a symmetry that really kind of like makes you want to come back and play a different race. This is another game as anthony mentioned that it’s about conquest so Military is a big role in this game and you’ll see the military track on here.

37:42.34
Anthony
Yeah, yeah.

37:49.52
Chris
You could probably win without it but you definitely need it. You need to be able to get tokens So another good game This is probably going to be a buy for me because again like I said this is a game that I could certainly throw down the table to almost anybody I think even family could play this as well. It’s.

37:52.48
Anthony
Yeah.

38:07.15
Chris
It’s not that complicated.

38:08.80
Anthony
Yeah I’m on the fence with this 1 that I don’t love games that are like no no, you can win in any of the different tracks. But really, you have to do military. You have to right because half the event cards in the deck are whoever has the most mills here gets the thing or has the least loses a thing.

38:17.98
Chris
You do.

38:26.30
Anthony
Which we see in almost every cie game but it drives me a little crazy because there’s no equal balance for whoever has the most culture or most economies’ like no, it’s military because thematically that’s the 1 they would come and take that from the people who have the least makes sense thematically. But as somebody who doesn’t like building up a military in games. I. I Don’t know I get frustrated with it because I Love Civ games but I don’t want to just play a war game. Um, so I need to play this more to know if I can win without doing military but I do love the mechanics. It was a lot of fun to play the game. Yeah.

38:46.90
Chris
Sure.

38:55.87
Chris
And it might be another faction. There might be a better faction to do not I mean I had spartans so I had to go to military I was like all right spartans the military but I guess I could have not done that but you still need to do that because it wasn’t an overpowering military action.

39:03.66
Anthony
Yeah, you did.

39:13.47
Chris
Mine was just basically I lost 1 less troop I think you you had something that was like at the beginning of the game. It gave you 2 troops or something like that you had something up. Yeah.

39:20.46
Anthony
Right? Yeah I started with 3 troops and I didn’t use them right away because I focused on economy which was a mistake but ah yeah I definitely want to try it again for sure.

39:29.17
Chris
Absolutely all right? So those are the games that we took a look at the first look section obviously ah a couple games that we definitely want to pick up here some bullet trains some mobile markets. Definitely some living forest. And definitely for me a core rise of the empire. So anthony what about the cool stuff that we saw man you know all the cool stuff that was hanging out around.

39:51.65
Anthony
Yeah, so um for us at least ah usually a pretty significant chunk of any convention is walking the expo hall obviously we’re talking to publishers. We’re taking meetings we’re interacting with other media and and listeners and everybody else. But we’re also just looking for cool stuff right? Cool stuff right? and you know it’s not gencons. We don’t have like 50 foot statues of game characters. But there were some cool stuff. Ah so obviously we didn’t play I think we might have demoed a couple of these um which we’ll mention. But for most part these are just cool things we saw. Um.

40:11.75
Chris
Coolstav.

40:28.96
Anthony
The first 1 and we kept like circling back by it and we never really stopped to to demo it but I took several photos which you can find on our Facebook is aldara reborn this and so in my notes it just says big. Airship game. Um, because this was the big airship game. A giant board and these miniatures that are like the size of my fist and there’s like 50 of them these airships just moving around on these hexes ridiculous looking but very cool.

40:55.38
Chris
Yeah I saw this from like a way way wait distance I’m like Anthony look at that man look at that and again the board could manage it although I don’t know if a table could manage it I don’t know what size table you would need from it but it was certainly 1 of those bigger bigger games at the table and at the Convention. So. Always fun to see really bright colors. The models look Great. So I Don’t think this is going to be something that’s going to be hitting my table just because again I can only imagine the cost of such a thing but otherwise yeah.

41:24.10
Anthony
Right? It is yeah it’s coming to kickstarter sometime soon like they have their preview page up so you can follow it? Um, but they had full blown prototypes 3 3 d printed prototypes there to play and people were all about it. Ah.

41:39.11
Chris
Sounds good.

41:43.70
Anthony
Total rome the board game. This wasn’t like crazy big airships but it was this giantinormous map of rome the roman empire and if you haven’t played any of the toil were games. Um, it’s just massive real-time strategy games with. Hundreds sometimes thousands of troops hi each other at the same time and so this is the total war of rome which is the kind of the the flagship of the series. Although now they have the war hammer series of those as well which are very good. Um, they’re making a board game version of it I don’t know how get how it’s going to play out Rts. Being brought into board games have mixed results. But if you know if they do it properly could be very cool.

42:28.86
Chris
Yeah I think so I’m not I’m a little hesitant on this 1 too because anytime they try to bring a video game over to a board game. It was nice to see but I don’t know if I don’t think there’s any mechanics I truly carry Over. So. Cautious Optimism Anthony Cautious optimism.

42:48.83
Anthony
Yep, me too all right? Ah, here’s another 1 that we kind of we walked by several times we’re like what um velocity Vanguard This is a giant hex map with big old Capital Ships. So. This is another kickstarter coming soon. Um physicsbased Spaceboard game that they say the the gameplay is quick. It’s It’s not supposed to be that you know like a long sprawling four X type of game. It’s like an hour-ish to 3 hours tops. Ah, yeah I know we’ll see Um, but yeah, it was very like the the artwork and the graphic design style um caught my attention for sure.

43:25.24
Chris
Ah, yeah.

43:34.71
Chris
Yeah, it was a very nice graphic design style I was really enthralled by how they kind of put the boards together. It was these modular pieces that kind of popped in and out so you could add New Technologies you could upgrade those technologies you could add different leaders and factions out came into play. And had this really interesting sideboard I’m not even sure necessarily what it does I Think like you said we’re we’re looking at I Guess gravity or how kind of ships kind of play into that kind of larger grid area. They play into again. Really cool looking lots of fun. You know shoot them up kind of battle Stuff. I’m not sure like again, it looked It looks so much like twi and imperium that I was like are you trying to be twilight imperium because when a lot of people do that that ends badly for them. But I don’t know I’m looking forward to a full game review or playthrough because I think again, it’s.

44:15.44
Anthony
Ah, yeah. Right.

44:28.79
Chris
It’s it’s fun right? You get these 3 ship classes and they have all these unique strengths and factions and stuff and awesome. Love that kind of stuff. But again it’s a lot of just you know did my ship point in the right direction and I have those games already.

44:41.33
Anthony
Yeah, yeah, I know definitely but it was pretty. We had to mention it next up we have 1 game that we did give a try and another 1 that we just kind of looked at um, it was very cool looking is mythic mischief and from the same company at the table behind us. Veiled fate so mythic mischief was ah like an asymmetrical game where you have 1 of these little fantasy races vampires monsters witches ghosts and several different you know action, points and abilities and you’re running around and trying to pick up these things and. Ah, avoid the tomekeeper who’s trying to capture you um and it’s it’s basically an abstract strategy game but with a lot of chrome around it like very cool looking miniatures again kickstarter coming bringing this game out soon and then the other game. Let’s throw in here that we didn’t have a chance to play but looked very cool. Although it’s more of like a you know Hidden roll deduction type of a game is veiled fate which they had the big wooden board for um, which we took several pictures of as well because it was just a very cool looking. Um. Presentation. It’s a little of a lighter you know wider party type of game. It’s not a party game but you know like a bigger group type of game but look very interesting.

46:03.98
Chris
Yeah, both these games look beautiful I remember seeing veiled faith on kickstarter it was like that looks awesome. Gameplay looked very light though for the price and that’s that was like 1 of those kickstarter kind of situations and then seeing. Mystic mischief at the table and getting the opportunity to play all these different kind of unique factions like you get to play the ghosts or the witches or the zombies the gobs or all these different kind of mythical races and stuff like that was a lot of fun again. I wouldn’t play to to player ever again because I think that this certainly needs a fourplayer thing because otherwise it’s almost too basic of a game which is a little too simple and again beautiful game in all kind of ways but kind of expensive as far as kickstar is a concern for something that just ah move a couple of

46:55.50
Anthony
Yeah, ah so next up we saw phantom inc from Rezonym this was a party style game um, kind of remind to me like if you crossed up I don’t know like code names or pictionary with like what? Ah you’re a ghost basically trying to give people.

46:55.91
Chris
Peace is around the game.

47:15.50
Anthony
Um, Clues in a word games like Mysterium plus code names or something clever interesting I would like to try it at some point they didn’t have it for sale or anything but they had a nice big whiteboard there for us to check it out so that was interesting to see.

47:29.32
Chris
Um, yeah, another kind of cute word game.

47:32.54
Anthony
Um, the big 1 that we saw that they were they they had like a gencon quality booth like a big production that they put together was funco games was there with the the legacy of ila new bla. Um, the jurassic world legacy game that’s hitting. Kickstarter from them in March so we didn’t get a chance to play it. They weren’t letting people play but they gave a pretty extensive demo and ah kind of walked it through and answered a lot of questions and it’s interesting like we’ve seen a lot of people try legacy since risk and pandemic legacy came and conquered. And nobody’s really managed to pull it off I’m really really interested to see if this pulls it off.

48:14.72
Chris
Ah I think this is their first kickstarter am I am I correct on anthony I don’t remember funco doing a kickstarter before this.

48:22.41
Anthony
I don’t believe so no I think this I think you’re right that this might be the first 1

48:26.34
Chris
Yeah, and and again juresic park is and is a nice 1 for this because at least and again, this may be a pure demo copy and obviously since it’s a legacy model. We didn’t get to go into like the good stuff we got to see like the first initial round stuff which is basically like hey you need to accomplish a couple of these basic missions that. Lead into the movies of jurassic park. But if you like that series this actually I guess plays somewhat canonically with the movie series and such like you’ll actually play some of the real characters. Some of the real themes some of the real story points. So that’s great. The miniatures look okay. Look like really kind of well high level miniatures and then there’s a lot of surprises so we were not allowed to look at the folders as they said we were not allowed to play with the game I did play with it when they weren’t looking. But yeah I know so again I think this is gonna be 1 of those situations where.

49:16.31
Anthony
No.

49:22.66
Chris
We have to wait and see to the legacy elements come out I think we’re gonna get a preview copy elise anthony right? like ah a demo preview copy to go through at some point early in the year so hopefully we’ll have some more information for you about that. But again, this game is supposed to be played in such a way that. After you go through all the missions. You actually have a playable board at the end charter stone but hopefully better than that because that did not work. Well.

49:49.56
Anthony
Ah, it it seems like it will be yeah because it’s they’re going the co-op route which is the way to go I think with legacy games that again.

49:57.60
Chris
I disagree I like risk with it with the legacy element I hold to that? yeah.

50:02.22
Anthony
Yeah I mean risk worked but it’s the 1 that worked so I don’t know we’ll see um, all the other legacy games that have worked have been co-op ah so it’ll be interesting to see how it works. Um, they mentioned it starts like 20 something years before the first movie. And like when they’re building the island and then ends well after the current movies goes through all the movies from the first all the way through the 1 coming out now not including the new 1 coming out next year so it’s it’s a long twelve scenario campaign they said 24 to forty hours of content. Um, we don’t know the cost yet. But. It looked good. It did look good so we will see how it kind of plays out.

50:41.81
Chris
What do you just speculate here Anthony just for just for just for the listeners at home. What do you think? class wise.

50:47.98
Anthony
Oh it’s a big company and they’ll have scale on their side. So I’m hoping no more than eighty I I think if they go 1 hundred plus I’ll burn them if they do because that’s a big company. They don’t need to do that right? so.

50:55.61
Chris
Okay. Now I’ll.

51:07.57
Anthony
And they’re going to produce a lot more than these than they need to on kickstarter.

51:09.26
Chris
Yeah, it’s weird that they’re going to kickstarter I get it like again, it’s it’s 1 of those things where how many copies of this do you produce especially when it’s a costly model to it but it seemed like it was something that they were really trying to establish themselves in the board gaming industry as.

51:12.99
Anthony
It is.

51:28.32
Chris
More than just like funco games right? They want to be more than the funco universe I’m gonna go just below that I think 75 I think I I think that they’re gonna look for a price point that is just above what you would pay in a store and that’s why they’re going.

51:29.10
Anthony
Right.

51:34.53
Anthony
Move.

51:45.70
Chris
That’s why they’re going there I think I agree with you anthony I think you you make the right point like they do have scale. They do have the money to just drop a much lower price at the table. So I think 75 everything’s going to come in the game I asked specifically is there exclusives is there. You know.

51:53.87
Anthony
Yeah.

52:02.62
Chris
Extras in it. There’s nothing. Everything’s in the 1 box I think 75 I think it’s I think we’re going to see something very close to what we saw with legal legends where they just produce a really high quality game that should not be that price.

52:09.45
Anthony
Um. No. Yeah, and that’s the thing is people complain about prices sometimes but like these big expensive games. Big euros and stuff they’re making like five ten thousand copies a company like this. They might decide to make fifty or 1 hundred thousand copies and then it gets much cheaper.

52:29.59
Chris
Absolutely all right? What’s next.

52:32.66
Anthony
Ah, so just a quick hit real quick, big foot roll in Smash I don’t know if the game will be any good but it has a little tire dice that I couldn’t stop playing with you literally roll the day and it looks like a tire from Bigfoot that was cool.

52:45.59
Chris
Yeah, it was becoming a problem. Everyone was worried about you anthony security came over and everything yeah was the thing.

52:49.15
Anthony
I I didn’t take 1 though I was tempted though I’m just going to borrow this and then Frost Haven had a pretty big presence people could sit and play. They had their big like 3 D printed physical map that they’d made and people were lining up to play this all weekend. Um. Did not partake of frost Da I’ve still yet to finish gloom haven but I know a lot of people are very very excited about this. So um, I’m excited with them on their behalf.

53:19.18
Chris
I Yeah, there was a moment for me as a kid where that was a thing Sadly, that’s no longer a thing but the the tire dice are pretty amazing I agree with that.

53:30.38
Anthony
Absolutely all right? So yeah, Bigfoot and frost haven there moving on to the stuff that was for sale so these are the games so that everybody always asks like what are the big games that people were buying and so this is our chance to kind of mention those some of the games we’ve already talked about were for sale. You could buy luna capital for example, that was for sale at the booth there. Um, but for the most part like these are the ones that we saw people carrying around with them and we just kind of want to mention real quick. We did not play or demo all of these although some of them we did bring home with us and we will be reviewing them in short order. Um, the next couple months so first up picture perfect this was over at the arcane wonders booth along with furnace. Those were the 2 big games that they had picture perfect. We did demo. It’s chris you called it kind of like it an activity more than a game. So yup.

54:22.36
Chris
Absolutely yeah.

54:26.24
Anthony
Ah, but it was a fun activity I enjoyed the activity but you are right the more I thought about it the more I was like I don’t need to own this but it was fun. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely um and then furnace again. We both have copies of this. We will get it to the table soon.

54:32.36
Chris
I agree. No I agree it was fine. Yeah I got that.

54:43.37
Anthony
We could not play at we tried. We tried multiple times but we could not get it to the table at ah pacs and they did sell out of copies on Saturday so it was a hot game there. Um Bitoku is the big box release that deveeer had along with Luna capital and this 1 was. They had a giant pile of them and we were able to bring home a copy of this. We will be playing this sometime soon. It is a beautiful but very busy looking game so we were a little overwhelmed looking at it or at least I was personally but mechanically it looks interesting and i. Am eager to try it out.

55:21.57
Chris
Yeah I think that’s is 1 of those games where it’s either going to make sense and flow nicely and you’re going to be able to see what you want to do and there’s not.. There’s not you know, record Breaking. Ap. Or you just it’s a what what these use to call a thing magic eye posters where you just stick it on the wall and you just gaze at it and you lose yourself in the background.

55:42.98
Anthony
Right. Right? Yeah that’s true. Um, yeah, it reminded me a little bit of the praga cuppet regne map but more even more than that and if you go back to my review of that that was like it’s too much too much color in my eyes and this is a lot of that. So we’ll see how it goes ah all right? Ah, final girl. This was the follow up to hostage negotiator with like a horror theme where you are the final girl. You know the the trope and horror movies surviving the Killer um. And I did pick up a copy of this along with a couple modules so I’m very excited to play this as a solo game. Get back to my solo roots hostage negotiator was 1 of my early solo games so they sold out of most of this and a lot of people were very excited to see it there. Ah, Fasa is a cool looking like Retro style artwork cooperative game in which you’re fighting off an alien invasion. We got a chance to demo this 1 right.

56:50.79
Chris
Yeah, this was a lot of fun. It was a mix of ah you know your pandemic mechanics a little bit of your fitbit and island mechanics and basically you take your player. You have a couple of different special cards to give you special abilities. But it’s also your life counter. And the aliens are just destroying the Earth. It’s a fight back but again the unique artwork and graphic design really popped. It’s it’s very orange but very orange in the best way possible.

57:20.77
Anthony
Yeah, absolutely it was it really cool looking. You know it’s I love the aesthetic of it next 1 up was Mantis falls from distant rabbit games. This is a 2 to 3 player hidden role deduction style game in which you are working together until you’re not but 2 to 3 players. So very interesting spin on the mechanic like 1 of the quotes they put on their poster was a brilliant experiment that somehow works. Um, so I did bring home a copy of this as well. I’m very much looking forward to getting it played and letting you all know how it works. Um. This is 1 though that I heard multiple people talking about and it’s kind of what drew us over to that booth because it was a smaller booth in the corner but a lot of people were buzzing about this game. Ah, another 1 people were buzzing about that also sold out is that time you killed me this was from pandasaurus games and. It’s an abstract game like pure and simple. It looks like chess or ony comma or something like that. But the the hook of it is you have 3 separate boards 1 is the past 1 is the present and 1 is the future and so actions you take in the past or the present will affect boards further on. Right? And then there’s other mechanics you bring in there. There was like elephants with hats or something. There’s trees you could plant seeds and it would grow into a tree that you could knock into your opponent like all these crazy mechanics and these different modules you could layer in and I I was actually going to pick this up on Sunday like I talked myself into it and they had sold out. So um. Looking forward to trying this when I could get a chance to track it down. It was weird though, right? it was like ah like an abstract came with like a lot of weird stuff they layered in um, all right in the cge room. They had the lost ruins of arnac expedition leaders expansion and the new version of galaxy trucker. Um.

59:05.13
Chris
Yep.

59:15.42
Anthony
Brought both of these home with us as well. So we playing these very shortly like very very shortly I tried to get expedition leaders to the table last night and just ran out of time im very excited for that 1 and galaxy trucker. You all know what we think of galaxy trucker but we’re going to try the new version and let you know if it’s getting better. Um, that it has been in the past ah Midara was it’s it’s on kickstarter several times I think 3 kickstarters now they’ve run um un intentional malum. It’s a subtitle for that and it’s a big sprawling jrpg style dungeon crawl. Ah, and. They managed to sell almost all of their ginormous. Super expensive boxes of this thing. Um, big giant booth in the middle of the in the area and I know everybody was hyped about it because you know we we did bring home a copy and several people stopped to talk about how they wish they could have picked it up as well. So. Lot of people saw that 1 very interested. Um, we’ll see how it plays Jason ah perez who we mentioned earlier friend of the show. He told us it’s 1 of his favorite dungeon crawls period. So I’m interested to see if if that’s possible from the co-op guy. Ah.

01:00:21.87
Chris
Laugh. Yeah.

01:00:30.88
Anthony
Capstone booth had like 20 some odd new games or something like that. Um, we’re trying to get clay a show is like what’s new. He’s like everything’s new. They’re all new so there was imperial steam. They had all the the rails games they had corrosion just all sorts of new stuff. Several of which we we do have copies of well be playing in the near future and letting you know about the night cage it was another 1 along with the spill from smirk and dagger the games that people were talking about I know a friend of mine picked up the night cage took that home. He’s very excited about it and then 1 more Ah, witch stone from r and r games. This is the new game from rinner kitzia and looked interesting. We did not get a chance to try it out, but it’s a kitsia game. It’s relatively abstract lots of pretty cubes on a board. But. Lots of people were playing that and they had several copies in the first looks section as well.

01:01:29.71
Chris
All right? So again, a lot of great game at packs. Hopefully you get the opportunity at these table before we head out big shout out to the Philly game shop that hosted us before our packs unplugged. And especially our teacher Trevor who taught us ggopooss I’d played it before Anthony had not and really loved the game so that was a big time too a shout out to our friend Jess who did improper nouns a new game that she produced that’s coming Out. We’ll have more information on that as we follow up and again. Big Thanks to pax unplugged all the enforcers all the teachers all the listeners out there all the vendors and game players who came out there and really a great great time for everyone involved all of the games that we’ve talked about we will have reviews. And at the very least previews but definitely reviews coming up so stick with us as we talk about the latest and greatest in board gaming until next time this is Chris and we’ll save you a seat at packs Unplued 2022 see ya.

01:02:24.17
Anthony
And this is anthony.

01:02:34.61
Anthony
Bye.

Next: Episode 356 – Top 10 Games for Winter Break
Exit mobile version